Gracetidings with Dr Doug Mamvura
“And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 8:18).
God doesn’t give us wealth or money directly. God’s gift is His power or blessing and that in return, when we act in faith, produces wealth.
Money is the most effective way ever invented for men and women to quantify their creative energy, a most convenient measure of our time, dignity, skills, health, experience and persistence.
There are three types of money. The first level is money that you work for. This is normally represented by the job you do. Most of us depend on a monthly salary from the employer. Level two income is money that works for you, while level three income is money that works for you while you are not there. I will unpack these three types of money in the following paragraphs.
The sad thing about the salary is that it determines your value. You have an employer who just tells you that your value is $500. In your heart of hearts, you know you are worth much more than that, but you have no choice because you need a job.
When one considers the level of unemployment in our country, we have graduates who are working as till operators and at the end of every month, the shop swner gives you a salary which is far lower than your true value. That job then determines your value.
The employer doesn’t care that you are a graduate or you have a Masters degree, he just gives what he can afford or what he thinks is the value of your job. In all fairness, it is not the employer’s fault. The onus is on you to eventually graduate from being an employee into an employer.
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I remember when I was at university, we would all look forward to going to work for some of the blue-chip corporations. The idea was all about looking for a job and never to start our own businesses. While there is nothing wrong in finding a job as you start your career, it is very important to know when to exit. I am yet to see someone who became a billionaire by working for someone else.
It is therefore critical that one graduates from level one income where you are working for money to level two where you have money working for you. I remember challenging one of my closest friends on the same issue. I said to him God forbid if you were to lose your voice, (he is one of the best motivational speakers this country has ever produced), it means that your financial resources will run dry. Why don’t you come up with something that produces money in your absence? He eventually established a business which is giving him level two income.
In level two you become a business owner, or an investor. Level two income is receiving positive cashflow from marketable assets that increase in value over time. This income could come from rent from real estate, profits from business, dividends from stocks, interest from bonds, royalties from songs etc.
The difference between level one and two income is that the former can be compared to a garden of vegetables while the latter can be compared to a fruit tree. A vegetable garden doesn’t last for long compared to a fruit tree. You will keep getting fruits from the same fruit tree unlike with the vegetables.
The aim is not just to have one fruit tree, but an orchard. The bigger the orchard, the more fruits you will be able to obtain from the orchard. This is what will then take you to level three income. Level three income is money that works for you without you. This is a level where you begin to have not only one orchard, but many orchards.
You start owning multiple assets and you become so wealthy just like we saw in Genesis with Abraham. The Bible says: “The man began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous.” This didn’t just happen in the Bible only. We have seen what has happened with our very own brother Strive Masiyiwa who has been such a wonderful example of a man who is God-fearing, prosperous and an incredible philanthropist. He is on level three income. The whole focus is now on nation transformation, creating jobs, alleviating poverty. Consider the number of orphans that our brother is looking after!
This should be the desire of every believer to alleviate poverty. We have seen a similar lesson from the Jews who also believe in caring for the needy. You may remember the quote below from Celso Culierkorn, that I have made reference to in my previous articles.
“One of the great differences that sets Jews apart from other cultural groups is that we see our wealth as a means to partner with God, as a way to bring God’s kingdom into this earth, a concept that we call tikkun olam — perfecting the world. We perfect the world by using our God- given wealth to further God’s realm on this planet. So, what you see is that the Jewish people’s pursuit of wealth is often paired with the pursuit of charitable works, not only for selfish purposes.”
It is important to remind each other as believers that the moment you reach level three of income the objective is to ensure that we fund the extension of the Kingdom of God. However, one doesn’t have to wait to get to level three to finance Kingdom work, but the impact is greater at level three income.
One of the terms used for money in Hebrew is zuz, which means allowing someone else to do those things for me that I do not do effectively myself. This is how jobs are created.
The business professional must value his employees for they are his most valuable asset. The way you treat your staff is the way they will treat your customers. You must attend to their welfare. Recognising them as spiritual beings with their own divine aspirations means that you must not only endeavour to compensate them fairly, but also help them find transcendent meaning in their work. The business professional whose own selfish wants and needs constantly fill his mind is doomed. Thus, both business and religion discourage selfish and narcissistic behaviour.
It is important to know that work is a form of worship. Belief in the relationship between God and the marketplace helps us integrate our career into our greater life so we need not regard those daily eight or 10 hours a day that we spend at work as faintly distasteful and isolated part of life. This is why I wrote a book entitled Marketing as a Calling. I believe the marketplace is my pulpit through which I should allow the glory of God to shine through my life as a marketer.
“Business is business” cannot serve as a convenient explanation for moral departures in the marketplace, because business is really tied to life by overall spiritual awareness. Business success is actually secondary to our private relationship with God. It is precisely that relationship that makes sense of everything else. This is why the Bible says: “Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you” (Mathew 6:33).
As we develop a close relationship with God, He will reveal to us many ways through which we can live victorious lives even through our businesses. God wants us to live victoriously that is why His Word says whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world. God wants us to be prosperous as we have seen in the previous articles in these series.
There is only one way to make money — finding out what other people want or need and then providing those things passionately to as many of our fellow humans as possible. This is the only way to earn money, no matter your occupation. In order to do this effectively, you need to establish meaningful connections with your customers. Making money is not an unworthy and selfish activity and you need not be ashamed of engaging in the making of money. On the contrary, making money when done in an honest manner in an open and transparent marketplace, is dignified and moral and the consequence of carrying out God’s will. In other words, money is the consequence of working, not the goal. Money is what comes to us when we focus on serving God’s other children.
It is my prayer that you and I will graduate to level three kind of money so that we are able to make a big impact in our Father’s Kingdom.
