Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)
Imagine my surprise when I heard God say “Write the check.”
Let me explain. A few years ago we walked through a very difficult time financially. My business almost folded and for a year and a half, I didn’t get paid. As I prayed about finding a job, God said “Wait.” Wait didn’t make sense. I knew I could get a job. As a matter of fact, I could get a job making more than I was making in my business. But God said “No. Wait.” Being unsure of how this was going to turn out, I put conditions on it. “On one condition. I will wait and not get a job as long as You provide. You promise in the Bible that You will provide all of our needs so, as long as you provide, I’ll wait.” (I thank God that He is patient with us when we are learning to trust Him.)
The waiting took a year and a half. We cut back on everything we could cut back on. We lived minimally and over and over again, just as we ran out of money to pay the bills, God showed up. He never showed up in the same way twice but, He always showed up.
One day in the wait, as I was praying, I heard God say that He wanted me to give Him a percentage of the profits from my business. I laughed and reminded Him that a percentage of zero was zero. I didn’t agree at first because when you make an agreement with God, well, you have to keep it. This was a big ask. I prayed about it. The percentage was high. I worried about being able to keep my commitment. But as I prayed a light bulb went off. If God was giving me a profit, he’d work it out. This was not really my problem to handle. My job was surrender all of this to Him. I agreed.
Fast forward a few months. We were notified that the business had won a new contract. It hadn’t started yet so money was still really tight. I was at a church planting/multiplication conference with my church. The speaker was talking about the story in Joshua where the priests are told to cross the flood gorged river. The water was running swift and fast and the water level was very high. God said “Step into the river.” At this point, they had to decide if they believed in his promises or not. Would they step in and see God work? Or would they be the obstacle to seeing a miracle?
The speaker said “What is your step of faith?” At that moment, I heard “Write the check.” I knew what God was saying. He was saying “Write the check for my percentage.” I said, “There is no money in the account. We’ve only had one little contract and are barely paying the bills.” I heard it again. And then a third time, I said “OK.”
After the conference was over, I immediately went home and ran some reports on the business. And there was a profit. It was more than I expected. I wrote the check.
Here’s my question for you. What is the step of faith that you are not taking? What is God calling you to do that is challenging what you believe about Him? Do you trust Him enough to take that step?