20th May, 2013
Here is RULE 7, the last in the series of the wealth mastery articles we started a couple of weeks back. If you have missed any of the articles in this series, I would advise that you should find a way of getting hold of them. You need to read all the articles in the series for you to make sense out of it.
Rule 7 is my favourite. It is the only one that has a touch of mysteries. When you understand this principle and you apply it diligently, it is impossible for you to be consumed by financial crisis. All my mentors put this principle as number one on their list of virtues to apply. So read it with an open mind and once you are inspired, you can start to deploy it. You would never regret you did. Believe me!
My mentor had mentioned it more than twice during one of my casual chats with him in his house. The fact that he dwelled on it again during my last recorded chat with him is an indication that he regards giving as a key principle for creating wealth.
He said: “Giving is one key principle of wealth creation that I learnt early and I thank God for it. There are two types of giving I want to talk about here and I will explain what happens when you apply them.
The first level is that you should materially bless your biological parents. By this I mean your biological father, your biological mother, your father-in-law and your mother-in-law. Practising this consistently attracts two outcomes: First, your wealth would be stable; and second, you will live long. This is not a theoretical exposition. I have practised the two consistently and I believe that since I have attracted the first blessing, the second benefit would also follow.”
“It is God’s injunction that we should honour (especially financially) our parents so that it would be well with us. It follows that if you don’t honour them, you would continue to struggle in everything: in health, in wealth, in career, in relationships, and in all other areas”.
“In January of every year, I issue 12 post-dated cheques each to my father, my mother, my father-in-law and my mother-in-law. This covers my giving to them from the month of January to December. I have done this religiously for quite some time although I won’t tell you how much it is. It was interesting that when my father-in-law died, he still had the cheques for October, November and December that had not been cashed under his pillow”.
“Besides, every three years, I also change the car I give to each of them. This is a spiritual law that I encourage anyone who wants stability in wealth and prosperity to practise. If you don’t observe it, you would come down no matter how far you have gone. The money you give doesn’t have to be huge but let them feel your impact”.
“I laugh when I see men who say they love their wives but their parents-in-law are suffering. That love is fake. The love must reflect on how much material blessing you have pushed to them. Some park four cars at home and yet their in-laws are trekking about on foot. That is not love. If you love your wife, you would honour her parents. The reason I picked this first level of giving is that if you cannot relate with it, I don’t see how you can be comfortable with the second level, which is giving to God. If you do not feel comfortable with giving to the people you can see, how can it make sense to you to give to God whom you do not see”?
“The second level is giving to God. This involves paying your tithe (a tenth of your income) and giving generally to support the work of God. Even if you are not a Christian, you can always set aside the same proportion of your income to give to charity or bless the less-privileged. One of my ambitions is to be able to issue a cheque of N1billion one day either as a tithe or just to support the work of God”.
“It would help if you understand the principle behind this type of giving. This is one key way God tests your faith as a believer. If you are not comfortable with giving, it means you have not mastered greed. It is a measure of wisdom to believe that what we see now was created by invisible things. Everything your physical senses can behold is only a fraction of what is available on the invisible plane. It means that real wealth cannot really be conceived by our own imaginations. You need to know how to download information from the spiritual realm and giving is one key that unlocks that possibility.
I have studied really wealthy people, they are addicted to giving. Bill Gates has resigned formally from Microsoft Corporation and has been spending his time giving out his wealth to the less-privileged. His friend, Warren Buffet has equally signed over a sizable proportion of his wealth to charity. Interestingly, the more these people give the more they make money.
There is a connection between your level of giving and the level of blessing you attract. I believe that you have heard of some names such as Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, and so on. They were set up by individuals who, though are long gone, understood the implication of giving.
When you give, your wealth multiplies. The way it works is this: When you channel material possessions to the work of God or to those who are less-privileged, God regularly opens windows of heavens to you. That means he would regularly plant wealth ideas in your mind which if you are sensitive to implement, would open you to a new vista of wealth. What I tell people is that even if you don’t understand it, keep giving. You would soon get the reward.
When you give consistently, your prayers would be answered. But if you pray without giving, you are wasting your time. Prayer plus giving and hard work bring success. Giving is not something that can be taught; you have to practise it to experience it. I can explain from now till tomorrow the reason you must give, but it may not make sense to you until you exercise faith and try it. When it works, your faith would be built up and you would have the grace to give out more and the more you give the more prosperous you would become ultimately.
We need to understand that God does not need our money. He is only teaching us how to activate spiritual principles. Giving benefits the giver, not God. Those who say they don’t give because they don’t have enough are probably not serious. It is a principle. If you cannot give 10 per cent out of the N10,000 you are earning now, even if you earn N1million per month, you still would not give. It is better to understand the principle first and make up your mind to apply it under all circumstances.
NUGGETS
•If you have not been giving before, you should make up your mind to incorporate giving into your wealth philosophy.
•If you are Christian, pay your tithe consistently and regularly give to the work of God.
•It may help to take note of your financial state before you start to give and constantly monitor the progress you are making.