COMPONENTS OF FINANCIAL STRENGTH

Today the Lord wants me to share a few things with you that concern your strength from Haggai chapter 2.
1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying:
2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying:
3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple[a] in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?
4 Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the Lord of hosts.
5 ‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’
6 “For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; 7 and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations,[b] and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.
8 ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts.
9 ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

God has been calling us strong people for the past two days. It is obviously a Word He sent to us this season. Something He made me note was an area of strength that He has concentrated on where The Carpenter’s Church is concerned, and that is the area of financial strength. I speak to you not just as an individual or as individual families, but as a congregation of people. When God calls you strong, God is saying to you that He is raising you up to be financially strong people. Strong people in general are people of influence; and financially strong people influence things. I want you to see yourself as a very financially strong person. In the scripture we just read, the first three verses painted the picture of discouragement. People looked around and they said, “Can things ever be as good as the first temple? Can it be as wonderful as the temple we knew it to be?” There was discouragement! Listen: In the midst of that financial or in any kind of discouragement, the Word of the Lord came and that is the same way It has come to us this season. “Be strong,” It says!

In that same verse, God said, “Be strong” three times. “Be strong Zerubbabel the governor, be strong the high priest, be strong anybody who is left.” Some versions would say the residue of all the people. So whether you are a leader in the secular world, a leader in the ministry or a member, God’s Word to you today is be strong, alert and courageous. “Financially strong is who I have made you. Financially strong! In spite of the fact that you are not working today, yet be strong. Despite the fact that your bank account doesn’t seem to line up with financial strength, that is the name I have called you. Answer that name and that is what will manifest in your life. Yet be strong.”

So in spite of your discouragement, be strong. In spite of what you see around you, be strong. Then it goes on to say, “and work.” So it means that lazy people cannot be financially strong. Hello, if you are a lazy person and you are comfortably sitting around, this prophecy will jump or pass over you. But that is not your portion. It says be strong and work. so work is a valid root to wealth and financial strength, work is a valid path to financial strength. Some people just want things to fall on their laps. No! If God calls you strong, He doesn’t expect you to be a benevolence case forever or to be a charity case for the rest of your life. Be strong and work, and when you work, you will make contact with this great financial strength that God has deposited in this ministry. There is so much wealth coming out of this ministry that you need to tap into it. Some ministries are known for different things. I can tell you one thing, the grace for wealth and abundance is here in The Carpenter’s Church. It is so evident here that if you came in poor and you stay poor, it is your fault!

It is okay to come in poor. Some people don’t attend this church because when asked, they’d say, “it’s a rich man’s church.” I always say amen to that. But one should be smart enough to know that when they are not rich and they find a “rich man’s church” where they weren’t thrown out the gate; that should be where they should remain. Because even if it is by osmosis, I think that wealth will be transferred to them There is grace for wealth here, I make bold to say it because not only is there grace for wealth here, we know what to do with the money. God has called each one of you a thousand people. Financially strong, that’s who you are. It’s not determined by the kind of job you are doing. Just work! He said work according to the Word that I covenanted with you. If God has called you financially strong, what He wants me to show you in these few lines is how to make connection with it. There is no point jumping and sweating and getting excited, if you don’t make a connection with it. He says in spite of the discouragement, be strong. Then He says, work. How do you work? According to the Word He covenanted with you. So there is a purpose for work. There are principles according to the covenant for work. That is why you can have two jobs and one will have a better salary than the other, but God will tell you, “This is the one which I have covenanted with you.”

It doesn’t make sense to the human mind! So you have to know Him. Again that takes us back to “they that know their God shall be strong and know exactly what God will have them do.” Be strong, work, according to the promise, according to the Word, according to that steering on the inside of you, according to the purpose I have called you for and according to the reason why you were born. Why didn’t He say, “work according to what I said to you?” Isn’t “covenanted” a strong word to use? God said He would show you strong things from the scriptures. Isn’t “covenanted” a strong word to use Why didn’t He just say, “according to the word I said to you?” Why? Because every agreement God has with you is backed by the covenant! And if it is backed by the covenant, it is guaranteed to take you to a better place. So you see its not just empty words. When God speaks to you, He is giving you a covenant assurance. I mean if you say, “Pastor since you said we should work, I decided to go and work in a brothel as a front desk officer,” or as a receptionist in a prostitutes house. “At least I’m earning a salary” or “I am working in the new palm wine brewing factory in town.” That is not according to the covenant. Work according to the Word God has covenanted with you and begin to make contact with financial strength.

What He said next is very interesting and really profound.

“In a little while”. There is a process. Don’t start work today and expect to drive a plane tomorrow. A little while; but not a long while because the covenant will fast-track the process. The covenant will bring favour that will accelerate the process. The covenant will cause you to have double promotion that is not fair. The covenant will sack people to create space for you. You say, “it’s not fair,” but it is the covenant. So it takes a while but it is a “little” while. I love this part. God says, “I will shake the heavens and the earth.” As if the heavens and the earth were not enough, and “even the dry land.” Is anywhere left out? “I will shake the heavens, I will shake the earth, I will shake the sea and I will shake the dry lands,” then He concludes it with, “and I will shake all the nations.” When you hear of God’s shaking, you may get scared. But don’t be, because the shaking is for your good. When some people owe you money, even if you turn them upside down, nothing would come out from them. That is the time to call on the love of God and forgive them, because if you take them to the police to shake and tear them, nothing would be found. But when God shakes you, the one you hid somewhere would come out. God, not the police, will shake the heavens, shake the earth, shake the sea and shake the dry lands and in case anybody escapes, He will shake the nations.

Why is the Father of the covenant shaking everybody and everywhere? So that the desire of all nations can come. That expression is one of the most misinterpreted, confused, in fact if you are a bible scholar, you must have experienced it in the Word of God. So many commentaries have different applications, and it suits a lot of them to call “the desire of all nations” Jesus. That is why in some of your bibles, it is a capital “D” (Desire of all nations). Jesus is not the desire of all nations. That is not what He is talking about. If you study the Hebrew, the desire of all nations is Money. Why did Lord Lugard come to Nigeria? Money! Why is Iran doing what they are doing? Money! Why are the British people making the policies they are making? Money! If you check the policies of every nation, the bottom of it is money. When nations come to tell you they are coming to help us take over NEPA because they have seen that Nigeria is suffering and they want to help her fix her power, it is a lie! It’s because it is a very lucrative business. That’s it! God says when you are strong and you work according to the covenant, in a little while, He will shake the heavens, shake the earth, shake the dry land and shake all the nations. And the desire of all nations, the treasures, the money, the wealth and it goes on immediately to show you He was not talking about Jesus, but talking about money. Next it says, the silver is mine and the gold is mine, so that thing that the unbeliever is holding belongs to your Father and your Father is saying, the time for wealth transfer has come. God will put the desire of all nations, the silver and gold that belong to Him in the hands of financially strong believers.

But when did He call you strong? Was it when the silver and the gold had entered your hand? No! You have to be strong in your thoughts and in your mind first. You’ve got to see yourself as what God calls you. You’ve got to answer the name He calls you. So those people who may have only 500 Naira in their account are strong people, they work according to the covenant, they are tithers, they give, they sow sacrificially, and God says, “I will shake the nations on their behalf and when I shake the nations, I will tell them give up My silver, shake off My gold, its time for the wealth of the wicked to transferred into the hands of the righteous.” That is what He was telling them. When the desire of all nations comes, this temple you want to build that you are so discouraged about, through the hands of strong people the silver will come, the gold will come and the work of the Lord will continue. That is what He is assuring us. Look at what He says in the same Haggai 2

20 And again the word of the Lord came to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying,
21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying: ‘I will shake heaven and earth.
22 I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overthrow the chariots, and those who ride in them; The horses and their riders shall come down, Every one by the sword of his brother.

When you read the book of Isaiah, you will see that the force of the gentiles is their wealth. When you see the expression, “the strength or the force of somebody,” it is their wealth. You are strong people and one great area of your strength is your financial strength. If you think in yourself you can be strong, you will be like a little storm in a teacup. Leave that job you adore and adore God instead. Leave that contract you worship and worship God with it. God says, “I am the One who will shake the nations.” That company you’ve been applying to for that contract, if God visits them in the night and shakes them once, they will say except you do the contract, nobody else can do it. That boss that has refused to promote you; if Jehovah visits him and gives him a mild shaking, he will promote you twice in one month. He would say please, I don’t know who you are or who you serve. Since its promotion you want, go with it!” Why? Jehovah visited him and shook him. And whether he was in the heavens or on the earth, on the sea or on dry land or in any nation whatsoever, the silver and the gold will come out from him.

On a certain Tuesday prayer meeting not too long ago, God told us that because we are lifting Him up, He would cause people who are not even members of this church to bring money for the auditorium project. A brother sent me a mail after that, he confirmed that it had already started happening. His wife invited somebody for Oasis, and I assumed that if she was invited for Oasis, she would either be an unbeliever for her to have been invited for Oasis. As she came for Oasis, she saw the building. But as she was leaving, she counted three hundred dollars and gave the sister for the auditorium project, because she wanted to be a part of it and she left. Why? While Oasis was going on, God was shaking her and the silver and the gold came out into the kingdom. That’s why God says each of us is a thousand people. If only you can catch this vision, you will do whatever it is that God wants you to do on earth. It says peace and prosperity will enter into the land. In your home, there will be peace and prosperity.

In Isaiah 60:5, the Bible says your heart will leap for joy when the abundance of the sea and the wealth of the gentiles are converted unto you. Your heart leaps for joy when there is food in the house. Your heart leaps for joy when you get a promotion letter. How many people get a promotion letter and cry saying, “I have been promoted, I thought I was going to be demoted, such bad news.” Even if it is not the promotion you expected, or you expected more, you will start by appreciating the one you got. Your heart leaps for joy when there is increase or when there is abundance. I don’t think anybody votes for suffering. If I cast a vote for wealth or for suffering, would you say, “No, no, I’m spiritual, I vote for poverty?” If you are going there, your wife and your children will pull you away from it. Your heart leaps for joy when you kick your car and it answers you the first time. There are other things to apply faith to, than applying faith for your car to answer. It is okay to be there now. I was there once. I have told you how Pastor Charles and I pushed a car up a slope. It is okay to have those stories, but its nicer to have a sound car. But staying for ten or fifteen years in a church with so much grace for wealth around you and you remain poor, you’ve cursed yourself by not working according to the covenant, but that will change today.

God calls you strong. God sees you as a person of influence. God says with your money you can influence people. It’s according to the covenant. Be ready for strange miracles and financial miracles. If you are a member of The Carpenter’s Church, and you follow the principles you are taught here, then it is too late to be poor. You cannot be poor! If you don’t like money leave here, because money will follow you if you follow the principles we teach. We know what to do with money in The Carpenter’s Church. God is not threatened by wealth. I want you to begin to see yourselves as financially strong people, and not people that chase money. One of the most liberating things about financial strength is knowing that you are wealthy and money means nothing to you. What you drive shouldn’t mean anything to you. I drive an official car that a younger pastor who has left here had driven before. I shouldn’t be driving that car some think, but it doesn’t define who I am. I can drive any car I want! My husband can buy me any car I want, he has been trying to do that for the past two years, but I withheld him from it. The church is able to buy me any car I want, and incidentally Pastor Charles was threatening to buy me a car this year, so it is not an issue.

The car I drive doesn’t define me; I am financially strong! If I choose to change my car when I want to change my car, I will do so with a cheque. You see you have to be free in your mind. When you are financially free in your mind, what will define you is the kind of cheques you can write to Jesus and to other people. What defines me is that I can write cheques with zeros until there is nothing in my account. May you see yourself as financially strong people. When God says these are the days of unusual strength, He’s not joking. It doesn’t matter what age you are or what you are, be strong! Gaurd your heart and be strong. Irrespective of the pressures be strong. When needs hit you and the needs look like Goliath, be strong! Be strong and work, set your hand to something according to the Word. Not according to what your professor, your wife advised or your husband told you you should be doing, but according to the Word that God covenanted with you. “Work and I will come in a little while, and then I will shake the nations.” That is the Word of the Lord to you today; He said He will shake the nations. He will shake the heavens and the earth. Don’t sit there discouraged after applying for that job, be strong. “I will shake the heavens. I will shake the earth. I will shake the seas; I will shake the dry land. I will shake all the nations. I will shake anything shakeable. I will shake anything that can be shaken. When I shake it, the silver and the gold that belongs to Me will fall out and fall into the hands of My people.”

These are the days when God is doing a quick work. These are the days when God is more eager to bless His people with abundance than they can even pray to Him for. Before you pray for the wealth, it will hit you on one side. Why? God is shaking the nations, the wealth of the wicked and the forces of the gentiles for you. Policies will be changed in your company because of you. There will be a shaking and after the policy affects you positively, they will change it back. You say, “no it’s not fair,” but yes that is the covenant. And if you are sitting there thinking, oh please Pastor, don’t dare to say such things, then the blessing is not for you. ou are a strong person. Be expectant of unusual strength, that will bring you to unusual influence. The prophet said, “be strong and fear not. Don’t be afraid to write that cheque to the kingdom. When you have to give your last, don’t fear and be strong. I need you to do it according to the covenant, so that I can shake the nations for you.” I wish I could tear you open to see what God has in store for you this season, and what God has in store for you as His child; there are no limits. He told us the limits are running. Don’t chase the money, chase the Giver and the money will chase you. Chase His covenant, chase His principles and He will make you a very strong person of great and mighty influence. Let this sink into your spirit.

This prophecy and those of the other days are available online and also for sale at the Media Stand. Make sure you get them and listen to them over and over again. Let the Prophetic Word go deep into you, because God means business with you and may your eyes be opened to see it. Amen.