What God told me about Poverty and Piety

Hi, I'm John Humenik. Welcome to the channel. Today we've got an exciting video on what God taught me about the differences about poverty is piety or is poverty not piety. The essence of this video is going to set and break you free from a mindset that has gripped churches and religious people for centuries. If you're a person who continually wants to excel in what they want to do, but you're stuck in how you are doing things today, this video's for you. Because what we're gonna talk about is an understanding that has permeated the church and has seeped its way into areas that prevent the church from advancing forward in its proper manner. Now, if you understand how churches work, they're functionally no different than any other business or any other nonprofit. They need income to move forward. This is a big mindset that a lot of people say, well, churches are specifically designed to help poor people. They're specifically designed to help the homeless, help people who are in need of food. But the The reality is, is if that church's grace is not to operate in those spaces, guess what? That's not what they're supposed to do. So mindsets and understandings cripple the church because what happens is, is that people within the church come into a church looking for it to be basically like a hospital. They come into a situation where they're going to church because something's broken. Maybe they're sick, maybe their life is in shambles. Maybe there's an aspect of your life that's just not where it needs to be. what you'll see is a lot of people will go to church. We saw this happen around 9/11 when it occurred, when the terrorists attacked the Twin Towers and people just started going back to church because they understand that eternity is put in every single person's heart, whether they're a believer or not. We saw this happen when they broke through the pandemic and churches started to have a surge of attendance, and you started to see people coming back to church because they needed a place to find basically fellowship and community and other things. But what gets missed in all of Westernized churches, which was established both in the Catholic Church as well as in the Protestant Church that split around the 1500s, is this concept that poverty is piety, which means that it's okay and it's holy to be poor. But we're gonna come in today and we're gonna break that mindset because not only is that a lie, it's exactly the opposite of how God wants you to operate in the kingdom of God. And the reality is, is most people miss it because they don't study the scriptures to get a deeper understanding of what it means to operate in abundance and in overflow and how that dramatically affects the churches and the missions of the church at— within the community at large. Now, when you understand how churches work, as I said before, they're functionally a business even though they're a nonprofit and they have a particular mission. A church is graced to accomplish a certain set of tasks that the Holy Spirit wants to do within a region, whether that's a city or even globally, because there are some churches that have basically campuses that are expanded all across the world. What you need to understand is, is that churches aren't always geared towards helping the poor in the way the world thinks it. I recently saw a video of someone talking to people that said, oh, if they can take that money to afford a private jet for a mission trip over to Africa, Why didn't they take that money and give it to the poor? Why didn't they give that money and take it to feed the homeless or take care of people who are struggling to pay their bills? This is a mindset where people don't understand how churches are working. Just because someone who is in a business side is basically setting and they can afford to go and afford a private jet, what is the difference between the church? Because people think the church is specifically designed for a hospital mentality. It's an idea where people come to church and they get help, and then once they feel better, they move on. That's not the— that's not actually the essence of the church. It's a part of basically every church's grace and how they should operate. But the reality is, is if money is set aside for God to do kingdom work in the context that allows it to move forward in authority and power, guess what? They're allowed to spend it on the things that they need to spend it on, even if that does include private jets, yachts, and other things that other people would think, oh, that's lavish living, that's not what the church is supposed to do. That's exactly mindset we're gonna talk about today, because you may be caught in that same mindset. You may be caught, well, I shouldn't be living a lavish life. I shouldn't be taking vacations. I shouldn't be owning expensive cars or having nice clothes. But the scripture says otherwise. When you go into the first chapter of Genesis, what you start to see is, is God talks to Adam and Eve. And what does he say? What's the first thing he says is go be fruitful and multiply. Go out there and subdue the entire earth. Now, the thing about it is, is that Why would they need to be fruitful and multiply and subdue an earth that they already oversee and own? Because that's the thing, Adam and Eve were given dominion, authority, and power over the entire earth. When you go into chapter 2, you start to see is, is that God starts talking about gold, and he says it comes from Ophir and it's great. And when you start to think about that, like, well, what does gold have to do with a kingdom that doesn't have a monetary system, that doesn't have an economy, it doesn't have coins and wealth? Well, the reality is it does, because God wants to show that his children need to understand that opulence, success, abundance, overflow are all a part of the inheritance of the kingdom of God. If you also understand, when you look at— when you— sorry, when you look at Revelation and you see chapters 21 and 22, we see that in those descriptions it talks about the jewels, it talks about the fact that the gold streets are lining everything, and they're They're so clear, they're like crystal clear. What God is saying symbolically, very much so, is that gold is underneath your feet. If you're going to be able to pave a street with gold, it's gonna get dirty. You're gonna walk on it. Think about that from today's perspective, how dirty a street is, how much debris is on a street. Cars are driving over it, people are walking over it, animals are walking over it. And he's saying gold streets, we think of it from the perspective of, oh, this is gonna be opulence, this is gonna be gorgeous. But God is making a bigger statement. He's means that money is beneath the kingdom of God, and it's part of the things that's foundational on how it needs to operate. When you shift your mindset away from understanding the, the decadence and what we consider the lavishness, or the basically the sin nature that comes with temptation and overflow, and you kind of cast that inside, say, hey, that's not what money is used for, but rather it's used for growth and opportunity? How do I pay my pastor to pay his bills if he doesn't have money? How do I take a mission trip over to Africa if I can't afford plane tickets? How can I take food over to Africa if I don't have money? When you start to understand how things are broken down and how things work, you start to recognize that a lot of the mindsets that allow poverty as piety to set into a person's life, what happens is, is they're all lies. And what occurs is within a person is that they don't understand that God wants people to live in abundance. He wants people to live in overflow. Why else was there gold in the Garden of Eden at a time when gold wasn't needed? Why is gold present in the future in the new heavens and new earth when gold is not needed? It's a point that God is making very clearly that, remember, the Bible talks about that this is the first rule of first mention. When you see the first mention of something within the Bible, it then understands and sets forth the standard. its definition, how it's supposed to operate. So gold is meant to be a part of the kingdom of God for it to operate no different than cars are to get you somewhere and planes to get you somewhere faster. That's the essence of what we're trying here. But when you understand is, is how does that apply to my life? So when these spiritual principles come down and operate within a church, how does that then translate to your life and how you're supposed to operate? Because let's say you're a tither. Let's say you're a person that goes and gives your 10% to church, and from From time to time you add your offering, but then you're saying, well, what more can I do? Well, God wants you to understand is, is that at this point in time, no matter what the world economy is doing, that you are at the lowest financial level that you'll ever be. God wants you to continue to move forward, and he's going to do that through your obedience to the call that he has on your life in order for you to receive the things he wants you to receive. It's done by sitting in your prayer closets. It's done by praise and worship. It's done by obedient acts to put aside the things that you want to accomplish in your life and to operate in his overflow. Because the idea is, is this is the thing that a lot of people miss, is when you start walking out God's life for you and you're in his perfect will— and I can speak from both being completely in the world, being one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom And being 2 foot in the kingdom and focused on what my Father wants. What he'll do is when you're operating his perfect will, it— there is extreme overflow. When you are not making the money you're supposed to make, there's a couple things that could be happening. Either you are not sowing enough into the kingdom, and all of the principles around sowing and reaping, which also are included in Genesis, talk about don't get applied, and therefore you're not operating where you need to be. But the other aspect is, is you're not being obedient to the call of God on your life in the season that you're in. And what happens is, is whenever you're not in that place, what happens is, is that you're actually a couple streets over and maybe even a couple blocks down, and the finances and overflow are over here and you're over here. And what that means is, is that you need to realign yourself with God's will on your life in order for you to receive The overflow that he has. Because the reality is, is Jesus was so rich that his treasurer followed him everywhere. He had that much money. Jesus was never poor at any point in time. He always operated from overflow, even if it wasn't necessarily directly related to finances. Jesus always had what he needed and always was working towards the things that his Father wanted in his life, and he provided an abundance at all times. You never see Jesus, even after he started his ministry, even taking up a job. We see that actually in Paul's life. He was doing work where he was a tent builder, and so he built tents, so he needed to provide for himself. And what we see the life of Paul more than likely occurred is he had a job during the week and then he preached on the weekends, basically like kind of like a weekend preacher. But in Jesus's life That didn't happen. There's no mention of Jesus doing any type of work in his ministry during the time that he was operating. So what does that mean for you in your life? It means that whenever you are doing the will of God on your life, that God's going to provide you so much income that it's going to overflow because he needs you to overflow into your family, because you have to leave an inheritance for your children and your children's children. He needs you to overflow into your church, into your community, into those in need, and to so on. That's the essence of the kingdom. When you understand how overflow is supposed to work, is, is it's not for you. You do get an excess as you go forward, but the reality is, is that your money is supposed to come in and then go out. And when you start to operate from that principle, guess what happens? Now you start to understand why gold was present in the Garden of Eden. You understand why gold streets are laden in Revelation, because they're there. As a part of the system that you're working in order for you to be able to do the work that God wants you to do. And it's a part of your life, but it doesn't rule your life. It becomes no different than a computer that does to a software engineer, or, you know, a canvas to an artist, or an instrument to a musician. It's just a tool for them to operate in their trade. That's the essence of what poverty is piety broke and basically instilled this lie into the kingdom of God. Because what it did is it turned around and made money an object that needed to be idolized and said it wasn't important to have and it's more important to remain poor. But rather, money is actually a part of the walk that God gives you in order to accomplish the work that you have for the kingdom. That's the essence of what it does. And for you in your life, the most important thing is just to sit in your prayer closet, write down every single thing that you hear God tell you. Just journal those things. Study the word. Renew your mind. Understand where you're at in your life. Because the reality is, is you may be in a job you're not supposed to be in. Maybe you're running a business you're not supposed to be running. Maybe you're doing a bunch of service work in things that you're doing, maybe stewarding for God in the church, and you're not supposed to be doing that. Biggest mistake that most Christians make as a part of their walk with Jesus Christ is to continue to steward something past the season that they were supposed to steward. We don't As we go into 2025, in this new year, you have to understand is, is that as a part of your work, God may be asking you to lay things down before him so that you could take on new things so that he can bless you in different ways. You're not supposed to continue to sit on committees extendedly for week over week, month over month, year over year. If you're caught in a situation where your church just kind of has you in a round robin where you can't even do something new because you can't break out of it because they need you to do administrative work, The reality is, is that that may not necessarily be the church that you're supposed to be in. Sit in the presence of God, pray. You will know when God wants you to start to move. Even if you struggle to hear with the voice of God, what we'll have is you will lose your peace. It's as simple as that. And everyone can experience this. This is something that every single person who walks with Jesus can understand this. If you are struggling to operate in the area that you're supposed to be in, it will come without peace. That's the reality. And as you get more peace, as you move forward, you'll be able to operate in overflow. And don't confuse peace with comfort. There's a huge difference. Just because you have peace, you can still have discomfort, but that could be just your flesh, your flesh fighting you as a part of that process. So be mindful of the very things God wants you to walk out. Understand the essence of how poverty has gripped the world and how if everyone was operating in overflow, how different it would be for the kingdom of God if it was able to move with force and with power and authority and to be able to do the things it needs to do in order to eliminate the problems of this world. But the reality is, is in order for it to do that, it comes with underpinnings. You can't have a church ultimately, you know, from a standpoint of coming together on Sundays without a building. Sure, you can build a tent. Sure, you can meet in an open-air area, but over time you still need a building. God was operating in a for 40 years with the Israelites. And then over that period of time, about 450 years later, he built a temple. So he did solidify his place in his kingdom that he was establishing on earth. That's the same for you. Churches need buildings. People need places to go and worship. You need a house over your head. These things are real. They cost money. And the reality is, when you look at, uh, when you look at inflation and all the other things that are going on, you have to continue to make more money year over year just to keep up. So be mindful of the things that you're stewarding in your life. Be mindful of the things God wants you to be doing in this season and how you're looking at it. Be mindful of the areas that might be of lack, of lack of peace, an area where you feel troubled, where you can't get any kind of, um, basically sense of calm in your life. Those might be the areas God's working on you in order to transition you from the place you are today to the place you need to be tomorrow. And when you start to operate in those places, I guarantee 100% what you'll see is overflow will occur dramatically in your life in those moments because you stewarded the small things. I've seen it with my own life. I've seen it happen as he just continues to bring people, customers, individuals, employees, board members. He just shoves them and brings them on a silver platter because what he's doing is, is he's doing all the heavy lifting Well, I'm doing my part. And the reality is God does the 99.9. All we have to do is the 0.1. So I pray that this message blessed you and help you understand how you're supposed to walk forward in kingdom abundance and in providence in the way God wants you to operate. If you like content like this, please partner with us. We have a new Patreon site. You can go there, patreon.com/johnhumenik. There we have 3 tiers where you can partner with us. And when you do so, all those proceeds go back into the ministry to support everything that we're doing. God bless.