Jonathan Cronin argues that God endorses wealth and business when pursued under His guidance. He draws on biblical references like Proverbs and Solomon, shares his own eight-figure businesses and real estate portfolio, and teaches how listening to God helps develop vision and build wealth in a faith-centered way.
Questions this video answers
Over eight figures a year.
A large real estate portfolio.
A ministry helping women out of trafficking and building safe houses for survivors of trafficking.
He says he heard '2nd Kings 16:9' (as the scripture he opened to).
What is God's perspective on wealth and business? Should a Christian be pursuing wealth? And if so, how would God instruct you to do it? In this video, I want you to walk away with exactly what God thinks about wealth and how you can build it in God's way. First off, God believes in wealth. Wealth is a God idea. Wealth was, and business was orchestrated through God. He set it up. And there's a scripture that says that a wise man builds and leaves an inheritance for his children's children. Generational wealth, okay, that's in the book of Proverbs. Okay, so why is that so important? And obviously through this series, we are going to break down numerous biblical scriptures on how to build wealth, how to sell, steward your wealth well, how to be a better leader and how to do all different types of things. But first we need to know his perspective and we need to know how. What is the foundation of building wealth? So first off, I'd like you to ask yourselves, why would there be so many apostles and prophets that actually had a lot of wealth? Why would Paul, one of the most faith filled men in the Bible, to own a business and do ministry simultaneously? Why would God want Paul to do that? You know, one of the most faith filled people. He could have easily done anything else or got money from a fish's mouth or whatever it was, but he chose business, the vehicle of business. So I kind of want to talk about that. Why did God give Solomon so much wealth? Okay, why does God give some people much money or give them a calling specifically to go give millions of dollars to missions and ministries? Why is that? Okay, first off, no one dreams dreams bigger for you than God. No one dreams bigger dreams than God for your life, okay? And simultaneously, no one can help you achieve those dreams faster than God. Okay? So in today's video, I'm going to be talking about exactly how to see that. Here's the thing, as much as God, I believe, wants you to prosper, there's many scriptures that backs that, right? There's, you know, he will make your plans prosper. His goal is not to harm you, but to see you prosper. You know, there's many scriptures. As much as he wants you to do that, he also, there's a piece of this that is in your court, okay? And it starts with you identifying what is God saying for your life? Okay, what is God saying for today? Okay, what's the mission? And in the next few videos, we're gonna start diving into your vision, your personal vision, or maybe your business vision. Why do you exist. Why are you here? Okay, and so that's gonna be very important. But every single day it starts with you personally saying, what is God saying to me? And this is so powerful. And I'm gonna share a story that if you can understand, this may be radical for some, this is going to be very radical for some. And you may not have the ability to perceive it, but this story is based off the reality that God wants to speak to us. Okay? My partners and I have created a large real estate portfolio. We run several businesses doing over eight figures a year. And we have done very well. But it's not because of anything of our own. It's because of what God has given us and because we have the ability to hear the Lord, to hear what he's saying to us. So I don't want you leaving these videos every day thinking, man, I feel great, you know, I feel like I've, you know, got a better idea of the vision. I want you leaving each video with a very practical action step, something that you can tangibly walk away with. Okay? So I was in Tennessee about a few years ago, several years ago, and I was doing a kind of a ministry trip. I was going and preaching and I was going to speaking with a group. But right before the speaking event, it was maybe an hour before I went to the store, me and my buddy Jason went to the store and we just had this radical idea. I told you it was going to be radical. We had this radical idea that since God wants to speak to us and we're about to go preach to a lot of people that God wants to speak to you, let's listen to him right now. Instruct us on how we can reach more people. And I said, okay, let's just ask the Lord for random phone numbers. Okay? Again, you want to be stretched a little bit today. You want to be stretched in this series. That's what it's going to do for you. But this is going to take it to another level. We ask God to just let us hear numbers. Again, the idea of hearing from God is to become like a child. You know, the Bible says the children belongs to the kingdom of heaven, to the children. Okay? And so this is the idea, right? We've got to get out there and just test, you know, what does God want to say? I started dialing numbers on the phone, started calling random numbers that I didn't. Some of them I probably called 20 numbers, alright, on this drive to the store. And out of the 20, maybe 15 weren't even real numbers. 10 to 15 weren't even real numbers. Out of those five, there were probably four. We left messages on. We left voicemails. They didn't pick up, but we left voicemails, okay? And so one of those voicemails, one of those numbers we dialed within 15 minutes. And what we would do on the voicemails, by the way, is I would. I would say, hey, so and so. Or I would say, you know, I just randomly got your number. Felt like the Lord told me to call you. I just feel like you're in a place where. And I would give him a word. I would say what I felt like the Lord was saying it in that moment. And then one person called me back, okay. And I was like, oh, okay, here we go. This is somebody calling me back. Like, let's see, it's an actual person. They pick up the phone, they say, is this Jonathan? I said, yes. And he sounded very monotone. I'm getting kind of nervous here. He says, you just called my wife's voicemail or my wife's phone left a voicemail. I said, yes. I think he's about to cuss me out. He's about to get mad, right? He says, I just want you to know everything you said was exactly right. I am actually a prophet. I teach people to hear the voice of the Lord. Sure enough, he gave me his website, and it was all there. He said, I felt like the Lord told me to call you and give you a word. And he starts, I was at this ministry event, and again, I have never done this before in my life. This was a brand new thing to me. But he calls me, he starts reading my mail. He starts telling me everything that I'm doing. He says, I see you going into neighborhoods, turning them around. I see you with a building. God given you a building that says refuge at the top. Literally. We had just a month prior, launched a ministry helping ladies out of trafficking and building safe houses for women in trafficking, for survivors of trafficking. So I say all that to say, God wants to speak to you. And imagine If I took 20 minutes to call 20 people, dial 20 numbers, and that kind of results connected with a guy out of Canada that was reading my mail, encouraging me, and all of a sudden we've got this connection. And now he was coming to speak. We're connected in the ministry. Imagine what could happen if you lived a life that was fully focused on hearing from God. You may say, this is not practical. This is the most practical thing you could possibly be doing for your business. Okay? Taking time to Sharpen the axe. Taking time to listen to God. And the story gets even crazier because the very next day I felt like the Lord told me to go to a scripture and I forget exactly what it was. I believe it was 2nd Kings 16:9. I literally just heard this random number 2nd Kings 16:9, something like that. And it go. And, and I've never, I don't, you know, I've read the Bible, but it was just random. Okay. I don't know how to describe it to you. The next day I get on in the, in the scripture and I just open it to that and it's a part where Solomon and we're going to be talking about Solomon in this series. But Solomon is entertaining the Queen of Sheba. Okay? Queen of Sheba is at the time one of the richest people in the world. And she was amazed at hearing about Solomon and all his wealth. And so in all his wisdom and she comes down to see is it true? And the 16, 9 actually says, and nothing was hidden from Solomon. Okay? And nothing was hidden from Solomon. And which he did not tell her. Right? Nothing was hidden from Solomon. Which he did not tell her. Meaning she was amazed at all the wisdom and wealth he had created. But the secret was nothing was hidden from Solomon. The very thing that I experienced the day before God was saying this is the key to wealth. This is the key to. Everything that I've called calls you to do in life is listening to God. What is the purpose you're here? What is your vision? What are the things? So simple action step today is to ask God why are you here? What is his vision for you? What are you looking to do? And actually believe that he wants to speak to you.
