SID: Hello. Sid Roth here with Steve Foss. And I’m so excited about your DVD series. I watched this called “God’s Provision in Hard Times” because let’s face it, we are in hard times. But we don’t even know what hard times are. It’s going be getting a lot worse, and we have a period of time in which to get things right. And I believe God has raised Steve Foss up to teach you how to do that. But tell me again when these credit card companies came after you. What did they say about your kids’ toys?
STEVE: They said they were come in, take our kids’ toys away from them, in front of them, and turn to them and tell them, “Your dad is a deadbeat dad.” And Sid, I went downstairs. And some of my staff came over, and I was in my home, and I was just crying and crying. I literally felt the hoards of Hell, demon spirits surrounding me, wanting to take my life.
SID: You must have felt like the greatest failure around when they said that to you.
STEVE: You know, you sit there and just as a father. But also, I’m a preacher, I’m a minister. I’m in nations all over the world ministering to millions of people. How did I get into this trap?
SID: And you did everything right. You tithed. You were a giver.
STEVE: Yes.
SID: You understood sowing and reaping. I mean, you understood these principles.
STEVE: So how did I get in such a trap? Why hadn’t God provided?
SID: Yes.
STEVE: And I finally turned around and my staff left, and I stuck my head in the couch, and I said, “God,” I said, “I have sold my family into slavery. I made the choices to get into debt. I chose to.” And the Lord spoke to me and said, “Finally, you have taken responsibility for your actions.” You see, Sid, what I had always said was to people, I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know what else to do. And what God showed me was, what I was really saying is, “God, you didn’t show me something else. God, you didn’t provide. God, it’s your fault I went into debt. Because you didn’t provide, I looked to credit cards.” And the Lord spoke to me. He said, “Did you ever go hungry?” I said, “No, sir.” He said, “Were you ever on the streets?” I said, “No, sir.” “Had they ever come and taken you car away?” I said, “No, sir.” He said, “You didn’t give me time. Because you saw a potential financial problem in a few weeks, you reacted in fear now, and you leaned to credit cards. You didn’t wait ‘til the last moment. You didn’t wait ‘til the last day.”
SID: In affect, credit cards became your God.
STEVE: It did.
SID: Your source.
STEVE: My source. And credit cards, money, credit cards became my source. And I started looking to God, and this is the scary part, I started looking to God as the one that provides that source. Because my answer, and so many others are like this, my statement is, “If I only had more money. If I only had more money.” But that’s not actually true. Because when you look at money as the answer to your problems, then that becomes your God, instead of God being the answer. Money is simply a servant. See, God said you can’t serve God and money. You love one one and hate the other. Whoever you look to as your source, as the answer to your problems, that is your God. That’s the one you love. And without knowing it, I was looking at money. I was looking at credit cards. I was looking at borrowing. That’s gonna be the answer to my problem. That wasn’t the answer. God was the answer to all my problems.
SID: You know, one of the things you address in “God’s Provision in Hard Times” is what so many people miss in the principle of sowing and reaping. You’ve seen on television someone has said if you sow a thousand dollars into this ministry you will get ever so much money back. And you’ve done it, and in many cases, it hasn’t worked. Well the law is a law from God. It is a true law. But there’s something we’re missing.
STEVE: Well this is, see, because we’ve majored on biblical finances and teaching on tithing, which is absolutely irrefutable and important., and on giving and receiving. But there are, it’s not just that. It’s how we spend money. It’s what we look to money for, not just a sense of our source, but what about sense of value? See, when we look to money to give us a sense of value, how many of us feel better when we have a nice new car? We want to go show everybody the new car because it makes us feel better about ourselves. We buy designer clothes that maybe we can’t afford, because it makes us feel better about ourselves. The neighbor goes and gets a plasma TV screen. So we go and buy a $5000 plasma television. We couldn’t really afford, but it makes us feel better because now we’re, it’s the illusion of wealth, because we get a sense of value in America from our illusion of wealth. I had some friends from New Zealand epitomize this to me. We were driving through Southern California, and he was there for two weeks. And at first he said, “Steve, I drove around and I said, ‘look at all this wealth.’” He said then it him. He said, “Look at all this debt.” It’s an illusion of wealth. Why? Why do we have to have the bigger house? Why do we have the fancier car? Why do we have to have the fancier clothes? Because how it makes us feel about ourselves. It’s trying to raise our sense of value. But our value is to come solely from our relationship with God. That’s why Paul said, “I’ve learned to be content in all things whether I have much or whether I have little.”
SID: So why do people sometimes miss it when they give money in the sowing and reaping thing to a particular organization?
STEVE: Well there’s two different realms. One, because they have holes in their pockets. They still, they want to give through sacrifice what they’re suppose to get through obedience. I’m gonna say that again. They want to give through sacrifice what they’re suppose to, they want to God to, they want to still live a debt lifestyle. They still want to have all of the, keep up with the Joneses.
SID: I see your point.
STEVE: Right. But they want to just give an offering so God provides all of those things. No. We’ve got to, He’s not gonna keep funding our flesh. But the other thing is, too, is there’s been promises made that were wrong. We’ve made sowing and offering the answer to every problem. But it’s not. When preachers say if you give a thousand dollars and God’s gonna fix your marriage, well sir, why don’t you love your wife as Christ loved the church? Why don’t you humble yourself?
SID: So you’re talking about the area of character is left out of sowing and reaping.
STEVE: Absolutely.
SID: That’s what you’re saying.
STEVE: Absolutely. And so what would happen is sowing and reaping is a vital part, and it is a vital part. But it is how we live our lives. See God said, in Deuteronomy 28, “If you obey all these commands, then these blessings will come upon you and overtake you.” It wasn’t just the command of tithing. It wasn’t just the command of offerings. It was all the commands. The commands of character, the commands of living for God.
SID: I want you to be debt-free. I want you to prosper. I mean prosper so abundantly in bad times. That’s why I love this series. And we’ll talk about supernatural ways of God having you prosper in tough times, when we come back. Don’t go away.
