Let’s now address the concept of facing your debts. As we previously mentioned, one of the major issues is the fear, shame, indignity, and paralysis that accompany significant consumer debt. This pushes people to flee from their creditors and avoid communication. Therefore, facing your debts requires taking responsibility for the debt incurred, on one hand, and communicating with creditors with integrity, on the other.

The first step in facing your debts is to repent before the Lord for the wrongdoing of borrowing without the means to repay, if that is the case. The blood of Jesus was shed to remove the guilt and defilement that result from this sin.

Secondly, most people who find themselves in overwhelming debt need to make a significant shift in their value system. When you are overwhelmed by debt, the spirit of Mammon often keeps your attention on what you lack and what you cannot do. You must resolutely refocus on what you have and what you can do.

God cannot do anything with what you do not have. He can only work with what you have. When you start doing what you can naturally, God is free to do what He can supernaturally. Every miracle is a partnership between a man or woman doing natural things and God adding supernatural things to it.

In the Bible, when Peter walked on water, he had to do a very natural thing. He had to step out of the boat and walk. This was not supernatural. He had stepped out of the boat every day and had been walking for years. The supernatural side of this story is that God sustained Peter on the water.

If Peter had not done his part, the miracle would never have happened. Similarly, if God had not done His supernatural part, the miracle would not have happened either. Both parts were indispensable. If Peter had focused on what he could not do (stand on water by himself), he would have been paralyzed and would not have done his natural part. Remember the eleven others sitting in the boat, waiting for God to do something. Many people, paralyzed by overwhelming debt, sit and pray, waiting for God to do something. Miracles happen when we do the natural part and trust God for the supernatural part.

Therefore, we must start by focusing on what we have and what we can do. When we do the natural part, God can then do the supernatural part. Do not be like one of the eleven other disciples, sitting in the boat waiting for God to do something.

When Jesus fed the five thousand men (John 6:1-14), His disciples only saw what they didn’t have, which was food. Jesus redirected their attention to what was available. When they simply presented the young boy’s lunch to Jesus, He multiplied it supernaturally. Doing what is natural is always the first step to releasing the supernatural.

Years ago, I (Craig) was meditating on how the supernatural enters our lives when we align our ways with God’s ways; the Lord then reminded me of a physical principle I studied in university. Everyone is familiar with the high-voltage power lines that stretch across the country to carry electricity. The electric power from these lines can be captured by attaching a conductive wire to these lines.

However, few people know that electric power can be induced in a conductive wire arranged parallel to an active power line without the wire touching or being physically connected to the line. Through the electromagnetic field surrounding the power line, another conductive wire placed parallel to an active power line connects with the electromagnetic field and induces an electric current in the wire. Conversely, a wire placed perpendicular to an active power line will conduct no electricity. Workers on power lines have been electrocuted for neglecting this vital principle.

In the same way that an electric current is induced through the air into a parallel conductor, God’s supernatural power and life can be induced in you when your ways are oriented parallel to His ways. In this analogy, God’s ways can be compared to the active power lines, and your ways to the conductor placed nearby. This is certainly true in the financial realm and applies to our debt management. When your ways are aligned with God’s ways, you release His supernatural power into your finances. In fact, Solomon tells us in the book of Proverbs:

“When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7; NKJV)

So, if you have creditors who are your enemies and are not at peace with you, consider your ways!

At the end of a seminar in South Africa, I (Earl) heard about a man who owed a large sum of money to a company. This man calculated his closed circle, or budget, and decided that all he could offer the company to repay his debt was a monthly sum of ten Rand (about $1.70). He went to the company leaders and told them this was the amount he had available to repay them. Although it was a very minimal amount, they saw the integrity of his heart and agreed to accept his ten Rand per month. He faithfully paid this amount for a little over a year.

At that point, a representative of the company summoned him and informed him that the company had decided to release him from his debt. The faithfulness of this man who faced his debts and did what he could resulted in God touching the hearts of his creditors, who entirely freed him and canceled his debt.

Having set our eyes on what we have and what we can do, it is now possible to calculate a closed circle, or budget. Once we have a closed circle, we know the amount of money available each month to repay debts. With this information, we can now pray to know how to allocate the available money to pay creditors. Now, it is time to list each of your creditors, including family members.

Armed with this list of creditors and having determined the total amount available per month that can be allocated to debt repayment, you can pray to the Lord to ask how much to allocate per month to each creditor. It is important to allocate something to each creditor. Some people allocate all the available money to two or three creditors and continue to avoid the others. This is still a violation of God’s ways, and this violation keeps you in the position of “wicked” in the eyes of the creditors you are avoiding. Therefore, you must allocate something to each creditor.

You are now able to face your debts with your creditors. You can contact each one, starting by confessing that you were wrong in not honoring the promise to repay them. Ask for their forgiveness and let them know that you are serious about your debt and will do what you can to repay them. Make an offer that corresponds to what you can reasonably pay each month and ask for their agreement.

Our experience shows that, most of the time, creditors are willing to cooperate with a debtor who they perceive as sincere, with integrity, and genuinely willing to repay the debt. Often, they cancel the interest or even reduce the amount of the debt. Most creditors are willing to cooperate with someone who is willing to face their debts and comes with a repayment plan.

Once you have obtained the agreement of each of your creditors, be careful to do what you have promised to do. Ensure that you pay each month the amount you have mutually agreed upon. You are starting the process that will reestablish trust, so it is extremely important to faithfully honor your promise.

When you face your debts and obtain the agreement of your creditors, you are no longer in violation of the rules of this world’s system. You can then expect your financial life to move from the natural to the supernatural. You have aligned your conductor wire with God’s overhead power line. You can grow in faith and believe in God’s intervention for you.

The principles of the Kingdom can be implemented and come into action to generate a multiplication of resources that will allow you to quickly reduce your debt. When you have reached an agreement with your creditors, you have changed something in the spiritual realm and have untied God’s hands so that the supernatural can start working for you. You will be amazed to see that income, from unexpected sources, will be made available to you.

We have often seen people who, by human calculation based on their financial availability, should have taken ten to twenty years to clear their debt, but who nevertheless were entirely freed from it in two or three years, or even eighteen months. This was the result of God’s supernatural support in their lives.

When you have debts and have done nothing to remedy them or to obtain the agreement of your creditors, what happens when you spend your money as you please? Suppose you take your family on vacation. In fact, you are spending your creditors’ money without their authorization. Not only are you wicked, but you are also a thief. However, if you have faced your debts and reached an agreement with your creditors, as long as you meet your monthly repayment obligations, you are each month free to pray and learn from God how to use any surplus that God might give you.

God may guide you to use the surplus to accelerate debt repayment. However, if you have met your monthly repayment obligations, as decided, you are not a thief if you use the surplus for another purpose as the Lord leads you. Even if you still owe money to your creditors, the agreement on monthly repayment is equivalent to them giving you permission to use any unallocated surplus in your closed circle as the Lord directs you.

For example, if I take my wife to a restaurant before facing my debts, I am simply spending my creditors’ money without their authorization. Once I have faced my debts and honored my monthly repayments to all my creditors, I can then take my wife to a restaurant and do so without guilt and without being wicked. This is a very powerful principle that few people in the body of Christ seem to understand.

This text is an excerpt from the book “Wealth, Riches, Money” written by Craig Hill, Earl Pitts

We invite you to read the next article “Balance in Financial Wisdom.”