Over the past few weeks, I’ve been hearing the word ‘surplus’ deep in my spirit. At a point it became so insistent, loud, and persistent that I sensed the Lord was saying something to me. Then, sometime last week, the Holy Spirit made it clear to me that He wants to move God’s children from debt to surplus. He instantly gave me a simple key: Spend less than you earn.

Surplus is the will of God; and it is good. To have more money than your immediate and most urgent needs require is an empowering state to be in. I bet you could do with more surplus in your finances. The simple and often ignored path is to spend less than you earn.

Chronic lack is a terrible state to be in. But I guess I don’t even need to tell you that. You know better! I think the devil will rather have you holy than wealthy. He’s more interested in your finances than in any other aspect of your life.

To move from debt to surplus, in short, to avoid lack entirely, you just need to ensure that you spend less than you earn. This simple key is the one solid and tested path to solid and sustainable wealth.

When it comes to creating and sustaining solid wealth, making more money is not the fundamental issue. This is hard to accept when you are wallowing in lack. Nevertheless, wealth is less about more money than it is about wisdom and discipline in the use of money.

In varying measures, money is flowing to everyone on this planet. The poor will inadvertently claim that this is not the case with them. Yet, some people usually considered poor have more regular cashflow than lots of wealthy people. They are not just aware of it, which is why they are poor; because cashflow awareness is essential to prudent and profitable use of cash.

If you want to move from debt to surplus, it’s important to learn to handle your money more effectively. This starts with spending less than you earn. This fact is very simple, but it is ignored by almost everybody! And it is this ignorance that gets many people into debt over their heads.

The example of Joseph

Joseph is a wonderful scripture model of what it means to spend less than you earn. Reflect over what he said to Pharaoh in the following verse.

³⁴Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.
~Genesis 41:34

A fifth means 20%: Joseph advised pharaoh and his men not to spend more than 80% of their income. The wisdom of Joseph’s advise is even more relevant today. Cultivate the habit of keeping your expenses below a maximum limit of 80% of your earnings; the lower the better.

³⁵They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food.
~Genesis 41:35

Are you storing up anything? Most nations, families, individuals, and corporate bodies today are storing up debt. They are piling it up daily for their children and children’s children.

Stop eating everything. Stop spending more than you earn. When you spend more than you earn, you are destroying your future; you’ll end up a slave to lenders.

How much money you make is not as important as how much of it you keep. As cash flows in, be watchful not to spend it as fast as or faster than you make it. Cut back your spending by 20 to 25%. Take a careful look at your life, and you’ll find this is possible. Reduce your expenditure to the barest minimum and save up your money.

Spend less than you earn.

This is a very simple rule. It is, of course, extremely difficult to apply; but it is a pretty straightforward rule. For most of us, this may demand harsh and radical measures. Nevertheless, put a knife to your throat and prune your tastes to the essential minimum. Bring discipline into your life.

If you begin to spend less than you earn, and much less than you earn, you will instantly create surplus. At first, this might not be noticeable, but it will gradually begin to neutralize your debts, shrinking them into nothingness. Somewhere along the way, you will observe the emergence of surplus in your life. What you do with the eventual surplus is another matter; but, you will experience tremendous power boost from the surplus you have now begun to accumulate.

Why do most people spend more than they earn?

There may be a thousand reasons for this; or maybe just one or two that are common to all. Either way, it will be helpful to share your thoughts on why most people spend more than they earn.