“Financial management” and “breaking out of debt” may sound scary and difficult but here are five steps you can take.
On the City Radio program Breakthrough Women, life coach Valerie Grace El Deek touches on the topic of financial breakthrough. Valerie once faced a six-figure debt. As she sought God, she broke through in the way she viewed money and pay off her debt in just over a year. She is now a “Breakthrough Catalyst” who works with women to live their best lives.
We put together some wise tips she gives on how to think about money and taking practical steps towards abundance. These steps work for both women and men.
STEP ONE: DEAL WITH YOUR HEART AND MIND
As with any problem we believers face in our lives, the first thing we should do is to run to God. Valerie advises her listeners to bring their financial situation, together with their fears and anxieties, to God.
Many people have the mindset that they need to change in order to have financial abundance. In Valerie’s case, she believed that she was not good with numbers. She would say that to people around her and delegate all her business accounting to other people.
Valerie also realized that deep down inside, she despised wealth. It was evident in how she saw people who are wealthy and the words she used to describe them. One can never get what one despises.
Take some time to look within yourself, talk to God, and find out what mindsets and beliefs you need to change.
STEP TWO: CHANGE THE WAY YOU SPEAK
If you want to work with God, you need to change the way you talk about yourself. Align yourself to God and speak like Him: God says He is able, God created the whole world and everything in it, God is limitless. Only when you align yourself with God can His power flow in you.
One of the things Valerie had to deal with emotionally was the resentment and anger that came with her bankruptcy. She brought them all up to God and started declaring that God is her advocate and that she was empowered to conquer her debts. Slowly, she moved on to blessing the people she used to resent and curse. It wasn’t easy in the beginning but as she aligned herself with God, she started to find compassion for them. Blessing others got easier eventually and her heart started to heal as well.
STEP THREE: OWN YOUR NUMBERS; APPRECIATE YOUR MONEY
Valerie shared three simple steps to walk out of debt: find out how much you owe, know how much you spend, and know how much you earn.
When a person is in debt, his natural instinct is to avoid his numbers, because looking at his bills and bank account gives him a sinking feeling. But it’s important to sit down with God to go through the numbers, right down to the cents. That is how you gain ownership of your finances.
Even if you are not in debt, it is important to know how much you spend and how much you earn. Some people are not aware of how much they spend—they let the bank statement tell them at the end of the month. That is not a victorious way to live, it is just letting life happen to you. Knowing how much you spend is to have control over your finances. Set a budget, says Valerie. Even if you exceed your budget, you will know how much you spent.
How do you see your money? What is your wallet like? Do you put the cash neatly in a proper wallet? Or roughly stuff it into your pocket? All these make a difference to how you appreciate the money you have. Valerie says that each time she repaid her debt, she did it with gratefulness. She encourages Christians to be thankful for the money that they have and to handle it with love. That is how you can appreciate the money that you have and how you grow to love the numbers.
STEP FOUR: INVEST IN YOURSELF
“Investing in yourself is the fastest way to financial breakthrough,” says Valerie. As you align with God, He will give you a vision, an image of the person He wants you to be. The journey from where you are now to where that person is, is a growth process, a period of personal development.
Valerie heard God telling her to spend money to invest in herself. That was when her mindset shifted. She only had $500 in her bank back then, but instead of looking at it as money, she saw each dollar as a seed. She knew that it take just one seed to become a tree. One tree yields 15 to 20 fruits, and in each fruit there are three to five seeds that she can sow again.
So she spent half of what she had on an online program to learn. Valerie went on to spend more on a marketing business coach whom she wanted to learn from. She knew that in the spiritual realm, the money wasn’t given away—instead, the seeds were sown in her own “land”. She diligently showed up to learn from her coach each day, in turn “watering her seeds”. In just one month, her seeds started to grow and people came knocking on her doors to pay her for consultation.
Be that person who is willing to invest in yourself with money. Buy a book to develop yourself in that area God spoke to you about. Expand on that, take a lesson, pay someone whom you want to learn from and work with him.
STEP FIVE: SOW YOUR SEEDS
After you have achieved all the steps above, you need to learn how to not keep everything for yourself. Valerie believes in keeping aside a sum of money to invest into something or someone that she feels connected to. She found that as she shared her fruits, her land kept expanding.
“Your whole life expands when you align yourself with God,” she says. God is “abundance-conscious”, and when you are “lack-conscious”, you’re not aligned with Him. Have a mindset of abundance and bless those you feel connected to.
It is not enough to hear that you are the head and not the tail; you need to do something about it. If you don’t feel rich, you can’t believe you are rich. You don’t need a million dollars in your bank to feel rich. If you have $100, and you bless someone with $10, you will still feel rich.
“Your breakthrough is in your giving,” teaches Valerie.
To listen to more wisdom from Valerie, check out these audio links:
Parts 1 and 2 of The Debt Trap
Investing In Yourself
https://www.citynews.sg/2018/12/19/breakthrough-women-episode-8/
Being Generous
https://www.citynews.sg/2018/12/19/breakthrough-women-episode-9/
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