10 Hindrances to Financial Freedom

God wants you to prosper (3 John 2; Jeremiah 29:11; Psalm 35:27). The devil wants you to die poor (John 10:10). Life is a battlefield (Ephesians 6:16). The battle is between good and evil, prosperity and hunger. The devil’s mission is to upturn God’s great design for your destiny through the instrument of ignorance and evil thoughts (Genesis 6:5).

Hindrance means an obstacle, impediment, or barrier that can stop you from achieving something.

The good news is that what can’t stop God from prospering isn’t permitted to stop you. All you need to do is to position yourself very well.

1. Ignorance and wrong mindset “Ignorance” in French means darkness while “knowledge” in Latin means light. God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6; Isaiah 5:13).

The sad thing is that most believers still don’t believe that financial freedom is their heritage in Christ. To them, poverty is a symbol of consecration. They’ve been exposed to the wrong messages. These set of people need to come under a new orientation where their brains could be washed that prosperity is for them.

You can be a faithful servant (dedicated and committed) and still be poor. The inheritance you don’t know that your father owns, you can’t claim it. The elder brother of the prodigal son was an epitome of faithfulness, he contributed immensely to the success of his father’s business but did not enjoy the benefits due to ignorance. When he complained to his father that he had been treated badly unlike his brother who collected his inheritance and spent it on riotous living. His father replied that everything he owns is his. Everything that God owns is yours if you believe that God is your father.

Frankly, God is your real father, your earthly father can be limiting, you need to have a son-tie relationship with God. He duplicated Himself to you, you were created in His likeness, after His kind, which means whatever cannot be found in God (like poverty) is not permitted to be found in you. If you call this brainwashing, that’s exactly what it’s. You need to renew your mind from all the negative orientations.

Let there be a casting down of idiosyncrasies and traditional orientations and sync with God and His way of thinking. God thinks He thinks positively and He also answers thoughts like prayer (Jer 29:11; Eph 3:20).

2. Non-tithing Disease. There is a disease called the “non-tithing disease” which is behind the financial ordeals that people face in life: it closes doors and makes things tight for those who eat their tithe.

What is a tithe?

Tithe is the tenth percentage of your gross income or profits.

If you earn 100 naira, your tithe is 10 naira.

There are many arguments about tithe. Do not be deceived, tithing is scriptural (found in both the old and new testaments). Abraham was a corporate tither, he paid the tithe of all the spoils of war to Melchizedek. You too can learn from that. The blessings of Abraham still speak today.

If you don’t want to hinder your finances and you don’t earn your income in a bag of holes (Haggai 1:6) where all your income will be wasted on sickness and losses, subscribe to the idea of tithing. It covers you and your family from the horrors of darkness and unleashes supernatural ideas that will lead to financial freedom.

Get this straight: God is not in need. He uses your seed to meet your need. Your seed is a spiritual transaction between you and God; it’s like opening a bank account where you can withdraw whatever you desire according to the capacity of God (Philippians 4:16-18).

3. Giving grudgingly. This scares and baffles me more. You’re not cursed because you do not give but because you do not give cheerfully.

In Deuteronomy 28:47, “Because thou served at not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things. Therefore, shall thou serve thine enemies, which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he has destroyed there.”

You don’t have to be coerced to give out your substance to the kingdom when you understand the mystery.

4. Murmuring and Complain. Murmuring messes up your situation while complaining complicates your matters. God hates Murmurers. All the people that murmured in the wilderness were destroyed by the destroyers (1 Cor 10 10; Phil 2:14).

In addition, complain kill financial seeds while thanksgiving and praise preserve and sustain harvest.

5. Irresponsibility. “Financial freedom is not a promise but a covenant, it does not answer to prayer and fasting until your part is played, God will not play His part.” That is the statement that God made to the 2011 richest pastor in the world, he dived and still dives into it and the prosperity still speaks today.

Financial stewardship is a platform of stewardship where you can serve God with your money (Job 36:11).

If you don’t want hindrances In your finances, fulfill your financial covenant obligation. The financial covenant obligations are spelled out in Malachi 3:10. Plug yourself into it and watch God fulfilling His part.

6. Careless Thoughts. Your mind is the gateway to your life. You can be taking prosperity steps but thinking poverty thoughts. Your acts are not effective if your thoughts do not align. It’s not what you have that makes you rich but what you think. What you have begins with what you think (Joshua 1:8). You’re what you think (Prov 23:7). Prosperity thoughts equal financial freedom while defeatist thoughts equal failure.

The 10 spies (except Caleb and Joshua) saw themselves as a grasshopper and they were unable to get to the promised land. You can’t think of failure today and wake up tomorrow to see success. Your thoughts can stop God from stepping into your affairs. Your thinking faculty can either make or break you. What you think is who you become. Think well and live well.

7. Careless Words. “You can use your tongue to correct what is wrong.” – Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa. You are taking prosperity steps but speaking poverty words. Your words are seeds that produce a future harvest. A wise man once said anything you don’t want to see manifest in your life, don’t say it. Don’t say, it is an error before the angels. Angels are your servants that bring to pass all the instructions you give to them by your words. You cannot control the prevailing economic circumstances in your country but you can control your thoughts and words.

“Just any dummy can succeed if he cares to know what it takes.” ― Zig Ziglar.

8. Slothfulness. I have learned two things in life: Pray like your life depends on it and work like your life depends on it. God and Jesus are workers and that is why you and I are still breathing at this moment (John 5:17; John 9:4). If you’re not a worker, you’ll be a beggar. Find something to do and do it with your might (see Ecc 9:10).

Nothing works when there is no one working on it (see Ecc 10:18). In addition, you need a personal sacrifice to service your dead vision. The secret of success in anything in life is time. Maximize your time into productive activities and some extra time than others. Sometimes, you’ll have to let go of your food or sleep. It’s the extra efforts that make something to be extraordinary.

9. Mediocrity. Nothing sells like excellence. You cannot afford to settle for an average. Always strive for improvements and develop yourself. Keep abreast with the emerging trends in your field. Learn and re-learn. Training up is your way up. If you have obsolete knowledge and remain complacent with your old ways, you’ll soon be out of business or career.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” ― Henry Ford

10. Wrong Expectations. Setting or having the wrong expectation for God’s financial freedom can hinder you from seeing it come to pass. This will rob you of the patience and endurance to wait for God’s prosperity to manifest. You cannot climb a tree from the top. Life is in phases. There is nothing like overnight success except if you want to follow a shortcut that ends in destruction.

Most people who pay tithe usually expect monetary returns but God does not always work like that. In most cases, your return will be in form of ideas that will lead to breakthroughs and fortune.

When God says, “I will open the windows of heaven…” In Malachi 3:10, He is talking about the Holy Spirit. Rain falls from heaven and the Holy Spirit is represented by rain, also, the Holy Spirit is the custodian of supernatural ideas.

God is not slow. Don’t move ahead of His time. Moving ahead of God’s time is always like a curse. God makes everything beautiful in His time, not in your time. The fig tree moved ahead of its time and it was cursed (Luke 13:6-9).

If you’re a young graduate who came out with a first-class, they cannot make you the MD of a First bank. There is a process in life that you must pass through to get to where you want to be.

Final Thoughts

Hindrance to financial freedom are blockages, barriers that could stop you from walking in your financial dominion. As discussed, the obstacles are:

Ignorance. You need to know and believe what is obtainable in Christ to enjoy financial freedom.

Non-tithing disease. The non-tithing disease is the one behind the tightness and losses in the lives of those who eat their tithes.

Undelightsome giving. Give with joy so that your giving is acceptable and to avert curses.

Murmuring and Complains. Murmuring and complaining will kill your seed before they see the light of day.

Irresponsibility. The irresponsible believer who is not playing their part in the covenant (Gen 8:28) is putting barriers on their way to financial freedom.

Careless thoughts. If you cannot picture yourself in the world of financial freedom, you cannot feature in it. Think and imagine prosperity and see it.

Careless words. Sow the word seed of prosperity and align your prosperity acts with your spoken words.

Slothfulness. If you’re not a hard-working individual, who has a strong work ethic, don’t expect success or prosperity in any form.

Mediocrity. The Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) is the Spirit of excellence. Let there be a touch of excellence in your work that will make you stand out.

Wrong Expectations. Setting the wrong expectation for your giving and other spiritual input will cause you to give up before your breakthrough arrives. You need to exercise patience and keep doing what attracts financial freedom.