{"id":2562,"date":"2025-09-10T23:32:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/twincities\/?page_id=2562"},"modified":"2026-05-04T17:12:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T17:12:05","slug":"god-owns-it-all","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/twincities\/god-owns-it-all\/","title":{"rendered":"God Owns It All\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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God Owns It All<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jay Bennett<\/a>, Founder and Chairman NCF Twin Cities <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May, 2026 | True Riches<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…and man and woman. He created man and woman in His own image; a clear indicator of His intent. That intent was and is that He would have a direct relationship with them. Knowing they would have needs, He surrounded them in creation with every possible \u201cthing\u201d they might need. This was God\u2019s creation. He owned all of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then blessed the man and woman and told them to be fruitful, to multiply and to subdue the earth and all its vast resources in service to God and man<\/em>. That takes me to page 3 of my Bible…and the entire rest of the book is much about redemption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because sin entered the world. Evil induced man to make what A.W. Tozer called a \u201cmonstrous substitution.\u201d Man substituted \u201cthings\u201d for God. \u201cA tough fallen root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess,\u201d came to control the human heart. (Above paragraphs and quote partially excerpted from \u201cThe Pursuit of God,\u201d Tozer, Chapter 2). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, man proceeded to subdue the earth and its vast resources in service to his own <\/em>desires\u2026often with some appeasing measure to God and man. Of course, few among us would admit that this allocation applies to us since we view ourselves as generous people. But most of us define generosity on our own terms and in a place where it fits our budget.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is particularly true among \u201cthe rich\u201d who, like the Rich Young Ruler, may give away a lot of money but not so much as to cause concern about how much\u00a0remains\u00a0in their investment portfolios. 1% of Americans own 40% of America\u2019s wealth, and the next\u00a04% own the next 20%. This means\u00a01% own as much as the remaining 95%. Hence, Jesus speaks most directly to those who\u00a0have the ability to\u00a0create wealth.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like millions of other\u00a0\u201cgood people\u201d\u00a0of faith, I often\u00a0stated\u00a0that \u201cGod owns it all\u201d but that was belied\u00a0by\u00a0my own\u00a0behavior. Sure, I gave generously to the work of the Kingdom, but I served\u00a0two\u00a0<\/strong>masters\u00a0until I was 50.\u00a0I\u00a0sought\u00a0to balance what Jesus said\u00a0cannot\u00a0be balanced; God and that \u201cmonstrous substitution\u201d Tozer wrote about.\u00a0I thought I could\u00a0tithe\u00a0and then go shopping.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Jesus saw my heart. In a very challenging season of my own life, He came alongside me in love to say that I was attempting to put \u201ctwin beds\u201d in the spiritual master suite of my life; one for God and one for earthly riches. He made it clear to me that, in light of the idol which I often ranked before Him, He would continue to love me at a distance and not reveal the True Riches of intimate relationship with Him until He alone was given a King-Sized bed in that spiritual master suite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in the months and years that followed that I discovered the freedom of serving One Master. Jesus took my hand and walked me through The Eye of the Needle into a realm of freedom, joy, exhilaration, purpose, and experiential life I had never known. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was spiritually confronted with the reality that I viewed God as my partner, but I was the managing partner. I was led to\u00a0surrender\u00a0that\u00a0spiritual\u00a0bondage.\u00a0Jesus guided me in breaking\u00a0away from conformity to the\u00a0\u201ctwo-master\u201d norm of this\u00a0world into\u00a0a One Master\u00a0spiritual transformation by renewal of my mind…and embarking on a specific, intentional generosity journey where the question became not, “How much\u00a0do I give?”, but, “How much do I keep?”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ability to create wealth is a gift from God (Deuteronomy 8:18).\u00a0Wealth\u00a0creation is meant to be a glorious thing when used for Kingdom purposes.\u00a0The question\u00a0isn\u2019t,\u00a0how much is accumulated? The\u00a0question\u00a0is,\u00a0where\u00a0does it go?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a MASSIVE difference in life between living as an earth-bound owner even while giving generously versus coming to know in one\u2019s heart and using the pocketbook to demonstrate that God owns it all. The latter reveals the realm of what Jesus calls The True Riches…which is a realm of increasing revelation from intimacy with Him. Those True Riches surpass anything else planet earth can offer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God Owns It All Jay Bennett, Founder and Chairman NCF Twin Cities  May, 2026 | True Riches In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…and man and woman. He created man and woman in His own image; a clear indicator of His intent. That intent was and is that He would have a direct relationship with them. Knowing they would have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/template-landing-page-story.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2562","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2562"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3023,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2562\/revisions\/3023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/twincities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}