Money is Spiritual

Jesus had been in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. The limitations of the body were evident. He was alarmingly hungry. This body he had was flawed; he needed to eat something after forty days of being in his thoughts, emotions, and the frailty of the human body.

Just as he was about to step past the fortieth day, the devil appeared. I am not sure if Jesus would have done more days, but what we know is that the devil appeared at the right time and tested if Jesus would immediately gratify his hunger pangs.

“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

‘If’ is a strong doubt creator.

If you are an exceptional accountant, if you are a gifted singer, if you are a talented speaker.

This tags at our desire to be seen, appreciated, and acknowledged as unique and special.

Doubt has always been the devil’s tool of choice. If you don’t know who you are, you will do everything to get others to tell you who you are.

Satan had always wanted to be superior to God. He intended to take power and control heaven; hence, in his mind, this was the thing Jesus needed to do to also show power.

Satan’s request was possible before Jesus. In their conversation, it seemed pedestrian. Turn the inanimate stones into life-giving, rejuvenating bread that refreshes and renews.

For Jesus, that was the ‘easy’ thing to do. But instead, he chose to depend on God. This was Jesus’ greatest test. Would he rely on himself, or turn to God for assistance?

“Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

The devil next took him to the holy city and the highest point of the temple.

Jesus was willing to be led to the next trial point, with no objection. He obeyed the devil's directive. There are many times we will find ourselves taken to different locations, and in different situations that we have no control over. Our natural reaction is to fight, claw, and resist when, in actuality, we are being led to our next test. And at the critical juncture, you will be required to make a decision. It is a lie to assume we are powerless throughout the ordeal.   

“Throw yourself down.” The devil said, then proceeded to quote the bible.

We are most vulnerable when we stand in places of power. A power either given or acquired. This is when we are most likely to make mistakes, because we are least conscious. Many powerful people were poisoned not in enemy territory, but in the comfort of their protected palaces, where they feel invincible and in control.  

Asking him to stand at the highest point was the devil’s play on our ego. He places you on a pedestal to trigger the lust for power and accolades, which causes many to become drunk.  These are things that the devil sought while in heaven. It was said that he had been the most beautiful creature in heaven.

 The devil wanted Jesus' frailty to evoke the power of heaven. To test whether heaven would come to Jesus’ side and protect him, based on a whim and a bet.  The devil mentions a stone. The second time stones come into play, the first to nourish, the second to hurt.

Throughout the bible, the stone symbolizes many things. In this instance, it depicted truth and spiritual obedience.  

The devil knows the word intimately and uses it to his advantage. In this instance, the dazzle of being served, being elevated, and testing if self-inflicted pain can trigger a positive reaction from God. The devil wanted to know if Jesus had the same thoughts.

“Do not put the Lord your God to the test,”

A profound observation that got to the root of the issue. Do we constantly put the Lord to the test? On financial matters, God asks that we put him to the test. In the test, there is a directive testing our state of heart, whether we have faith in him, and are not driven to selfish ends. The devil’s test was targeted to discover if there was a character flaw.    

The reason I share this blog post is because of the last test. The devil took Jesus to a very high mountain. Probably the seat of power over this world, and from this point, one could observe his dominion over the world.

The devil had taken power from Adam and Eve through crafty means while they were in Eden. Originally, Adam was given dominion over the Earth; this was his domain. Through subterfuge, the devil took power and has asserted himself over mankind for thousands of years. His power extends to the treasures and benefits of this world.

“All this I will give you,” He said, “If you will bow down and worship me.”

The devil’s condition for handing over this dominion was worship. The devil offered Jesus the riches of the world and everything in it if Jesus would bow down and worship him. Worship is about recognition of worth. It involves the heart, mind, and actions in expressing devotion to something greater than oneself.

Satan wanted to offer Jesus the world and all its splendor if he could first recognize his worth, and secondly, then deeply revere him in mind, heart, and actions, as being superior to Jesus. Satan wanted Jesus to consider him as a lifestyle; a way of life – how one lives, treats others, and aligns with divine and moral principles.

To the first request, Jesus said ‘Away from me, Satan!’ And to the second, he said. It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only’.

Man had desired knowledge, and the devil offered the only thing God had forbidden, to gain that knowledge. The transfer of dominion of the world occurred when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.     

In that transfer, worldly wisdom took dominance over godly wisdom. Jesus had come to take back the dominion. 

Let me highlight the gifts God gave us that Jesus used during His temptation—gifts that show how we gain dominion, and how this connects to wisdom, value, and wealth.

The first is creative imagination. When Jesus was asked to turn stone to bread, dive from a high place, and angels would appear, or when he was given a 3D image of all the niceties of the world. You and I could visualize each of these things. Through creative imagination, we have advanced in science and unveiled inventions that astound, many are beyond comprehension in how they function, yet we embrace them. If someone living in 1830 were shown a hologram, they would have said it was a ghost. 200 years ago, a plane would have been a flying monster.    

Then there is Jesus’ willpower. One that could still see hunger, and say, I will not trust my immediate instinct. I will persevere, and God will offer a way. In the same way, God brought manna to the desert. Jesus had gone to the desert, not of his own accord, but brought there by the Spirit. He had to stay vigilant and independent from his ego and desire to satisfy his body.

 Jesus had a strong moral backbone, a conscience. His relationship to God was a close and strong father-son bond. He was clear on his values and decisive in his actions.

Jesus was also self-aware; he knew the challenges of his human body and knew that the holy word could be used against him, that lies could be shared to target the state of the heart.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

He understood this one truth.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

Why, because he knew the tests in the wilderness were measuring the state of his heart.

Why was the devil asking for worship in exchange for wealth, riches, and splendor?

Is our work a form of worship?

Is the quest for man to multiply, to work, and create value?

Money in all its versions is a store of value, without the inconvenient barter trade. Money allows for an easy measure of different things, knowing what is less or of more value.

Money is a store of value.

And that value is resoundingly not in the natural resources, but in the conversion of those natural resources to things of greater value. For example, having a 10-acre land is latent, using it to plant crops to feed and sell, or build a hotel, or a resort, or turning it into a theme park, or a data center. All these are based on something laden with our gift of creative imagination.

Globally, intangible assets are outpacing tangible assets in terms of value and investment growth. In 2023, global intangible assets reached USD 61.9 trillion, a 10-fold increase from USD 6 trillion in 1996. This value is significantly higher than the USD 4.7 trillion in tangible assets. While tangible assets remain important, intangible assets are increasingly driving value in the global economy. 

We create great value through our creative imagination.

Let's make a distinction between wealth, value, and wisdom.

Wealth is the abundance of things we can measure, like land, money, and assets.  

Value is how important or meaningful something is to us and is not always tangible or measurable. Fresh water is more valuable in a desert than in a riverbank village. The rarity of some artefacts makes them more valuable.

Wealth shows up as possessions, value lives in our perceptions.

Value can be based on usefulness, rarity, culture, or personal belief. And while wealth can help us get what we value, it’s value that ultimately drives the creation of wealth.

You can gain wealth in many ways—work, inheritance, luck—but wisdom determines how you use it. Without wisdom, wealth is easily wasted. Wisdom ensures that wealth aligns with your values and serves a deeper purpose. Wealth is what you have. Wisdom is how you handle it.

Real prosperity is more than just having money. It’s financial stability, wise choices, and a life rooted in clear values. Wisdom existed before the world began. It can be worldly (focused on strategy and logic) or godly (rooted in truth and spiritual alignment). Either way, wisdom is the anchor that gives meaning to both value and wealth.

The European powers understood that Africa had valuable resources. The Africans were numerous, orderly, and prosperous. How do you conquer them? You do this by capturing their heritage and history, their sense of self-identity, and changing their perception of value. Steal the keys to the Africans’ store of value, and then replace it with a European creation. Away from gold and natural resources. For this to happen well and leave the African blind and in a state of illusion, it had to be a spiritual capture, subterfuge, and lies had to shroud what was happening.    

How?

Look carefully at the trinkets that were given to rulers by white people as they first visited Africa. These trinkets, mirrors, knives, beads, and metalware were used by rulers to show status, superiority, and create classism. These trinkets were exchanged for huge concessions across African land, and rulers blindly signed away the birthright of their subjects. The European had to alter the perception of value in the subjects, and used the spiritual frame to alter this. The missionaries demonized everything that existed before, which systematically dulled the spiritual awareness of most Africans. Replacing godly wisdom with worldly wisdom (strategy and flawed logic). Subterfuge, hate, and subjugation were key, labelled as capitalism.  

They ransacked, plundered, massacred, for wealth and replaced generations of value with convoluted teachings of self (the African was a second-class citizen), of consciousness (the African morality was second only to the teaching given by the white man), of independent will (the African was a slave, or dependent on the white man. Any prior achievements or artifacts or prior African civilizations were destroyed or taken to western museums) of creative imagination (systematic racism, placed the African as of less intellect, unable to innovate or create. This was reinforced and indoctrinated in the education system, pushed to the African). All connections to ancient teachings were destroyed, totems, writings were demeaned, and only recent Western advancements in technology were elevated. The European changed the education system, systematically selling groupthink over individual self-awareness.

They dulled the African sense of morality by ensuring that spiritual matters were first made intellectual and emotional, and beyond the cognition of one who had not been ‘educated’.  

As in Europe, the only connection to God became a person who was imported from a controlled elite, and who spoke a foreign language. They became the conduit for what was heavenly, what was good, and evil. A dulling of how to access the truth, and engage directly with God, and seek the holy spirit.

Do you know the oldest bible in the world comes from Africa? The canon of the Ethiopian Bible was formalized by church councils within Ethiopia. One free from the influence of Rome, Constantinople, and the desire for political and religious separation of England.

We are spiritual beings. Yet that dulling and separation from the spiritual, and then replacing that connection with something else sinister and diabolical, has been systematic and intentional over centuries.  

For generations, fear, awe, technology, and war have been used to break individual will and shape a collective that blindly chases illusions of value—trinkets—while forgetting their true worth.

Over the past 500 years, massive wealth has been extracted from Africa to enrich Europe. This transfer built the foundations of modern European nations through technology, while locking much of the Third World into a system of colonial control disguised as leadership.

Even our ability to imagine differently has been hijacked—our creativity stifled, our minds trapped in scarcity, and our communities confined to both mental and physical ghettos.

But I remind you, dear friend: money is spiritual, wealth is spiritual. To truly see the abundance around you, you must first reconnect with yourself as a spirit being.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this blog! I'm Edwin Moindi, a Life and Habit Coach dedicated to helping people understand their habits, navigate their emotions, and cultivate emotional intelligence for a happier, more balanced life. I'd love to hear your thoughts—feel free to reach out and share your insights or questions!