Currency of Heaven

It’s official.

My new book has been sent to the publisher and should release sometime in December of this year.

I wanted to give you a teaser from the material and invite you to a sort of launch party, if you’re interested. We will be in New York City for one of our Deep End LIVE events. Everyone there will get a copy of the book!

If you’re interested, visit taylorawelch.com/nyc on a desktop (this venue has a lot of security so people are reporting not being able to purchase tickets from their mobile devices). We might be sold our on VIP tickets but there are ~100 or so general admission tickets left.

I’d love to see you!

If you can’t make it, but would like to be kept in the loop on release dates, where to buy, etcetera, make sure you get on my email list and I will keep you posted.

Introduction

The human race was born into absolute prosperity. In the beginning, God places Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden, and provided for every need. There was perfect balance. What we had was equal to everything we could ever want.

When sin entered the world, that provision was broken and for the first time, humanity experienced “lack.” Now we suffer the frustration of wanting more than we could have. The human brain has undergone many thousands of years of changes to defend itself from this unnatural experience called scarcity.

Research in evolutionary psychology suggests our brains have an ancestral expectation of sufficiency. They remember on some level that we were designed for abundance. As resources became harder to access, humans developed systems to manage  this inherited scarcity.

Humanity turned to production as a way to get back to abundance. More labor, more innovation, more industry, all in a vain attempt to get back to something we already had. While our production capacity has increased exponentially, our ability to enjoy what we accumulate has remained static. The hedonic treadmill of greed, anxiety and the endless pursuit of more has become a defining part of modern life. If you’ve ever felt like there is never enough, no matter what you do, this is why.

After helping more than 5,000 clients navigate the maze of wealth creation, I began to ask myself, “What is the point?” I helped people get rich, but wealth alone does not prevent suffering. In fact, it sometimes seemed to invite it. People burn out, they get divorced, they lose loved ones or lawsuits happen. As the saying goes, “More money, more problems.”

Prosperity without a clear sense of purpose and identity can become its own form of imprisonment. If you reach the top without being ready for the top, you will give it all back. I have seen people achieve financial success, only to feel more lost, overwhelmed or disconnected than before. I was helping people create financial windfalls, but something always seemed to be missing. I grew bitter. A few years ago, I decided I would either figure out why this kept happening, or I would stop helping people create financial progress altogether. I began by looking objectively at my past. We are all a byproduct of our programming, but by who and for what?

My professional life started in American megachurches. I spent years on staff or traveling with the teams of some of the largest congregations in the country. I noticed many Christians had distorted views of money and prosperity.

Most people’s failures in this area are due to faulty programming. It’s not that we want to lack, it’s that we weren’t taught how to get wealth the right way. We read the Bible and do not understand what it means. If we do not understand Scripture, we cannot properly obey it.

Approximately 15 percent of Jesus’ recorded words focused on wealth, and his teachings consistently warn about placing money too high in the hierarchy of your life. He never takes a stance against abundance, but instead condemns resourcefulness divorced from wisdom.

Lost in Translation

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus states, “No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money” (Matt. 6:24).

The Greek word translated as “slave” in this passage is douleuō (δουλεύω). Unlike the English word “slave,” which implies ownership or forced labor, douleuō refers to an internal and often voluntary form of bondage. Jesus was not against having resources, but being enslaved to the pursuit of it.

Rejecting all wealth because of the potential danger is like abandoning automobiles because car accidents happen. The danger lies not in the tool, but in how we relate to it.

In 1 Timothy 6:10, Paul warns, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” The Greek word used here, philargyria (φιλαργυρία) refers to an obsessive or greedy attachment to money, rather than simple possession. The message, in layman’s terms, is not to be obsessed with what you possess.

Modern psychological research affirms the validity of this wisdom. It is not the possession of wealth that damages us, but the compulsive pursuit of more. Studies have shown that materialism and the relentless quest for wealth are associated with lower life satisfaction and increased psychological distress.

The idea of wealth as both a blessing and a curse fit the definition of a paradox. A paradox is something that seems like a contradiction, but turns out to be true when you look more closely, and the Bible is absolutely full of them. If we don’t take the time to understand both sides, we risk missing the wisdom that lies in the middle. Life exists in the grey spaces between extremes, and so does wisdom about wealth.

The Battle Over Wealth

When an encamped army is guaranteed to lose, it often stops trying to achieve victory, and refocuses on taking as many people down with them as they can. The goal is no longer to win the war, but to make the enemy’s victory costly. Historians call this the Fabian strategy, named after the Roman General Fabian Maximus, who avoided direct confrontation with Hannibal, and instead wore him down through delay and attrition.

For thousands of years, we’ve witnessed this strategy play out in the realm of the Spirit. The rules of engagement that power the cosmos prevents Satan from killing you directly. However, he can slow you down, confuse you, and reduce your capabilities until you are no longer able to accomplish your mission on Earth.

Most of what drives a person’s life occurs in the spirit before we see it in the natural. In fact, anything you see in the physical is likely a manifestation of something operating on a spiritual level. Currency on Earth works similarly to currency in Heaven. You can save it, store it, multiply it, or squander it. Before we cover the concepts of wealth, greed and poverty, we must understand why and how God orders these things.

This is not a book on financial management in the traditional sense. My goal is not to teach you how to earn, save, or invest better, but to show you why trusting His process is more important than chasing our own outcomes.

Your adversary has weaponized prosperity and poverty to take you away from your purpose, whether it is through distraction, anxiety, love of money, or an unhealthy fixation on poverty as a symbol of goodness. The enemy has installed a terrible dichotomy into our thinking, but he lied. There is an interested God on the other side who wants to help you, protect you, and promote you.

It is not sufficient to understand only the spiritual principles. You must partner with what God wants to do through you, by developing wisdom, discipline, and skill. This book will begin by helping you understand how spiritual systems work, then move into the practical mechanics of monetary multiplication.