Kingdom Economy #5: Two Kingdoms and Your Heavenly Bank Account

The kingdom economy runs on grace, giving and receiving, while the world’s economy runs on toil and the sweat of the brow. In this message, the pastor teaches that believers have been translated into the kingdom of heaven but still live on the earth, so they must learn to function in both systems. He shows from Philippians 4 that giving to the work of the Lord opens a heavenly bank account that God Himself guarantees. This message continues from Kingdom Economy #4: You and Change — From Sweat Equity to the Economy of Heaven.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps you can take this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This is the fifth message in the Kingdom Economy series at NTC Ministries, posted on March 28, 2022. It runs about 64 minutes and was also carried on the church’s local radio station. The pastor picks up where the series left off: after Adam’s fall there are two kingdoms, and God intends His people to live in harmony with both rather than only trying to make the world’s system work.

The heart of the sermon is Philippians 4, where Paul thanks the Philippian church for opening what the Amplified Bible calls a debit and credit account in giving and receiving. From that passage the pastor builds his teaching on deposits, interest and withdrawals in heaven.

Two Kingdoms, Two Economies

The pastor begins with the two kingdoms: the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. It is called the kingdom of heaven because Jesus rules from heaven, yet His people rule here too, which is why He is King of kings and Lord of lords. Everyone is born into this world in darkness, but God planned before creation to place each of us in a specific time and place.

Colossians 1:13 says God has translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Most Christians, he says, do not understand that, so they spend their lives trying to make the world work and never learn how the kingdom of heaven functions.

In Genesis 3:17–19, after Adam sinned, God told him the ground would bring forth thorns and thistles and he would eat bread in the sweat of his face. That, the pastor teaches, is where most people still live. The earth only produces when we strain to make it produce. He calls it the earth curse system: the toil-and-earn, buy-and-sell economy.

He adds that this sweat is not only physical. People sweat mentally and emotionally too, as in the saying “don’t sweat the small stuff.” Business owners, he notes, often carry far more than anyone sees: production, skilled staff, payroll, customers, shipping and service. Resenting those you do not see working only divides people.

He also teaches that the word Paul used for the dispensation entrusted to him is the Greek word from which we get economy, and that it means to flow down. He pictures a dam built across the Mississippi. It hurts the people downstream who lose the water, and it hurts the people upstream whose land floods. Holding everything to yourself is how the world’s corrupted economy works, and Jesus calls that spirit mammon: you cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).

A Kingdom Economy of Grace

The kingdom of heaven is different. It is a system of grace, and grace means unearned. God gives two things, the pastor explains. Mercy means we do not get the punishment we deserve, because Jesus paid for it. Grace goes further: once we receive His mercy, He pours out unearned favor, Christ’s best at His expense, not ours.

Jesus described how this economy works in Luke 6:38: “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom.” The bosom, he notes, is where you held your finances. With the same measure you use, it is measured back to you, much like a bank where what you take out reflects what you put in.

Still, believers are not to ignore the world’s economy. Jesus said to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s (Matthew 22:21). “We have to learn both economies,” the pastor says, the kingdom’s economy and the world’s economy. We help build the natural economy because God uses it to bring His blessings to us.

That is a key insight of the kingdom economy. When God provides for you, it does not drop out of heaven in a brown paper bag at your door in the morning. It comes through this world: a job, a promotion, a sale, a gift from a person. Knowing that helps believers work faithfully in the natural while trusting the supernatural.

The whole kingdom of heaven is about gifts. When God created Adam, He gave him dominion, a kingdom term meaning control, over the works of His hands. Adam gave it away to Satan. God was not caught off guard; He already knew how He would give it back. He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16).

God Needs Your Permission

God is a God of laws, the pastor teaches, and He will not break His own law. Even Jesus could not come into the world until God had a legal right to enter it. So God found Abram and promised him descendants like the stars. Years passed with no child, and God changed his name to Abraham, father of a multitude, so that every time he heard his name he heard the promise.

Abraham believed God when there was no hope (Romans 4:18–21), and Isaac, whose name means laughter, was born. By believing, Abraham gave God permission to move in the world. Mary did the same. When the angel told her she was highly favored and would bear the Son of the Most High, she answered, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:26–38).

The same principle applies to every person. God will not come into your life without permission. You invite Him in, and He gives you a new heart, a new spirit and eternal life, and translates you from darkness into light. Even faith is His gift: by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves (Ephesians 2:8–9). Ask and He gives the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13), and the Spirit gives gifts.

The pastor recalls asking, as a young student, why the Bible says Holy Spirit in some places and Holy Ghost in others. The answer he received was that the translators wanted variety. He teaches instead that the word is better understood as guest. The Holy Spirit is a holy guest who must be invited, and you are the one who gives Him permission.

He contrasts this with worldly power, which takes rather than asks. Having spoken in many nations and around government leaders, he concludes that God is the only one who simply wants your permission. Do not wait until your back is against the wall, he urges. The best is to work with God, being strong and of good courage, and to understand how His system works.

Courage in a Season of Shaking

Every one of us resists change, the pastor says. We love it when things stay the same, even when they are bad, because we have learned to live with them. That is why courage is needed. When Moses died, God told Joshua to lead Israel across the flooded Jordan, and in Joshua 1:2–9 He told him three times to be strong and of good courage.

The purpose of that courage was obedience: to observe all that God commanded, and then, God said, “you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” God is not waiting to sprinkle fairy dust on our lives. We are co-laborers with Him. His plans for us, the pastor says, are more than the sand, and He wants us to go for it: to give, bless, build and help our families and communities grow.

Change is coming faster now than at any time since the Industrial Revolution, he observes, and the economies of this world are going to be shaken. He reads Hebrews 12:25–29 in the Amplified Bible: God will shake not only the earth but the heavens, so that only what cannot be shaken remains. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

The conclusion follows naturally. Do not give the majority of your focus to what can be shaken in this earth curse system. Give your attention to the kingdom that cannot be shaken. Invest there. And just as every earthly economy has places to store wealth, the kingdom of heaven does too.

He tells a family story to show what fear does. An uncle lived for years without running water, electricity or an indoor toilet, always telling his wife they did not have enough money. After he died, her grandson led her to a loose rock in the basement wall, where a mason jar held tens of thousands of dollars. She was so upset that she gave it all away. That, the pastor says, is the mentality of a lack of trust, and untrained Christians can be just as afraid of the heavenly kingdom.

Your Heavenly Bank Account

The sermon’s main text is Philippians 4:14–19. Paul was in prison, and the Philippians had sent their pastor, Epaphroditus, with gifts. He became sick almost to death, and the pastor explains that the church was reluctant to take him back. Paul wrote to commend their giving and urge them to receive him.

Paul says that when he left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with him in giving and receiving except them. The pastor compares this to a joint account. If he deposits a thousand dollars in the account he shares with his wife, she can withdraw it. By giving to Paul, the Philippians opened an account with him, so they could draw on what God supplied through his labor.

Paul then says he is not seeking the gift but the fruit that abounds to their account (Philippians 4:17). The pastor reads the verse in several translations to show what Paul meant:

So there is a divine bank account. Whenever you give to the work of the Lord, wherever and to whomever, you give to God, and God, not the person, repays. The Lord said, “I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit” (Isaiah 48:17), and Jesus promised a hundredfold now in this time and eternal life in the age to come (Mark 10:29–30).

The return is guaranteed. “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). He compares it to a federally insured bank deposit, except that God guarantees not just the principal but a return of up to a hundredfold. As an example of a deposit, he describes the church helping build a church building in Pakistan for about $6,500.

Treasure in Heaven and Wise Giving

God wants His people to have storehouses, plural. “The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand” (Deuteronomy 28:8). It is His will that we prosper and be in health as our soul prospers (3 John 2). The pastor stresses that money is neutral: in a corrupt hand it serves corruption, in a righteous hand it serves goodness. The Bible says the love of money is a root of evil (1 Timothy 6:10), not money itself.

Jesus spoke about money often. In Matthew 6:19–21 He said to lay up treasures in heaven, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The pastor points out the order: your heart follows your treasure. The Greek word for lay up is the root of our word thesaurus, a collection of every word; it means to heap up deposits. You do that by giving to the work of the Lord.

No one walks into a credit union where they have never deposited and asks for money. The same is true with God. Hebrews 6:10–12 says God will not forget your work and love, and urges diligence so that through faith and patience we inherit the promises.

The pastor also teaches diversified giving. Wealthy people do not put all their eggs in one basket, and Ecclesiastes 11:1–2 says to cast your bread on the waters and give a serving to seven, and also to eight. Giving to the poor is one form, but not the only one. When a woman poured costly perfume on Jesus, He defended her: she gave up to a greater, not down to a lesser.

Giving to the poor matters; he notes the church gives away hundreds of thousands of pounds of food every year. Proverbs 19:17 says helping the poor is lending to the Lord, and He repays. Finally, 2 Corinthians 9:6–8 says whoever sows sparingly reaps sparingly, and God loves a cheerful giver. Rocks in a field take water and produce nothing; seed takes the same water and produces what is in it.

Living the Kingdom Economy This Week

The pastor closes by reminding listeners that you cannot partake of an economy you do not belong to. To share in the economy of heaven, you must be born again, and he leads a prayer inviting Jesus to be Lord and Savior. Here are practical steps from this kingdom economy message:

• Give God permission. Invite Him into your work, finances and plans instead of waiting until you are under stress.
• Work faithfully in both economies. Do your job well and honor earthly obligations, expecting God to bless you through them.
• Make deposits in heaven. Give to the work of the Lord, knowing God, not the person, is the one who repays.
• Diversify your giving. Give to your local church, to missions and to the poor, following Ecclesiastes 11.
• Give cheerfully. Treat giving as sowing seed with a guaranteed return, not as money lost.
• Take courage. When change and shaking come, put your focus on the kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Two kingdoms after the fall
• 1:03 Translated into the kingdom: Colossians 1:13
• 2:04 Genesis 3 and the sweat of the brow
• 6:16 Mercy, grace and Luke 6:38
• 7:25 Economy means to flow down
• 10:47 Mammon, and render to Caesar
• 11:58 Provision comes through this world
• 12:58 Abraham gives God permission
• 14:02 Mary: let it be to me
• 17:23 Joshua: be strong and of good courage
• 19:33 The Holy Ghost as a holy guest
• 22:53 Change and Hebrews 12:25–29
• 26:21 The mason jar in the basement
• 28:08 Philippians 4:14–19
• 35:53 A joint account with Paul
• 37:53 Philippians 4:17 in several translations
• 41:55 Philippians 4:19: a guaranteed return
• 42:58 Storehouses: Deuteronomy 28:8
• 47:02 Money is neutral
• 48:16 Treasures in heaven: Matthew 6:19–21
• 52:52 Hebrews 6:10–12
• 54:56 Diversify: Ecclesiastes 11:1–2
• 57:05 Lending to the Lord: Proverbs 19:17
• 1:01:21 Born again into heaven’s economy

Kingdom Economy Series

This message is part of a ten-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: Kingdom Economy #1: The Two Economies — Learning How Heaven Works
• Previous: Kingdom Economy #4: You and Change — From Sweat Equity to the Economy of Heaven
• You are here: Kingdom Economy #5: Two Kingdoms and Your Heavenly Bank Account
• Next: Kingdom Economy #6: The Give-and-Receive System of God’s Kingdom

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make a withdrawal from a heavenly account?

The pastor teaches that you put a demand on it in faith. Having given, you can say to the Lord that you have given, so it is given to you, and thank Him for meeting the need rather than turning first to a bank. He says he has done this again and again, and that many in the congregation have testified of debts and mortgages paid off as they worked this system.

Does it matter if the person I gave to later disappointed me?

No. The pastor says that if your heart was to give to the Lord and for the kingdom, the gift went into your divine account. It does not matter if questions arose later about the person or ministry you gave to. God, not the person, is the one who repays, so you can let go of the regret and keep trusting Him for the return.

Is giving to the poor the best kind of giving?

It is good, but the pastor says it is not the only or highest kind. Proverbs 19:17 calls it lending to the Lord, who repays it. He distinguishes that from deposits made into the heavenly account by giving to the work of the Lord. He points to the woman who anointed Jesus, whom He defended for giving up to a greater rather than down to a lesser.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Philippians 4:14–19 — the account of giving and receiving
• Colossians 1:13 — translated into the kingdom
• Genesis 3:17–19 — the sweat of the brow
• Luke 6:38 — give, and it will be given to you
• Joshua 1:2–9 — be strong and of good courage
• Hebrews 12:25–29 — a kingdom that cannot be shaken
• Matthew 6:19–21 — treasures in heaven
• Deuteronomy 28:8 — blessing on your storehouses
• 2 Corinthians 9:6–8 — God loves a cheerful giver

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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