HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, August 31, 2026 – Prior to starting his ministry, Jesus worked as a carpenter. By “worked”, I mean he offered his services in exchange for payment. Jesus either accepted money or bartered for the amount he’d negotiated for his carpentry services. There’s nothing in scripture that would indicate he’d done otherwise.

But when he started his ministry, his payment terms changed drastically. He no longer negotiated or demanded any payment at all for the ministry services he offered, whether healing, teaching, preaching, or just performing random miracles along the way. He did everything for free. There’s nothing in scripture that would indicate he did otherwise.

Still, Jesus needed money for his daily needs. We all need money for our daily needs. But what we don’t need is to charge a fee in exchange for our ministry services.

I’ve already stated here in this blog and elsewhere that anyone who charges a fee to preach is not bornagain. Ditto for people who charge a fee for praying, healing, teaching about the Kingdom, or otherwise providing information on spiritual development, including counseling. “Pay for pray” is a worldly (i.e., unregenerated) church phenomenon, as is demanding and accepting payment for preaching. The worldly church gets paid for this kind of work and does so with God’s permission (as Jesus said, they have their reward).

But we, as bornagain believers, must never request payment for doing God’s work because it’s not us doing the work: it’s God, by his Spirit, working through us. We must never ask for donations. We must never ask for an honorarium. We must never ask for payment for preaching and teaching the Word. Never. Not once. Not under any circumstance.

Don’t you dare.

Because if you ask for money for doing what you’ve received from God for free, God will take it from you in other ways, and with interest. You’ll end up much poorer financially and spiritually than you would have been had you not demanded payment. The worldly church, yes, gets paid in worldly ways, but God arranges for his children to be paid in different ways, and always more than enough.

You won’t have to ask; it will be offered.

Consider Jesus. He never charged anything for his ministry services, and yet he always had more than enough for his needs. People donated their money and resources without him having to ask. And on the rare occasion when his needs unexpectedly exceeded the norm and it appeared that he was going to come up short, God would provide a timely miracle, like placing the gold coin in the fish’s mouth so that Jesus could pay the tribute tax (with money to spare), or multiplying a handful of loaves and fishes so that Jesus could feed a multitude (with basketsful to spare).

I know, without your having to tell me, that God has provided you with more than one timely miracle since your rebirth. I know, because he’s done it for me, too. He does it for all his children, even without them having to ask him for help. In fact, the most substantial financial and other gifts I’ve received since my rebirth came out of the blue from sources I either didn’t previously know or didn’t suspect would want to help me. This is how God works, and it is an enormous blessing for us but even more so for the people who provide for us at God’s (usually anonymous) prompting.

Money is a worldly construct. As such, it has no place in God’s Kingdom. No genuine bornagain believers will accept payment for preaching and teaching the Word. If they did so in error, they’ll still suffer for it and will hopefully learn from their suffering not to do it again, knowing that the worst kind of suffering is separation from God. If you’re genuinely bornagain, demanding payment for doing God’s work will very swiftly separate you from God in the same way as purposely sinning will, and none of us want that. None of us want to be even a handsbreadth away from our heavenly Father. For us, separation from God is the worst state imaginable, much worse than an empty purse or a gnawing stomach. And if after doing God’s work we still end up broke and starving, it will only be to test us and will soon pass.

We know from the example set by Jesus that God provides for his children. From the start of his ministry, Jesus did his Father’s work diligently and for free, and so must we. No exceptions. As Jesus reminds us, you cannot serve God and mammon. The God we serve is greater than money. We don’t honor him by refusing to accept unsolicited donations (we must always accept those; never let pride stop you, as unsolicited donations are God-prompted and will bless the donor more than us). We honor God by refusing to demand payment for ministry services. In this as in all things, Jesus—not the worldly church—is our example.

The God we serve is greater than money.

The Good Lord provides.