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About the episode:

Jaime Luce’ story begins with emotional and financial struggle as a single mother trying to survive. Today, she has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owned two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. She is on a mission to help others walk through the valleys of life with hope and knowledge that God always has a way.  Learn more.

Related reading:

• How To Heal Through Responsibility and Faith
• How To Use Your Kingdom Authority In Prayer
• Plug Into A Warfare Prayer Source
• Have a Different Spirit
• Be A Good Gardner

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Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

[0:00:02]  Jaime Luce: Welcome to the Jamie Lewis podcast. I’m your host, Jamie Lewis. Thank you for listening today. All of my blogs, social, and YouTube links can be found on my website jamieluce.com. If you enjoy this podcast, you can support it by liking, subscribing, getting notified, and sharing this broadcast. Another way you can help is by rating and reviewing on Apple podcast. My hope and goal in every episode is to give you tools found in Scripture, either by teaching discussions, testimonies, or interviews that encourage and equip you as you navigate living a real Christian walk in a difficult world.

[0:00:43]  Jaime Luce: I would love to hear from you. Whether you have a comment, question, or prayer request, you can email me at [email protected]. If you’re watching on YouTube, drop me a comment. I’d love to partner with you on your journey of faith. If you’re listening today on any podcast platform, take a screenshot and tag me, and I’ll post it to my Instagram story. And now join me for today’s episode.

[0:01:12]  Jaime Luce: Hello, and welcome to the Jamie Lewis podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today. I have as again, a treat for everyone. This is our third session together, and I hope that you stick around next week for week four. But I wanted to be able to bring to you a perspective from the business world, which is my husband, Joel Luce. Hello, Joel. Again, today we’ve been talking about well, we’ve taken stories from my latest book, You Don’t Need Money, You Just Need God, and we’ve been talking about the principles of finance and business, being that Joel is a successful businessman and God has really promoted him and used him and built what he has.

[0:01:59]  Jaime Luce: There is not just the regular idea about finance, meaning somebody who just attends church and they don’t think that money and God go together, but we’re talking really about how the business world collides with the Christian world and that they’re not really it’s not a collision that causes damage. It’s a beautiful marriage for you. Life in the business world is a calling. It’s not just work. You felt the Lord say, this is who I want you to be for me.

[0:02:35]  Jaime Luce: I want you to use your business. Yes, for you, yes, in the business world, but use it also for me. And it’s a call. It’s something that you take very seriously, that we’ve mentioned it in the other broadcast together, but that you know that there’s great purpose in it. And God puts that weight of the calling on you for the business, and you feel compelled that you are to continue to multiply it, to grow it, to see God do wonderful things with it.

[0:03:05]  Jaime Luce: I wanted to do this particular episode together as I was doing notes for the previous show that we did and talking about the concept of Tithing as a business person, not just someone who thinks they know about Tithing, but how does this really affect your life and how do you keep doing it? And what does that look like in the business world? And offerings. But in doing that and thinking about that, the Lord began to stir something in my heart.

[0:03:34]  Jaime Luce: I, years ago, watched a message by Bishop TD. Jakes, and he was speaking about the children of Israel when Aiken was in the camp. And you have somebody who one person who didn’t follow what God instructed them to do out of the whole company. And that one person, and those who agreed with him ended up paying the ultimate price because they didn’t do it right. And we as the body of Christ in a local church. Now, I’m assuming that people watching this program that you folks are in a local church, and if you are not, gosh.

[0:04:17]  Jaime Luce: Not strongly enough. Can I push this point? I know that COVID has been destructive and people have hung up in their homes for the better part of two years. But it is time to reengage in the body of Christ and find the house of God that the Lord is calling you to. He has a place for you, a place that is not just for you’re not attending to mark off the check, mark on the box of what you’re doing for God.

[0:04:46]  Jaime Luce: It’s a place where the body comes together. It’s a place where we understand in our physical bodies that we have bones and joints and ligaments, and it helps you perform, it helps you to live. My husband works out all the time. And in that working out, we know that you have to do things and lift weights in a certain manner so that you don’t hurt certain parts of the body. You have to be careful and thoughtful about what you’re doing.

[0:05:13]  Jaime Luce: But we have joints and ligaments that attach so that we can use the full range of motion for those parts in our body, and that if I have a part in my body that is not functioning right, I will be diminished. We are all paul gives beautiful explanations through his books that we are all a part of the body of Christ. We have a part that we are to connect to. And the easiest way for us to connect with the body of Christ is by attending a church and becoming a part of that church, finding out who those people are and getting connected.

[0:05:54]  Jaime Luce: I’ve given this illustration before, but I love that I have a wrist because it enables my hand to move. But my hand would do no good if it’s on my ear. It has to be hooked up to the right place in the body. So it’s imperative that we find our place. So I’ll set that aside. That’s the little you need to do this for this episode. But folks, you do need to get into the body of Christ. But in our last episode, we were talking about how the tithe, the tent. What belongs to God is meant to go to the storehouse, right?

[0:06:29]  Jaime Luce: And there’s a reason it’s supposed to go to the storehouse. And I was thinking about how when God set up the tabernacle and he told the children of Israel that they were all when their inheritance was to come to them. I mean, we’re all about inheritance. We’re all about getting that blessing and living in that inheritance, in the promise, going to the promised land and taking and laying hold of the promise of what God has for our lives.

[0:06:55]  Jaime Luce: And I’m about that. I mean, this book completely talks about that. But what we have to understand is that God set it in a particular fashion to work a certain way. And we did mention that why God gives us parameters to live in, that that’s our protection, that’s our provision, that he’s being good to us. But it goes further than that. And in the body of Christ, the way God set it up, he said, okay, out of the twelve tribes, they’re each going to have a portion of land, except for the Levites, the priests.

[0:07:33]  Jaime Luce: He said to them, I, God, am their portion. So every other group was to bring the tithes. They tithed all of their food and spices and I mean everything they tithe. And that 10% came into the house of God to provide for the priests. And for whatever reason, if someone doesn’t want their pastor to be cared for, that’s a problem. But we are supposed to care for our pastors and leaders and make sure that they’re taken care of. And God saw to it that the needs of those who ministered to them would be met through the tithe. But it goes further than that.

[0:08:13]  Jaime Luce: The tithes, then, when those that were in the congregation, so to speak, had some kind of need, they would come to the tabernacle. The needs of the body are met from that tabernacle, from that place, the house of God that we attend. We go to have needs met. We might be sick in body. We might have a child who has fallen away from the Lord. We might have somebody that we know who’s addicted to some kind of substance, and we’re going to get ministry and we want help.

[0:08:50]  Jaime Luce: But have we invested and done what God has asked us to do to go, to make sure that the house is full so that when I go, I have something to receive? And I wanted to just talk about that with you as a businessman, as understanding our role in the body of Christ. We’ve been talking up to this point in each of our episodes about the business world. But how does that translate for you when you know you are a businessman, but you’re also a Christian, you attend church regularly, make that a part of your life?

[0:09:33]  Jaime Luce: What does that look like for you to make yourself available? Because for business people many times they’ll say I’m too busy, I don’t have the time, I’m too busy, there’s too much going on. Sunday is my only day off and I need to spend that with my family. And they’re not going to the house of God, they’re not bringing their ties to the house of God. Can you speak to those who maybe don’t understand the value and the importance?

[0:10:02]  Joel Luce: Yeah, I think that I’ve had the experience of both. I’ve had the experience of not making God a priority, not making the house of God a priority, not making tithing giving a priority, not staying in the word of God a priority. And unless you are incredibly gifted and have an incredible talent and can make a lot of money and do all of that, you’re generally not going to do very well without God and ultimately you’re not going to do very well without God at all.

[0:10:43]  Jaime Luce: Right?

[0:10:44]  Joel Luce: And I would rather have the Creator of heaven and earth on my side than not. When I came back to the Lord, as I mentioned in one of the other sessions, was that when I came back to the Lord in my late twenty s, I realized immediately my place was serving in the house. Of God was tithing, was giving, was going to church every Sunday, and that’s where we met and shortly got married and had kids and grandkids and all of that.

[0:11:23]  Joel Luce: And God multiplied it and blessed it and we ended up with companies and making a lot of money and being very successful. But it wasn’t always like that, right? Early on in our marriage we had to learn the principles of not just tithing, we tithe, but to hear God and to know, you know what? Yes, I want you to do this. I want you to give this. And how important it was to God to have not only daily communion but that coming together on Sunday and being a part of that. One of the things that actually freed me up, maybe mentally more than anything. I don’t know about spiritually, but mentally was when our pastor told us if you’re a businessman and you can go make a million dollars and tie $100,000 to the church, I don’t want you ushering.

[0:12:16]  Joel Luce: I don’t want you working on the parking lot attendant crew. Go work and make another million dollars and tie the $100,000. Now he was seeing it in in a kind of comical way and and all that but but he was being he was being honest in saying that God has gifted you in certain ways and not just a business person, but all of us all of us have something that God has called us to do and we’re all different.

[0:12:46]  Jaime Luce: Right?

[0:12:47]  Joel Luce: For me, I talk with a lot of aspiring business people and entrepreneurs and especially younger ones and kind of mid career folks that I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve been doing this 30 years and really owning my own business, kind of almost from day one in sales, but running it like it was my own business. And what I realized was that when I partner with God when I make God the priority and I make tithing and giving and the house of God the priority I guess I probably had a little more insight than most people as far as the local church, because my dad was an evangelist and a semi pastor for a while and I grew up around a lot of pastors and around a lot of evangelists.

[0:13:43]  Joel Luce: And so I saw the needs, I saw some of the struggles, because they’re all about growing, and they’re all about growing the kingdom of God. So there’s never enough money, right? Any of you who might say, well, I don’t need to give my money to another ministry or to my local church or tithe or whatever, because they don’t need the money. Look at their building. They need the money. Trust me. Because if that pastor has a vision, and I’m certain he does, if they have any kind of facility, and even if they’re just starting out, even if they’re smaller, I guarantee if you talk to that pastor or that preacher long enough, they have a vision that’s worth getting behind, right?

[0:14:28]  Joel Luce: In every church that we’ve been a part of, we’ve had pastors and the other pastors on staff that we knew, man, they’re passionate about that vision and about what they know that God has called them to do. Why wouldn’t we want to partner with that? Why wouldn’t we want to get involved in that as a part of it? Because, yes, I have our companies and we do things through those companies, and we meet needs and we give and we do a lot of wonderful things and help a lot of people.

[0:15:02]  Joel Luce: But then a big part of what we do is in our local church, and we get to participate in that success as well. Those souls that come into the kingdom, the people that are fed and taken care of. I told you this the other day, Jamie, that I never understood some of the business people that I’ve met over the years that were Christians or said they were Christians and I’m not judging them and they were they were not but, but, but said they were quick Christians but never tithed and never gave to their local church.

[0:15:44]  Joel Luce: And they said, well, that’s what the government’s for. And I thought about that for a moment and I said, okay, first of all, I’m not sure I trust the government enough to give them more of my money and that they’re going to do better with it than I could do with it, or that my local church could do with it. Because our local church that we attend does some amazing things, helps our entire community, and we every Sunday in other countries around the world. I mean, around the world.

[0:16:17]  Joel Luce: But every Sunday, we see lives transformed and changed. Every single Sunday. We’re a part of that. We get credit for that. The Bible talks about rewards in heaven and there are rewards in heaven. But you get to be a part of that as you participate and give giving of your time, giving of yourself, giving of your money, your tithe, then you get to be a part of that, and I get to participate in that, and I get to receive the benefit of that.

[0:16:52]  Joel Luce: There’s a lot of things in this world that can make us feel good. But to change someone’s life, there’s nothing more special than that. To change someone’s life forever, and not just in this life, but for all eternity. Why wouldn’t you want to be a part of that? Why wouldn’t you want to do that with what God’s given you, what he’s done in your life, the gifts, the talents that he’s given you? Why wouldn’t you want to use those to help somebody else and to get them where they’re supposed to be?

[0:17:28]  Joel Luce: In God. In Christ. And then they multiply and do that with other people? Why wouldn’t we want to do that? If there’s a calling on my wife, it’s that. And I know it’s on your life, too. And it’s on our family. It’s on our children. Did we know all of this? No. We had to learn all of this. That’s why Damon part of Jamie’s book. You don’t need money. You just need God. These are life lessons. These are life lessons in how to do it and how to succeed even when it’s impossible.

[0:18:03]  Joel Luce: The odds that were against the two of us when we first got together were incredible. I mean, if someone were to look at it and say, okay, those two with what they’ve had to start with, which was less than nothing to start with, are not going to succeed. But with God, all things are possible. But with God, we tease each other all the time. We want to write a book or we want to do a message or a sermon.

[0:18:34]  Joel Luce: The butts in the Bible. But God, right? It’s always but God. All of us could say at some point in our lives that if it had not been for God, but God, where would I be today? Where would we be? To me, the local church and what we do there. And I know I’m getting off and we’re going in different directions, but the local church, to me, is probably the most critical, the most important, the most fundamental of places where we need to give, where we need to be where we need to be involved in the community, in the local church, and connected with people.

[0:19:20]  Joel Luce: You talk about COVID You know what? COVID disconnected us. COVID disengaged us. We all became disengaged. You know what? That’s an attack of the enemy. God wants to bring us together. God wants us to connect. God wants us to be a part. That’s why he calls us the body. He wants us to like you were talking about, he wants us to be connected because he knows it’s healthy, it’s good for us. It’s better for us to be connected, just like he said, hey, it’s not good for a man to be alone, right? He needs somebody, and I need somebody really bad.

[0:19:57]  Joel Luce: And thank God I got her the position filled. Yeah, that’s filled, but a long time ago. But it’s so important to be engaged and connected and back just on the business side of things, I think you said at the very opening, I’m pretty sure you did. There could be just one person sometimes in our lives that can affect us sometimes, maybe even in a negative way. But there also can be that one person in our lives that can affect us in such a positive way.

[0:20:41]  Joel Luce: And to me, we all talk about revival, especially in the church, we talk about revival. To me, the greatest revivals are by yourself, all by yourself, alone with God. And sometimes that’s at an altar at the local church. But maybe it’s with an altar worker just praying for you and believing with you that that request is going to be met. And that’s where your faith gets built. That’s where when you hear faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.

[0:21:15]  Joel Luce: That’s where we hear it. Yes, we can watch all the YouTube and all of that, and that’s all great and do that too. We do it every day, every day driving into work, every day on the way back from work, on the treadmill, whatever. But there are people in our lives that can affect us in a positive way, but there’s people that can affect us in a negative way. And I’ve talked about this in business many, many times.

[0:21:43]  Joel Luce: Where you want to be careful, there are certain people you do want to isolate from, there are certain people you do need to stay away from. That will not be the influence that God wants in your life. And to me, the greatest influences, the most positive influences have been in the local church. Is the local church perfect? No, because it’s people. We’re all people, and we all do silly things sometimes, and we make mistakes sometimes, and we don’t always get it right all the time.

[0:22:17]  Joel Luce: But you know what? I would rather be in a place that preaches the word of God, teaches the word of God, that helps me and my family that I can be a part of and that I can give to and that I can fulfill my calling and be connected with that group of people. And then I can deal with all of the naysayers, and then I can deal with all the negativity and the ones that are negative in my life, that maybe they’re in the church, but maybe they’re outside of the church as well. Maybe it’s your own family.

[0:22:51]  Joel Luce: It could be. And you can’t get rid of your family, right? But there are others maybe in your life that you need to rethink those relationships.

[0:23:01]  Jaime Luce: Well, if it’s a wrong connection, make a right connection. Make the adjustment and disconnect where you need to, but connect where you need to.

[0:23:09]  Joel Luce: And it’s about making connections with the local church and all that that I think is so critical, so important. Local pastors would love to hear this from lay people like us that are just sitting out in the pew and out in the chairs. But we’ve seen it. We’ve seen it behind the scenes. We’ve seen the needs, and we have been, thank God, in a position to be able to meet needs.

[0:23:39]  Jaime Luce: Let’s talk about that for a minute in the chapter that we discussed in our last episode. Again, we’re not giving away the whole story, but at the very end of that story, when we gave what we had initially not gave, okay, and messed up, we were supposed to do what God told us to do. We said we were going to do it. Then we lagged. We didn’t do it. And God was gracious enough to allow us to hurry up and get that right, and we did. But what was amazing that day was when you put that in the offering the very next Wednesday, that was a Sunday. That next Wednesday, the pastor had his annual business meeting, right?

[0:24:25]  Jaime Luce: And when he got up and said, hallelujah, praise the Lord, we’re in the red or in the black. And the black we were just until last week in the red. And he said the dollar amount that they were in the red and it was the exact amount, the exact amount that you put in the offering that Sunday that actually then put them in the black. It was the exact amount that hit my spirit so strong, because what the body of Christ is lacking, it’s our responsibility. I mean, I feel like God showed in grand fashion.

[0:25:03]  Jaime Luce: I needed you to obey me and do. I promised that I would do this for you, but that’s because I also knew there would be a need where I have sent you and I need you to meet that need, right? And by giving that dollar amount that we knew God had called us to do, it was first by faith, but then it was by oath, right? Okay, lord, I’m going to give this to you. When we give to the body of Christ, the needs that are evident in that body will get met if we don’t and we don’t do the part that we are supposed to play in the body of Christ, that is exactly what’s lacking.

[0:25:39]  Jaime Luce: They say that if you go into a building and you notice something, you notice something needs to be cleaned, something needs to be fixed, something needs to be done better. They say when you’re the one who notices it, you might just be the one who’s supposed to be doing it. Obviously it’s not getting done. There’s a need in that body and you might be the one to fill that need. And so that’s really what I wanted to drive home.

[0:26:03]  Jaime Luce: That whether that’s your finances, whether that’s your time, whether that’s your family. We go to the house of God because we want to raise our children, knowing the principles that will sustain them, bless them, multiply them. They’re not going to learn them in the world. Your school systems are not going to teach them. YouTube’s not going to teach them unless they’re listening to this program, but they’re not going to get that somewhere else.

[0:26:34]  Jaime Luce: They need us as parents and family to come around. And if you’re a single parent, get them to the body of Christ where there are families operating that can teach the ways of God and how to live this life and go from a place of need or lack to a place of abundance. I know I’m putting you on the spot but would you, as we’re getting ready to close, we’ve only got a minute and a half. Would you just say a prayer for those who are listening today and just need something?

[0:27:07]  Jaime Luce: Whether it’s direction or a need met, just pray for the people.

[0:27:12]  Joel Luce: Let’s pray. Father, I just come to you in the name of Jesus and for all of those that are watching this for the first time or maybe looking at it again. I pray Lord, that you would begin to move in their life and in their circumstances and that your will would be done in every area of their life. And I pray that you would give them the courage and the strength to be able to surrender everything to you.

[0:27:39]  Joel Luce: If it’s in finances or if it’s in some other area of their life or if it’s in their calling or they need an answer, they need to hear from you. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that even now you would begin talking to them. You would begin speaking to them. You would begin through your word, through dreams, through visions, through people, because you use people just like Jamie and I have been talking all night.

[0:28:07]  Joel Luce: You use us. And I pray, Father, in the name of Jesus, that you would begin doing that to our friends that are watching now and that you would meet their greatest need. The balance of this year is going to be the greatest year of your life. The balance of this year is going to be great as you begin to trust God and he will do the impossible in your life. In Jesus name, amen.

[0:28:37]  Jaime Luce: Thank you so much for joining us today. We’ll see you next time.

[0:28:40]  D: Thank you for listening to the Jamie Lewis podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please rate your review the show on Apple or spotify and subscribe. Wherever you listen for more, visit Jamieloose.com. That’s Jaimeluce.com. You’ll find a free chapter of her new book. You don’t need money. You just need God. And a fresh word from Jamie on the blog each week. See you next week.