I grew up as a kid in the 1970’s and 1980’s. My parents were both working-class and poor; they were probably poor because of the many bad money choices they made. They had debt on the house we stayed in and on a new car. My dad just loved new cars, and our family always had a new(ish)car bought with debt off course. We were four kids in the house, three brothers and one sister and my dad was a mechanic at the local roads agency (City Council), while my mother worked night shift as a nurse at the local government hospital. Our boomer parents raised us in a very conservative way.

Afrikaans was our home language, and money and sex were two things that were never discussed in our house. No wonder almost all the children grew up experiencing serious relationship problems, with divorce and of course serious money problems. To earn pocket money, I started delivering newspapers from my primary school days. I also had my own vegetable garden, selling vegetables to people in our street for an extra income. I was indeed blessed from a very young age, to be able to learn about money and more importantly to save money. Because we grew up poor, I always used money sparingly. Money and finances were always my passion. In my later adult life, I forgot about all the good things like the savings I did as a young boy. It would, unfortunately, take me many many more years of mistakes and bumping my head, before I would know, that finances would actually be my 2nd calling! That God would call me to teach on finances but in a biblical way! But I first had to go through many hardships as well as divorce at the end of 2011.

My family was torn apart because of this, and I had a failing business with R3.5 million of debt to pay back. I was in serious trouble and in a big hole. I cried out to God for help, and God was so faithful and merciful. There is such a thing as a second chance! I realised that I have to repent, get born again and get baptised, and all this while I was already 45 years old. It was mother’s day in 2012, and I had the chance to wash my small children’s feet. Sumoné was 8 and Jason 13. I told them I love them very much, and that the divorce was not their fault or because of something they did wrong, and that I will take care of them. That night I slept like a baby for the first time in days, and God gave me Proverbs 22 verse 7 in my dreams. Because I never had a relationship with God or even owned a Bible, I did not know what the verse was about. After getting hold of a Bible in the morning and reading the verse, I was so overwhelmed by it! The verse said that the borrower is a slave to the lender, and it was so true in my circumstances; God was speaking to me. I remember saying: “Wow God, you really exist and You’re speaking to me!” That was the start of an amazing journey with God, a period of repair and restoration.

Of course, I first had to get to the route cause of my debt problems, because history had repeated itself just like with my parents years ago. Why did I love money and serve mammon? I first had to recognise, renounce and repent, that I served mammon and not God. That I falsely believed that I was the provider of my family, that my business was the means of my provision and not God. Why did I have this lack of faith in God, the only Provider? Why did I not believe that God was and always will be the source of my provision? And why was it that my business was only the channel through which God chooses to provide for me? God took me on this journey of discovery of His principles for my finances. No more my way but His way. In June 2012, in the middle of winter, I got baptised for the first time in my swimming pool. It was phenomenal! Everything changed, getting Holy Spirit-filled for the first time in my life. In November 2012 that same year I got married again to the most wonderful wife, Sunette Cordier. Together with her two kids, we now have four kids. God is so faithful, look how He redeems, He will give back everything that the devil stole from you. Together we serve God, husband and wife; this is so awesome! My wife Sunette taught me about tithing, of which I knew almost nothing. She taught me about why it is so important to God that we bring the Tithe to His storehouse? You see, we cannot give God the tithe because GOD already owns it. When we borrow someone’s car, we bring it back to him, because he is already the owner. God’s word mentions the tithe 32 times in the whole Bible and all 32 times it says “bring the tithe to my storehouse.” So this was a fundamental, new, and also very scary concept/principle for me to understand. At that time, I was earning quite a large salary, so 10% was a lot of money for me. I never gave any tithe to a church; nor did I even belong to a church, it was a big leap of faith to take. I was, in fact, guilty of robbing God. This was such a massive revelation to me that I was a robber and a wicked person that stole from God!

Let us see what God’s word says about this in Malachi 3 verse 6-11 from the NKJV. “For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers, You have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” Says the Lord of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’ “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven. And pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the Lord of hosts. What an awesome scripture, and the only place in the Bible where God says, “Try me now on this.” After God says, try me now on this, it unlocks seven things that God promises to us if we “try” Him out and give with humble hearts. 

You see friends; I realised that I was robbing God left, right and centre and that if I wanted to worship God with my/His finances, I had to do it 100% right according to His word. I had to pay God first and bring the Tithe to His storehouse, then only could I pay myself and live on the rest. But see friends, that is God’s way while in the world, we are taught the upside-down way. Pay your liabilities first and live off the rest, and if there is something left, you save it and pay yourself. Then only if there is a little bit left, we give it to God last. I remember thinking to myself: “That was exactly the way Cain gave his offering to God.” God always needs to come first in your life, not last! I had to repent, plead for God’s forgiveness, and admit my enormous R3.5 million debt was a huge mistake. I had to ask for God’s help because I could not go on like that. I chose not to serve mammon any longer! God was faithful, and He answered me when I called upon him. From that day on, the Holy Spirit started speaking to me, specifically around my enormous debt. My first priority was to settle this; my vision was to do this in the next ten years, and in the end, it took only five years. Praise God for that; He did the supernatural. My mess became my message, and my biggest test became my testimony. Only because of God! I used the “debt snowball” principle, where you settle the smallest debt first, then you use the money freed up from this to pay off the second smallest debt. Settle that debt, then take all the money freed up from the first and second debt to pay the third-biggest debt. Then you repeat the process every time with the total amount of money freed up, taking no further debt on board of course. August 2017 that same year the Holy Spirit spoke to me again. It was during our church’s NW EQUIP. Dr John Mpapuli was a guest speaker on finances at Oase church in Klerksdorp. He was pointing towards my direction when talking about debt, I can’t even remember what on earth he said, but the Holy Spirit immediately said to me: “So Pieter, when will you be speaking to my people about debt?” I nearly fell off my chair, looking around, asking God, “Who me? No God, I’m the worst possible person on earth to ask.” At that stage, I still owed more than R800 000 on my house. I took God’s instruction and put it at the back of my mind. You know like we always do, not listening. I must say though that I was committed to paying off the remaining debt on my house.

Investments were given notice, and I even used the company’s big overdraft to pay off my mortgage in full. In November of that same year, only four months later, my house debt was paid as well. It was the first time as an adult that I was debt-free! What a liberating feeling! The very next weekend, was our church City On a Hill’s Destiny Weekend, that we attended at Acacia guesthouse in Klerksdorp. Again the Holy Spirit spoke to me: “So Pieter now that you are debt-free, when will you be speaking to my people about their debt?” My shock was even bigger than the first time, but it was something I could not hide from because it was the honest truth. I was indeed debt-free, and of course, I had conveniently forgotten all about it. Still, I was not obeying God’s command on this. You see friends, the last 24 months I had spent plenty of time reading a lot of Christian and non-Christian books about finances. I had studied a lot in God’s word about finances and money! A couple of months down the line, the Holy Spirit spoke to me again: “Pieter I will equip the called. I do not call the equipped, nor do I call the qualified, because I can do it much better and much faster than you ever could. When will you start talking to my people?”

So here I am today, the start of my ministry. God is so faithful!

I have read many books but here is a list of 10 that I can recommend:

1. Rich dad, poor dad – Robert T. Kiyosaki
2. Retire young retire rich – Robert T. Kiyosaki
3. The richest man in Babylon – George S. Clason
4. 5 Wealth secrets 96% of us don’t know – Craig Hill
5. Wealth, riches and money – Craig Hill and Earl Pitts
6. The richest man who ever lived – Steven K. Scott
7. Money master the game – Tony Robbins

I’ve also read 3 of Dr John Mpapuli’s books. The guy I mentioned previously when the Holy Spirit spoke to me the first time.

• The 7 opposite directions that separate the rich and poor.
• Time is running out! 7 easy ways to improve your finances.
• The 7 little known techniques to make the most of your salary.

I can really say, what I read in the thousands of pages within these books, is written in God’s Word, and it is written for us in easy to follow format. In-fact it is told in beautiful stories and principles. Strange how people rather read these kinds of books, instead of the Bible. Don’t ask me why, but I know I’m guilty of this. I think it is satan and mammon’s plans; they want to keep us from the real wisdom and knowledge in God’s Word. Today I’m living a blessed and full life serving God and loving every moment of it. Gone are the days that I was in bondage and served mammon all those years. Now I’m bringing the good news to God’s children, that there is a better way. God’s ways and principles for our finances! In Jeremiah 29 verse 11, God says “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Isn’t that an amazing promise friends? Don’t forget to read verse 12 and 13 that tells us what we need to do to access these promises. If the above scripture is not true in your life, it means that we are not doing things God’s way, and God is calling us to change and adopt to His ways. 

Was this a comfortable journey for me? No, not at all, but was it worth it? Oh yes! It saved my life from certain spiritual death and from hell in the next life.

Friends, I certainly do not tell my story to embarrass myself, but if my story did embarrass myself, I’m happy about it. Because some of the stuff I did was embarrassing, to say the least. Sure, some people will relate to my story in many ways, because I do not tell my story to boast about what was achieved, but I tell my story for God’s glory because God is good and always will be!

With best wishes.