“The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouse and in all that you undertake. And He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.” (Deuteronomy 28:8)(Amp)
What is a Storehouse? We usually quote the NIV or NASB here, but they each use the word “barn” above which doesn’t convey the full picture of what the Lord is communicating. So we’re going to examine what a Storehouse is and think about how this translates to a modern life in which most of us are not farmers.
A storehouse was the headquarters and gathering place of all profit for the ancient family. The family lived in the home, but the financial blessing that they received would have to come through the Storehouse. If provision was needed, they could always go to the Storehouse. This was especially important in times of famine or difficulty when the Storehouse served as a protective resource for provision to make it through these times. When a man went to work, he would walk out his wealth gate and into the Storehouse to gather the seed to plant the new season’s crops. When the harvest came in, some would be immediately taken to market while another part would be brought back into the Storehouse to be kept for future use, sale, or as seed for the following year’s crop. It was the hub of all enterprise. And it was what the Lord promised to bless, along with all else that you put your hands to! So it seems important indeed to have a Storehouse.
An important component of the Storehouse is that the seed and crops should be able to be freely brought in and taken out. Do you have a Storehouse? Most Americans are focused on putting money into a 401k or overpaying their mortgage, neither of which is anything like a Storehouse. You must set up a Storehouse in order to see this blessing at work in your life.
Although the Word is full of blessings through Christ, the scripture above is one of only three places where God specifically commands a blessing on us. Two of these are about Storehouses (Leviticus 25:21-22), the third is about His people living together in unity. (Psalm 133:1)
A life in Christ should be a life governed by His Spirit and is not restrained to particular rules. Yet at the same time, He designed this world to follow certain rules. Gravity is not a spiritual law, and yet it works. Having your own Storehouse and funding it (like tithing) is a principle that God has laid into the foundation of this world. When you do have and use a Storehouse, He blesses it. Let’s look at a similar verse:
“Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty,
but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest.” (Proverbs 14:4)
The ox here is similar to your Storehouse in that it is a means to produce a harvest. Without it, how can you have a harvest? Since God has said He wants to bless what’s in your Storehouse AND subsequently the other work of your hands, the Storehouse becomes not only important to have because God has promised increase in it, but because its an important place through which other fruitful enterprise comes out in which God can bless your work.
It’s extremely important to prayerfully consider each investment as the Holy Spirit leads (which we’ll be talking about as we go forward), but there must also be a systematic method to your stewardship that God can bless as it proceeds step by step. Setting up Storehouses fits this need perfectly. It is ideal both spiritually because God promises blessing, and practically because wealth building requires a systematic strategy.
You’ve probably guessed, based upon how similar a Storehouse functions to the way Whole Life insurance works, that they go perfectly together. For some this might not be possible because their health doesn’t allow them to qualify for life insurance, and in this case, a regular checking or savings account must suffice, but for most people, even if your health is not good, you can insure the life of your spouse, or a parent or child and get all the benefits of whole life. If you are in good health, then all the better.
The Storehouse allows your wealth to build up, and can be taken out at a moment’s notice to begin a new crop (make a new investment). When your Storehouses are whole life policies, it is first and foremost a reserve for hard times. There is no hurry or rush to pull money out to put it to work because it is growing quite well in a safe place with many advantages. But it also enables you to access a whole other pool of assets when you have an opportunity to put it to work (without losing those advantages), and it is ready to accept the harvest back in when the Lord brings fruitfulness. Seed money for new investments is available because you have whole life policies set up as your Storehouse, and then those Storehouses turn around take back in the wealth created by the new crops (investments). The cycle will multiply both your wealth and your Storehouses.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-3)
We were struck by this concept when reading “The Storehouse Principle” by Al Jandl & Van Crouch. They go much deeper into why God blesses Storehouses without really getting into how they should be set up. Upon reading it, is seemed obvious that whole life insurance was designed long ago to perform exactly the same sort of purposes today which Storehouses served in the agricultural past.
This is Part 12 in a series on Whole Life Insurance. You might want to read the introduction to this series which will link to each post in the explanation of whole life and Ben’s story showing how whole life is used in a variety of ways in his life.
Photo credit: Miller Taylor