A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about the Michael Jackson movie, and many of you seemed to really enjoy it…so here's another powerful insight from the movie.

The Primary Purpose of Wealth Is To Be Spent.

Think about it…say you want to leave an inheritance to your children's children like Proverbs recommends. Why? Why do you want to leave that money to the people you love? Is it so they never get to touch or enjoy it?

Until you spend wealth it's just sitting there as potential. And potential is great but not if it's never realized. Money that doesn't eventually get spent is wasted.

The problem is we have been conditioned by religion and scarcity that spending is bad and we need to "watch" our spending…don't spend too much…that we should optimize for ways to spend less.

If spending less is the goal then death is the best case scenario…no need to spend any money when we are dead. Optimizing for spending less is too often followed by you becoming less and doing less…is that the life you want? Is that the abundant life Jesus is offering in John 10:10?

You can't expand the Kingdom without spending money. You can't create impact without spending money.

If you want to pay for someone's college, you have to spend money on their college. If you want to give to the poor, you are spending money on the poor. Tithing? Spending. Generosity? Spending. Philanthropy? Still spending. The category changes. The reality doesn't.

We've made spending evil because most people have a spending problem and wastefully spend money they don't have on things they really don't need. And when something gets abused, the religious response is to call the whole thing bad. Overcorrect. Make a rule. Build a wall around it. Throw the baby out with the bathwater.

That entire frame is not biblical. It is not wisdom, it's fear dressed up as discipline.

So how should we think about spending? Is there a redemptive kingdom way to think about spending? Of course there is…

I call it value spending.

What is value spending? It's not about spending more or less. It's not permission to be reckless. It's about spending intentionally, on the things that actually matter to you or others…things that maximize value, represent wisdom and good stewardship, given the situation.

Value spending is what made it possible for Mary to take a jar of perfume worth an entire year's income…and without hesitation break that jar and "waste" the entire bottle anointing the feet of Jesus. A whole year's wages spent in less than one hour on one person.

Mary wasn't reckless. She was a good steward. She was a value spender who knew exactly what that moment was worth, and she spent accordingly. In fact Jesus said that every time the Gospel is preached this story would be told. That's value spending.

And if that was not enough proof — let me prove to you that God himself is a value spender. What is the wealthiest thing in existence? God. And the fullness of God and that wealth, at one point in time, walked the earth in the person of Jesus. And what did God do with Jesus? Spent Jesus's life and blood for us.

God spent his one and only son buying us back. He didn't hide him in a safe. He didn't put him behind a glass box, he sent him into the world to spend his life and spill his blood for us.

God now has billions more sons and daughters back because he was willing to spend his one and only begotten son. God's spending led to the redemption of the human race and a massive multiplication.

God protects, he creates, and God spends.

If God spent the most valuable thing in existence, his Son, then spending is not the problem. The problem is spending without thought, without intention, without understanding what something is actually worth and how or what it is multiplying.

This is a good conversation for you to have with the Holy Spirit:

  • Lord, where am I being too tight? When and where should I be more open-handed?
  • Lord, where am I spending too liberally? Where should I be spending less?
  • Lord, what's one intentional, high-value spend that is worth the cost, but I have been too afraid to make?

— Pedro Adao, Kingdom Wealth Club, May 22, 2026