On a tax forms there is a line for “other income.” Jesus said, ‘Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal.’ Life’s best income is not tabulated on adding machines or kept in bank vaults. The good news is that tax collectors are unable to reach that “other income”. The real depressions are not the ones we read about when the stock market crashes. Most mortals live in depression all the time, bankrupt in spirit and destitute within. Most are unaware of their spiritual poverty. Even Christians and churches can, like Laodicea, be “rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Revelation 3:17), not knowing that they are poor, miserable, blind and naked.

A man really lives only in proportion to his “other income” of the spirit. Can you list any such non-taxable revenues? The goodness of God day by day, good health, the love of dear ones, liberty and life itself! But the best of all is the gift of God, eternal life through His Son and the earnest of the Spirit, the first down-payment of a heavenly income from then on, forever. Can you list that?

A man may draw a financial income for a while, but without revenue from above he will be a pauper in his soul. Do you have another income?

Extract from: Peace in the Valley, by Vance Havner