A question about charging money for something produced through the gifts of God or on religious topics
A reader wrote me a question, which I will here anonymize a bit before answering.
The gist
The person produced an item that she was selling that consisted of a creative work with gospel art. She had a bunch of copies made, and sold most of them. Time passed. Now her religious views don't fully align with what is in the book, and she's not sure if it is right to make money off of something religious in nature. She asks for help in formulating her question to God on the matter.
The answer
1. Formulating vs. asking questions. Typically, most of the work is in formulating the question. If someone has to formulate the question for you, they will likely harm you in giving it to you, because they will give you the key to receiving the answer without you growing to be worthy of it, but will all but guarantee you feel worthy of it. Our needs are a prime driver of our humility before God and willing subjugation to the means he has ordained for us to come up to him. We are naturally haughty, and when nice people give us nice things we don't deserve, it usually makes it worse, not better.
2. The answer to your unasked question about what you should do with the books is that you should take advantage of the fact that the books are pointed toward a market on which your new ideas ostensibly provide an improvement: make small, inexpensive flyers or the like that advertise something you think presents to your market the next increment of light and truth (a book, a website, a YouTube short--something). It could be your own material or someone else's. Who made it doesn't matter. That it represents the next increment of truth does. Make sure it's easy to access--a short url or make a QR code or something. Stick them with each book and bombs away.
3. The answer to your unasked question of whether it is right to make money on religious topics or spiritual gifts: It depends, but not on the criteria people think. What is your motive, what else could you be doing, and what are or could others be doing? If you are an artist (sounds like it) and you are capable of making things that people don't have and would buy (sounds like it), then it is possible that you are doing something better than what you otherwise could and providing unique value others can't by making art. The aspect of the propriety of making money off religious topics and spiritual gifts is not a useful way to think about it. ALL talents are spiritual gifts. ALL topics are religious. God doesn't make special rules with respect to our fake designations. He wants things to be the best they can be, and for us to help them get there the best we can. If you spend your full-time effort making gospel art, why would God see that as less worthy of pay than making non-gospel art? If I spend my full-time effort preaching the gospel, why should that be less worthy of pay than spending my full-time effort building homes or writing code? The question is not whether I am getting money for it, but whether it is actually making things better (in fact, the best) or not. The laborer is worthy of his hire--or his just wages relative to the value provided. The question is whether it is worth the money or not, and not whether it is valid for pay or not. All labor is valid of pay. Gospel labors should be free as long as they fit into normal discretionary resources. Where more is given, more is expected.
4. In case it isn't obvious, the question answered in both #2 and #3 is "what benefits the most?" That's a great default question.