Abba, Father, I …

Are you prosperous? Do you want to be prosperous? Do you feel like you do not have “it”? Do you find yourself pleading “Lord, prosper me!”? Then you have company in me and many other Christian. This is your message.

In Part one, we saw that the Lord God originated the idea of blessing man by giving a promise to Abraham. As a result of that promise, Abraham was, among other things, a  very prosperous person in his lifetime.

In Part two, we learned that Christ was the end of the promise to Abraham, which was, mankind having a shot at Godness. We noted that, when one has Christ, they are already blessed beyond measure.

To get the most out of this post, i suggest you read the previous two, in order, before you read this one, because this is a continuation of the last two posts.

In this post we take  a look at prosperity, material prosperity, and how to “get it”.

Why? Because there are so many Christians who are stuck in the past. They are seeking Abraham’s prosperity, when they already have the end of Abraham’s blessing. There are so many blessed Christians out there who are running around frantically as if they were some poor orphan children of i-do-not-know-who.

What you are

Just a remind on what your blessedness means:

You posses Godness. If you have the Holy Spirit, that’s it. You got ALL. It may not be apparent, but you, poor simple you,  are “walking with the gods”.

That, being able to walk with the gods,  is the absolute thing a man can have. There is nothing else beyond that. You could not climb any higher than that.

What you are, in Christ, is the highest position a man can be honored with.

Your position is really really so high  that even the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the one who now rules all the nations of earth so mercilessly, the devil himself, cannot attain. In fact, the reason he fell was because he was seeking that position that you now have.

And of course that is why he is your enemy. That is why he hates you with a vengeance.

You have what he could not have.

That is why he would wish that you believed otherwise. That is why he lies to so many already blessed Christians. The Lord has said of you, “you are blessed”. The enemy says to you “you are not blessed if you are not prosperous. If you become prosperous you will be truly happy”.

Prosperity: the art of getting stuff

No one can argue with the fact that the Lord God can give you stuff, lots and lots of stuff. If you desire lots of stuff, how do you get the Lord to give it to you?

You don’t. He just gives it to you.

Let me say something about the people who are the pivotal examples of the prosperity movement: Abraham and Solomon.

Consider Abraham. Did Abram pray “Lord, give me wealth!”? No. It is the Lord who came to him and told him, “Abram, I will give you wealth”. How about Solomon? The Lord came to him and told him “Ask anything of me”. Solomon did not ask to be wealthy. So the Lord tells him, “because you did not ask for wealth, i will give it to you anyway, in great abundance.”

What do you see in those two examples?:

• It is the Lord who initiates the giving. You do not need to ask Him. He already knows what you need. He will give it to you when He sees fit.
• Those that were made wealthy did not seek the wealth. Neither did they cling to the wealth once they got it. Abraham was quick to let go of it ( As an example, he was willing to let his nephew Lot choose the best portion of the Land ). Solomon, after many years of enjoying his wealth and power says of them, “ALL these are vanity. What one needs is just to fear God”

Here then is the trick to get wealthy. It is so simple.

To be prosperous, do not seek it.

Just that, and you shall be prosperous.

Why you are not prosperous

Are you seeking prosperity? Are you wondering why you are not yet prosperous?

Here are reasons why you are not prosperous.

1. You are already prosperous !

As far as the Lord is concerned, you are prosperous enough.

⁸But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. ( 1 Timothy 6:8 )

Get that?

I can understand when a south Sudanese Christian asks to be prospered. But it is mind boggling, when the average Christian in the west, who has an air conditioned place to stay in, travels in an automobile, has a refrigerator filled with all manner of choice meats, has disposable income, pleads with the Lord to be prospered.

For crying out aloud, your lifestyle is better than that of 5 billion other people! And if you are in the middle class in the USA , you are among the top 100 million wealthiest people on earth.

2. The Lord does not will it for you.

When you do not have it, chances are the Lord is not willing it for you.When He wants you to have it, He will let you have it.

We saw that both Abraham and Solomon were “just given” wealth, even without their asking for it.  The Lord always just gives it out, graciously, without being asked.

³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ( Romans 8:32 NIV)

Things of grace are not asked, demanded or bought by seeds.

3. You want it more than Him.

Because He cares for your soul, He withholds it from you.

People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. ( 1 Timothy 6:9,10)

But be careful, if you keep at it long enough, he might go “Ai yawa!” and give it to you. That, unfortunately, will be your loss. If you doubt that, here are two examples

In the desert, the people pleaded for meat. The Lord knew they did not need it. For one, they were eating, of all things, “Angels food”, manna. But, no, heavenly food was not enough for them. They wanted more. So the Lord gave it to them. But in return, they became poor spiritually.

But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,
And tested God in the desert.
¹⁵ And He gave them their request,
But sent leanness into their soul. ( Psalm 106: 14,15 KNJV)

You have Christ, the darling of heaven, yet you plead for material stuff. Do you see where you are headed?

The second example is found in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:

And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. ( Luke 15: 11.. NKJ)

The young man wanted his wealth now, instead of waiting. His father gave in, but he ended in the pig pen.

4 Your heart is not right.

If your heart is not right, even when you ask, you will not get it.

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. ( James 4:2,3 NKJV)

5 You are a hoarder.

You want it all for yourself.

But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? ( 1 John 3:17 NIV)

Abraham was willing to let it all go. When you willing to let it all go, when you have no hesitation in using it to enrich other people’s lives, you are ready to be made prosperous. Ask yourself, are you willing to be a Bill Gates with your wealth?

I do not have to give you more reasons. I think you get the point.

Wealth will chase you and overtake you

As a final remark, consider this.

Those who teach you to pursue prosperity, will tell you, “wealth will chase you down and overtake you”, half quoting this verse:

And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: ( Deuteronomy 28: 2 NKJV)

Hear that? Blessings will chase you. But it seems to me, that it is the other way round. The people are chasing after the wealth!

This very same verse that they use to justify their teaching, is a judgment  against their actions.

You are blessed!

The promised blessing has chased and found, already. If you need more, and want to claim that verse, then just do as the verse says:

“you obey the voice of the LORD your God” and “all these things will be added unto you“.