TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Monday 23RD August 2021)
“Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.” Genesis 13:1-2 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 235TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
Today we will continue our flow on the release of the prosperity of the righteous. To start with, I want you to understand and get it straight into your Spirit that God wants you to prosper economically as your soul prospers.
Indeed, like every good Father will desire for his Children, God wants every of His Child to prosper economically.
Sadly, some are not prospering because they do not understand what prosperity is all about. Many take materialism for prosperity and some extremist believe economic Prosperity is not for the righteous. They believe that poverty and adversity are marks of true Christianity or discipleship.
Well, Jesus indeed said if we want to be His disciples we must carry our cross daily and follow Him. That cross is not perpetual poverty and adversity but the price of doing divine will. The price could be temporally adversity and scarcity but it is not perpetual adversity and poverty.
Some hold another dangerous view; they believe Jesus was poor so they should also be poor. In fact, someone attacked me with this school of thought. But Jesus was not poor. What the Bible described as “the poverty of Jesus” has nothing to do with the earthly.
Paul was comparing the eternal glory that Jesus stripped Himself off with the earthly glory of man. Christ stripped Himself of that glory to come die for our sins. And the truth is, whatever the earth considers as glorious is poverty compared to what heaven consider as glorious.
SO JESUS WAS NOT POOR IN THE SENSE OF WHAT WE KNOW POVERTY TO BE.
Though He owned no Estates, He had a house even before stepping into ministry. He was into what we will call real Estate today, because carpentry was not just for furniture making in His days. They built houses for clients also. But he abandoned all that and went into full time ministry when he hit 30 years of age as man.
Before then, He had a large clientele, which was why everyone knew Him as the son of the carpenter. So He was indeed rich – both in Spirit and in truth.
Come to think of it, He never begged or borrowed, he owed no one anything but love. If you call a man who could get money from the mouth of fishes “poor” it means you are ignorant! Jesus was rich enough to pay all His bills!
Jesus was not poor. He was just content; He was not materialistic like many of us today. He showed us that prosperity is not having excess money in the bank without knowing what to do with it, but having enough presence of God to get the money God’s way whenever you need it.
Like I said, He was not materialistic but content. He had few garments. One of it was so valuable that those who killed Him had to cast lots to determine who will own it. If it was just some rags He wore, no one would have bothered. The Bible says it was a seamless garment knitted by one of the women.
In His days, seamless garments where the most expensive! Though he was not having a wardrobe full of good clothes that He could not even put but He got good clothes whenever He needed them.
God wants us to operate in the same auction – the auction of having money whenever you need it. God does not want us to be financially stressed. That was why Jesus could hire ships and small boats to embark on His ministry trips without financial stress.
Don’t forget, boats and ships were the highest level of transportation in His days. That means if He were physically on earth today, maybe He will not just be hiring the best cars for ministry trips but airplanes and private Jets.
Come to think of it, Jesus had enough supernatural financial power that no thief could run His account dry.
HE WAS SO RICH IN THIS POWER THAT HE MADE A THIEF HIS TREASURER.
The man was stealing His money yet it never ran dry. That was not ordinary; neither can it be the story of a poor man on the streets of Jerusalem going about telling parables.
While He never engaged in any business, Jesus had a team of notable people supporting His ministry. In other words, He had financial partners. He did not make them ministry partners by force the way many preachers do today. Neither did he manipulate, seduced, or hoodwink the people to become His partners in ministry like most prophets do today.
The Bible made it clear in the book of Luke that those who were healed of different diseases voluntarily decided to become His financial partners and created a support system for His ministry.
You may not have seen all these in the Bible but they are there.
He enjoyed the prosperity of the righteous as King of kings and LORD of lords walking the earth realm. And if we are to look unto Him as the author and finisher of our faith, we must also look unto Him in money matters.
He walked this earth to show us how to walk the earth.
He spoke about money in the same spirit and passion He did about Heaven and Hell. The only thing He frowned at is a disciple making money his or her god. He warned that we cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot be loyal to both. If we are loyal to mammon, we will never be loyal to God.
MONEY BECOMES A CURSE IN OUR LIVES WHEN WE BECOME MORE LOYAL TO RICHES THAN TO GOD.
I guess this is where some prefer poverty. However, they forget that it’s easier to serve God in riches than in poverty. One can still be a servant of mammon even in poverty. The word mammon simply means riches!
Mammon was a Canaanite god in charge of riches.
Today, it manifests as a spirit that makes Christians trade relationship with God on the altar of money making. That is why God will never give His Child money in surplus until He delivers Him from the mammon spirit.
Money to those who have been delivered from the mammon spirit is simply an instrument for serving God and advancing His purposes. The more of it they have, the more of God’s will they can do. The less of it they have, the less of God’s will they can do. That is why God cannot afford to keep us poor; especially those of us who understand His will.
The Bible made it clear that His cities or purposes can only be spread through our prosperity. It is our prosperity that will put the word of the LORD on radio. It is our prosperity that will feed the poor, clothe the naked, build houses for the homeless, and send the fatherless to schools.
And it’s important to note that prosperity is not limited to finance. It is a whole package! There is marital prosperity. There is the prosperity of sound Health; which many do not have. There is the prosperity of the mind.
When God said His cities, plans or purposes will prosper by our prosperity, He was referring to prosperity as a total package.
As you embrace this weekday, I want you to understand that money was not meant to be on our head but under our feet. God created earthly treasures not to be served but to serve His will.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“Again proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “My cities shall again spread out through prosperity; the Lord will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”‘” Zachariah 1:17 NKJV