TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 16TH DECEMBER 2023)
“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 350TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
God has kept us for 350 days this year alone. We did not pay anything to have Him do that. He placed all that cost on Himself. If He had placed it on us, we would have long been dead.
We give him all the glory for His faithfulness and marvelous kindness. Maintaining this attitude of gratitude in a yuletide season, is the best faith position to take for the now.
Today we will continue with the flow that we started yesterday; the release of destiny and the prosperity of the righteous.
To start with, I want you to understand and get it straight into your spirit that as a child of God, 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 of us are not prospering because we do not understand what prosperity is all about. Neither do many of us know God’s ways that guarantees the prosperity of the righteous, as outlined yesterday.
There are some of us who even believe that economic Prosperity is not for the righteous. This group 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. That cross is the price you pay for doing or living in divine will and ways.
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 absence of money or economy hardship. Paul was comparing the eternal glory Jesus stripped Himself off, with the earthly glory; a price He paid for our redemption.
From eternity point of view, whatever the earth considers as glorious, is poverty compared to what Heaven consider glorious. So, Jesus was not poor in the sense that we know poverty to be.
Though He owned no Estates, neither did he sanction materialism, 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.
He engaged his hands in solving the economic problems of his family and earned some money. That was why He had a large cliental, and grew up with the reputation of being the son of a carpenter (Joseph).
WHEN HE STEPPED INTO MINISTRY, GOD INCREASED HIM FINANCIALLY.
So, He was not poor. He was rich; both in Spirit and in truth. That was why He could withdraw money from the mouth of fishes. He could make fishes his ATM machines. You do not call such a man poor.
As man, He was rich enough to pay all His bills! He was not poor. He was just content and 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 whenever you need it.
Like I said, He was not materialistic but content. He had some expensive clothes that came in form of seamless garments; the best of His day.
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.
I reiterate again that in His days, seamless garments where the most expensive! He wore His as a fulfilment of prophecy. Sometimes, it takes divine provision to fulfill prophecies.
THOUGH HE WAS NOT HAVING A WARDROBE FULL OF GOOD CLOTHES THAT HE COULD NOT EVEN PUT ON, HE GOT GOOD CLOTHES WHENEVER HE NEEDED THEM.
God wants us to operate in the same anointing – the anointing of having money whenever we need it, irrespective of an economic situation. It is anointing from Heaven that helps a man on earth to destroy economic hardship.
God wants us to operate in it, hence sending us His holy Spirit.
As we can see in the life of Christ, as man, Heaven does not want us to be financially stressed on earth. That was why Jesus could hire ships and small boats, to embark on His ministry trips. He had them 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. However, not at the expense of the poor, or through what is called altar of sacrifice in church today.
Maybe, He would have been calling the monies from whales in the ocean.
Come to think of it, Jesus had enough supernatural financial power that no thief could run down. He was so rich in this power that He made a thief His treasurer yet never lacked money.
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 money-making business, apart from this supernatural system of supply, which if a preacher does not have, he or she will begin to open businesses, or ask people to sow seeds, raise altars of sacrifices, give first fruits, or redeem their first born, 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.
This was without Him asking them to do so.
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. But never made having money a sign of discipleship. He frowned at His disciples making money their 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. He made it clear that, 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 is 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 in the electronic and print media.
It is our prosperity that will feed the poor, clothe the naked, build houses for the homeless, and send the fatherless to schools.
Finally, it is important to note that prosperity is a whole package! It is not limited to finances. 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 or plans and purposes will prosper by our prosperity, He was referring to prosperity as a total package. May you have it in its total package in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
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