TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 27TH AUGUST 2024)
“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 240TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Today we will continue with the word of the LORD on the prosperity of the righteous. Do not forget, the three kinds of prosperities in God’s kingdom. What many have is the prosperity of the wicked.
To start with, I want you to understand and get it straight into your spirit man that God wants you to prosper economically, even 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. Some even believe that 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. But that cross, is not perpetual poverty or adversity, but the price of doing divine will. Yes, the price could be temporally adversity, lack, or poverty like what Paul had, but it is not a perpetual adversity, lack or poverty like many who claim to be suffering for Christ are.
Some hold another dangerous view; they believe Jesus was poor so they should also be poor. In fact, someone once attacked me with this school of thought. But Jesus was not poor. He was rich in spiritual wealth, and never poor naturally.
What the Bible described as “the poverty of Jesus,” was not a reference to an economic lack or scarcity. It was referring to His glory above that he stripped Himself off to save us.
If poverty was a blessing, Heaven would not have been full of gold, Adam would not have had gold in the rivers that was in his Eden, the very place God touched down on mount Sinai would not have had Sapphire formed in it.
Above all, Israel would have been allowed to remain in poverty in Egypt. If they were to be delivered at all, the would have left without the gold the LORD plundered the Egyptians to give them.
ALL THESE BIBLE RECORDS ARE A PROOF THAT POVERTY IS NOT A BLESSING.
It might be used to help us gain some spiritual mileage in our walk with the LORD, but it is not one of the things in God that qualifies to be called a blessing.
So, Jesus was not poor as being poor is known to be.
If you study that part of the Bible carefully, you will realize that God’s pen, apostle Paul, was comparing the eternal glory Jesus stripped Himself off, to be able to die and redeem us, with the glory of this earth, which is not glory at all.
Though He owned no Estates, Jesus had a house even before stepping into ministry. He was not living on the street. 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 had a large cliental in His village, that was why everyone knew Him as the son of the carpenter. So He was indeed rich – both in Spirit and in truth. He was not rich with the prosperity of the wicked that we see in church today, He was rich. He was not poor!!
In fact, 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! 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 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 unction – the unction of having money whenever we need it. That is the unction we need to function in the economic world without defilement, or without becoming plagued with the love of money.
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.
Yes, He would not have hired them for a show up, but as a facility for soul winning.
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 without becoming bankrupt.
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 them to become His partners in ministry.
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; if we are to look unto Him as the author and finisher of our faith, we must also look unto Him as the author and finisher (not consumer) of our finances.
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 other things.
The only thing He frowned at, is when a disciple of His, begin to make 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. Yes, I have seen many poor people who worship mammon using God as a covering.
The word mammon simply means riches!
Mammon was a Canaanite god in charge of riches. 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 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.
Finally, it’s important to note that prosperity is not limited to finance. Prosperity is a whole package!
There is spiritual prosperity, there is marital prosperity. There is the prosperity of sound Health; which many do not have. There is the prosperity of the mind, which Daniel first had in Babylon, making he and the rest of his friends, ten time better than the rest.
In few years, they were ahead of all the rest because it is your head that puts you ahead.
When God said His cities or plans and purposes will prosper by our prosperity, He was referring to prosperity as a total package. That should tell you that the destiny of kingdom advance lies in our prosperity, and the King will not want any of us poor.
So, we must make up our minds to begin to fulfill our divine destinies. We must begin to solve the problems we were designed or born to solve. We must begin to yield to the LORD and unlock our prosperity. 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