TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 21ST OCTOBER 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 295TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
We bless our LORD and saviour Jesus Christ for giving us another day. Not everyone who slept last night woke up this morning. He did not keep us because we are better than them. It is out of His mercies that we are not consumed, for His compassion fails not.
Indeed, as David would have put it if he were here, if the LORD should mark iniquities, we shall not stand. But there is forgiveness with Him so that He may be feared.
It’s a great privilege to serve the God who created Heaven and earth and to hear Him call us His own. It’s a privilege to get out of a life of sin, separate from the evil and corrupt systems of this world, and break ties with everything satanic and be separated unto Christ alone.
That was in effect what our father Abraham did when he was called out of his father’s house.
Genuine salvation involves walking away from darkness and clinging unto Jesus Christ – the true light; not for one day, two days, one month or one year but forever. That is how we become rich in spiritual and earthly Blessings.
However, the greatness of each one’s riches is determined by so many factors which space will not let me state. One of it is our ability to follow Jesus without missing one step – our ability to make His footsteps our pathways, knowing well that He cares about our earthly needs as well as our spiritual needs.
No one who follows Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth misses the riches of His mercies, the riches of His grace and the riches of His glory; especially this end times. The reason for that is simple.
Those kingdom riches are who He is, and what He gives to us, and are capable of making earthly riches (a major tool for doing His blessed will) available to us. And there is so much to do with both spiritual and natural riches this end times, especially in view of transforming moral landscapes and leading men and women genuinely to the LORD.
In our devotional today’s, I will be sharing with us Bible truths on our economic lives. I hope you are ready!
TO START WITH, I WANT TO SUBMIT TO YOU THAT GOD WANTS YOU TO PROSPER; ESPECIALLY AS YOUR SOUL PROSPER.
Maybe you might not have heard those words, but they are true. They are Biblical. Yes, God wants us to prosper as our souls prospers.
A lot of present-day teachings on economic prosperity misses the need for the prosperity of our souls. Leading to a large number of people who either do not know about the prosperity of the soul nor care about it. They just want God to give them money!
You see, allegorically, we are the wife of Christ; that is if we belong to the true Church, and we will be a very bad wife if all we want is His money and not a relationship with Him. That is what we call the harlot Church in the apostolic. But God wants us to prosper economically, as our walk and talk with Him prospers.
Another problem we are having is, some are prospering in their spiritual lives but it is not translating to the prosperity of their economic lives, because they shut down in that area. They shut down righteous money-making principles, and became poor.
Some even said God wanted them to leave their jobs and sit at home to be praying and fasting.
Well, God might want you to leave a job that is not in line with His righteous ways, but He will not keep you idle. He would not want you down economically because you are up spiritually. He will get you another means of livelihood, if you seek Him and use your brain properly.
People who become prosperous in their spiritual lives and shut down in their economic lives will make Christianity look like a reproach to the unbelievers, hindering their salvation. God cares, and will not want that to happen to any of us.
Indeed, like every good father will desire for his Children, God wants every of His Child to prosper economically as their spiritual lives comes alive.
Sadly, some are not prospering because they do not understand what prosperity is all about. Many think the word “prosperity” describes a life of having all your need and getting all you can. That is wrong. They take materialism for prosperity, hence piercing themselves with many sorrows.
MATERIALISM IS THE TENDENCY OF CONSIDERING MATERIAL POSSESSION AND PHYSICAL COMFORT AS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SPIRITUAL VALUES.
It is responsible for the replacement of Heaven making doctrines, with money- making doctrines in church. It is the reason the present Church has preachers who are so rich, even owning private jet, but with no moral authority in the nations of the earth.
Yes, it is the reason the church no longer functions as the pillar and ground of truth in so many nations where Christianity is allowed.
The enthronement of materialism in the Christian faith has indeed ruined so much. That is why we have so many anti-Christ doctrines everywhere.
Many now believe if you have no money, you are not born again.
Their sign of Christianity is no longer righteousness, purity, chastity, holiness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. It is having money in your pocket. The Christianity of many today is now built around material possession, fame and fortune, as opposed to spiritual things.
These things are responsible for the worship of mammon as God in church. But the Bible says we cannot serve God and mammon.
There is also another wrong belief thriving among some. This one was cooked many yes ago by the perverted Catholic church, the one that the reformers had to stand against. It is a belief that says financial Prosperity is not for the righteous.
This belief has been peddled for years, and it is for the purpose of dealing with it that the gospel of materialism called “the gospel of prosperity” emerged. It promotes a kind of Christianity that tells you poverty and adversity are marks of true discipleship.
However, the two set of believe are not the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of Christ teaches that a rich, pure, holy and righteous Child of God, with strong connectivity with Heaven, can be an effective tool of kingdom advance in God’s hands.
Satan fears such a soul and would not love to see anyone rise into that faith position.
The truth is, if you have a wrong believe of anything in the kingdom of God, it will hinder you from manifesting the blessing of the kingdom in that aspect of your life. We must come into an accurate revelation of prosperity in the kingdom of God to live in prosperity as God’s kingdom citizens.
Revelation remains Heaven’s clearance to the earth to come into things supernatural – especially things that will equip us financially to do God’s blessed will. These are not days of walking in darkness or wrong understanding of things in the kingdom.
These are days of clarity of vision and revelation.
Your life will become clear and exciting if you walk in the clarity of the vision of God’s plans and programs for your life and the scriptural revelation of things in His kingdom that have been made available to you.
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 sometimes back when he heard me preach about financial abundance by the power of God. But Jesus was not poor.
What the Bible described as “the poverty of Jesus” has nothing to do with the earthly.
The Bible was comparing the eternal glory Jesus stripped Himself off, to the earthly glory we celebrate as glory, hence using that phrase. The scriptures made it clear that whatever the earth considers as glorious is poverty compared to what Heaven consider as glorious.
THAT IS THE IMPORT OF THAT PHRASE.
God cannot afford to keep His own poor this end times because the execution of His end time redemption programs rests upon our shoulders; the Bible says His government shall be upon our shoulders.
In my opinion, the faith of Lazarus in the story of the Rich Man & Lazarus, was a great faith. It helped him so much, it made him Heaven worthy despite his economic status. It is not easy to make Heaven in his kind of circumstances. So, it was a beautiful faith.
But when it comes to financing the kingdom of God, his kind of faith will not be of help. It would need to be taken to the next righteous level; the level of not being a beggar but one who works with his hands. The Bible says God will bless the works of our hands, especially the one we do within His will.
So, if our hands are doing no work, God will have nothing to bless. Our spiritual lives could be up there, but if that faith is not been translated into having something in God’s will to do with our hands, we will be like Lazarus.
Like I stated earlier, thank God he made Heaven, but he got there with no soul to present to Jesus. So, in the final day when we will all appear before the LORD, he will only have one out of the five crowns keep for the righteous as a reward.
Friend, God cannot afford to keep us poor this end time, like Lazarus was.
We cannot be eating under the table of the rich and be able to preach on the media, and do all the money-things that need to be done to save souls today. So, Jesus was not poor in the sense that we know poverty to be.
In fact, if you look at Bible History, He was not even poor by earth’s definition of poverty. So why should we be? If He was poor, He would not have been able to do the many things He did.
The Bible made it clear that though He owned no Estates, because it was unnecessary, but He had a house even before stepping into ministry.
He was a carpenter but it was what we will call real Estate today, because carpentry was not just furniture making in His days. They built homes for clients also. He had a large cliental, that was why everyone knew Him as the son of the carpenter.
So, he was indeed rich – both in spirit and in truth, and that is what god wants for you and I. Those who call Him poor are ignorant.
I said it before that if you call a man who could get money from the mouth of fishes “poor,” it means you are ignorant! He was rich enough to pay all His bills when He was physically on earth! So, you should not be owing everyone around. You should be able to pay your bills too.
THAT IS THE WILL OF GOD FOR YOUR LIFE.
Those who studied the details said, His garment was so expensive that people 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 were the most expensive!
He 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, He will not just be hiring the best cars for ministry trips but airplanes and private Jets.
He was so rich that He made a thief His treasurer.
The man was stealing yet His money never ran dry. Thieves will tell you, try to steal from the poor and see what will happen to him or her. There will be nothing to even steal in most cases. Those who have something to be stolen from them will immediately feel the impact of a thief’s visit.
He later quit carpentry for full time ministry. That happen at 30. His later means of livelihood came through the power of God on his life. That power gave him a team of notable women who supported his ministry financially.
In other words, He had financial partners. The Bible made it clear in the book of Luke that those who were healed of different diseases supported His ministry financially. You may not have seen all these in the Bible but they are there. That is why it’s important to learn to read the Bible yourself and not just stop at what people are saying.
Jesus enjoyed the prosperity of the righteous as King of kings and LORD of lords, walking the earth realm with deep humility and strong financial stability. He never had the prosperity of the wicked or that of a fool, that is why people calls him poor.
Those who call Him poor only know about the prosperity of the wicked and that and a fool, and since they cannot trace it in Jesus, they end up calling Him poor.
BUT FROM THE INDICES OF THE PROSPERITY OF THE RIGHTEOUS, JESUS WAS NOT POOR.
It is important to note that, the People of this world do not celebrate the prosperity of the righteous because it is far different from that of the wicked, or that of a fool. It is not materialism but the opposite of it, with a lot of godliness and contentment.
I believe, if we are to look unto Him as the author and finisher of our faith, we must also learn to look unto Him in money matters as the author and finisher. He walked this earth in the prosperity of the righteous to show us how to walk the earth living in the prosperity of the righteous.
He spoke about hell and Heaven more than He spoke about money, but He spoke about all of them with the same spirit and passion, stressing the importance of making Heaven and also having money for kingdom advance while you are on your way there.
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. We must be loyal to God alone and then money will find us. His teachings made it clear that money will become a curse in our lives when we shift our loyalty from God to it.
I guess this is where some prefer poverty. However, they forget that it’s easier to serve God in riches if Christ is established in your heart, than to serve Him in poverty. One can still be a servant of mammon even in poverty.
In fact, mammon worshipers are made up of both the poor and the rich, the great and small, the sick and the healthy and etc. So, it’s not about our financial status but the state of our heart; it’s about who enjoys the most of our allegiance, God or mammon?
The word mammon simply means riches. Mammon was a Canaanite god in charge of riches; a manifestation of Baal. 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 them poor; especially if they understand His will for their lives.
As you embrace this day, 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 or worshipped, but to be used in serving and worshipping Him. You can get more truths on these things from our books, “PROVISION FROM UNEXPECTED ENDS,” and “YOU SHALL NOT BE POOR.”
May the LORD God bless and keep you for His Heavenly kingdom. Amen!!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
“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