TODAY’S DEVOTION (SATURDAY 23rd August 2025)
“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 VICTORY
God wants you to prosper. I am sure you have heard these words repeatedly from the lips of so many preachers. Indeed, like every good Father would desire for his Children, God wants every of His Child to prosper.
Sadly, some are not prospering because they do not understand what prosperity is about. Some take materialism to be prosperity while others believe Prosperity is not for the righteous. While some believe having money is a sign of Christianity, others believe that poverty and adversity are a mark of true discipleship.
There is a whole lot of confusion on this important aspect of life. The Bible teaches that neither poverty nor prosperity are signs of true relationship with God. Both schools of thought are heretic.
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 temporary scarcity, but not perpetual adversity and poverty.
We have been looking at things that our destiny needs to be fulfilled. One of it is the fulfilment of God’s righteous will for us. One of God’s righteous will is that we prosper and be in health even as our souls prosper. The Bible calls that the prosperity of the righteous.
It is God’s righteous will that all who fear Him prosper economically. Sadly, as stated earlier, some believe otherwise. There are those who believe Jesus was poor so they should also be poor. In fact, someone attacked me with this school of thought.
But Jesus was not economically poor. What the Bible described as “the poverty of Jesus” has nothing to do with the earthly. Paul was comparing the eternal glory Jesus stripped Himself off to come and die for our redemption, with earthly glories that man prides himself in.
WHATEVER, THE EARTH CONSIDERS AS GLORIOUS IS POVERTY COMPARED TO WHAT HEAVEN CONSIDERS AS GLORIOUS.
So, Jesus was not poor in the sense that 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, before abandoning all for ministry. He was known as the son of the carpenter.
Carpentry in those days was not just for furniture making but for building houses for clients also. So, before He went into full time ministry, Jesus and Joseph had a large cliental. That explains why everyone knew Him as the son of the carpenter. So, He was rich – both in Spirit and in truth.
He just lived modestly and never walked in materialism.
Those who said He was poor should put this into consideration. A man who could get money from the mouth of fishes cannot be described as poor. Jesus was rich enough to pay all his bills. He was rich enough to withdraw money from the mouth of a fish.
If you can get money to settle your bills that way, you are not poor. Come to talk of the economic prosperity of the righteous – it could even come from fishes, or any other uncommon channels God chooses to use.
Jesus never wore cheap clothes. Many do not know this! His garment was so expensive 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 were the most expensive! It was a prophetic requirement for Him to put on seamless garments. If He had no money to get one, then that prophetic aspect of His life would have failed.
If a Child of God is perpetually poor, or rich with the prosperity of the wicked, there are prophetic aspects of his life that will never be fulfilled. That is why Satan and religion love keeping many in the faith either poor or rich with the prosperity of the wicked.
YOU CAN NOT FULFILL A DIVINE DESTINY WITH THE PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED.
In the areas of transportation, though He owned no ship or boat because He was not rich with the prosperity of a fool, neither did He come to show us how to acquire earthly riches, 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 passenger planes and the best private Jets. I am yet to see someone that the devil made as rich as Jesus.
Someone might say Solomon. But Jesus was the one who gave Solomon the riches he owned. As rich as the King was, Jesus Himself said this while revealing Himself: “greater than Solomon is here.” A man who makes others rich is the greatest and richest.
As a minister of the gospel who gave miracles freely, unlike the preachers of today, Jesus was so rich that he made a thief His treasurer, yet His money never ran dry. The man was stealing His money, yet it never ran dry. No poor man can survive when a thief becomes his treasurer, so Jesus was not poor.
Jesus was so rich that the greed of His treasurer could not make Him poor. He also had team of notable people supporting His ministry. No poor man would have that. In other words, He had financial partners who constantly supported His ministry.
The Bible made it clear in the book of Luke that those who were healed of different diseases supported His ministry financially. He never asked anyone to sow a seed for a miracle, or not to appear before Him empty handed like many preachers do today. He was too rich to do such sinful things or commit such trespasses.
YOU MAY NOT HAVE SEEN ALL THESE IN THE BIBLE BUT THEY ARE THERE.
Any preacher who has become economically fat with the money of the people he manipulated to give to him, is very poor in God’s sight. Any preacher who tells you to be sacrificing towards his ministry or not to appear before him empty handed is empty headed.
Even if he becomes very rich that way, he or she is very poor in God’s sight. The prosperity of the wicked is not riches but an abomination in God’s sight.
Jesus also 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 and lived an economic lifestyle that showed us how to walk the earth.
To buttress the importance of our economic lives being fine, Jesus spoke about money in the same spirit and under the same anointing that He used in speaking about Heaven and Hell.
The only thing He frowned at is a disciple making money his or her god or his or her purpose for serving 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.
Sadly, many of us in Church today are not heeding to these warnings. We serve money in the pretense of serving God.
Money becomes a curse where we become more loyal to it 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. It is the 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 they will do. The less of it they have, the less of God’s they can do. That is why God cannot afford to keep them poor; especially those who understand His redemptive plans for mankind.
The Bible made it clear that His cities or purposes can only be spread through our prosperity. That is whole lot of messages there!!
It is our spiritual and economic prosperity that will put the word of the LORD on the media. It is our spiritual and economic 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 or plans and purposes will prosper by our prosperity, He was referring to prosperity as a total package.
It is my prayer that the LORD pour upon your life the total package of prosperity. Amen and 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
