Tuesday, August 5, 2008

It's amazing

It is amazing the number of emails that I receive from those who try to discourage me from 'preaching prosperity.' This first of all tells me that they have not read what I teach at the Christian Success Institute. They quote scriptures and try to convince me that wealth and the pursuit of wealth is evil and that I am leading people away from Christ. Some have even told me that to be pious means that you must suffer.

Have these people even read the Holy Bible? I find it hard to believe that these people are experiencing an original thought. I hear echoes of past teaching where the 'church' wanted to keep the masses in control by not allowing them to learn to read. Keep the people dumb and poor and they would be easier to control.

I have read and re-read the Holy Bible. I believe God when He says that He wants us to prosper as our souls prosper. I believe Him when He says to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and His Righteousness. I believe Him when He tells me that He has created this wonderful world for His favorite creation - mankind.

Why would a God who is a Spirit living in a Spiritual Kingdom have a need for anything physical? Why did He create gold and silver and diamonds and rubies? Why did He create this beautiful physical world with all of its bounty and resources? He created it for those who love Him. It was our disobedience that caused us to loose the dominion over this entire world, the dominion which He gave us.

I realize that the pursuit of wealth for selfishness and greed is definitely wrong and will lead to sin. When we worship that which is created more than the One who created it, we stray from the true path to success. When we allow our greed to motivate us, we are headed for a slippery slope.

In Matthew 6:30-36 Jesus tells us not to worry about what we shall have to eat or to drink or where we will live. He said seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness. In 2 Timothy 2:15 we are told to study to show ourselves approved.

God knows that it takes money to buy food, to pay the mortgage, to drive a car, to have electricity. It takes money for us to live and it takes money to support those who go into the field to spread the Good News. That is simply the fact of living in this physical world. How can a bunch of poor Christians live and support those who are out spreading the Gospel?

He wants us to prosper. He wants us to seek Him. He wants each one of us to be stewards of all of His physical possessions (the gold, the silver, the cattle on a thousand hills.) He wants us to have enough, an abundance, not for our own greed but to provide for those who do not have. He wants each of us to be a conduit for the blessings of others.

Remember when Jesus said that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle that for a wealthy man to enter heaven? What do you think that He meant? The Eye of The Needle is a small, short gate into the city that was used after nightfall. It was difficult to maneuver. The camels, laden with their cargo, had to get down on their knees to go inside of the walled city through the small gate. It was difficult but not impossible.

A wealthy man who is in love with his wealth will never bend to his knees. He will always stand proud and haughty. A successful Christian stays on his knees praising God for His favor.It is our duty to study diligently to learn everything about our Holy God and the promises that He has made. In His Holy Bible He has given us all of the directions for living successfully. When our focus is on Christ, our hearts and our minds are on Christ. He will favor us. He will open the windows of heaven to shower us with everything that we will need to accomplish His will for us in this life. The more we diligently study His Word, the more we will show ourselves approved to be stewards of His possessions. He will bless us in order for us to bless others.


Psalms 1:1-3
1 Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

Isaiah 1:19
19 If you are willing and obedient,
You shall eat the good of the land;

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