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"Prosperity with a Purpose" by Brian Sauder |
Go For It…Start Now!
I guess by now you realize what challenge I am going to give to you. Would you be willing to pray the same risky prayer that I did, “Holy Spirit, teach me to prosper?” Will you take El Shaddai at His Word as we have studied it?
Maybe you still have some lingering doubts. Where is the balance in all of this? Is there a side of this biblical truth that we are not seeing? I dare say there is a balance, and I intend to address it. However, it might not be what you expect.
The balance to prosperity is not poverty. Biblically, there is no such thing as a little bit of prosperity and a little bit of poverty to balance it out. My son plays on a soccer team. I encourage him to play his best, stay humble and be successful. I don’t tell him to “do well, but not too well.” I don’t tell him to “score goals, but not too many goals.” I cheer him on to be successful on the soccer field.
Giving is the balance
The balance to prosperity is “giving.” We should not live to get, we should live to give. In the Old Testament, the ark represented the presence of God. Wherever the ark went, God brought financial blessing. His presence brought blessing. It was part of His nature then and it is part of His nature now. He has not changed, He wants to bless us so we can be a blessing to others.
We need natural riches
The spirit of poverty is a specific and strategic stronghold opposing the church to hold it back and keep it from growing. The devil is not as concerned about the church having spiritual riches as long as he can hinder the church from receiving the natural riches needed to export the spiritual riches. The spirit of poverty must be rooted out of the church so that natural riches can be provided for us to complete our task of fulfilling the Great Commission.
We have to move away from a dualistic mindset that says spiritual riches are good and natural riches are bad. Money is more than merely a necessary evil, it is a vital tool God wants to put in our hands so we can succeed in what we are called to do.
If there is a prophetic re-releasing of the biblical prosperity message to the church community as I suggested earlier, we would find it beginning to emerge various places in the body of Christ.
Listen to what C. Peter Wagner says in his book Churchquake. This quote comes from a chapter entitled “Money, No Problem.”
My first 35 years of ordained ministry were spent in the environment of churches that seemed to have chronic money problems. Out of that grew an assumption that no church has enough money to do what it believes it really ought to be doing. During the past few years, however, I have discovered that there are, in fact, many churches that have relatively few money problems and that seem to be able to do just about everything they want to do.1
I believe it is a new day for the church in the area of finances. In his book Profit for the Lord, William Danker chronicled the story of the Moravians and how they started many kinds of businesses to make money, both at home base and on the mission field, to fund their endeavors. He closes the book with these thoughts:
Once again we may have to look to a small, dedicated group of people like the Moravians, people who will perform heroically in the world mission out of all proportion to their numbers. These charismatic, Spirit-filled individuals will seek every possible channel through which they can make or support their witness.2
Will you be one of these dedicated people who will answer the Lord’s call to fund the Great Commission?
Prosperity of the soul
I want to caution you not to think about getting a second or third job and working twice as hard to become prosperous. If this is what you are thinking, you are missing the point. Maybe if you had five jobs, then you would have more money. You just wouldn’t sleep. No, this is not God’s will. This is poverty thinking. I like to think of the example of a farmer with his crops growing while he sleeps at night. He works hard during the day, but his seed is growing in the nighttime while he is sleeping.
I love the scripture found in Ecclesiastes 2:26, “To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
Prosperity of soul will cause us to prosper in all areas. It comes out from within us. It is not the result of our striving. What could Joseph have done to promote himself from slavery to the second highest government official in all of Egypt? It would not have happened by his own efforts.
Don’t strive to be prosperous
I live in the middle of rich Pennsylvania farmland. There was a farmer in our area who constantly worked his equipment with the throttle wide open. He even drove from the barn to the field as fast as he could. Another wise, prosperous farmer was heard saying this farmer would never be able to make any money because his equipment simply would not last. A few years later, the first farmer had to sell his farm and take another job.
Our bodies were not made to be running at full throttle eighteen hours a day, seven days a week. God has a path of blessing for you to walk in. Let Him do it. Let the Word of God cause faith to rise in your heart to embrace El Shaddai and your expectation of God’s financial provision of more than enough. Expect Him to teach you to prosper. Allow Him to change your beliefs. If your patterns of thinking change, the words that you speak will begin to change. If your words change, your actions will change. And, if your actions change, the outcome will change.
Listen to how the Living Bible translates Habakkuk 2:3, “Slowly, steadily surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled, do not despair for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient, they will not be overdue a single day.” The Holy Spirit is a patient teacher. There is a proverb that states the path of the righteous is like the dawning sun, shining brighter and brighter until the full day. Let faith for biblical prosperity grow inside of you and nothing will be able to contain it.
Teach me to prosper
Your finances are not the responsibility of the government, your family or the church. If you feel like a victim of fate, the lack of opportunities, the choices of others or circumstances beyond your control, I want to encourage you to take a fresh look at your situation.
It might seem like you are in a hopeless, financial cycle and you cannot do anything to change it. It may feel like this is your lot in life. However, I want to remind you that this type of fatalistic thinking is more Hindu/Buddhist in nature than Christian. You can do something to change your financial condition. Your finances are your responsibility. It is great if others help, but the responsibility is yours. You are the one who must believe in God as El Shaddai.
You are currently reaping what you have sown in your finances. Allow the Holy Spirit to show you what changes may be necessary. You have heard my story, and I am sure yours will be different, but just as exciting. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you to prosper and let the adventure begin.
As I prayed this prayer, it was answered over a number of years, so you might want to pick this book back up again a year from now and see if there are any new insights the Lord would give you.
NOTES
1 C. Peter Wagner, Churchquake! (Ventura, California: Regal Books, 1999), p. 242
2 Profit for the Lord, William J. Danker, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, out of print), p. 142.
Small Group Study Questions
1. What is the balance to biblical prosperity?
2. How can we unashamedly expect God to provide us with natural riches?
3. How can striving for riches keep us from having a prosperous soul?
4. If the Holy Spirit is a patient teacher, how should we expect Him to teach us to prosper?
5. Will you pray the prayer, “Holy Spirit, teach me to prosper”?
