Biblical Prosperity

It is interesting to me that Genesis states there was gold in the Garden of Eden. Later, God moved on the Egyptians to give silver and gold to the children of Israel as they had requested before they left Egypt. God included gold rings in the blessing he gave to Job. In Haggai, gold and silver are mentioned in the same context as the glory of God.

I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty” (Haggai 2:7-9).

Have you read through the Song of Solomon? As you read the description of the bride you will find that she looks beautiful! Oh…and interestingly enough she is wearing gold and silver.

Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver (Song of Solomon 1:10-12).

Relax. I am not suggesting we start the First Church of the Gold and Silver or a new theology of wealth. I just want to point out it doesn’t seem that God minds having gold and silver around. He is probably more comfortable with it than most Christians. In fact, he uses it for a paving material in the New Jerusalem. Clearly God’s economy is different than ours.

Ephraim Tumusiime is a leader of leaders in the nation of Uganda. He leads a local church in Kampala but also gives oversight to many pastors throughout Uganda. Ephraim is a humble man who is doing great things for God in his nation. They are planting churches, building schools, feeding orphan children and bringing healing and restoration to a country that was brutalized by the dictator Idi Amin as portrayed in the movie “The Last King of Scotland.”

Ephraim and his wife, Joyce, now oversee more than 80 churches in Uganda. A few years ago they doubled the number of DOVE churches in Uganda in just two years. It was a dramatic growth spurt. How could they double the number of churches in two years? Was it a sovereign move of God? Yes, God is moving there. Was it his great charismatic leadership? Yes, Ephraim is a good leader. Are they in the middle of a revival? Yes, the spiritual climate is good. However, part of the reason the number of churches has doubled is that someone spent $20,000 to buy Ephraim and Joyce a new four wheel drive vehicle so they could reach the remote rural areas of Uganda. The new vehicle is a real part of helping the kingdom of God expand in Uganda.

It is that simple—it takes money to extend the kingdom of God. Traveling ministers need transportation, cars need gas, buildings need electricity, people need to eat, the unreached need church planters, teen centers need gymnasiums, ministries need computers and the poor need jobs created for them. It takes money.

Try this exercise this week-end to help change the power and effect of your words. The following are words that we have spoken over ourselves or others have spoken over us that we want to revoke, thus canceling their effect and breaking their power. Print this out. Write them down and then draw a line through them, breaking their power in Jesus’ name! Sign and date. Then write down the opposite and say them out loud. Do it! Take action.

a. Ex: “I will always work this dead-end job!                

b.

c.

d.

These words have no power over me in Jesus’ name!

Date:

Name:

What words will we replace them with?

Ex: “I will get ahead.” Ex: “I will get a promotion” or “I will do what it takes to get a better paying job.”            

a.

b.

c.

d.

Boldly say these words you have written out loud right now! Repeat them three times.

In summary, it does matter what we say about our finances because the Bible says we will eat the fruit of our words. God speaks and things come to pass, and He wants us to speak forth His will for our lives and life situations and it will come to pass.

One more great example from the Bible is when the twelve spies returned from their trip to spy out the promised land. Ten of them said they could not conquer the land, but two-Joshua and Caleb-said God would give it to them. Joshua and Caleb got to see the land. They said God would give it to them and they got to see it happen. The spies who said they weren’t strong enough to do it, didn’t do it.

So there are two sides to this coin. First, the words that we have spoken that we shouldn’t have like the veteran missionary who spoke lack over his family. We want to delete these words and their power over our lives. Sometimes, as well, it is the words that others have spoken over our lives that need to be deleted. I will show you how to do this in my next blog. The other side of the coin is represented by the faith-filled, creative words that the Holy Spirit is prompting us to say to change our present reality.

I think that God uses the practical things in our lives to teach us spiritual lessons.  I remember distinctly the Holy Spirit prompting me to change the words I spoke about purchasing cars. Years ago while I was listening to a financial expert I heard a recommendation to never purchase a new car because of the loss of value that happens when you take the car off the sales lot. For example you might purchase a new car for $20,000 but as soon as you drive it off the sales lot it is now a “used” car and only worth $17,000. I adopted this view as my own and proudly stated many times that I would never purchase a new car because it was such a bad deal. Consequently, we always owned and drove used cars some of which had significant maintenance costs due to the amount of miles that were on the car.

I was driving in one of my used vehicles with a history of maintenance issues and I remembered the declaration I had spoken about never purchasing a new car. I sensed the Holy Spirit saying this to me, “What if I tell you to buy a new car?” I sat there in the drivers seat in shock. I was not convinced it was, in fact, the Lord speaking but I responded by saying, “Yes, I would” because I am in submission to his will for my life. Still, I was so convinced buying a new car was a bad deal that I didn’t think He would ever tell me to do it.

As it turned out, this was what God was saying to me. In fact, I felt like I should start to say different words to replace my previous ones. So I started to say, “I will buy a new car”, though only in private settings. I found that it was actually a little hard for me to get those words out of my mouth which underlined to me that I was probably on the right track. He was prompting me to replace my previous words, “I will never buy a new car,” with different words which would produce a different outcome in my life. As you might expect from reading these blogs within two years I purchased the first new car of my life. It was a little difficult for me to break thru this ceiling that I put on my life by my own words, but I did it. I drove that new car without maintenance problems for many years.

In using this example, I am not implying it is God’s will for everyone to buy a new car. Since that time I have purchased both new and used cars to meet the needs of our family.

If you are not saying it…you are not creating it. Really? Yes! If we believe what the Bible teaches we have to deal with the words we speak. Our tongue is like a rudder and we are the ship that is steered. We speak into existence God’s will for our lives by our words…for our finances and other areas as well. Let the following proverb impact you as you read it:

From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him (Proverbs 12:14).

To understand the truth presented here we must see the Bible is directly comparing the hours we work and the paycheck we receive for this work, with the results that come from our spoken words. Or stated another way…as surely as you plant corn in the ground and it grows and produces a crop, it is equally as sure that your faith filled words will reward you with good things. The prophet Joel instructed the weak to “say” they are strong. Say it. Out loud.

I have to admit though, in spite of all these scriptures, it still feels awkward to say “My debts are paid off,” when I have a payment schedule in my desk drawer for loan payments. And yet, somehow when I say those words, faith rises up in my heart that the mountain of debt can and will be removed from my life. It is a spiritual principle, and it is not always easy to understand how it works. But it does work. I have to say it like this…I am not denying reality, I am changing it.

Is this line of blogging causing your mind to tilt? It doesn’t make intellectual sense but it does make spiritual sense.  How about this scripture in Romans, chapter 4, that describes God and how He does things on the earth.

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were (Romans 4:16-17).

This scripture teaches that God Himself calls things “that are not as though they were.” It sounds a lot like what God did in Genesis when He created the heavens, the earth, light, man, etc. Could this mean that He wants us to also speak creative, faith-filled words? Yes, I believe it does. When He is challenging us to speak out words of faith He is challenging us to co-create with him in our lives and in our areas of responsibility. I heard one person say it like this…”If you are not saying it you are not creating it.” This is how God operates.

Does it seem weird to speak to things? Well what about Jesus cursing the fig tree in the gospel of Mark? He spoke to the fig tree. He didn’t pull it up. He didn’t ask His disciples to cut it down. No, his words were enough to cause it to die by the time he returned that same way. Jesus continued on after finding the dead fig tree to teach about faith. He underlined again the importance of faith-filled words and how battles are won and victories gained by using them.

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:22-24).

We are to say to the mountain, “Throw yourself into the sea.” Mountains are the things (including financial lack) that stand in the way of us fulfilling God’s will for our lives. Jesus told us to speak (out loud) to the mountains in our lives.

You may remember that Jesus called Simon by the name “Peter.” He called Peter a rock when it looked like he was anything but a solid guy that could be involved in building the kingdom of God. I believe when Jesus said those words, it actually released the power that helped make Peter into “the rock” that he would become. This is how God operates. We see it again in Amos.

Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7).

Why does he reveal is plans to the prophets? So they can prophesy it. Say it. Speak it into existence. God has the prophets say it because they are his representatives on earth today and he is not currently physically here to say it himself. So we audibly speak His will for life, and become the prophet of our own life.

Many Bible figures used the biblical truth of “declaring out loud an expected end” when directing their current situation and circumstances to change. It is Biblical and it worked for them. David had the following words to say at his encounter with Goliath:

   David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:45-47).

This was not a silent prayer to God. In fact, he did not direct these words to God at all. David said these words to Goliath, his enemy. “I will strike you down and cut off your head”. That’s bold. He was declaring faith-filled words about what God wanted to do. The events he spoke of had not actually happened as yet. However, as we know they did come to pass.

Remember from my blog a couple of weeks ago...”The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:20-21). Goliath was a giant enemy. David spoke death to him and consequently life to himself. Many times we have giant enemies in our finances that we need to speak to with faith filled words. Sometimes we don’t know what to do when facing financial challenges, but this is something practical we can do. Declare the end from the beginning. Declare the removal of debt. Declare God’s provision.

Does it really matter what we say about our finances? This is a very good and logical question. I will attempt to answer this question in a concise, biblical manner. Let’s look at some scriptures that teach about the words we speak and how they apply to all areas of our lives, including our finances.

God puts a lot of importance on what we say. There are many scriptures that mention this. The scripture that we commonly use to lead people to faith in Jesus Christ, Romans 10:9, indicates that we should not only believe in our hearts but also confess with our mouths to come into salvation. Even though we believe in our hearts, which is something that happens in the “unseen” world, it seems it is spiritually significant to speak the words out loud into the “seen” world in which we live. The words we speak are at the very core of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the beginning of the Bible, we find Genesis teaching that God created the world in six days by His words. He said, “Let there be light,” and there literally was light created. As we study these scriptures, it appears that God’s very words were the creative force that brought the world into existence.

Later, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. God started calling Abraham “the father of many” when he was not even the father of a son. He was not the father of anyone! Worse yet, by changing his name, God made Abraham call himself “the father of many” every time he introduced himself to someone or someone asked his name. Can you picture Abraham feeling a little embarrassed as he, a man without a son or daughter, spoke the words, “My name is ‘Father of Many?” Yet Abraham’s faith-filled words eventually bore the fruit of making him the father of many.

If God worked in Abraham’s life by directing him to speak words declaring his destiny, we have to ask the question, “Does God want us to do this today?” As you read through these upcoming blogs, I believe your answer will be a resounding “yes.”