Biblical Prosperity

I guess by now you might realize what challenge I am giving to you. Would you be willing to pray the same risky prayer that I did, “Holy Spirit, teach me to prosper?” Will you take God at His Word as we are studying it?

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 would not 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.”

Peter Hartgerink is from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Here is his story: When I first heard this teaching on prosperity I was starting a new Information Technology consulting business.  Over the next years, I realized that God was speaking to me and telling me he wanted to prosper me both financially and spiritually. This was a new thought to me. Since then many things have changed in my life. 

When I began my business I thought of it only as a means of funding what I thought was my real ministry, which was church-planting. I have since learned that I am better at business than I am at church-planting. That used to bother me but now I see that it’s simply a matter of developing the areas in which God has given me grace instead of striving to be something I am not. I have learned to take a more entrepreneurial approach to life. I now see that managing finances with skill, wisdom, integrity and generosity is a godly calling. I want to be like Joseph, a man who can give out to others and sow funds into Kingdom purposes because I have learned to steward finances faithfully and well. 

The teaching in Brian’s book is one of the main influences that helped me to get to where I am today. I especially appreciate the emphasis on giving as a key to keeping our hearts free from materialism and greed. 

Prosperity of soul will cause us to prosper in all areas. It is a revelation. 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 could not have happened by his own effort. 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.

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. But 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 will hear more of my story in the blogs to come.  I am sure yours will be different, but just as exciting. Pause now, find a quiet place and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you to prosper and let your adventure begin.

One year God blessed us with a magnificent Christmas tree for our home. The tree was on a special sale because the growers were phasing out this particular kind of tree. It was a huge tree, and fortunately we had a cathedral ceiling in our living room or it would not have fit in our home. It looked like a tree that cost a hundred dollars, but in actuality, it only cost us fourteen dollars—honestly!

The tree was so big we did not have enough of Christmas decorations to cover it. We had to go out and buy more decorations. We decorated the tree and then got ready to enjoy the Christmas season with our family. We were set for a great holiday season. There was only one problem. I discovered that when people came into our home to visit and saw the towering tree, they always commented about how big it was. However, this wasn’t the problem. The problem was my reaction.

Their comments often were, “Wow, what a huge Christmas tree.” When they said that, the spirit of poverty would rise up inside me and I felt like I had to apologize for having such a big tree. I had a compulsion to tell them that I only paid fourteen dollars for the tree or they would think I had paid a lot of money for it. So, out of my mouth would come the words, “Yes, it was on sale and we bought it for only fourteen dollars.” I began to hate these words coming out of my mouth. It happened more than once. It was like an automatic response that I could not control. Something in me had to apologize for God’s blessing. I did not like my response, and I began to think I needed some type of deliverance or breakthrough.

I could not help but notice the same thing in other areas of my life. If I was wearing a jacket that my wife bought at a secondhand shop for a few dollars and I received a compliment, immediately the response would come out of my mouth that it was used and we bought it for only a few dollars. I could not let people think that God had blessed me with something nice. I began to cry out to God for deliverance. The spirit of poverty says it is more spiritual to be poor or act like you are poor. It was obvious to me that God was teaching me this was not true.

I started to pray for this spirit of poverty to be broken off of my life. Part of the answer was to realize I had to let people think that I had paid a hundred dollars for the tree. It was extremely difficult for me to do, but finally after someone else commented about our large tree, I was able to bite my lip, swallow the apology and say, “Yes, God blessed us with a big Christmas tree. God loves me and a big tree was an expression of His love for our family.” Feeling freedom come over me, I knew I was making progress. The Holy Spirit was changing my beliefs, renewing my thoughts, and changing my actions all the while He was teaching me to prosper.

This does not mean we purchased a huge Christmas tree every year after this. Some years we did and some years we did not, but God used this experience to teach me to not apologize for His blessings. God was changing me in answer to my “teach-me-to-prosper” prayer. Ah! There is a better way. Somehow this seemed like a path that a good and loving God would provide for His children. The Holy Spirit was teaching me to prosper.

God gave me a practical plan. I realized that when I went to the bank, I would often withdraw over $100 in cash. I would take out $120 or $150, whatever was needed for the time. I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to start asking for a one hundred dollar bill from the bank teller, whenever I withdrew over $100 from the bank. If I withdrew over $200, I asked for two one hundred dollar bills. The idea seemed kind of silly and a little bit embarrassing to me. Would God really tell me to do this? But, the impression would not go away so I decided to obey.

It was hard at first. I felt really self-conscious and embarrassed asking the bank teller for the one hundred dollar bills. “I can do this,” I kept telling myself. “God wants me to do this. He is teaching me to prosper.” So from time to time, depending on my personal business, I would have a hundred dollar bill or two in my wallet. Eventually, I started to get a little more comfortable with it. This continued for a few months.

One Sunday morning, I was sitting in our local church service with a one hundred dollar bill in my wallet. After the speaker shared his message that morning, it was announced there was going to be a special offering taken for him. I immediately stiffened up because I knew in an instant what God wanted me to do. God was saying, “Okay, Brian, now that you have become accustomed to having a hundred dollar bill in your wallet, I want you to put that one hundred dollar bill in the offering.” I admit it was a struggle. For some reason, it is much harder to depart with a hundred dollar bill than a hundred dollar check. There is something about seeing it go. But I did it. It was an act of obedience, and it felt good.

God spoke to me immediately and said, “I will take you seriously in this venture if you take me seriously. I will bless you with hundreds if you are willing to give hundreds.” You see, I was thinking in terms of receiving hundreds from God (which He wants to do), bur He was thinking of me giving hundreds to His work.

If you are considering praying this same prayer, “Holy Spirit, teach me to prosper,” do so at your own risk. This lesson has been so real that I can honestly say without bragging that since that time we have given away that specific amount of money, one hundred dollars, many times and more. We have been blessed. God is giving us more money and we are giving more money away than ever before. By God’s grace this principle continues to work in us and through us. Go ahead and pray that prayer…”Holy Spirit, teach me to prosper!” Just do it.

Coming on the next post is another humorous example of the Holy Spirit teaching me to prosper…The Christmas Tree story.

As I was getting this revelation of El Shaddai as the God of blessing, I felt the Lord was prompting me to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to teach me to prosper. Knowing the scripture reveals that the Holy Spirit is our teacher, I decided to go for it. In prayer one day, I spoke these words, “Holy Spirit, teach me to prosper.” I did not know what I was getting into, but I knew my current thinking had to change.

Shortly after praying this prayer, I was in a Sunday morning church service and the speaker was teaching about some deep theological truth from the Bible. In the middle of his message, he stopped and asked this question, “How many people present know how many one hundred dollar bills there are in circulation for every one dollar bill?”

Most of the people were wondering what was going on and why he had departed from his topic. “Are there more one hundred dollar bills in circulation in U.S. currency or one dollar bills?” he repeated again. He paused for a few moments and then went on to give the answer. The answer was that there are 60 one hundred dollar bills in circulation for every one-dollar bill. The speaker suggested perhaps Christians think in the wrong terms. Maybe we are thinking in terms of one dollar bills when we should be thinking in terms of hundred dollar bills. He then returned to his subject and finished his teaching. My thinking was challenged.

Most of the people in the congregation that day were wondering why the speaker could not stay on his topic, but not me. I had a clear sense that the speaker’s digression from his sermon was specifically for me. Within two weeks, I was attending a leadership conference for pastors and listening to another speaker. This time the speaker was teaching on finances. Believe it or not, part of the way into his teaching he asked the question, “How many people here know how many one hundred dollar bills there are in circulation for every one dollar bill?”

This got my attention. I knew God was speaking to me, but the question for me was, “Where are they? Where are the one hundred dollar bills, because I surely do not have any?” It was really clear that God was speaking to me. My thinking was being challenged. He wanted me to step out in faith and change my way of thinking. I was pondering this currency revelation God had shown me and trying to figure out how I could think in terms of hundreds instead of ones.

My next post will describe how the Holy Spirit directed me to change my actions.  Remember; this is my real life story. It does not get any more practical than this.

Miracles are usually just enough to get us through a crisis, but because God’s blessings contain more than enough, the surplus can many times become someone else’s miracle, meeting their needs. God’s blessings are usually the fruit of something we have planted somewhere along the way. Fruits generally have the seeds in them to plant for the next crop. However God’s miracles are usually once and done. There is no seed in them. God’s nature is seedtime and harvest; miracles are God’s mercy.

Does it take more faith to believe for daily miracles or for a life-style of blessing, healing and prosperity? I think it takes more faith to live a life-style of blessing. God has provided miracles even when there was no faith. Do you remember the water from a rock and manna in the morning? These were miracles God did just to get the children of Israel to stop complaining. There was no great faith there! Could it require greater faith to live a life-style of blessing? The answer from my life experience is “yes.”

Please keep in mind as I contrast El Shaddai and Jehovah Jireh, I am not talking about two separate gods. I am talking about two separate revelations of God’s nature given to humanity with finite minds, to somehow gain an understanding of an infinite being. I am not creating new theology. I am introducing us to a divine aspect of our heavenly Father that some of us have not yet experienced.

Of all the things I teach as a Bible teacher, this area of Biblical prosperity seems to help people the most in reaching their God-given dreams. Listen to the story of Merle and Cheree Shenk, as they recall their missionary experience in Cape Town, South Africa.

Life on the mission field was a journey of faith for us.  After reading Brian’s first book Prosperity With A Purpose, we really took a mental shift to believe that God could be the God of More Than Enough for us & our ministry.  Many times we saw God do amazing provisions.  One story that stands out to me is the day our car broke down for the fourth time in one week, each time it was something different.  Our family was sitting beside the road, crying out to God, feeling ready to give up and leave South Africa.  It was the week we were to launch our Bible School curriculum and it seemed as if the devil was pulling out all the stops.  Two days later we were driving home a brand new, completely paid for new vehicle.  This was a mighty revelation that changed our approach to daily living!

Without minimizing God’s miracles, I now believe the more we live in God’s blessings, the less we will have to live by God’s miracles. For example, the more we live in God’s promise of divine health, the less we will need God’s miracles of healing. Many churches teach that God will heal your body when you get sick. But how many teach divine health, believing that God will give you a divinely healthy life, free from sickness and disease? The more we walk in divine health, the less we will need physical healing.

We have already applied this same thought to the financial realm. The more we live in God’s promise of divine prosperity, the less we will need God to do financial miracles in our lives. God’s miracles rescue us in times of crisis; however, we can say that living in God’s blessings keep crisis from coming.

When God intervenes and solves a crisis by a miracle, it is as if He is working for us. When God brings blessing into our lives in response to us obeying His Word or sowing seed, it is like He is working with us. Miracles are God overcoming the natural laws of the earth. Blessings are God working with the natural laws of the earth, like sowing and reaping, to bring His blessings into our lives. Both blessings and miracles are supernatural and come from God.

Living by God’s miracles could leave you with a car that requires prayer for a miracle every time you need it to start. I can hear the groaning—too many of us have been there! The amazing thing is that God in His mercy will in some miraculous way help you get your car started. But unfortunately, you will still need another miracle to get it started the next day. Living in God’s blessings can bring you a new car that will start every time you need it to start.

Around the same time I was discovering the revelation of El Shaddai as the God of more than enough, I had just ordered a new Bible. I received the Bible, but it was not the correct size I had ordered. When I contacted the publisher, they instructed me to just keep it and they would send me another Bible. As it turned out, the publisher sent two additional new Bibles by mistake. Now I had three study Bibles. All of a sudden I had more than enough Bibles!

It seemed like the Holy Spirit was underlining this fresh revelation of God as the provider of more than enough. By the way, I did send the one Bible back but I gave the other to my wife. God blessed me and I was able to be a blessing to my wife. Here is another testimony from Dorothy, who is just one of the many who discovered that God wants to be El Shaddai.

“I already knew how to budget and some Biblical principles about money. Still I constantly needed help (for food or car repairs) from my church. After hearing the teaching of Prosperity with a Purpose by Brian Sauder, I stopped looking at the checkbook balance. I began instead to look to El Shaddai, “the God of more than enough’ as my supply. Since then I have testified so many times about the many breakthroughs in my finances that my friends got jealous. Now at their request, I am teaching others what the Bible says about money and our God-El Shaddai. And yes, lots of times, as God leads, I too give all that I have in my purse and the amount in there is increasing.

                                                     Dorothy –  Reading, PA, USA

I was surprised when a minister friend of mine said that people with many testimonies about God’s financial miracles are not the ones after which we should pattern our financial lives. Why did he say this? Because with all the miracles they have seen, they seem to still be in need of another miracle today to make it financially. As I thought about this I realized it was true. In other words, although these people have faith for financial miracles, they have not found faith to receive from God for long term abundant provision.

When the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, they received a daily miracle for their food called manna. It was fresh and new every day. It was miraculous provision. However, it could not be kept for the next day because any surplus would spoil. There was a complete dependency on God for provision every day.

Manna was not God’s long-term plan for provision. When God took them into the Promised Land, the daily manna stopped. It was no longer an option. In the Promised Land, the children of Israel were expected to live by the principle of sowing and reaping and seedtime and harvest. Let’s look at the scripture where the transition happened. It is found in Joshua:

The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan. (Joshua 5:11-12)

This was a different revelation of God’s provision for the children of Israel. It included faith, but now they were also expected to farm the land, to sow and reap. They were expected to have an abundance because provisions were made to help the non-Israelites in their midst as well as bring the first fruits into the storehouse and make other offerings. There was also a whole group of people, the Levites, who were to be supported out of the abundance of the general population. In the desert, their sandals didn’t wear out for 40 years, but in the Promised Land their sandals wore out and they had the resources for new sandals. This seems to be similar to living by the revelation of El Shaddai that was first introduced to Abraham.

The Promised Land was a concept indicating Israel’s possession of a place with God in the earth where there was security from all external threats and internal calamity. It was a place of rest for the people of God to grow and prosper. If this was true for the children of Israel, then can we boldly ask ourselves what is God’s will for Christians in the area of financial provision today? Is it God’s will for Christians to live in the desert or is it God’s will for Christians to live in the Promised Land? I think the promised land.

A couple of years ago I lost my wedding band. Our local church has a sports team on which I participated. As I was changing one day in the parking lot for a game I took off my wedding band and must have inadvertently dropped the ring as I was putting my clothes into an athletic bag. I soon discovered the wedding band was missing. This was disappointing to both my wife and me. It was not a very expensive ring, but it was more the idea that it represented the most important covenant in my life.

After a few months of hoping it would turn up somewhere my wife and I went to a jewelry store to replace it. We found the prices of rings had increased almost tenfold since we had initially purchased the ring 23 years earlier. We were preparing to buy an inexpensive ring, when the jeweler remembered getting a return of an expensive ring. He found it and was able to size it to fit my finger. This attractive ring was worth three times what we would have spent for the least expensive ring there, but the jeweler gave it to us for the price of the least expensive ring.

What a blessing for God to prove his lavishness to us again and affirm our marriage covenant with a special blessing. God is good. I enjoy teaching this revelation of El Shaddai so much because it seems to help people to fulfill their destiny. Of all the things I teach as a Bible teacher, this area of Biblical prosperity seems to help people the most in reaching their God-given dreams.

My wife and I have always had a dream to have a large family.  However, many times when we shared our desire with friends, the response was always the same, even from some of our family. How will you be able to afford so many children? We did not really have a good answer at the time, usually we halfheartedly responded about God supplying somehow.

Other people told us and we just assumed it would take all that we have financially to raise our family. It even sounded rather spiritual, saying that we would put all that we had into our children. Sometimes, we continued by saying that we wouldn’t have natural riches, but that our children would be our riches.

As God was teaching us this new revelation of Himself as El Shaddai, one day my wife came to me and said we needed to stop believing and saying that it would take all we had financially to raise our family. She was right. We began to realize this was believing and expecting God to meet only our needs, but not believing that He would meet above and beyond our needs. Our faith and our words had to change if we wanted to see financial abundance. We specifically started to believe and say we would have all of our family’s financial needs met and that there would be finances left over for our family to support missionaries, give to others in need or to minister to those in our community.

God showed us we needed to change what we believed, what we said and what we expected. We have five children with the youngest in her last year of high school and are currently experiencing more than enough time and money for our family. We praise God because He is El Shaddai… the God of more than enough.