Biblical Prosperity

Bear with me here while I do a little teaching…Many people are already familiar with the names used to describe God’s attributes in the Bible. We have heard names like Jehovah Rophe (our healer) and Jehovah Nissi (our banner). Another one of the early names for God was El Shaddai. Abraham was the one who was first introduced to El Shaddai. Before we discover how God introduced himself to Abraham as El Shaddai, let’s examine Abraham’s first revelation of God. It is found in Genesis 12:1-3.

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Here in Abraham’s original promise of God’s blessing is found what I have come to call prosperity with a purpose. This verse states that God will bless Abraham, and Abraham will be a blessing to others. This is still what He is saying to us today, “I will bless you and make you a blessing.” This general declaration of blessing becomes a whole lot more specific in Genesis 17:1-5 when God introduces himself to Abraham as El Shaddai.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty (El Shaddai); walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.”

This term, “God Almighty” in verse one is the English translation of the term El Shaddai.Wherever we find the term “God Almighty,” it is speaking of the revelation of God using the Hebrew name El Shaddai.

Who is El Shaddai? My favorite definition and the one we will use…El Shaddai is the God of “more than enough.” “Enough” is that which is required to meet our needs. “More than enough” is having extra left over to meet the needs of others. The revelation of El Shaddai brought with it a pronouncement of fruitfulness and prosperity. You are blessed to be a blessing!

Almost all of my life I had been thinking in terms of just getting enough to get by.

For example, in the area where we live it is common to cover the flower beds around the houses with bark mulch to keep the weeds from growing. When I purchased bark mulch to put on the flower beds at our house, I would carefully measure out how many square feet of beds we had and figure how deep it should be covered and then order just the right amount. My intention was to purchase just enough. I didn’t want any extra; because I was afraid it would go to waste. I almost always underestimated and many times did not have enough to complete the task and had to make another trip to get more.

When I began to understand that my God was a God of more than enough, I started to order more mulch than I needed, asking God what He wanted me to do with the extra. Hmm…maybe my neighbor needs some? My thinking was changing.

This revelation of El Shaddai would not go away. I felt stirred in my heart to change the focus of my faith and expectation to El Shaddai. So I did. I prayed and asked the Lord for more than enough. The most amazing things began to happen. Literally within months our personal finances began to change. We began to have surpluses. We started to experience more than just having our needs met.

We find that not only was Abraham blessed, but he also passed the revelation of El Shaddai on to his children. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (and Joseph in a future blog).  In Genesis, we read the amazing story of Isaac prospering in Canaan during an extended season of drought and famine.

Now there was a famine in the land—besides the earlier famine of Abraham’s time…Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him (Genesis 26:1, 12-13).

After a year I could not keep this revelation to myself. I felt guilty for not telling people about what I had found in the scriptures and was experiencing in my personal life. I had to reveal God’s truth and revelation of His provision to others. To be very clear, the only thing we changed was our faith and expectation of how God was going to supply. I did not get an extra job. No one took an offering for us. We changed what we were expecting and what we were praying and our finances began to change. It was too good to keep to myself.

On a trip to the nation of Israel I found the principle of “more than enough” alive in Jewish culture. Every Friday night the Sabbath celebration in a practicing Jewish home contains the giving of thanks to God for the bread and the wine after the meal. This practice is not what Christians know as the Lord’s Supper. But by giving thanks for the bread, they are expressing appreciation for their basic needs of life being met. By giving thanks for the wine, they are expressing appreciation for the joys of life—the joys are the blessings of God that go beyond the meeting of their basic needs. Jews understand this very important concept about the nature of God.

We already mentioned in these blogs that Abraham passed on a revelation of El Shaddai to Isaac. Later Isaac personally introduced his son Jacob to El Shaddai in Genesis 28:1-3. Let’s read it.

So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram…Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban…May God Almighty (El Shaddai) bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.”

Here we see El Shaddai specifically mentioned in the same breath with “fruitfulness and increase” as Isaac seeks to pass on this revelation of God to his son. Later Joseph, one of Jacob’s sons, was next in line to receive the revelation of God Almighty (El Shaddai). The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was passed on to the next generation in Genesis 48:3-4.

Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty (El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’”

Joseph received the revelation. We find that Joseph had this sense of prosperity in his soul. He had it inside of him. Wherever he was, whatever the situation, no matter how difficult, he eventually would prosper. He seemed to rise to the top like cream rises to the top of milk.

When he was sold into slavery, he prospered there. When he was in Potiphar’s household, he flourished. Even in prison, he thrived. As the one in charge of the Egyptian government’s food supply program, he prospered there. He was the steward of more than enough to help others in their time of need during the seven years of famine. Prosperity was in his soul. He knew God wanted to bless him and prosper him no matter what his present circumstances looked like.

This is what we are looking for…prosperity flowing out of our hearts regardless of where we are and our current situation. If we have prosperity of soul, we will find a way to prosper, no matter what our circumstances or the opposition facing us. It will not matter the condition of our local economy or if we have a savings account or if we are a single parent, because our prosperous souls will cause us to prosper.

When my son was learning to play the trumpet we needed to purchase a trumpet for him. If we bought the trumpet outright and paid for it in full, it would cost us $400. However, if we did not have the $400 and used the $20 per month payment plan the music store offered us we would end up paying $600 for the trumpet. The question is, “Do we want to pay $400 or $600 for the same trumpet?” Four hundred dollars of course!

When you have money you can live on less! This is an amazing truth to grasp. Simple but profound. Probably many of us could give similar examples of this financial principle.  This leaves more money for what we really want to do with it; like give and be a blessing! We have to cross-over from living in lack to experiencing God’s abundance; it will allow us to accomplish more.

My wife and I have always supported missions as a regular part of our budget. This has been our life-style since the first year of our marriage. Even before we were married, as singles we supported missionaries because we had a desire to see the gospel go to the entire world.

Over the years, we have endeavored to find ways to increase our giving, I once had a “great idea” of how we could accomplish it. My brainstorm was for our family to eat rice and beans for a whole month and give the balance of the money we would save on groceries to missionaries. We had visited South America a number of times on mission trips and enjoyed eating rice and beans as the main food staple while there. I thought it would be a great project for us to do as a family and would model a giving life-style for our children. It seemed like a profoundly spiritual idea to me.

When I shared this deeply spiritual idea with my wife, she gave me an incredulous look and replied, “You can eat rice and beans for a month, but I am not, and I am not going to try and get our children to do it.” Quickly realizing that my great idea was not meeting my wife’s approval, I remember piously thinking how unspiritual she was and give  up on the idea. As I look back on this embarrassing incident, I would probably have made a good Pharisee that day.

It only hit me a couple of years later how much the spirit of poverty had affected my thinking. I literally wanted to take food away from my wife and children so that we could give a few extra dollars to missions. Just what was wrong with this idea? I discovered this to be a form of poverty thinking. Let me explain why.

I didn’t believe that God could supply more for us so that we could give more. In my thinking, we were limited to my paycheck. I looked at the income we had and saw that as a fixed ceiling rather than believing God for more money. So I wanted to take food from my children’s mouths and give it to missions. What picture of God (the Father) does that give to my children? It shows them He is a stingy Father, who gives us just enough or barely enough to survive. This is not a biblically accurate picture of God. I realized it was not right for me to show my children this tainted portrayal of God.

Thank God for my wife who could see this was not an appropriate course of action. Although it seemed so spiritual at the time, I should have been raising my faith to lift the ceiling and believe for more—lots more—not just a few dollars to give to missions. The truth is, I don’t want to give $5 more a month to missions. I want to give $50 more a month or $500 more a month. This revelation has helped us to increase our giving significantly.

To be clear the Christian life is one of self-sacrifice and surrender to His Lordship and our children need to see that modeled before anything else. How we spend our finances is part of that and obedience to His direction is essential. If God is directing you to save some money out of your budget by sacrificing something, then do it wholeheartedly. However, maybe you want to pray about increasing your inflow so you can give significantly more.

C. Thomas Anderson is the founder and senior pastor of The Living Word Bible Church in Mesa, Arizona. He tells the story of a young man from his church who chose not to attend a wealth seminar they were putting on at the church.

“With a tone of superiority in his voice, he explained that he had not been to any of the sessions, because he was not interested in money. That wasn’t where God was leading him. Exactly twenty-four hours later he was back at the church with tears in his eyes, asking if the church could help with some money for his neighbor. A fire had destroyed everything she had owned and she was left destitute with several children to care for. Suddenly money mattered. If this young man had seen the importance of money in ministry somewhat earlier in his life, he might have been in a better position to minister to his neighbor without having to ask others who did care about money.”¹

In 2 Kings we find Elisha had a wealthy woman who took care of him so he could be effective in his prophetic ministry.

One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us” (2 Kings 4:8-11).

How could this woman and her husband add a room on to their house for the prophet? Simply stated, they had the financial means to do so. This arrangement was a blessing to Elisha and also to the well-to-do woman as she later had a son that was raised from the dead by the prophet. A proper perspective on finances will help us to have the resources needed to obey God when opportunities come our way.

1 Dr. C. Thomas Anderson, Becoming a Millionaire God’s Way, (New York: New York, Faith Words, Hachette Book Group USA, 2006), p. 19

God loves the whole world but He has an agreement (or contract) with those of us who are Christians. Let me explain by talking about the owner of our local professional sports team. The owner has a general relationship with the fans and invites them to come to the games and enjoy them. He wants them to come and he does his best to put a winning team on the field for them to enjoy. If some fans get disappointed and mad, they can just stop coming to the games and it is no big deal. However, the owner of the team has a written contract with his players and coaches. There are specific commitments and expectations for both sides. They are legally bound to this commitment.

In the same way, God has made an agreement with us through his word to provide abundantly for more than just our needs. Though we know he loves the whole world, he has a contract with those who have taken his offer and signed on to his team.

Jesus was well taken care of by his Father. Jesus was not destitute and poor. He was born in a manger because the Inn was full. It was a symbolic act because he was the Lamb of God. His earthly father (Joseph) was a businessman going to pay taxes along with everyone else. Later, the wise men came to visit him in a house.

“On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh (Matthew 2:11).”

Jesus himself was self-employed until age 30. He was not homeless and poor. If it is more spiritual to be poor as some Christians think, then we would have to say that Jesus wasn’t very spiritual!

Jesus took time to meet the needs of both wealthy men and poor beggars, however when he called his disciples he spoke only to men who were successful, working businessmen. We find out at his crucifixion that he wore clothing that was valuable. It was valuable enough that hardened soldiers did not want to destroy it. People followed Jesus because he had authority and knew where he was going. He had wealthy women traveling with his party. In fact, Luke indicates that the wife of the manager of Herod’s household was traveling with Jesus and financially supporting him.

“After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means (Luke 8:1-3). ”

Do you think that Joanna slept in the dirt? I don’t know, but I doubt it. She was married to Herod’s treasurer. I am inclined to think about what happens when we go to the mountains for a week-end with friends. When it is just the guys in the mountain for the week-end it is okay to rough it a little and just take the bare essentials. But when our wives accompany us things tend to be a little more comfortable.

Jesus had a treasurer named Judas who carried a money box. I suppose we could say that the money box was empty, but do you really think Jesus would have had someone carry an empty money box around? I don’t think so. Many Christians will say God is good, but because they have always struggled financially, they have developed a mindset that God is a stingy and holding back blessing. Just the opposite is true.

Permit me to introduce a term that many Christians consider to be a selfish, secular term—financial independence. Let’s define “financial independence” as having the resources on hand that will be needed to obey God’s voice. Too many times we have dismissed or not taken seriously the visions and ideas God has given to us because we do not see a way for them to be financed. Our excuse for not obeying God is a helpless, “That would be great, but we can’t afford it.” It is essential that we permanently delete the words “we can’t afford it” from our vocabulary. These words should be replaced with a positive petition, expecting God’s provision, by asking instead, “How is God going to provide?”

Let’s look at Noah, when God asked Noah to build the ark, He was at a place in his life of sufficient resources to obey. He was financially independent. There are no scriptures indicating Noah awakened one day and the ark was miraculously finished. There is no record of ravens flying in with pre-cut gopher logs to be fitted into place. The ark was built with manual labor over a period of years. Actually, it seems like Noah did not work on the ark much himself because he was busy preaching. So either his family or hired laborers constructed the ark.

It took significant financial resources for Noah to obey God. Could it be that God wants to provide for us in a similar way? I believe He desires that we have the resources on hand to accomplish His purposes as He reveals them to us.

A similar example from the New Testament is that of Joseph from Arimathea. He was a rich man, a member of the Sanhedrin, who was a disciple of Jesus. Joseph was ready and available when called upon to take Jesus’ body and give it an appropriate burial in a rich man’s tomb that had never been used before. This was significant because in Bible times, tombs were used multiple times. His availability and his financial resources played an important role in the death and resurrection of Jesus and the unfolding of the kingdom of God.

It is important that we realize from reading the Bible that God considers poverty to be a curse.  We find this to be true when we look at Job’s story. God was blessing him with health and abundance; however, it was when Satan intervened that God’s blessings were interrupted. Let’s read it.

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land” (Job 1:9-10).

When Job was under attack from the devil he encountered poverty, sickness and calamity. After Job survived the devil’s attack, everything was restored and he lived a long prosperous life of enjoying God’s blessing. A friend of mine is fond of saying that if you are not convinced that poverty is a curse, you should go on a trip to the poorest sections of India to see what it does to people. He notes that you will also be convinced of the close association of religion, poverty, sickness and death.

The first car that I ever owned had a problem with the transmission and it would leave a puddle of fluid under my car when it sat in the same location for a length of time. I got into the habit of always looking under my car to check for a leak before I drove it away. Sometimes the leak would be bad enough that it would leave a trail of fluid as I was driving away. Consequently, I developed the habit of always looking in my rear view mirror as I drove away to see if I was leaving a trail of fluid on the road. For many years after this I still maintained these habits expecting something to be wrong with my car, even though I had better vehicles that were mechanically sound and didn’t leak fluid at all.

Was I really supposed to live like this? As I pondered it, I concluded that this was an expression of the spirit of poverty that had attached itself to me. I asked the Lord to help me break free of it. It took some time, but I can say that I am free from it today. I now enjoy driving the vehicles God has given us without the nagging fear that something is wrong mechanically or will go wrong with them.

Russell Cronwell was a Baptist minister during the early 1900’s. He is famous as the founder of Temple University in Philadelphia; Gordon-Cronwell seminary still bears his name. Listen to Russell Cronwell’s thoughts on money and how it is used:

“Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it. You ought because you can do more good with it than you could without it. Money printed your Bible, money builds your churches, money sends your missionaries, and money pays your preachers, and you would not have many of them, either, if you did not pay them.”

In Sudan Christians are persecuted and sold into slavery. Many Christians from outside this African nation are responding by donating the finances to literally purchase the freedom of their brothers and sisters. How could this ever happen without generous Christians with abundant financial reserves? It is difficult to avoid the idea that God wants his people to have an interest in money.

God will not ask us to complete the Great Commission without money. Jesus himself used the example of someone needing to count the cost of building a house before starting to build it. No responsible person would start building a house or start a business without carefully assessing beforehand what the cost is. It will take money to do what we are called to do on the earth, and the good news is God desires to give it to us.

Jesus ministered to the wealthy and the poor beggar.  There is a rut on either side of the road…materialism and greed on one side and poverty and lack on the other side of the road. Biblical Prosperity is the middle path of abundant provision to complete His purposes for our lives.

Many people today live in an unhealthy fear of materialism. It is a fear that if God blesses us financially, it will somehow ruin us and cause us to fall away from Him. I used to believe that a million dollars would taint and corrupt a person. I don’t believe this is true any more. A million dollars will not corrupt you; it will only amplify what already is in your heart. If there is selfish ambition and pride in your heart, it will be multiplied. If there is love and generosity in your heart, then it will be multiplied.