Biblical Prosperity

A few years ago I spent an evening with a business man in the north of Poland. He was in an immediate need of 500,000 Euros to maintain cash flow for his business. The Lord had given me some insight that would help his business. He thought nothing of taking us to one of the nicest restaurants in town to talk. He was thinking about half a million Euros, so spending a 100 Euros on a meal for our small party was not significant to him. It was money well spent if it helped his kingdom business succeed.

As some of you know, I was an elected official on our local public school board for nine years. The people who serve on these kinds of boards have generally experienced a lot of success in their lives. When went to dinner after a board meeting we did not go to a cheap, fast food restaurant. It was an expensive meal. Was it a waste of money for me to spend that kind of money on a meal? I don’t think so. I needed to have those relationships to be an effective leader in our community. Also, in those settings I have often gained insights that have helped me be fruitful in other areas of my life and the kingdom. People gather around food, relationships are built and the Kingdom expands.

I have heard Christians try to have a theological discussion about what kind of car Jesus would have driven. Some try to prove he would have driven an expensive car and others try to prove he would have driven a cheap car. Implied in this question is a justification for whatever car the individual wants to drive. I believe this is a fruitless discussion. If you are asking this question, you are thinking wrongly. Stop thinking about what you can get away with and start asking God what he is telling you to do and what you need to do it. How can you be fruitful and multiply? What difference can you make in the world? How will your destiny unfold?

Is God’s blessing so you can buy a boat and go to the lake every weekend to relax? There is nothing wrong with a boat at the lake; in fact, God just might refresh you and give you some ideas to extend the Kingdom while you are there. But remember, Jesus spoke about a man who built bigger barns for his harvest and propped up his feet to watch the world go by. We can never forget the purpose of the “more than enough.” The truth is we do receive many blessings from the Lord for us and our families, and we should. But God will never let things keep you from fulfilling your purpose. It is not about what we receive, though we receive many things from our loving father. It is about what we produce and what we give. Our end game is to extend the kingdom of God.

It was my day off, and as usual I had more on my “to do” list than I could accomplish in a week. Stop here. Stop there. Drop this off. Talk to that person. Go to the bank. Rush in. Rush out. As I worked my way down the list one of my stops was at a local greenhouse to buy spring flowers to plant around our house. I stopped and rushed into the greenhouse.

 At first, I slowed down because there were so many different kinds of flowers from which to choose. Wow…so many different colors and sizes. Then someone behind me said, “Hi, Brian.” It was a friend I hadn’t seen for years. She asked me about our children. After giving her an update I asked her about hers. As we went on our ways and I focused back on the flowers I realized I was enjoying the beauty of the flowers and the quiet of the greenhouse. There was only the hum of the overhead fans. Then I thought about taking the flowers home and planting them with my six-year-old daughter when she got home from school. All of a sudden I didn’t want to rush the planting of the flowers. It seemed like I should just relax, slow down, enjoy the beauty of the flowers, and enjoy planting them with my daughter. I did.

Jesus was talking about how to “not worry” when he said, “Consider the lilies of the valley. They do not labor or spin” (Luke 12:27). There is something about flowers and beauty in general that seems to cause worry and anxiety to leave. I like to say it this way: Beauty feeds your soul.

We read in the Bible about an alabaster bottle of expensive perfume poured over Jesus feet. Who was it that called this act a waste? It was Judas. It was an act of worship, but he criticized it as wasteful excess. He even gave a spiritual reason not to do it…so the money could be given to the poor. In actuality it was Judas who was missing the point. True waste is not noticing and enjoying what God put here on earth for us. This is an act of worship.

We will experience more prosperity if we enjoy beauty and blessings. It will change our finances. Do not apologize for God’s blessing. Include beauty in your life; it will make you more prosperous. God made these things for us to enjoy. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a vehicle purchased for an African apostolic leader by the name of Ephraim Tumusiime. He should not have to apologize for the nice, new vehicle he received. He should enjoy the fact that he no longer gets stuck in the deep, muddy ditches in the Ugandan roadways.

So what about beauty? Our lives should both embrace and radiate the beauty of the Lord. God was the first artist, and we are his masterpiece. Beauty feeds your spirit. Why do I give my wife beautiful flowers?…after all they just die anyway. No, it brings beauty into her day. It feeds her spirit. It changes our home.

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, Jova, 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 Jova 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.