God wants you to be happy. His favor for you is more than enough to handle any adversary or hardship. Make declarations about your life and let them be true in some metaphorical manner. God is not the author of either division or Chaos. Nor is he the reason you don’t have enough money. If you don’t have enough money, you’re not believing or delighting in him enough.
That’s what the Bible says right? Delight yourself in the lord, and He will grant you the desires of your heart. Its right there in Psalm 37:4. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him Ps. 145:19. Blessed are those who fear the lord, who find great delight in his commands…. Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever.” Ps 112:1-3.
“The Lord be exalted, who delights in the Prosperity of his servant” PS 35:27 NASB
In Wisdoms call in Proverbs 8 (Wisdom personified, and speaking) ‘I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full.”
Pair this with the American dream ‘If you are willing to work hard, you can be successful’.
‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into our lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ Lk 6:38
‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the lord |Almighty. ‘Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,’ says the LORD Almighty.” Malachi 3;10-12
Now pair the “Plant a seed” message you hear today with Galations 6
“A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” vs. 8
“The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.” 1 Cor. 3:8
This is where your prosperity gospel teacher goes on his tirade saying some version of “God said it! I didn’t say it! Do not question the word of God, and do not question his ability to keep his promises!!” God said it, take him as his word, claim the promises, and let God make you wealthy. Plant a seed, give to God, and let God give back to you more than what you gave.
Here’s where the advertising kicks in for some televangelists. Latch onto some story of God coming through in a miraculous way for one or a few members and use it to convince your entire congregation that God will do that for them.
All this is Biblical, right? Pair it together with the American dream, and you get a God out to make you happy with all the pleasures in the world, and an American dream that promises you that is actually is completely possible and happens to others around us.
I’m sorry to be the one to burst anyone’s bubble if you come with this mindset, even if I make it sound exaggerated.
This message works today, because Christian’s don’t read their Bible’s cover to cover. It has to come from a teacher if it’s going to be true. We latch onto a teacher and trust ourselves to them, and if someone disagrees, we dig in deeper to the person who resonates with our spirit. Anyone who disagrees with our teacher now needs to be vetted according to standards that do not include Bible, cover to cover.
Demonstrating the error of this gospel could take a number of angles. The first, should be most obvious, though it won’t be to some following the prosperity gospel.
- None of that had anything to do with Jesus, except maybe as the giver of this wonderful imaginative life and its material prosperity.
- Not one mention of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
- No need to repent to achieve this, although they would probably still tell you to.
- No focus on God’s redemptive work in either Israel, or the lives of his people.
- God is treated as a means to an end rather than an end in himself.
- If this God is so concerned about making everyone who follows him so happy, why do so many people in strong relationships with Christ talk about life being so hard?
- Why does God personally identify himself with the poor?
- Why does God seem to enjoy making amazing things happen out of the least significant people, and the least significant circumstances?
- Why do so many people, Christ professing ones, not have a wealthy healthy life, if God is so eager to heal and dish out money to anyone who follows him and give “seeds’ to his church?
- It’s out of touch with the reality of the Curse of Genesis 3. That reality is toilsome labor, sickness, broken people, broken society, broken hearts, and a broken imperfect relationship with God.
- To say most Christian’s did not get to live long healthy wealthy lives would be an understatement if you know anything about Church history. Did they have weaker faith than you do so that God did not bless them in many amazing ways? Many Christians throughout Church history were killed because they professed Christ and refused to deny him. That’s not weak faith.
In all of these instances where the Bible is cited legitimately to support the point, what’s left out of the message is what you need to follow first.
Psalm 112 ‘Blessed are those who fear the LORD, who find great delight in his commands.” Notice this is before any mention of how exactly they are blessed, fear of God being first.
Regarding Wisdoms Call in Proverbs 8- what does it tell us is the beginning of Wisdom?
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy one is understanding. For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you.” 9: 10-12
Again, fear of God comes first.
In LK 6 “Give and it will be given to you”- The context here- before and after is about judging your neighbor. This has nothing to do with giving in order to gain.
Galations 6 about sowing to please the spirit- read the whole thing. This had nothing to do with gaining material wealth.
Psalm 35 is about David praying for Vindication over his enemies and has nothing to do with wealth or possessions.
Malachi 3 is about the ancient Israelites robbing from God by withholding tithes. Read vs 16-18, This was not about making his followers rich, this was God calling his people back to following him.
Who is Psalm 112 talking about?
“Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice….. They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor.” Vs 5-9
What about Proverbs 11:24 “one person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.”
The manner in which we are told give is in secret (MT. 6;2-4), Freely (PS 112:9), and if we lend to the poor- without charging interest (Ps 15:5). As the song from Keith and Krystin Getty goes “not what you give but what you keep, is what the King is counting” (LK 21 :1-4).
Not quite the God who is eager to dish out money to anyone who plants a seed giving in order to gain. God meeting your needs is a completely different story than this health and wealth gospel. Even then, God doesn’t tell us the when or the how, he expects us to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you MT 6.
God’s blessings throughout the Bible are a by-product of following him. He comes first. Possessions are not the end to be pursued in themselves, and the manner in which God provides them is not always pleasant, nor are his blessings always material possessions. Material possessions are repeatedly much less important in the Bible than Wisdom (Pr 3:13-15), or Faith (1 Pet 1:7), and we are never to trust in what possessions we own (Pr 11:28, lk 12: 16-21). You can read about suffering in 1 Pet. 1 or Romans 5 to see what God is doing when hard times come. Yes, that’s right, sometimes hardship comes directly from God, either to refine your faith like 1 Peter 1, or as discipline- “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?” (Heb 12:7)
“Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” (Lm 3:38)
When Jesus tells us to ask for good gifts MT 7, “ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
There are degrees of persistence there. Nothing in the Bible says God will always give you what you ask for or exactly when. What it does say is “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Jms 4:2-3
‘This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” 1 JN 5:14
Is Christianity suddenly full of less excitement and promises for you? Sorry, the prosperity gospel is not good news for anyone seeking salvation, and it is no hope for many legitimate Christ followers who will never be super rich or healthy in this life. The line from C. S. Lewis rings true “if you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
That is something you will likely never hear from Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, or Joseph Prince. Tell one of them to teach you about the gospel as its specifically described in Romans 1:1-6 or 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. I guarantee neither text has anything to do with physical health and wealth.
These teachers like to point out the hypocrisy of anyone who disagrees with their message being people who prosper and are wealthy. This writer is not wealthy, not well known, and no one reading needs to stop at what I’ve said. Read the passages I provided and see if I’m making it up. Read your Bible, cover to cover. I’m not even going to give you more resources on this because I want you to read your Bible, instead of latching onto something a teacher has to say about it. The Bibles truth really is not dependent on what any teacher has to say about it. Read it, meditate on it, follow psalm 1, and stop treating the prosperity gospel like it’s good news, or an accurate reading of the Bible. There are plenty of legitimate believers out there who are never going to be super rich or healthy in this life. Prosperity, where it happens is a by-product of following Christ. It is not to be pursued as the end in itself or held out to the unbeliever as an incentive for conversion, or the basis of your own faith. Stop listening to people who treat it as such.
Edifying Christianity 