Wealth and Prosperity
Per your question on wealth - you were wondering if all rich men cannot make it into heaven due to the statement Jesus made saying it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to be able to enter into heaven. Here are my thoughts: 1. There are plenty of verses in both the Old and New Testament showing that God can and does bless some of His children with abundant material wealth. King Solomon was a good example of this in the Old Testament. God told His people that when they entered into the Promised Land after coming out of the wilderness - that He would bless them with incredible wealth and prosperity. He told them that they would be the head and not the tail and that they would never have to borrow from anyone ever again. However, this possibility has to be kept in proper balance and perspective. With money comes power, and with power comes corruption. Some people simply cannot handle abundant wealth. It will destroy them, their families and their personal relationship with God. These are the people I feel Jesus was referring to when He made the above statement. The reason is that when some people become very wealthy, their wealth and their obsession to hold onto all of that wealth starts to blind them to everything else that is more important in their lives - like their personal relationship with God and their personal relationship with their families and friends. God always has to be #1 in your life. If your wealth and possessions ever replace Him in that #1 spot - you are in big trouble! This is what gets some people in trouble when they do become rich. I believe that is why Jesus made the above statement. In this statement, I believe He is giving us a clue as to what happens to some people when they do become rich. Their wealth starts to blind, corrupt and distort their view of reality the way God wants us to view life. Just look at all the rich people in Hollywood. You can see who is handling their wealth properly and who is not by how they handle their money and what it has done to their personalities. For some, it has made them conceited, arrogant and full of pride. They think they are better than everyone else because they have all this money and all of the power that comes with it. Then you have others who do properly handle it. They don't flaunt it. It doesn't go their heads. It doesn't change them. They stay humble with it. They remember where they came from. They don't leave all of their friends and they are willing to share their wealth with family, friends and good causes. If Jesus was making this statement to include all rich people not being able to make it into heaven - then this would contradict some of His Father's words back in the Old Testament about His desire and ability to bless some of His people with abundant wealth. Since the Bible cannot contradict itself, then you have to place both of these kinds of verses right next to one another, as they are both correct. Some people will not make it into heaven as a result of their wealth because that wealth will corrupt and ruin them. However, there are other people who have been blessed with abundant wealth who will make it into heaven - all because they have properly handled the wealth that God has given them! 2. For some people, God has to bless them with abundant wealth in order to build the types of ministries that He wants them to operate in. A good example of this would be Joyce Meyer and her ministry. God put a call on her life that she would become a well-known Bible teacher. In order for that to happen, abundant wealth had to gradually be released into her life in order for her to be able to build the buildings that needed to be built, hire the people that needed to be hired, and buy the supplies that needed to be bought. Abundant wealth was eventually released into her life - but is was to be used to serve God - not to hoard it for herself or take off, leave God, and live a life of luxury. 3. Van, if you watch much of TBN, you will see that there are some preachers who preach what many criticize as being the "wealth and prosperity" message. I believe that some of these preachers are out of balance with what they are teaching. Some of them are teaching that it is God's will to bless everyone with abundant wealth and prosperity - and that if you are not abundantly rich in material wealth in God, then you are doing something wrong. I believe this teaching is really, really wrong. For some, God does want to bless with abundant wealth. And if He does bless you with any kind of abundant wealth, it is being sent your way in order for Him to properly support you in whatever it is He wants you doing for Him. However, what about the people who are called to go off into the far reaches of Africa and live off of the land like the rest of the poor people have to do? These missionaries are not operating in abundant material wealth and prosperity. Yet they are walking in the perfect will of God for their lives and they are doing exactly what God wants them to be doing! And yet you do have someone like a Joyce Meyer who is operating in abundant wealth and prosperity - all because that abundant wealth is needed to properly support and fund the type of ministry that God is calling her to operate in.
I believe that God sometimes keeps some of His people from having abundant wealth, as He knows it will eventually destroy their personal lives and possibly cause some of them to lose their salvation in Him. He is better off keeping some of them from having abundant material wealth in order to get them into heaven rather than allowing them to have all of this abundant wealth and then lose their own soul in the pursuit and acquirement all of that wealth. Life is full of horror stories of all the people who have not properly handled the abundant wealth that was given to them. The Bible also tells us that the love of money is the root of evil - not the actual money itself. Abundant wealth can be a great blessing - but only if it is used in the way that God intends for it to be used in your life. Final Thought1. Van, the one verse that really puts all of the wealth and prosperity message in proper perspective is Matthew 6:33, which tells us that we are to first seek the kingdom of God - and if we do, then everything else that we will need will be given to us. It is God's job, once we into a full surrender with Him to:
If God doesn't guide us - we will never get
to where we are supposed to be going in our calls for Him. If God doesn't protect us - then we will never make it to first base, as the dark side would take us out the first chance they got. And if God doesn't support us - then we will not have the things we will need in order to properly operate in our calls for Him. In this support we will get from God is all the money we are going to need, all the people we are going to need, all the supplies and equipment we are going to need, and all the favor that we are going to need. In this support that we will get from God will be all of the money and wealth we are going to need to properly operate in whatever it is He is calling us to do. However, wealth is really a relative term. What may be wealth for one person may be just a drop in the bucket for another. One million dollars may be a lot to some people, but for others, it is considered a minor amount in today's society.
2. Van, if God does start blessing you with any kind of material wealth and you know it really is coming from Him - don't worry that it may keep you out of heaven. It will not! Consider it an incredible blessing! God is showing you that He is trusting you with this abundance, and He will watch how you handle it and whether or not you will be a good steward with it. With any kind of abundant wealth God may give you comes an ability to help other people out and effectively operate in whatever it is God is calling you to do for Him in this life. The Holy Spirit will always be there to help guide you as to what you are supposed to be doing with any type of abundant wealth God may pass your way. The Bible also tells us that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek after Him - and for some, this reward will be some kind of material wealth or prosperity. So if you start seeing some of these financial blessings come your way - consider them a major reward and blessing from the Lord and that He is well pleased with whatever it is you have done for Him to date. I hope this answers your question. If you have any more thoughts or questions on this issue, please feel free to email them over. The Scripture VersesVan, I'll leave you with a few good verses from Scripture showing that God can bring wealth and prosperity into your life.
Van, you'll notice that the above verses do promise prosperity, but each one of these verses has conditions attached to them. Notice these specific conditions:
You'll notice in these specific conditions that not only you must be in a good personal relationship with the Lord to get these types of abundant blessings, but you also must work for them by being faithful and diligent in whatever God is calling you to do for Him. God will not give you a free lunch on being able to bless you with any type of wealth and prosperity. You will have to do your part in all of this - and your part will to be to work hard in the jobs and assignments that God will pass your way to do for Him. If you get lazy or slack with what God is calling you to do for Him - then He will have no desire to want to bless you with any kind of abundance. Jesus has already told us that He will be rewarding us "according" to our labors. The key word is "according." The word "according" is telling us that God will reward us based upon how well we perform for Him and what kind of good fruit we produce for Him. Also notice that we have to obey God, keep serving God, and keep the words of His covenant - which means that we have to walk in all of His ways and obey all of His commandments. Many people lose what God would of had in store for them in this life because they have either bailed out on Him and the call that He had set up for them to follow - or they have started to transgress against Him by entering into some specific sin areas they know they should have never entered into in the first place. Since money and the power that comes with it has the ability to ruin many people's lives - we simply have to let God run the money show and let Him decide who gets what and how much money He wants each one of us to have in this life.
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