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Hear the question; if being truly blessed means being the richest person in the world, why is it that some of the devil’s people, who live their lives in absolute rebellion against the Almighty are the most blessed? Should I start mentioning the Elon Musk, Bill Gates kind of guys, of whom most don’t even believe there is Someone called God? We must never run away from this thought. Why are believers, people who pray much, are some of them the poorest people on the planet? I can sit here and tell you about true believers in India, who live in terrible conditions, yet they are Christians indeed. When we honestly deal with these questions, we will come to the conclusion that it’s either there is something wrong with Christianity or there is something entirely wrong with our understanding of true blessing.
To some degree, being blessed does involve material possessions. I am sure that father Abraham and elder Job can support me in that. Yet it’s still a terrible misunderstanding to think that being truly blessed of God is limited to earthly pleasures. This has always been our protest against the prosperity gospel, which diverts believers from their contentment in Christ and implants in them a mindset that looks to worldly celebrities and other rich personalities among pagans for inspiration. That, in my opinion, is a serious perversion of what it means to be truly blessed. In fact, it’s not true that the blessings of Abraham that we inherit by faith are earthly possessions. “Abraham believed God and was credited with righteousness”, that is the same blessing that we also get when we believe in Christ; we get righteousness, not iPhones (Gal 3:6-9).
The curse of riches
I stumbled upon a cartoon picture of a huge open Bible facing downwards. It was big enough for people to go under it to the other side. Then on one side were a very rugged, weird-looking people with torn clothes and bandages and as they were going through that Bible, they came out at the other end now wearing suits, sunglasses and carrying business briefcases. The meaning of that caricature is the same idea that we have been fed inside the African Church for these past 20 years. That your “poverty situation” will soon disappear as soon as you have that “real encounter with Jesus.” Luckily, I am one of those people who love to read my Bible honestly, examining everything closely without being biased. Because of that, I have noticed that Scripture contains some serious warnings against riches. The following statements are just a few; “Woe to you rich, weep and wail for your miseries that are coming to you” (Jam 5:1). “Beware against all kinds of greed, a man’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions” (Luk 12:15). “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Luk 6:24). “It easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mat 19:24). Is it a sin to have lots of money then? Certainly not! As I pointed out above, it’s God who gives us these things in abundance. The sin is the attitude and the corruption of the heart that inevitably follows those who are rich. The more money a human has, the greedier, selfish and proud they become. They even come to a point where they feel like they don’t need God anymore. How many souls have become dedicated to the church because they were seeking employment or because of some trouble in their lives, yet the moment their lives got comfortable, the moment they got that fat paycheck is the last day they set foot in the house of the Lord? That is exactly my point! According to Apostle James, it’s more possible for you to cheat, oppress and do injustice to fellow humans just because you have money (Jam 5:4-6). That is the curse of riches. Therefore, beloved, as good as cash is, it might not always be a blessing, just the opposite.
What is the spirit of poverty?
This is by far the most hated demon of the modern church age. They call it the “spirit of poverty.” Now listen, there is nothing, inside that beautiful Bible, called the spirit of poverty. That is a fabrication and an invention by the prosperity gospel teachers, who, as we taught you that they are false preachers. There are rich people in this world, yet there are also very poor ones, and we must equally thank God for them, because they are poor, not by their making, but by the eternal purpose of the Almighty. This, though, does not mean that you must like your poor state and make no attempts to improve your life. The point is, God is more concerned about the prosperity of your spirit; that you love and delight in Him, than it is that you drive a new BMW. That is why when we read the beatitudes – which detail a lot about being blessed – we don’t see any relationship between blessings and money (Mat 5:3-11). Therefore, if you happen to be not so rich by worldly standards, you don’t have any poverty curse, that is a lie. Instead, that is an opportunity to enrich yourself with godliness, while you patiently pray for the Lord to improve your physical poverty, in His own way at His own time. Amen.
Conclusion
We must stop this value of earthly riches above the eternal riches that our Lord gives, until we limit the word “blessing” to nothing beyond this world. It doesn’t matter how rich, and famous an individual is, without Christ, he is poor, miserable, lost and pitiful. In Christ, we have everything we need; for this life and the world beyond. That is what it means to be truly blessed.
Sinothi Ncube
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