The Truth About the Prosperity Teaching of Today

Preach the Gospel

When Jesus sent His disciples into the world to preach the good news, He gave them very specific instructions on the do’s and don’ts of their ministry. It is a part of the Bible that many would be happy to ignore because of its specific focus on the finances of those who are sent to preach the gospel. When Jesus sent out his disciples to preach the gospel,  the first issue He addressed was what they were to take with them on their journey.  He gave them very specific instructions concerning their mission.  It is quite noteworthy to understand there are no prosperity teachers using these verses!   

Luke 9:2-3   "And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece."

We read of another account when Jesus sent out seventy disciples to preach the gospel and gave the same instructions:

Luke 10:1-4   "After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way."

Jesus spoke of sending the disciple out as “lambs among the wolves” and yet He specifically tells them not to carry money. I wonder why?  Could it possibly be that a rich, prosperous disciple would have great difficulty sitting down to break bread at a poor mans house?   Could it be that that the poor man who hosted such a disciple would find hospitality a bit difficult if the disciple was carrying enough money to feed the whole town?    Decide this for yourself.

I can't seem to find a single New Testament great servant of God who was rich, can you?  Instead, the great servants of God knew the Word of God thoroughly and never do we read of any of them that 'named and claimed the promises' of God in order for them to be wealthy. The only prosperity they sought was the prosperity of seeing many souls converted to Christ.   Tell me, did they all somehow miss the "wealth" promises of the bible?   Perhaps they, like Paul, had it all wrong.

The Lord makes it perfectly clear that there is nothing wrong with wealth in and of itself. Riches are merely a tool that can be used for good or can be used for evil. However as the Word warns, money has one very dangerous quality:   It is very easy to fall in love with it!  Unfortunately that is what has happened in many churches, congregations, fellowships and ministries today.

We all need money to pay our bills, put food on the table and live a fairly comfortable life but money and all it buys is not to be our purpose and to be the end of our existence!   Jesus makes it very clear when He talks about us ‘accumulating treasures’ that He is speaking not of any earthly wealth at all but of a greater reward that is waiting for us in heaven.   Jesus specifically warns against storing up treasures on this earth:

Matthew 6:19-21   "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:..."

The final portion of verse 21 says:  "...For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."  In other words, Where your wealth is there your heart is!   Guess what?   Where your heart is that is where you are!

I wonder where it is that pastors and prosperity teachers want their congregation's hearts to be?  Apparently, it is on the morally corrupt treasures of this present earth ...  on money and the things it buys.

Can You Really Have Anything You Say?

You can have what you say if you believe your words will come to pass.   How many times have you heard this?  I recently heard a pastor stand in front of the congregation and say "God just told me while I was sitting right over there (pointing to his chair), that 'what you can believe, God can conceive'.   He repeated this several times and of course, the congregation for the most part believe they had heard a great word from God.  This same pastor went on to say he didn't like hanging around poor people and that he wanted to be around rich people because the rich "knew what they were doing and where they were going in life" and that the rich "had it all together".  "What you believe, God can conceive"? Let me examine that statement according to the Word of God.

What you can believe, God can conceive?     Do you mean to tell me that whatever it is you choose to believe, then God will perform it, even against his own written Word?   This is what the Word Faith crowd would have you to believe.  If you're sick, just "confess" that you're not.  If you're poor, just "confess" that you're not and then God is obligated to perform according to your own faith in the words you speak.     Nothing could be more heretical than that!   God has no duty, obligation or responsibility to do what you say just because you say it and because have faith in your own words.  This is the natural progression of the error that is inherent in the Word Faith Movement. You are welcome to believe the earth is flat if you wish and you may do so with all your heart.  That doesn't change the fact that God CANNOT and WILL NOT "conceive" it just because you say it is so.   God CANNOT and WILL NOT violate His order, His law, nor His will just because you believe a certain thing.   "What you can believe, God can conceive"?   That didn't come from God but from the humanistic, carnal, vain imagination of man.

Faith requires object of your faith.   You can say you have "faith" but where is that faith placed?  If it is placed in the belief that your words have power, then faith rests in yourself.   If you have faith in certain quotations of scripture because you believe in quoting scripture that God is bound to act in a certain manner, then your faith is in sorcery.  All attempts to manipulate God to act in a certain manner amount to nothing more than pure sorcery. 

True faith rests in Jesus Christ alone and in believing that HE is true, that HE can perform what HE says he can do.  If you are involved in an automobile accident and suffer an amputation of your leg as a result, you may "confess" that you're healed, "confess" that your leg isn't cut off and claim it all day long but the fact remains before you that you are missing a limb.  You may quote "by his stripes we were healed" and perhaps you believe it with all your heart, but the fact still remains, you have one less leg. 

I have watched over the years as the "name it and claim it" Word Faith crowd says things like "I'm not going to confess that", even when they are diagnosed with a serious health issue.   I've watched as those same teachers and preachers have  been prescribed medication (which they faithfully take), as they entered hospitals for surgery, and as some have died.  Apparently they didn't believe what they had taught all those years, or perhaps they just forgot a very important principle found in the Word of God:

Matthew 5:45  "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

Sometimes we get sick, but provision is made for the sick!  (James 5:14).  Sometimes we are poor (examine the Apostles and the first church as a whole...read Revelation 2:8-9 also).  Sometimes we suffer loss and sometimes we have hardships.  God doesn't love you more if you're rich than he does if you're poor.  You're not more "blessed" if you're rich than a poor man with nothing to his name. 

The Apostle Peter, when asked for a coin, simply replied “Silver and gold have I none” (Acts 3:6).   I wonder why he didn't have any coins?  Was it a lack of faith?   Was he living in "lack" because he wouldn't "confess" his way out of poverty? 

Examine Peter's words:

2 Peter 2:1-3   "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not."

"Make merchandise of you"  This is exactly what is happening.   "Give your last dollar", "Give what you can't afford to give", "Sow a seed so you can reap 100 fold back", they say (thus making God an investment scheme rather than sovereign Lord of all the earth).  Sometimes you'll find such gimmicks promoted by these people such as "send me a 'love' offering of only $10 and I'll send you this 'anointed prayer cloth' (or some other trinket such as a cross, a bookmark, etc)."   Have we become so spiritually ignorant in the church of today that we can't recognize these things are witchcraft and idolatry?  They are selling you what amounts to a "good luck" charm in which you place faith that the item has some sort of mystical, magical power (because you've been duped into believing it is some kind of  "anointed point of contact".  Come on, let's call it for what it is!   Faith in ANYTHING or ANYONE outside Jesus Christ is idolatry (serving other gods) and witchcraft (faith in object, chants, phrases or words). 

These principles are not found in the Word of God except as a perversion of scripture.  When these teachers make promises about God repaying the “love offerings” 100 fold, not only are they making fraudulent claims but they are also signing a promissory note on God’s behalf; a promissory note, incidentally, that neither they nor any other man has the right to sign.

The Bible in no way condemns the accumulation of wealth and it certainly does not condemn those who are wealthy IF THEY USE THEIR WEALTH FOR RIGHTEOUS PURPOSES!  The Word of God does, however, condemn fraud, the making of false promises and oaths and the perversion of scripture for purposes of deceiving someone for personal gain! 

In every prosperity message, the issue of tithing and being "blessed" accordingly always arises.   As we continue, let's examine the passage of Malachi 3:10. 

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