The Bible teaches that it is God who gives you the power to get wealth (Deut. 8:18). God told Abraham that He was going to bless him so that he could be a blessing to nations. It is God’s will to give you prosperity with a purpose, to make you a blessing to others.
Are you nervous or afraid about your financial situation? You need to remind yourself that God is your source of financial provision. Start declaring, “It is God who insures my success this year. It is God who gives me the power to get wealth even in the face of my present need!”
Jesus told thirty-eight parables that deal with money management. That is five times more teaching on money than He did on prayer. There are five hundred verses about prayer and fasting, compared to two thousand on money and possessions from Jesus’s teachings. Why did Jesus teach more on money than He did on prayer? Why is money so important to Jesus? Because He knows that if you do not master money, it will master you.
You do not qualify for God’s abundance until you first become His child. God loves to provide for His children more than earthly fathers do. You have to decide to become a child of God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Then, all the promises of God become yours. I have five kids, and they can eat out of our refrigerator anytime. But if kids of the neighborhood came to raid our fridge, I would have a problem with that. They have their own parents who are to provide for them.
God wants to be your Father, and He wants His children to prosper—His way. The psalmist said that when you delight in God, everything you do will prosper (Ps. 1). You need to understand the generous heart of God for you to have abundance. He wants to change your poverty mentality. You have to believe His promises and confess that it is God’s will for you to prosper. Your faith will set you free from fear of financial failure.
In the story of the prodigal son, the father is a picture of our heavenly Father. When that boy repented and came home, his father told his servants to kill the fat calf, bring the best robe, give him shoes, and put a ring on his son’s finger. That is the heart of our heavenly Father to bless His children with His best.
One of my favorite fear fighters is the declaration of the psalmist that he was young and is now old and has not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging for bread (Ps. 37:25). That divine promise is yours for your children and you to enjoy God’s abundance when you live as a child of God. He has promised that no matter how old you get, He will take care of you. You will never be a beggar or a pauper. God will never forsake you when you qualify for His abundance.
When I went to India, I saw people starving in the streets. Cows mingled among the people. My mouth watered thinking of all that beefsteak running around. But they would not eat one of them because cows are considered to be gods.
They worship the animal that God provided as food for their nourishment. More than half of the grain produced in India is eaten by rats. They don’t kill them, because they are considered gods also. Because they do not serve the living God, they are doomed to poverty and starvation. How they need to know the wonderful news of the gospel that would set their captive hearts free!
“I have been young and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread”
(Ps. 37:25).
I am so glad I worship the living God who wants me to prosper. He gave all things to us to enjoy in Christ. The difference between living in prosperity and living in poverty is a choice. Choices have consequences. God told Israel that He set death and life, blessing and cursing, before them. They had to choose life or death (Deut. 30:19). It is not by chance that you are blessed; it is by choice.
Giving is a choice. Jesus said if you give, it will be given back to you according to the way that you give (Luke 6:38). Jesus taught that if you give, you will receive a “four-way gain clause”: (1) good measure, (2) pressed down, (3) shaken together, and (4) running over.
Givers gain. Nothing multiplied by nothing is nothing. God multiplies seed that is sown. The Bible teaches that he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly (2 Cor. 9:6). It is a law of harvest. Conversely, if you sow generously, you will reap generously.
According to the way you sow, you will reap. This law of harvest applies to your finances as well. You will gain largely when you give largely, but you have to qualify by choosing to be a giver.
Diligence is a choice. The Bible says that we are to work six days and rest on the seventh day. There are two kinds of people God will not bless: lazy people and stingy people. You cannot be successful without hard work. God’s Word does not teach an entitlement mentality that feels others owe you something. It teaches that a lazy person will live in need and have nothing, but the soul of the diligent will prosper (Prov. 13:4). The greatest way to fight poverty is to get a job.
Sin is a choice. Sin brings poverty, low living, addictions, and destroyed lives. Living under a financial curse of sin is a choice. If you choose not to give, not to work, not to be responsible for the prosperity God wants to give to His children, you will bring a curse of poverty to your life.
Jentezen Franklin is the senior pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Ga., and Irvine, Calif. He is the author of New York Times best-sellers Right People, Right Place, Right Plan and Fasting. His ministry extends internationally through the televised broadcast, Kingdom Connection, which is seen on television networks such as TBN and The Church Channel. This article was excerpted from his book Fear Fighters.
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