Church of Interfaith Christians

New Series: Christians and the Concept of Wealth

Wealth and Finance is one of the most highly contested areas of teaching amongst Christians today. It is really not that hard to understand God’s intent in this area.If we as individuals understand how the Bible 'really' views wealth; if we will develop a right relationship with money; and if we will correctly steward that which God has entrusted us with, then we can start to see true biblical prosperity in action. Don’t miss out on God’s blessings. Embrace Christ’s true teachings and let the blessings flow through you into the lives of others.

The concepts I am teaching right now I have believed in for years. I can talk to you about mysterious happenings, miracles along the way, and the truly big and wonderful blessings that have occurred in my own life. I take my directions from God and I knew that I was to talk about this subject with you all. I have read many books along the way that have helped change my way of thinking on this subject. My weekly sessions are not enough though and I want you to have other resources to help. I come back to the writings of Alistair Kent and recommend that anyone not experiencing abundance look him up online and in the book store. There are many other good writers on the subject. In this series of weekly session you will find that I borrow on the concepts all ready written by Alistair Kent.

Second Subject of series: There’s a Battle Going On

In this subject we’re going to look at the root cause of many people’s difficulty with the whole concept of wealth creation.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV)

Whether we like it or not, when we become spiritual, we enter a battle. Life becomes enjoyable, rewarding and fulfilling at least in certain areas of our life, but at the same time the battles in other areas of our lives, if not won, can cause discouragement, depression and defeat. Joyce Meyer has written an excellent book that has a title telling us exactly where this battleground is. It’s called ‘The Battlefield of the Mind’. It’s primarily in our thinking where our spiritual enemies will wage war with us. For us to overcome the battle and live in complete victory in every area of our lives we will need to align our thinking completely with the Word of God and then follow through with appropriate actions. When I use the term “Word of God” most people think of the Bible but in truth there are many sacred texts. God’s Universal Truths are shared by All World Religions.

The biggest weapon that our enemy has is ‘the lie’. Jesus himself said of Satan that “he is a liar and the father of all lies and of all that is false” (John 8:44, AV).

Remember Satan and his demons have no hold over us. If we are truly ‘in Christ’, then Satan l cannot lay a finger on us. Keep in mind that just as we can rebuke Satan and his demons from our life we can rebuke his lies and we can rebuke the concept of poverty in our minds. Our enemy’s chief means of reducing our spiritual life to defeat is to put lies and deceit in our minds, so that we latch on to a wrong thought process that will ultimately take us away from God and away from God's purpose for our life.

On the subject of Christians and wealth, for many people they only have to be diverted away from the truths of God's words. But for other of us, Satan does a special job, leading people far away from the truth by convincing them in their own minds that they are thinking godly thoughts when in fact they are being deceived.

WHAT IS A STRONGHOLD?

When we entertain negative thought patterns and wrong mindsets, over time we will build what the Bible calls a ‘stronghold’.

In Bible times a city was fortified with strong walls running all the way around it – often several meters high. This would protect them from enemy attacks. Furthermore, in the centre of the city, the inhabitants would build a secondary defense in the shape of a tower. This was called a ‘stronghold’. So if the enemy broke through the gates or scaled the walls of the city, it would still have to breakdown the stronghold.

A wise man attacks the city of the mighty and pulls down the stronghold in which they trust.Proverbs 21:22 (NIV)

Many people come to Christ and in some sense allow God to break down the outer walls of their lives. But God wants to be in and fill every area of our lives, and unfortunately, knowingly or not, some strongholds are left standing – in our minds. These strongholds can represent any way of thinking that does not align itself with God’s Word.

SOME WRONG MINDSETS

Here are some wrong mindsets related to Christians and wealth, that if adopted will create strongholds in our minds:

Those in full time ministry are like the Levites of the Old Testament; they should have no inheritance and shouldn’t be concerned with the things of the world.
The poorer I am, the more spiritual I am.
Christianity is about surviving in this evil-ridden world until all things are put right when Jesus returns.
I should never buy new when second hand will do.

As Christians, we are constantly in a spiritual battle. But the Bible is clear that the way we engage in these conflicts is different to how we would engage in a natural battle.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God
Ephesians 6:12-13 (NIV)

Let each of us read through the entire chapter Ephesians 6. As we read through this chapter let us pay close attention to the weapon that God gives us to break down strongholds in our minds:

Take… the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:17 (NIV)

This weapon carries the ‘divine power’ to see the strongholds of the mind torn down and crushed to pieces. So we fight against wrong thought patterns with the Word of God.

Let’s look at a couple of examples. If we have developed a stronghold around the thinking that our lives are about survival and just getting by, then a good basis for our prayers could be taken from Romans 8:37: “... in all these things [trials, hardships, etc.] we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” If we have developed a pattern of thinking that it’s wrong to have wealth, then let us do as Ecclesiastes 5:19 says and confess in our prayers that “when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God”. We can also pray and ask God to remove these wrong patterns of thinking from us.

When we have prayed and believed in the power of God’s Word over our thoughts in life, we can begin to experience, by faith – not feeling - a new found freedom from any previous locked thought patterns. Soon blessings will follow!

STAYING FREE

Jesus came to set us free – and for us to stay that way.

So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law.
Galatians 5:1 (NLT)

Once a stronghold has been broken down through prayer, it’s important to ‘live out’ the truth of God's words and not carry on thinking as we used to do when subjected to the lies Satan planted.

Here are some tips to keep us on track and keep our mind on the truth so that the same stronghold or other similar ones don’t re-develop.

Read God’s Word: The Bible is littered with scriptures all about money and what we can/should be doing with it.
Put it into practice: The Bible says that faith without works is dead. So if we truly believe that it’s okay to be wealthy, then we need to act accordingly. We should do things like apply for that higher salary we thought we weren’t worthy of, investigate ways of making money through our God-given abilities, or start up that business that we always wanted to do but thought was too materialistic.
Pray: Let us ask God by his Holy Spirit to inspire us to create wealth for Kingdom purposes. Let us seek a vision from God about what he wants us to do with the wealth that we create.
Give: We should giveto others letting the energy of wealth flow through us. It is the principle behind tithing and the passage that says we reap what we sow. Let us give away some of what we have remembering if we want to reap, we first have to sow.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Unfortunately in this day and age there is still a lot of preaching around that is based on surviving troubles, hanging on and getting through. Many Christian churches have a value system ingrained into them that says ‘no success allowed, we’re Christians’! Taking vows of poverty and adopting a ‘survival mentality’ has damaged Christians and reduced their capacity to break into new ground for the furthering of the Kingdom of God.

One of the great challenges for the Church and Christianity today is to change our way of thinking on wealth and success, be confronted with the truths of the Bible, break down strongholds that have developed through wrong teaching and be released into the blessings of success and prosperity that God has for each and every one of his children.

I ask God to open our minds, to remove the harmful programming that only brings negative energy into our lives, and to open all of us to receive God’s blessings of abundance. More on this subject next week.

Blessings, Reverend Sharra