Prosperity boundaries

     
    If you observe the boundaries God puts on prosperity, as found in the New Testament, seeking godly prosperity is a safe thing, even tho' the love of money is a root of evil and riches are specifically said, in the Bible,  to have deceitfulness within.  When we miss the boundaries, deceitfulness of riches takes root and a good word can become a wrong word.  One important New Testament boundary put on the idea of prosperity is that we are to prosper as our soul prospers, (3 Jo. 2).  Notice this is your soul that is to be prosperous?  This is soul, not spirit and not body. Your soul is your rational, emotional, logical being.  It was not born again, as was your spirit, and it requires saving through the "engrafting" of the Word of God.  In terms of prosperity, your rational, emotional and logical being needs to be in healthy condition in order to handle money and not have money handle it.  In other words, you don't need any more riches than your soul can properly handle.  That is a boundary.   You don't have to be a genius to see that some folks get the prosperity message a little too early in their Christian walk and instead of them getting money, money gets them.  And, they make a mess of the message. Chances are, eventually, they will make a mess out of themselves as well.

  
     A soul that is not prosperous, who hears the message too early or in the wrong condition, will soon have nothing to talk about, except money.  He will pick up the Bible and every verse to him will be about money.   He will follow the money trail in every way he can.  If in the ministry, he may very quickly become a prosperity specialist. A soul that is not prosperous will hear this pitch, maybe from his television,  "send money and God will give you three times more money, more anointing, more of everything.  No wait...if you call now....He will give you ten times more".  Off his money goes and one of two things will happen, both terrible!  One, he will grow old and gray and his seed will never come back. And, he will forever bare the bruise of disappointment. Two, and maybe worse,  it will come back and he will forever think that the things of God can be bought with money.  Everything wrong about his concepts of prosperity will be affirmed. He will begin to sound like this one prosperity specialist I heard who declared to a bunch of preachers, including myself, "you don't need more God, you just need more money".  That tells you everything wrong about that man's concept of prosperity. His money had satisfied his soul. His hunger for and dependency upon God was over. All he wants is mo' money!!!

    
    The lack of prosperity in man's soul will cause his money, for a time, to satisfy his soul.  He will begin to feel that the presence of money is somehow spiritual affirmation. How much money, mammon, stuff he has becomes his boundary line.  And, that is a faulty measure.  Hear it?  "Look here, I have a Mercedes, airplane and a ton of gold.  I have great faith and am God's favorite son".  This is the condition a lot of folks, having heard just such a pitch, or something like it, find themselves in.  They yielded to the pitch, gave money and it seemingly worked. They got money back and deemed it to be good.  The noose tightened as they began to identify God with their money. Instead of a conduit through whom God can flow, they soon become a vault stuffed with "stuff".  Instead of being a river, they became a pond.  I shudder at some of the schemes going on that seem to work and at the willingness of participants to call it as being of God, though it has zero Bible basis.  Their proof of validity is the money in their pocket, not the Bible, not the voice of the Holy Ghost, and not even the flow of giving.  "It worked - so it must be God"  they say. I questioned a pastor once, who had given in to one of these schemes, so blatantly inconsistent with the New Covenant.  It had worked for him, in that money did seem to roll in. When questioned about a New Testament basis for the scheme, his attitude was "don't care...it worked".  My, oh, my is that a prescription for deceit or what?    That a perfect definition of iniquity.

    My advice is that we must never forget that the true measure of success for any prosperity plan, a boundary to be observed,  is not does it work to bring you money or "stuff", but does it work to make you a giver.   Does it fit  in the New Testament covenant we have with God?  Can we teach it to others, using words from our new covenant?   And, another measure of success is not how much flowed in, but how much flowed out.  God does not particularly love "cheerful" rich people but He particularly loves "cheerful" givers, be they rich or poor. Believe me, the devil uses the love of money and knows that if we accept money as a God thing, he has a handle on us and will begin to manipulate us away from God. He knows we can be bought.

    My friend, you cannot buy the things of God.  You cannot buy anointing.  You cannot buy riches, healing, gifts.  You cannot buy more Holy Ghost.  If you could, Bill Gates could become the Pope of the church world wide.  But, you can't.  What you can do is involve yourself, including money, service, praise, love, spiritual gifts, knowledge, giftings, and anything and everything you have with God. At every chance, give.  Listen to the Holy Ghost, and when He says "give", give.  His voice is another safe boundary for prosperity.   Know what you are doing.  You are showing grace.  You are sowing grace.  And, what you get back is grace.  Priceless grace. For involving yourself in the affairs of God (grace), He involves Himself in your affairs (grace). And, His grace comes back "abundant".    What you can do is work on having a prosperous soul, so that when and if success / riches come, it won't make much difference to you as a Christian person.  Have you seen a person go from rags to riches and become a different person in the process?  It is a sad sight.  Have you seen that poor person, whining and groaning because he was broke, get money and then become radical in his praise?  That too is a bit sad. 

    A prosperous soul?  One that values God and the touch of God above all.  One, that with or without money, abased or abounding, finds satisfaction in God, not in the things of the earth.  One that looks at "stuff" and says  "I would like to have some of that stuff so I could give it away". A prosperous soul is one emotionally free to enjoy God and the things of God, with or without money.  Like the Apostle Paul, he knows how to be abased or how to abound and in whatever state he finds himself in, he is satisfied. His sustaining strength comes from Christ, not his stuff nor lack of stuff (Phil. 4:11-13).  Money will not satisfy this man's soul.  It is too healthy to be decieved by money.  A prosperous soul never falls in love with his mammon (stuff). He knows the boundaries. He knows Jesus said you "cannot" (meaning impossible) serve both God and mammon.  It is not forbidden, it is just impossible, even if you wanted to.  God will not compete with man's "stuff".