Many times as Christians, we stand on God’s promises for prosperity. We see Philippians 4:19 which says, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” What an awesome verse. We also see Psalm 23:1, which says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Notice that. Shall not want. Later in that chapter, it tells us that the Lord prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. Our cup runs over. In fact, Jesus Himself said that He came so that we might have life more abundantly. What an amazing thought. He came so we can have abundant life. Galatians 3:13-14 expands on that, saying that the reason Christ died was so the blessing of Abraham (read my last post, The Blessing is Working in Me to understand what that blessing is, or read Deuteronomy 28:1-15, or do both) might come upon the gentiles. It was already on the Jews. God wanted it to come on all the rest of us. So then, why is it that so many Christians do not experience God’s Blessing to the fullest extent? I am convinced that it is a lack of understanding.
One of God’s covenant names is “Jehovah-Jireh” which literally means, “The Lord Will Provide”. God wants to provide for you. However, this is only one side of this truth. Let’s read where this is revealed to Abraham. Over in Genesis 22, Abraham is told to sacrifice his son, his only son whom he loves. They take a three day trip to Mount Moriah, and Abraham is supposed to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering. (In the New Testament we read that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead if he was killed, he had such strong faith in God keeping his promises.) So they get there, and Abraham is about to kill Isaac, and the angel of the Lord stops him, because God has now seen that there is nothing before Him in Abraham’s eyes, including his own son. Picking up in verse 13, “Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide, (your footnote should read YHWH Yireh, or Jehovah-Jireh) as it is said to this day, ‘In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.’” Did you catch that? Not only was God revealed as Jehovah-Jireh, but that was what the place was called where Abraham was sent. That’s where his provision was! You see, Abraham could have gone to any mountain when he was told to sacrifice his son. He found where he was told to go and he went there.
Why don’t we do that as Christians? So many times we want God to provide for us, which He promised to do, but we don’t do it His way. We don’t find where He wants us to be. So, in order to prosper, not only do you need to follow God’s laws for prosperity, which include tithing, giving, walking in love, etc., but you need to find where you are supposed to be. You need to find where Jehovah-Jireh is for you. Where is your Jehovah-Jireh? Ask God, meditate on the Word (or think about it) and He will show you where Jehovah-Jireh is. The key is knowing His voice. That is how Abraham knew where to go. He knew the voice of his Lord. You need to find this place. God needs you in this place so you can be blessed. Not just to get things, which in and of themselves are not wrong to have, but, more importantly, so that you can bless other people. If you are not in that place where God is providing for you, it will be all you can do to make it. So, find where God needs you to be. He needs you there so that you can bless the people there through your prosperity. The question, then, is very simple.
Where is your place called Jehovah-Jireh?
For Abraham, it was Mount Moriah. For you, it could be anywhere. Find that place. Talk to God, and ask Him where He needs you. Ask Him where your place is that you can call Jehovah-Jireh.
Dave, I really like the path you took this passage on. Meeting God on His terms is so important and I think that, as humans, it's one of the most difficult things to do.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I think I would add if this conversation went on longer, would be that God providing looks different to each person as well. Our cup of blessings does not mean what secular culture wants it to be (i.e.: money, relationships, property, etc).
I'm really enjoying your work here, Dave! I think the blog speaks to the next lesson, after meeting God...we need to leave our personal Mount Moriahs and move into action.
I'm glad you liked it Court. One thing I will disagree with you on (only slightly though) is the part about blessings. :P If you read what God says, I believe you will find that God has no problem with His people having material possessions, and having an abundance of them. In fact, He wants us to. Solomon was given a choice between many things, and when he chose wisdom, he was also given financial prosperity. Abraham was blessed in livestock, silver, and gold. The list goes on with the people who were blessed in this way. The Bible also tells us that God is no respecter of persons, meaning, if He is willing to do something for me, He is willing to do it for anyone who meets His qualifications. So, He wont bless me just because of who I am.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, so many times, we get off the ditch on one side (with blessings) and go into it on the other. Some people say they are all spiritual, some say they are all material. The answer is in the middle, I believe. You see, God isn't against me having things. In fact, Jesus says that we aren't supposed to seek after things, but if we seek the Kingdom of God, or His system and way of living our life, then all these things will be added to us. God is against the things having us.
So, I said all that to say, if your motivation for getting blessed is to see how much you can get, it isn't gonna happen. If your motivation for getting blessed is to bless other people, God is gonna give you so much you wont know what to do with it. He gave Solomon so much that they didn't even count how much silver he had, it was worthless. But, that was when Solomon was following God, and His system of doing things.
So, I guess what I mean is that God does want everyone to be blessed financially, but that is only one piece of the pie. He wants us to have the whole pie though. If you have a bunch of money, with a sick body, all you are is a poor man with money in the bank and a sick body. If you are healthy, have money, and bad relationships, you are still a poor man, with money in the bank, a healed body, and bad relationships. Prosperity has been pigeonholed to mean just money, when it really means to excel in every area of your life. Physically, spiritually, financially, mentally, etc. So, it is all encompassing, including all those things you talked about, but not excluding any one of them, if that makes sense.
He he he...I didn't explain myself very well. I agree with you; God does bless with money and such. I just meant to point out what you highlighted-- if you're expecting that God is going to bless you with a million dollars, then you're often mistaken. Although, I think when people learn to meet God on His terms, they stop thinking so much about what they want, and everything God provides is a blessings. There are rich people and poor people in the Kingdom; but that doesn't mean Christian should expect that just because they aren't winning the lottery or if something bad is happening to them that God isn't blessing them. God blesses people according to His will, which could be a bajillion dollars, or it could be with an amazing child. But once we're truly meeting God at His place, we leave behind our 'wants' to a degree, because then all we are wanting is His will.
ReplyDeleteSo, I think we agree? Not sure.
I think we might disagree on the giving of blessings, though. You mentioned that "The Bible also tells us that God is no respecter of persons, meaning, if He is willing to do something for me, He is willing to do it for anyone who meets His qualifications." By this, do you mean that His will is to give the same gifts to everyone? I agree that God is not a respecter of persons, but I don't know that I'd agree that he would grant anything we asked (we talked about this in regards to prayer and healing when you were visiting). I think God knows best and sometimes we ask for things that we shouldn't have, and God, who understands the ultimate purpose and outcome, might not give us what we want, but rather what we need. I'd put blessings in the same category--God knows best and He gives what we need (but we may not realize it's what we want).
I'll give you that, we do disagree about Blessings, just as we do about healing. I appreciate our discussion, and enjoy your perspective. Now, to address what you said.
ReplyDeleteSince God is no respecter of persons, I believe it is His will to bless all mankind, in every area. That includes Him desiring for His people to prosper financially. Now, financial prosperity not only looks different for different people, it is also dependent on your being faithful. Look at the servants with the talents in Matthew. The ones who made the most of what they had got more. The man with the 5 talents got his talents doubled. The man with the two got his doubled. The man with the 1 talent got his taken away, because he didn't do anything with it. The Bible says that they were given the talents according to their ability. So, if you have more ability than me, you may start up with more, but it was the faithful, who did their master's will that got blessed, if that makes sense. I am not talking financial prosperity for the sake of having a lot of money. God wants you blessed and to have nice things, but you better be putting that to good use, and being productive. We are blessed so that we can be a blessing. Yes, we can have nice cars and houses too, if we so desire them, but they cannot be the priority on our list. If they are, then we are lovers of money, and the Bible says that the love of money (not the money itself) is the root of all evil. So, it isn't wrong to have things, it's wrong to let the things have us.
If you aren't mature enough to be following God, and trying to be a blessing to everyone, as well as following the Biblical law of tithing, as well as the principles of sowing and reaping, there is no way you will prosper financially. (Not you specifically, the everyone you. :P)
I guess I said all that to say that I believe we determine how much we prosper, and if we allow that money to be our God, than God cannot prosper us. I think that is why people get the idea that God doesn't want them to financially prosper.
Hope that made sense, I almost felt like I was rambling.
1 Timothy 6:8-10 says NOTHING about motives. It is ALL about the desire. It doesn't matter if you desire to be rich so you can "be a blessing", it is that DESIRE to be rich that gets you into trouble!
ReplyDelete8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
If it were OK to desire to be rich so you could "be a blessing" Paul would have said something like this, But those who desire to be rich in order to spend it all on themselves fall into temptation and a snare, but those who desire to be rich to be a blessing to others, may God richly bless them! or something to that effect. But, of course, that's not what he said. The problem is that you do not know how you would handle riches, only God knows that, and it is up to Him to give us what He knows we can handle, so that we do not fall into temptation and a snare and drown ourselves in destruction and perdition, and pierce ourselves through with many sorrows. The only thing that is up to us is to trust God, asking Him in faith to give us what we need, knowing full well that He is our Heavenly Father and He knows best what we need, not ourselves. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him. and He shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5,6
Motives are still important, regardless. The thing that matters most, however is, faithfulness. Look at the parable of the talents. The ones who were faithful were the ones who were blessed, as was proven time and time again throughout the scriptures. King David, Solomon (while he walked with God), the Israelites as whole when they were faithful, etc. The faithfulness is the key. The thing I was trying to hit on with the motives is saying that the more you are faithful, the more you can serve God by blessing other people. That should be our highest desire, to please God, and to serve others, whether it means volunteering at a soup kitchen, or buying someone a tank of gas to bless them, or anything else that you may need to do to bless someone. How can God tell me to pay someone's rent who is in financial trouble and bless them if I myself do not have enough money to do it? Read the parable of the talents, and the stories of David, and Solomon. Solomon got wealth because he chose Godly wisdom. The two should go hand in hand.
ReplyDelete