Friday 23 May 2014

Prosperity a distorted yearning?

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
(Jeremiah 29:11)

This week I have such a burden in my heart for something that is growing within the body of Christ and, as aggressive the growth thereof, as aggressive is the burning in my heart against it!

This is not an easy topic and I beg of you to distinguish clearly between what I am saying and what I am not saying.

The thing that I am talking about is the teaching of and the yearning for prosperity. What I am seeing and hearing is that more and more there is an attitude where hardship, struggles, sickness, poverty and the likes are shunned. I regularly hear proclamations such as "We will not take it," "We will bring this thing into obedience to the LORD," or "This is all a lie...it has already been conquered." The feeling is that in Christ we have the victory and in Him we can do all things...we only need to stand in faith. There is no need for a Christian to suffer any of these.

Hmmm, I cannot deny the truths within these words...but there is nothing as dangerous as half-truths!

If I should believe the above truths and the passion and tenacity with which they are preached, then at least those Christians with a true and strong faith in the Lord, should be the most successful, rich, healthy and relationship-hiccup-free people in the world. Then surely they should not even suffer death but be taken up into heaven as Enoch of old.

I wanted to see if this is indeed Biblical. My first stop in my search was Hebrews 11 also known as the Hall of Faith. Indeed Hebrews 11 discusses what we can call the 'faith giants' of the Bible. If any were to prosper according to the above truths, surely it was them. Allow me to list some of what I have discovered:

Starting from Abel to Abraham, verse 13 says, "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance."

Verse 22 tells us that Joseph also did  not receive what was promised. "By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones." Note that the exodus had not yet taken place and Moses had not yet been born. Joseph would not receive the promise but he wanted his bones to go into the Promised Land.

Oops, they did not receive what was promised? Was it their faith? Did they not claim the victories as they should have? Yet...they are in the 'Hall of faith'? How is that possible? Let's continue.

Verse 32 says, "...I have no time to tell about Gideon, Barak...and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned into strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again."

Wow...now that sounds familiar. That is what is being preached today with loud voices and stamping of feet. This is the faith life we yearn for right? Once again, let's continue...I want to know more of this kind of faith!

Verse 35 goes on, "Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated...they wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground."

O my...they should not have taken this! They should just have stood firm in faith...they should have remembered who they are...children of the Most High God, the victory was already theirs so to speak! Did they show weak faith? Let's see...

Verse 39: "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised."

Now what to make of this? Faith giants...yet some of them saw the greatest victories and some of them seemingly the ultimate shame and defeat. I am determined to search a little further and page to Philippians 4:12. Paul is speaking: "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret to be content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." So, here we have Paul...a Paul who had times of prosperity and times of poverty! Did he have faith fluctuations? What was he thinking...content in times of poverty? By no modern teaching! We are told to reprimand poverty...to put it under our feet...to expect God to lift us out and make us prosperous!!! Against the backdrop of modern teaching I am even more surprised at what Paul confesses in 2 Corinthians 12:7, "...there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." What??? Don't take any torment from Satan, Paul! You have the victory in Christ! Any sickness, disease is a lie, you are healed by the stripes of Christ!! Yet God would not take away this thorn! It seems that at least in this case, God did not agree with modern teaching.

What did Jesus say? The One who died on the cross, the One who was going to heal us by His stripes and give us victory and all authority over the enemy. Let's turn to Luke 21:12 and onwards where Jesus is talking to His disciples - "...they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons...You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death...but not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life."

You will be put to death...but not a hair will perish and you will gain life?? We could not have a clearer example of the dilemma of the prosperity teaching compared to real life!

Before I address this seeming contrast, let us look towards something of God's purpose in allowing this suffering and hardship in our lives. Though suffering and pain was not from Him...though it was the plan of Satan and the doing of man's disobedience, God will and can work good in it.

Hebrews 12:7-10 "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his Father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are...not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live...God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness."

PLEASE NOTE THAT DISCIPLINE DOES NOT EQUAL PUNISHMENT!!! This Scripture is not saying that we are being cruelly punished for our sins!! (I might write about this in another post later)

James 1:2-4 adds this understanding - "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

And lastly for now, Romans 5:3-4 "...but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."

May I ask this one question to all those who want to pray and preach and speak away all trials: If God wants to work something good in us through them, should we be shunning them? Should we be telling people not to take it? Should we demand that they be taken away?

It is obvious from these Scriptures that we have been looking at, that in God's view, His children will not escape all horrible things, all sickness, all poverty and the likes. Some will perish from it! Yet, Jesus said that by standing firm, you will gain life. Jesus is clearly speaking not about the physical realm but of the spiritual realm. We might suffer all kinds of 'bad' in the physical earthly life we live in the body, but if we stand firm in our faith in Him through all our trials and suffering, we will gain eternal and spiritual life...and that is His ultimate goal in and through us.

That said, let me be very clear now - God does also care about the physical realm. He does also heal. He does change circumstances for the better. He is also glorified through our physical prosperity and so we CAN ask Him to practically and physically help us in whichever negative situation we find ourselves in and we can expect Him to hear and answer our prayers.

But here is the big BUT -

We cannot yearn for physical prosperity. We yearn for Christ. We yearn for His glorification, not our comfort. We yearn for His will to be done in and through us...not our will. Remember that Jesus Himself asked of the Father to let the cup of suffering pass him by...yet got a 'No' from God. 

"Faith is not a way of manipulating God for a specific outcome, it is trusting God regardless the immediate outcome. In faith we trust God to the point where we surrender all and completely yield to His plan and purpose in every circumstance." (from my book, 'Bride Adorned')

Dear friend, if we start yearning prosperity instead of yearning for Christ and to glorify Him in whichever circumstance, if we start demanding only the good from His hand and reject all suffering, we set ourselves up for true defeat for we will have fallen for a half-truth and we will eventually stumble on the Rock. The truth is that indeed God wants to prosper us, the lie added to it that turns it into a half-truth is that therefore, He will keep all suffering and long-suffering away from us.

Until next week, keep trusting whether the fig tree buds or not.

God bless
Lize



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