Many years ago, I heard part of the 73^rd Psalm:

Psalm 73:3-7 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

I thought if this is what being wealthy is like I want nothing to do with money. But I soon came to realize that you must work – your family must eat! But still, I wanted nothing to do with money. I was tithing but still very broke. I did not know what to think or believe. As I began to learn the truth about prosperity, my wife and I had the challenge of changing our minds on several levels.

Part of the challenge of prosperity is the changing of our minds to see the possibility of wealth in a whole new light.

Years ago, our culture adopted the religious “Christian” idea that to have much money is wrong. Our culture believes that the wealthy are greedy, are not honest and obtained their wealth in the gray areas of the law if not illegally. Thus, we have wealthy people depicted in the movies as Dr. Evil and the TV show, American Greed. Sometimes they are referred to as the filthy rich.

Additionally, Christianity has taught and believed that to be truly humble and walk with God you must give up all worldly goods and live from hand to mouth.

God tells a completely different story in His Word.

When God put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, God wanted a family. Children that He could walk and talk with. Children that would love Him. Thus, when He put man on the earth, He also put within the earth everything His man and His family would need to live a healthy and prosperous life.

God put iron, coal, and oil in the earth in such abundance, that without these we would have never had an industrial age. God created and put within the earth all the precious minerals, like gold, silver, and platinum. God created all the inert gases that light your fluorescent lights and make your party balloons float away. God put in and on the earth, everything man would need to be able to enjoy his life here.

Then God put His spirit in man. God gave the man a body and soul so that His man could live here and enjoy the earth He had created for him, and then God put His spirit in man so He could communicate with His family. Then God made Adam His under ruler … in essence, Adam became the god of this world.

When Adam sinned by eating from the forbidden tree, he committed high treason against God. Adam handed over the dominion of the creation to the devil.

Once the devil had dominion, he began to funnel much of the wealth of the world to his people. These people are the ones spoken about in the 73^rd Psalm that we read earlier.

AND the devil began to cloud the minds of God’s people about the truth of what they had a right to. As we have seen in other blogs, the devil may be the temporary god of this world, but our Father still is the one that owns the silver and gold and the cattle on a thousand hills.

Once we understand this is true, it is easy to just mentally agree with that truth but not really act on it. Some call this mental assent. The challenge is to not only agree but to believe that what God lays out in His Word is the truth about money and then line our lives, our thinking, and our believing up accordingly.

If these truths become part of your life, then you would tithe/give, save, get out of debt, and learn how to invest and see the prosperity your Father gives you grow. That would involve changing the mind from not only agreeing with these truths but acting on them as well day after day for the rest of your life – living as the sons and daughters God designed us to be.

God’s truths about wealth and prosperity must be retaught in each generation because our mutual enemy puts the church to sleep concerning them over and over. Therefore, much of Christianity is poor when our father’s great wish above all things is for us to prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers.

I will conclude with this quote which seems appropriate:

“One often encounters the viewpoint that anybody who loves God and who believes what God’s Word says is either destined or duty-bound to be poor. What a shame it is that Abraham was excluded from that particular destiny or duty! Abraham had believed what God had said. He had gone where God had told him to go. But he was NOT POOR, rather he was VERY RICH – in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Something must have been wrong! Perhaps what is wrong is not something which was wrong with Abraham, or it is not something which is wrong with God, but perhaps it is rather something which is wrong with our understanding. Abraham was VERY RICH, and he was called by God in Scripture “the Friend of God”.

So, the challenge presented here is to read the records and verses in God’s Word for yourself, and then act upon the principles God has laid out in His Word. The reality will become clearer and clearer that God has called us to His family and His great wish for us is to enjoy The Prosperous Life.