Many years ago, I taught someone about tithing/giving on a Friday night. They went home and shared what they learned with another young man. He tithed for the first time in his life on Sunday. On Tuesday, his pager went off and found they had a liver for him. He was jaundiced and needed a liver very badly or he would die. Now he had one. Coincidence? NOT! He was already born again and had manifested the spirit within, but he needed to learn about tithing/giving to receive what His Father wanted to give him back. A huge repayment for a small gift/tithe.

Apparently, each of us has different pieces of the puzzle we need to put together to see the promises of God come to pass in our lives.

Personally, we had to learn to save our money. Save part of what God gave us back as He promises to do in His Word. In Proverbs, God teaches us that we are to honor Him with the first fruits of all our increase, and then He promises to fill our barns (storehouses) for honoring Him — keeping Him first in our lives. I finally saw that a barn or storehouse in our day and time was more like a savings account. Once we diligently started to save, as we were paying off debt, our lives became dramatically different — more prosperous.

I recently read a book by a well-known preacher that God had to teach him personally about prosperity. This is because, overall, the church does not teach what God really says in His Word about how to prosper financially.

That man had laid out his bills before God and said, “You promised if I was obedient and willing, I would eat of the fat of the land.”  He told God his car had been hauled off for junk, and he was afoot. His children were not well fed or clothed, and his family was not well housed. God told him you have “faith” (we might say believing) for healing and I can see that, but you have none for finances. You have “faith” to see people born again and to teach them how to manifest the spirit born within, but you do not apply that “faith” (believing) in your finances.

When God put Adam in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam dominion over everything. Adam, through a treasonous act, gave his dominion over to the devil. Now the devil is the god of this world. As the god of this world, the two main places he can mess with the lives of God’s children is their finances and their health. Partly, how the devil has messed with the prosperity of God’s children is through wrong teaching/wrong doctrine in the church. You cannot believe beyond what you are taught. If you are taught wrong doctrine, that really impedes your growth financially, as that is our topic here.

The preacher said God told him the devil is the god of this world, but that God still owns the cattle on a thousand hills. God says all the gold and the silver are His. God did not put all this abundance on the earth for the devil and his cohorts. God put these blessings here for His children, His family. We just need to claim what is rightfully ours.

In the 23^rd Psalm, it says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not WANT.” That is more than just having food and clothing. God has also promised that He will supply all our needs in Christ. Malachi says God will rebuke the devourer for our sake. Perhaps if you have tithed, saved and endeavored to believe all God has said concerning prosperity, you may need to ask Him to rebuke the devourer and trust that He will. Then expect to see the promises of God come to pass in your life.

Perhaps, we could take a lesson from George Muller and start with small requests. As our trust and believing grow, we can ask for bigger needs to be met and trust God there also.

Each of us may have different areas we need to rise up in. There is much to learn in our walk with God as we grow in our understanding of The Prosperous Life, and as we wait for the return of our lord from heaven.