The True Prosperiety Gospel

We have all faced the current trend and wave of false gospels of all sorts, the most tempting being the Prosperity Gospel.  They teach along all one has to do is this or that, believe this or that, and their money, marital, family, career, etc. problems will miraculously go away....especially if they tithe into their churches.  It's tempting, all of the answers seem to be there, and they support it all with bits of scripture, partial snippets, and it's a complete distortion of what the Gospel is, what the blessings entail, and how to achieve being on God's good graces.

We get this one as being rather a common one:

Luke 11:9 >>

New International Version (©1984) "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

So, in this one, you are led to believe, ask God and he will give, and when he doesn't give, then obviously he doesn't care, or there is no God.  Countless people have fallen away from the faith being misled into belief in this one statement, taken out of context alone.  All statements like these, assume the person asking is following completely in Christs teachings, they also assume the person is asking from a Holy Spirit filled being, asking for the "right" things, and even when asking for the wrong things, accept that the answer being no, is for our own good.  Think about it, one wins the lottery, their financial worries are over...think again, google up lottery winner nightmares, talk about receiving something most of us want, only to find out, it's the last thing we want.

We read in

Proverbs 30

⁸Make me absolutely honest

   and don't let me be too poor
   or too rich.
   Give me just what I need.
    ⁹If I have too much to eat,
   I might forget about you;
   if I don't have enough,
   I might steal
   and disgrace your name.

So, asking for riches is not a wise thing at all is it?  9 Give me an understanding mind so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. was Solomons request from the Lord, not riches, nor material gain of any kind, and alas, he was blessed with his original request, and far more.  Understand though, he was warned by David before taking reign, not to forsake the way's of the Lord, the teachings of Moses, and David learned a harsh lesson deviating from this, as did Solomon, likewise.  The earthly riches did him no good in the end, and instead of sending out priests and scribes to the outer countries to evangelize, he sent out tax collectors.  God in his mercy, for these people that were supposed to be exposed to the true faith, scattered the Jews among them, his will be done, with or without the aid of man, this is a given....


 So, one may ask for money, but too often, most of the time, it's asking for a curse upon ones self, and we then go back into the rest of the above teachings in the NT:

Luke 11:11 >>

New International Version (©1984) "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?

So, he tells you no, and refuses to give you the snake, when he knows you need the fish.

The fish could represent peace of mind, hope, trust, love, contentment, salvation, many, many things the world cannot gauge, nor offer.  He does take care of your needs, and if you are following him, this should be enough, it's about not seeing what's in front of you, but what is inside.

What is the True Prosperity Gospel, one must define being prosperous.  Wisdom, knowledge, compassion, empathy, forgiveness, Love, etc. all are riches, true prosperity, and they remain with you beyond the grave itself, these are things you can take with you, the rest may fade away into nothingness, but these will remain.  How are they achieved?  Simple, begin with prayer, let the Holy Spirit guide you with his truth, through the gospel and through his intercession, and be brutally honest with yourself, to thine own heart be true, and that in a nutshell is it.  If you are being true to yourself, not double minded, not self deceiving, and you are opened up to receive his Spirit, he will guide you to where you need to go, what you need to do, and how you need to live.  The more you allow him to guide you, the more you will find yourself residing within his kingdom, and even during the most turbulent storms, you will be at peace.  The world may see you from the outside, seeing your life not being perfect, but they will also see your interior, how you cope, how you react, not a result of the situation, but above it all, doing the right then even when it's most tempting not to.

So, ask, always ask, but always put into it, if this is God's will, let it be done, if it is not his will, trust his wisdom for it not to be done.  Look back at your life, how many things have you hoped for, if they came about, you would regret, only he sees the big picture, and only he knows what's best for you.