By Ladi Ayodeji
Today, I will be teaching on wealth, or prosperity, if you like, and how it could be accessed.
There’s a lot of confusion going on in the Body of Christ regarding wealth creation and the causes of poverty in the mix.
Most Christians, including even the ministers, do not understand what it means to prosper and how and why people who are not Christians prosper in the world more than Christian brethren.
There’s no single Christian billionaire in the global ranking of the richest men and women in the world. The list of the richest people is dominated by individuals who do not identify themselves as Christians.
In fact, some of the world’s billionaires are atheists. Yet, they thrive where Christians reel in endemic poverty.
This brings us to the core of this teaching. There are three basic ways to prosper financially.
The Three Ways to Prosper
Financial prosperity can be achieved in the three ways stated hereunder.
- The first word that God spoke to the first man, Adam, was a blessing of prosperity.
In Gen. 1:28, after the entire creation process was fully completed, God told Adam and Eve:
“God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply…”
Fruitfulness and multiplication are the cornerstones of all manner of prosperity. In His wisdom, God bestowed this vital blessing on the first couple, Adam and Eve.
Therefore, the Covenant of prosperity was a suzerainty agreement, so to speak, between God and man, and it was established by God in this scripture quoted above.
There are several scriptures that deal with the Covenant of prosperity throughout the Bible. All of these scriptures are predicated on obedience.
Therefore, any Christian who obeys the word of God and applies other wealth creation principles will prosper. All the components of the covenant, such as hard work, smart work, good sense, wisdom, etc., must be duly applied by Christians if they are to prosper.
Prosperity by Works and Principles
God has given men and women the entire world to live in and enjoy. We have been given dominion over the earth, to subdue it and eat of the good of the land.
The principles of wealth creation that are taught in business schools were derived from the foundational teachings of prosperity in the Bible.
This is how marketplace ideas of business success were formulated. This knowledge is available to all of humanity, but in the modern world, people and leaders in the advanced nations have applied it to govern their countries and create the enabling environment for entrepreneurs to thrive.
This is why the Europeans, Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Indians and other nations are prospering and leading the world in all the prosperity indicators, more than the poorly governed Third World nations like Haiti, Nigeria, and several nations in Africa.
It’s interesting that in nations like Nigeria, where the gospel is growing with millions of converts every year, poverty is growing rapidly, while nations in the developed world, where the gospel has little impact, are prospering and leading the world in technology, industry, and other measurements of prosperity.
The main reason for endemic poverty in developing nations, despite the advancement of the gospel, is that the people place their hopes in fasting and prayer, vigils, testimonies, payments of tithes, seed-faith doctrines and all that, in expectation of abundance. Nations don’t prosper that way. Some individuals may prosper by faith in what they give.
Also, the Bible says righteousness exalts a nation. This is not about faith in Jesus; it speaks of doing the right things, moral uprightness in governance, a corruption-free lifestyle of a people, and transparency in all they do.
Prosperity of the Wicked
The third way anyone can prosper is by crooked means. People who steal public funds in government, robbers, fraudsters, criminal elements who kidnap for ransom, rituals, and all forms of unlawful activities could make one rich.
That’s what accounts for the wealth of most rich people in Nigeria and other Third World nations. The Bible calls this type of wealth the prosperity of the wicked.
In Ps. 73:3-17, David said he was envious of the prosperity of the wicked, until God showed him their disastrous end.
So, those who prosper by crooked means can never end well. Do not envy them.
About Prosperity Preachers
There’s a group of ministers today who major on prosperity teaching. They have made a doctrine out of the line of scriptures that deal with the covenant of kingdom-inspired prosperity, based on seed faith, sowing, liberal giving to the church, and so on.
While giving, seed faith, and all the like are essential components of the gospel, it is an error to major on them.
We are supposed to preach the full gospel, not prosperity gospel, healing and deliverance gospel, money and success gospel. The full gospel is based on salvation, period!
Nobody is ever called to make others rich, as some teach. Only God knows how to make His people rich.
Modern Wealth Creation Realities
There are other ways to prosperity without any criminal imputation. These are modern-day realities because of the development of the global economy and modern civilisation.
- If you marry into a wealthy family, you’re likely to be delivered from poverty. This applies to both a man and woman.
- An otherwise poor wife who gets a huge alimony payoff, if she gets a divorce from a rich husband, could become wealthy overnight.
Many gold diggers exploit this legal safety net to inflict pain on unsuspecting husbands.
- Someone could win a lottery and become an instant millionaire. If this sudden wealth is well managed, it could be a life-changing turning point.
- Wise investment in shares and stocks of thriving companies, and government bonds, could create massive wealth for a corporate or marketplace investor when such investments mature.
- If you are able to meet a need, you’re likely to become rich if you create a business to sustain such a process.
- Investments in real estate are often profitable in the long run.
- High-paying jobs could make one rich if sustained over a relatively long period.
- A patented invention that is successful could make one rich.
- Some people become rich by being heirs to large fortunes.
- God could make you rich by showing you the way to prosper or by simply blessing the works of your hands, such that you succeed where others fail.
Why Some People Are Poor Today
Jesus said, “For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.” (Matthew 26:11, KJV)
How true!
Let’s look at some other reasons why people are poor.
- A lot of people are pathologically lazy. They don’t want to work to earn a decent living; such people perch on rich spouses, wealthy family members, or rely on inherited wealth.
- A health challenge that renders one immobile or dependent on others could make one poor.
- Ravages of war or natural disasters could bring overnight poverty if nothing is done to mitigate it.
- A massive loss of fortune in gambling, alimony payments, theft, or carelessness in the choice of investment options could land one in great poverty, from which they might not recover easily.
- Lack of opportunities under oppressive regimes, like the caste system of India, or other harsh economic and cultural conditions, could reduce the ability of affected people to prosper.
- Resignation to fate, whereby some folks think that their lowly conditions are ordained by fate, could inhibit the march to prosperity.
- Lack of education and general misrule by corrupt politicians could make a country’s people live in poverty.
- Wrong teachings by religious leaders could keep their captive audiences in the bondage of poverty.
- Some may be poor because they are under a curse from demonic spirits or under the influence of a wayward cult.
- Some people are afraid of success. They are satisfied with little and are unwilling to seek abundance. This may cause poverty.
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Ladi Ayodeji is a Bible-based Motivational Speaker, Author, and Counsellor.
He can be reached on 09059243004 (WhatsApp only).