As I am contemplating the order of these prosperity lessons, I am feeling rushed to get you, the reader, to the “nuts and bolts” of how God defines and works prosperity in the life of His people. I want you to understand rapidly how this works and is released in order that you can quickly position yourself for the bumpy days ahead. My motive is to help you thrive in the midst of, and not simply weather, the coming storm. And while I believe my motives and intents are sincere and righteous, I also know that unless you embrace some initial wisdom, the actual precepts will do you little good.
Articles by Kevin Baird
NO LONGER ASHAMED OF PROSPERITY #2: Consecrated to be Conduits
I need to carefully lay some foundation. This may frustrate those who simply want to get to the “formula” for prospering or answer their one plaguing question. So be it. Prosperity and consecration go hand in hand. The Lord is cleaning and clearing the carnality and selfishness which has rooted itself in His Church. Be patient and teachable. These early lessons are important ones.
As Tracie and I started to dive again into the concept of prosperity, it started with a conviction to resource and fund several ministries we had come into contact. We have always been generous givers, but this time we were wanting to be able to conduit unusual sums of resources. We would be driving down the road and say to one another, “Wouldn’t it be great to have the means to stroke a check off to missionary “Jones” and just buy that truck they need for their mission assignment?” “Did you see that missionary who needed the building to teach those kids? I wish I could buy one for them.” “Did you hear that so and so is starting a church and they are needing money to renovate the space. Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to drop by anonymously and hand them a $40k check?” You may have noticed that ministry and Kingdom mandates need resources. Our desire for personal prosperity had a specific context. We desired to be conduits for the Kingdom mandate.
No Longer Ashamed of Prosperity: INTRODUCTION
Tracie and I have been rethinking and reevaluating what we really believe about prosperity. If you choose to follow along with some of these thoughts in the upcoming weeks, perhaps you too might want to reevaluate what you actually believe about prosperity. It may be a far more relevant concept in the coming year(s) than you might have originally considered. Eclipsing even the typical New Year’s wish for a prosperous 2021.
In many ways, the concept of prosperity has fallen on hard times. The abuse and misuse of the word in many church circles has caused a general distaste and reaction to any suggestion that God might prefer prosperity over poverty for His people. That, along with the gimmickry and hucksterism of some of the so-called “prosperity” ministers, has caused any solid defense of biblical prosperity to be seen as heretical and manipulative. To teach on this subject is to immediately open yourself up to the criticism that you are somehow prostituting the Gospel for dollars. As you will see if you trek along, nothing could be further from the truth.
SEVEN (7) Non-Negotiable, Foundational Attributes of the Post-Pandemic Church
Something needs to change…
I have sporadically posted in recent days that the Church needs to rethink some strategies in this Neo-pagan era which we currently find ourselves in. To look at the cultural landscape, process the last several elections, and then synthesize the impotent influence of the church in America should make us at least pause as to how we might consider going forward. To simply wait for our “omnipotent” government to decree that we are “all clear” with regards to the pandemic and then blindly return to the business that got us here, may not be wise, smart, or more importantly biblical.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism and Post-Christian America
In 2005, an overlooked study by two sociologists examined the spiritual lives of American teenagers (13-19) from a wide variety of backgrounds. What they found (and please realize that this study is now indicative of adults 23-35) was that in most cases our culture adhered to a pseudo-religion researchers call Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD).
MTD has 5 basic tenets (read carefully)…