Prosperity

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.

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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.

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