Prosperity Gospel Lies!

If you believe a lie, you will devastate your life.

You simply cannot afford to believe a lie about money. Sadly, the so-called “prosperity gospel” tells one of the biggest whoppers ever known to humankind. It is this: God makes you rich by your giving. Now I know some of you have your feathers ruffled and you may even have testimony to the opposite i.e. you may have given to God and seen it return multiplied to you. That’s nice. I have testimonies like that too. I didn’t say God wasn’t in the multiplying-back-to-you business. I said it was a lie that God makes you rich by your giving.

If you give God £1 coins and He keeps giving you back £100, any fool can work out it won’t be long before you can be called rich. But that still isn’t how God makes you rich. God made you rich long before you ever got into the subject of prosperity. 2 Corinthians 8:9 tells us that Jesus was made poor so that we can be rich. This refers to the cross, where Jesus experienced the Roman sentence of crucifixion. Crucifixion wasn’t meant just as a capital punishment; it was an economic judgment designed to imprint on the minds of those who saw crucifixion victims the power of Rome to utterly strip them of everything they had and were. Our sanitised pictures of the crucified Jesus allow Him the dignity of a loincloth, something the Romans definitely would not. Nakedness was a symbol of the impoverishment experienced by those who dared oppose Rome.

Jesus became poor at the cross so that the blessing of Abraham could come upon the nations. This blessing was, in modern parlance, a billionaire blessing since Abraham’s wealth was off the charts even in his day. If it offends you that the Holy Spirit inspired Galatians 3:13,14 to get this marvellous truth across to us, then you need to deal with religiosity. The simple truth is that financial and economic success is our covenant right and is in the atonement. Jesus had to endure utter impoverishment at the cross so that God’s compact with Abraham and the fathers could be actualised in our lives. The glorious reality is that every believer is thus rich BY GRACE!! Note that 2 Corinthians 8:9 says just that – “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ...”

Prosperity is thus a grace issue, not a performance issue. You don’t have to give to preachers – me included – to get rich. I tell my folks this and guess what? They are getting rich! By that I mean they believe they are rich already and it shows up in their lives. One member of our church recently got a happy five-figure surprise when he went to the ATM! And you know what they do? Shrug their shoulders, say “Oh that’s Abraham’s blessing manifesting AGAIN. Thank You, Lord!” and then they move on, believing for more.

There is no “getting rich” for the Christian. The truth is, you GOT RICH at Calvary. And money was by no means all of it or even remotely the most precious part of it. But it is an important part. You need money to function and perform the task God has called you to do. When you understand that you don’t “get” rich – you ARE rich – it strips the potency of avarice over your life. You don’t have to get rich anymore! You just believe you are funded. It works!! You need faith for salvation, for healing, for deliverance and for everything God gives. Why would you suppose prosperity would be any different? But so-called prosperity preachers will tell you that you have to give to God before He gives to you.

That is a lie from the pit of hell and I don’t apologise for saying so.

But let me say this. You should give to preachers and ministries (i.e. good ones) because it is biblical and God-ordained to do so. And God will certainly see to it that your money is multiplied back to you when you sow in good soil. Because giving is designed by God to make you richer. You already got rich at the cross. But now you can use the power of multiplication to get even richer. It is the continued pouring-in of grace and favour that makes you rich (see 2 Cor. 9:8); then it is in your hands to multiply it even more by giving (2 Cor. 9:8-11)! God will even multiply your seed for sowing, as well as your seed sown i.e. He will supernaturally multiply your seed before you sow, thus multiplying your harvest!

This isn’t splitting hairs. You cannot afford to believe that God makes you rich because of something you do i.e. give money to ministries. That means your wealth is based on your works. You must believe the Word – that He makes you rich because you are blessed with Abraham’s blessing. When Abraham first heard this good news, he just accepted it in faith! And God accounted it to him for righteousness! In other words, Abraham’s right to walk in the billionaire class was by simply believing that God said he could! And the wealth showed up in Abraham’s life to back up what God said.

If you will simply believe you can walk in the same deal as Abraham, it will show up in yours too!

For biblical proof and extra-biblical evidence that Jesus walked in Abraham’s billionaire blessing, please request my book: Jesus: Millionaire

Tycoon You

I feel emboldened to make a strong statement which will stir up some religious devils. Here it is:

JESUS DIED TO MAKE YOU A TYCOON.

Now I am aware that even people who believe in prosperity will think that to be a crass statement but sometimes truth is only heard when it is framed in a provocative manner. The reality is, this statement is all Bible. Let me prove it:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. 

2 COR 8:9 NKJV

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),

that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

GALATIANS 3:13,14 NKJV

Can it be plainer? Jesus became poor on the cross so that we could be rich. Most people don't know it but crucifixion was an economic judgment in the Roman mentality; it signified Rome's ability to reduce people to utter destitution. Jesus endured this complete impoverishment for our sakes. In short, you getting rich is part of the atonement!

I realise some desperate souls have tried to make the "become rich" part here relate to "spiritual" riches. However, the context is clearly financial. The passage in Galatians further underscores the glorious truth that Christ hung on the tree to get Abraham's billionaire blessing upon us. Abraham was VERY rich in cattle, silver and gold (the commodities of God) and had his own private army. He was the confederate of kings and was blessed in everything. In modern language, he was clearly a multi-billionaire.

The blessing of Abraham was both personal and corporate. Individual descendants of Abraham could expect to walk in it (see Deuteronomy 8:18). Also, there was a national birthright blessing passed from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob down to Ephraim. Christ's becoming a curse took care of both aspects of this and allows us to walk in Abraham's billionaire blessing today!

In polite circles it may be considered rude and crude to talk so plainly about money but I am not being polite here. Jesus suffered unspeakable agonies to get you righteous, delivered, healed and funded to tycoon levels at least. When you believe this, it shows up in your life. The point is not how many millions or billions you manifest - the point is that God is your infinite Source. Money is but a byproduct. If you chase after it, you have missed the real message and you will pierce yourself through with many sorrows.

I see it all the time - people who shun the simple message that God made you rich at the cross will do the strangest, most degrading things to get money. I'm talking about holier-than-thou preachers who look down their nose at those of us who say God wants you rich but who will hustle and prostitute themselves in disgusting ways. 

Now I am not preaching what men call the prosperity gospel. That is a racket. "Give big to God and He'll give big to you" and all such. What they mean is "Empty your pockets and make me rich." You see, the Bible says being rich is a GRACE matter, not a "Give till it hurts" matter.

"But what about sowing and reaping, Preacher? Isn't that God's way of making Christians rich?" No, it is God's way of making EVERYBODY rich. You see, some of the biggest sinners on the planet work sowing and reaping all the time. They buy stocks at £1 each and sell them at £100 each. Farmers who don't know Jesus know how to multiply seed and get rich. Sowing and reaping is not God's supernatural way of enriching the Christian. You get rich at the cross!

God makes you rich before you ever get to sowing. He multiplies seed for sowing!! Where the man who doesn't know Jesus invests £100, God makes sure you have ten times that to invest. But you won't learn this by listening to the swindlers.

Anyway, Jesus died to make you a tycoon. That might shock you a little, especially if you have some religious demons. But if we all accepted it, being a tycoon would soon be just the norm anyway. The Puritans could accept such things. They knew their God and they knew their Bibles. They knew poverty was of the devil, too. And they knew the secret of defeating the love of money. Do you?