Hashem's ways of Prosperity.
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It is most certainly not "Just give to the church, and YHVH will prosper you..."
One of the greatest heresies in the church today is that you can become prosperous by sending a "seed-faith offering" into someone's ministry, and then simply "confess that you are prosperous."
This teaching actually causes people to put their faith and trust in the soliciting ministry than in Hashem.
The only person who is getting rich is the person who is getting your money...
more on this in a little while. -
The time we are in at the moment is that written in the book of revelation the church has become what is described in Revelation 3... the Church of Laodicea. Many have become lukewarm and this is the church that will end up being spit out of Hashem's mouth.
Many churches today have fallen into the trap of believing that they are rich and wealthy and have need of nothing, but be reminded of what Yahweh says, these churches are reallywretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.
The false teaching behind some of today's prosperity messages have caused many of Yahweh's people to believe that prosperity is the sign of spirituality. -
There is a call for all those who hear to come out of commercial babylon, which is the world's financial model and system.
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Just to add to the things I am talking about, I have just finished reading a book by Norm Franz who is a biblical economist, I wrote breifly about this in take a break. I will be writing on what I have read in the book and hope that this will provide some food for thought... Norm has visited Singapore on a number of occasions and has conducted seminars there.
The book is called Money and Wealth in the new millenium.
Its pretty scary when you begin to understand just what is going on.
Shalom! -
This is an exerpt taken form his book...
False Hope From False Prophets
By Norm Franz
Published June 2001
Money & Wealth in the New Millennium, page 268
If Christians refuse to obey God's Word and give it time to work in their finances, they become prey for the get-rich-quick false prophets who have flooded the church. I recently heard of a well-known TV minister falsely prophesy that, if Christians who were in debt would send his ministry a $1,000 offering, God would get them out of debt.
This is the same kind of soulish prophecy that has plagued God's people for millennia (Jer. 14:13-16; 2 Pet. 2:1-3). You cannot give (bribe) your way out of debt by giving money to God through another man's ministry. The only way to get out of debt is to:
1. Repent for the lust of your flesh and the love of money that caused you to go into debt in the first place. Even if your debt was magically repaid, without repentance you will go right back into more debt. Some have already been through this scenario once or twice.
2. Repent for trusting in the world's debt system for your provision instead of "Jehovah Jireh," who is the "Lord your Provider." Buying clothes, furniture, dinner and entertainment on credit is not about trusting in God, it's about trusting in the lender.
3. Start living within your means, even if you have to cut back on some nonessentials. Again, this calls for repentance from the lust of your flesh.
4. Start paying off your debt, even if you have to liquidate some of your assets to do it.
This is something I had to do to get out of debt myself. I sold my house and one car to pay off those loans. Then I started, methodically paying off each loan as fast as I could. As I said earlier, it took over seven years to get completely debt free, but today I am the richest man I know, because I owe no man anything but to love him (Rom. 13:8 ). -
The Church of Laodicea
By Norm Franz
Published June 2001
Money & Wealth in the New Millennium, page 224
In chapters two and three of the book of Revelation, Jesus speaks to the seven churches of Asia Minor. He addresses both their accomplishments, as well as their on going rebellion. Then He commands five of the seven churches to repent or they will not share in the great rewards of the overcomers in Jesus Christ.
Prophetically speaking, Jesus is also describing the condition of the worldwide body of Christ as we enter the end of the age. He commends us for our accomplishments, but He also rebukes us for our sin, and commands us to repent.
The Church of Laodicea is unique in that it has no good deeds, but is a lukewarm church that ends up being spit out of God's mouth. Their lukewarmness is the result of their great love of money and their lust for riches, which has caused them to go after every type of money-making scheme imaginable. They have seduced themselves into believing that they are rich and wealthy and have need of nothing, but God says they are really wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked:
"And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and nakedÂ…'" (Revelation 3:14-17 NAS)
The false teaching behind some of today's prosperity message has caused many of God's people to believe that prosperity is the primary sign of spirituality. If this were true, Donald Trump, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet would all be apostles. Consequently, this has led many Christian believers to chase after money-making schemes of all kinds. From the off-shore arbitrages that never pay off, to leveraged day trading in the stock market, many in the body of Christ have abandoned the principals of God's Word for the sake of gaining a buck.
Debt always seems to be their fallback position when all their other schemes fail. This continues to give them the image of prosperity, when they are really slaves to their lenders. Since the Asian financial crisis started in July 1997, I have personally met with numerous people who lost multiple millions of dollars during the 1997-98 crisis. One industrialist billionaire from Indonesia said that before the crisis he had the wealth of seven generations, but the since the crisis he has the debt that ten generations cannot pay back.
In other words, before July 1997, many in Asia considered themselves to be rich and wealthy and in need of nothing. However, when the debt bubble collapsed, it revealed that much of their wealth was only and image build on debt, and overnight they found themselves wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.
I believe that the most recent global financial crises have been prophetic signs that we are the end-time church of Laodicea. This means that God is calling us to repent and return to His ways in the area of finance and investments - "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (v. 22). -
According to Norm Franz, all money is Debt, this is debt in the form of ledger book deposit entries which are lent out as money. All "notes" are considered "debt", this is an IOU that promises to repay the borrowed money according to the terms of the "note".
This kind of makes you really stop and think. If all money is debt, then our money isn't really money at all, it is debt. Then the question becomes are we financially stable?? -
Another thing that I chewed over was this statement made by William Patterson in 1694:
"The bank hath benefit of interest on all moneys which it creats out of nothing..." -
The most sobering thought of the book is the concept of fractional reserve banking. This is the worlds system of enabling the banks to create money out of nothing and enslave us to the system and to mystery and commercial babylon.
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"Just give to the church, and YHVH will prosper you..."
acutally ... why give to the church? shouldn't the attitude be as if giving to the Lord? at the end of the day, the church leader will have to be answerable to the Lord on how they spend these resources, right?
YHVH will prosper you ... prosper does not need to be in monetary terms also...
in my opinion:
anyway, this statement is flaw ... in that ... it is smack with self righteousness, meaning that we give thats why YHVH will be in debt with us such that He have to prosper us....
when the right attitude should be, we give because YHVH had already prosper us in that even the ability to aquire the gift that we give is from Him.
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Coming Out of Babylon
Revelation 18:4
..."Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins, sso that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes."
There is a day when God is going to judge the system of Babylon around the world. What is Babylon? Babylon is a system of doing business. The stronghold of the marketplace is mammon and pride. Dependence on money and misplaced trust are at the core of a Babylonian philosophy of life. Revelation 18 describes a time when God will judge this Babylonian system. It is the one place that we see a system destroyed in one day, even one hour. I do not believe Babylon is a particular city, but a world system. "Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her" (Rev. 18:8a). "Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!" (Rev. 18:10b).
As Christian businesspeople we are called to acknowledge the signs of the times. When the Soviet Union fell, many knew it was going to happen because they could recognize the signs of the times. God has a way of shaking things up. These shakings force us to determine who and what we will place our trust in. God says that we are to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Mt. 22:37).
Are you still living in Babylon in the way you do business? If so, expect to share in the sins of Babylon when God decides to judge her. Ask God to show you where you might be operating in a "Babylonian" system of work. -
yes, the prosperity of Hashem extends beyond the monetary, I was merely using the statement "just give to YHVH"as an example of many of the name it claim it preachers today who use this to mislead the flock...Originally posted by vince69:"Just give to the church, and YHVH will prosper you..."
acutally ... why give to the church? shouldn't the attitude be as if giving to the Lord? at the end of the day, the church leader will have to be answerable to the Lord on how they spend these resources, right?
YHVH will prosper you ... prosper does not need to be in monetary terms also...
in my opinion:
anyway, this statement is flaw ... in that ... it is smack with self righteousness, meaning that we give thats why YHVH will be in debt with us such that He have to prosper us....
when the right attitude should be, we give because YHVH had already prosper us in that even the ability to aquire the gift that we give is from Him.