AI
Sunday, August 09, 2009 4:49:17 PM
~ Agape love ~ PRAISE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! Come, the LORD JESUS!
<< 1 Christians 13:8>> Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Blessing of God through Jesus Christ is showing in "the Beatitudes" in Matthew 5.
Many Christians confuse loving the Lord and others like how God loves us with loving the things of the world and loving the ways of this world has to offer.
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:9-13).
You cannot serve God and Mammon/God and Mammon
You cannot serve God and Mammon
“And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:9-13).
How can we make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness? If you have a friend who has earthly riches, you have to befriend him by remaining faithful to him in money matters. You have to win his confidence by your faithfulness. He will definitely help you when you are in a financial crisis. You cannot win a rich friend if you are not faithful to him in money matters.
Money is no doubt the mammon of unrighteousness. But you have to spend it frugally, not in a lavish manner, and for the purposes for which is intended. If you are not faithful in that which is least, that is the mammon of unrighteousness, you will never be definitely faithful in much. If you are faithful in the matter of the mammon of unrighteousness, you will be faithful also in much. If you are unjust in the least, you will also be unjust in much. “Much” means the true riches where least means the mammon of unrighteousness.
The litmus test for a budding Christian minister is the money or the mammon of unrighteousness. If he fails to remain faithful in financial matters by overspending his available resources or by spending the same in a reckless manner for things which are not absolutely necessary for his ministry, he cannot be trusted by God for inheriting the true riches. If he covets the mammon of unrighteousness for his ministry, he does not remain faithful in the least because covetousness of material possession is against God’s will (Luke 12:15). If he spends the mammon of unrighteousness for the purposes of evangelism or God’s ministry in a frugal manner, he remains faithful in the least and will remain faithful in much and God will commit the true riches to him. Today, many ministers of God who have coveted the mammon of unrighteousness and used the same for building their own empires on this earth do not possess the true riches of God. The mammon of unrighteousness is visible whereas the true riches are invisible. The true riches are unseen virtues of righteousness and moral rectitude. The true riches are unseen virtues of humility and selflessness. The true riches are unseen virtues of simplicity and longsuffering.
Jesus had the true riches in His ministry. He led a very simple life. Jesus could have trained and taught His disciples to inherit the mammon of unrighteousness. But He asked them to carry “neither purse, nor scrip nor shoes” but to remain in the same house, “eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire” (Luke 10:4 and 7). I am not advocating here that a traveling minister of God in these days should not carry his purse or credit card or his shoes. But I add here that he should not covet purse or script or shoes.
There is not a single passage in the gospels where Jesus is found soliciting funds either for Him or for His disciples. When He had no money to pay taxes, He asked Peter to go to the sea to look for a fish. When He was hungry, He looked towards the fig tree for fruits. The true riches possessed by Him resulted in great blessings upon those who sought His ministry. He healed all the sick that approached Him. He fed all the people through the five loaves of bread and two fishes. Today, we find in many miracle or healing crusades that the majority of the sick people return home empty handed without receiving healing. All the people who attend the meetings are not blessed. It is because the ministers of God concerned do not possess the true riches. They covet offerings from those who would receive blessings or healing through their ministries and also they do not lead the simple life that their Master led. Sadhu Sundar Singh of India had the true riches and people all over the world saw Christ in him. A true minister of God does possess the true riches because God has committed the same to him after testing him through the mammon of unrighteousness.
The mammon of unrighteousness does not belong to us at all. It belongs to another man i.e. the owner of this world. If we are not faithful in the things that do not belong to us, how can God give us the true riches which are meant for us or which belong to us? God wants us to remain faithful in the matter of the mammon of unrighteousness so that we may inherit the true riches from Him.
What happens in our wonderful Christian ministries which were begun by the servants of God concerned with much ado in the beginning? No doubt, God did entrust them with these great ministries by giving them the mammon of unrighteousness. But in the long run, they became a prey to the mammon of unrighteousness by covetousness. In the beginning, they used to count and value every single penny given as sacrificial offerings by the people of God. But afterwards, when their coffers overflowed with the mammon of unrighteousness, they did not realize the value of the same amount of money that they had once received. For example, a minister of God in the earlier days of his ministry accepted with thanksgiving unto God even a sum of $10 or Rs.450/-. But when he starts receiving more offerings in terms of thousands of dollars every month, he does not realize the value of $10.
During my prophetic session in Delhi, I teach about ten students who hail from poor financial background. Yet I do not call them “poor” at all because I teach them to inherit the true riches and not the mammon of unrighteousness. I taught them to be dependent upon God 100% for their daily living and not to let anyone know their needs. On a particular day of the class, one student had no money to pay for his bus-fare to attend my class. He came to my class walking all the way from his house. The same student had no money in his house for celebrating his daughter’s birthday. On the birth day of his daughter, he did not have a single penny in his pocket and he did not ask his senior pastor for money but prayed to God as advised by me. At that time, the Holy Spirit led a believer to give him a ten rupee note without his asking. For him, the ten rupee note was very precious and he bought some sweet for his daughter. When he testified this miracle to me during the class, I told him that he should remember this incident for ever and that when God gives him a greater ministry, he should not forget this incident and should realize the value of this ten rupee note. For me, a 100 rupee currency note has no value but for this student, a 10 rupee note had great value. At the close of the session, I gave him a hundred rupee note and asked to spend this money and to give me a report as to how he has spent that money.
Ultimately, Jesus warns us against serving the two masters i.e. God and the mammon of unrighteousness. We cannot serve both of them at all. If we serve the mammon of unrighteousness, we despise God. There is no “in between” service. If we look at a particular ministry of today through our prophetic eyes, we do see the embodiment of the mammon of unrighteousness enthroned thereon which is apparent through the extravagance and superfluous assets of the minister of God concerned. No doubt, a minister of God is required to lead a decent and comfortable life and to posses such assets that are absolutely necessary for God’s work. But he should not “own” such assets either in his own name or in the names of his family members. Such assets should be owned and administered by his faithful co-workers as God’s stewards.
Dear minister of God, you may be thinking that by preaching the gospel or by performing signs and wonders in Jesus’ Name, you are serving God. But if you serve the mammon of unrighteousness by covetousness, you cannot be serving God.
By Job Anbalagan
GOD AND MAMMON
It is interesting to see that even though Jesus referred to Satan as "the ruler of this world" (John 14:30), He never referred to Satan as the alternative master to God, whom people have the choice of serving. When Jesus spoke of two masters whom man could serve, He said that the two were God and Mammon (Luke 16:13). In Christendom, generally speaking, preachers have always urged people to choose between God and Satan. Jesus however urged people to choose between God and Mammon.
Satan is a master schemer. He knows that if people are told to choose between God and Satan, no-one will choose Satan. But when the choice is between God and Mammon, Satan knows that even believers will find it difficult to make a decisive choice.
Satan knows that most Christians choose their jobs and their place of residence, etc., based on their passion for Mammon (property and money) rather than on any desire for the promotion of God's kingdom. Satan knows that all such believers are useless for God's purposes, irrespective of the amount of religious activity they engage in.
Satan also knows that most of the Christian work in the world is more dependent on Mammon (money and property) than on the power of the Holy Spirit. Satan knows that all such Christian work will not have any eternal value - even if the reports of such work appear impressive when presented attractively by "public relations experts" in colourful Christian magazines!!
We must not be ignorant of Satan's wiles. It is against Satan's wiles that we are told to stand firm, and not against his wrath (Eph.6:11). Satan's wrath has never hindered the work of God at any time. Persecution has only made the church of Jesus Christ flourish in every country and at all times. But Satan has often succeeded with his wiles, where he has failed to accomplish anything with his wrath (see Rev.12:11,12).
Satan is happy to be hidden out of sight, because he knows that he can deceive people better that way. He knows very well that when a believer is influenced by the love of mammon in his decisions, he is actually serving the prince of Mammon, even if he imagines that he is serving God!!
When a believer's attitude to Mammon is wrong, he will be wrong in every other area too - because he then becomes a part of this world system that our Lord came to destroy. Such a man is a traitor to the Lord's cause on earth, even though he may not realize it. He is actually working on Satan's side, without knowing it. This is the fundamental problem with many believers today. They have not understood Satan's schemes.
Before Jesus went to the cross, He told His disciples, "The prince of this world comes and he has no power over Me" (John 14:30 - Living). Mammon had no power over Jesus. And so Satan could find no foothold in Him and could not touch Him in any way. But Satan finds plenty of foothold through Mammon in the lives of most believers. Thus he is able to divert them from God's perfect plan for their lives.
Throughout the last 20 centuries, the greatest opposition for the Lord's servants has always come from "Christians" and so-called "believers" who are Biblical in all their doctrines except the doctrine of "the love of money"! It is not at all surprising that "believers" who worship Mammon oppose God's true prophets. Jesus Himself faced such opposition from the leaders of the Pharisees who had all their other doctrines right (Matt.23:3), but who loved and served Mammon (Luke 16:14).
Christians who pursue after Mammon have plenty of money to travel whenever they like, and wherever they like. They also have enough to buy whatever they like, whenever they like. Only lovers of Mammon can afford such expensive habits. But those who have an extravagant life-style can never be witnesses for the Lord in the midst of a suffering world.
It is dangerous to have money far beyond what we need. It was because Jonah had plenty of extra money that he could afford to buy a ticket to go to Tarshish - in plain disobedience to the Lord's command. How safe Jonah would have been from such a temptation, if he did not have any excess money available with him at that time.
It was to save His apostles from such temptations, that Jesus left them poor in the world. The Lord Who made Job, Abraham and David rich could easily have made His apostles rich too. But He didn't. Why? Because new-covenant apostles, unlike Old Testament saints, had to wage war against Satan. And when Satan came against them, it was essential that Satan should find "no love for Mammon in them"? Otherwise the Lord's purposes could never have been fulfilled through them.
What about you? When Satan comes against you, does he have power over you, because he finds the love of Mammon in you?
The battle against Satan is not fought on earth, but in "the heavenlies" (Eph.6:12). It is there that Satan's power has to be bound by us (Matt.18:18). Only those who are heavenly-minded can fight this battle. Those who love Mammon are earthly-minded and are useless in this battle. Satan knows that very well, even if believers don't.
In heaven, the saints walk on golden streets. Heaven has been prepared for those who have learnt to put gold under their feet even on earth. Our fasting and praying cannot accomplish God's purposes, if we love Mammon and are earthly-minded. It is only the prayer of "a righteous man" - one who has been freed from attachment to earthly things, like Elijah - whose prayers are effective before God (James 5:16,17). This is why God allows us at times, to lose large amounts of money - to deliver us from the love of Mammon and to make us effective for Him.
It will be very difficult for a disciple of Jesus if he is totally honest and wholehearted, to become rich through his business in a world that is under the dominion of Satan. To become a wealthy man in such a world, one would have to follow Satan's principles in some area or the other, and disobey the principles of God's Word. The Bible clearly says,
"Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction." (1 Tim.6:9). One who seeks to be "rich towards God" can never become "rich in this world" (Luke 12:21; 1 Tim.6:17).
This applies also to preachers who become rich through preaching the gospel and selling Christian books and tapes. Another gimmick these days, is to conduct tours to Israel
("the holy land"??). If a preacher can gather 10 people for a trip to Israel, the travel agent will give him one free ticket. All such preachers are worshipping "the golden calf" and are servants of Mammon, and not of the Lord Jesus Christ. [Someone asked me once if I had ever been to the holy land. I told him I was walking there every day!]
The "prosperity gospel" was invented in the latter half of the 20th century by Mammon-loving preachers who had to find some "Scriptural" explanation to justify their extravagant life-styles and the immense amount of wealth that they had accumulated from the tithes and offerings of their "devotees". So they hunted up Old Testament promises that God had given to Israel and began to proclaim those promises as the unfailing mark of God's blessing today. And money-loving believers gladly lapped up this new gospel!
A secular journalist in the U.S.A., who heard of such a church where the "prosperity gospel" was being preached, wanted to find out if this teaching really worked. So he went to the church's parking lot and checked out the makes of the cars parked there. He found that the cars parked in the spots reserved for the "Pastor" and "Assistant Pastors" were expensive cars!! But most of the other cars were cheap ones! He concluded that the "prosperity gospel" did work - but only for those who lived off the tithes and offerings of the congregation!! The rest of the congregation remained in the same condition that they had always been in!
Even in poor countries like India, preachers are becoming rich, off the tithes and offerings of poor people, through this counterfeit gospel.
What must the Lord think of the Christian "church" and its leaders today, who have pursued after Mammon, become tolerant of sin, and thus made themselves powerless in the battle against Satan. The gates of Hell have prevailed against this "church". And that is the clearest proof that this "church" is not the church that our Lord is building - for the powers of darkness can never prevail against that church (Matt.16:18).
Whenever a genuine Holy-Spirit revival comes anywhere, it will be a revival that delivers believers from the love of Mammon. Only such a revival will drive the prince of Mammon out of the church.
Any other so-called "revival" is a counterfeit.
He who has ears to hear let him hear.
by Zac Poonen
http://gloryofhiscross.googlepages.com/mammon
<< 1 Christians 13:8>> Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Blessing of God through Jesus Christ is showing in "the Beatitudes" in Matthew 5.
Many Christians confuse loving the Lord and others like how God loves us with loving the things of the world and loving the ways of this world has to offer.
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:9-13).
You cannot serve God and Mammon/God and Mammon
You cannot serve God and Mammon
“And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:9-13).
How can we make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness? If you have a friend who has earthly riches, you have to befriend him by remaining faithful to him in money matters. You have to win his confidence by your faithfulness. He will definitely help you when you are in a financial crisis. You cannot win a rich friend if you are not faithful to him in money matters.
Money is no doubt the mammon of unrighteousness. But you have to spend it frugally, not in a lavish manner, and for the purposes for which is intended. If you are not faithful in that which is least, that is the mammon of unrighteousness, you will never be definitely faithful in much. If you are faithful in the matter of the mammon of unrighteousness, you will be faithful also in much. If you are unjust in the least, you will also be unjust in much. “Much” means the true riches where least means the mammon of unrighteousness.
The litmus test for a budding Christian minister is the money or the mammon of unrighteousness. If he fails to remain faithful in financial matters by overspending his available resources or by spending the same in a reckless manner for things which are not absolutely necessary for his ministry, he cannot be trusted by God for inheriting the true riches. If he covets the mammon of unrighteousness for his ministry, he does not remain faithful in the least because covetousness of material possession is against God’s will (Luke 12:15). If he spends the mammon of unrighteousness for the purposes of evangelism or God’s ministry in a frugal manner, he remains faithful in the least and will remain faithful in much and God will commit the true riches to him. Today, many ministers of God who have coveted the mammon of unrighteousness and used the same for building their own empires on this earth do not possess the true riches of God. The mammon of unrighteousness is visible whereas the true riches are invisible. The true riches are unseen virtues of righteousness and moral rectitude. The true riches are unseen virtues of humility and selflessness. The true riches are unseen virtues of simplicity and longsuffering.
Jesus had the true riches in His ministry. He led a very simple life. Jesus could have trained and taught His disciples to inherit the mammon of unrighteousness. But He asked them to carry “neither purse, nor scrip nor shoes” but to remain in the same house, “eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire” (Luke 10:4 and 7). I am not advocating here that a traveling minister of God in these days should not carry his purse or credit card or his shoes. But I add here that he should not covet purse or script or shoes.
There is not a single passage in the gospels where Jesus is found soliciting funds either for Him or for His disciples. When He had no money to pay taxes, He asked Peter to go to the sea to look for a fish. When He was hungry, He looked towards the fig tree for fruits. The true riches possessed by Him resulted in great blessings upon those who sought His ministry. He healed all the sick that approached Him. He fed all the people through the five loaves of bread and two fishes. Today, we find in many miracle or healing crusades that the majority of the sick people return home empty handed without receiving healing. All the people who attend the meetings are not blessed. It is because the ministers of God concerned do not possess the true riches. They covet offerings from those who would receive blessings or healing through their ministries and also they do not lead the simple life that their Master led. Sadhu Sundar Singh of India had the true riches and people all over the world saw Christ in him. A true minister of God does possess the true riches because God has committed the same to him after testing him through the mammon of unrighteousness.
The mammon of unrighteousness does not belong to us at all. It belongs to another man i.e. the owner of this world. If we are not faithful in the things that do not belong to us, how can God give us the true riches which are meant for us or which belong to us? God wants us to remain faithful in the matter of the mammon of unrighteousness so that we may inherit the true riches from Him.
What happens in our wonderful Christian ministries which were begun by the servants of God concerned with much ado in the beginning? No doubt, God did entrust them with these great ministries by giving them the mammon of unrighteousness. But in the long run, they became a prey to the mammon of unrighteousness by covetousness. In the beginning, they used to count and value every single penny given as sacrificial offerings by the people of God. But afterwards, when their coffers overflowed with the mammon of unrighteousness, they did not realize the value of the same amount of money that they had once received. For example, a minister of God in the earlier days of his ministry accepted with thanksgiving unto God even a sum of $10 or Rs.450/-. But when he starts receiving more offerings in terms of thousands of dollars every month, he does not realize the value of $10.
During my prophetic session in Delhi, I teach about ten students who hail from poor financial background. Yet I do not call them “poor” at all because I teach them to inherit the true riches and not the mammon of unrighteousness. I taught them to be dependent upon God 100% for their daily living and not to let anyone know their needs. On a particular day of the class, one student had no money to pay for his bus-fare to attend my class. He came to my class walking all the way from his house. The same student had no money in his house for celebrating his daughter’s birthday. On the birth day of his daughter, he did not have a single penny in his pocket and he did not ask his senior pastor for money but prayed to God as advised by me. At that time, the Holy Spirit led a believer to give him a ten rupee note without his asking. For him, the ten rupee note was very precious and he bought some sweet for his daughter. When he testified this miracle to me during the class, I told him that he should remember this incident for ever and that when God gives him a greater ministry, he should not forget this incident and should realize the value of this ten rupee note. For me, a 100 rupee currency note has no value but for this student, a 10 rupee note had great value. At the close of the session, I gave him a hundred rupee note and asked to spend this money and to give me a report as to how he has spent that money.
Ultimately, Jesus warns us against serving the two masters i.e. God and the mammon of unrighteousness. We cannot serve both of them at all. If we serve the mammon of unrighteousness, we despise God. There is no “in between” service. If we look at a particular ministry of today through our prophetic eyes, we do see the embodiment of the mammon of unrighteousness enthroned thereon which is apparent through the extravagance and superfluous assets of the minister of God concerned. No doubt, a minister of God is required to lead a decent and comfortable life and to posses such assets that are absolutely necessary for God’s work. But he should not “own” such assets either in his own name or in the names of his family members. Such assets should be owned and administered by his faithful co-workers as God’s stewards.
Dear minister of God, you may be thinking that by preaching the gospel or by performing signs and wonders in Jesus’ Name, you are serving God. But if you serve the mammon of unrighteousness by covetousness, you cannot be serving God.
By Job Anbalagan
GOD AND MAMMON
It is interesting to see that even though Jesus referred to Satan as "the ruler of this world" (John 14:30), He never referred to Satan as the alternative master to God, whom people have the choice of serving. When Jesus spoke of two masters whom man could serve, He said that the two were God and Mammon (Luke 16:13). In Christendom, generally speaking, preachers have always urged people to choose between God and Satan. Jesus however urged people to choose between God and Mammon.
Satan is a master schemer. He knows that if people are told to choose between God and Satan, no-one will choose Satan. But when the choice is between God and Mammon, Satan knows that even believers will find it difficult to make a decisive choice.
Satan knows that most Christians choose their jobs and their place of residence, etc., based on their passion for Mammon (property and money) rather than on any desire for the promotion of God's kingdom. Satan knows that all such believers are useless for God's purposes, irrespective of the amount of religious activity they engage in.
Satan also knows that most of the Christian work in the world is more dependent on Mammon (money and property) than on the power of the Holy Spirit. Satan knows that all such Christian work will not have any eternal value - even if the reports of such work appear impressive when presented attractively by "public relations experts" in colourful Christian magazines!!
We must not be ignorant of Satan's wiles. It is against Satan's wiles that we are told to stand firm, and not against his wrath (Eph.6:11). Satan's wrath has never hindered the work of God at any time. Persecution has only made the church of Jesus Christ flourish in every country and at all times. But Satan has often succeeded with his wiles, where he has failed to accomplish anything with his wrath (see Rev.12:11,12).
Satan is happy to be hidden out of sight, because he knows that he can deceive people better that way. He knows very well that when a believer is influenced by the love of mammon in his decisions, he is actually serving the prince of Mammon, even if he imagines that he is serving God!!
When a believer's attitude to Mammon is wrong, he will be wrong in every other area too - because he then becomes a part of this world system that our Lord came to destroy. Such a man is a traitor to the Lord's cause on earth, even though he may not realize it. He is actually working on Satan's side, without knowing it. This is the fundamental problem with many believers today. They have not understood Satan's schemes.
Before Jesus went to the cross, He told His disciples, "The prince of this world comes and he has no power over Me" (John 14:30 - Living). Mammon had no power over Jesus. And so Satan could find no foothold in Him and could not touch Him in any way. But Satan finds plenty of foothold through Mammon in the lives of most believers. Thus he is able to divert them from God's perfect plan for their lives.
Throughout the last 20 centuries, the greatest opposition for the Lord's servants has always come from "Christians" and so-called "believers" who are Biblical in all their doctrines except the doctrine of "the love of money"! It is not at all surprising that "believers" who worship Mammon oppose God's true prophets. Jesus Himself faced such opposition from the leaders of the Pharisees who had all their other doctrines right (Matt.23:3), but who loved and served Mammon (Luke 16:14).
Christians who pursue after Mammon have plenty of money to travel whenever they like, and wherever they like. They also have enough to buy whatever they like, whenever they like. Only lovers of Mammon can afford such expensive habits. But those who have an extravagant life-style can never be witnesses for the Lord in the midst of a suffering world.
It is dangerous to have money far beyond what we need. It was because Jonah had plenty of extra money that he could afford to buy a ticket to go to Tarshish - in plain disobedience to the Lord's command. How safe Jonah would have been from such a temptation, if he did not have any excess money available with him at that time.
It was to save His apostles from such temptations, that Jesus left them poor in the world. The Lord Who made Job, Abraham and David rich could easily have made His apostles rich too. But He didn't. Why? Because new-covenant apostles, unlike Old Testament saints, had to wage war against Satan. And when Satan came against them, it was essential that Satan should find "no love for Mammon in them"? Otherwise the Lord's purposes could never have been fulfilled through them.
What about you? When Satan comes against you, does he have power over you, because he finds the love of Mammon in you?
The battle against Satan is not fought on earth, but in "the heavenlies" (Eph.6:12). It is there that Satan's power has to be bound by us (Matt.18:18). Only those who are heavenly-minded can fight this battle. Those who love Mammon are earthly-minded and are useless in this battle. Satan knows that very well, even if believers don't.
In heaven, the saints walk on golden streets. Heaven has been prepared for those who have learnt to put gold under their feet even on earth. Our fasting and praying cannot accomplish God's purposes, if we love Mammon and are earthly-minded. It is only the prayer of "a righteous man" - one who has been freed from attachment to earthly things, like Elijah - whose prayers are effective before God (James 5:16,17). This is why God allows us at times, to lose large amounts of money - to deliver us from the love of Mammon and to make us effective for Him.
It will be very difficult for a disciple of Jesus if he is totally honest and wholehearted, to become rich through his business in a world that is under the dominion of Satan. To become a wealthy man in such a world, one would have to follow Satan's principles in some area or the other, and disobey the principles of God's Word. The Bible clearly says,
"Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction." (1 Tim.6:9). One who seeks to be "rich towards God" can never become "rich in this world" (Luke 12:21; 1 Tim.6:17).
This applies also to preachers who become rich through preaching the gospel and selling Christian books and tapes. Another gimmick these days, is to conduct tours to Israel
("the holy land"??). If a preacher can gather 10 people for a trip to Israel, the travel agent will give him one free ticket. All such preachers are worshipping "the golden calf" and are servants of Mammon, and not of the Lord Jesus Christ. [Someone asked me once if I had ever been to the holy land. I told him I was walking there every day!]
The "prosperity gospel" was invented in the latter half of the 20th century by Mammon-loving preachers who had to find some "Scriptural" explanation to justify their extravagant life-styles and the immense amount of wealth that they had accumulated from the tithes and offerings of their "devotees". So they hunted up Old Testament promises that God had given to Israel and began to proclaim those promises as the unfailing mark of God's blessing today. And money-loving believers gladly lapped up this new gospel!
A secular journalist in the U.S.A., who heard of such a church where the "prosperity gospel" was being preached, wanted to find out if this teaching really worked. So he went to the church's parking lot and checked out the makes of the cars parked there. He found that the cars parked in the spots reserved for the "Pastor" and "Assistant Pastors" were expensive cars!! But most of the other cars were cheap ones! He concluded that the "prosperity gospel" did work - but only for those who lived off the tithes and offerings of the congregation!! The rest of the congregation remained in the same condition that they had always been in!
Even in poor countries like India, preachers are becoming rich, off the tithes and offerings of poor people, through this counterfeit gospel.
What must the Lord think of the Christian "church" and its leaders today, who have pursued after Mammon, become tolerant of sin, and thus made themselves powerless in the battle against Satan. The gates of Hell have prevailed against this "church". And that is the clearest proof that this "church" is not the church that our Lord is building - for the powers of darkness can never prevail against that church (Matt.16:18).
Whenever a genuine Holy-Spirit revival comes anywhere, it will be a revival that delivers believers from the love of Mammon. Only such a revival will drive the prince of Mammon out of the church.
Any other so-called "revival" is a counterfeit.
He who has ears to hear let him hear.
by Zac Poonen
http://gloryofhiscross.googlepages.com/mammon
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