For starters, here are some quick points on money: God did not create money; it was man-made. Admit it or not, there is a spirit attached to money; Jesus calls it mammon.
Every human being naturally loves money; it will take deliberate effort to die to the love of money. Living in denial to the last two points sets one up to be forever enslaved by it.
Wealth is not Christianity; otherwise, only Christians should have been wealthy. But neither is poverty. Both are no yardstick for spirituality or divine approval.
Riches come primarily by following natural principles, just as poverty comes by ignoring fundamental (natural) principles for wealth creation.
It is natural, in the religious setting, for man to want to use God as an edge, advantage, in satisfying his desire for riches. So, we pray (a lot); we fast; we sow seeds because we want to have. Yet the fact before us is that what brings wealth is not so much of our prayers (otherwise, the richest men would have been very prayerful people) but principles of hard work.
When the religious man reads Deut. 8:18, he thinks of “power” as a special/magical anointing that just attracts wealth to him. No, power there talks about creative endowments, sanctified ideas, etc. that all needs to be worked out for them to be translated into wealth.
One may have so much potential for wealth and still die miserably poor, if he doesn’t engage them with right principles. “Much tillage is in the land of the poor but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment” (Prov. 13:23).
That is why they say that the richest place on earth is the cemetery, because of many who died with untapped potential.
Having a healthy desire to be wealthy is not a sin, and should even be encouraged — as long as that desire has not possessed you, for then, it has translated to lust. Lust is defined as strong excessive desire/craving for something to satisfy self.
The power that this world wields over all its dwellers is lust. No matter how seemingly spiritual you are, until you have conquered the hold of lust over your soul, you are still under the control of this world (1John 2:15-17).
Not everyone will be wealthy i.e. very rich; primarily because not everyone will do what it takes to be wealthy, but also because not everyone has been given the spirit of entrepreneurship or industry.
People are endowed differently. Not everyone will be a business mogul just like not everyone has skills in sports or in the arts or even in the academics. Each person should identify their endowments.
That is why contentment is something to be taught seriously in the Body of Christ, especially in this age. I must state emphatically that this crave for wealth, aggressive desire for riches was built into us by the spirit of the age. It wasn’t there 40 years ago.
Even as recent as in the late 80’s, the messages we heard from pulpits, bible studies in churches and campuses, Sunday school outlines, etc. had very little of materialism; they did not make man to value his life based on the abundance of what he owns. But something tragic happened to Christendom as we crossed into the decade of the 90s. The spirit of the age infiltrated it; one of its strongest characteristics which towers above its other characteristics is the love for self, for money and for pleasure (2 Tim. 3:2-4).
From that time onward, messages that came from the pulpits infected us with greed, ungodly ambition, covetousness, etc. We began to equate godliness with wealth and interpret godliness as a means to gain.
And what did we get as a result? Yes, our standard of living among many Christians improved greatly (though I would say it was across board, not limited to Christians), but the quality of our Christian testimony nosedived terribly.
It led to the opening of many churches simply for financial gain and a big boom in materialism-centred, consumer-driven Christianity. Today, it’s no news to say that the quality of the average believer today is miles apart from the quality of the average believer in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s.
Not only in quality, even the quantity of conversion we had back then is far higher than what obtains today, in spite of opening many churches. What we have today is simply recycling of church members and then making church convenient for non-believers to come and enjoy a religious experience.
Dear brethren, admit it or not, we have paid a very huge price for this materialistic gospel that has completely warped our minds and made us to seek other things rather than the Kingdom. Nowhere are we told to seek riches/wealth. Those who do, more often than not, wish to consume it on their own lust. I’m reminded of Psalms. 106:15 “And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.”
We should really teach contentment and kingdom-centered, purposeful living as a bulwark, strong antidote against the spirit of the age.
This does not mean one should be laid back and have no desire to develop oneself and enhance one’s capacity for greater productivity. By all means, do.
(I strongly believe once a proper and solid foundation of the Kingdom has been laid and Kingdom believers are properly grounded on that foundation, wealth creation classes must be taught from the Kingdom perspective; it’s very different from what is taught in business schools).
So, seek to serve more and to be more productive, rather than seeking to have more money. Wanting to have more money for the sake of money itself is a death trap for the soul.
Learn patience, learn service with excellence and integrity; learn contentment. Avoid the rat race.
Between Religious and Authentic Christianity
Religious Christianity is the number one enemy of authentic Christianity. In the former, it is all about self; in the latter, it is about God’s purpose, His desire, His pleasure.
In the former, God is a means to serve man’s ends. In other words, God actually exists for man’s pleasure. Not so?
– He created man to be in His own image and likeness
– Put him in the Garden where there was everything
– Even when he sinned, He still went after him to save him
– He’s always there to provide the best of everything, to answer man’s prayers and to keep him from any form of danger. Should any mishap happen, man issues him a query because it means He’s not doing His job well.
– And finally, He takes him to heaven to enjoy eternal bliss in unimaginable glory.
What else is there to God other than that? Man is God’s purpose.
Look, it may not be said explicitly but that is the underlying allusion of religious Christianity.
Authentic Christianity
Authentic New Testament Kingdom-focused Christ-centred faith and practice starts with a realization that we are made to fulfil His purpose, to satisfy His desire and to bring Him pleasure.
Friends, this must not be mere rhetoric but a revelation that stares at our face every blessed morning.
Natural man is intrinsically selfish; he is the only created entity that thinks his purpose is in and for himself. Every other created entity serves a purpose outside of and higher than itself. The shirt you wear, the shoes you put on, the chair you sit on, the phone you use – everything does not serve itself but a higher purpose. How much man needs to go to the ant and learn wisdom.
Let us take a cue from the life of our Master. He could have desired, like anyone else, to grow old to at least 70 years, to have a wife and children. But the script says 33 years and no wife. He says, “Not my will but yours be done.” Elsewhere, it was said of Him, “Then said I, Lo I come, in the volumes of the book it was written of me, to do your will oh God.”
Paul, the pattern disciple, on his roadside encounter with the Lord, asked, “What will you have me do?” This should be the singular question we are absorbed with as Kingdom believers.
Until we have died to the desire for the good life, we cannot be a true disciple and vessel readily available for the Lord’s use. When the rubber touches the road, we will always end up giving the Lord conditions. “Okay, Lord. I am ready to follow you, but not so far and not under certain conditions.”
The fact that we even give the Lord conditions still means we have not realized that we do not own our lives. We think it’s our lives. No, it’s not ours. We don’t keep ourselves alive; He does. He created us; He purchased us; He owns us. A slave doesn’t have conditions; His purpose is to be at the beck and call of His owner.
True Kingdom living does not start until we have caught the revelation that He, the King, owns all. Capitalism, which is what about 90% of the world practices today, and Democracy, practiced by 86% of the world, have trained us to live for ourselves.
In a capitalist system, love for self and desire for profit is the greatest single motivation driving productivity. We are trained to get all you can, can all you get and sit on the can. It breeds competition (both healthy and otherwise) and this is what drives the market.
Of course, in a capitalist system, it is every man for himself — survival of the fittest and the rat race is inevitable – which are the kind of things the socialist system tries to eliminate.
In the socialist system, however, there is no incentive for innovation and productivity, since the state owns all. Of what use is it to work so hard when I am indirectly working for those not working as hard or not working at all? The reason socialism has failed woefully is because man’s fallen nature cannot think of slaving for others.
But in this Kingdom where love for our King and love for one another is the supreme culture and ethic, that love constrains us to be our best and to give our best, not because the profit is coming to us but to the commonwealth.
In this Kingdom, no one says whatever he has is his; we see ourselves as custodians of the King’s vast treasury. The King Himself has set the precedent by laying down His life for us and lavishing His all upon us – but this is so that we may lay down our lives for one another.
In this Kingdom, “Shared Life” is not a mere slogan but our regular way of life (Please visit “Understanding the Kingdom Message Facebook Group” to read through “Shared Life, the Kingdom Ideology”).
It is in this Kingdom that we prove that love is a greater motivation than self.
As a professing citizen of this Kingdom, are you proving this in your daily living? Are you striving for excellence at what you do, increased impact, greater productivity because you are excited about contributing more to the commonwealth?
As long as your desire for wealth is still rooted in personal satisfaction and self-aggrandizement, you have not understood the Kingdom yet.
In this Kingdom, we all have our different unique contributions to the King’s estate. Some are called to be foot soldiers, some are called to be financiers, some are endowed with special technical skills, some are educators and instructors, etc. Everyone recognizes their role/calling and strives to be the best in it. Nobody covets the role of another – simply because whatever anyone is doing, it is not for themselves but for the community.
The kingdom entrepreneur is not striving to be rich for himself; the technical person is not doing things for himself. So, everybody is happy staying in his calling and being faithful, because no one has too much and no one has too little.
Not so in the Babylonish order of things: in this world of every man for himself, every part is taught to do everything.
So the hand which was never meant to be a leg begins to strive to function as the leg; the ear wants to play the function of the mouth and the eyes, because these parts have not been taught inter-dependence.
The lady who is endowed with a grace in early child education, because she is driven by the desire for wealth, runs away from a primary school job of N30,000 and jumps at a bank job of N300,000, because if she stays in the primary school job, she is on her own. No surplus coming from anywhere to balance off her deficit.
Those earning N400,000 a month are not taught to live as earning N40,000 in order to level the valleys within the community of saints. It’s every man for himself.
Invariably, those critical life decisions — where to live, where to work, which school to put our kids in, etc. are based solely on economic factors than Kingdom purpose. You see, we are Christians on the surface but Babylon is still running our lives.
I conclude with this body of thought. Right now in time, while the Kingdom is yet to be physically established on earth, we have a job to do: as the colony of this Heavenly Kingdom on earth, the destiny of this small stone is to expand and fill the earth. This will happen as we disciple the nations and baptize them into the philosophy and ethos of our Kingdom.
This does not mean teaching theories and abstract ideals but showing them by example in real 3-D. In every nation of the earth, there must be pockets of communities of Zion where brethren are literally living this shared (Kingdom) life.
Looking over to the dark side, we see that some are already practising this to a measure. Do you know that the guys who sponsor global terrorism and radical Islam are some of the world’s richest folks? Yet they live so simply because virtually all they own goes into funding their cause and feeding terrorist camps.
The prevailing ideology in these groups is not every man be rich, for then, the cause would be lost. But it is, every man, identify your function and just do it. The engineers or the IT guys are not bothered about making money; they are absorbed in their own task of creating explosives, hacking into things, etc. Their soldiers have no idea where the weapons come or who pays for them.
So, if what we are teaching is for every man to be running after personal wealth, we have not understood the Kingdom. And this is the unintended implication of using the story of one super-rich man who gave out 90% of his income to Christian causes as an inspiration for others to also aspire to get wealthy.
You are inadvertently teaching people to move out of their calling because not everybody will handle that kind of wealth; not everyone is configured for that. Instead, we should use his story as an example of a man who discovered his purpose and functioned in it.
You see the difference? One is using the story to stir up greed and another is using the same story to drive towards purpose.
Now, the super interesting thing about the Kingdom is this: if that was his purpose, and the primary school teacher endowed to introduce young children to Christ also stood in her calling, on the Day of reckoning/rewards, they will both be rewarded equally. Do you understand?
So, what we should rather teach: (1) the Kingdom purpose; and (2) every person recognizing their own allotment in that purpose.
Those assigned to custody of Kingdom wealth will naturally be endowed with creative entrepreneurial instincts, opportunities, strategic positioning, etc. to access and create wealth. It won’t be because they are driven by need and want or by a capitalist culture.
Once our teachings are well balanced and founded on proper Kingdom understanding, no one will be pushed out of his/her call in the pursuit of personal wealth. What will be so uppermost in our minds is serving the Kingdom purpose that has been written of us in the volume of the books.
Temidayo Adeyemo is based in Ile Ife, Osun State, from where he runs an itinerary teaching ministry. He leads a number of Kingdom initiatives and is also a country representative of One Body Life, USA.