Transcript: God's Blueprint for Total Prosperity
Prepared from the audio, so small errors are possible.
Just like a soldier, going to battle, get himself with every armor needed for battle and for winning. So believers must guard themselves with the gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Join apostle Emmanuel as he teaches God's word to equip you for a victorious life on earth. This is believers equip. This is a conversation I want to open today around the subject of wealth and poverty because the understanding of this matter is absolutely central to what God is doing in our lives in this season. We have declared this year to be our year of open doors and mighty works. And one of the most significant areas where the door has opened is in the realm of financings and prosperity. Amen. And what I've come to understand is that an open door without understanding is as terrible as a closed door with ignorance because a door can be opened, set before you, and you cannot enter into it because you are blind. A blind man cannot see an open door, regardless of whether the door is opened or not, because he has not received illumination.
There's no light to see. And the light that guides us is not human opinion. The light that guides us is not what sounds good to the ear. It is the word of God. Scripture on scripture. Truth established by the mount of two or three witnesses from the pages of the book. And the bible says in the book of Isaiah chapter eight and verse 20, the bible says to the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. If what we believe about wealth and poverty does not align with scripture, then we are walking in darkness no matter how confident we sound, no matter how many people agree with us in our mentalities. And I've observed with very deep concern the gross ignorance of several believers in the body of Christ on this particular subject of wealth and poverty. The blindness that we have as a body to this truth is quite appalling.
It is devastating because when the people of God are ignorant about prosperity, then they remain in bondage to poverty, and they call that bondage spirituality. And what happens is that we now dress up our lack in religious language, and we quote verses out of context to justify why we should stay poor. It's as though people have created entire narratives that are contrary to truth, and we have built entire theologies on assumptions. And instead of allowing scripture to explain scripture, we define truth by what we think instead. We define truth by our morals. We define truth by our own personal experiences. And when we do this, we read our own meaning back into scripture. And I've told you before that this is a. This is not. This is imposing your ideas to the text instead of extracting God's ideas from the text, and it leads to error every single time we do this.
Glory to God. And as a believer living in this generation, I know that we have access to social media. We have access to, you know, different things. We are bombarded daily with short clips, viral videos, sound bites from different men of God, activists, motivational speakers, prosperity critics, and all sorts of voices speaking with authority on subjects that they have not studied deeply. And some of these clips are theologically sound, but many of them are not. Many of them more often than not are not, and some are even taken out of context. Others are deliberately manipulated to push an agenda. And listen to me. Do not allow this kind of short clips to cut short your destiny. Do not let a thirty second video undo what God has been building in you for years.
And you just crumble it under the influence of a one minute video. Do not permit somebody else's opinion no matter how convincing it sounds, no matter how many followers they might have, no matter how anointed they appear to override the clear teaching of scripture. Are you with me brothers and sisters? Let your understanding be founded on the gospel of truth. Say it with me. Let your beliefs be anchored on the word of God. Not even what the man says should become your final authority. Scripture must be the standard. In act of apostles chapter 17 verse 11, the bible commends the Berean believers because they received the word with all readiness and they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. So even when the apostle Paul preached to the Berean believers, they went back to scripture to verify that message.
So if Paul's preaching have to be tested against scripture, then every teaching that you hear, including what I'm teaching you right now, must be tested against the word of God. The word of God must be the litmus test that we run everything that we'll hear through to verify what is true. Are you with me? There are different school of thought on this matter of wealth and prosperity in the body of Christ. There are people who believe that if you teach material prosperity and you tell believers that their material blessing was included in the work of the cross, you are reducing the cross of Jesus to material things. They say that it's an insult to the cross. They say it's a degrading of the gospel, a distortion of the message of Christ to reduce what Christ has done solely to your acquiring of material possessions. Some even go as fast to say that if you preach prosperity, it must mean that you don't truly know God, that you are canal, that you're obsessed with the things of this world. And then they sometimes quote Matthew chapter six from verse 19 to verse 20 saying, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And they use that verse to suggest that pursuing material wealth is unscriptural or unspiritual.
And then what they are doing is that they are conveniently ignoring the fact that in the same chapter, Jesus said in verse 33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. What things? The things he mentioned in verse 25 to verse 32, food, drink, clothing, material necessities. Jesus did not say seek first the kingdom and forget about material things. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom and material things will be added to you. Addition is increase. Addition is a kind of multiplication. Addition is prosperity. Do you understand what I'm saying? So it is important that we do what the Bereans did.
Let us search the scriptures. Let us trace the origin of poverty, the origin of prosperity. Let us examine the nature, understand what true prosperity looks like according to the word of God, not according to human tradition, not according to religious sentiment. Are you with me? Not according to what makes us comfortable. Let us allow scripture to define poverty, to define prosperity. Let us allow scripture to reveal the heart of God concerning wealth, concerning poverty. Let's allow scripture to establish the foundation of understanding so that the believer, guarded with this understanding, can then choose where he wants to be. Do you understand what I'm saying? Because if our doctrine is wrong, our experience will be wrong.
If our theology is wrong, our reality will be wrong. Are you with me? And if we believe lies about prosperity, we will live in bondage to poverty. No matter how spiritual that we might think that we are. In Proverbs 11 verse nine, the b part of it, the bible says, but through knowledge, the righteous will be delivered. It is through knowledge, through accurate biblical scriptural knowledge that the righteous is delivered. Not through ignorance, through knowledge, not through good intentions, true knowledge, not through religious traditions, true knowledge. The knowledge of the truth and the truth is what we want to attempt to find out in scripture so that you can have a very clear and a solid stand regardless to subject of prosperity, subject of poverty. Is that okay? That is not founded on what a man of God taught you, but what scriptures have said.
So this is not going to be one of those teachings where we are just excited for nothing. I want us to journey through scriptures to try to see what exactly is poverty and what exactly is prosperity, and where should the believer be. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir. So that at the end of this teaching, your understanding is not founded on what a man has said, but what the word of God has said. Because you have not understood it until you can teach it. You have not understood it until you can explain it. You have not understood it until you can defend it. You have not understood it until it becomes your life. That which our eyes have seen, our ears have heard, our hands have handed off the word of life.
So the idea is not just that your eyes see it or that your ears hear it, but that your hands also handle the same. Is that okay? Glory to God. Are you understanding this that I'm sharing with you? Are you with me? So when we speak of poverty, right, the mind of most believers immediately run to material lack. We think that what we are solely talking about is having no money, having bills unpaid, insufficient resources. And that is where the deception begins because poverty, you see, did not start physically. Poverty did not start in the wallet. Poverty did not start in the material realm.
Poverty started in the garden. Poverty started in the spiritual realm. Poverty was initiated in the spiritual realm. Are you with me? Now, before poverty became a physical reality, it was first a spiritual verdict. Before it manifested a material lack, it was already executed in the realm of the spirit. And until the church understands this fundamental truth, we will continue to prescribe natural solutions to problems that are forced spiritual. So you cannot say, therefore, that hard work alone is the antidote of poverty because poverty did not begin by laziness. Do you understand what I'm saying? Poverty began in the realm of the spirit.
So you cannot tell me that what began in the realm of the spirit will be solved in the flesh. So our fully begins when we camp around physical principles as the remedy for poverty. Stay with me. Stay with me. Because there are people who can then hear this and say, oh, but there are people who are unbelievers, but they are rich. How do you explain that to us? How do you explain that then? Just stay with me. Will understand where we are going. It's not so complicated.
We just need to read through scriptures. In Genesis chapter three from verse 17 to verse 19, There are three stages of poverty that are revealed in Genesis. I call them stages because it was a progression. When you start reading the first initial verses of Genesis, you will realize that God had given the instruction that man from chapter two must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but can eat of every other tree in the garden. And in Genesis three, the serpent deceived the woman. The man was beside the woman and also ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as against the instruction and the command that God had given. Is that not so? And this of course led to the fall of man because of that disobedience to God. Man was saying that he was wise enough. Man was declaring independence.
Man was rebelling against the rule of God. Are you with me? Now, of course, this came with a consequence. Now, the fall of man is largely a spiritual disconnection from God. Is that not so? Because what God told man was that in the day you eat of this fruit, you will die. You will surely die. So the death there happens to be a spiritual death, a severing from the source. You understand this? Is that not so?
So the death there is spiritual, isn't it? The death there is primarily spiritual, a severing from the source. So the moment man heard of the fruit, what happened was that there was a severing, a disconnection. Death had happened the same way exactly as God had said it. Is that not so? So God then begins to read the consequences of that fall, the consequences of death to the woman, to the serpent, and to man. Now I'm particular about the consequences of the fall of the death. What is spiritual to man? From verse 17, the bible records the moment poverty entered into human experience. Watch this.
Then to Adam, he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife, you have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat of it. Cost is the ground for your sake. Can you see the moment poverty entered the head? So was it laziness that gave birth to poverty? Are you with me? Yes, Was it nonchalance or procrastination or all these things that give birth to poverty? Was it the absence of connection? The fact that your father did not know somebody in the White House or in Assert Rock, was that what gave birth to poverty? No. What gave birth to poverty was the fall.
It was something spiritual that had a physical repercussion upon the earth. The consequence of the fall, the consequence of this disobedience, this rebellion was caused is the ground for your sake. Now, God now begins to open up the curse that is upon the ground. Watch this. In toil, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both tongues and tissels, it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the herb of the field. Watch this. In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of which you were taken, for dust you are, and dust you shall return.
Look at the sequence. The fall of man was a spiritual act of disobedience, a breaking of covenant with God, a severance of divine connection. Is that not so? But the consequence of that fall was immediate and it wasn't just spiritual. The consequence was material. Cost is the ground. The ground is not spiritual. The ground is material. Do you understand what I'm saying? Tongues and tissues, it will bring.
Sweat and toil, you will use to eat. Can somebody understand this that I'm saying? It says sweat in the sweat of your face. What does this look like? In the sweat of your face, you will eat bread. These are the physical consequences to a problem that has its origin in the spirit. So when we are prescribing solutions, we cannot address just the physical consequences alone. Please stay with me. Now I hope you know that before the fall, Adam walked. It wasn't the curse upon the ground that introduced work.
There was work before the fall. In Genesis two verse 15, the Bible says, then the Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and to keep it. It means Adam was not idle in Eden. Adam had a purpose. Adam had an assignment. Adam had work. He was tending. He was keeping, but his work was not toilsome. What did I say? There was no resistance from the earth.
There was no frustration in his labor. There was no gap between his effort and his harvest. The ground yielded to him because he was in covenant with the God who hold the ground. Are you with me? His prosperity was not a function of his handwork. It was a function of his relationship with the source. His abundance was not earned abundance. It was inherited abundance. He was not rich solely because he was hardworking. He was hardworking because he was rich.
Do you understand what I've just said? Do you understand what I've just said? May God give you understanding. Amen. So he was connected to God. And in Genesis chapter two and verse eight to verse nine, the bible says, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord made every tree grow that is pleasant in the sight and good for food. Can you read it? Out of the ground, who made every tree to grow? Who made every tree to grow?
God. So what was man's responsibility? Thank and keep. Do you understand what I'm saying? In verse eight, the Lord God planted the garden. Who planted the garden? God. Who made the trees grow? God. Who ensured that they were pleasant to the sight and good for food?
God. So Adam's assignment was to tend it. It was to keep what God already made productive. He was stewarding existing abundance. He was working as a blessed man who had been empowered to prosper. Because you see in Genesis one twenty eight, the bible says, and God blessed them. The word blessed in the Hebrew is the word empowered to prosper. That's why MSG says, and God bless them, prosper. Are you with me? And God bless them, prosper.
It means the life that Adam had before the fall was a picture of prosperity where you steward abundance. You live from the end of things. You live from the riches because you are connected to God. Are you with me? He was working as a blessed man who had been empowered to prosper. This is the original design of God. Man was partnering with divine provision. He was not striving against cost resistance. The earth was not working against him. In fact, the earth had already yielded fruit before he got there.
Do you understand what I'm saying? This is what it means for a man to be blessed. It does not eliminate work because Adam had work. Adam was tending. Adam was keeping. But the difference is that the moment the fall came, the equation changed. What was meant to produce fruit by reason of the fact that he was blessed now started producing tons and thistles. So he was still working, but now the stage of the work had changed. So work was not missing. Work still continued.
Are you with me? But the environment he was working in was not different. The plane of existence was not different. Are you with me? So when you compare what he was doing with what happened after the fall, let's do it in MSG. Let's start from... Let's do NKJV first, verse 23, 24, three. NKJV, verse 23 and verse 24. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed cherubims at the east of the garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to gather way or to draw of life.
Now watch this. The Lord God sent him out of the garden to go and till the ground. He was not tending and keeping that same ground before. See, so the work continued, but the planes had changed. So when you read verse 17 to verse 19 in the MSG, the Bible then says, he told the man, because you listen to your wife and ate from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from, don't eat from this tree. The very ground is cursed because of you. Getting food from the ground will be as painful as having babies is for your wife. You'll be walking in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout tongues and weeds. You will get your food the hard way.
Planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk until you return to the ground yourself, dead and buried. You started out as death, you will end up death. Are you with me? Yes, sir. Do you notice that the man was not In all this equation, a man was never cursed. God never said, you will now be impotent. You won't be able to take care of yourself. God never said, you will now be useless. You won't be able to walk. The man was not cursed.
What was cursed was the playing field. What was cursed was what? The playing field. That was what was cursed. So the same work that the man was doing that was yielding multiple increase because he was blessed, he will now start doing the same thing. And he will realize that what is happening is as though life is not fair. That was all it was costing. What is happening? I'm applying so much hard work. I'm applying so much effort.
But as though I'm not getting as much returns as I should be getting. That was what was cost. It was the playing field that received the cost. Are you with me? All the things Adam experienced after the fall, the... When you read Exodus chapter one fourteen, because the word used for toil after the fall is the word abad, and abad means to labor as a slave. That's the same word that describes what is used in Exodus one verse 14. When the bible says, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage. Can you see this? In mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field.
All their service in which they made them serve was with legal. Do you see the pattern here? All the things Adam experienced after the fall, all the tiresome labor, all the frustrating work, all the sweat without corresponding reward, all of them now became the prophetic picture of slavery. It means what Adam fell from was sonship to slavery. Do you understand what I'm saying? Poverty is bondage. Poverty is Egypt. Poverty is a slave master that extracts your strength from you and gives you barely enough to survive. That's what poverty is. The tree of life that represented continual access to God, that sustains the blessing was now guarded by a flaming sword.
And they were cut off not just from God's presence, but from the source of effortless abundance, the tree of life. So man could no longer eat from that tree that sustained life without labor. Now we have to extract life from the ground through sweat. So you see, the fall did not just introduce hard work. The fall introduced fruitless hard work. It introduced labor without lasting reward, effort without guaranteed harvest, diligence without prosperity. That was what the fall introduced. Diligence without prosperity. So it was first the fall. And with the fall came disconnection from the source.
With disconnection from the source came the cause. And the cause did not just affect the spirit of Adam. The cause affected the environment of Adam. The playing ground was affected. Do you understand what I'm saying? The curse also affected his soul. So the spirit was affected, the soul was affected, and his physical environment was affected. So the curse affects the spirit, the soul, and the body. So there is the spiritual dimension of poverty. Therefore, there is the mental dimension of poverty or solical dimension of poverty, and there is the physical dimension of poverty.
Are you with me? That was the progression. How do I know that this was the progression? Because the moment Adam lost that disconnection with God, his mentality became affected almost immediately. His ability to reason like God was stripped. He couldn't think like God anymore, so much so. The same Adam who saw the woman and said, this is the bone of my bone despite not being there, despite being in a deep sleep when that surgery was being done. Yet he understood that it was a bone that was extracted from him despite he was asleep. Are you with me? Yes, sir.
The same Adam that named all the animus, and God was watching to see if he would name them correctly, and he did. That same Adam now started thinking dumb, could no longer reason smartly. Up until that moment, God had nothing to correct. The bible says God brought the animals to see what he would name them. And when it was done, he was right. God had nothing to correct. He was functioning like God. But the moment the fall came, Adam could no longer think like God. He saw that he was naked and he went to go and take fig leaves. Use fig leaves to cover himself.
And for the first time, God had something to correct. God said, you are no longer thinking like me. Something has happened to your mentality. That is the second stage of poverty. Are you with me? Yes, sir. Then there is the environment. There is the physical surrounding. There is you as a person. There is your body extending to your environment, extending to what you see in the physical, extending to the material realm.
Are you with me? Yes, sir. So you see, poverty entered as a spiritual consequence that had material manifestation. The root was spiritual, but it had physical fruits. And this is why it is possible for a man to still work hard and still be poor. Because the root of poverty is not physical. So you cannot just prescribe a physical solution to men. It is unfair. So when you see men of God who come, and I don't mean to say this in a demeaning manner, I mean to say I love the body of Christ so much, and this is just a voice of correction. Are you with me?
When you see... And this is also to speak to young believers who might have been affected by these kinds of doctrine. As to teach people that God has no interest in their material prosperity. As to teach people that prosperity is not the function of the cross. That what Jesus did on the cross has nothing to do with your prosperity. It is demean... No. You have to understand that your poverty did not start physically, so it cannot be solved physically. Wasn't that what Paul told the Galatian church? Having began in the spirit.
Do you now want to continue in the flesh? How can something be sourced from the spirit, and then we think that solutions in the flesh becomes how we solve that problem? How deceived can we be? Are you understanding this? So the environment is affected. Romans chapter eight from verse 20 to verse 21. The playing field is affected. The Bible says, for the creation was subjected to futility. The word futility is the word metotes, and it means emptiness. In other words, creation was subjected to emptiness, to purposelessness, to vanity.
The entire creation subject the ground, the earth, the material realm was subjected to futility. Not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. And was that harder? Is that not so? The fourth. Next verse. In hope, because the creation itself also will deliver from that bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Are you with me? So you see, creation is subjected to futility. It is placed on the course that makes it resist blessing, that makes it oppose fruitfulness, that makes it frustrate human effort.
That's why a farmer can plant good seed in good soil and still lose his harvest to drought, to flood, to pestilence, to different kind of things. That's why a business woman can have an excellent product, great marketing, and still watch customers walk away from her and still labor endlessly. That's why somebody can work nine to five very hardworking, very very diligent, and still not have enough at the end of the day to pay the mountain of a bill waiting for him. The moment his salary is paid, he can barely last the following week. What is left doing from the third week, from the second week of the month to the fourth week of the month is living in anticipation of the next salary. Because the one he was paid just this month, bills are taking it away. So what happens is that it knows that his salary is coming. So what does it do? It starts meeting different people. Can you borrow me money from here?
Can you borrow me money from there? At the end of the month, will pay you back. At the end of month, I will pay you back. By the time he's done paying back, he's in the mountain of debt again, and the cycle continues. So much so, the entire definition of a human being's life is reduced to survival. That's what slaves do. They survive. Slaves survive. Slaves survive. This is what poverty is.
That's the picture of poverty. We need to ask ourselves a question even before we continue. Can this life be God's will for a believer? I mean, just... We're still going to study, but based on the nature of God that we know, can this life be God's will for the bill? Is it possible? You don't have to answer me. It's just a reflective thought because, you know, the God that you serve might allow for such things. It's a reflective thought. Is it possible that God in all his goodness is strange to me.
And it's strange because when the subject of marriage was brought to Jesus and the people wanted to use the laws of Moses to excuse a mandate that existed from the beginning. What Jesus said was, in the beginning, it was not so. So should we not study what was so in the beginning So that we can have an idea of how God expects believers to live. Because you see, if poverty was what promoted spirituality, Adam would have been created in nothing. If the idea of poverty that many people teach is who God is and what God does for his children, what God would have done is to have said, let there be light and there was light. Separate the famine from the waters and all of these things. Is that not so? Call forth the land. Call forth the waters. Is that not so?
Call forth the animals. Then leave the ground fallow and say, Adam, begin to walk. In the beginning, that should have been so. But I was not what Jesus did. I was not what God did. God prepared the ground, planted the garden, commanded the trees to grow, watched everything, and God said he saw that it was good for food. And God said, yes. Let me now make man. God made man into abundance. And some man, think that poverty is God's will, and we try to convince ourselves it was so.
Or that it is so. And we will never settle for less Are you getting this what I'm saying? But that bible verses that creation was subjected to futility in hope. What hope? The hope that one day it will be delivered. And who would bring about this deliverance? The children of God. This means that as long as you remain disconnected from your identity as a child of God, you remain under the same cost as the unredeemed creation. When you step into sonship, when you become born again and recreated to the father, to gain access to the power that breaks the course of your life and of your environment. This is why salvation, you see, is not just a ticket to heaven.
Salvation is also the key that unlocks you from the bondage of poverty. Are you with me? Because salvation is spiritual. The same way the fall that netheditated salvation was spiritual. And that fall destroyed and had devastating impact on the material realm. That's the same way salvation redeems and have redemptive impacts on the material realm. Do you understand what I'm sharing with you? Same way. Epileges nine fourteen to verse 16. The bible says, you know the story, there was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it and built great snares around it.
Now there was found in it a poor, wise man. A poor, wise man. And he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor man. Then I said, wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless, the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. This man had value. He had wisdom, and he was able to deliver the city from destruction by that wisdom. Is that not value? So when we say be valuable, isn't this value?
By every natural standard, it should have been celebrated. It should have been honored. It should have been rewarded. It should have been elevated. But the Bible says the man remained poor. And not only did he remain poor, his poverty stripped his wisdom of influence. Bible says nobody remembered him. His words were not heard. Why? Because there is a realm where even value is not enough.
Because who would come and say, just be valued. Just be valued. Laws of financial prosperity. Value. But there's a realm where even value is not enough. Are you with me brothers and sisters? Even skill, even intelligence, even effort is not enough when the spiritual foundation of the blessing is not in place. The bible says nobody remembered him. Nobody remembered that same poor man. The word remember, there's a word zakar.
It doesn't just mean to mentally recall that somebody did something. It means to call to mind with action. That's the meaning of the word zakar. It means to call to mind with action, to invoke, or to honor. It is the same word used in Genesis chapter eight verse one. When the Bible says, God remembered Noah. God remembered Noah and he made a wind to pass. So the word there any kind of remembrance that provokes action. Do you understand what I'm saying? When God remembered, he acted.
He caused the waters to go down. He moved on Noah's behalf. But when this poor wise man delivered the city, the Bible says nobody remembered him. Meaning, no one acted on his behalf. No one moved to honor him. No one invoked his name for reward. His poverty made him forgettable. Even in his moment of greatest value, and the value did not deliver him from poverty. Do you understand what I'm saying? Reminds me of Proverbs 19 verse seven where the Bible says, the brothers of the poor man ate him.
How much more do his friends go far from him? He may pursue them with words, yet they abandon him. That poverty does not just affect your finances. It affects even your relationships. It repels people. It makes even your brothers distance themselves from you. He said you can chase them with words. You can explain your value to them. You can remind them of what you have done. You can articulate your words with precise words, but they will still abandon.
Why? Because poverty, you see, carries a spiritual weight that influences how people perceive you. It carried a spiritual weight that influences how people respond to you, how people remember you. Poverty is the veil that hides the glory of men even when that glory is on full display. Because you see, the spiritual cause of poverty does not only influence the man. In fact, there's no cause on the man. There's a cause on his environment. You're not getting this thing I'm saying. The cause is on his environment, including how he's perceived by men. It wouldn't have people respond to him.
Do you understand what I'm saying? That's the poverty that the church must confront. It's not just the poverty of empty pockets. It's the poverty that makes wisdom ineffective, that renders value invincible, that keeps good people in obscurity despite their excellence. That's the poverty that Proverbs ten fifteen describes. When it says the rich man's wealth is a strong city, the destruction... The word destruction is the word mehita. It means the ruin, the terror of the poor is their poverty. That poverty is not just the absence of resources. Poverty is the present of destruction.
The bible does not say that poverty creates problems. Poverty is the problem. It doesn't create problem. It is the problem. The bible does not say poverty destroys a poor man. It says the destruction itself is poverty. You know it's different. The Bible says poverty will destroy a poor man. That's not what that is. The Bible said the destruction of the poor is their poverty.
Do you remember John chapter 10? The thief cometh not, but to steal, to kill, and to Destroy. So what is the peak of Satan's ministry? What's the peak of the time's ministry? If he starts by stealing and proceeds to killing and ends in destruction, that the magnitude, the height of his ministry, it picks his wickedness in destruction. And the Bible says, the poverty of the poor is their destruction. It means the tool that the devil uses in destruction is not even death. Because the bible separates death from destruction. So if the destruction of the poor is their poverty and the thief cometh to destroy, how can we attribute what the thief comes to do to what God comes to do? How?
Does that not sound unreasonable? Do you understand what I'm saying? Destruction. And when you see poverty, you would understand destruction. There's no special attack that the devil needs to destroy a poor man. Poverty itself is the destruction. How do you explain a glorious destiny? A glorious future, prophecy upon that life. Father and mother, Paul, even if God has destiny that this is what you will become. Seeing you standing at the center of the nations, and nations are gathering to you.
Nations are gathering to you. Nations are gathering to you. People are listening to you, hearing your voice, hearing the message you have to deliver, and you are seeing yourself preaching to nations of the world. And God starts putting it upon the guy's heart even that you will not do your masters in Nigeria because there are answers in sciences that I've put in your heart cures you would find. And the guy at SS one takes a very keen interest in biology, inspired to be a doctor. And at SS two, there's no money to pay for his work exam. So the guy has to leave school and go and work inside a petrol station to work on an attendant for the next three years to gather money to pay for Wahek. While he's working on an attendant, the person that is working with him is smoking Indian hemp. That one has friends who are talk and touts. By reason of the fact that he's there, he has to meet with that one every time.
He tries to maintain his value. And he sees how that one will sometimes meander his way and manipulate the values and steal some money from the petrol station. Add to his own money. And know that that one is living a a good life than him that is trying to be righteous and does not know how it starts becoming... Say, if I can do this thing, I'm I'm this. Now I will be able to gather money fast. So he has a good intention for allowing the peer pressure. Even though there are people who have good intention, the reason why they found themselves where they found themselves was not because they wanted to be bad. It's not everybody who you see today who was a prostitute that wanted to sell their bodies. Some went ahead because they wanted to buy drug for their mother.
And they found somebody who said, if you can sleep with me, I will give you the money for the drug. When the bible says poverty is destruction, you have no idea what the bible is saying. You have not seen families where mother, father, brother, sister, everybody is sleeping in one room with four children, two cousins. So at age two, the small boys already know how your breast looks like because there's no there's no personal toilet. There's no personal anything. At age four, he already knows how his mother and his father having sex sounds like because there's no personal anything. There's no privacy whatsoever. He goes to the street and hang out with the boy on the street, and they begin to introduce him to several things that derail the destinies of people. Do you know how many lives and destinies have been cut short solely on the altar of poverty? Solely on the altar of poverty.
Why in the world does anybody feel as though that is something to accommodate? That's something to accommodate. Do you know how many children have hated God? Not because God did them anything bad, but they see how much their parents loved God and they were poor. And somehow, the devil has been able to convince those ones that if it's to serve God and explain why your own parents are like this. I'm telling you that the mission of the enemy reaches its peak in destruction, and the vehicle through which he execute destruction is poverty. Poverty. Spiritual poverty that blinds people to the truth, rejects them from salvation. Mental poverty that traps them in limiting mindsets. A material poverty that breaks people down physically, emotionally, and socially.
And when the enemy wants to utterly destroy a life, it does not just attack one dimension. It brings poverty into all realms. When a person is spiritually poor, mentally poor, materially poor, they are living in the fullness of the cause that came through the fall. That's the fullness of the cause. But Jesus said I have come that you might have life. And have that life more abundantly is the word. It means exceeding. It means super abundant. It means superior, extraordinary, surpassing, uncommon. Have it more abundantly.
It's not just enough to get by. It's not just... It is sufficient provision. That is overflow. That is excess. That's more than you need. Beyond what you expected. Above what you asked for. And look at this. Jesus directly contrasts his mission with the thief's mission.
The thief comes to destroy. How do we destroy? Through poverty. He comes to deliver through abundance. It means if poverty is the weapon of the enemy, then prosperity, spiritual, mental, and material must be the will of God. Do you understand what I'm teaching you here? I want your understanding to be rested on this. This is why I'm taking you through scriptures intentionally. God is not interested in your prosperity. God does not prosper men.
Don't be deceived. Job chapter one verse 10. This was Satan complaining to God. Let's watch Satan. Satan. Satan. Let's watch what Satan tells God. One, two, three, go. Boss, so what is the hedge? Go on.
So how come Satan knows, but pastors don't know? How how come how come Satan knows that God blesses the work of a man's hands? How come Satan knows that God can increase a man's possessions? Or are we... Is it his spiritual capacity that you saw there? No. You have you have increased his staying power. You have increased his stamina. You have increased his possessions in the land. That Satan identifies the evidence of God's protection and blessing.
And he says, ah, the possessions of Job are the evidence that God has blessed His increase, his material wealth, that the edge around Job was not just spiritual, it was material. That God's blessings on Job's life manifested in tangible abundance. Tangible abundance. And when Satan wanted to attack, where did they strike? Was it a spiritual life? His wealth, his cattle, his servants, his children, his properties. Because Satan understood what many believer refuse to accept, that material prosperity is connected to spiritual covering. And destroying one weakens the other. That's why Satan told God that if we remove all these things, you watch, it will not cause you. It means there is a way poverty can make men cause God.
It is true. Satan knew. Satan knew. Satan knew. And the assurance that God had was that the prosperity of Job was not just physical. Job was prosperous spiritually. Job was prosperous mentally. Job was prosperous physically. So removing one could not deter the other. But when there is spiritual poverty and physical riches, losing the riches will make you curse God.
If it was Job's wife that was being tested, she would have fallen. Because it was Job's wife that came to Job and told Job, will you curse God and die? Stay with me. I don't know about you, but I plan to be very prosperous. I have no allowance whatsoever for any type of poverty. I hate it with perfect hatred. I have no allowance for it. I have no tolerance for it. Worthy is your name. When God was going to restore Job in Job 42, verse 10 to verse 12, look at what the Bible says.
Verse 10. One, two, three, go. So there was no silver brought. There was no gold brought until the Lord restored his losses. We see again something spiritual giving birth to physical manifestations. Again and again, we see it in scriptures. Give me the next verse. Give me the next verse. Next verse. Verse 12.
One, two, three. Go. Perhaps this has... Maybe these are angels. Maybe these are names of cherubims. God handed God handed to to him 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 female dogs, such that his later end was greater than his beginning. My God. Why didn't God not just restore his intimacy? God restored. He doubled his material wealth because God's redemption is total.
It covers spiritual and body. It addresses the spiritual. It addresses the mental. It addresses material poverty. Are you with me? Yes, sir. So to suggest that God only cares about your spiritual state and not about your material condition is to reduce the scope of the redemption and limit the power of the restoration of the restoration. Are you with me? Yes, sir. So poverty was first a spiritual problem, then a mental problem, then a physical problem, spiritual problem.
And it is possible to be wealthy in one dimension while remaining poor in the others. In fact, this is the deception that keeps millions of people trapped in circles of frustration, wondering why their success in one area does not translate to breakthrough in another. They have money but no peace. They have knowledge but no wisdom. They have resources but no joy. Some have a joy but no resources. And the reason is very simple. They have addressed one dimension of poverty whilst leaving the other two untouched. Let me show you this in scripture. Revelations chapter three and verse 17.
Jesus was speaking to the church in Laodicea. And Jesus told the church in Laodicea, because you see, I am rich. I have become wealthy, and I have need of nothing. It means this church had material wealth. They said I am rich. I have become wealthy. I have need of nothing. That means by every natural standard, they were prosperous. Their bank accounts were full. They had touched...
Detached buildings. Let screens, ACs, all the works, they had it. You think about it, they could... They had it. Is that not so? But Jesus looked past the material wealth, looked past their bank accounts, and then saw their true condition. And Jesus said, indeed, you are wretched. You are miserable. You are poor. You are blind.
You are naked. How can a man be rich and be wealthy, yet be wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked? Do you understand what I'm saying? This is a church that had material wealth. He says you'd not know that you are rich. You'd not know that you are misery. You think this is life you are living. This is miserability. Same people that said they have become wealthy. Jesus said, I look at you and I see that you are poor.
Which poor is that and which wealthy is that? Which rich is this? Which poor is this? Say they are blind and they are naked. What does that remind you of? And they looked at themselves and saw that they were naked because the glory of God had covered them was lost. The spiritual covering that they had was lost. It means they had natural riches. That not so. But they were spiritually poor.
Yet they were in church. Material prosperity without spiritual vitality. No connection to God. They had resources, but they had no relationship with God. And that is the danger of having material wealth, us remaining spiritually poor. And just in case you don't know it is very possible to be rich materially but be poor spiritually. In heaven's eyes, what are you? You are miserable. You are wretched. You are poor.
You are blind. You are naked. That is the diagnosis of a man who has found ways to gather wealth. There are many ways that men can gather wealth outside of God. I hope you know. Many ways. Let it not surprise you. So you see, people say things like, but this person is not a Christian. Don't be foolish. Even Christians can be rich and be poor.
So what are you... What do you mean this person not a Christian? Jesus looked at the church and say you think you are rich and wealthy, but you are poor. That is Jesus' diagnosis for a church in Laodicea. How much more unbelievers? And then we come and we bring all kind of metrics. And we say, oh, a believer is not this. And then we use their standard to begin to lay up standards for for ourselves. They don't pay tithes. They don't do this.
They don't do that. Pastor them manipulating you. Have you read your bible at all? That it is possible to gather riches physically, but have no relationship with God whatsoever. That thing that Adam lost, that spiritual component of Adam's loss in the garden are still not being fixed, but you have found a way to fix the material loss. Are you with me now? We'll fix the material loss. Because you see, there is the person of Jesus and there are the principles of Jesus. And the dimension of his power that he has put in his principles That per avenger a man know a man can work principles. And by reason of their working principles can have some level of result for themselves without knowing the person.
Such a person can make himself successful on earth, but by heaven's definition is misery. Are you with me? Misery. Misery. Think you have arrived because your pockets are full, but your spirit is empty. You measure success by what you hold. But God measure things by who you know. And if you don't know him, you are poor. And when you are spiritually poor, no amount of material wealth can satisfy the hunger of your soul. No amount of material wealth.
Only you can satisfy my soul. Only you can satisfy my soul. A man can make himself rich, can accumulate wealth, can build assets, increase net worth, and still have nothing of essential value, nothing of eternal value. Or you can appear poor by the world standards yet possess riches that money cannot buy. A relationship with God, the fear of the Lord, wisdom, peace, joy, the favor of God. And look at the rich young ruler for instance. In Matthew 19 and verse 16 to verse 22, the bible speaks of a rich young ruler who came to Jesus and he was asking Jesus, good teacher, what shall I do that I may have eternal life? And you would think at face value that this guy wanted to break into spiritual wealth. Is that not so? He has suddenly discovered that there is something more than material riches.
He had great possessions, but he wanted more. He wanted more. When Jesus told him what he must do. Verse 22, the Bible says, but when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowfully for he had great possessions. How come a man's great possession materially is what denies him of spiritual wealth? He was materially wealthy. Are you with me? But he was spiritually poor. He had everything the world could offer, but he lacked one thing that mattered, a surrendered heart, a relationship with Jesus. His material wealth had become a spiritual poverty.
But the reason for it, it was a very thing that was not keeping him from following Jesus. He could not let go of what he honed because what he honed are now holding as spiritual poverty. There's no peace such a man can have when money now holds sway to your soul, when possessions now holds sway to your soul. Now the people who preach this gospel and say that people have become carnal, this is what they are trying to preach. That it is dangerous for a man to prosper physically and ignore the prosperity of his spirit. Ignore the prosperity of his soul. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is how the bible puts it. What shall it profit a man? To gain the whole world, yet he lose his soul.
Yet lose Jesus. And there are people that come and say, oh, people that say things like, Jesus, give me the word and, you know, all these things. They are all kind of school of thoughts. They are all funny in their own way. We are saying in the order of metrics, the first thing Adam lost was not material possessions. It was false connection. That must be the first thing therefore. That must be the first thing that a man wants to be wealthy in. That what is the point of having this and I lose God? What's the point of having gold and I lose God?
That's what backs the refusal to compromise. When a man says, listen, you think that I will bow to you because one give me Jesus said, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And then we have used that scripture to now teach all kind of things. Why is it difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom? It's not because wealth in itself is evil. But because wealth can create a false sense of security. That replaces dependence on God. Because when you have money, you stop praying for provision. When you have resources, you stop trusting God for miracles.
Is that not so? There's a sense of security that comes from having money. The bible says money is a defense, and it was Ecclesiastes that said, so if money is a defense, why do you need God as your defense? Because the same bible says you are my shield. So if money has become your defense, how can God still be your shield? When you have abundance, you start believing that your wealth came from your own hands. And that is spiritual poverty. The inability to see that every good and perfect gifts come from above. That your wealth is only sustained by God. That without him, you can do nothing.
When a man when a man cannot see this, it doesn't matter how much wealth he has in the physical. There is nothing to desire about him. I can tell you, he would have a gap, a garrison in his soul that not the wealth, not the resources, not the material things, not the carbon houses can ever fill up. And he and he will think that maybe the the latest car will fill it up. The latest jewelry will fill it up because the poverty of the soul can never be replaced by material possessions. Such people have... They keep on acquiring, hoping that in the multitude of their acquiring, they will be fulfilled. But they're harming their soul. Poverty means lack. It means your spirit lacks something.
Your soul lacks something. And they attempt to quench the test of the soul. It's not possible. It's not possible. It's not possible. That's the reason why if a man only accesses spiritual wealth, I tell you, that man might have nothing physically. But the fact that he's spiritually wealthy, he will live in contentment and fulfillment and have a kind of peace and joy that the richest of men that does not know God can never have. It's why you would see people who don't have anything, yet they serve God and they come to church, and that woman will still come and sweep the church. He has something that that will never have. You are my obsession.
You are my heart. Devotion. You are my obsession. You are my want to make you. I want to bless you. Listen. Listen. James two five, the bible says, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith? And heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him. Why?
Why would he choose the poor of this world? Because when you have nothing, you are forced to depend on the supernatural. When your bank account is empty, you will cry to. When your result is run out, you need El Shaddai. God who is more than enough. Because there are people that appear to be rich spiritually. But they are materially poor when they call on Jesus. They depend on a savior. They rely on a provider. They come to church and they pray.
I found that if your material wealth is not anchored in God, it becomes the prison of spiritual poverty. Glory to God. But being spiritually wealthy and being materially poor is also a problem. Because God never intended for his children to be spiritually blessed or physically broke. So in third John chapter one verse two, apostle John is a... Is praying for a believer named Gaius. And what is the structure of his prayer? He says, beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things. That means prosperity is not in one thing. In all things, I'm being helped just as your soul prospers.
This means that chaos was prospering in his soul. He was spiritually healthy. He was working in truth. He was growing in grace. But John's prayer reveals that spiritual prosperity alone was not enough. He wanted chaos to prosper in all things, including material things, including physical health, to the same degree that his soul was prospering. This is the divine pattern. That as your soul prospers, so should your life prosper. If your spirit is striving, but your finances are failing, something is out of alignment. If you are rich in faith, but perpetually broke in your bank account, there's a disconnect between your spiritual reality and your material manifestation.
Are you with me? And you should not be comfortable in that state. Are you with me? And while it is better to be spiritually rich and materially poor than to be spiritually poor and materially rich, God's ultimate will is for you to have both. But the man can have God in his heart and gold in his hands. If you have chosen otherwise, it's still okay as long as God is in your heart. If you said, I don't really want all this gold thing. We'll meet ourselves in heaven. It's not even a need to fight. Really, it is not.
But let those who want to prosper, prosper, please. Please. Please. Please. Don't fight us. Let those who have prospered enjoy our prosperity. Exploit me to fight. There's no need. I see so many things. I see so many things.
I see so many things. Help those of us who want to enjoy the life that God has given to us on earth. Enjoy it. I don't wanna go into mental poverty. I don't have time for it. But the goal is not partial prosperity. The goal is not to excel in one dimension while neglecting the others. The goal is total prosperity, spirit, mental, and material. And that can only be achieved when you understand that poverty is not forced a financial problem. It is a spiritual condition that require the spiritual solution.
Are you with me? Yes, sir. And when Jesus died on the cross, the problem of poverty was solved. When Jesus died on the cross, the problem of poverty was solved. Bible says, he became poor. He became poor. Therefore, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor. Where else does the Bible talk about this? The Bible use this kind of language.
That the bible talks about despite he knew no sin, he was made sin. Though he was rich, he became poor. He knew no sin. He became sin. That we might become the righteousness of God in him. Where did this happen? On the cross. The Bible says, though he was rich, he became poor. Where did it happen? That we through his poverty might become rich.
So the believer is not only righteous, the believer is rich. Both of them happened on the cross. That is the spiritual solution. Are you with me? When a believer shout, I am blessed, it's not only shouting that I am justified even though he is justified. It's not only thing is righteous. It's not only that thing is sins are forgiven. It's also shouting I am rich. I am prosperous. Because that also happened on the cross.
It means the spiritual problem has been solved. It is on the strength of the fact that I now know that the spiritual problem has been solved that I can now expect that the environment will now respond to me. It means I'm not an... Oh my god. The man that is working now is a blessed man. I'm not... The ground is no longer cost for my sake. I'm now expecting fruits from the ground. I'm expecting increase from the ground. No longer are these tall and pieces coming out for me.
Do you understand what I'm saying? I expect I expect a mighty harvest. I expect mighty returns. I expect to prosper. I expect to do well. I expect to pass. Are you getting me now? I expect to be the head and not the tail because you see the cross problem is solved. The spiritual problem is solved. I expect to be rich.
I expect to prosper. There's a religious mindset in church today that suggests that we should not speak about material prosperity, that discussing wealth and finances somehow diminishes the glory of the cross. Whereas, focusing on material blessings reduces the gospel into a transactionary arrangement with God. And these believers will see that we should preach Christ crucified and not prosperity. We should talk about holiness and not money. We should focus on heaven and not on earthly treasures. And this thing that I'm saying now sounds spiritual, But it is actually a deception that contradicts the full counsel of scripture. Because this gospel of one or the other, I don't understand it. If Jesus say, I died for all, why must it be one or the other? This is against the full counsel of scripture.
Because if you are not permitted to discuss material prosperity in church, then we must remove entire books from the Bible. Deuteronomy 28 should be removed from the Bible. The wisdom of Proverbs, removed from the Bible. The prosperity of Psalms flourish like a river planted should be removed from the Bible. All the financial instructions in the testament, all the parables of Jesus about wealth should be removed from the bible. Are you with me? Then we must now pretend that God never mentioned wealth. God never promised provision. God never attached his glory to material abundance. All of that is all unbiblical.
That's a lie. Are you with me? It's a lie that keeps believers in perpetual lack whilst the enemy plunders the wealth of the righteous. Do you know that God himself laid claim to material things? Now the believer says, when we talk about these things in church, you are being material. Are you not a material man? Are you a ghost? Does the bible not say the spirit had not flesh and bone? So if we checked your body, who is holding the microphone, and we saw that you have flesh and bone, does that not mean that you're a man? If you were a man, are you not material?
Are you more spiritual than God? So if God laid possession on material things, and you didn't say that it is unspiritual to become stewards of God's possession. I'm an unfaithful believer. Do you understand what I'm saying? God never distanced himself from from wealth. God declared ownership of it in Haggai chapter two and verse eight. The Bible records the words of God there. The Bible says, the silver is mine. Read that. Have in verse seven.
One, three. Go. Who is speaking? The Lord of what? God. Next verse. Who is speaking? God never said the silver and the gold are not important. He did not say I don't concern myself with material things. He said the silver is mine.
The gold is mine. That is the spirit of all spirits. That's the father of spirits saying material things are his. Father of spirits, by the way, that's a declaration of ownership, a statement of authority, a claim of dominion over material wealth. And if God claims ownership over material things, then material things cannot be inherently evil or unspiritual. They belong to him. They are under his authority. They are part of his creation. And he has the right to distribute them as his six feet. Psalm 50 from verse 10 to verse 12.
The Bible says, for every beast of the forest is mine. Let's read it together. One, three, go. Go on. Hey. Go on. God is not just claiming ownership over silver and gold. He's claiming ownership over everything. The beast of the forest, the castles of the hills, the birds in the sky, the wild beast in the field, the world and all his fullness. God says they are mine.
Everything material, everything tangible, everything you can see, everything you can touch, everything you can taste, all of them belongs to God. And he's not embarrassed by material things. He does not apologize for creating them. He does not shy away from discussing them. He boldly says they are mine. Even the cattle, they are mine. But believers are shy of their father's properties. If God owns all the material wealth, if God has chosen to bless his children, how then can it be on spiritual to receive what God is giving? How can it be wrong to expect material provision from a God who owns material things? How can it be canal to ask for financial blessing from a father who controls all finances?
Are you with me? Yes, sir. The problem is not that believers desire prosperity. The problem is that religious tradition has convinced believers that poverty is more spiritual than abundance. That's the problem. We believe that lack looks more sanctimonious. Lack looks more looks more holy than blessing. That struggle is more Christ like than success. And that is a perversion of scripture. It has kept the church weak, broke, and ineffective in advancing the kingdom of God on the earth.
How can we believe we've attached holiness to a dress type and a dress sense? See, the man of God wears a good cloth, wears a good watch. We'll now capture the watch and show how much he said, oh, he bought this for $5,000. He bought this for $10,000. How can a man not live like that? How should they live? You should wear sandals because Jesus wore sandals. Go get him a donkey as well. Get him a donkey. And when he when he's eating rice, say how can a man of God eat rice?
Give him unleavened bread. So that the equation will be complete. Very foolish believers who have no idea what they're talking about. And this is why this teaching is being taught to give understanding. Give understanding. There's nobody who should listen to this that is on any side of the vine that should not receive instruction. This Thank you, Lord Jesus. In Genesis two from verse 11 to verse 12, the Bible says, the name of the first is Pesian. It is the one which gets the whole land of Avila where there is gold. Next verse.
And the gold of that land is good. Oh, God. How would God include this detail in the creation narrative? Why mention that there is gold in the land of Avila and that the gold is good and that there are precious stones there? The man of God was sharing how that he saw something that is an... Intended that when he's building a church for God, for the... And he's building the house of God, there will be gold plates everywhere. The pillars are made of gold. The trees are made, and it was brought under heavy fire. Is that what the gospel is about?
But they said... God said the gold is good. What is no problem? God said... A man said, I want to use gold for the house of God. You say, is that what the gospel is about? He said the gold is good. When he was done creating you, it was the same declaration he made about you. He made all creation and he said it was good. Oh, God.
Oh, God. Even the guy that is talking that is not married, and that one is not good. Glory to God. Now I noticed you were slowing that I will not crack such jokes again. Are you with me brothers and sisters? Yes. He made those things accessible to man. And this is the pattern all through scriptures. If read Deuteronomy 28 from verse one to verse six, what you see there is blessings upon blessings. Blessings that affect the material possession of the man.
Verse two, all these blessings shall come upon you. It shall overtake you. Next verse, because you obey the word of your Lord your God. Next verse, blessed shall you be in the city. Blessed shall you be in your country. Blessed shall the fruits of your body, the produce of your ground. Are you seeing this one? Yes. Despite the... Are you seeing the environment again?
Yes, sir. The produce of your ground. Do you remember that ground that was once caused? It means when believers says that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, what does the spiritual blessing entail? That the produce of my grant and the increase of my heart and the increase of my... Do you understand what I'm saying? That is the that is the component of the blessing you have received. It is on this ground that I expect prosperity. I expect favor. I expect it every time.
I live my life expecting favor. One of my guys was was talking to me, and he was sharing with me how that he wants to... You know, he's he's planning to get jobs and apply for international opportunities, and he was seeing that the marketplace is saturated, saturated. So many people are applying for jobs, and they are not getting it. They they are giving preference to this and that and this and that and that. Nobody is getting it. Nobody is doing this. And I was wondering that how do you talk like this? I can never imagine myself thinking like that or even speaking in that manner. Do you know what I carry?
I'm not concerned about how many hills applied. I'm not concerned about the saturation. If a tadon is falling at my left side, a tadon can as well be applying at my left side. It doesn't it doesn't move me one bit. What I know is that I have... The spiritual problem has been solved. And because of that, my environment responds to me differently. For the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. It means that the horror that comes from me gives me preferential treatment. You cannot see my name and see my face and see me and not favor me.
You are compelled to do me good. I expect it. I Blessed are you in the country. In this nation, I am blessed. It means Nigerian response to me. It means I'm not part of those that labor and sweat in their face before. So when I tell people that we give for a living, we don't work for a living. We work for a giving. It it looks strange to them. Apostle, what are you saying?
Because we have been eliminated from the course. We don't live from hand to pocket, pocket to hand, hand to mouth, hand to mouth. God forbid. What kind of a life is that? How then do we sponsor the kingdom? How then do how then do we manifest destiny? How then do we advance the kingdom of God and do all these great things that God has put in our hearts to do with respect to his kingdom? Are you with me brothers and sisters? Blessed shall you be in your country. I'm blessed in this nation.
The works of my hands are blessed in this nation. Wherever I find myself, I'm blessed. If I am in Kenya, I'm blessed. If I'm in South Africa, I'm blessed. If I'm in Togo, I'm blessed. It is blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall you be in the country. The country is any country that you are in. If I go and do my masters in Canada, blessed am I in the country.
The resources of the country started gravitating towards me. Blessed... Listen to me. There is no place I enter that I would not be able to replicate the results for whatever the souls of the officials. Ah, God. Do you understand the mentality of the blessed man? The men... I was talking to one of my girls, and she said, apostrophe is different in Canada. It's not like it is in Nigeria, but it is plutarium father of spirit? Oh, God.
Can the same favor not influence people? That's the mentality of a defeated man. If slaves are think like that. Victors don't think like that. There any other person crying that mentality? Bible says that the Lord has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants. The Lord has pleasure. Pleasure. Pleasure. Pleasure.
Pleasure. In revelations, the bible says that you were created for his pleasure. Waiting. So if my prosperity gives God pleasure, Why do I want to make him sad? You don't you don't understand what I'm saying. See, I was I was created for his pleasure, and the Lord has pleasure in my prosperity. It means when I'm prospering, God is... God drives pleasure in my prospering. Now we're gonna read it in the MSJ. You ready?
Yes, sir. Read. Wait. Wait. Calm down. Calm down. I don't know how I used to do. When... I'm reading my bible, I just found out that my bible says that God, your God, will how to do himself. What in bringing about a revival?
Not just in causing an outpouring. And this thing is not important. He says, but he will outdo himself in making things go well for you. And just in case you want to say, those making things go well, they are spiritual things so because it's your prayer life that must go well. It's your fasting. It's he said, you will have start enjoying you again. Do you remember the Lord has pleasure? When does God enjoy you? God enjoys a prosperous believer. Because when he does a propelled propelled believer, put that church.
He said, Because I enjoy doing things for you. Yeah. I believe I don't know this, and they feel bad when when things are moving for them. And God is blessing them. They feel as though they are seeing it. How can they... And then we are talking Wherever the glory of God is mentioned, the presence of God is mentioned, prosperity follows. That's why whenever God was happy in the region of Israel, what happened? They were prosperous. Whenever they did anything that made God grieved with them, what happened?
They were poor. There was famine in the land. It means the absence of the presence of God is related to poverty. I've not read the Bible. When the ark of covenant, God will obey the and his household. You guys say, we will go and bring go and bring that in class. It means if a man carries the presence, he should prosper. Are you getting what I'm saying? Lose that mentality that makes you feel as though it's poverty and refuse to ever be proud. Understand that what happened in the cross had your riches in it, had your prosperity in it.
Henceforth, call yourself blessed. Henceforth, call yourself rich. Henceforth, call yourself wealthy. Walk around with a victorious mentality. Walk around with the mentality of the blessed man. Don't name yourself or accept. Listen. Listen. The moment you start realizing that things are tough around you, identify that this is your environment responding to the cause. That is not your reality.
Impose something else on it. Start declaring words. Start commanding things to work in your favor. Say my ground cannot be caused. People respond to me in favor. This cannot be hard for me. I don't sweat to labor. You understand what I'm saying now? How can you have goods and you keep the goods in your shop, and for six months nobody has bought them? Can't you quote them and start changing the atmosphere, atmosphere, changing changing the the environment, changing the play...
The the the playing field. If the playing field is caused, a blessed man changes it. When you get there, the playing view changes to insist. And this cannot continue. My whole life is blessed. And everything that I do responds to me like that. The bible says that my head is anointed with oil. Is that not so? My cup runs over. You anoint my head with oil and my cup runs over.
So if the anointing of gold is upon my head, what should run over is my cup, What I am holding, what is in my hand. So what is in my hand? If my ministry is in my hand, it should run over. If my business is in my hand, it should run over. If my career is in my hand, it should run over. Start off like a blessed man. Listen. Listen. Listen. I tell believers, don't apologize for looking good.
Don't apologize. Don't apologize. Don't apologize for God that God made you beautiful, that God made your life good. Nothing to be ashamed about. Absolutely nothing. My father owns the seven seas. My father owns the heaven and the earth. That means that I've entered into wealth by inheritance. In the same way that Adam inherited wealth, that God made everything before he planted Adam there. That's the same way I've inherited the same wealth.
I walk into prepared blessings. I walk into prepared grounds. These are my expectations. When I say these things, I'm not just confessing to believe. I'm confessing because I believe. I believe it so strongly that things work for my field. I believe it so strongly that people are favorably disposed to me. I believe it so strongly that the lions don't have to become goats. The lions don't have to become dogs. The lions can still remain lions.
But if I appear in their presence, their mouth will go short. I believe it that it is something upon my life that impacts my environment, that impacts my surrounding. I know that I'm blessed with corn and wine. I expand on all sides. I increase on all sides. Thank you for listening to this message. We trust you have been blessed. You can get more life transforming messages from apostle Emmanuel Boluatife on our Telegram page at DCN media channel. You can also stream the messages on Spotify, Ocho Mac, and Apple podcast. Connect with us via our social media platforms on Instagram at d c n underscore nations, on Facebook at disciples christian network, on x at d c n central, and on TikTok at disciples christian network.
You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at disciples television. If you have a testimony from this message, you can mail us at disciplescn@gmail.com. God bless you.