Is there anything GOOD about PROSPERITY MINISTRY? (Part 4)
EXAMPLE 2: WORKING TOWARDS GOD AND NOT MAN
I'm moved to Key West, Florida with Bobby and Yusef, a city I'd never heard of in my life. I became a bouncer, something I'd never done before. I did that for 4 years. I then became a corrections officer. Again, something I'd never done before...or planned to do...or wanted to do. I did that for 10 years. I met my wife, Lucy, while I was a bouncer. That seemed to be the primary purpose I worked at Sloppy Joe's. The secondary purpose was to learn all the lessons about manhood, authority, and ministry I learned while being a bouncer, and continued to learn as a corrections officer.
During these 14 years in Key West, I worked really, really hard, but was struggling financially. I had 7 children in Key West, and a job that allowed me to take 3 months off for each of my children's births to give relief to Lucy...which again, I believe is THE reason I worked corrections, at least the primary reason. At the end of my 14 years in Key West I got sick, very sick--I had sarcoidosis. During this sickness, as with each of my vacations and paternity leaves from the jail, I prayed about God's will for my life, seeking a way out of the jail and into ministry. Once I got accepted to Biola University in California, but had no where near the money to make that journey. When I got sick, we got a significant amount of money, so I prayed about God's will for my life. Lucy suggested being a marriage counselor. I prayed about that, and felt the Spirit leading me to do exactly that...which disappointed me. I wanted to write and speak for God, not go back to school. But I knew the Spirit was leading me. So I applied to schools in North Carolina, where Lucy suggested we move for the sake of the children being raised in a good place. No school responded except one, and that one responded the day after I applied online...literally the day after. None of the landlords accepted me and my family except one...the one house I felt peace about when Lucy showed me the picture of that house--that house I live in, and that I am writing you from right now. I told her to focus on that one house, and sure enough, the landlord accepted us. And we've been in this house for 4 years, and I've completed my masters in marriage and family therapy after these four years...but not without extreme financial hardship. And by extreme financial hardship, I mean literally being one pay check away from homelessness. I mean working two and three jobs as a full time student and intern, and still being one pay check away from homelessness. Without school loan refunds, income tax refunds, and financial blessings that God would lead brothers and sisters to send me, I would have been on the street with my family, literally. On our way to North Carolina, my van broke down on the highway. We had to use almost all of the money we had been given to fix it. One day we were all sitting on some steps in West Palm Beach, Florida, not even out of Florida yet, with my wife crying, and my children just there with there parents, not knowing how bad we had it.
At that time, I needed "prosperity ministry"--I needed my salvation to include provision.
I had worked for 10 years, working 60 hours a week, also working over time, because my philosophy sense the time "the messenger" didn't come was this: If I lack money, that means I must work more hours, or make more money per hour. And working more hours was more under my control than making more money per hour. So that's what I did. And I was still struggling. I had "picked myself up by my bootstraps." And I was still struggling.
But when friends like James-Michael or Bobby or Cyril would bless me financially and abundantly, I would feel a literal change in my life, and in my wife, and in my house. The world literally looks different when your financial needs are met then when they aren't. When there is money in the bank, and the hope of more money consistently coming, life feels different, and it feels like God's blessing. It feels like God helping me when James-Michael, or others spontaneously help me as the Spirit leads them. Receiving money feels like salvation. It feels like deliverance. It feels like healing.
Not jets and suits and cars, mind you.
But I've received clothes and cars, again, from believers who spontaneously give as the Spirit leads them. Once I needed some walking shoes for my job, and a believer spontaneously gave my wife some shoes that her husband didn't need--walking shoes in my size! I've had 3 vehicles given to me for free...but of course in America, you have to pay for tags, titles, registration, etc. Yet these cars were given to me as a free gift.
Money, clothes, and cars were given to me, and these felt like miracles from God.
Like prosperity.
Is there anything GOOD about PROSPERITY MINISTRY?
Yes, if the messengers you seek are those led by the Spirit to provide for God's will in your life; if you are doing what God called you to do to the best of your ability, prosperity ministry is when the body serves each other as the Spirit enables them. Though there are prosperity ministers who are leading people away from the Kingdom of God and focusing them on the kingdoms of this world, and though the Kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, when we seek first God's kingdom, God will provide us with food and drink...and according to Jesus, with good things.
I bear witness to the need to be on guard against deception in the area of prosperity ministry; I also bear witness to be on guard against denying the good news that Jesus is Our Savior, Healer, Deliverer, and Provider--that the Lord is indeed our Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, and that His sheep shall not want; that goodness and mercy shall follow them all of the days of their lives, until they dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
I'm moved to Key West, Florida with Bobby and Yusef, a city I'd never heard of in my life. I became a bouncer, something I'd never done before. I did that for 4 years. I then became a corrections officer. Again, something I'd never done before...or planned to do...or wanted to do. I did that for 10 years. I met my wife, Lucy, while I was a bouncer. That seemed to be the primary purpose I worked at Sloppy Joe's. The secondary purpose was to learn all the lessons about manhood, authority, and ministry I learned while being a bouncer, and continued to learn as a corrections officer.
During these 14 years in Key West, I worked really, really hard, but was struggling financially. I had 7 children in Key West, and a job that allowed me to take 3 months off for each of my children's births to give relief to Lucy...which again, I believe is THE reason I worked corrections, at least the primary reason. At the end of my 14 years in Key West I got sick, very sick--I had sarcoidosis. During this sickness, as with each of my vacations and paternity leaves from the jail, I prayed about God's will for my life, seeking a way out of the jail and into ministry. Once I got accepted to Biola University in California, but had no where near the money to make that journey. When I got sick, we got a significant amount of money, so I prayed about God's will for my life. Lucy suggested being a marriage counselor. I prayed about that, and felt the Spirit leading me to do exactly that...which disappointed me. I wanted to write and speak for God, not go back to school. But I knew the Spirit was leading me. So I applied to schools in North Carolina, where Lucy suggested we move for the sake of the children being raised in a good place. No school responded except one, and that one responded the day after I applied online...literally the day after. None of the landlords accepted me and my family except one...the one house I felt peace about when Lucy showed me the picture of that house--that house I live in, and that I am writing you from right now. I told her to focus on that one house, and sure enough, the landlord accepted us. And we've been in this house for 4 years, and I've completed my masters in marriage and family therapy after these four years...but not without extreme financial hardship. And by extreme financial hardship, I mean literally being one pay check away from homelessness. I mean working two and three jobs as a full time student and intern, and still being one pay check away from homelessness. Without school loan refunds, income tax refunds, and financial blessings that God would lead brothers and sisters to send me, I would have been on the street with my family, literally. On our way to North Carolina, my van broke down on the highway. We had to use almost all of the money we had been given to fix it. One day we were all sitting on some steps in West Palm Beach, Florida, not even out of Florida yet, with my wife crying, and my children just there with there parents, not knowing how bad we had it.
At that time, I needed "prosperity ministry"--I needed my salvation to include provision.
I had worked for 10 years, working 60 hours a week, also working over time, because my philosophy sense the time "the messenger" didn't come was this: If I lack money, that means I must work more hours, or make more money per hour. And working more hours was more under my control than making more money per hour. So that's what I did. And I was still struggling. I had "picked myself up by my bootstraps." And I was still struggling.
But when friends like James-Michael or Bobby or Cyril would bless me financially and abundantly, I would feel a literal change in my life, and in my wife, and in my house. The world literally looks different when your financial needs are met then when they aren't. When there is money in the bank, and the hope of more money consistently coming, life feels different, and it feels like God's blessing. It feels like God helping me when James-Michael, or others spontaneously help me as the Spirit leads them. Receiving money feels like salvation. It feels like deliverance. It feels like healing.
Not jets and suits and cars, mind you.
But I've received clothes and cars, again, from believers who spontaneously give as the Spirit leads them. Once I needed some walking shoes for my job, and a believer spontaneously gave my wife some shoes that her husband didn't need--walking shoes in my size! I've had 3 vehicles given to me for free...but of course in America, you have to pay for tags, titles, registration, etc. Yet these cars were given to me as a free gift.
Money, clothes, and cars were given to me, and these felt like miracles from God.
Like prosperity.
Is there anything GOOD about PROSPERITY MINISTRY?
Yes, if the messengers you seek are those led by the Spirit to provide for God's will in your life; if you are doing what God called you to do to the best of your ability, prosperity ministry is when the body serves each other as the Spirit enables them. Though there are prosperity ministers who are leading people away from the Kingdom of God and focusing them on the kingdoms of this world, and though the Kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, when we seek first God's kingdom, God will provide us with food and drink...and according to Jesus, with good things.
I bear witness to the need to be on guard against deception in the area of prosperity ministry; I also bear witness to be on guard against denying the good news that Jesus is Our Savior, Healer, Deliverer, and Provider--that the Lord is indeed our Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, and that His sheep shall not want; that goodness and mercy shall follow them all of the days of their lives, until they dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
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