Recently, someone said that money is good but can also be dangerous. Have you ever asked yourself why most wealthy people are humble? There is a difference between being rich and wealthy. If I have $1,000,000 I am rich but if I can give away the $1,000,000 and have the ability to recreate the same amount again and again then I am wealthy.
We have seen most rich people showing off thinking that they are above everyone else. Wealthy people have a wealthy character. Rich people have physical assets, wealthy people have spiritual assets.
Rich people can get poor, wealthy people cannot. This is why the opposite of rich is poor. I sincerely do not know the opposite of wealthy, it must be something devastating than poor. A poor person has the ability to get rich or wealthy but whatever the opposite of wealthy is, that person can never be wealthy unless they change some aspects in their lives.
You are wealthy in the spirit first. Wealth is not physical. All the wealthy people you see around are not just wealthy physically. I can bet my life on that. Money is a spirit and the devil has mastered its control so that he can put the child of God into subjection. I keep teaching that spiritual laws cut across whether one is a believer or a non-believer. Take a look at the following scriptures
Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Luke 6:38 ESV
24 One person gives freely,
Proverbs 11:24-25 HCSB
yet gains more;
another withholds what is right,
only to become poor.
Note the above scriptures do not explicitly say that it is believers who will receive after giving. Do you guys know that wealthy people give the most? Even those known for the darkest ills? This is because they have mastered that law. The law simply states, “Give and it shall be given to you!” So anyone who gives shall surely receive.
And they just don’t receive a little something. No! The Bible says ‘Good measure’ but that verse continues to say that the measure you use will be measured back to you. Yes! There is a weighing scale in heaven. The weighing scale in heaven replicates whatever measure we put here on earth but of course it is different than what we have here on earth.
The Bible says whoever sows sparingly reaps sparingly. Simply put, if you give a small measure, the weighing scale in heaven replicates your small measure and if you give a good bounty, you will receive a larger bounty. Someone would think that it is the wealthy who will become wealthier because they will surely give more than they. Well, that’s not the case.
You might give your 5 shillings will all your heart and cheerfully and someone may give their one million shillings just to show off. Well, your 5 shillings may turn to be the one million and the guy’s one million may turn into negatives. Remember the poor widow?
41 Sitting across from the temple treasury, He watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. 43 Summoning His disciples, He said to them, “I assure you: This poor widow has put in more than all those giving to the temple treasury. 44 For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she possessed—all she had to live on.”
Mark 12:41-44
So someone might ask, “Why do I give a lot but do not receive?” Well, that’s the purpose of this article. If I gave a gambler $1,000,000 they will lose everything in no time. Study has shown that most lottery winners lost their millions within a year. Some actually went into debt. Here are a few examples.
Case 1:
William “Bud” Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988, but he was $1 million in debt within a year.
“I wish it never happened,” Post said. “It was totally a nightmare. I was much happier when I was broke”
Bud lived quietly on $450 a month and food stamps until his death in 2006.
Case 2:
Against all odds, Adams won the lottery twice, once in 1985 and again in 1986.
The New Jersey native won $5.4 million, but AskMen.com reports that she gambled it away in Atlantic City.
Case 3:
In 1998, Gerald Muswagon won the $10 million Super 7 jackpot in Canada.
“He bought several new vehicles for himself and friends, purchased a house that turned into a nightly ‘party pad’ and often celebrated his new lifestyle with copious amounts of drugs and alcohol,” The Globe and Mail reported. “In a single day, he bought eight big-screen televisions for friends.”
He was eventually forced to take a job doing heavy lifting on a friend’s farm just to make ends meet, according to The Globe and Mail. According to media reports, Muswagon hanged himself in his parents’ garage in 2005.
There are so many examples of stories like these. Most people have always wished to win a lottery. They regard life as too hard and would just wish that all their dreams were answered in a day. Well, God would not want that. Why? I have scriptural evidence on this.
3 And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:5:3-5 HCSB
One is to rejoice in their life’s hurdles because that’s where proven character comes from. Character is built from what you think is bitter and unwanting in life. If you rejoice in affliction, you develop something we call endurance or perseverance. This is why some people are always smiling in the rain and in the scorching heat of drought. This is because they have hope that their Savior will not disappoint them because He must provide.
Don’t cry to God that the boyfriend you dated for 5 years left you. That may be a good blessing because He sees the end from the beginning. Rejoice in that heartbreak for you are being molded to receive someone better. Do not however rejoice in persecution. Now you will need to know what is affliction and what is persecution. St
Moses had to go through hurdles so that when the Israelites turned to him for help he would have an answer. David had to undergo the heat of Saul so that he would lead a nation. We have so many examples of these in the Bible. The devil will do all he can to make sure that the broth (you) is not well prepared. Even if it means increasing the heat of the affliction.
God wants you to be well prepared to enter certain realms. Not everyone can enter his gates, not every priest would enter the holy of holies and not everyone experienced his manifest presence. Most great and wealthy people have got stories. Intriguing stories of great affliction that refined their characters. And through the refining of character, they got something so many people do not have – hope.
Proven character precedes hope. Can we then say that you cannot be hopeful without character? So Romans 5 affirms that ‘this hope will not disappoint us’. This is not the hope of motivational speakers that things will be better, this is hope from God, the creator of the universe.
Why are you not receiving? Well, your character needs to be built first. Stop whining and complaining. Stop giving God commands reminding Him that you are giving all you have. He clearly says that you should stop worrying about life about what you will eat or drink. He knows about all that and that’s why He asks, ‘Isn’t life more than food or clothing? And God hates a grumbling giver that’s why you have to go through cycles of affliction so that you can learn how to be cheerful as you give.
As a father, if you assure your son that you are going to pay for his school trip and every single day he keeps whining and grumbling reminding you that all his friends are going on that trip how would you feel? Some would want to teach their sons patience by not paying for the trip. And until they learn that, then they would take them to undeserved trips to places they never imagined.
You need to change your character. God would not want you to hang yourself because of some lottery money. God prepares his children for dominion. This is why a toilet cleaner cannot instantly be a CEO of a company but we have seen toilet cleaners rising to be the CEOs of companies.
Are you ready for the preparation? Change your character! I urge you to re-read Romans 5:3-5 and meditate upon it.
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Twice a year, I collect second-hand clothes and send them to people who really need them. If you are in Nairobi and its environs, you can reach me through the numbers in the poster below. If you would wish to partner monetary you can also do so to help in the logistics (fuel, buying of gunias, funds to send the clothes and buying iron sheets to that native village in Kakamega especially in this rainy season) Lets #DressTheNeedy. This time round I will do an article on how you guys came through last time. They were shared on my WhatsApp status. God bless you as you give.
