This hesitation to pray for finances comes from the tradition of men and the voice of Satan. It is designed to rob you of your rights in Christ, to destroy your potential to be an example of God’s goodness and generosity, to take away your ability to show practical love to family and others in need, and of course, to vastly reduce your effectiveness in spreading the word of God. You don’t need to have any money to be in love with money. In fact, to have a fear of money is already the love of money, even the worship of money. Most of those who preach against receiving prosperity from God by faith are infatuated with money. Why are they so obsessed with poverty, with suffering, and with talking about how much money other people have? They are the ones obsessed with money, but they do not have the faith, or even a little respect for God, to receive it from him like children. They do not think of him as Father, but as a holy rock or statue that they worship.

Thoughts that contradict the promises of God come from the devil, but you can overcome them. Jesus said that when the word of God is sown into the heart, if it does not grow roots, the devil will come and steal it. He said that the deceitfulness of riches can choke the word of God. When a person overvalues the pursuit of wealth, or when a person regards wealth itself as God, he is deceived by wealth, and the word of God becomes unfruitful in his life. But the word of God also says that when we seek God first, then “all these things” that the pagans seek will be added to us as well. This is just as much the word of God as anything else in the Bible. What if someone contradicts this word of God because of his false piety and then congratulates himself for being free from the lure of wealth? Is he not even worse? Is he not even more deceived? Either he does not know the word of God he claims to believe, or he knows what it says and rejects it. In either case, he is ensnared by his own self-righteousness. Most Christians seem to think Jesus said that when we seek God “all these things” will be taken away from us as well. There is a demonic obsession in historic Christianity to condemn the idea that prosperity comes when we seek God and have faith. Satan has stolen the word of God from Christians by his deceitfulness. The devil comes with “Has God really said?” Our answer is to reaffirm that, yes, God has really said this and that. And then be a doer of the word.

The counterfeit gospel of pointless poverty and stupid suffering is popular because it makes people feel like they are special to God and very spiritual without demanding them to change anything, or to have faith for anything. Most of them are already in that place of failure. This message comes and says, “Your suffering is good for you. You are so humble for enduring this. This is the will of God. God does not help you not because you don’t have faith, but because you have so much of it! He has something better for you. Forget what the Bible promises. If it promises anything good or comfortable, then it must mean something else. Don’t let Satan trick you into thinking that God means what he says. God means the opposite.” This is the most seeker-friendly message for most people, because it does not correct them or challenge them at all. It does not require any faith. It does not require any repentance for their unbelief. As I mentioned in The Edge of Glory, the people of Israel suffered not because of obedience or because of persecution — they never faced their enemies. Their suffering came from their natural environment aggravated by their own unbelief and rotten attitude. And then they sealed their own condemnation by imposing a false explanation upon their suffering. On the basis of his name, his word, and his very nature, God had promised to deliver them from their hostile environment. More than that, he said that they would not only be delivered, but would even prosper greatly if they would move forward in faith and confront their enemies, and seize what belonged to them. They refused, but instead they formulated a theology that said God was the one who led them out there to suffer, that God was doing all of that to them. Yet God was the one who told them to leave that place of suffering. God was the one who promised them the land of milk and honey and commanded them to take it. God was the one who told them to move forward and enjoy life. But because they rejected him, God left them to die, and to live the life that they said he was making them live.

This is also the story of the church. In many places, and especially in areas of the world where high-minded “Christians” have the luxury to nitpick and argue about these things, almost 100% of their suffering comes from their natural environment, their everyday problems, and not persecution from people or from the government. Then they make this kind of suffering the basis of their relationship with God, and their theology about God. They are slaves in their minds like the people of Israel. That is, except for the one in a million who is like Caleb and Joshua. In the church, the people of unbelief have been the majority, and they are the ones who write church history from the human perspective. Thank God, in the Bible we have God’s version of history about the people of Israel. Otherwise, the theology of the unbelief of Israel would have been the orthodox version, and Caleb and Joshua would have been the heretics. Then we would never know who were the true villains and who were the true heroes. Indeed, the people of Israel wanted to stone them when they spoke in faith about the promises of God. They treated faith like it was something dangerous, something heretical.

When we have disagreements in the church about the promises of God, this is what is happening. When we have disagreements about what the Bible says concerning healing, prosperity, divine favor and protection, miracles, visions, prophecies, the powers of faith and the powers of the Spirit, various supernatural experiences, and many other blessings, this is what is happening. Pay attention to the version of church history that you study. Does the writer tell the story of faith, or the story of unbelief? Does he turn a story of unnecessary suffering that resulted from unbelief and rebellion into a story of heroic piety due to the “will of God” — like those people in Israel that God abandoned to die? Or does he understand history from the perspective of God’s promises, so that he condemns unnecessary suffering as something foolish, wicked, and heretical? Does the theologian that you study teach that the wilderness people suffer is the “will of God” — like the people of Israel that God hated and killed? Or does the theologian teach that the land of milk and honey is the will of God, only that we must move forward in faith and take the land? Men’s version of history will justify themselves, and throw God’s promises under the bus. But let God be true, and every man a liar. God’s version of history will justify his own promises, and blame men’s failure and suffering on their own unbelief and rebellion.

Well over 95% of what is considered orthodox Christian literature are written from the perspective of unbelief and rebellion. But because unbelief is in the majority, and the people approve one another, this fact is obscured by the people from themselves. Is that an exaggeration? No, I am sure the estimate is too low and I am too lenient. Caleb and Joshua were the only two in their generation who survived, and they represented far less than 1% of the population. Do you say that the situation in the church is better? I hope you are right, but you can find out for yourself. Select from the best writings and creeds that represent Christian orthodoxy throughout history, and tell me how many of them without excuses or delays specifically declare faith in the gospel promises of milk and honey. My estimate of 95% unbelief is super low, isn’t it? A man of faith has perhaps 99.99% of the orthodox believers against him, and the orthodox believers have 100% of unbelievers against them. So the orthodox believers think that they are heroes in the story, because they have 100% of unbelievers against them. But the truth is that they are the villains along with the unbelievers against the 0.01% who have true faith in God. Of course they would be offended by this. So we say to them: Then do you believe the things that we showed you, the things that Jesus said? You don’t believe. Then how is all this our fault? Why are we the heretics? Just because there are more of you? So God is also a heretic. Is that why you have excommunicated him? Is that why there is no God in your church? Is that why there is no life in your soul?

The Israel under slavery had 400 years of history. Who was Moses to come and tell them something different? But Moses’ theology and mission started all the way back from Joseph, and even from Abraham, who were told about the 400 years of slavery and then freedom. If Israel had the historic orthodoxy of slavery, then Moses had the prehistoric orthodoxy of grace, promised long ago to Abraham, and went as far back as Adam. It is even an eternal orthodoxy in the mind of God. From men’s perspective, Moses was the heretic. They resisted him. From God’s perspective, these stubborn and ungrateful brats had to listen and change, or they would die in their sins. And they all died. The Bible says that they were a congregation, they were circumcised, they were baptized, and they were eating and drinking from the rock which was Christ. This sounds orthodox, doesn’t it? Haven’t you fought hard to make this the standard by which you judge others? And then God gave them all up to destruction! Their dead bodies were all over the desert. They blamed everything on God’s will? There! Let that be God’s will then. God let their own theology wipe them out of existence. The church has adopted a theology of slavery, for hundreds of years. Even now, the dominant narrative is one of slavery. Even their so-called theology of grace is only token grace in the midst of slavery, only to transition to another phase of slavery. There is no fullness of freedom and power. There is no land of milk and honey. Of course, God always leaves himself a remnant, and so there has always been people like Joshua, and unspiritual men have always been suspicious of people of faith. For the church as a whole to move forward, these people of unbelief must DIE. Is this a harsh statement? But God did it to the people. People of unbelief must die. Perhaps a new generation will have faith in God. But as an individual, you can make progress right now.

Jesus would say something in public and then explain it more fully in private, because a wide public audience must be treated differently. I say much stronger things about faith, healing, the powers of the Spirit, the promises of God, and such things among my own people. There I am able to reduce polemics to a minimum and directly teach what the word of God says and how to apply it. However, with the wider public audience, many people who call themselves Christians still will not even start to believe what God said about these things. They have not even reached the starting line. They are still debating the most elementary things about God. They are still fighting about whether his promises mean what they obviously say. And because they are debating, they think they are mature and thoughtful believers. The opposite is true. As Jesus said, “I have many other things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” He also said that we should not give pearls of wisdom to people who are like stupid pigs, because they will not listen to you, but they will turn to attack you. Thus if you fail to discern the audience, you make trouble for yourself for nobody’s profit. Not everyone is like this, but I mean the public audience is very mixed. And so you must include a lot of tedious details and polemics that are unnecessary for those who have long taken for granted that the word of God is clear and true. I hope you can soon reach this point by yourself. We are not talking about some secret teachings and revelations, but things that are stated in the Bible for anyone to read. You have the same word of God. Do not let those who wish to argue with you hold you in place forever.

[adapted from email]

See:
The Edge of Glory
All Things Are Yours
No Place to Lay His Head
The Christless Moderate
“He has to deal with Jesus theology…”
Um…Abraham Was There