The Beauty of Biblical Prosperity
By Jeremy Groves
Prosperity in a biblical sense has been misused and misunderstood for centuries, and extremes have arisen from the imbalance of theology, spiritual maturity, and the practice of many who have sought to define it and either pursue it or reject it partially or wholly in the name of Christian maturity and holiness.
In this writing, I aim to define prosperity in a balanced, biblical, and practical manner, while also sharing my experience of God's desire to prosper us.
I will not claim that I have a perfect understanding of everything, but I believe I have come to know and am growing in God's kingdom purpose for prosperity.
As a result, I have a deep passion for seeing the entire Body of Christ step into kingdom prosperity so that they can live out a fuller expression of the image of God and live a satisfying and fulfilling life that can only come when we step into the spirit of generosity that God has reserved for those who embrace this message.
Pendulum Swings of Deception
As I referenced in the introduction, extremes have arisen from the debate over prosperity.
The scope of this writing can not hope to account for all of them, but I will mention two extreme sides of the pendulum swing within the debate before I go on to define prosperity in my view further and how I have experienced God's goodness in this way.
The first extreme is the overemphasis and subtle twist of the message of prosperity that highlights its financial aspect.
It describes wealth accumulation as a sign of God's blessing and the spiritual maturity of the one amassing the wealth.
This is not necessarily true because God's blessing, first and foremost, rests on His covenant people and is increased or multiplied through faithful obedience and stewardship of what has been received.
Prosperity is not limited to finance but is included in the principle of faithfulness and obedience.
Now, does this mean that anyone poor is not blessed?
Or does this also mean that if someone is rich, they have been good stewards and faithful to God?
The brief answer is no.
The Scripture testifies that the sun rises and the rain falls, or God's mercy is released on the good and the evil, providing for their needs and desires, even though they may not know or obey God (see Matthew 5:45).
Material prosperity is not an approval stamp from God in and of itself.
True prosperity is first sourced in the inner life of a person who has been redeemed and joined to Jesus Christ in an eternal covenant.
This salvation cleanses us of sin and self-life, bringing us into God's infinite blessings and promises through our Messiah, King Jesus (see Romans 4-8).
Our appropriation of these blessings through faith first transforms our inner life, and by the power of God's grace, they can and will impact our external life, including our finances.
God knows what we can handle, when, and for what redemptive purpose he can use to increase our wealth.
Now, to the second extreme, I want to mention poverty as a form of piety.
Some have reacted to the belief that wealth equals blessing with an opposite yet equally deceptive and destructive belief system.
It's that poverty is equated with righteousness and that financial prosperity is viewed as a love for the world's system.
Within this belief system, the wealthy are perceived as evil tyrants trying to influence the world for their own agenda.
Does that happen? Yes. Is that true of all people who wield tremendous amounts of wealth? No.
Poverty is a result of the curse within the fall of man, and like prosperity, it is first a condition of the heart that affects outward circumstances.
The belief that poverty equates to holiness is destructive because it influences and limits our ability to receive from God, because we think our lack and ability to suffer through it is somehow humble and spiritual.
However, God desires to give us good and perfect gifts (see James 1:17).
The beginnings of this deception can be traced back to the monastic era.
However, I believe this spirit of deception goes back even further to the New Testament era.
Paul's letter to the church in Colossae addresses the religious spirit and its tendency to cause people bound by it to view self-sabotage and suffering as holy (see Colossians 2).
Paul firmly denounces this understanding and contrasts it with the blessings of being in Christ, the source of true biblical prosperity!
It's crucial to understand that neither extreme is God's design.
Both the overemphasis on financial prosperity and the equating of poverty with piety are deceptions and twists of true prosperity.
They limit our ability to be faithful stewards of God's blessings, thereby hindering our capacity to be a blessing to the world around us.
Biblical Prosperity Defined
Dictionary.com defines prosperity as "a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, especially in financial respects; good fortune.” (Dictionary.com, 2021)
I like this definition because it aligns closely with my understanding of biblical prosperity.
Take a minute and think about money. What exactly is money?
It is simply a resource used for a specific purpose.
I believe biblical prosperity is the overflow of God's love and favor in us, providing health, wholeness, satisfaction, and resources to be and do all that God has created us to be and do.
Finances are simply an aspect of resources, but they are not the only ones.
Physical health is a resource, as is time. Emotional health is a resource, and God's blessing prospers all these (see 3 John 1:2).
These resources can be squandered through poor stewardship or increased and multiplied through faithfulness.
God is seeking a heart fully committed to Him, so that He can bless them with resources to extend His kingdom.
When God blessed Abraham, God told him in Genesis 12:2, "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” (NIV, 1973/2011)
God called Abraham out of the land of his fathers, and by his obedience to God's word, he prospered, and so did the generations after him.
They were blessings to the world around them because they modeled God's ways and made God's name and power known.
Throughout history, there were ebbs and flows, and due to Israel's disobedience, they experienced a curse rather than a blessing (see Deuteronomy 28).
They would succumb to tragedy because they stepped out from under God's covering, but they prospered and blessed others when they obeyed.
When God prospers us, it changes us from within, and the overflow of that grace brings that same prosperity to the world around us.
As we improve our spiritual, emotional, and physical health, we can help others achieve similar breakthroughs.
When we prosper financially, we can help people break free from bondage.
Freed people, free people, and prosperity can be seen as God removing the limits and empowering us to bless the world for His glory.
Biblical Prosperity In My Life
I have witnessed all of these principles in action in my life.
I came from a modest background and grew up believing that having less or just enough to get by was better than having an abundance.
It perpetuated a weird conflict in my heart, wanting to have more so I could give more, but for some reason, I felt it was wrong to desire more of God's blessings in my life.
Then came the time when God put his thumb on my identity and began taking me deeper into His love for me and who He made me to be.
He never really focused on the prosperity side of it in that season.
Still, the foundational revelation of being his son, created for his pleasure and that he desires to partner with me in fulfilling my destiny, created a byproduct of prosperity in my soul.
His love transformed my attitude, motives, and mindset, and this maturing began to affect my view of prosperity as a gift from a good father for my enjoyment and the blessing of others.
His nature began to permeate mine, and it altered my perspective on everything.
I began to see prosperity as one of the ways God showers His love and grace upon us, drawing us closer to Him and His purpose for our lives.
In the next section, I will highlight three concepts from Dr. Che Ahn's book, "The Grace of Giving," that have deeply impacted me and shaped core truths that guide my understanding of biblical prosperity.
Prospering in the Love of God
I appreciated how Dr. Che Ahn began his book by discussing the love of God and His favor toward us.
I believe it sets the foundational tone that aligns us with an understanding of who He is as our Father, and this sets us up to experience biblical prosperity and all of God's blessings and promises.
We are not meant to strive to receive from Him because this puts us in a works-based, merit-based relationship instead of simply believing in His love for us and allowing Him to lavish His favor upon us.
We receive his love in a posture of faith, which can only come through an intimate loving relationship with God in which the Holy Spirit corrects the lenses through which we see God, ourselves, and the world around us, so that we can adequately ascertain all that he desires for our lives.
I also love how uniquely the Holy Spirit tenderly reveals his love in the exact way we need it. Dr. Che Ahn writes:
"Not only will God reveal Himself to you, but He will also reveal Himself in a unique way that meets your particular needs. He understands your distortions in the image of 'father.' He is able to respond to you and encounter you in a way that will enable you to have a genuine experience of the love He has for you.” (Ahn, 2013, p. 24)
God's ultimate desire is for us to prosper in his love, which enables us to be overflowing conduits of his love to the world.
I want to go deeper in his love so that my heart prospers ever more in his grace, enabling me to be even more generous with his mercy to those he brings to my path.
The Law of Sowing and Reaping
The second concept that has shaped my view of prosperity is the spiritual law of sowing and reaping.
This concept first appears in the sixth chapter of the book of Genesis.
It is directly associated with finances and giving when the apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7:
"Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (NIV, 1973/2011)
Every seed reproduces after its own kind, and when we are generous with what God has entrusted to us, we are representing his nature and entrusted with more of the same.
There is a question that Dr. Che Ahn poses in his book that serves as a good motive tester, as it relates to sowing and reaping.
He writes, "do we trust our Father God, who is loving, generous and changeless, or do we trust our reason and shifting circumstances? (Ahn, 2013, p. 198)"
It takes faith to sow and believe for increase. It takes knowing God's nature and accepting his love for us and for those we are sowing into.
Faith is ignited and propelled by passion, and I want to continually check my heart and ensure my seed comes from good soil before I sow it into someone else's ground.
Prosperous Stewardship
The final concept that has transformed my view and practice of biblical prosperity is faithful stewardship.
One of the keys to effectively living out our destinies and fulfilling our potential is mastering stewardship by realizing that nothing we have or do is for our own benefit alone.
Everything belongs to the Lord and is given to us as a display of trust to take of himself and generously impart his grace and mercy to others.
Everything we do with what we receive is evaluated in terms of faithful or unfaithful stewardship.
In the parable of the talents (see Matthew 25:14-30), the owner expects the servants to take what they receive and multiply it.
The response of the servants who obeyed reveals several aspects of their character and desire to please their owner.
First, the servants must have paid attention to and learned from the owner, using the wisdom they had gained to multiply his investments.
Secondly, they trusted the owner's character enough to take risks and invest what was entrusted, so that it could increase and bring the owner more profit.
The servants did not directly benefit from the profit. It all still belonged to the owner.
Clearly, they had a genuine love and respect for the owner.
However, the servant who hid and did not use what was entrusted did not trust the owner and did nothing out of fear of making a wrong move.
We must clear away the debris of unbelief that distorts our view of God, so that we can faithfully take risks and put on the armor that God has entrusted to us, bringing glory and honor to our Lord.
Dr. Che Ahn writes, "when we understand our responsibility as managers, and what is being entrusted to us, we will realize that God is actually preparing us to manage the incredible wealth of His kingdom.” (Ahn, 2013, p. 223)
Stewardship of divine resources with faithfulness and trust in God's character positions us to be receptors and distributors of heavenly prosperity.
I will continually seek to remember that everything I have belongs to the Lord, and it is all a divine trust. I want him to receive the fullest reward possible for what he has entrusted to me.
The Beauty of Biblical Prosperity
In conclusion, biblical prosperity is the result of knowing and encountering God's goodness and yielding our hearts to Him, so that we allow God's blessings to pour over into the lives of all those who reach out to touch the hem of His garment upon our lives.
We are called to be conduits of God's blessing to the world so that everyone will know the goodness of God and surrender to the beauty of his love for them so that they, too, can step out of lack and emptiness into prosperity and purpose.
I am committed to growing in my experience of kingdom prosperity so that the gates of hell are rattled by the sound of feet running to the gates of heaven's door because they have seen, as Psalm 27:13 declares, "the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” (NIV, 1973/2011)
References
Ahn, C. (2013). The grace of giving: Unleashing the power of a generous heart. Chosen Books.
Dictionary.com. (2021). Meanings & definitions of english words. Retrieved August 29, 2024, from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/prosperity
Holy Bible: New International Version. (2011). Zondervan. (Original work published 1973)