THREE REASONS MANY CHRISTIANS ARE POOR

Written by Dr Daniel Olukoya

THREE REASONS MANY CHRISTIANS ARE POOR:

1. God will not give you what will kill you. It is like a small boy watching his daddy shaving and he says, “Daddy, give me the blade, give me the blade.” No matter how he loves the child, he will not give him the blade. So your spiritual level and your level of brokenness may be too low for God to entrust wealth to you. That is why the Bible says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you.” They are automatic addition. Here comes the first question to you in this message. “Can you confirm in your spirit that the kingdom is in you? Are you a broken Christian? That is the first poverty-destroying weapon

God may be looking at you and He is saying, “If I give this my child fifty million naira, will he not backslide?” If God sees that anger, greed, dishonesty, lying, are still in your life, He will not give you His prosperity. Get the kingdom first; submit the whole of your life to God and then you will never be forsaken. The Bible says that God never forsakes the righteous but you have to be righteous to have that privilege. There are many people now who are very serious with the Lord because they are poor. But when money comes, they would become irregular. God can see. Many are praying, “O Lord, promote my husband,” and God is saying, “When I have not promoted the man, he is running after strange women, when he is promoted, he will now build castles for them and abandon you completely. Why don’t you let us get him saved first?”

There are people who were working and praying hard when they did not have a fan in their house and at night mosquitoes came and by the time they slapped themselves thrice, they would stand up to pray. But now they got the fan and split air conditioner, they over sleep. God does not want that. Many forget the household of God immediately they obtain contracts. They would not be seen again in the church until the money is gone. Before then when you call a prayer point like: “Let every contract be released now, in the name of Jesus, they would pray and shake their heads. But when they get it, the next place you would see them is the VIP lounge at the airport with very starched clothes, sitting down and eating meat pie and drinking tea as early as 6.30 am. But when they were looking for it, it was dry fast everyday.

Many who used to come early to church when they had no cars now come late to church in spite of the fact that God has blessed them with cars and drivers. And when you ask them why they come late to church, they would say, “That foolish driver did not wake up on time to bring me to church.” But when there was no car and driver, they got to church before everybody, swept the floor, joined the prayer warriors, and then settled down before service. God sees all these.

Some people were praying very well when they had no job. But now that they have a job, they forget their spiritual duties because of over- time. Some prayed and fasted to get a job and by 5.00 am., they have arrived at the office. But when it is service days, you see them strolling in one hour late. God normally allows that which keeps a man from Him to be withdrawn so that He can get his attention. God has had to withdraw cars, houses and comfort from people in order to save their souls. So, check your life today. Are you broken to the level where God can commit the riches of the Gentiles into your hands? Do you have clean hands, a kind of hand that God will place this sort of riches on? This is the first headache of the Almighty when it comes to prosperity.

2. Proverbs 11: 24 says, “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat. And he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” And Luke 6: 38 says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” This is an area where the devil has blinded the eyes of many believers. Many pray that they want prosperity, but how is the prosperity going to come when they have sown no seed. It is like a student praying to pass his examination when he has read nothing. It is like a woman praying to get pregnant without a husband or without a man. You must sow a seed. It is that seed that the Lord will multiply for you. Someone who wants prosperity should do more than tithing. Some people have been writing me letters asking: “What should we tithe? Is it the gross pay or the net pay?” It is better for you to over pay than to under pay. If God is asking you for a tithe and you say, “O God, take 20 per cent or 15 per cent, it is better for you to owe me than for me to owe you.” You must not treat God as a beggar. You treat God as a beggar when you give Him the extra that you don’t need. If you cannot be generous with the Almighty when things are hard for you, you would not be able to give when there is abundance. Sowing in the time of famine attracts abundant blessings and prosperity. Remember the story of the woman in Mark chapter 12, who just threw in some coins and God said, “This one has contributed more money than every other person.” So, if you find it hard to give a tenth unto God, of the money that belongs to you, you are inviting poverty. If you completely forget to pay your tithe and your offerings, you are inviting poverty. If you feel or believe that the tithe and offerings you give are too much, you are inviting poverty. If God gives you 20,000 naira and you find it difficult to pay 2,000 as tithe, you are writing to poverty. Wise believers double the tithe. Also, they sow a big seed and challenge the Lord. Giving to God is sacrifice. You have not started giving to God until you feel the pinch. Many are so tight-fisted when it comes to financing God’s work. Tithe borrowers are looking for trouble too. It is foolish to borrow your tithe because the repercussion can be grievous and it is also an insult to God. 

3. Psalm 78:41 says, “Yea they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy one of Israel.” The third reason is that many of us limit God. Many limit God by the way they talk and act. Many do not believe that God can do something outside their normal salary or income. So, anytime they pray, they focus their attention on what appears to be obvious. They are not on the look out for the miraculous or supernatural. They limit God completely. That is why sometimes when you ask some people, “How are you?” They would answer “rough.” Negative and inferior thinking invites poverty. You should not limit God. The Bible says that with God, nothing shall be impossible. It is only in our dictionary we find the word impossible or difficult.

WAY OUT

When you check your life and you find out that the spirit of poverty is in control, then you need to resist it. Think now about your finances. If you have cheated God, ask for forgiveness. Take a positive stand on what you will do in God’s house. If you have things that you have stored up somewhere and you know that you don’t really need them. Sell them off and put the money into God’s work. The last step to take is an aggressive one. It is to pray poverty destroying prayers. You must pray against the spirit of poverty with holy aggression. Some sicknesses are not ordinary. They are just ladders of poverty and you need to break them to pieces.

PRAYER POINTS

1. You heaven that has become brass, break open and bring rain, in the name of Jesus.

2. Every poverty, I break your control, in the name of Jesus.

3. Lay your hands on your eyes and pray like this: O Lord, anoint my eyes to see the hidden riches of the world, in the name of Jesus.

4. Lay hand on your head and pray this: O Lord, advertise your prosperity in my life, in Jesus’ name.
5.Yoke of poverty upon my life.die by fire