Sometimes people ask me if I am a "prosperity preacher."
The term "prosperity preacher" is a critical term some use to put down those who preach God's will is prosperity.
After thinking about this, I believe there are only four possible positions on this issue.
1 Preach prosperity is God's will for people.
2 Preach prosperity is NOT God's will -- leading people to believe poverty is God's will.
3 Preach prosperity is God's will for some people, but not for everyone.
4 Don't preach anything about the subject. Just keep quiet about the subject of money.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems these are the only options. Either you preach God is for prosperity, God is for poverty, God has some special favorites, or just keep quiet about the whole issue.
For those who might think it safest to ride the fence and not say anything, realize that Jesus spoke more about money than He did heaven or hell. The Bible is not silent on the subject, so we should not ignore the subject either.
For those who think God shows favoritism, the Bible clearly says otherwise six times (2 Chronicles 19:7, Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11, Ephesians 6:9, Colossians 3:25, 1 Peter 1:17).
Admittedly, there are warnings in Scripture about the dangers of prosperity. And we should not ignore them. Money, just like fire, can cause great damage if used wrongly, but is a great blessing when properly used.
Money is certainly not the most important thing in life. Nor can we judge a person's spiritual condition by their financial condition. Yet we all require material things in order to live here on earth.
Surely our Father God, who Jesus taught is superior to earthly parents (Matthew 7:11), desires for every person to have all they need.
No doubt there may be some who preach prosperity imperfectly, with the wrong emphasis, or with wrong motives. But they are not my servants, and to their own Master they are accountable, not to me. It is not my job to criticize other preachers and call them names to put them down.
Maybe they are not perfectly balanced in their teaching. Maybe they don't know everything. But I don't either! (And neither do you.)
But surely the correct approach is not name-calling, trying to tarnish the reputation of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
I think the right attitude is the one Paul had, that even if people were preaching with wrong motives, Christ was still being preached -- so he rejoiced.
PHILIPPIANS 1:17-18 NLT 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn't matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.
The reason the devil wants people to use such disparaging names is because he is afraid people will find out the Bible really does teach God's will is prosperity for all people -- which it is.
Poverty is not God's will for any person!
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