Why do people have a problem with prosperity teachings?

[ABlessedAnomaly]

Another reason people have a problem with prosperity is simply that they are not mature enough to handle money. Pastor's begin teaching prosperity and like little kids, the sheep start dreaming of bigger cars, houses and thing they can buy with their extra money rather than think about the souls they can save, the missionaries they can fund, the buildings they can build for God to house God's people, the people they can clothe, the people they can feed, and the people they can help out of poverty.

Nothing wrong with having prosperity. Everything wrong with prosperity having you.

Awesome and important to remember!

 

[CindyisHis]

SO - in what ways are you "prospering"?

Are you Debt Free?

IS your bank account exploding?

Are you walking in perfect health?

Are you driving a brand new car???

In fact, are you living IN ANY WAY differently - than the NON-prosperity Believing Christian that lives next door???

Is this a snide remark, or a sincere question? Attitude and motive have everything to with it, and I can't tell with written words always.

 

[CindyisHis]

Alive_Again, I really like this.

Real New Covenant in maturity prosperity is based on everything you need for your provision coming straight from God's table of grace, absolutely free. You can't earn your healing, your salvation, or your prosperity.

You can obey God in your stewardship, putting the kingdom first.

This is true. It all comes from God. All that we have that is good, our very breath, our abilities, the gifts He's given, the direction He gives by His Holy Spirit, the food we need to eat (which by the way are the things He made), EVERYTHING comes from Him! And all He gives, He gives freely through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

[Jedi.Kep]

Is this a snide remark, or a sincere question? Attitude and motive have everything to with it, and I can't tell with written words always.

He's never snide. He simply throws the questions out there that people are thinking and lets them fall where they may. Bob is a very sincere believer whom God still keeps around here for His purpose. I love his blunt reality. He's not rude about it. He just calls it like he sees it. Bob is a great guy and I value anything he has to say. Even if he's just asking questions.

 

[paul2010]

Most prosperity preachers preach, "give money and get money". But I am yet to hear, "give the word of God and lead them to salvation and then God will give you prosperity".

Hope christians are trained in evangelism to take the gospel to the neighbourhood and to the world. More WOF christians seem to hear more sermons when they should be sharing the word of encouragement and preaching the gospel.

Prosperity sermons bring in more money to build church buildings where God does not dwell as per Acts 7: 48 and Acst 17: 24. But training in evangelism brings in more souls into the Kingdom of God.

 

[HolySpiritWOF]

Most prosperity preachers preach, "give money and get money". But I am yet to hear, "give the word of God and lead them to salvation and then God will give you prosperity".

Hope christians are trained in evangelism to take the gospel to the neighbourhood and to the world. More WOF christians seem to hear more sermons when they should be sharing the word of encouragement and preaching the gospel.

Prosperity sermons bring in more money to build church buildings where God does not dwell as per Acts 7: 48 and Acst 17: 24. But training in evangelism brings in more souls into the Kingdom of God.

Originally Posted by paul2010

the Word Of Faith Preachers Misrepresent The Bible.
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paul2010, why do you pose as WOF?
we are always supposed to speak the TRUTH in love.

if you pose as WOF so that you can debate with WOFers you are breaking rules, being deceptive, and going outside GOD'S WORD.

you can't have GOD'S blessing on anything you do when you twist and break GOD'S rules and man's rules like that.

if you have such a problem with WOF teachings why don't you just focus your life and energy on the teachings of the faith group you do agree with? if you don't agree with any faith group then why don't you focus your life and energy on the WORD of GOD?

wouldn't it be better to spend your time and energy doing something honest?

when paul was persecuting christians before JESUS got him, he was honest and upfront about what he believed. JESUS then confronted him on the road to damascus and paul had an honest conversion.

GOD can do so much when we are honest and upfront. HE can use us powerfully when we are honest, HE can straighten us out when we are honest. GOD is LOVE and HE NEVER lies. imitating HIM will ALWAYS bring the best results.

 

[HolySpiritWOF]

double post

 

[HolySpiritWOF]

If anyone wants a refreshing look at biblical prosperity, start listening to Gary Carpenter's series on Kingdom Finance.

He says that God told him that giving to receive (sowing and reaping as it is commonly preached, or tithing is "sharecropper faith". This is where you give your corn for my potatoes. He said He would bless that, but that most believers would never move beyond that level of faith. Consider the lilies, they don't sow, yet... abundant provision.

Real New Covenant in maturity prosperity is based on everything you need for your provision coming straight from God's table of grace, absolutely free. You can't earn your healing, your salvation, or your prosperity. You can obey God in your stewardship, putting the kingdom first.

When I was listening to this I was in shock and really wanted to know truth and even a day later, the seeds in my heart were growing and their was increase on that revelation without any effort on my part.

The whole thing revolves around: "Whatever He says, do it."

The practitioners find themselves giving more than they ever had in their lives, and still having their needs met. It's a level of faith that comes by hearing. God is not poor. He wants your heart right and getting rid of the money changers from your temple comes first.

Is anyone hungry? Look at Gary Carpenter's website. God said that basically an extremely small percentage of Christians know anything about Christian finance. It's all based in being a liberal giver by faith.

To give you a little background about Gary, he speaks in tongues for hours and then stops and speaks into a recorder what God says. He's done this for years and God has trained him to be an expert in hearing His voice. The encouraging thing is that He said He wants ALL believers to be the same way and receive training to do just that.

thanks for this info. never heard of gary before. really loved the part about speaking in tongues for hours and then speaking into a recorder to catch everything GOD was saying. here are 3 links to his site or teaching.

Kingdom Finances Teaching Category

http://www.garycarpenter.org/

http://www.youtube.com/user/iktusnet

PS. I HAVE NOW STUDIED GARY CARPENTER'S TEACHINGS.... HE IS NOT TOTALLY ANTI-WOF..... HE AGREES WITH SOME AND DISAGREES WITH A LOT OF WHAT OUR MOST RESPECTED WOF TEACHERS SAY..... HE SAYS IT IS BECAUSE IT DIDN'T WORK FOR HIM..... LONG-TIME WOFers KNOW THAT THAT MEANS..... SO I PERSONALLY DON'T RECOMMEND GARY ANY MORE.... YOU CAN CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURESELF IF YOU WISH.... BUT FAITH COMES BY HEARING THE WORD.... AND JESUS TOLD US TO BE CAREFUL HOW WE HEAR.... SO IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO GET THE BEST WORD RESULTS TO STICK WITH WELL RESPECTED WOF TEACHERS..... i'm praying about whether to delete these links all together.... we as WOF are not afraid of what the critics say..... there are lots of them..... and poor souls are missing a lot of GOD's provision for their lives..... if you are not a whosoever-will you cannot receive what is promised to whosoever-will's.... be a whosoever-will and receive GOD'S abundance for EVERY need....

 

[paul2010]

1. Prosperity sermons should not be meant to build denominations, buy lands and buildings. God does not dwell in temples built by human hands.


2. Instead prosperity must be taught by training christians to desire and operate the gifts of the Holy Spirit and take the love and compassion of Christ by signs, wonders and miracles.

3. Kingdom financing is for the purpose of raising miracle workers out of common believers rather than make believers as endless sermon-hearers!


4. Christ Jesus primarily needs ordinary believers (who are the real temples as per 1 Cor 6: 19) who will exercise their authority to heal the sick and cast demons with the power that Elijah had rather than sit and hear sermons about prosperity endlessly. Money is secondary for our Lord.

 

[pdudgeon]

1. Prosperity sermons should not be meant to build denominations, buy lands and buildings. God does not dwell in temples built by human hands.


2. Instead prosperity must be taught by training christians to desire and operate the gifts of the Holy Spirit and take the love and compassion of Christ by signs, wonders and miracles.

3. Kingdom financing is for the purpose of raising miracle workers out of common believers rather than make believers as endless sermon-hearers!


4. Christ Jesus primarily needs ordinary believers (who are the real temples as per 1 Cor 6: 19) who will exercise their authority to heal the sick and cast demons with the power that Elijah had rather than sit and hear sermons about prosperity endlessly. Money is secondary for our Lord.

i'm not sure why you understand that any of the above is a WOF-based message or where your ideas come from.

prosperity just means having enough so that all your needs are met, and from the excess you can give to help other people meet theirs.

In order to be able to do that you first need to realize that it is God alone who supplies all your needs---not your 'wants', mind you, but your needs.

in today's society many people cannot separate the two categories, so they have trouble seeing how God can supply what He has promised. So the first thing to do is to learn how God differentiates 'needs' from 'wants', and then organize our finances along those lines.

it may take a while to get the "wants" trimmed down, but that's where the rest of God's family comes into play. Out of the love that they have for God, they can help others out of the abundance that God has given to them, raising them up to live in the true financial situation that God desires for all His children.

What we have here on earth is a pittance of what we will have in heaven, as we are joint heirs with Jesus, and are rightly entitled to share in all the riches of heaven with Him. But in this life we learn the use of those riches, how to handle them, where they come from, why we are entitled to them, and that they are nothing when compared to the love that we share together with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Truly, He trusts us with a small amount now so that we will learn the lessons here that will apply when we reach heaven and are trusted with much more.

So you see, there's a lot more to looking at prosperity than you have listed above. In fact, none of what brings true, God-filled prosperity is listed any place in your post. why is that I wonder?

 

[jesus always loves me]

The apostle John, who was the closest to Jesus states in 3 John 2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Above all things!

So true. This is what God says. In a post on another thread here (I will try to find it) someone said that prosperity is mentioned 2000 times in the Bible, and I think they said healing was 200 and I will have to try to find the rest. It was really good.

Found it:

It was oriiginally posted by Jedi.Kep in the Thread "Why is there such an emphasis on money" post #3:

Money is not the main focus point at all. Although maybe it should be? One Biblcal financial ministry group mentioned that there are about 500 scriptures dealing with prayer, and 500 dealing with faith, but over 2000 Scriptures dealing with money. Perhaps you should ask God why He is so focused on money?
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[jesus always loves me]

I think the main reason for prosperity is to BE a blessing. The focus is not on getting ME more so I have a bunch of stuff and and am able to indulge in the flesh. However, that being said, it is obvious that God blesses. That is His intent. The first words He spoke to mankind in the garden were his pronouncing a blessing over them, and again, when the "world" began again with Noah He did the same thing. Come over in the NT to Galatians 3 and we see Jesus was made a curse for us so the blessing of Abraham might be ours - righteousness. Go all through Psalms and Proverbs to numerous passages on how the righteous is blessed. That's us! Furthermore, we are family. God is our Father and it is His intent to care for His children. It is right and just. And He is love.

Knowing just these few things from scripture, what is it that makes one think it is His desire to do anything but prosper us. It is we who get in the way, one way or the other.

I really like this conversation b/s Zazal and Optimax. I appreciate seeing the love and respect b/w brethren. That makes it a place where God can dwell, and isn't that what we want? Him?

Blessed to be a blessing, but the greatest thing is God's love.
I totally agree with what you are saying. God loves us and wants us to prosper in every way.