Good Father God
As Believers, many times we will say that something is the Lord’s will, when it really isn’t. For example… You may hear someone saying, “If it’s the Lord’s will, I will get that pay raise. If it’s God’s will, I’ll be healed from cancer.” Are we serious? What kind of Father do we have, if He doesn’t want us to prosper and be in health?
Many times we don’t understand why we are experiencing delay, setbacks and defeat, and rather than dig beneath the surface and uncover the hold up, we assume it’s God’s will, which in turn makes us question if God is actually a good God.
Perception is Reality
How we perceive something is how we interact with it. Many of us have issues with our Father on earth, or with other authority figures in our lives. Often, we use our experiences with them to define our relationship with God. Their failures become His failures, making it difficult for us to relate to Him in a healthy way.
Did you know that 16% of the worldwide Jewish community live below the poverty line? Only 16%! This means that the majority of the Jewish people live on an income that is above average. That’s incredible!
Now let’s look at several other communities. The Assembly of God church body, as the largest Spirit-filled denomination in the United States, has 43% living at or below the poverty line. That’s quite a difference. And then we look at the Southern Baptists, who are at 32% at or below the poverty, while the Jehovah’s Witness’ are at 48%, Mormons are at 27%, and Atheists are at 24%. There is a perception of provision that is different between Jewish people and these other groups.
The point to this is that all of these groups have a paradigm in their souls of how they interact with God for provision.
What Caused the Disconnect?
As the Church drifted away from the Jewish roots of her faith, away from the Hebraic lifestyle of Yeshua Himself, they adopted a new Gospel of poverty. Theologians like Thomas Aquinas and Francis of Assisi helped to further these beliefs through their writings and lifestyles.
“The best way to be spiritual was to renounce all material goods.”—Thomas Aquinas
When you take a pledge of poverty and verbalize it with your mouth, then you place a snare on you and your family for four generations.
The problem with the blocks in our lives is that the DNA in our spiritual bloodline is speaking the poverty language of our forefathers more than our current Spirit is able to receive the wealth and riches that are promised through our ancient ancestor Abraham and all of his descendants after him.
Don’t you get it? We are grafted into Messiah as a descendant of Abraham. His promises from God are our promises.
How Do I Align with God to be the Real Me?
When you refuse to allow God to heal you and prosper you, you are telling Him that you do not want to follow His covenant ways, living life as a testimony and a witness to His goodness. We are saying that we would rather do it our own way, instead of dealing with the root things that are holding us back.
Jesus died on the cross, as a restorative covenant act, so that we could experience salvation, health, and new life. But so often, we ignore what He died to restore, in exchange for living life our way.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has to prosper you. When you choose to walk in covenant with Him, He is legally obligated to see that you prosper. He made that arrangement on purpose. He wants our lives to reflect Him so that it draws others to Him as well.
So Why am I Not Seeing a Return?
Doubt and unbelief is the issue. The poverty spirit brings double mindedness into our lives and keeps us from believing and operating in faith for the promise. This cancels our ability to receive God’s blessings.
How Can I Get Set Free?
These fourteen points will help to untie the knots in our family lines that have hindered the blessings of God from operating fully in our lives.
14 Points from the Word of God about His Heart Toward Us:
-
In order to understand your identity and purpose, it is critically important that you understand that it is God’s desire that you prosper in all areas.
“Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favor my righteous cause; and let them say continually, ‘Let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.’”—Psalm 35:27
-
Righteousness is rewarded on earth; it pays to walk in obedience.
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”—Psalm 84:11
-
The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of increase—not a Kingdom of decrease.
“May the Lord give you increase more and more, you and your children.”—Psalm 115:14
-
The Heart of Father God towards you is to bless you abundantly in all areas.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”—John 10:10
-
Our Father God paid the highest price of His Son, that we might live richly upon this earth—a blessing that is inclusive and does not exclude finances.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”—2 Corinthians 8:9
-
When you are walking in covenant alignment and develop your God-given talents and abilities, it will cause you to prosper and create wealth in your body, soul and spirit.
“And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”–Deuteronomy 8:18
-
When you seek to bless the Lord first, God blesses and keeps that which is first in your own heart.
“Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.”—Proverbs 3:9-10
-
The tithe belongs to the Lord. It sets a foundation for financial and personal sanctification, protection and provision.
“‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of Heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.’”—Malachi 3:10
-
Quite simply… You cannot out-give God.
“He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.”—Proverbs 19:17
-
Our hearts toward the poor, the orphan and the widow should mirror the heart of our source and provider.
“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”—James 1:27
-
We should not afflict—we should bless. We are called to be vessels who pass on the blessings of our God—a God who sees our actions and rewards them.
“You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry.”—Exodus 22:22-23
-
What more can we say but, “Amen!” We serve a God of abundance. We do not serve a God of lack or poverty.
“Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.”
—Deuteronomy 28:10-13
“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
—Matthew 21:22
14.
Ask for what you want… not for what you need.
“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.”
—2 Corinthians 9:10-11
It is my prayer that each one of you would have a deeper revelation of the true heart of our Heavenly Father toward you. God chose to allow His son, the perfect One who knew no sin, to be crucified on a cross in our place, so that we might have life and live it abundantly. May this be the year that the Lord multiplies us above all that we could ask or think, increasing us, and adding no sorrow to it!
If you would like to watch a full version of this sermon please join us on YouTube HERE. We invite you to subscribe to our channel to stay current with upcoming events.