Debunking the Prosperity Gospel

If you don’t believe God’s promises, then you can’t understand the purpose behind them.

And misunderstanding the purpose is how we cancel the intended benefit. It’s how promised blessings become abused and used inappropriately.

That’s what happens to our abundance, too. It’s misunderstood and ends up being abused.

If we don’t understand why God wants us rich, we end up abusing it, like tossing a highly sophisticated electronic device into the dishwasher. Or, we’ll simply refuse to have anything to do with it. That’s where many Christians live today— avoidance. They sneer and call it the “prosperity gospel,” then declare, “I want nothing to do with that.”

Here is another scandalous truth: the prosperity gospel is a lie. There is no such thing as the prosperity gospel. There is only one Gospel. And part of that Gospel is that Jesus paid the price for you to have prosperity.

Recently, while in Africa on a preaching trip, I was met with protestors who were opposing my visit by saying, “Don’t bring this American prosperity gospel preacher into your church!”

First of all, my accent should be a strong indicator I wasn’t born in America. Secondly, I’m not a prosperity gospel teacher.

I teach Jesus. I teach the Gospel. And the Gospel just happens to include your provision.

 You don’t have to partake. No one is forcing you to believe God for financial increase. If you want nothing to do with the provisions God has planned for you, then you’ll simply not receive them. He isn’t going to force you to take His blessings.

We either believe the Word, or we don’t believe the Word. If we’re going to throw out prosperity, provision, blessings, and God’s willingness to care for His children, then we’re discrediting the nature of God. If we choose to believe prosperity isn’t intended for us, then shouldn’t we believe the same about healing, forgiveness, and deliverance?

 It’s either all true, or it’s all a lie. We need to decide.

Provision Is Part of the Atonement

 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

God’s provision for us is part of the atonement. Jesus paid for it. He was rich, but He became poor.

Think of the richness of Jesus. In Heaven, streets are made of gold. The foundations of the walls are made of precious gemstones. The gates are made of pearls. In Heaven, there is no lack. Everything that is needed is provided.

Jesus left all of that and became poor for our sake. He experienced poverty so that through His lack we would be made rich.

 If you’re born again, you are already rich. Even if you’re poor, you’re rich. It’s the same spiritual truth we find in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.” He did this so we could be made righteous. That means, even if you’re sinning right now, if you’re born again, you are righteous.

It’s like my wife so eloquently says, “Your physical condition does not determine your spiritual position.” And your spiritual position in Christ is that you are righteous, healed, and rich.

 The Great Exchange

Jesus came to earth and did all the work for us. Now we get to pick up the spoils of His war against sin, sickness, poverty, and death. We now have access to the goodness of God. He took our sin, our sickness, and our poverty through His sacrifice on the cross.

 Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 1 Peter 2:24

 He did this so that we could take on His health and healing. At thirty-three years old, Jesus was in the prime of His life. His body was perfect. It was free of sickness, brokenness, and age. Then He willingly submitted to His death on the cross. He suffered agonizing pain, brokenness, and suffering.

He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:3-5

 In the original Hebrew text, the word “peace” is shalom. You’ve probably heard this before, like in the greetings between two Jewish people. This word means more than simply peace, or rest, or calmness. It means health, happiness, wholeness, peace, safety, favor, friendship, and prosperity.

In the New Testament, the equivalent of that word is sozo, which means to be healed, to be whole, to be complete, and to be prospered.

In other words, Jesus literally paid for our prosperity at the same time He paid for our iniquities, sin, and sickness. In order for us to experience the wholeness Jesus paid for on the cross, prosperity cannot be separated from it.

Jesus paid for it all. Why wouldn’t we want to receive it? Would you do this with any other gift? Would you leave it unwrapped? Unopened? Disrespected and wasted? If Jesus paid for it—and He did—then we need to receive it.

Accept the scandalous truth that Jesus wants you rich. In Psalm 103, Scripture talks about how God forgives our sins, heals our diseases, and satisfies our mouths with good things. He provides everything we need.

That’s the great exchange. He was made sin so that we could take on His righteousness. He bore our sickness and disease so we could be made well. He became poor so that we could be rich.

If you haven’t seen that, yet, hold on. Once you start believing it, you’re going to start seeing it manifest in your life.

 God the Provider

God loves His children, and He provides for His children. In fact, one of the seven names of God is Jehovah Jireh, which means, “God, the provider.”

And Abraham called the name of that place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” Genesis 22:14

This verse comes from a foundational story in the Old Testament. God had given Abraham and Sarah a son named Isaac. He is often referred to as the child of promise. The Lord had renamed Abram, and his new name of Abraham meant “father of many nations.” Isaac was the hope upon which this promise of God was based. Those many nations, promised to Abraham by his heavenly Father, were to come through Isaac and his descendants.

However, God asked Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to Him. This wasn’t a symbolic sacrifice, as when we dedicate our babies to the Lord as infants. No, God required Abraham to physically lay his only son on an altar, kill him, and offer him up to the Lord as a burnt offering. His only son.

 Abraham needed provision. He was about to stab his precious, long-awaited, yearned-for child, offering his life to the Lord. It must have been an agonizing decision for him, yet Abraham had a secure relationship with God and trusted Him. In fact, when Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham replied, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:7-8).

 And what happened? After Abraham had placed Isaac upon the alter, surrounding him with the wood to burn, and raised up the knife to deliver the killing blow, God stopped him! Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a bush. God miraculously provided for him and spared the life of his child. God revealed Himself to Abraham as his provider.

 Yes, God honored Abraham’s faith and spared Isaac’s life. However, when the sacrifice of Jesus was needed, He followed through with His plan to save mankind. If He didn’t hesitate to sacrifice Jesus for us—a life of such immeasurable value we could never quantify—how can we think that God would withhold His best in any other area? It’s illogical to think that our loving Father would want us to be poor.

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32

Our heavenly Father is a good father. He takes care of us. He provides for us. God always pays His child support! Why? Because He loves us. He is honorable, He is trustworthy, He is good. That’s why He wants to make you rich.

 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

 This is probably the most famous verse in the Bible, used most often to teach about the salvation Jesus provided us.

Yet, here it highlights God as a giver. He loved us so much that He gave—and not just something valuable, but His most scandalously valuable possession: Jesus. Abraham offering Isaac to the Lord as a sacrifice was foreshadowing the time when God would not withhold the Promised Child. Jesus was sacrificed as an offering to atone for the sin of the world.

God is your provider, and He loves providing for you.

Trust in God

Often in our lives, my wife, Carlie, and I have needed to place our faith in God as our provider. One instance happened when we began attending Bible college.

 To make it happen, I had to give up my job, and we had to move our family across the country to a town we’d never even visited. Once we started Bible college, we both had school tuition, as well as tuition for our three kids who were still small. With both of us going to school, I knew I wouldn’t be able to work a full-time job. So, we had to rest in Philippians 4:19: “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

If you don’t see God as your provider, it’s going to be hard to step out in faith when God calls you to do things. When He tells you to “leave” something or “go” somewhere, you’re going to struggle to be obedient if you do not understand that God will supply your needs.

That doesn’t mean you sit in your prayer closet, pray, and then do nothing. In faith, you will have to put your hands to something. But when you do, He will bless the work of your hands.

 Provision Already Made

This was exactly where we were when Carlie and I started Bible college. We had tuition to pay for both us and our kids, and no one to rely on but God. Even our church leadership warned us not to do it, telling us we’d run out of money. But we had a word from God to go. So, in faith, we went.

After two months of starting Bible college, we’d reached our financial limit. We were at the end of our overdraft protection, no more extensions, no more credit, and no money. We knew something wasn’t right. I remember telling God, “We are following Your will, but something is wrong here.”

Here’s where the grace of God comes in. I mistakenly thought that if I was going to school to be a full-time minister, the material things would just come. I was leaning on 1 Corinthians 9:11: “If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?” I thought money would just fall on us, good measure, pressed down, and overflowing. I had it in my head people would just hand over cash; that I’d be walking down the street, and they’d throw checks at me. It was going to be awesome! So, I didn’t work. I didn’t put my hands to anything, even though I could have.

So, there we were. Two months into Bible college, me not working, rent due, and bills piling up. No more credit. Nothing.

And even though my thinking was incorrect, God’s grace still showed up.

I knew God was a good provider, but there was a piece missing. So, Carlie and I prayed. We told him, “Lord, we’ve got two days to go. We know You’re not usually early, but if You could be on time, that would be really great.”

Around this time, Carlie was at home one day praying about our situation. She put on some worship music and started vacuuming the house. While she was talking to God and running the vacuum, she heard the Lord say, “I’ve already provided for you. It’s in your house, and it’s in your hand.”

She got so excited, she called me and said, “The Lord is going to provide!”

I told her, “Amen. Yes, He is.” But our circumstances still hadn’t changed.

Then, God moved.

 While Carlie was vacuuming—running that machine around more vigorously now because she knew God would provide and she didn’t need to fear—she hit the baseboard near the front door and an envelope slid out.

 In England, the letter box is in the door. You don’t remove your mail from a mailbox. The postman slides it straight into your house through that mail slot. While Carlie was vacuuming, she hit the baseboard, and the force dislodged an envelope that had gotten stuck inside the wall cavity. Inside the envelope was a check, dated two months earlier, that covered all our bills with enough left over to cover a couple months of living expenses!

Prior to this, we had cashed in an insurance policy to pay for our tuition for the year. It had been sent but had gotten lost under the baseboard. God had already provided, but we couldn’t see it, even though it had been inside our home the entire time. We’d walked by our provision every day and never even knew it was there.

The Lord will provide for you. Even when you’re not perfect. Even when you aren’t getting it all right. If your heart is right and you’re seeking Him, you can stand on the Word, and God will provide.

God Knows Your Needs

Your heavenly Father loves you. He wants you to look to Him as your source for all things, including your financial health.

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:31-33

God knows you need a place to live, clothes to wear, and food to eat. He understands that you will need financial help to fulfill His calling on your life, like school tuition or funding for missions. Jesus is saying here that if you place God first, make Him your priority, all these things will be given to you!

However, it doesn’t come by doing nothing. That’s the part I had misunderstood. Faith in God’s Word results in outward action. God is calling you to put your hand to something. To work. Then He will bless that effort. He is Jehovah Jireh, and He will provide.

The only way you can mess it up is by wrong thinking, like I did. I sat there and did nothing. I put my hands to nothing. If I had, we wouldn’t have gotten into such a dire financial situation. God will provide, but you must be working so He can bless the work of your hands.

You do your part and, even though you don’t see the provision yet, you can trust it is there. God is faithful. Your provision is already in your hand. You just might need to vacuum to find it!

 He Is Able

 One thing I really love about God is how He can take the mistakes we have made and completely redeem them. That is really comforting when you know you’ve made a foolish financial decision!

In 2 Chronicles, we read the story of King Amaziah of Judah. At this time, the two tribes of Judah were separated from the ten tribes of Israel. The ten tribes had fallen deeply into idolatry, whereas Judah continued to worship God. Judah was gearing up for war against Edom, so King Amaziah began to prepare.

He organized his own army of three hundred thousand men, but then he also hired one hundred thousand soldiers from Israel at the price of one hundred talents of silver. In today’s currency, that would be approximately two million dollars.

 But a man of God came to him, saying, “Oh king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—not with any of the children of Ephraim. But if you go, be gone! Be strong in battle! Even so, God shall make you fall before the enemy; for God has power to help and to overthrow.” 2 Chronicles 25:7-8

 Apparently, Amaziah felt that in the natural, his army of three hundred thousand men wasn’t enough to win the coming war. So, he spent millions of dollars to hire troops from Israel to help. But this prophet was telling him not to use those troops because, since God was not in support of Israel and their idolatry, they would cause him to fail.

 But this posed quite the dilemma to King Amaziah. If this was true, he had just wasted two million dollars! Bye-bye, millions. Right down the proverbial toilet.

Then Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the troops of Israel?” And the man of God answered, “The Lord is able to give you much more than this.” 2 Chronicles 25:9 (emphasis added)

 If you can get this, it will change your life. Even when we make foolish decisions, God is bigger than our mistakes!

When I was in Bible school in England, I looked into different ways of making extra money, and I decided to invest in the foreign currency exchange (Forex). I was buying and selling, and made and lost money at different points throughout the years.

One day, I woke up in the morning and was horrified to see that the market had completely tanked overnight! I put my head in my hands and groaned.

 My son asked me, “Dad is that good or bad?”

 I said, “Son, tell Mum to pray!” I lost so much money. It wasn’t just a small loss—it was devastating! I decided to stop trading because it was just too risky.

However, thankfully, God works behind the scenes on our behalf, even when we can’t see it. When I closed out the accounts, due to the fluctuations in the market over those two years, and converting to a new currency, I ended up coming out with a small increase! I didn’t lose a penny, and I believe that was God doing a supernatural thing to cover my mistake.

Through the years, I’ve made different investments, and I have investment accounts. One specific mutual fund I had was set up to receive automatic deposits on a regular basis.

Well, during the first stages of the coronavirus pandemic, the stock market had experienced some serious losses. So, Carlie and I pulled up our accounts to see how badly our investment in this particular mutual fund had tanked.

Instead, we found something totally unexpected.

What we hadn’t realized is that this investment had a twostep process. Step one was transferring the funds from our bank to the investment services company. However, there was a second step we weren’t aware of. This was where it required us to click another button to take the money from the investment service account and actually purchase shares in the mutual fund.

All the money we had been having automatically transferred was there in the account, but it had never been used to purchase the shares. So, we found ourselves in a perfect position to take the money that had accrued over time and invest it all, right when the market was almost at its lowest!

 By the time the market began to recover, we had doubled our investment! Instead of losing money, as we had expected, we doubled our money instead.

Since my foray into Forex, our family and ministry have increased beyond our wildest imaginations, and this particular situation during the coronavirus market crash was one where God handled it to restore what had been lost in the past. He used what in the natural world was a horrible circumstance to bring us incredible increase.

 So, be encouraged: even when we make mistakes, God is able to give us much more than this!

Just to be clear, risk is an inherent part of doing business. Just because you lose money, it doesn’t mean that God wasn’t with you. The good news is that God can cover and recover it!

More Than Enough

God doesn’t provide for us in a way that is just barely enough. He always supplies more than enough, in excess. He doesn’t want us to barely get by; He wants us to have an abundance!

 Consider what Jesus did for the 5,000—probably big, strong, hungry men, plus women and children. There were likely at least 10,000 people in attendance, including women and children. Yet, Jesus took what was available—five loaves and two fish—and multiplied it until everyone had eaten until they were full, and there were twelve baskets of food left over. There was more than enough.

That’s what God always does. Jesus’ sacrifice was more than enough. He paid for the sins of the whole world. When He gave His life, He oversupplied. There’s never a shortage with Jesus.

 A pastor friend of mine once told me, “Whenever you host an event, especially if you invite the lost, never run out of food. God’s very nature is about having an abundance, so put out more than enough food.” Jesus is never going to lay out a spread, invite others, and then run out of food. What He provides is always overflowing!

Not everyone is going to agree with this view. Even my pastor friend received flak from his elders when there was food left over after their events. However, he told them, “I’d much rather have too much because it’s representative of who God is.”

 That’s God’s very nature—abundance. He’s not the god of poverty or the god of lack. He is El Shaddai—the many breasted one—the God of more than enough!