I have seen a man whom the Lord has blessed. He became wealthy and loved not the wife of his youth. He impregnated many ladies even in his Church, and though the ladies received suspension, he was untouchable for his riches. He had blinded the Church leaders with his wealth, and men who once swore to defend God couldn’t put him away; this saddened my God.
One question I would ask myself is; What if he remained as he was or just slightly blessed, would he have forgotten God? What if all his prayers to become rich and prosperous were ignored by God, would he have despised God with his wealth?
There are Church people who have not understood that God will only bless those who have something doing, I write not unto them.
For it is written, “The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands (Deuteronomy 28:12)”. So, God expects us to have something doing and then he will bless and prosper it. Amen!
Is there any man among you who asks himself these questions?
1. Why are many in the Church impoverished? Why does it seems like the Lord God is too slow to bless his people?
2. We pay tithes and offerings from our incomes, why are the windows of heaven not open, and flood of blessing are yet come to us; as it was promised in Malachi 3:10
3. Why do we give so much seeds, offerings and contribution to Church growth campaigns and other projects, but our seeds are not yielding the crop of blessings we desire?
4. There are many of us who can pray and tarry on God. Why does the blessings not come after our praying? Why does it seem like those who pray less are more blessed than those who pray more?
5. Oh! I love it when pastors and Church leaders bless the congregation and say “Your pocket shall not run dry“, “You shall never lack”; and the Church will echo, “Amen!”
I have only wished that this is what it takes to pull down the blessings of God. But then, I see many people remain the way they are in spite of these religious exercises.
How many prophetic declarations have we received? Do we never run dry? Are we ever as prosperous as the blessings declared on the pulpit every Sunday?
Many of us buy yearly stickers from men of God and place it on our door post. The sticker could read “My difficulties is over“, but difficulties don’t stop because of stickers; you know it, I know it.
6. When you go to a Church where they care less about holiness and heaven, it is very easy to find many wealthy men and women, but go to a spiritual Church full of heavenly minded people, and it will seem as if God delights in our poverty. Why is it so?
Yes! We know that in a Church where holiness, separation and consecration to God are not the watch words, people can engage in anything wicked just to make wealth. For this we shall not use them as a case to study our misfortunes as to why God may not be blessing us.
Why are we not being blessed? Is it God’s will for his people to be poor and retched? No I don’t believe that.
I believe that it is the will of God for his people to be able to live a life of fulfilment even if they are not rich or wealthy. I also believe that there are men among us whom God will make rich by giving them the power and wisdom to make wealth. And I believe that by virtue of God’s wisdom and omniscience, not all Church people will be rich. Riches itself has snared many people and led them to destruction; this is the truth.
The first thing we must know as Christians is that God is more interested in saving us than he is, in giving us a life of merriment on earth. God is much more interested in helping us to reach heaven than He is, in giving us a fulfilling life on earth.
And because God is more concerned in giving us eternal life, he does not mind allowing hard times befall on us, to teach us humility. He does not mind allowing troubles and battles to come on our way, to keep us awake and running, lest we become relaxed and fall away in coldness. But these hard times will not last if we are quick to learn, confirm and develop into what we ought to be.
A friend of mine once said “Thank God for hard times that make us remember God“. Surly, wisdom has taught him that men are prone to forgetting God when the road becomes rosy and the paths smooth.
This message is for a Christian man who is not lazy or idle. A man who has business or job and is waiting for God to bless him through his daily hustle.
In my exposure to God, I have come to realize that praying and fasting for blessing is good, but it is not the way for us to be blessed by God.
I went to God for blessings and I got no reply; but as soon as I got up and left, He spoke to me and said, “This is not the prayer you should be making“. It was then I understood that my prayer for blessings is not what God was looking for.
Let me shock some of my readers. Although seed sowing and bountiful giving attracts God’s favor, it is not truly how to be blessed by God. It is just a tiny part of the whole mystery of God’s blessings.
A prophecy went out that God was going to bless a particular Church. One Sunday the preacher recounted her ordeal as she prepared her sermon. She said the Lord had told her to preach, asking the Church if they were ready for the blessings he was going to pour upon them.
It was never about sowing seeds, it was never about the prophetic declarations they had received some weeks back, it wasn’t even their seeds. Yes I knew they had been praying for blessings and working for God, but when God answered their cry and decided to bless them, the blessings lied on their preparedness to be blessed.
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So, man of God tell us what God is expecting from us.
People of my God, it is quite true that the time will come, even now; that people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear(2 Timothy 4:3-5). But let that man whom God has granted wisdom and understanding learn from these scriptures:
1. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land. –Isaiah 1:19
2. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. -Psalm 84:11
3. Humble yourselves, then, under God’s mighty hand, so that he will lift you up in his own good time. -1 Peter 5:6
4. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. –James 4:10
5. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. -Matthew 6:33
6. Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. -Psalms 1–3
7. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shall mediate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. -Joshua 1:8
8. Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. Isaiah 59:1-2
Form the scriptures above, we can all agree to one thing: to God’s blessings, there is more than prayer, fasting, benevolent giving, seeding, prophetic declarations, tithing and blessings from men of God.
For if a man is a tither, but is also a wicked man and God blesses him, he shall behave more wickedly than the man who did evil of which I told his story in the second paragraph of this article. And the riches of God shall become a snare to his own soul. Howbeit, this is a God who is after saving our souls more than giving us riches.
If God blesses a man who has not been sanctified against foolish pride and haughtiness, a man who has not known his word and the way to Spirit living, his riches shall deceive him and he shall become a problem to God, a problem to the Church, and a problem to himself, and of which he is likely to perish.
If God prospers our honest efforts while we waste in lack knowledge of whom God is, we shall be like a Child exposed to a gun with which he can harm himself.
If we don’t well-up to God’s demands from a Christian man, and we have all the blessings, we shall be like a child given a shoe too big for him. The shoe becomes a hindrance to the activities of the Child, and could cause him to stumble many times.
Therefore brethren, the foundation of God is true, and the standard of God is plainly inscribed unto us saying; “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you“.
God desires that we well-up to a standard for His blessings to come to us. He desires that we grow into his abundant providence through sanctification and maturity of heart.
A man who knows the word of God, who is full of God’s spirit and guidance, who has also known the laws of the Spirit, is in a better position to handle bigger riches than a Christian still unachieved of God’s word and taming.
A man who has understood the place of God in a man’s life, and himself has made God his number one, is more likely not to pan left or right when he sees riches and open doors. Even also, a godly man full of contentment can manage bigger resource.
These are the primary things God looks at before he chooses to bless a Christian man with clean blessing and good success. Not the blessing wherein many have soiled their hands with deceitful scales and lies, and would claim that God has blessed them.
When God sees that we are not wanting in his knowledge, His Spirit, in humility, in full obedience, in fear of God, in an active Christian life, in firm relationship with Him, in sanctification, secondary things like prayer, tithing, prophecy, giving, seeding, declarations and the rest, will be effective on us.
But many Church people do not want to serve God with all their hearts. They don’t want to humble themselves and learn from God. They don’t care about the word of God, they don’t care about observing to do it. All they care is that they are part of the Church and therefore they need God’s blessings.
And so they pray through the year and the blessings does not come. They fast until they become sicky, and yet they are empty of blessings. The prophetic declarations don’t work on them. They sow seeds until they become dry of what to give. They give tithes until they find it hard to tithe. They remain at a particular level void of blessings. And when they get frustrated, they eventually soil their hands in order to make riches. Whereby God has been waiting for them to well-up to Him and His blessings.
