The Prosperity Deception

By: Wendy Duckworth Vance

“For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires” 2 Timothy 4:3. How true and accurate prophesy is; we have to look neither far nor with much diligence to see its fulfillment. It seems that in our modern times we have no appetite for what is true but rather we seem to crave that which makes us feel good, that which brings glory to ourselves and makes us look good in the eyes of men. It often feels as if we are going to the House of the Lord to get some sort of spiritual high or to fulfill a duty that is on the list of things that we must do in order to receive His blessing. Some call it “working the Word” and say that if you will just follow this formula, claim this or that promise from the Bible, or any number of phrases that say if you do xyz then God owes you and therefore must and will bless you. The objective of worship has become about being wealthier, healthier, more powerful, more honored rather than glorifying Holy God who is creator of everything, the One who gives you each breath, who poured Himself out on the cross for you so that you could be forgiven and free. Rather we are told to call for the “miracle spring water” or put a $1000 seed offering in the collection plate because this will grant some sort of special blessing status.

Of course, it is all packed in beautiful, brightly colored wrapping that says all of this is for your benefit because how could anyone who is poor, sick, have a disability, or have anything bad happen to them if you are an actual child of God. You must have the trappings – the car, the big house, the super high paying job, complete health to show the world that you are blessed. If you somehow do not have the trappings, if your health isn’t perfect then you must not be “working the Word” correctly, you just haven’t gotten the formula correct, you don’t have the correct sheep, goat or dove. According to the ones who propagate this message, God doesn’t want you to suffer, to be poor, in fact, He wants you to have that house or car you can’t afford because you are princes and princesses in the Kingdom of God so you must look the part. And of course, if you will follow the prosperity formula that they say is prescribed by the Bible then you will have all of these things – you will have a perfect, easy, breezy life.

Now, please understand me, I am not saying that God does not heal people, that He doesn’t bless people financially because He does do these things, the evidence of this is throughout the Bible in the lives of men and women of God that we read about in its pages. Further Yeshua (Jesus) tells us that our requests in His name will be answered, “ If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” John 14:14. It would be outside the character of God to do anything less than fulfilling His Word. But I think it is important to ask, what is the context of this promise of Yeshua? If you look at the verses above Yeshua says “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” John 14:12-13 (emphasis added). Not that He would be glorified, not that the person doing the praying would be glorified or showered with gifts or blessings. Yeshua is not telling us to toss our prayer coin into the divine wishing well or to rub the lamp a certain way so that you too can receive your three wishes. The context of these verses is related to belief in Him, belief in the works of God and continuing the works that Yeshua did while on Earth for the purpose of glorifying God.

Everything Yeshua did was about glorifying God, not himself or man. In fact, He admonished the religious leaders of His time for trying to “look the part” of being “blessed” or glorifying themselves. “All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed” Matthew 23:5-7. Yeshua continues through verse 32 telling the crowds about the hypocrisy of going around showing how blessed, perfect and righteous a person is for the benefit of other men to look upon and the hypocrisy of looking at the things of this world like gold rather than giving glory to God who actually deserves the glory. He also admonishes the leaders for heaping on extra rules or formulas on the people of God for the purpose of obtaining blessing. “They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them” Matthew 23:4. And so today the same occurs as the prosperity deception proliferates within the church.

We are taught that” if you just pray this way, call on this promise and that promise, if you sprinkle this water on your bills, if you pay this money, you will be blessed. You will have the trappings of being blessed so that men can see that God is with you, that He is blessing you. Conversely, that if you are in the church and you do not have these outward signs or if you are sick, then you are not blessed, you are not a child of God, you haven’t prayed the right way, you haven’t prayed hard enough – you just don’t have God’s prosperity formula. And in our quest to achieve earthly blessings we abandon the truth of the gospel, which is that God wants our hearts, He wants a relationship with His children. He wants us to worship Him, to serve others rather than being served, to understand that our wealth, our real life is not of this world. Yes, we will walk again, see again, have no more pain, no more tears, have a crown as a child of the King. It just may not be so in this life and in the life to come it will not matter, for what do these temporal things matter in the presence of His love, glory and righteousness. Do you not understand, our crowns are not ours to keep but to throw at the feet of Yeshua in thanksgiving for all that He did for us, for He is worthy, He is the lamb of God who gave His life that we could have eternal life.

So today, you are invited to lay down any idea that says that you are not worthy, that you are not a child of God because you do not appear to be blessed in the eyes of men because of finances, illness, past failings, or life tragedy. There is no magic formula, God cannot be manipulated by us “working the Word”. God has a plan for each of us that will bring glory to His name. That plan may involve healing or material blessings, or it may not, but neither circumstances makes you any more or less loved by God, nor are you less blessed. Forget about what the world thinks of you or what the world or a prosperity teacher says that it looks like to be blessed and rest in the knowledge that the One who created you wants to spend all of eternity with you. He gave His life so you can have eternal life with Him not because of anything you have done or on the basis of a prosperity formula but rather because He is God, He loves you and He is coming again soon to claim His own. In all that you do, do it for His glory for His salvation is all the prosperity we need.