Wounding Waters, Part I: Love of Money 3:3

Wounding Waters, Part I: Love of Money 3:3

September 28, 2013

I was once called into travail in intercession for a very famous TV minister. After about the third hour in prayer, the Lord stopped me, and He made me to understand that this man, and men like him - evangelists and teachers like him who lead a very wealthy lifestyle with villas, private planes, expensive cars, chauffeurs, and bodyguards -- bring this mentality with them when they visit poor, innocent, developing countries and their people. Their first introduction to Christianity is "Become a Christian, become rich! Look at this! I get an anointing for healing, or teaching, and I can be rich! I can fly around the world and teach. I can have villas! I can have houses! I can have expensive clothing!"

The Lord stopped me after about the third hour, and I felt so nauseated that I knew that I had to go to the bathroom to throw up. I felt so grieved over how the Holy Spirit felt over this situation; presenting Christianity in this light, as an affluent, prosperous, money-making, financial gain, status-building thing! What kind of example are we giving? Hollywood actors or holy Christians? Goodness! The Lord was born in a stable and buried in a borrowed tomb!

This man, and many like him, have been surrounded by scandals and divorce, and the Scriptures say,

Better a little, with a fear of the Lord, than great wealth with turmoil.

Very often, people who have a lot of money don't get any rest or peace from it. Their children fight over it. It doesn't make life better in a lot of ways; it stresses a life out. Paul talks about the evil effects of focusing on money and gain. He says, in First Timothy,

...People who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

This is what I'm talking about. That's abhorrent to the Lord!

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil; and some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all of this and pursue righteousness, Godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. I Tim. 6:10

Pursue these things. That is the life the Lord came to give us. That's the abundant life. Not a life filled with things!

I want to give you my final example of how this kind of corruption can affect the Body on a large scale. Let's consider the situation of a wealthy man who joins a church. He really likes the pastor, the teachings; he likes everything about it. So, he becomes an established member of this church. He starts telling his friends about it, and they join, and he gets a little group together after, perhaps, three, four, or five years.

There are now several very wealthy people in the church that have formed a little group. They're all friends, and they hang out together, and they form an elite but powerful clique in this church. Their tithes have enabled the pastor to live a more prosperous life - to have a nice house, a nice car - because they are big tithers. The pastor is even able to make plans for his children to have a better education.

Now the church has become so popular that they want to have a building project, so they begin that and break ground for a new sanctuary. One morning the pastor is in prayer before service, and the Lord convicts him of something; so he sets aside the sermon he was going to preach, and he teaches on what he was convicted of. He shares this story with the congregation, and there's an altar call and a lot of repentance and people come forward. But the small, elite group didn't like that message.

They invite the pastor out to lunch afterward, and they have a little talk with him. They tell him, "You know, I don't think that's really something that you should be dwelling on and preaching about. That's really not that important, and it's just not a good idea to be preaching on that topic. I think you should be focused more on other things, like missions, and so on and so forth."

So, what are the options that this pastor has? Toe the party line, or watch the tithes walk out the door! No one should be put under this kind of pressure. The repercussions of this issue are that if he loses this wealthy group of men, he can forget the building project, the nice house, the nice car, etc., because he'll be going back to a much more modest living as a pastor. This is how we get entangled in the world. We spot our garments, we develop blemishes; we wrinkle our garments with these entanglements. They put us in precarious situations where our integrity is on the line. We should not have to worry about taking care of our family and not offending a certain group of tithers in the church! There should not be that kind of a struggle going on. How do you avoid something like that?

Here is where I want to bring up the good example. I want to talk about Heidi and Roland Baker. I may not have all of the facts exactly in line, but I do want to share what I do know about them. Heidi went to Ontario, to the Airport Church, and got slain in the Spirit and knocked off her horse for three days. She was so heavy that they had trouble picking her up and moving her out of the church and taking her to the hotel. She just couldn't move!

Now, they are both highly educated. She has several degrees. And she'd been laboring with Roland in Africa for about a decade, working very hard, and she has only a handful of churches to show for all the hard work that she has done. Well, when she was knocked out, the Spirit of the Lord took over and started doing some things with her. She comes back up out of that, and she starts sharing with people about all of the wonderful things that happened there and about the Toronto blessing.

The people who were backing her were ultra-conservative. They heard about this, and they were very unhappy about it. They gave her an ultimatum: "You go there, and you talk about that - and we're not going to support you." Well, Heidi had plans for orphanages and all kinds of things back in Africa. She was coming to the States, but she was planning to return to Africa and get these orphanages built and help a lot of people. And, all of a sudden, the people supporting her said, "We're not going to back you anymore, if you endorse the Toronto blessing, because we don't believe it's of God."

That didn't bother Heidi! She knows who her Maker is; she knows who she serves. She completely ignores them, at the risk of returning to Africa and abject poverty and not being able to do anything. She knows her God will provide for her! She ignores them, and she endorses the Toronto blessing; many other people are later blessed, because of this. She returns to Africa, and the Lord uses her to spearhead the greatest ministry that has ever been on this Earth, as far as how many souls have been saved! In the history of the world, no one has had as much of an effect on saving souls as Heidi and Roland Baker have! Without the backing of the wealthy people that didn't approve of the Toronto blessing.

That is how we need to handle these things! There is absolutely no comparison between God and the wealthy. We have to stand up for what's right and not compromise; and it means that if we don't have an airplane ticket back to Africa - that He has to bi-locate us or put us on the "slow boat" - it doesn't matter. God is going to bring great fruit out of that, because you were faithful.

I love First Timothy 6:17

Commend those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant; nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain; but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Our enjoyment doesn't come from expensive meals, fine dining, traveling, and seeing the sights, going to shows or concerts, or anything of that nature. Heidi's enjoyment comes from seeing the fruit of the Spirit, or the fruit of her labors; from seeing all of these children being born into the Kingdom of God. That's where her enjoyment comes from! And if that's where our enjoyment comes from, then we won't be swayed by these compromises. We won't give in to them. We'll be able to keep right on going and say, "Bye, bye!"

Now, I'd like to talk about the standards and the qualifications of Christian ministers. What do the Scriptures say a pastor is supposed to be like? In First Timothy 3:1 Paul says,

Here is a trustworthy saying: whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now, the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money.

Do you realize what Paul has just said here? Paul has just said that being quarrelsome, being given to drunkenness, being unfaithful to his wife, is being equal with being a lover of money. That's how important this is! I've discussed with you four or five examples of how this corruptions affects the Body of Christ. It prevents people from coming into their full anointings, because they're not of the "right" social status. It cuts off prophetic movements. It cuts off all kinds of things because of appearances; because of social status and money. We'll talk more about social status in our next teaching.

This is really revealing! Paul is saying that being unfaithful to your wife is a major thing. And he is putting a "lover of money" on equal footing with that! He is categorizing that as a serious sin. He is saying that an overseer that loves money should not be an overseer! How stark are the words of Paul, wherein he says,

But Godliness with contentment is great gain. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. I Tim. 6:6

My goodness!

Those who want to get rich, fall into temptation, and into a trap, and into many, many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. You cannot serve both money and the Lord. Sooner or later He will put you to the test. I Tim. 6:9

He'll put you to the test to see where your loyalties lie. He's going to sift you. He is going to find out whom you are really serving. Are you serving yourself, because you want to be wealthy and prosperous and look good to the community? Or, are you serving the Lord, and you don't care what you look like to the community, as long as your Lord is happy with you?

When I look at the example that says, "If we have food and clothing, we'll be content with that," I think, 'Oh, my goodness! How many people in our culture would be content with food and clothing? That's not even mentioning a roof over your head or a hot shower!'

Paul is talking about some pretty basic standards here. I'm not saying that we should be that primitive, but I am saying that all of these other entanglements that we get ourselves into, to conform and to look good, are very destructive and not pleasing to the Lord at all; and they prevent you from growing spiritually. I struggled with these things for years! And the Lord showed me how much He could have done, if I had abandoned these things much earlier in my life.

In the end, we're going to be judged on what we did and what we failed to do, and we're going to face calamity and judgment. The Lord warns us, in Ezekiel, what that looks like.

In Ezekiel 7:19

They will throw their silver into the streets; their gold will be treated as a thing unclean. Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord's wrath. It will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs, for it has caused them to stumble into sin.

Christian people, Christian leaders, and Christian pastors don't pursue money and wealth and that image, and they don't teach their people to do that. Teach your people to be totally 100% devoted to the Lord, without compromising. Teach them simple standards of living; teach them important things, and teach them to cleave to those things with all their hearts. So much depends upon that!

I want to say, please. Rethink your priorities! Please rethink your priorities and what's being taught to and modeled for people. Look at the kind of example that you are setting, and the kind of example that the elders are setting. Don't elevate people that have money and put them on a pedestal; don't talk about how wonderful they are, because they have money. That's the way the world talks.

If you've done those things, search your heart; go before the Lord and ask Him - beg Him - to show you the way, since you've compromised, and you've taught that compromise to other people. Repent for that, and ask Him to forgive you.

This message is coming with the grace to change. It's here before you, if you are willing to look at these dark places in your heart and to give them up, so that you can be 100% 'sold out' for Jesus, and for His Kingdom, and for His agenda right now. The Lord is with you, and He is going to give you the grace to repent and to turn your life around. This way you can show the world what it really means to be a Christian.

God bless you.

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