Daily Rhema: Riches and Godliness

Proverbs 13:7 NKJV
There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches.

It is the PERFECT will of God for us to be rich: financially and materially!
This is because God loves us as His children and wants us to have the good things of this life; and also, the Lord Jesus paid the price for us to be rich (Matt. 7:11; Isa. 53:4-5).

Moreover, God knows that we need great wealth to establish His covenant on the earth and disciple the nations (Dt. 8:18; Matt. 24:14).

God’s definition of rich is to ALWAYS have ALL sufficiency in ALL things so as to be able to lend to ALL nations (2Cor. 9:8; Deut. 28:11-12).

Now, not even the richest men in the world as at today are this rich. They cannot afford to lend (they can lend to a few but not to many or all) to ALL nations; doing so would bankrupt them.

Why then hasn’t the Church not yet entered this level of prosperity?

Great riches will ONLY come with great godliness (1Tim.4:8): God-like in nature, character, wisdom and ability.

God will not give us great riches, if we have not removed the sin-nature from our souls and bodies. In other words, we must first enter into the ‘promised land of the perfection and fullness of Christ (Deut. 28:8).

We cannot be trusted with great riches IF the sin-nature is still present and dominant in our souls: wills, minds and emotions and body (remember what happened to Solomon (1Kgs. 11:1-11)). Such great riches will tempt us to be independent of and rebel against God like Satan did (Ezek. 28:14-18).

If you try to be rich without developing great godliness, you will fall into Satan’s trap of covetousness and destruction (Prov. 28:20; Tim. 6:9-10).

This is why the Lord Jesus asked the rich young ruler to sell his possessions, give them to the poor and follow Him. The Lord wanted to FIRST strip him of his pride and confidence in his money, and then gradually over time, as he developed great godliness, make him 100 times richer than he was before in this lifetime (Pro. 18:11; Mk.10:17-30).

We become godly (LIKE GOD in character, wisdom and ability) by using the blood (Heb.13:20-21), the Word (1Jn. 2:5) and the Spirit (1Jn. 4:12-13) to operate the seven pillars of wisdom.

A very good example of a person who was trusted with great riches is Joseph. It is instructive to observe that Joseph was taken through years of preparation (about 22 years from age 17 to age 39), during which he developed the godly virtues of humility (Gen.41:16), wisdom (Gen.41:39), self-control (Gen.39:7-13; 41:45), love and forgiveness (Gen. 45.4-11; 50.15-21).

After fulfilling his purpose at the age of 39, Joseph spent the next 71 years of his life in pleasures and prosperity (Gen. 50:22, Job 36:11).
So let us copy Joseph’s example and inherit great riches by great godliness!

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