He Takes Care Part IV



It is hard you see a leader to say: I am a follower of the prosperity doctrine. But what classifies a leader as sympathizer, an adherent or someone taking advantage of the fronts of this theology is mainly his or her practices, which will be the parameters to determine the extent he or she is supporting what the prosperity doctrine proposes. Among these practices is the tolerance to preachers who come to the local church emphasizing actions and practices originated from the prosperity doctrine, such as:

1- What determines prosperity is giving (to give the tithe, for stance); prosperity will come to those that give even they do not practice justice in their lives (this is the secret to prosperity, they say, based on Malachi 03); material prosperity is not in a righteous life, prayer, in being spiritual along with giving, but uniquely in giving money.
This kind of teaching helps to create believers without responsibility concerning the truth and spiritually; it helps to create worldly believers with little compassion for those who have less.

2- You have to determine and declare in order to make things come true. This kind of affirmation comes from the positivist confession which is part of the prosperity doctrine, which defends that our words can be materialized as the let there be of God was materialized during the creation. (By the way, arguments of quantum physics are being used to sustain ideas that our words can be materialized. In my point of view, believers will hear more and more about these ideas. Quantum physics will be used in an attempt to persuade believers that they can have what they want – THIS MATTER OF QUANTUM PHYSICS WILL BE DISCUSSED IN TEXTS I WILL POST AHEAD).

3- Tying the blessing to money offers at meetings specifically designed to receive blessings.
Bring your prayer request and propose to give 50, 20 or 10 dollars (not to use higher figures) and God will give you your blessing.

They are preachers who go easily and amazingly deep into God’s mind to know who God is going to bless.

Our lives should not be measured by what we have; the world already do this. The church has to have a different message for those who come in it, a message that can bring and give something different of what we find outside the church in our every day life, in our struggle for living, a message that can help us leave the church more human and more confident than when we entered it, and so through mercy, love, peace, through communion with God, abandoning sin, we can make the difference, in someway, to somebody.
It was never so necessary to be alert, watchful and steadfast concerning what the gospel really proposes to us, that is, we depending on Him, being in Him and living for Him, because He has taken care of us.

Believers matured under the circumstances of the message of the cross can discern and then they stay within the boundaries of which was revealed to them through the scriptures and they take what Paul said to the Corinthians seriously: …that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written … (1Co 4.6).
Also David Wilkerson, founder of the Teen Challenge (center of rehabilitation of drug addicted teenagers) after which the other centers existing around the world were inspired, in one of his teachings in Times Square Church, in New York, speaking about the gospel of prosperity said:

The mark of a mature believer is a refusal to be "tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine..." (Ephesians 4:14). Such believers cannot be manipulated by any teacher. They don't need to run around because they are growing up in Christ. They are feasting in green pastures. They have circumcised their ears, and they measure every teacher, every doctrine, by how much it conforms to Christ's holiness. They can discern all doctrines that are false, and they are repulsed by all the strange, new teachings. They have learned Christ. They will not be held by music, friends, personalities or miracles, but by a hunger for the pure Word.
http://www.tscpulpitseries.org/english/1980s/ts880118.html

Incentive for possessing properties based on losing inner qualities of the being, can create and accumulate poors within the church, not poors in the sense of holding tightly and not giving, but in the sense of having palpable, tangible things as their main objectives in their lives . Concerning this, Jesus recommended: "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses" (Lucas 12.15).

If he has taken care of us, this is enough for us. The gospel is sufficient in our lives to supply us with which we need, there is no necessity of artifices, secrets, especial revelations; it is all very simple, it is the good news that Christ brought to us, nothing mysterious, nothing that everybody can not understand, it is not in the depths but it is on the surface, it is all very clear. This is what the apostle John in his first letter, chapter 5 and verse 14, teaches: Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Observe that the expressions this is the confidence / that we have are at a verbal tense, real present, which denotes factuality (certainty, reality, something that happens), showing that indeed He takes care of us. On the other hand, his care is according to his desire and not ours, which can be understood in the second part of the verse that states a condition in God’s caring of us: God’s will is manifested according to our petition nature and our petition has to be within God’s condition.
Thus:
That we have to have confidence in Him, it is unquestionable (without faith nobody can please God, Hebrew 11.6 *).
That He takes care of us is a truth Jesus stated and the contrary would be to say that the gospel is a lie, a farce.
That He knows what is better for us is something that we have do accept.
This is faith. It is to believe in the invisible hand of God guiding us. It is to rest in Him, it is not moving desperately to and fro for God’s favor, it doesn’t matter the price.


* This verse, before referring to the possibility of the occurrence of any sign (cure, gifts, prosperity) refers to the belief that God exists, that He is real, and in second place, only in second place, it refers to the fact that He is rewarder – because it belongs to God’s nature to bless. Thus, the true faith comes from the conviction that He is real; the results (the rewards) are consequence of this. The second aspect, according to the Bible, does not precede the first one; who put it first is trying to confirm God’s word to men’s theories, to self-interest, to the sight of those who walk based on what they see only.

Let’s think about this!

José Martins