God's Will, The World, and The Prosperity Gospel
Recently I was at a small gathering at a friend’s house. My friend’s son is a very smart young man with a unique personality. I asked him what he had recently read in God’s Word, and he started to tell me how he had been reading about certain “prosperity preachers” on the internet. I knew where he was going with this so I responded, “I’m a prosperity preacher.” Without skipping a beat, he immediately replied, “Well, I guess you’ll be with them in hell.”
Ironically, and in completely unrelated circumstances, two of the people who were also at this gathering had recently listened to a particular sermon. In the sermon the minister was arguing against the “Prosperity Gospel”. My two friends asked me if I had heard the sermon and what I thought. I hadn’t heard the sermon so I watched it online. Because of our conversations, I had ideas about the sermon before I started listening. But I positioned my heart to be open and give the speaker the benefit of the doubt.
In the sermon the speaker briefly but forcefully spoke against what he called the “Prosperity Gospel” or the “Health and Wealth Gospel.” As his evidence he spoke about the devout Christians in third world countries, who are obviously neither wealthy nor healthy. While he didn’t say this directly, I believe it’s safe to describe his logic as this – if the Prosperity Gospel were accurate, they why are all those Christians neither healthy nor wealthy. To describe his logic another way, if the Prosperity Gospel were accurate, then all Christians, even in the worst places, would be healthy and wealthy.
What do you think of that logic? Doesn’t it make sense? Isn’t that the most common argument against the health and wealth Gospel? Personally, I don’t even need to look at the Christians in third world countries to understand that argument. There are lots of Christians right here in American, the richest nation on earth, who are neither healthy nor wealthy.
But if the health and wealth Gospel is wrong, which it would seem to be, what do we do with all those Biblical promises for financial and health blessings. Are those promises worthless? Does God not back up His Word? Is there some sort of spiritual lottery where some of the promises are applicable to some Christians and not others? Can we earn the promises? Is that how it works? If I’m good enough can I earn wealth or healing?
What about me? Everyone in my family is in great health. Sure, we have been attacked a few times. My wife was attacked with stage 4 cancer but she is completely healed and even off chemo now. I don’t believe we are in such health because we are lucky or perfect with our bodies. I believe we are in great health because of God’s promises and all He taught us when she got sick. And honestly, my financial position is pretty solid. I truly believe I have seen God’s financial blessings manifest in my life. At the beginning of 2021 God told me to make a few changes, and this has been my best financial year.
Did I win the spiritual lottery? Am I crazy to think that there is some relationship between God’s promises and what I am seeing in my own house? I don’t want to be prideful and think for an instant that I earned these blessings apart from God’s grace? So why don’t all Christians experience the healing and prosperity that I have.
My friends, this analysis creates all kinds of problems. But we are going to answer these problems today. Today, if you will listen to me, you will understand, and this understanding will change your life. Let me start with a few verses.
(Genesis 3:17-19 NLT) – “And to the man He said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.””
(Romans 5:12 NIV) – “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.”
To understand why there are so many people, indeed, so many Christians, who are sick and poor, we must first understand the causes of sickness and poverty. Sickness and poverty were nowhere to be found in the Garden of Eden. Sickness and poverty first became part of the human existence with sin.
God banished mankind from the Garden of Eden, and Adam was cursed to live a hard life of poverty until he died. Sickness, poverty, and death have been a part of the human existence ever since. I don’t think we even need to say more about that, it’s just the way it is.
In addition to the original curses of poverty and death, the story about the Garden of Eden also introduces us to the devil. Notice that Romans 5:12, above, tells us that all people have sinned and that sin entered the world. Now let’s look at the relationship between both the devil and people and the devil and the world.
(Ephesians 2:1-2 NLT) – “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil–the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.”
(2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT) – “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”
These are truly amazing statements. So in addition to the curses of poverty and death that we have because of sin in the Garden of Eden, we also have the devil to deal with. Please also note that these verses from Ephesians and 2 Corinthians are written to the Christian Church, after the resurrection of Christ.
The verse in Ephesians teaches us that the devil is still working in the hearts of people today. The devil is in fact the commander of the ungodly powers in the unseen world. He is the commander of demons. There are billions of people out there in the world living in sin, and this verse tells us that the devil is working in their hearts and they are obeying the devil.
Furthermore, 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that satan is the “god of this world.” Now in the Greek the word “world” is “eon” which refers to a period of time. God is the owner of planet earth and everything in it, but the devil rules this particular period of time. When you study this out, in the eyes of God, we have been in one particular period of time, or eon, from the fall of Adam all the way to present day. This eon will end with the return of Christ.
Isn’t this an amazing and terrible reality that the Bible reveals to us? The devil is the ruler of this period of time, and the devil is blinding the minds of unbelievers against Christ. Moreover, the devil is working in the hearts of sinners to do his evil will, and they are obeying him.
How can this be? If God is in control, and if God is controlling everything, and if nothing happens other than God’s will, how can those things be? Is everything the devil does in fact God’s will? Is all the sickness and disease out there God’s will?
What about these verses?
(1 Timothy 2:3-4 NIV) – “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
(2 Peter 3:9 NIV) – “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
If God wants everyone to be saved, and God controls everything, then why isn’t everyone saved?
What about the rest of God’s will?
(John 10:9-10 NLT, Jesus speaking) – “Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through Me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”
It looks like Jesus wants everyone to have a rich and satisfying life. But what about all those Christians who are sick and broke? What about all those people who obviously don’t have a rich or satisfying life?
Can we say that Jesus’ will for them is a rich and satisfying life, but somehow God’s will is simultaneously a life of sickness and poverty?
And what about all of those promises for finances and healing that we see in the Bible? Are those worthless?
Here is an example of a financial promise from God to Christians.
(2 Corinthians 9:7-11 NIV) – “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
Here is an example of a healing promise from God to Christians.
(James 5:14-15 NIV) – “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”
So here we see a financial promise and a healing promise. These are both New Testament statements clearly directed at the Christian community at large. God’s will for my life can’t be poverty if he wants me out of it, and so much so that I can be so generous that it causes others to glorify God. God’s will for my life can’t be sickness if he shows me how to pray and get healed?
How can we reconcile all of this? How can God and Jesus have a will for someone’s life that is not showing up? How can there be so many unsaved people, and so many Christians without a rich and satisfying life, so many Christians in poverty and sickness? What is God’s will? Isn’t God in control?
Well my friends, there you have it. This is quite a situation isn’t it? How can we possibly understand all of this?
I am going to tell you the answer. You are probably not going to believe it, but it is the truth. It is in fact one of the great reconciling truths of the universe that helps the entire Bible make sense when we look at the world around us. It also helps the whole world make sense, and all that we see in reality. So just give me a few minutes, and hear me out.
God is not in control.
I know some of you are thinking this is heresy, that I’ve truly lost it. But just give me a few more minutes and then decide. I know that your entire life you have been taught that God is in control, and that somehow everything is part of God’s plan. But that’s just not the case. Every time something terrible happened in your life. Every time something terrible happens in the world. Every time someone hears about that and says, “Well, God is in control.” Or, “Well, God has a plan.” As if the terrible thing that just happened is God’s will and He’s going to work some good out of all of it. Those are lies from the pit of hell. Those are some of the worst lies the devil has ever spoken to mankind, and it has pervaded the world and done unimaginable damage.
The fact is that God is not in control of every aspect of reality at all times. God is not the great puppet master pulling every string of the universe constantly, directing everything, the good, the bad, and the horrible, all according to some mysterious and unknowable will. That is not reality.
The true nature of reality, the true description of the systems that exist, is well summed up by Colossians 1:13-14. Let’s start there, and then we can walk through the verses again and you will understand reality as maybe you never have before.
(Colossians 1:13-14 NIV) – “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
God created a beautiful planet and He put Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden. The devil influenced them, and they sinned. When they sinned, God cursed them with poverty and death. Moreover, they moved from the Kingdom of God into the dominion of darkness.
Sin passed from Adam and Eve to all mankind. Every child born is born with original sin. We are born into the dominion of darkness, and the dominion of darkness is run by the god of this eon, this period of time, satan.
Satan is ruling this period of time. Satan is influencing billions of people around the world, and they are obeying him. All of the sins around the world, all of the terrorism, the war, the slavery, the hatred, the greed, the human trafficking, the racism, all of it. All of it comes through sin. All of it comes from the devil’s influence on the people who are in the dominion of darkness. And don’t hate, because at one time that was you and me too. We played our part, I know that I did. But none of this is God’s will. God isn’t causing or controlling any of it.
Humans have free will. We are subject to influence. When the devil influences humans, they sin. Billions of humans sinning every day have created a world marked by sin, sickness and death. These parts of our reality are not God’s will. They are not God’s will for anyone else, and they are not God’s will for you. The dominion of darkness is alive and well, and it can be seen throughout the world.
(Colossians 1:13-14 NIV) – “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you receive the forgiveness of sins and redemption. You also are removed from the devil’s dominion and you are brought into the Kingdom of God. These things are true for every Christian. They are automatic and they are immediate. Praise the Lord.
But just because a person is brought into God’s Kingdom doesn’t mean that person is immediately subject to God’s complete control. It doesn’t mean God starts controlling every aspect of them or their lives. Nowhere does the Bible say that.
My dear Christian brother or sister, think about the last time you sinned. Did God cause you to sin? Was God controlling your body or your mouth? On the contrary, those of you who are a bit more mature, didn’t you in fact sense God telling you to go in the other direction? Didn’t God, by His Spirit, try to keep you from sin. No reasonable Christian would suggest that God caused them to ever sin or controlled them into sinning? But very reasonable and sincere Christians think that God is causing sins around the world all the time at an unimaginable scale.
The Christian church at large thinks that so many terrible consequences of sin in the world are God’s will or part of God’s plan. They don’t bother to analyze that logic to see that if they believe all of this sin is God’s will, then God must be causing individual people to sin and do terrible things, all over the world, all the time. Most reasonable people know that isn’t true.
God isn’t in control in any sense where God exercises His power to force anyone to do anything. Maybe here or there in the large geopolitical sense, because we do see that in the Bible, but He is certainly not doing it with every person down to the minutiae of their lives.
We know that God wants to direct our lives. We know that God wants to direct the vast majority of reality. God has a perfect will and wonderful plans for all of our lives. God wants this leadership, this directorial influence, because God loves us more than we can imagine. He knows what is best for every area of our lives, and He wants us to live it. In His great mercy and grace, He even guides us into His plans far more than we deserve, trying to guide us there, even when we are paying no attention to Him. But God is not controlling our lives, and God is not controlling the world at large.
The poverty and sickness that the world is experiencing, that millions of Christians are experiencing, is not God’s will. They are the devil’s will, and, if not for God and the Church, all humans would be living in sickness and poverty.
God knows the devil wants to steal everything you have, including your financial stability and your health. God knows the curse of sin is in the earth, but God doesn’t want you to live under the curse. God wants you to have a good life, good in every area of your life. In the greatest act of God’s love, He sent us Jesus Christ.
(Matthew 11:2-5 KJV) – “Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, And said unto him, Are you he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which you do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
God sent Jesus so that we could receive redemption and forgiveness of sins. Remember, we saw that in Colossians 1:13-14. What else did that verse teach us? When we receive Jesus Christ we are brought into the Kingdom of God. God wants us freed from every influence of the devil and God wants us to possess every aspect of the Kingdom of God.
Well what if you are a sincere and devout Christian but everything in your life is a disaster. What if you are sick and broke and have every other imaginable problem. The answer is God’s promises.
(2 Peter 1:3-4 NLT) – “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”
(2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV) – “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
How many of you have heard about God’s promises? My guess is that you all have. You have heard that God has promises for your health, promises for your family, promises for your financial situation, and promises for every area of your life. Some of you have been taught to pray these promises and hope in these promises. That’s wonderful.
But how many of you have also heard that God doesn’t want you healthy or wealthy, that sometimes God causes bad things in your life, or that when bad things happen, those were part of God’s mysterious will?
How can those teachings possibly be reconciled with the Bible? How can they be reconciled with the thousands of promises in the Bible for God’s good in every area of your life. They simply can’t. Those teachings are wrong. They are heresy. They are lies of the devil meant to destroy your life and take you away from God. And millions in the church world have received and repeated those lies, and it’s a terrible shame.
In my opinion, the reason those lies are so easily received and repeated is because people can look at the world around them and see poverty and sickness everywhere. Rather than understanding that all poverty and sickness is the devil’s doing, the results of sin, the devil has convinced millions of people that those parts of reality are God’s will. The devil has blamed God for what he has done. Much of the world has bought this lie. Huge parts of the Christian church have believed this lie. We have believed the lie that God causes and wants sickness and death everywhere, rather than believing that in fact God wants us to have everything He promised us.
When we become Christians, we are moved into the Kingdom of God. We become God’s children. We then become entitled to all of His promises. We become entitled to the promises for a couple reasons. First of all, they are gifts from God to His children. They are part of the inheritance God has for His children, and we are entitled to our inheritance now.
Furthermore, through Jesus’ perfect and sinless life, He earned the promises. He earned every good thing that God would ever want to do for a human. Remember that in the Old Testament the vast majority of God’s promises were conditional. If God’s people behaved a certain way, then God would bring certain blessings into their lives. Jesus behaved perfectly and earned the promises. When we become Christians, we become righteous with the righteousness of God, the same righteousness of Jesus. We become entitled to the promises through their righteousness. That’s why 2 Corinthians 1:20 can say, all the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen. They are all ours now. They are available to us all now.
But God’s promises, including God’s promises for financial prosperity, for healing, and ever for salvation, are not automatic.
God wants everyone saved, but everyone is not saved. God wants everyone healed, but everyone is not healed. God wants everyone to have financial stability and prosperity, but there are many poor people in this world.
God is not in control of your individual life. God is not forcing you to receive the manifestation of His promises in your life (although that would be really great, I admit). Rather, we must study God’s Word and learn how to obtain the promises. I’m not saying “earn” the promises, we don’t earn anything from God. Everything from God is a gift from His grace. But we must learn how to receive the promises, how to see God’s promises manifested in our lives.
(Hebrews 6:12 NIV) – “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”
(Hebrews 4:2 KJV) – “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”
We must spend time in God’s Word to learn about His promises. Then we must have faith in His promises, true, Biblical faith. Having faith for a few minutes or even a few days isn’t what this is talking about it. Faith and patience (staying in the place of Biblical faith over a long period of time), those are required to inherit the promises, to see God’s promises manifest in your life.
As you go through the Bible, many of God’s promises are automatic and perfectly applicable to you when you become a Christian. You immediately receive God’s righteousness. You immediately receive the Holy Spirit. You immediately become God’s child. But the promises that pertain to the natural human life require some cooperation. We need to live in harmony with God’s teachings to truly see God’s promises manifest in our life.
You have to separate the ideas of working to earn the promises, which we can never do, and living to cooperate with the promises, which we must do. For example, you can’t drink, smoke and eat a ton of fast food and expect to live in divine health with no medical problems. You can’t spend all your money on frivolous things, never save, never give, never tithe, and expect to see all of God’s financial promises show up in your life. I hope those points don’t require further discussion.
Also, purity and maturity are required to truly live in all of God’s plan for your life. Purity, maturity and availability are the major goals of my life right now (shout out to Pastor Greg at The Difference Church). As you grow in God’s plan for your life, God wants you to bless and influence people. If you are impure and immature, God can’t use you in those roles. He can’t use you for the Kingdom like He wants to. My friends, we don’t earn anything from God, but the Kingdom of God has wisdom and systems and we need to live in line with them if we want all of the benefits God’s Kingdom offers.
We could spend hours going through verses on health, on prosperity, on inner peace, and really look at God’s promises for your life. Here is a link to my podcast so you can hear teachings about those and get a lot of those verses.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/byron-howell-ministries/id1063011890
The fact is that God has given us many, many promises for our financial lives. I gave you the verses in 2 Corinthians because I believe that is the clearest statement of God’s financial plan for a Christian. Please read those verses again. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, it is as clear in the Bible that God wants you financially prospered as it is clear that God wants you saved. One of the redemptive names of God is Jehovah Jireh, God Who Provides. He wants to be your provider.
I have taught at length about Divine Healing and God’s Healing Promises. I suggest you listen to my teachings on the subject. We have numerous healing promises. In fact, all of God’s healing power has already been completely released to Christians, and we don’t ever need to suffer from sickness or injury again. I don’t care what physical situation is bothering you, you can be healed right now. It is as clear in the Bible that God wants you physically healthy as it is clear that God wants you saved. One of the redemptive names of God is Jehovah Rapha, God Who Heals. God wants to be your healer and He wants you healed.
(2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV) – “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
(1 Peter 2:24 NIV) – “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
Jesus was the substitutionary sacrifice. Jesus suffered for our sins. Jesus was cursed so that we might be blessed. Yes, we are called to live as Christ, in terms of our character and the fruits of the Spirit. Yes, we are also called to suffer persecution like Christ, where we will be persecuted for our faith and preaching the Gospel. But we are not called to suffer punishment for our sins. We are not called to suffer the effects of sin for which we have received forgiveness and redemption. We are not called to live under the curse. Jesus did all of that for us. Jesus was poor, and God wants us rich. Jesus’ body was destroyed, and God wants our bodies healed.
The teaching that God doesn’t want you financially prospered is heresy to God’s ears. It is also blasphemy against Jehovah Jireh.
The teaching that God doesn’t want you in perfect physical health is heresy to God’s ears. It is also blasphemy against Jehovah Rapha.
It is a great shame that the world has accepted so many of the devil’s lies. We blame God for countless evils around the world. We blame God for countless evils in our own lives. But the devil is the one who steals, kills and destroys. The devil is the author of sin and death. Jesus came so that we can have an abundant life, a rich and satisfying life.
You cannot look at the world around you, where the devil is the god of this period of time and the dominion of darkness is constantly influencing billions of people that are obeying the devil, and think that you see God’s will. You must discern God’s will from the Bible.
God has a wonderful plan for your life, a life that He wants filled with the physical manifestation of His love and promises. God wants you to have a life filled with His health, His wealth, His peace, His joy, His love, and every other aspect of His Kingdom. I pray that you receive this message and begin living in God’s true will for your life.
Ironically, and in completely unrelated circumstances, two of the people who were also at this gathering had recently listened to a particular sermon. In the sermon the minister was arguing against the “Prosperity Gospel”. My two friends asked me if I had heard the sermon and what I thought. I hadn’t heard the sermon so I watched it online. Because of our conversations, I had ideas about the sermon before I started listening. But I positioned my heart to be open and give the speaker the benefit of the doubt.
In the sermon the speaker briefly but forcefully spoke against what he called the “Prosperity Gospel” or the “Health and Wealth Gospel.” As his evidence he spoke about the devout Christians in third world countries, who are obviously neither wealthy nor healthy. While he didn’t say this directly, I believe it’s safe to describe his logic as this – if the Prosperity Gospel were accurate, they why are all those Christians neither healthy nor wealthy. To describe his logic another way, if the Prosperity Gospel were accurate, then all Christians, even in the worst places, would be healthy and wealthy.
What do you think of that logic? Doesn’t it make sense? Isn’t that the most common argument against the health and wealth Gospel? Personally, I don’t even need to look at the Christians in third world countries to understand that argument. There are lots of Christians right here in American, the richest nation on earth, who are neither healthy nor wealthy.
But if the health and wealth Gospel is wrong, which it would seem to be, what do we do with all those Biblical promises for financial and health blessings. Are those promises worthless? Does God not back up His Word? Is there some sort of spiritual lottery where some of the promises are applicable to some Christians and not others? Can we earn the promises? Is that how it works? If I’m good enough can I earn wealth or healing?
What about me? Everyone in my family is in great health. Sure, we have been attacked a few times. My wife was attacked with stage 4 cancer but she is completely healed and even off chemo now. I don’t believe we are in such health because we are lucky or perfect with our bodies. I believe we are in great health because of God’s promises and all He taught us when she got sick. And honestly, my financial position is pretty solid. I truly believe I have seen God’s financial blessings manifest in my life. At the beginning of 2021 God told me to make a few changes, and this has been my best financial year.
Did I win the spiritual lottery? Am I crazy to think that there is some relationship between God’s promises and what I am seeing in my own house? I don’t want to be prideful and think for an instant that I earned these blessings apart from God’s grace? So why don’t all Christians experience the healing and prosperity that I have.
My friends, this analysis creates all kinds of problems. But we are going to answer these problems today. Today, if you will listen to me, you will understand, and this understanding will change your life. Let me start with a few verses.
(Genesis 3:17-19 NLT) – “And to the man He said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.””
(Romans 5:12 NIV) – “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.”
To understand why there are so many people, indeed, so many Christians, who are sick and poor, we must first understand the causes of sickness and poverty. Sickness and poverty were nowhere to be found in the Garden of Eden. Sickness and poverty first became part of the human existence with sin.
God banished mankind from the Garden of Eden, and Adam was cursed to live a hard life of poverty until he died. Sickness, poverty, and death have been a part of the human existence ever since. I don’t think we even need to say more about that, it’s just the way it is.
In addition to the original curses of poverty and death, the story about the Garden of Eden also introduces us to the devil. Notice that Romans 5:12, above, tells us that all people have sinned and that sin entered the world. Now let’s look at the relationship between both the devil and people and the devil and the world.
(Ephesians 2:1-2 NLT) – “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil–the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.”
(2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT) – “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”
These are truly amazing statements. So in addition to the curses of poverty and death that we have because of sin in the Garden of Eden, we also have the devil to deal with. Please also note that these verses from Ephesians and 2 Corinthians are written to the Christian Church, after the resurrection of Christ.
The verse in Ephesians teaches us that the devil is still working in the hearts of people today. The devil is in fact the commander of the ungodly powers in the unseen world. He is the commander of demons. There are billions of people out there in the world living in sin, and this verse tells us that the devil is working in their hearts and they are obeying the devil.
Furthermore, 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that satan is the “god of this world.” Now in the Greek the word “world” is “eon” which refers to a period of time. God is the owner of planet earth and everything in it, but the devil rules this particular period of time. When you study this out, in the eyes of God, we have been in one particular period of time, or eon, from the fall of Adam all the way to present day. This eon will end with the return of Christ.
Isn’t this an amazing and terrible reality that the Bible reveals to us? The devil is the ruler of this period of time, and the devil is blinding the minds of unbelievers against Christ. Moreover, the devil is working in the hearts of sinners to do his evil will, and they are obeying him.
How can this be? If God is in control, and if God is controlling everything, and if nothing happens other than God’s will, how can those things be? Is everything the devil does in fact God’s will? Is all the sickness and disease out there God’s will?
What about these verses?
(1 Timothy 2:3-4 NIV) – “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
(2 Peter 3:9 NIV) – “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
If God wants everyone to be saved, and God controls everything, then why isn’t everyone saved?
What about the rest of God’s will?
(John 10:9-10 NLT, Jesus speaking) – “Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through Me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”
It looks like Jesus wants everyone to have a rich and satisfying life. But what about all those Christians who are sick and broke? What about all those people who obviously don’t have a rich or satisfying life?
Can we say that Jesus’ will for them is a rich and satisfying life, but somehow God’s will is simultaneously a life of sickness and poverty?
And what about all of those promises for finances and healing that we see in the Bible? Are those worthless?
Here is an example of a financial promise from God to Christians.
(2 Corinthians 9:7-11 NIV) – “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
Here is an example of a healing promise from God to Christians.
(James 5:14-15 NIV) – “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”
So here we see a financial promise and a healing promise. These are both New Testament statements clearly directed at the Christian community at large. God’s will for my life can’t be poverty if he wants me out of it, and so much so that I can be so generous that it causes others to glorify God. God’s will for my life can’t be sickness if he shows me how to pray and get healed?
How can we reconcile all of this? How can God and Jesus have a will for someone’s life that is not showing up? How can there be so many unsaved people, and so many Christians without a rich and satisfying life, so many Christians in poverty and sickness? What is God’s will? Isn’t God in control?
Well my friends, there you have it. This is quite a situation isn’t it? How can we possibly understand all of this?
I am going to tell you the answer. You are probably not going to believe it, but it is the truth. It is in fact one of the great reconciling truths of the universe that helps the entire Bible make sense when we look at the world around us. It also helps the whole world make sense, and all that we see in reality. So just give me a few minutes, and hear me out.
God is not in control.
I know some of you are thinking this is heresy, that I’ve truly lost it. But just give me a few more minutes and then decide. I know that your entire life you have been taught that God is in control, and that somehow everything is part of God’s plan. But that’s just not the case. Every time something terrible happened in your life. Every time something terrible happens in the world. Every time someone hears about that and says, “Well, God is in control.” Or, “Well, God has a plan.” As if the terrible thing that just happened is God’s will and He’s going to work some good out of all of it. Those are lies from the pit of hell. Those are some of the worst lies the devil has ever spoken to mankind, and it has pervaded the world and done unimaginable damage.
The fact is that God is not in control of every aspect of reality at all times. God is not the great puppet master pulling every string of the universe constantly, directing everything, the good, the bad, and the horrible, all according to some mysterious and unknowable will. That is not reality.
The true nature of reality, the true description of the systems that exist, is well summed up by Colossians 1:13-14. Let’s start there, and then we can walk through the verses again and you will understand reality as maybe you never have before.
(Colossians 1:13-14 NIV) – “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
God created a beautiful planet and He put Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden. The devil influenced them, and they sinned. When they sinned, God cursed them with poverty and death. Moreover, they moved from the Kingdom of God into the dominion of darkness.
Sin passed from Adam and Eve to all mankind. Every child born is born with original sin. We are born into the dominion of darkness, and the dominion of darkness is run by the god of this eon, this period of time, satan.
Satan is ruling this period of time. Satan is influencing billions of people around the world, and they are obeying him. All of the sins around the world, all of the terrorism, the war, the slavery, the hatred, the greed, the human trafficking, the racism, all of it. All of it comes through sin. All of it comes from the devil’s influence on the people who are in the dominion of darkness. And don’t hate, because at one time that was you and me too. We played our part, I know that I did. But none of this is God’s will. God isn’t causing or controlling any of it.
Humans have free will. We are subject to influence. When the devil influences humans, they sin. Billions of humans sinning every day have created a world marked by sin, sickness and death. These parts of our reality are not God’s will. They are not God’s will for anyone else, and they are not God’s will for you. The dominion of darkness is alive and well, and it can be seen throughout the world.
(Colossians 1:13-14 NIV) – “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you receive the forgiveness of sins and redemption. You also are removed from the devil’s dominion and you are brought into the Kingdom of God. These things are true for every Christian. They are automatic and they are immediate. Praise the Lord.
But just because a person is brought into God’s Kingdom doesn’t mean that person is immediately subject to God’s complete control. It doesn’t mean God starts controlling every aspect of them or their lives. Nowhere does the Bible say that.
My dear Christian brother or sister, think about the last time you sinned. Did God cause you to sin? Was God controlling your body or your mouth? On the contrary, those of you who are a bit more mature, didn’t you in fact sense God telling you to go in the other direction? Didn’t God, by His Spirit, try to keep you from sin. No reasonable Christian would suggest that God caused them to ever sin or controlled them into sinning? But very reasonable and sincere Christians think that God is causing sins around the world all the time at an unimaginable scale.
The Christian church at large thinks that so many terrible consequences of sin in the world are God’s will or part of God’s plan. They don’t bother to analyze that logic to see that if they believe all of this sin is God’s will, then God must be causing individual people to sin and do terrible things, all over the world, all the time. Most reasonable people know that isn’t true.
God isn’t in control in any sense where God exercises His power to force anyone to do anything. Maybe here or there in the large geopolitical sense, because we do see that in the Bible, but He is certainly not doing it with every person down to the minutiae of their lives.
We know that God wants to direct our lives. We know that God wants to direct the vast majority of reality. God has a perfect will and wonderful plans for all of our lives. God wants this leadership, this directorial influence, because God loves us more than we can imagine. He knows what is best for every area of our lives, and He wants us to live it. In His great mercy and grace, He even guides us into His plans far more than we deserve, trying to guide us there, even when we are paying no attention to Him. But God is not controlling our lives, and God is not controlling the world at large.
The poverty and sickness that the world is experiencing, that millions of Christians are experiencing, is not God’s will. They are the devil’s will, and, if not for God and the Church, all humans would be living in sickness and poverty.
God knows the devil wants to steal everything you have, including your financial stability and your health. God knows the curse of sin is in the earth, but God doesn’t want you to live under the curse. God wants you to have a good life, good in every area of your life. In the greatest act of God’s love, He sent us Jesus Christ.
(Matthew 11:2-5 KJV) – “Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, And said unto him, Are you he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which you do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
God sent Jesus so that we could receive redemption and forgiveness of sins. Remember, we saw that in Colossians 1:13-14. What else did that verse teach us? When we receive Jesus Christ we are brought into the Kingdom of God. God wants us freed from every influence of the devil and God wants us to possess every aspect of the Kingdom of God.
Well what if you are a sincere and devout Christian but everything in your life is a disaster. What if you are sick and broke and have every other imaginable problem. The answer is God’s promises.
(2 Peter 1:3-4 NLT) – “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”
(2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV) – “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
How many of you have heard about God’s promises? My guess is that you all have. You have heard that God has promises for your health, promises for your family, promises for your financial situation, and promises for every area of your life. Some of you have been taught to pray these promises and hope in these promises. That’s wonderful.
But how many of you have also heard that God doesn’t want you healthy or wealthy, that sometimes God causes bad things in your life, or that when bad things happen, those were part of God’s mysterious will?
How can those teachings possibly be reconciled with the Bible? How can they be reconciled with the thousands of promises in the Bible for God’s good in every area of your life. They simply can’t. Those teachings are wrong. They are heresy. They are lies of the devil meant to destroy your life and take you away from God. And millions in the church world have received and repeated those lies, and it’s a terrible shame.
In my opinion, the reason those lies are so easily received and repeated is because people can look at the world around them and see poverty and sickness everywhere. Rather than understanding that all poverty and sickness is the devil’s doing, the results of sin, the devil has convinced millions of people that those parts of reality are God’s will. The devil has blamed God for what he has done. Much of the world has bought this lie. Huge parts of the Christian church have believed this lie. We have believed the lie that God causes and wants sickness and death everywhere, rather than believing that in fact God wants us to have everything He promised us.
When we become Christians, we are moved into the Kingdom of God. We become God’s children. We then become entitled to all of His promises. We become entitled to the promises for a couple reasons. First of all, they are gifts from God to His children. They are part of the inheritance God has for His children, and we are entitled to our inheritance now.
Furthermore, through Jesus’ perfect and sinless life, He earned the promises. He earned every good thing that God would ever want to do for a human. Remember that in the Old Testament the vast majority of God’s promises were conditional. If God’s people behaved a certain way, then God would bring certain blessings into their lives. Jesus behaved perfectly and earned the promises. When we become Christians, we become righteous with the righteousness of God, the same righteousness of Jesus. We become entitled to the promises through their righteousness. That’s why 2 Corinthians 1:20 can say, all the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen. They are all ours now. They are available to us all now.
But God’s promises, including God’s promises for financial prosperity, for healing, and ever for salvation, are not automatic.
God wants everyone saved, but everyone is not saved. God wants everyone healed, but everyone is not healed. God wants everyone to have financial stability and prosperity, but there are many poor people in this world.
God is not in control of your individual life. God is not forcing you to receive the manifestation of His promises in your life (although that would be really great, I admit). Rather, we must study God’s Word and learn how to obtain the promises. I’m not saying “earn” the promises, we don’t earn anything from God. Everything from God is a gift from His grace. But we must learn how to receive the promises, how to see God’s promises manifested in our lives.
(Hebrews 6:12 NIV) – “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”
(Hebrews 4:2 KJV) – “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”
We must spend time in God’s Word to learn about His promises. Then we must have faith in His promises, true, Biblical faith. Having faith for a few minutes or even a few days isn’t what this is talking about it. Faith and patience (staying in the place of Biblical faith over a long period of time), those are required to inherit the promises, to see God’s promises manifest in your life.
As you go through the Bible, many of God’s promises are automatic and perfectly applicable to you when you become a Christian. You immediately receive God’s righteousness. You immediately receive the Holy Spirit. You immediately become God’s child. But the promises that pertain to the natural human life require some cooperation. We need to live in harmony with God’s teachings to truly see God’s promises manifest in our life.
You have to separate the ideas of working to earn the promises, which we can never do, and living to cooperate with the promises, which we must do. For example, you can’t drink, smoke and eat a ton of fast food and expect to live in divine health with no medical problems. You can’t spend all your money on frivolous things, never save, never give, never tithe, and expect to see all of God’s financial promises show up in your life. I hope those points don’t require further discussion.
Also, purity and maturity are required to truly live in all of God’s plan for your life. Purity, maturity and availability are the major goals of my life right now (shout out to Pastor Greg at The Difference Church). As you grow in God’s plan for your life, God wants you to bless and influence people. If you are impure and immature, God can’t use you in those roles. He can’t use you for the Kingdom like He wants to. My friends, we don’t earn anything from God, but the Kingdom of God has wisdom and systems and we need to live in line with them if we want all of the benefits God’s Kingdom offers.
We could spend hours going through verses on health, on prosperity, on inner peace, and really look at God’s promises for your life. Here is a link to my podcast so you can hear teachings about those and get a lot of those verses.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/byron-howell-ministries/id1063011890
The fact is that God has given us many, many promises for our financial lives. I gave you the verses in 2 Corinthians because I believe that is the clearest statement of God’s financial plan for a Christian. Please read those verses again. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, it is as clear in the Bible that God wants you financially prospered as it is clear that God wants you saved. One of the redemptive names of God is Jehovah Jireh, God Who Provides. He wants to be your provider.
I have taught at length about Divine Healing and God’s Healing Promises. I suggest you listen to my teachings on the subject. We have numerous healing promises. In fact, all of God’s healing power has already been completely released to Christians, and we don’t ever need to suffer from sickness or injury again. I don’t care what physical situation is bothering you, you can be healed right now. It is as clear in the Bible that God wants you physically healthy as it is clear that God wants you saved. One of the redemptive names of God is Jehovah Rapha, God Who Heals. God wants to be your healer and He wants you healed.
(2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV) – “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
(1 Peter 2:24 NIV) – “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
Jesus was the substitutionary sacrifice. Jesus suffered for our sins. Jesus was cursed so that we might be blessed. Yes, we are called to live as Christ, in terms of our character and the fruits of the Spirit. Yes, we are also called to suffer persecution like Christ, where we will be persecuted for our faith and preaching the Gospel. But we are not called to suffer punishment for our sins. We are not called to suffer the effects of sin for which we have received forgiveness and redemption. We are not called to live under the curse. Jesus did all of that for us. Jesus was poor, and God wants us rich. Jesus’ body was destroyed, and God wants our bodies healed.
The teaching that God doesn’t want you financially prospered is heresy to God’s ears. It is also blasphemy against Jehovah Jireh.
The teaching that God doesn’t want you in perfect physical health is heresy to God’s ears. It is also blasphemy against Jehovah Rapha.
It is a great shame that the world has accepted so many of the devil’s lies. We blame God for countless evils around the world. We blame God for countless evils in our own lives. But the devil is the one who steals, kills and destroys. The devil is the author of sin and death. Jesus came so that we can have an abundant life, a rich and satisfying life.
You cannot look at the world around you, where the devil is the god of this period of time and the dominion of darkness is constantly influencing billions of people that are obeying the devil, and think that you see God’s will. You must discern God’s will from the Bible.
God has a wonderful plan for your life, a life that He wants filled with the physical manifestation of His love and promises. God wants you to have a life filled with His health, His wealth, His peace, His joy, His love, and every other aspect of His Kingdom. I pray that you receive this message and begin living in God’s true will for your life.
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