“ And when He was entered into a ship, His disciples followed Him.  And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but He was asleep.   And His disciples came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.   And He saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.  But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him!”  Matthew 8:23-27.

Before being born again I would probably have to say money was my god.  Not because I “loved” money, not even because I “wanted” money but because I NEEDED money.  Money was a necessity.  There were times when I had more money, then there were other times that I needed more money but I’ve never had a lot of money.  I realize it is not socially acceptable to talk about money so I will get to my point.

Yesterday a dear Brother made a statement that really witnessed to me, he said their was “wealth before our Salvation”.  I had to think about that for a minute, mainly because I never had wealth before my Salvation but I realized wealth was my god.  The prosperity gospel that so many preach doesn’t really make sense if you think about it in those terms.  How does being wealthy set one apart from the world?  There are many wealthy sinners in this world.  Being wealthy doesn’t make one a sinner but it certainly doesn’t make them a Saint either; just as doing good works doesn’t make one a Saint – no matter what the pope says.

When life touches death, life does not die but death lives and is no longer death but life.  What does that have to do with money?  Once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, HE is our God.  We realize it is Jesus that we need and it is HIM Who calms the storm.  He, Jesus Christ, supplies all of our needs according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19).   We “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33.  You see, when life touches death, we NEED life…Jesus Christ IS life.  I’m not preaching a prosperity gospel here.  I’m in fact telling you if you are giving to become wealthy, then money is your god.  Many do not give with a joyful heart but a superstitious heart.  If we give to the work of man, we receive the gift of man.  It is not God’s fault if we don’t discern between His work (preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified) and man’s work (shemitah’s, harbingers, 40 days of purpose, etc.).  We give to those who preach the Gospel of Jesus because we want to see souls saved, not civic events not promoting man’s schemes.

There remain many who seek a physical result of a spiritual action instead of physical action of a spiritual result.  In other words, the spiritual result  of faith in Jesus resulted in the physical action of the lame walking, the blind seeing, the dead being brought to life.   All of these were physical actions of spiritual results.  You’ve heard it before…”we must do our part”.  It is in fact our physical action that hinders our spiritual result.  Our spiritual action is FAITH in Jesus, Who He is and what He has done.  The spiritual result of that spiritual action (faith in Jesus’ finished work) is a physical action (healings, good works, change of heart, new creature).    Our physical actions (works, ceremonies, rituals, etc.)  do not have spiritual results but our spiritual results will have physical actions.

When we are saved by the Blood of Jesus, His life touches our death and the spiritual results manifest in physical actions.  We no longer seek the things of the world, we seek Jesus.  Having life more abundantly has nothing to do with wealth or prosperity but everything to do with the One Who came to give us life freely – Jesus Christ…seek Him. -Donna Clark Warren