101 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT HEALTH AND WEALTH

 PART 17

33. Are Christians eligible to receive the blessings of divine healing and divine prosperity if they do not actually believe in them? Yes and no. YES in the fact that they will receive the default plan which means the basic standards of God’s blessings which in every aspect is nothing less than glorious. NO in the light of pleasing God with obedience and walking in His perfect specific will. As far as being healed and being blessed, it is easy to see that many have enjoyed these benefits without hardly noticing or even being grateful. For example, those who never actually consider that God will touch their bodies and give them a miracle are many times healed through surgeries and doctors exactly like everyone else. The same is true with many Christians that have a gift for making money and being extremely successful without praying about it in faith or confessing God’s Word. My worldviews include the general belief that if someone rejects an idea or does not practice faith or follow spiritual principals they will not receive the benefits from it – however as I just pointed out, there are exceptions. The Word of God is filled with conditional promises and these are truly available to those who develop faith to live this blessed lifestyle but it is true that others can be seen obtaining health and wealth without hardly having any faith at all. For reasons only known to God, it seems that some need to believe and work hard for it and others are just given these gifts. Let us remember, that things are not always the way they seem and God has a specific and complex purpose for everything He does.

34. So, if we are going to receive the same outcome whether we have faith or not, then what is the big deal about living this “extreme fanatical” lifestyle? That is not exactly what I said and I do not believe that God intended for us to think this way. It would be a shame for anyone to have that kind of attitude because it is a direct reflection of something that is seriously wrong within the heart. All of God’s Word and His revelations that we learn in this journey are NOT in vain. Each hour of our spiritual growth, every confession that comes out of our mouth and every deed that we have done in obedience for the Lord is counted as holy and perfect and a part of His plan. This is not a performance – it is supposed to be a love affair between us and God. Yes, there are certain ones that stumble through life without taking God seriously and they might even do OK. They might be able to pay their bills and live to be in their nineties and eventually go to heaven – praise God! But, did they advance and become mature in His Spirit? Were they sensitive to all the divine appointments that God arranged and did they accomplish the specific blueprint He drew up for them? Did they truly follow His voice? Did they make Him happy and was He pleased with their life? I do NOT believe we have a clue as to how important it is to follow directions. Whoever came up with the song, “just give me a cabin in the corner of glory land” seemed to suggest that we can somehow squeeze through and by a slim chance make it into heaven. The mentality that we can do whatever we want and that God might feel sorry for us is a twisted idea that gives the flesh a false hope that we do NOT need to try to obey and yet still be given a golden ticket. The truth is that God knows every heart and sees every thought and deed and He rewards faith and blesses those who do what He says. He does not want us to just get by but He wants us to EXCEL and OVERCOME in the power of His might! He desires for us to study and grow strong so that we can stand in FAITH and DEMONSTRATE His glory!

Why would we want to just get by and live in mediocrity? If we truly love God with all of our heart, we should want to do EVERYTHING he says. This includes following His directions and living according to His perfect will. I would not think that anyone would be happy with scoring 56 out of a hundred and then say that it does not matter because God is not going fail anyone anyway. Walking in God’s Spirit is being the best we can be and what He died for us to be! “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

Let us come to the place where we realize that faith was not imparted as a way for US to live on easy street. Health and wealth is NOT for us to build an empire of selfishness that gives us glory – it is to be used to help others understand God’s truth! Health is the energy to relentlessly spread the gospel and wealth is the supply of resources needed to finance God’s Kingdom. We teach those whom God has led to us and when they begin to learn and grow in God’s Word, they in turn receive the BURDEN and PASSION to teach others the revelation of God’s will. In the story of the rich man and a beggar named Lazarus, we see the ABUSE and blindness of wealth that has the arrogance and lack of compassion to pass by a person in need every day and NOT reach out to help. God wanted the rich man to bring Lazarus in, take care of him and teach him so that in time Lazarus could manage his own affairs. Eventually the Lord would have blessed Lazarus and then he could have started his own outreach ministry. And of course, the rich man would have been blessed even more (in this life and the one to come) and would have been given new divine appointments that involved possibly helping thousands of people in need. You see, our faith is for the purpose of bringing us closer to God and to help do His work. The “extreme fanatical” lifestyle of living in the awareness of God’s presence is not a bunch of hoops for us to jump through so that we can have a fat bank account or even be found worthy to enter heaven. If this is how we are seeing the Christian life we have missed the point and possibly have missed God altogether. We become fanatical about God because we choose for Him to become the most important person in our life. Our zeal and passion is not about what we can get! It is about having the honor to be His child! When we fall deeply in love with God the health and wealth will always be secondary to enjoying the intimacy of His person. When health and wealth become our highest priority we are guilty of worshipping the gift instead of the giver. God has given us everything we need to do all things, but it will only succeed according to His directions.