Fullness of Joy Includes
Prosperity
By Pastor Darryl Manning
We have seen that joy for the Christian is not always tied
to circumstances. However, God does not have a problem in
blessing his people to increase their joy.
The message of prosperity for Christians has been in vogue
now for a number of years. I always liked the idea of
prosperity in a limited sense, but could not see
Christians being really wealthy.
I began hearing stories about great prosperity that had
come to House of the Lord Fellowship in Austin, Texas. The
pastor of the church is by Rev. Jim Lillard, the uncle of
my associate, Rev. Joel Tassiello.
Upon Joel’s recommendation, I invited Pastor Lillard to
come minister to us on a Sunday. He arrived in a chauffer
driven Cadillac. Joel called me and informed me we now had
two motel rooms to pay for. I was not happy about the
extra expense.
On Sunday morning, Pastor Lillard began by stating his
suit was a $1,000 Hickey Freeman. He went on to pull money
out of his pockets, saying he had several thousand dollars
with him.
Immediately I was turned off. I thought, “Oh no, what have
I got us into now?” Suddenly, the Lord spoke!
“What did you want me to do, send a man with a
prosperity message in a raggedy suit and a beat up
Volkswagen?”
A word from God can change your life if you receive it. I
received it and opened my ears to what God wanted to teach
me about prosperity. Before the day was over God gave me
two more words that revolutionized my thinking. The next
word came while Pastor Lillard continued preaching.
“I have enough money for you and the Kingdom too.”
The Word of God is sharper than any sword. This one cut
right to the core. I always felt I had to sacrifice
everything so the church could get by. This thinking kept
me from having any faith for my own prosperity.
The last Word God gave me that day came at the conclusion
of the night service. Pastor Lillard had all who wanted
out of poverty to come for prayer. He prayed over my wife
and me and I found myself on the floor. Suddenly, God
spoke again.
“Remember why you did not want to be a preacher?”
In my mind I answered, “Sure, I remember, Lord. It was
because all the preachers I knew growing up were really
poor.” Then the Lord spoke again.
“Look at Pastor
Lillard, he is not poor!”
I began to laugh. I laughed for about fifteen minutes at
the lie I had believed all my life. The truth really did
set me free that night to welcome money into my life.
The next few months, God began to teach me about
prosperity and I preached a number of messages on
prosperity to our people. God began to honor the Word with
powerful demonstrations of financial blessing upon the
people and upon my wife and me.
Within a few weeks, my wife’s folks gave her $7,000 as an
early portion of her inheritance. Later, my grandfather
died left me an inheritance of $2,000. My father sold a
house and gave my siblings and me $2,000.00 each.
People in our church began to receive cars. One of the
Elders received a brand new 2002 Kia Sedona that cost over
$20,000. Another Elder’s wife had raises over a
sixteen-month period of time that doubled her salary.
Another family had a $10,088 medical debt cancelled.
Numbers of raises, bonuses, and promotions occurred even
though the economy was in a recession.
In this short chapter, I cannot give a complete Biblical
treatise on the subject of prosperity. God is a God of
prosperity. Poverty is listed among the curses in the Old
Testament. (See Deuteronomy 28) God hates poverty. Jesus
came preaching good news to the poor.
Heaven is not a place of poverty. Even the streets of the
New Jerusalem are paved in pure gold. When Jesus told us
to pray for the Kingdom of God to come upon the earth, he
plans to eradicate all poverty.
In 2 Corinthians 9, St. Paul records that God wants us to
have an abundance of money for every good work. This could
never be true if we were poor.
…for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is
able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always
having all sufficiency in all things, may have an
abundance for every good work.
It is not likely any of us could be a cheerful giver if we
were giving our last dollars. How much more likely it is
that we can give generously out of our abundance and be
joyous about our gift.
Ask for your inheritance and then be willing to give
abundantly to every good work.
For those of you who have such a hard time believing in
prosperity, consider this Word God gave me for a friend.
My friend had preached a message where he belittled the
prosperity message. That night I had a dream about that
friend and God gave me a message for him.
He said, “Tell your friend that I am about to prosper
him financially far beyond anything he has ever dreamed if
he will believe. Tell him not to despise prosperity
when I want to prosper my servants. Tell him he is right
not to seek riches but to seek me. Tell him to remember
Solomon sought the right things and I gave him riches too.
Tell him, yes, there is danger in wealth but I am seeking
servants who can handle wealth and not turn away from me.
Wealth is just one more test to go through to prove your
love for me. You can pass this test like all the others.”
Friend, remember St. Paul had to pass the test of poverty
and wealth. Remember, wealth is just one more test and you
can pass it too.
Phil. 4:12 12I know how to be abased, and I
know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have
learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound
and to suffer need. 13I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me.
