My last post concerned a prevailing spirit of poverty in the American Christian community. I talked about contending for all that God's covenant provides the followers of Jesus and refusing to compromise the standard Jesus modeled. I tried to define prosperity as more than currency and possessions. Before going on to other topics, I want to approach this whole issue from a different perspective.

Biblical prosperity does not primarily refer to monetary wealth and possessions. It does enclude these kind of riches, but many godly people live low on the financial income scale. You should be able to pay your bills for the necessities of life, not for keeping up with the American dream. I would call Mother Teresa a very prosperous woman of God, yet she had nothing to call her own. She chose to submerge herself in Calcutta, India, allowing Jesus to love the lowest of humanity and minister to their physical bodies. Heidi and Roland Baker have given up earthly possessions and the "good life" American style, to live among the people of Mozambique, but they see provisions multiplied, healing miracles of all kinds and yes the dead raised on a regular basis.

As we have traveled to Romania and worked with the national Christians, I have been inspired by their faith, humility and giving heart. I know pastors there who serve faithfully tiny churches without a salary. Tal and I ended 2010 by spending December in Romania with Ben and Anna Boingeanu. To me they are truely wealthy people and have lived a lifetime of drawing on the riches of God's grace and provision to meet every kind of need imaginable; from growing up through Communisim and its oppression and hardship, to church planting after the revolution with no adequate salary, to currently becoming foster parents of 12 children and pastor of the large Holy Trinity Church in Braila. They are not wealthy by American standard but they manage what they do have remarkably and they know how to draw on the Covenant of Grace and experience God's peace. Each one of their own two and the foster sons & daughters have experienced God's provision for the family and are being lifted out of the destruction, poverty and victim mentality of so many of their peers. They are experiencing true success and prosperity.

We are children of the King and we have a limitless supply of all we need for living life where God has planted us in a godly manner, but that does not garuntee that we will all have unlimited possessions, travel opportunities, the best of everything, no troubles, trials or disapppointments. It does mean that our hevenly Father knows what we are experiencing, hurts with us according to Jesus, is always working to bless us and care for us.

He never says, "No, I won't forgive your "sins" this time." Or "No, I won't heal you this time." (Psalm 103: I believe He has made it all available to us, but we sabetage God's plans and provision by our unbelief, by our preconceived concepts and blindness, and by destructive habits we are not even aware of, to name a few.

So I say again, God is good, better than we can imagine and He is still a GIVER. God has brought us out (of our human fallenness) to bring us in (to all He is and has). He intends to teach us how to draw on our eternal inheritance now, so don't limit the GIVER by unbelief or false humility. If you fail to withdraw portions of that inheritance, don't blame or shame yourself. There is not a human who ever lived who has, except Jesus Christ. Rather, give serious question when you excuse unbelief by saying, "Well I don't think God still does those things any more. Or I'm not a good enough Christian." or "It is normal to be anxious or angry." Question whether or not you have been unconsciously influenced by American religious ideas and your spiritual upbringing by family and denominational dogmas. This is still an unresolved issue with me and everyone I know to some degree or another.

This is the secret missing ingredient in American Christianity: We have depended more on teaching correct doctrine to become strong in the Lord, than we have depended on knowing God through Jesus Christ and deepening the love relationship. We are more likely to have a conference with our pastor or some spiritual leader, than we are to worship at the feet of Jesus until He speaks peace to our emotions. Most do not value even 1 hour daily to sit in a quiet place longing to encounter God face to face, heart to heart. We resemble the elder brother more than the prodigal son, so when life gets hard and things are with held, we become bitter, fearful, anxious and demanding, rather than running into the arms of Jesus for our answers and to put our hearts at peace.

I know! We are all influenced by our modern culture and the American lifestyle. I don't mean to shame, but there is a strong tendency to interpret Scripture according to our culture and the lowest common denominator of Christianity and I feel compelled to resist this tendency in my own life.