Who says there is no “prosperity gospel”?

Have you ever wondered how come you’re not getting any success, no matter how hard you pursue it?

“Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it”

I totally know how that is like. You work like mad, put in all your time and energy to solve your problems. But the harvest never comes. You eat, and you get hungry again. You make your money, but you have so many leakages.

Why is that so? If the fault does not lie on your own self, (e.g. failure to plan, inability to manage, lack of brain, physically challenged, no discipline, laziness, lack of drive, etc), then there remains only one other explanation:

” ‘You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labour of your hands.”

It was a matter of priorities. It is true. After I shut out all interest in His house, I never got success. I used up every resource I have, material and immaterial. But yet, I never prospered.

If the course of pursuit is changed, will things change?

God seems to be eager to show the “before and after” effect – how it is like before He effects change, and how it is like after He effects change.

See how He marks the starting point.

” ‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on – consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me,’ declares the Lord.”

True. My blight, my mildew and my hail came in very distinct forms.

At the moment you decide to change course, He wants to mark the “before” point again. To make it perfectly clear:

“From this day on… give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.”

When the building of God’s house begins, He marks the “after” point:

“From this day on I will bless you.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Dear God,

Clearly, You want to make the “God factor” very obvious. You want to eliminate every “man” factor. So that everything that happens after this leaves no doubt for the “God factor”.

I am a believer. I’ve put a marker on Your “before” point. From this day on, bless me. Let me hear what You have said to those who built Your house during the time of Haggai.

Amen.

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