Just an opinion based on seeing so many build up their ministries and not CHRIST's exclusively. If attainment and lofty goals must consume one’s focus, then all such pursuits must be based on CHRIST. Paul went from having everything to Persecutions’ extreme…AFTER he came to know JESUS. After he was apprehended by GOD on the road to Damascus. Is this somehow backwards? Am I incorrectly trained to look for the favor and the increase as a constant? And is such education errant? I will point out that for every Christian pastor, teacher, evangelist and so forth who speaks Health, Wealth and Prosperity…should first voice a disclaimer. Why? Isn’t GOD the same yesterday, today and forever? Isn’t HIS message also the same? So why in this land of ever decreasing opulence compared to the world, is this message manipulated about? Because it sells. Because it focused on PART of the truth…not the whole. YES. GOD will and does bless us but to only focus on that seems inadequate to me at best. HIS message is the same to those in Darfur, Afghanistan, Siberia, China, Canada, Indonesia and the United States. So back to the disclaimer so to speak. If such messages are to be preached then spiritual health, spiritual wealth and spiritual prosperity should be FIRST and FOREMOST! Why again? Because “Seek ye first the kingdom of GOD and all these things will be added unto you”. What I hear is a dual approach message for todays church pulpits. “Get GOD and get ready to be blessed!” THough true, it is taken out of context to speak too often to material gain.MOST of the apostles and disciples in HIS time on earth met with intense persecution as did Paul. How then is Christianity to be a comfort zone message by too many? Because of the spiritual wealth of words HE has given me, I can make it through. Should HE also grant me PHYSICAL wealth then so be it. But I do not want to speak and have the physical aspects of favor attached to my message...just to get an “Amen Brother!” or “That’s right!” I do not preach to men as such but FOR God! With that priority, humility must -- must -- must be that characteristic I want WELL before health, wealth or prosperity. Remember “and all these things will be added unto you”. So lets preach 95% of the time on seeking GOD first and helping others do just that…rather than give OR PERMIT hype and emotional injections on all that someone tells me “GOD wants to give you all this”. HE took it all (material things)away from the vast number of Old and new Testament saints who put HIM first, didn’t HE? Martyrdom was their likely end. Still is for the vast majority of countries around the globe…but not in Western civilization. Hence, my heart aches for the Lost who have missed hearing the 5% of the time “Gospel of Sacrifice” speech because the Health, Wealth and Prosperity message was vigorously sung much louder by the saints who are choosing to preach to the itching ears.
