There are TEN core spiritual roots of poverty. They have been preached, taught, written about with full on prosperity ministries built on these truths. They ARE all true, but Jesus warned that if you cast out a demon (a lie bought that is torn down by good teaching) and don't replace that empty space with something, the demon will return with seven others worse than him.
This is what has gone on in many poor communities. They have heard it, read it and tried it. For a brief moment it was of benefit. Light came. And then because the cultural and behavioral strongholds, they weren't changed they slid back into poverty. Hopelessness rose up. The dreams they had were deferred. Hope deferred made the heart sick. They became immune to hearing truth. "Heard it, Tried it, it didn't work".
You can know, believe and activate all the spirituals regarding getting out of poverty, but if you do nothing about the cultural, mental and behavioral, it would have been better you never heard.
Here they are, No Surprises. What makes me sad is there is a preacher or two who is going to jump on these and decide to preach a series on the Spirituals. He will have a ministry time, yell loud, cast out all kinds of demons, pray in tongues really long and send the poor folks on their way to fall right back in the pit. It's easier than tackling the blatantly ignored causes. I offer them with fear of that potential:
1. Being bound by a Spirit of Poverty. Rich and poor can be oppressed by this. It's the idea of "I don't have enough". It focuses on the impossibles in your life. A miser can have a spirit of poverty. Poverty people are more bound by price than value. It is a real spirit. It can and should be cast out. BUT it must be replaced by right behavior and attitudes or worse will return.
2. Living under the curse. Always getting the lemon. Everything breaks down. Nothing lasts. Sickness and disease plagues your life and robs you. Money just flows thru your hands and there's nothing in it. Being aware of God's passion to provide and protect you is critical. Study it out. AND, being in line with curse breaking behaviors from Deut 28 and Malachi 3. YET..one can have the curse broken off and then return back UNDER the curse.
3. Diminishing God. Making our poverty, problems and situations so big in our eyes that it diminishes GOD. Many make God smaller than he is by failing to recognize his provision and protection in abundance in our lives. This results in a lack of thankfulness. Thanklessness blocks God from providing.
4. Despising the Word of GOD. This one is hard. It is a cause. We say, we would never despise the word of God, yet, we refuse to believe it when it comes to protection and provision. We don't take our stand on HIS word. We become lukewarm in our belief...and unbelief is equal to despising. This is one I have recently had to deal with.
5. Praying amiss. The selfish, greedy prayers of saints stops GOD cold from providing and protecting. Prayers focused on wealth, fame, glory and other selfish pursuits will go unanswered. In fact, the opposite is true. When we pray and rehearse our problems to God, complaining about our situation, that becomes amiss. Pray to the Omniscient Father. He already knows and understands. Pray in hope, joy, peace and deliverance. That is the prayer that gets results. Otherwise it's "a miss"!
6. Deceit Fraud and Vanity. This one is hard, but I have seen it. IF you trust God for your provision and protection to get you our of poverty, you won't need shortcuts. You won't need to manipulate people and things. Gaming God is always a bad plan. Keep yourself tender in this area and when that little voice inside you says NO, stop. You don't want to curse yourself. Ill gotten gain may offer short term relief but in the end will lead to damage in your spiritual life, your reputation and short circuit your future prosperity.
7. A rebellious heart. It always starts with an attitude of "I don't care but..." It causes people to not do what they clearly heard GOD tell them to do and the consequences are staggering. RE - BAALing is returning to Baal. It's idolatry. IF we can learn to walk by faith and not by sight we will experience first hand the pure joy of living in pure obedience.
8. Pride. Too proud to ask for help. To ask for direction. To ask for correction. To accept a lesser place in the short term. Pride is the ROOT of an entitlement mentality that traps people in poverty. "I Deserve This". I'm worth it. That somehow we are OWED prosperity because of our education, background, upbringing or evening up for past slights. This prideful spiritual trap bemoans the world, whines about how hard life is and wishes it weren't. It's a demon. Pride and a victim mentality are closely linked.
9. Lack of Discernment. Poor people many times are the easiest to fool. They are desperate. They are grasping at straws. Yet above all the one who would escape from poverty must have a triple helping of discernment. Just because it sounds logical doesn't mean that it is. Just because it sounds appealing, doesn't mean it's right. Being unable to discern truth from error is the root of all kinds of grief and poverty. Yet, even though it's a spiritual cause, it's not taught much. The problem is we lie to ourselves, we lie to others and that makes us vulnerable to lies. When we receive a lie, it will put us in chains. Tell the truth and learn to discern the truth. It's a spiritual gift. Don't believe EVERY spirit that comes in the name of the Lord. My biggest ripoffs in life came at the hands of people who claimed to be my brother in Christ.
10. Failure to Tithe. I know that got your attention Pastor. Yup, there are blessings and curses according to Malachi that we need to know, but there much bad teaching, much bad understanding and I won't try to dismantle the whole thing here. My advice would be, GIVE into whatever is BUILDING the Kingdom of GOD in your life. That may be your church. It may not be. IF some ministry is building the Kingdom of God in your life you owe a part of your tithe to that. One last thing, the concept of seed faith is so badly taught it has impoverished many. IF you haven't tithed, you have no seed to sow. So claiming your tithe to be your seed is unscriptural. BUT, even if you are part of a fellowship that teaches this badly, Tithe anyway. God will give you revelation and he will honor his word.
Those are the ten most obvious. There may be others, but I know these are certain spiritual roots of poverty. Funny how most of the western church spends most of their time on number ten. AND no time at all on the Blatantly Ignored Causes of Poverty that I have outlined. This is the last of the series. I will compile this into a single teaching and make it available on line. I offer notes and consultation to any Pastor, Teacher, Prophet or Apostle with the courage to get their people out of poverty and lack. It can be done. But first YOU must believe the truth.
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