UNITE and CONQUER
GOD on VACATION. How
about those trying times when we are tempted to look at the cases where there
is no victory in sight or when it seems that God is not operating? Times where,
as Steve Brown (Key Life) says, God seems to have gone on vacation. My wife
Carol reminded me the error and danger lies in judging the promises of God by
the manifestation in the natural, the outside world. What we should be doing is
to judge them by scripture only as the Bereans did (see Acts 17:11). The rest will take care of itself!
The TENDER TRAP. I
have wanted to believe in prosperity in the past but I had also felt a bit of
fear that it was wrong, i.e. unscriptural. My thought was maybe humans were not
able to handle power and riches; even if these gifts were from God. The trap of
loving the blessing and the creation instead of the creator seemed too
dangerous.
The Scripture spoke! It told me (again) not to fear
or be anxious over anything but just bring the concerns to God (see Philippians 4:6) and He would supply all
the answers if I truly sought them (see James1:5-6).
On the spiritual level God dealt with this so swiftly that
it was burned forever in the furnace of purification. God filled me with a love
so great that that I knew that any riches were negligent compared to it! When
you are really there you know that the material gains of the world will not
sway you to worship them. They are just at your feet for your use in the glory
of God.
The HORSE BEFORE THE
CART. The attacks on the message of prosperity suddenly started to make
sense too. Of course! Prosperity is NOT be the foundation of faith but it
certainly is the crowning pinnacle. Well, people that don’t understand that
think they have it the other way around. But who are we to judge the hearts of
other believers (see Matthew 7:3)?
The cart is not before the horse. Just as Heaven is not our
goal but it is the ultimate destination. For what is Heaven if not full
prosperity? Riches, health and all those things are what many Christians are
fighting throughout the division of the Church.
Meanwhile Satan is laughing. It makes all the sense that
Satan attacks us saying that this message of God providing good things is wrong;
that we shouldn’t have prosperity on earth etc. This is not such a neutral
stance as one may think. The truth is that when some buy into that false
doctrine that the deceiver pushes on us first they’ll be one step closer for to
later buying that we don’t get Heaven either. Really? Satan cannot change
our reality – we’re saved, going to Heaven and have a full life free of sorrow
– he can only lie about it as much as possible.
Plus it strikes me that we don’t any health, wealth and rest
in Heaven. I mean over there everything is already perfect and guaranteed. So
if the Bible speaks about those things then it must be for our life here, not
for the life hereafter.
FREEDOM of
IMPRESSION. As I grasped this, a lot of things started to feel differently
even though nothing had changed on the outside. Through my church I had been
becoming more sensitive to the urgency that is out there; an urgency to gather,
to go forth, to go into the world as a unified church. I had heard this before
many times before (see Matthew 3:10) and felt I was constantly loosing the
battle, I wasn’t doing enough.
The funny thing was that, this time, there was the sense of
urgency but the sense of peace at the same time. I felt I could deal with
urgency without running around like a headless chicken. This is not a
contradiction and only authority could explain it. Yes I may not be doing
enough but it’s OK. God is in charge.
God is the only force where total freedom leads to total
obedience. The future is still unknown. Very unknown. But it’s safe and it’s
beautiful!
Andy De Campos
