BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Bible Basics God Wants Me to Be Rich

The statement below is the tagline of the article that follows. Are some religious leaders using the bad economy to enrich themselves?

Joel Osteen preaches the virtues of prosperity -- for himself as well as his congregation. A look at the man who may well be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the slumping economy.

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I've got nothing bad to say about Joel Osteen. Sure God wants him to be rich, God wants everyone of us to be rich but if we do not claim it or go after it, it will never happen.

In his book "Your Best Life Now" he talks about the power of words. For instance if you say "Look at that house. I would never be able to afford that or be able to live in it" then that is exactly what happened.

I do not tithe to my church every week simply because I can not afford it and according to my beliefs, that is blocking me from getting blessings. I should be giving God my best in which He should get the first ten percent of my paychecks before anything else is done with the money. I don't do that and so I get blessings blocked. When He does bless me with money, it is just what I need to pay an overdue bill or get my vehicle fixed and I get nothing more. Say what you want about that, but that is my belief system.

That being said, if we live in such hard times but not hard enough for people to drop a fifty or so in Joel Osteen's collection plate, well good for them and good for Joel.

Everyone can Live Their Best Life Now but everyone has to believe they can or they won't. Nobody has to put money in his collection plate or Joyce Meyer's collection plate, in fact when they travel and do their shows, the shows are all free to get in.

God wants Joel Osteen to be rich and because of that, he is. If Joel didn't fully believe that, we wouldn't be talking about him today.

I don't necessarily think that it is wrong for a preacher who is a good speaker to earn a lot of money. I would like to see where the money goes, besides running the ministry. I would like to see what minstries and charities are supported.

I believe in tithing. It shows that I know that it all belongs to God. It shows that money is not the most important thing in my life and I trust God to supply what I need. (What I need may not be what I want at the moment.)

I haven't heard him speak so I really can't say whether his message is true Bible teaching or not.
One sentence in the article did catch my attention.

"It's God's will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty. It's God's will for you to pay your bills and not be in debt. It's God's will for you to live in health and not in sickness all the days of your life."



God's idea of prosperity is more like peace, joy, salvation, security in God's love, not lots of money in the bank although the Bible does teach wise use of money. I do believe that it is God's will for us not to be in debt. "The debtor is servant to the lender" "Owe nothing but the continuing debt of love." That doesn't mean we are to be rich in monetary terms.It means that we are to live within our means.
I'm not so sure that it is God's will that everyone live in health and not sickness. Paul had a problem - "thorn in his side" and asked God to remove it. The answer was "My grace is sufficient."

That is not necessarily true. Did you know that there are more verses in the Bible about money and finance than there are about prayer?

Thats very true but they aren't about becoming rich. They are about using money wisely and not becoming overly concerned with the amount of money we have.

Yes, I will have to agree with that.

See, this is where I have been having belief problems lately.

If God wants us to be happy and content, then why has he caused, or allowed so much horror to happen to my family as of late.

My son being born autistic is nothing that any of us could have caused. The fact that his brain worksd the way it does is at least partially to do with the problems that we are having now. And we are not talking little problems, we are talking please let me keep my son out of jail problems. And of course money DOES figure into all of that, becuase we are dealing with hospital bills, therapists, psychiatrists, etc.

I struggle daily not to blame God for everything - and some days I do just go ahead and blame him, because who else am I going to blame - fate? Same thing in my book.

So obvisouly God does NOT want me to be rich, and I think he wants me to be halfway insane along with it.

I don't believe God causes these things to happen, We are all put here to make our own choices, I can't blame
God for my father raping me I can't blame God for my 13yr old son getting killed. My Father made the choice to rape me. My sons killer made the choice to kill my son. Disease are not caused by God. just my opinions.

Michelle,
I don't pretend to have the answer to what you have been going through. But I know that God is going through it with you. He can give you strength and even peace.

I know that God does not cause the awful things that happen in life. He does allow them to happen - He is in control of everything.

I think money problems as well as sickness started way back in the garden of Eden. Sin entered the world and so did sickness and death. That's what we can blame. Sin, Satan, maybe Eve.

On the up side. The Bible tells us that we are destined for a perfect place. The new Heavenand Earth will have no sickness, no sin, no sadness.

Michelle,

I agree with Lynne and when I went through a healing and deliverance seminar, we learned that sickness and diseases arre part of generational curses. There is a pastor in Georgia named Henry Wright and he has a book called "A More Excellent Way" Spiritual Roots of Disease - Pathways to Wholeness

He has the Pleasant Valley Church in Thomaston, GA. They are 4178 Crest Highway orBellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!