"Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!' declares the LORD" (Jeremiah 23:1).The word "shepherds" in the above verse is not a noun; it is a verb, and has the meaning of one who rules over another, leader,one who is to care for and nourish others. The shepherds depicted above are causing those they lead to become lost, destroyed, scattered and leading them into perishing. These sheep they tend are not theirs but the the "sheep of my pasture!' declares the LORD." Many have raised themselves up as "leaders", "pastors"'; great orators and espousing God's Word, yet do not teach the "truth." Prosperity theology has so permeated the church that we have been led astray thinking that God wants us all to have abundance of material things, money, fame, and fortune. That is so far from the truth. That theology is not what Jesus is all about! Jesus came to bring to us the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God to mankind that has within it the salvation from our sins that are keeping us apart from Him. His love, the love of Jehovah God, the God of all creation came to our world to do just that, and that is exactly what He did, and all we need do is accept that sacrifice given to us by means of the cross.
The signs and wonders Jesus performed gave proof to the Israelites, and by de facto to us, that He was the promised Messiah, the One they were looking to come and those signs and wonders were to fulfill the prophecy about the coming One. "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,...come down to make your name known to your enemies...For when when you did awesome things that we did not expect..." (Isaiah 64: 1a; 2b; 3a). In today's worldview, the post-modern culture, it is all about "me", I need to be in charge of myself, it is very narcistic culture: but nothing new. "You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me" (Deuteronomy 8:17). Here then is then is the crux of prosperity theology, "But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today" (Deuteronomy (8:18). God, therefore, gives us the ability, that means that we with that ability can make wealth. God is not against wealth, He is against obtaining that wealth through deceptive means. Prosperity theology is deceptive and so are those espousing such "garbage."
We who are the sheep of His pasture follow Him and allow Him to lead us and guide us and accept all that He allows to come into our lives. "It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy....Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" (Romes 9: 16,18). The question is about our faith. Do we really believe in the sovereignty of God? That He will never lead, or allow us to wander away from His guidance, into anything that He won't be there to seek us out and carry us back home to His care. Don't allow anything other than what the Bible has to say about anything to lead us astray. Remember this in reading the Word of God, context determines meaning. That rules is the overarching rule to the truth.
Daily Prayer:
Father I thank you for being the loving Shepherd who cares for His sheep. Thank you for bringing me into the fold of Your flock. Give me discernment and wisdom that I might not fail you and follow after those who speak so eloquently yet are liars. Use my life to bring to others the "truth" of your word, that you came to save all who would accept the truth that you are the payment for our debt of sin. Amen
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You are very right, this "name it and claim it" theology that has permeated the Church in America has been with us all too long. Sadly, this theology has spread its wings among us all as our new political ideology has shifted from equal opportunity to equal outcome. When the Puritans settled into this land they understood that man was a hopeless sinner but that even so God required us to work hard in all we did to honor him. Hard work, among other things, proved beneficial to many who through their work earned benefits like wealth. But prosperity was a benefit of their hard work, a result of their hard work. They earned it no other way, certainly they did not deserve it on their own because nothing changed the fact that they were sinners. Today we forget the process and just look at the results and we want the results for ourselves, but without the process.
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