Prosperity, Wealth, and Abundance: It's God's Idea: Dispelling the Satanic Lie of Poverty, Debt, and Lack in the Body of Christ

By Earl E. Thomas

It's God's Idea is a Holy Spirit inspiration on one of the most controversial topics in the body of Christ today. This book is a word-based study on what God has to say on the topic, his purposes and plans for creating wealth and the deceptions from the enemy to try to keep it out of the hands of the body of Christ. After hearing many other views on the topic such as radio, the internet, personal conversation, and many preachers. God's idea is revealed for us to follow. In this book, you will learn the following:

God's idea for wealth in the earth and in heaven.

The many patriarchs in the Old Testament who God made enormously wealthy.

God's intended purpose and power for wealth.

God's two covenants of wealth in scripture.

Jesus Christ the greatest prosperity preacher ever in the history of mankind.

How God said we should take care of our priest and pastors.

God's view on poverty, debt, and lack, and the lies, tricks, and deceptions of our enemy about wealth and why he tries to keep it from the body of Christ.

How Scripture says God gets joy, pleasure, and honor and how he is magnified and acknowledged by seeing his children prosper and the revelation the world gets from God through our wealth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886856002

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Prosperity, Wealth, and Abundance

It's God's Idea: Dispelling the Satanic Lie of Poverty, Debt, and Lack in the Body of Christ

Earl E. Thomas, Jr.

ISBN 979-8-88685-599-9 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88685-600-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Earl E. Thomas, Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

It's God's Idea

The Purpose of Wealth, the Power of Wealth

God Gets Pleasure

The Nations Shall See

The Lord with Us

Obedience, Reverence, Fear, and a Righteous Lifestyle before God Brings Prosperity

Introducing the Unlimited God

Do You Know God?

The Mind of God—What He Thinks about Wealth and Abundance

God's Supernatural Wealth Transfer, Restoration, Provision, Debt Payoff, and Spoil

God Wants Us Living in the Finest, the Fat, the Best, the Good, and the Purest

The Thirty-Billion-Dollar Temple

Biblical Events Where People Brought Wealth (Tribute) to the Men of God

The Clashing of Two Covenants

Jesus Christ, the Greatest Prosperity Preacher Ever in the History of Mankind

God's Richest Men of the Bible

Is God a Lie?

God Gave Them Servants

The Law of Seed Time and Harvest, Cause and Effect, and the God of Reward

The Revelation of When a King Appears

Why Members Are in Need—Failure to Follow Instructions

Understanding God's Thoughts on Giving, the Widow's Mite

You Come Up, Not Them Come Down

I'm Not Your Provider, God Is

The Book of Revelations of Prosperity, Wealth, and Abundance

Dispelling the Satanic Lie of Poverty, Debt, and Lack in the Body of Christ

Introduction to Poverty, Debt, and Lack

Satan, the Master of Deception and the Father of Lies

God's View on Poverty, Debt, and Lack

Two Kingdoms, Three vs. Three

Money Breaks the Satanic Stronghold of Oppression

The Revelation of Why Satan Doesn't Want Us Rich—People Clearly See

God's View on Taking Care of His Priest and Pastors

Getting over the False Prophet

Beware of the Spirit of Error

It's a Funny Deception

Conclusion: The Gift

About the Author

Notes

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified Bible, copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked CEV are taken from the Contemporary English Version®, copyright © 1995 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked EASY are taken from the Easy English Bible, copyright © Mission Assist 2018—Charitable Incorporated Organization 1162807 (Worcestershire, England).

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version (public domain).

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

To Elder Earl E. Thomas Sr., who is with the Lord now, and Evangelist Ruby M. Givens. My loving parents who not only preached Jesus to us but also daily lived a loving, caring, Christian life for us to see. Who always instructed us in the ways of the Lord and gave us incredible insight on how to live life day by day. I will always love you and appreciate God for allowing me to be the one out of millions who God chose to be your son.

To my father in the Lord Apostle Leroy Thompson Sr., without your God-given revelation, this book could not have been possible. Thank you so much for your apostolic grace upon my life for God's idea of prosperity, wealth, and abundance. It just dropped on me after God said, Nobody asked me my opinion. God took your apostolic grace for biblical finances and revelation, and my God-given ability as a writer and composed a book that I believe will bless the world. Your great love and leadership have not only led me deeper into God's will for my life financially, but it has also spiritually developed me into the man I am today. For this, I am humbly and deeply grateful.

To my editor Sara Hayhurst who took a manuscript from a man who had bad sentence structure, bad grammar, Ebonics, and needs a dictionary to spell simple words and turned this into a masterpiece. Thank you so much for your hard work and diligence on this special piece. May God forever bless you for the work you do for the body of Christ.

To Christina Wright, though intimidated in doing your first book illustrations, you took my heart and my vision directly into what the Lord showed me he wanted for this work. The Holy Spirit preordained you to lift your faith and draw exactly what was destined for this work. The culmination of this book was not only for me to step out and publish my first book, but for you to illustrate your first book also. So amazing how our Father orchestrated this piece for the Body of Christ. Thank you so much and may this be the first of many, many more you do for him!

Part 1

Prosperity, Wealth, and Abundance: It's God's Idea

Chapter 1

Introduction

It's true: it is God's idea for his people to live in prosperity wealth and abundance. From the beginning of the Bible in Genesis 2:11–12, where God put gold in the garden of Eden, to the city John saw in Revelation 21, the new Jerusalem where the walls were made of jasper, streets were made of gold, twelve foundations of precious gems, and gates of pearls. God supplied wealth and abundance, a hundred times more of what you gave, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. God supplied more than we can imagine—the best, the purest, the finest, the fat, and the good. He also supplied more than enough, extravagantly—your cup running over with blessings, plenteously, enormously, the spoil of our enemies, and too much!

Please don't take my word for it. Just read the over three hundred different Scriptures of how God supplied excess and abundance: gave spoil, wealth transfers, and wealth restoration or paid off debts and taxes. God made men extravagantly wealthy, positioned men for wealth, built a multibillion-dollar temple, brought men tribute, and gave men and women servants to work for them. Read also how God is against poverty, debt, and lack and had no place for it for his children who were obedient. Read how God's obedient children greatly prospered and how the Abrahamic covenant of wealth flowed from one generation to another. Read how this same covenant made men who were not in the line of Abraham enormously wealthy. Read how God himself lives in such abundant wealth, how he dresses angels in wealth, how he dressed his priest in the Old Testament in wealth, how crops were so plentiful that they could not keep count of them, how God's appearance in the Old Testament was in wealth, and how he gave our fathers such abundant wealth in the Old Testament that it will blow your mind. Read about the great wealth of Abraham and how it flowed through his sons, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and to other men who were in the line of Abraham, such as Job, Solomon, Hezekiah, Boaz, and David, and how we are connected to that same covenant. Read about the many wars that Israel won, collecting massive amounts of wealth—one of them so great that it took three days to gather it all and another one was wealth from a million-man army! Read about the two wealth covenants in the Bible: the covenant of Abraham and the covenant of grace. Read about how Jesus not only took our sins and diseases to the cross, but he took our poverty also. Also see the satanic lie of how he tries to get the body of Christ to live in poverty, debt, and lack, and understand why.

So, come on and let's take a journey! Let me show you by revelation of the Holy Ghost the God of prosperity, wealth, and abundance for his children. Also let me also expose the lies and deceptions of the devil and how he tries to keep us from what God promised us in his Word and see the devastating effect that poverty, debt, and lack has on the body of Christ and the world, and let's expose the spiritual significance behind it.

My Story

In the summer of 2014, I was driving my car while listening to a local radio talk show program. They were talking about the television program preachers of Los Angeles. Each caller was giving his or her opinion on whether preachers should or should not have that kind of wealth, live in expensive houses, or drive expensive cars. Note: I personally never watch or will watch that kind of entertainment even though I do believe in that kind of prosperity for the children of God. I do not believe it should be projected the way they do it on television. Later that same day, another talk show came on, and they talked about the same television program, giving their opinions also—some positive, many negative. As I was driving my car and listening to the radio, the Lord said to me, Everybody is calling into the radio station and giving their opinions about what men and women of God should or should not have. But one thing is wrong about that—nobody has asked me my opinion! Then the Lord said, If they are talking about the Bible and men and women who represent the Bible, shouldn't somebody ask me my opinion? That question led me on over a six-year study and research on what God and the Bible has to say about prosperity, wealth, and abundance. I came up with one conclusion: it's God's idea! And if it's God's idea, who in heaven or on earth has anything to say about it?

Here's what I also did not find: not one Scripture from Genesis to Revelation where God said, required, or commanded his obedient children to live in poverty, debt, or lack. In fact, Scripture states that God said no poverty, no debt, and no lack for his children. The Scriptures that men have used in the past have been taken totally out of context because: (1) they did not read the entire Scripture, (2) they had no understanding of the Scripture they read, (3) they were only repeating something taught to them without any scriptural reference, or (4) they left out words from Scripture. For example, I have heard many people say that money is the root of all evil; however, Scripture actually says, "The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil (1 Tim. 6:10). In fact, the Scripture actually says, Money is the answer to everything (Eccles. 10:19). I have also heard people say God will only give you what you need, not what you want. Yet again, Scripture says, Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Ps. 37:4).

Thus, we have been confused about what God says about prosperity, wealth, and abundance due to improper teaching and Satan blinding our eyes to the truth.

First, we must establish the fact that there's nothing higher than the Word of God. We must believe that God is supreme, and the Bible is his Word from Genesis to Revelation and believe that God and his Word are infallible. Then, when we find conflict with the Word of God versus what we think, have heard, or been taught, we must always conform to what the Word of God says for us to do, how to act, or how to live (Rom. 12:1–3).

I also found out that most people in the body of Christ—about 80–85 percent—have no idea of what the Bible says about prosperity, wealth, and abundance. Most of their comments or opinions are what they have heard someone teach or say. They have absolutely no Scripture reference for their beliefs on this topic. Many who live a prosperous lifestyle are intimidated by other Christians about what they think and their lifestyles of abundance. Many preachers who preach against prosperity have no Scripture reference about what they preach; it's just their opinion or misunderstood and misquoted Scripture.

But there is good news for the body of Christ for those who will receive it. Prosperity, wealth, and abundance is God's idea. Why do I say that? Because Scripture after Scripture after Scripture says that it was his idea, and we must recognize one thing.

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein (Ps. 24:1 KJV).

Scripture says that the earth is the Lord's and he created it. All the precious metals, jewels, stones, natural resources, expensive woods, fish of the sea, birds of the air, beasts of the field, and every person are his and were created by him. Since we are in him and he is our Father, just like a natural child would have access to everything their natural father has, we have access to everything our spiritual Father has also.

Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, God his made you his heir (Gal. 4:7 NLT).

I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work. God's decree. For as the sky soars high above the earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, the way I think is beyond the way you think (Isa. 55:8–9 MSG).

Even though this Scripture does not necessarily apply to us, I am using this Scripture because though we have the mind of Christ, many of us do not think like Christ. The problem is that we expect God to come down to our level of thinking or doing things instead of us going up to God's level of thinking or doing things. The whole Bible is about us taking the Word of God and conforming our minds into the way God thinks, his ways or his opinions. This is what it means to be a Christian—to be, think, act, and live like Christ would live, think, act, or do.

Don't copy the behavior custom of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect (Rom. 12:2 NLT).

Do you see that? Change the way you think! An especially important part of understanding anything you need from God is based on this Scripture. To have a transformed mind is to put off the thoughts, opinions, and suggestions of the world and take on the thoughts, opinions, and suggestions of God or the Word of God. The only way we would ever succeed in our Christian lives is to think like God. Then, the second part of the verse says that you will learn God's will for you.

The main reason that we don't understand prosperity, wealth, and abundance is God's will for us is because we don't change the way we think about prosperity, wealth, and abundance to the way God thinks about prosperity, wealth, and abundance, which is the main reason for this book. This is simply done by asking yourself one question. What does God's Word say on the matter? After you fully study it out, then you will change your previous thinking to the way God thinks. The main problem with this is that we have an enemy who always wants us to think opposite of God. The devil did that to Eve in Genesis 3:5 when he confused her about what God really said. As we will learn in the chapters about deception, this is a major tool of the devil to keep us in bondage. I would like to give you a statement that the Holy Spirit gave to me. There is no king, no queen, no prince, no princess, no emperor, no pharaoh, no czar, no president, no judge, no doctor, no lawyer, no country, no nation, no government, no kingdom, no empire, and no demonic power—not even our own thoughts—who are higher than the Word of God!

This means the Word of God—His thoughts, ways, or actions—are supreme in the entire universe, and nothing is ever above what God says or his opinion! The Scripture that verifies that is as follows:

Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. (Eph. 1:21–22 NLT)

I had to realize that while researching for this book. After being in church for over fifty years and hearing messages on prosperity but finding something vastly different in Scripture, I had to change my mind and my opinions about what the Word of God says.

Scripture tells us how to transform our minds by not letting other opinions, traditions, philosophies, or intellectualism turn us from the teaching of Christ or basically turn us from the Word of God and what it says (Col. 2:8 NLT). Unfortunately, many Christians have been turned from what the Scripture says regarding their prosperity, wealth, and abundance.

"With my great strength and powerful arm I made the earth and all its people and every animal. I can give these things of mine to anyone I choose" (Jer. 27:5 NLT, emphasis added).

Tools—Progressive Revelation

I was taught something by my apostle earlier this year and recently had an awesome revelation of the message in my morning prayer. The message he taught was a progressive revelation, which he stated the Word of God is always expanding into deeper understanding and deeper meaning. If we don't keep up with the progressive revelation, we will be left behind. As I meditated on this, the Spirit said: progressive revelation is like a locomotive that is moving down the tracks at a pace you can walk alongside it. When we were first saved, we stood even with the train on the tracks; however, the train (the Word of God) is always moving, and if we don't keep up, we will be left behind. Then the Spirit saith: the problem with the church is that we have not always walked in progressive revelation; therefore, we have been left way down the tracks. Not that God left us, but the revelation of his Word has left. Then I saw a picture in my spirit of a man standing near the tracks with the train a long way down the tracks. This was a picture of a man still in the body of Christ; however, because he did not keep up with the revelation, he was left behind. This was a confirmation of Ephesians 1:17 and Colossians 1:10.

[I always pray] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may grant you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation [that gives you a deep and personal and intimate insight] into the true knowledge of Him [for we know the Father through the Son]. (Eph. 1:17 AMP)

Also see Colossians 1:10 AMP.

When was the last time you saw a pay phone or a phone booth? Thirty years ago, they were everywhere in the stores, gas stations, restaurants, and on street corners. Because of natural revelation, they are now obsolete and almost a collector's item. Not that phones are obsolete, but the revelation of the cell phone has taken over and dominated the market. Sad to say, much of the church world are still walking spiritually in the pay phone time zone—stuck in a time, stuck in a past revelation, and not walking in progressive revelation. Not that the Word of God could ever be obsolete, but our knowledge, understanding, and insight has become much deeper in today's church.

I said all that to say this: your prosperity, wealth, and abundance is a spiritual revelation of God from the covenant of Abraham to what Christ did on the cross by becoming poverty for us by grace. It is a biblical right to walk in wealth, as you will find out in this book. Whether you receive it or not, it's up to you. Yet if you do not, you will be like the man standing by the tracks with the train long gone.

Tools—I Will

This is probably the most important and deepest revelation I have had while writing this whole book. It is a revelation of I will. In my study for writing this book, the Holy Spirit led me to look up and study several words. Two of the words he said to look up were I will, when God said in Scripture I will, or I shall. If we don't know and understand the revelation of what it means when God says I will or I shall, we will miss much of what Scripture is trying to say to us. Here is what I found when I looked up the word will.

Will—used to express desire, choice, willingness, consent, used to express a command. Used to express frequent, customary, or habitual action or natural tendency or disposition.

God is saying his desire, choice, consent, or natural tendency is to bless his children with wealth. According to Webster's Dictionary, the word shall and the word will are interchangeable, so any Scripture that reads the Lord shall carries the same definition of the Lord's will. Whenever you see in Scripture God say, I shall, or I will, you must refer to these definitions to fully understand what God is saying in Scripture.

Why is it so important to know these words I will and I shall? As I wrote the previous paragraphs late one night and awoke the next morning, the Holy Spirit said something very profound. He said: I will is just like a last will and testament, which is a legal document upheld by the highest court in the land to execute the wishes of the recently departed. In the past, many people have not had a will, or the will was not present. Therefore, other people stole possessions that were not legally theirs according to the will, just like our enemy has stolen wealth that belongs to the body of Christ. A last will and testament gives specific instructions as to what amount, what divisions as in land, what specific addresses, and what monies, clothing, jewelry, etc.

The problem with this is that we fully understand this in the natural, but we don't understand when God says I will, or I shall have the very same authority as a last will and testament. The Word of God, when God says I will or I shall, is a legal document upheld by the highest court in the universe—the kingdom of heaven—with full rights and authority to execute the will of God in the earth, except for one thing. God did not die! God's will is more like a living will where He, the judge, gives us and his angels the authority to execute whenever he says I will, or I shall. We must read what I will or I shall say in Scripture, then apply the definition to it to know it is God's desire, purpose, heart, and nature to do it for us.

The problems we have had in the past is that because we have not had this revelation, Satan has stolen our possessions, prosperity, wealth, and abundance, and then he has lied about it and said that it was his or that it was not God's will for us to live in such wealth. There are two basic problems in what the devil has said: (1) It was God who created it, and, therefore, Satan has no authority over it; and (2) you cannot find anywhere in Scripture where God told us not to live in prosperity, wealth, and abundance. As a matter of fact, the very opposite is true. God told us to live in the prosperity and wealth he created for us. That's why Satan is called the Father of Lies. To know the will of God is to stop saying if the Lord wills regarding your prosperity, wealth, and abundance and to know what God has for you in I will and I shall! Look at what Paul said his prayer was for the church in Colossians 1:9 and Ephesians 1:17–19.

Let me also give you an example from Scripture of how easy it is to know the true will of God.

And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. (Matt. 8:2–3 KJV, emphasis added)

Obviously, this man had an extremely critical situation in his life, yet it was also obvious that he did not know the will of Jesus. Simply by asking Jesus, If thou will, he found out it was his will. The revelation in this Scripture is that Jesus is the Word of God (Rev. 19:13). Just like this man asked Jesus or sought what the Word of God had to say about his situation, we should always seek God's Word on what he says about the situations in our lives and walk in God's will.

It is undeniable by the abundance of Scripture that God not only wants us to know his will but also his mysteries, secrets, grace, wisdom, insight, knowledge, power, love, and the things he has prepared for us, so why don't we walk in them?

Periodically, while reading this book, you will see this symbol (W). This is to remind you to refer to the definitions of I will and I shall when it is related to God doing something for his people.

This book was not necessarily written to tell you how to get wealthy but to let you know that in Christ it is yours already. After being in church for over fifty years, I'm just now learning about what Scripture says is mine regarding prosperity, wealth, and abundance. I have also recently found out that the body of Christ has no idea what God has prepared for his obedient children or their covenant rights to wealth. If you have no idea what Scripture says about your prosperity, how can you obtain something you don't know exists?

Many people have had an inheritance set up for them, yet because they did not have access to the will or did not know that the deceased left them anything, they continue to live a life of lack when the truth is that because of the will, they're already extremely wealthy. This is the case in much of the body of Christ. From the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis to what Christ did on the cross, the body of Christ has untapped wealth that we do not know is ours.

I have heard for years the negative talk and opinions regarding wealth in the body of Christ. We preach the wealth of biblical men like Abraham, Solomon, Hezekiah, Boaz, David, and Job. Then we preach ourselves into the poor house saying things about a vow of poverty or that money is the root of all evil, or we make statements like it's humble to be poor or I don't need all that money. None of these are in the Bible, and we fail to realize it is truly God's idea from the beginning—his desire that his children be wealthy.

Jesus left us with a great assignment that includes preaching the gospel to all the earth as well as feeding and supplying people's needs. Such an enormous job will take enormous finances of multiple billions of dollars to accomplish. How can this money be supplied except it be in the hands of God's people? How can we get it into our hands if we had no idea, it is ours? God gave me the solution. It's God's idea! Transform your mind from no idea to its God's idea and get all of what God promises you in the body of Christ.

To take out any negative thoughts from the beginning, I must set this up first. This book is set upon those in the body of Christ who live a holy and righteous life before God and are obedient to him, putting him first place in their lives and delighting in his commandments. The Scriptures I base this statement on are as follows:

Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who fears the Lord [with awe-inspired reverence and worships him with obedience], who delights greatly in his commandments. (Ps. 112:1 AMP)

There once was a man named Job who live in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. (Job 1:1 NLT)

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matt. 6:33 KJV)

Such a lifestyle and commitment before God commands the blessing upon your life from God.

The Lord asked me a very strange question that blew my mind while writing this book. The Lord asked me, Am I rich? Then the Scripture came to my mind: The earth is the Lord's (Ps. 24:1). Then I said to myself, Everything belongs to him. Then God said to think about the wealthiest people in the earth—how do their kids live, what do they live in, and what do they wear, eat, or drive? Then the following Scripture came to my spirit:

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good thing to them that ask him? (Matt. 7:11 KJV).

Then another Scripture came to my mind where it says we are the heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:16–17).

Then God said, If I am rich and own everything and evil men know how to take care of their children, why are you (the body of Christ) poor? Then he said, If you are heirs of God who owns everything and joint heirs with Christ who inherits everything, why are you poor or lacking and preach a poverty, debt, and lack message?

The modern church needs to leave the traditions of denominations, rules and regulations, the lies of the devil, old wives' tales, and what mama said clichés to move into what God has for his people today. We must transform our minds to what God's Word says and not to anything else! We must put God's Word in first place and let it be the final authority in our lives!

God's Opinion

What we must understand is God's opinion is the first, last, and the only opinion that matters in the whole universe. Whatever we think about a certain matter, regardless of what it is, is null and void if it is not in line with God's word. By the time you finish this book, you will understand that, just like it is his will for us to be free from sin and to live in health, it is his will for us to live in prosperity, wealth, and abundance also, along with a long list of other things he obtained on the cross for us.

This book is an attempt to let you know from Scripture what is yours from the Abrahamic covenant to what Christ did on the cross. Just like we have many benefits from our jobs, such as salary, healthcare, vacation, sick days, company car, dental plan, eye care plan, and profit sharing, there are many, many benefits that come with God's gift of salvation (Ps. 103:1–2). We are taught from Scripture to understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ (Philem. 1:6 NLT). The body of Christ is not walking in many of these benefits because of their lack of knowledge or their rejection of them. This book is an attempt to let you know your benefits in Christ and of the prosperity and wealth he wants you to live in.

Tools—Put Word on It

I have coined a new phrase that I hope will go around the world one trillion times! That's right. It's put Word on it! I have decided to use and live by this phrase all the days of my life. It basically means whatever opinion, comments, or conversations you have about the Bible, you must be able to back it up with Scripture. After being in church for more than fifty years and writing this book, I have seen and heard so many things the body of Christ is off base with—so many things we do and say that are not scriptural, such as money is the root of all evil or I'm an old sinner saved by grace. Our enemy's ploy is to take catchy sounding phrases that sound good but are major deceptions to what the real Word of God says. Many of these phrases we are taught and say, without even thinking about them, and are led down the road of—as in this case, poverty, debt, and lack—and don't know how we got there. We are led into sickness, disease, and destruction because we listen to and say things that do not align with the Word of God. Some things people say the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us are wrong because when we hear it, there is a funny feeling in our spirit being—sort of like a questioning that is in our inner man. I invite you to apply this phrase to your daily life by always allowing the Holy Spirit to lead you to the truth of God's Word by putting Word on it! After all, isn't that the reason the Father gave us the Holy Spirit?

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. (John 16:13 KJV, emphasis added)

Establishing One Thing

In all our pride and arrogance for trying to control what God has created and stating our opinion on how it should or should not be used, we must remember one thing. God is God; we are not! He does not need our ideas, opinions, or comments about anything he has already written in Scripture. He is God, he created it all, and he can do whatever he wants to with what he created! (Jer. 27:5; Ps. 24:1; Hag. 2:8; Isa. 45:11–12).

The Parable

Jesus often use parables (pictorial stories) in his sermons to help people to understand what he was preaching about, so let me use one the Holy Spirit gave me.

There was once a young man who graduated from college and worked for a worldwide, multibillion-dollar company in New York. This man worked very hard day and night, and he gained recognition in his company very fast. Yet he was still at a very low salary and had not been promoted after several years of working with the company, even though he was at the top in his region of sales and marketing and was running a large section of the company. One day, one of the senior executives retired, and there was a nationwide search to replace him. Since this young man already outperformed everybody in the corporation, he had a chance at the job. They gave him free transportation to Los Angeles, a condo, and many other corporate benefits. However, this man had to leave his car in New York because it was an older model and could not make the trip. Upon arriving for his new job, this young man walked to the bus stop and rode the bus to and from work every day. Trying to get acclimated to his new job, he worked day and night and did not have time to shop for a new car. One day, a torrential rain came, and because of the weather, the bus was twenty minutes late. By the time he got to work, he was soaked from head to toe and had little time to dry off because he was already late for a large corporate meeting. He sat through the two-hour meeting totally embarrassed by his condition.

After the meeting, his immediate supervisor had a private meeting with him asking why was he so late and wet? After the young man told how he had left his car in New York and had been taking the bus, his boss looked at him very strangely and said, Haven't you looked in your garage? The young man said, No, what for? I don't have a car! Then his boss said, The contract you signed with us included not only the job with a $250,000 salary, a condo, health insurance, dental insurance, three weeks paid vacation, five sick days a year, five new suits a year, and profit sharing, but it also included a brand-new, 2022 Mercedes-Benz, which includes maintenance every six months, insurance, gas vouchers, and a new one every other year. I had a man put yours in your garage two months ago before you got here. All this was in the contract you signed—you need to read it!

The problem with prosperity, wealth, and abundance is more than 80 percent of the body of Christ has signed the covenant of being God's child, but they have not read the covenant, the Bible, concerning their benefits. Even Scripture tells us not to forget that serving God has benefits and not to forget any of them!

"Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul, And do not forget any of His benefits" (Ps. 103:2 AMP, emphasis added).

The Bible is a list of covenant benefits signed in the blood of an animal in the Old Testament and the blood of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. This book is an attempt to show you one small part of these covenant benefits from your covenant agreement!

In Matthew 6:33, Scripture says to seek first the kingdom of God. Before we receive any benefit that God has for us, he must be first place in our lives in everything we do. Only then will we be pleasing to God and receive what he has for us.

At times, while you are reading this book, some of the ways I come against people who are against prosperity, wealth, and abundance is quite strong. While writing this book, the Lord told me my assignment of this book is:

"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8b KJV, emphasis added).

Even though Christ has set us free from our enemies' tactics, people have not known, rejected, or preached a watered-down message from what the Scriptures say we should live. My assignment is to prove to you, Scripture by Scripture, what God's idea is for us to live in as well as how Satan deceives the church to live at a much lower level than God has provided. I do not apologize for the strong comments I make at times. They are like the many strong comments Jesus made to the Pharisees and Sadducees when they tried to come against what he was odiously trying to do, and they reveal the true ignorance of those who come against what Scripture says that we can have.

He Came to Do More Than Just to Save Us

On the cross, Jesus brought us an array of many different things—salvation being the greatest gift he brought. However, after over sixty years of being in the church, I have just become aware of and rarely heard taught