A Life Worth Living (3 page)

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But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things [including material things] shall be added to you
.

So God is not against us having material possessions, but it’s wrong to think that an abundance of possessions will determine the quality of our lives. Jesus Himself said in Luke 12:15 that a man’s life “
does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses”
.

God not only wants you to have a thousand times more, He also wants you to have quality of life — a life worth living. Even though God wants you to have an abundance of things, a life worth living is made up not only of an abundance of things.

Your Ground Can Yield Plentifully Or It Can Be Barren

In Luke 12:16, Jesus began to share the parable of the rich fool with the crowd:

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Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully
.

Let’s ponder that. Whenever you find that the ground — or your career or your relationships — is yielding forth plentifully, what is that a sign of? It’s a sign of God’s blessing. It’s obvious that God blessed this rich man. His ground brought forth plentifully.

This principle can also apply to nations. Look at North Korea and South Korea. I’ve been to South Korea. It has some of the most tremendous Christian churches in history. One church in Seoul has a congregation of nearly a million people! I’ve been to the prayer mountain that is a part of that church. In fact, the Lord spoke to me on that prayer mountain years ago. I’m now seeing the results of what I prayed for on that mountain. Let me tell you that South Korea is blessed because of the Christians there. The ground of South Korea is yielding plentifully — spiritually and physically. The soil is rich and fertile. The economy is very strong.

But a few miles away from that prayer mountain just across the border is North Korea. Now, North Korea can hardly feed its people. I am told that the soil there is not very fertile. Why is it that the soil in South Korea can produce healthy crops and yet just across the border, the soil in North Korea can hardly feed its people? They both share the same sun and the same rain, but they produce very different results. One country is blessed, the other is not.

It’s obvious in Luke 12:16 that the man was blessed. But he did not know that it was the blessing of God. When your career is blessed, who is blessing you? When your marriage is blessed, who is blessing you? When your business is blessed, who is blessing you? The Lord is blessing you! The same scripture goes on to say in verse 17:

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And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’

Notice the word “I” used here? If you count the number of times the personal pronoun “I” is used in the three verses from 17 to 19, you’ll find that the rich fool used the word “I” six times.

Let’s read the passage again:

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And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’
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So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.
¹⁹
And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”
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But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’

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“So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

This shows his preoccupation with self and earthly pursuits. Why? Because in the Bible, “6” is the number of man and man is earthly. So this man was chasing only earthly things to be rich for himself.

God Wants You To Be Rich Towards Him

I’ve said before that God is not against you having things, but God wants you to be rich towards
Him
. It’s called “prosperity with a purpose”. Believe that this year, you will experience not just a thousand times more, but you will be a thousand times more rich towards God. All of a sudden, there’ll be things in your life you’ve never had before. You’ll travel to places you never expected to go. It may be for a holiday or for work or for ministry… it may be all three! But let us not forget that as we see abundant increase in our lives, the purpose is to be rich towards God. That’s why it’s called “prosperity with a purpose”.

The love of money is the root of all evil, not money itself.

If the quality of a man’s life depends on how much he has, then the lives of the rich and famous — from movie stars to pop stars to sports stars — would be examples to us on how we too should live. But how many of them are truly happy? How many of them lead comfortable and balanced lives? How many of them stay married to one wife for more than 10 years? There are people with lots of money who don’t seem to be enjoying life, who seem to be searching for love in all the wrong places.

Rich And Poor Have Problems With Money

People think that only the rich have problems with money. That’s just not true. We must eradicate that myth, that religious idea that came to us from religious circles. Perpetrators of this myth tell us, “Be careful about becoming rich or you’ll end up with money problems, marriage problems and health problems.” “It’s just not worth it!” they say.

Let me tell you that there are people who are poor who covet money. The Bible does not say, “Money is the root of all evil.” 1 Timothy 6:10 has been misquoted too many times. This scripture says that the “
love
of money”
is the root of all evil, not money itself. There are poor people who think of money all day long. They sit at home and worry about money all day. They are full of anxiety about money. When they wake up in the morning, the first thing on their mind is, “We have no money… we need to get more money!” They don’t work for fulfilment or for the glory of God, they work to get money to buy food and clothing. Even when they don’t have money, they worry about money. That is the
love
of money.

You don’t have to be rich to have the love of money. If it’s riches that make people love money, then Abraham, Joseph and David would have loved money. The Bible tells us that these men were rich, but they loved God, not money. There are many people like Abraham, Joseph and David who love God, and who use their money to worship Him.

A poor man steals one watermelon, a rich man steals a whole truck of watermelons!

However, there are people who when their level of wealth increases, divorce their wives and stop attending church. There are also people who are busy finding their way to Viva Las Vegas! They are focused on getting rich quickly. Research has shown that people who obtain quick money, such as winning a lucky draw or lottery, also lose it quickly. Some people might say, “Aha! See that proves that money destroys people.” Well, no, the Bible says in Proverbs 1:32 (KJV) that prosperity destroys
fools
.

Good People Use Money For Good Purposes

On the other hand, there are people who, when they experience a sudden blessing, use the blessing to sponsor more missionaries around the world. They use their wealth to sponsor gospel rallies. They use it to bless orphanages. They use it to bless the work of God. A good man will see money on the floor, pick it up and give it to a good cause. The money then becomes good money. But if an evil man picks it up, it becomes evil money.

Of course, there are always rich people who are covetous as well. There are rich people who are small-hearted and selfish. One difference between a poor man and a rich man is this: A poor man steals one watermelon, a rich man steals a whole truck of watermelons! You see, the capacity for good and evil increases with an increase in wealth. So money itself is not evil, just the users of money, the people through whom money flows.

Money reveals what’s in your heart. If you are a good person, an increase in your wealth will reveal the good that’s in your heart. If you are a bad person, more money will reveal the evil that has been in your heart all along. Some people don’t commit adultery simply because they don’t have the money to do it, but their heart is focused on it. The moment they acquire money, they divorce their wives. Their wives don’t see them any more and their children don’t see them any more.

Some Need Preparation Before Prosperity

It’s not that God doesn’t want to bring money into some people’s lives. God sees that the characters of some people need adjustment before they can be entrusted with more wealth. Their hearts need more grace from God so that the fruits of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23) — can be made manifest in their lives. Only then will they be ready for God’s increase — even a thousand-fold increase.

God wants to give you a thousand times more, but He loves you too much to let the thousand times more destroy you. God loves you too much to let the thousand times more blessing move you out of the position of favour, the place of great blessing. If you open your heart to the grace of God and you’re a man or woman of integrity, when God blesses you with much, you will think of other people you can bless. My friend, it all comes back to the heart.

Let’s look at the rich man in Luke 12 again:

¹⁶
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
¹⁷
And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’

This man’s heart was selfish. When his ground brought forth plentifully, he started thinking of himself. He began to talk to himself, saying, “What shall I do? I have no more room. Okay, this is what I’ll do: I’ll build bigger barns. I’ll build bigger storehouses and I’ll…” His response to wealth was “I… I… I…”

Whatever the amount of money that comes into your life, tithe. Because what you tithe on becomes holy and what is holy is powerful.

Tithe The 10 Per Cent And Sanctify The 90 Per Cent

Tithing is a simple act of faith in God and His promises. Abraham is a great example of a man of real faith. In Genesis 14, we find that after his victory over four kings, Abraham met Melchizedek, king of Salem (who is also a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ).

Verse 20 says:

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And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all
.

Abraham was the first person to tithe to the Lord and we know that God blessed Abraham with riches.

In Romans 11:16, Paul says:

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For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches
.

If the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy. When you give one-tenth of what you have to God, it is holy to the Lord. (Leviticus 27:30) The word “tithe” in Hebrew literally means “one-tenth”. And when the first 10 per cent — or firstfruit — is holy, the rest is holy. It becomes sanctified. And what the Lord sanctifies, the devil cannot touch!

Malachi 3:10 says:

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Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it
.

Why does God ask you to tithe on your salary? Not for
His
sake, but for
your
sake. Generally speaking, in the world, money is actually abused. More and more evil people are using money for more evil purposes. But as a child of God, when you receive money, you tithe. Why? Because Romans 11:16 tells us that if the firstfruit is holy, the rest is holy. If the 10 per cent is holy, the 90 per cent will also be sanctified. You may ask, “But, Pastor Prince, why do I want my salary to be sanctified?” One simple reason is this: The devil cannot touch what is holy. The devil can only touch what is dirty or unsanctified.

It is not an unreasonable request that God makes of you. God does not ask for 100 per cent of your salary. He’s the only senior partner who owns everything and sponsors everything, and yet, asks from you, the junior partner, His share of only 10 per cent! Even then, the junior partner often continues to negotiate with the senior partner. There is no condemnation in that, but it means that you miss out on the rewards.

God doesn’t fall off his throne just because you forgot to tithe. But if you don’t tithe, you are just not positioning yourself for greater blessings from God. God wants to bless you because He loves you. And if you are able to tithe, it also means that you are able to keep money as a servant and God as your God, rather than the other way around.

Don’t Wait For Your Ship To Come In Before You Start Tithing

There will always be someone who says, “Pastor Prince, when my ship comes in, I’ll build God a church!” I have had people say to me down through the years, “When my ship comes in… When I win the lottery… When I win my lucky draw… I’ll tithe and I’ll build God the biggest church in Singapore!” Forget those promises. The test is this: Now, when your small boat comes in, when your sampan comes in, tithe on that. Don’t wait for the big one. If you cannot tithe on what you have now, forget about tithing when your ship comes in!