Beware Of Covetousness!

And he said unto them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses”

Luke 12:15

Recently, I was opportune to attend a webinar that was meant to be about Kingdom building. It was about making more money for use in the Kingdom of God (or perhaps in my opinion, making more money from the Kingdom of God). The organiser re-echoed a statement supposedly from a respectable Clergyman implying that without money you will not have a Christian ministry to run. There was a lot of pep talk and use of bible verses to garnish what I felt was simply covetousness. We were shown pictures of what a great ministry looks like and a great life – big houses, big accomplishments, with sprinkles of humanitarian work done in less developed countries. There was a promise to teach attendees how to make more money using social media, writing, public speaking and other channels in the name of the “Kingdom”. The call to action as I expected was for attendees to purchase a particular coaching program which is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars but has been highly subsidized to barely a few thousands of dollars.

While I sincerely love the organizers and I want to believe they are Christians, I logged out of the program earlier because my spirit could not bear it any longer. I felt like being fed junk food or should I say, contaminated food. I’m sure you have been there yourself when you had that feeling of “something is not right here”. That was my feeling. While praying and scanning my heart with God, I received that bible verse – “Beware of greed”.

By way of my economic status, I believe God has blessed me enough to afford what may be regarded as luxury humanly-speaking. So I am not against having money but against money having me. Particularly I felt that it was insulting to think that the spreading of the gospel is dependent on us going all out to get money. Jesus taught otherwise when he asked his disciples In Luke 22:35 “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing”, they answered. When God sends us, He provides because all the gold and silver belong to Him. The Kingdom comes first and all other things are additional at God’s discretion.

There has been an increasing Westernization (forgive me!) of the gospel with an overemphasis on material prosperity and wealth accumulation. We quote that through prosperity shall the kingdom be spread abroad with money as the central idea. It is little wonder we have so much religion but little godly influence in our communities. We talk so much about the Kingdom but people are not experiencing the Spirit and power of the Kingdom. We have grown to be selfish in the name of self-love, greedy in the name of prosperity, we hurt each other, even taking advantage of and talking down on the less privileged if it means that we can acquire more fame, popularity, money or connections to the top.

Why do we flaunt our designer wear and gadgets, competing with worldly celebrities as though these give us validation? Have we allowed Mammon to be our God?! No! Our glory and validation lies in the Life of God that we possess in our spirits, which the world does not have, cannot compete against nor take away. This is something more than Gold or silver.

I am not writing to criticise any particular person or to speak against people having a reward for their noble labour or support for Kingdom-minded ventures or charities. Absolutely not! The work of God needs collective support from the community of believers. But I am writing to help us reflect on the subtlety and deception of material wealth. Deception is not a lie but rather, a twisted truth. We must use the world’s goods but not abuse them because they will all expire and pass away but our Kingdom’s life lasts forever. So do not sell it for temporary pleasure like Esau did. God is calling us back to our first love. Let us come back to our first love and keep watch over our hearts so we can recognise the deception of our fleshly desires.

In our Kingdom, bigger is not always better, popular opinion does not count, and what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God. We do not seek our greatness and personal ambitions but as faithful soldiers, we work for the pleasure of our Master who enrolled us.

I will conclude with the scripture the Lord laid in my heart for today’s Westernised Church in Revelation 3:17-19: “ You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise you to buy gold from me – gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed for your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.” Let us come in repentance to God. Let us be diligent, pure and set our hearts on fire for God alone.