Today, I will do my best to redefine prosperity, particularly the term “wealth”. Many times when people try to describe prosperity, they do it in terms of financial prosperity or even worse in terms of “currency”. Prosperity goes beyond making money; it’s about living in complete state of satisfaction, fulfillment and joyfulness in all areas of your life. In John 7:38, the bible says “…he that believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. Water represents a state of peace, tranquility, and total satisfaction. As such, we ought to be happy about our large bank account balance just as much as we are happy about our health, family and spiritual well-being.
Money is just a tool that temporarily stores our economic energy until you need it. We shouldn’t mistake it for our true wealth. Unfortunately, the world has turned away from real money and are focused on currency, a deceitful tool the world has now used to silently rob us of our most valuable asset: time.
In Proverbs 3:13-18, the Bible says “…blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she (i.e. wisdom) is more profitable than silver, and she yields better return than gold”. The Bible was simply telling us that if we were to give up all the currencies in our bank accounts to acquire knowledge and wisdom, the return on that investment would vastly outweigh anything else we could have ever used the money for. We would then be richer than others who may hold such currencies in their bank accounts. I believe one of the evidence of wisdom the Bible was referring to is our ability to understanding the system of the society we live in and how it operates, particularly here in the United States.
Take a moment and think for a sec, who taught you about money? Has anyone ever taught you about how money works in America? Our understanding of wealth has come from the capitalist media which professes consumerism as the key demonstration of wealth. The media and the world sell you an idea of what you need to have in order to be considered wealthy and then you and I compare ourselves to our next door neighbor to measure our success as we all show off the stuff we have bought.
The foundation on which this society is ran is DEBT. Debt is a lifestyle and I submit to you today that this is what’s eating away our wealth. Tame this single problem and you are on your road to wealth. True wealth should be measured not in terms of currency in your bank account or the outward appearance of success through consumerism but in terms of freedom and time. Perhaps the next time you want to finance that car, you should consider the cost in terms of your freedom and time. How much of your life would you have to give up to pay off that car? When you begin to measure wealth in terms of freedom and time, you’d operate from a place where you don’t HAVE to go to work to feed the mammoth lifestyle you’ve created. This state of well-being I believe is what the Bible was trying to illustrate in John 7:38: a state in your life that brings forth rivers of living water. A place of peace, tranquility and fulfillment. In this state, where you’ve regained control of your time and freedom, you are able to spend time in God’s presence to identify your purpose! This time allows you to discover what your true passion is and how/what you can do to leave your mark in this life. Sadly, many will never get to this state, not unless they start making plans towards regaining control of their time and in turn their life.
One last thing, when the Bible says in Proverbs 13:22 that “…the wealth of the unrighteous has been stored up for the righteous”, it didn’t necessarily mean that the unrighteous has worked and put away his/her wealth in a storage facility and God will miraculously hand you (righteous man) the keys. I believe this scripture means: In a state where you’ve gained control of your freedom and time, you can begin to spend time to dream of ideas, inventions that this “world” will pay you a lot of money for. Consider many of the great inventors of our time–more often than not, they had control of their time, to think and come up with great ideas. Their ability to be innovative was not limited by 9-5 job they had to do in order to pay bills and live a flashy lifestyle that is often a facade.
