The Audacity of God's Grace: 10 Strategies To Living Your Best Life Now (9 page)

Agreeably, it is convenient to claim to be religious in Nigeria. However, I believe that if mentors, leaders, parents Imams, churches and other religious organizations successfully raise peoples’ level of religiosity without raising their commitment to treat others as they will have them treat each other, even in economic standards which ordinarily will position people to live their best lives now, and at such intellectual level where their mental faculties and reasoning becomes rational to challenge evil and injustice and pursue good, then, those religious people, Mosque attendants or Church attendees have missed the mandate of God’s love given to the followers and believers of God.

The Primary Assignment of the
Enemy is to Kill Your Joy

In the tenth chapter of John (10:10 NLT), the Christian Scriptures noted the great statement made by Jesus, where he said: “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. (But) my purpose of coming (see John 3:15-16) is to give them (i.e. everyone who wants to) a rich and satisfying life. Part of that life is salvation from sin, from diseases, and salvation from economic hardships and a life of struggle that Adam and Eve’s actions originated according to Genesis chapter 3, which our daily poor choices have prolonged. Any leader, whether religious or secular, who fails to initiate actions that translates into people’s ability to live at their best now, belong to the same group of “thieves” which Jesus made reference to in John chapter 10. For additional reading on this, I will refer you to my other book, The Power of Response-Ability Takers: God and other Actors on the Stage.

The Power of Religious Thoughts and Teachings

Traditionally, the psychology of religious thought and faith that many Christian people grew up with was skewed. It misinformed us that God is against richness and the acquisition of stupendous wealth legally, for the followers of God or believers of Jesus Christ. By the way, they reminisced: did Jesus not say that it is easier for a Carmel to pass through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter into the kingdom of God? (Matt. 19:24). The eye of a needle is the section of a sewing needle formed into a loop for pulling thread, located at the end opposite the point. Many people who reference the metaphor that Jesus used in Matt 19:24 to teach about riches, serving God, and being partakers of the kingdom of God many of the times misunderstood the teachings of Jesus by taking them to be a literal statement. The implication is that this readily set the stage for stereotypes and other negative impressions about riches, being wealthy, and serving God. The problem however with this religious thought is that it has steadily amplified the problem of suffering and the horrendous evils of exploitation and poverty that accompanies it. If the truth must be told, many people who believe in God around the world, who are professed believers and Church-goers or members around the world; people who belong to God, a special priesthood and a holy nation of believers are not doing very well financially because of the negligence of teaching believers about wealth creation, wealth acquisition, and money management that the misunderstanding, misappropriation, and misapplication of Jesus’ metaphor in his religious teachings have caused.

Understand Jesus’ Teachings & Wealth

Jesus, in his teachings was very particular about your ability to do well financially and in fact, be a wealth creator. This is why Jesus gave you much untapped potentials and talents which you have barely scratched. What many believers including religious teachers do not understand about Jesus’ teachings in Matthew chapter 25 or in Matthew, the nineteenth chapter is that Jesus’ metaphor about the camel going through the eye of the needle than for the rich man to enter into the kingdom of God was trying to confront is self-centeredness due to the spirit of poverty as well as ungratefulness and greed. Jesus never, has ever been against the acquisition of genuine wealth by his followers.

Jesus Teachings On Wealth & The
Eye Of The Needle Gate

Pastor Mark Pfeifer once mentioned that the truth behind Jesus statement that it is better for the camel to go through the eye of the needle than for the rich man to enter into the kingdom of God was two-fold. First, he noted that we can see that it is easier to make a spiritual man wealthy than for a wealthy man to become spiritual. Secondly, Pastor Pfeifer observed that a person must understand what the disciples knew when Jesus spoke about the eye of the needle. The eye of the needle was the name of a gate in Jerusalem where camels regularly traveled through. In order words, Jesus contemporaries or audience who heard Jesus talk about the eye of the needle knew that Jesus wasn’t talking about the little opening in the sewing needle with thread running through it. Jesus was rather making a reference to a very low entrance into the marketplace known as the eye of the needle gate. The situation was that for a camel to go through this small gate, each camel had to be unpacked of their load and bend their knees. A clearer understanding of this process entails that a camel owner would not only have to unload the baggage carried by the camel in order for the camel to go through the eye of the needle gate, but must position the camel in ways that the camels come through the gate on their knees.

Jesus Expectations From The Wealthy

Thus, my personal understanding of Jesus expectations of the rich is that in order for a rich man to be saved into God’s kingdom, becoming a partaker of that kingdom must begin here on earth by how the rich individual surrender to the grace of God in Jesus and how such rich individuals make use of the material resources s/he has benefited from the economy of God’s grace. Not only must s/he unload their material possessions and release them to help finance the work load of God to reach its redemptive potentials on earth since the progress of God’s work needs greater amount of money and material resources to achieve its kingdom capital. For this reason, “every rich or wealthy individual wanting to be part of the Kingdom of God must by implication learn to be useful in God’s hands,” kneel before God, depend on God’s grace and daily bow in reverence by worshipping and acknowledge the one and only true creator of life who gives strength, health, and the ability to acquire wealth.

“every rich or wealthy individual wanting to be part of the Kingdom of God must by implication learn to be useful in God’s hands,”

The unwillingness of any rich individual to do the former means that they are not ready to inherit the kingdom they contributed nothing meaningful towards, with the wealth released by grace from the owner of the kingdom. Wealthy people must learn to reverence and serve God selflessly—not serving their wealth. The rich and the wealthy, in other to be saved must be filled with the Spirit of God before they become partakers of the kingdom of God. The wealthy must learn not to be tight fisted, oppress the poor with their wealth, or continually take advantage of the weak and become greedy and corrupt. To be saved, a wealthy person needs to trust that it is God who gives s/he the ability to acquire wealth and trust God by releasing wealthily into the world of those who are starving and have-nots. It further requires that the rich or wealthy must empower, not exploiting the lives of those who in the persistent lack of material resources could easily be recruited into crimes, violence, and making it impossible for others to live their best life now. This is consistent with Christ’s response to the self-centered rich young ruler who Jesus directed to give a share of his personal possessions to the poor and follow Him.

What Jesus Saw In The Mind of The
Rich Young Religious Ruler

By directing the wealthy man to give away some of his possessions and follow him, Jesus was not mandating the rich man to become poor first, before he could become his follower. However, Jesus saw a trend, a pattern, and a poor lifestyle of acquiring more and more and yet never able to release to the lives of others, nor towards the work of the kingdom of God. Jesus saw how tight fisted the rich man in Matthew the Nineteenth chapter had become over the years with all the wealth that he had enjoyed from the economy of God’s grace and the level of hypocrisy in his life as he hide under the veil of religion. Jesus observed how people were suffering disproportionately around the nation, the neighborhood or community that this wealthy powerful young ruler ruled, and how the young rich ruler found it easier to strangulate the resources of those he ruled and became extremely wealthy and yet, found it very difficult to release financial and/or other material blessings to the lives of the poor, while he lived in opulence and wastefulness.

For this reason, Jesus tried to talk him into understanding what it takes and the higher expectations Jesus has for the wealthy in society in order for them to become partakers of God’s wealthy kingdom after God has blessed an individual with material wealth. Using the analogy of how difficult it appears for the fattened camels carrying their loads to go through the eye of the needle gate, unless they offload all of the unnecessary loads they are carrying, Jesus tried to relate this process to his message to the wealthy, that unless any individual wanting to become a partaker of God’s kingdom release their loads of sin, share their wealth to those they are better off than, and finance the kingdom work by having the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5), they should as well forget about the kingdom of God, for they will never become part of it.

Every Rich Ruler Has An Assignment From Jesus

The message from Jesus is this: Every ruler or follower of God must offload greed, unload corruption and hypocrisy and discard this priced possession before such a ruler or follower could enter into the kingdom of God. The major problems of the rich young ruler that Jesus confronted in Matthew 19:24 centered on what had become a lifestyle of wild living, never enough living as acquisition of more and more has become a norm, and a stingy lifestyle that hoard things because of the spirit of poverty in his mindset. Jesus knew that yes, as a religious man, the rich young ruler wanted to identify with him, follow him, and yet, his mind was principally pre-occupied with his earthly possessions and stupendous wealth and his inability to release his mind wholly to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and part of his personal wealth to finance the work of the kingdom of God. How can you be financially or materially blessed by God and yet you can’t create jobs and abate unemployment for the unemployed? How can you close your eyes over exploitation of the poor and their natural resources? How can you not give unstintingly and bless those who are working for the advancement of the kingdom assignment on earth, the poor within your neighborhood, community, or state? How can you neglect the widows, the orphans, those ravaged by poverty and disease? How can you be a rich ruler and infant and maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, starvation and preventable crimes and diseases, kidnappings and armed robbery, racial/tribal tensions and inequalities still abound in your neighborhood and yet you have all kinds of security guards, private jets, and assorted automobiles and you expect to be part of the kingdom that you don’t care to promote its standards and principles?

The Expansion of the Expectation

In reference to Jesus’ teachings about wealth and riches in Matt 19:24, Rosalie Dann once noted that: No-one will take any possessions with them to heaven. However it is not money that is evil but the love of it, putting it ahead of God. To say rich people will not enter heaven is somewhat of a stretch. Jesus had followers who were rich. Lydia was a seller of Purple therefore a wealthy business woman. Jesus was buried in his wealthy friend’s tomb. These are just two that we know of. There have been as many wealthy people as well as the poor throughout the centuries who have loved and followed the Lord. The important thing is the place in your heart that money holds and whether you hoard and are selfish with your wealth or if you are generous and use it to help others. God didn’t say give it all to Him, He asked for 10% (plus generous offering borne out of your love for God which can be given to churches, the poor and less privileged or those you are better than financially) off the top and then anything more is your gift as you decide. Pastor Mark Pfeifer in his book, breaking the spirit of poverty said that: “there is no doubt in my mind that God is raising up people like Abraham who are going to help finance the kingdom of God. These people need to be kingdom-minded. They need to understand that being successful is not enough. They (must) move into a state of being significant. Success is measured by how much you have. Significance is measured by how much you give—i.e. the impact you make.

You don’t need to be apologetic or afraid of prosperity. That is part of what Jesus death and salvation qualifies you for. It was because of false interpretations of religious teachings that Saul who later became Apostle Paul and one of the New Testament outstanding itinerant evangelists used the Jewish religion to terrorize and subject early Christians into untold pains and supervised the stoning to death of Apostle Stephen, in A.D 27 before his conversion to Christianity. Paul who once was brainwashed by religious teachings into doing evil warned Colossian believers in the Christian Scriptures (Colossians 2:8 NIV) that: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Part of what “poor/false religion or religious teachings” has promoted is greed and corruption and the illiteracy of people not knowing their rights or even when they do, the fear of brutal offensive from their captors. The first chapter of (James 1:27 NIV) described true religion as any: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless to look after (the populations who are struggling through life difficulties) orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by (greed and corruption, and false teachings that perpetuate evil to the populations of) the world.