God is Not Your ATM (Bible Study)

While the Israelites were in the wilderness, God ensured that they never lacked basic needs. He sent food to them daily and protected them. But look at what happened when they got to Gilgal (located on the eastern border of Jericho):

“Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.” Joshua 5:10-12 (NKJV).

God sent manna to them daily while they were in the wilderness, but He stopped doing that the moment they had the liberty to grow food. God refused to do for them what they could do for themselves from that moment onwards.

If God had continued to send food to them, the nation of Israel won’t be one of the superpowers today. They would have become one of the dependent nations like some African countries.

The truth is that some of the messages we listen to in different churches encourages irresponsibility and laziness. Some people are still telling us to depend on God entirely like the Israelites did in the wilderness. We preach messages that encourages irresponsibility. We tell people what God will do and fail to tell them what they must do!

When we say, “God will change your story and connect you to your destiny helpers; He will make you rich etc.,” and fail to teach people work ethic, we program them for failure.

While we are claiming powerful prophecies and buying all kinds of miracle materials that will turn us into billionaires overnight, China, a Communist nation is colonizing Africa economically.

I want you to walk into any market in any African nation and check who manufactured most of the products that are sold there. You’ll discover that greater percentage of them are manufactured in China. The smartphone or device you are using to read this (whether iPhone or Android) were manufactured by people who don’t believe in God.

Believing in God should be an added advantage. Making Jesus Christ the Lord of your life should be an added advantage. The challenge is that we are programmed for poverty through the messages we listen toin different churches.

Prophecy won’t make your rich.

Prayer won’t make you rich.

Deliverance won’t make you rich.

Paying tithe and sowing seeds ALONE won’t make you rich.

We need prophecy, prayer and deliverance, but they deal with issues spiritually. To become wealthy externally, you must apply the appropriate laws.

If a prophet says that God told him you’ll become a billionaire, I believe him. But if you go home to wait for the billions, you will soon become a beggar. Why? Because God gives seed not forest.

God can connect you to someone, open a door for you, use someone to give you initial capital etc., but it is your responsibility to make the billions. You must generate unique ideas, unique products and services, manage the business, employ the right people, have marketing strategy etc. before you can become a billionaire.

Tithe and seed sowing attract the blessing. That blessing manifests in what you do. If you’re idle or clueless, the blessing won’t make money on your behalf.

There are faithful tithers who are faithfully poor. There are seed sowers who are also poor. The spiritual cannot override natural laws. If you want the spiritual to be in operation, you must study the natural laws that engenders what you want and apply them.

One of the reasons why some people are going back to idolatry is because we promised them heaven and earth and failed to teach them work ethic. We told them that seed and tithe will make them wealthy, but failed to show them how seed works. So, they paid tithe and sowed seeds for years, but nothing changed, and some of them concluded that we lied to them.

Another example is a young lady who is praying for miracle marriage but doesn’t go out. She sits at home waiting for angels to send her husband to her. Although God answered her prayer, but because she failed to be at the right place at the right time, she is still single.

God is Not Your Errand Boy

God will not do what He empowered you to do. God knows that making you wealthy without your participation will be disastrous. In fact, you won’t know the value of the wealth and how to manage it. What He does is to bless us, but it is our duty to step out and create the wealth we desire.

Do you know that the GDP of California—a state in the United States of America—is $3 trillion. Do you also know that the GDP of Africa put together is about $2.6trillion. A state seems to be richer than a whole continent because we are waiting for God to do what He empowered us to do.

Instead of working we are hunting for prophecies. Instead of developing ourselves so that we can have the capacity to grow our organizations, we are hunting for powerful seers who will tell us why we are not making progress.

How can you make progress when you are not developing yourself? How can you make progress when all you do is searching for spiritual solution believing that the spiritual can override natural laws?

Two Stages of Life

There are two stages of our walk with God. The first is the wilderness stage. In the wilderness God sent manna from heaven. He literally did everything for the people of Israel while they were on their way to the promised land.

But if God is still sending manna to the people of Israel today, their enemy would have wiped them out of the face of the earth. Israel will not be known for the sophisticated weapons they design and manufacture. Israel will be one of the poorest nations on earth by now. They won’t use their initiative to solve problems, they will simply wait for God to do that.

The second phase is life at the promised land. God stopped sending manna to them the moment they stepped into the promised land. God wanted them to creatively find solutions to food and security, and they did absolutely that.

Some Christians still want God to keep sending manna to them. They don’t want to take responsibility for their lives. They want to replace work ethic with prayer. They want to become billionaires without paying the required price. They want to wake up and see their favorite cars packed in their garage.

Dear Christians, God is not your ATM. You better take responsibility for your life or you’llend up as a liability.

Miraculous provision is not God’s strategy for sustenance!

What do I mean?

It is not God’s plan for you to pray for supernatural supply anytime you need something. If you want to pay rent, you ask Him to send the money. If you want to pay children’s school fees you ask Him for provision. If you want to buy clothes you ask Him for provision.

His divinely ordained strategy is to use someone or system to give you capital. That capital could be money, friendship, relationship, talent, skill, idea, connection etc. It is now your duty to multiply what He gave you.

That was why He multiplied the widow’s oil and told her to pay her debt and live on the rest in 2 Kings 4:1-7. That is, sell the oil, pay your depth, and trade with the rest and keep multiplying it until you build massive business out of it.

Africans are trained to depend on God for everything. That is why every gathering is centered on needs. Every crusade, revival, fellowship are centered on needs not on spiritual growth.

Sir Josiah Stamp opined, “It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.”

Winston Churchill rightly said, “The price of greatness is responsibility.”

Lou Holtz said, “The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.”

George Washington Carver puts it this way, “Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”

Dear friend, the choice is yours. If you want a different result, you must get up from the chair of lamentation and blame game and make your life count before you die!

Wisdom is justified by her children!

I believe this article blessed you. Kindly share your thought with us at the comment section below.

If you want to receive Jesus into your heart, say this short prayer and believe it from your heart:

Lord Jesus, I believe that you died to rescue me from damnation. Come into my heart and save me. I declare today that You are my Lord and personal Saviour. I am saved. I am born again. Thank you Jesus. Amen.

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