But does God really want you to be rich?
But there are some people who take the phrase literally. To them, the almighty, as in God, is the key to wealth and riches. Serve him well and material wealth will be the reward.
This philosophy is the cornerstone of an American movement called “prosperity theology”, and one man who preaches its message to his Australian flock is Hillsong Church leader Brian Houston.
Pastor Houston, who is in the news this week over his response to child abuse allegations against his late father, William, at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, has not always taken kindly to being associated with the so-called “prosperity gospel”.
But it’s kind of hard to distance yourself from it when you’ve penned a book entitled –You Need More Money: Discovering God’s Amazing Financial Plan for Your Life.
Conventional Christians argue that the book title, and the philosophy it represents, is a classic inversion of the biblical message. Far from stressing the importance of money, they say the Bible is filled with countless warnings about the dangers of accumulating wealth.
There’s this from Matthew 19:24.
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
There’s the classic “money is the root of all evil” from Timothy 6:10 which in full reads:
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
And there’s this elegant, simple quotation from Jesus in Matthew 6:24.
“You cannot serve both God and money.”
Here’s what Anglican Minister Sam Freney wrote after his Hillsong Experience:
“You will hear an attractive message about the God of the universe, committed to you, promising you many good things you can receive if you honestly believe in them. You will hear about the blessing God has planned for you, the better job or bigger house or healthier future in store. But you are unlikely to hear much biblical, orthodox Christianity…”
The thing about any church’s money-obsession is not just that it flagrantly contradicts Jesus’s anti-materialist message. It’s that it strays from Christianity’s traditional God first, me second principle. In traditional Christianity, the believer submits to God’s will and promises to do what God calls him or her to do.
Pastor Houston preaching about seven years ago before God decided to deliver a generous load of silver to his life… on his hair. Source: News Corp Australia
At Hillsong and churches like it, god rewards your faith by giving you what you want. And of course, one way to demonstrate your undying faith is to give hefty donations to the church’s coffers.
It’s all too much for some. Lance Goodall was part of the well-established Garden City Christian Church in Brisbane’s bible belt when the Hillsong juggernaut came along and took over the place.
“The money, the personalities, they took over,” he recalls. “We had a guy on the stage talking about money for 10 minutes.
“Brian Houston gets most of his ideas from American churches. He is very much a mimic and doesn’t have a lot of his own ideas.
“Hillsong paraphrases the Bible. They use [The Message], they use no direct biblical quotes, it’s all quite loose. They put their own slant and interpretation on it.
Mr Goodall has since found a different church. But the growth of the prosperity movement continues apace. In America, the billion dollar industry is spearheaded long-established figures like Creflo Dollar. Because hey, who wouldn’t give their life savings to a dude named Dollar?
And then there’s the charismatic, handsome Joel Osteen, who is 51 but looks about 21. One American commentator wrote of Osteen and his wife Victoria:
“The Osteens are phenomenally successful because they are the exaggerated fulfilment of the self-help movement and the cult of celebrity rolled into one massive megachurch media empire.”
That summarises what’s really at play here. Spiritual journeys have become a mask for people’s material journeys. No one pulls that trick better than Brian Houston’s Hillsong. And no one takes it down better than this guy. He’s an American pastor called John Piper, and his 10 minute YouTube takedown of prosperity theology is definitely worth a look.
Coercion Code - "Dark Times are upon us" 
our first encounter with the prosperity doctrine was at Paradise AOG, now know as the influencers or better put the ” inlfuenzer church.” Because its a virus that keeps on growing and killing the more people it comes into contact with. They invited John Avanzini to the church. He spoke about going to God to get a blessing of money. He used the if we give then it will be given back hundred fold. So he asked everyone to think of what they needed God to bless them with, and then to tithe the money to the church, who was giving the money to him as a gift offering. He even said if you didn’t have the money, then put in an iou with the amount of money u needed God to bless u with. So say u needed God to bless u with 100 bucks he said, then u would tithe 10 bucks, believing God would turn that 10 into 100, because you gave. Well we had to do an iou , as we had no money , as we are living on the poverty line, and was back then too. We needed to replace something that had broken down, that we did not have the money to replace. So later that week, we got a letter sent out from John Avanzini , as did our friend who also did an iou too. Both of our letters were the same. In other words they sent a mass letter, making out they were praying for u and cared about what you were going thru etc. Once we realised that is was a con, we never sent our iou money to him. The only people getting rich out of the prosperity doctrine are the pastors and their families.
Because the flock in their sometimes desperation and other times greed, keep tithing and tithing in the hope God will bless them, like they are seeing the pastors get blessed. Trouble is they just don’t realise , that the only reason these pastors are getting blessed. Is not because of God himself, but simply because the flock keep giving these pastors and endless supply of money via tithes and buying their books, dvds, music etc.
And what are these pastors and churches doing with the millions they are raking in. It sure aint going to feed and clothe the poor or the orphans or help put a roof over the head of the homeless. No its going on building more and more ornate churches, that God never asked them to do. because, he doesn’t need a temple anymore to reside in. And it goes on more and more worldly entertainment and light shows etc. And it goes on expensive wages the pastors believe they are worthy of. It goes on them flying first class or business, staying in expensive five star hotels, driving very nice cars, wearing designer or boutique clothes, and bling, eating at a lot of fancy restaurants, and hanging out with other worldly celebs in all the right places to be seen.
It goes on plastic surgery etc to make sure they always look good , because you can sure tell many of them are nipped and tucked etc.
It goes on making sure they live in nice big beautiful homes full of every big mod con.
And why do they want and have these lavish lifestyles.
well they are carnal minded ,not heavenly minded, for starters.
And to have all of this for them is living proof to their flock, they are indeed blessed by God. Because after all , why else would they have all of this . U cant preach prosperity doctrine and get the flock to believe in it, if you aren’t living it yourself. So their lifestyles in their mind , and their flocks mind, is a living testimony to the fact, they are so anointed, blessed and favoured by God, that he literally bestowed upon them ,wealth above measure, because they truly deserved it. God can sometimes give us what we want. But it’s not to bless us, it’s to bring judgement upon us, and to show him , us and others what we are truly made of as a christian, and what truly matters the most. In other words he lets our sin be our downfall. And one day there will be a downfall in all of these pastors life. And if it aint in this lifetime ,it will be in the one to come. What must the world think of such christians . who have it all, and still want so much more. The hypocrisy of their lives, is soooo transparent to most outside their church.
Its just not transparent to them or their flock.
we sure of said God actually sometimes allows us to get what we want, not that he is always the bestower of things. Because there is the worldly god who is sure willing to bestow upon us ,anything our wicked hearts desire,so we will be listening to him and obeying him, and not God. So sometimes God does allow us to get what we want Not to bless us, but to bring his judgement against us. And the prosperity doctrine is a false doctrine that God has allowed , because it helps sort the sheep from the goats and also God can and will use it to bring judgement to the apostate church, for turning what is supposed to be his house, into a den of thieves, where material wealth and possessions matter the most.