Overcoming the biggest enemy of miraculous decision making
One of the most startling verses I have ever read in life is – Matthew 6:24 where Jesus Christ said “No one can have two masters … you cannot serve both God and money” (NIV). I was astonished by this verse because I was expecting to read something like “you cannot serve both God and the devil”. So finding money take such a position was surprising. I later gained better understanding of this concept of the wrong attitude towards money in I Timothy 6:10 (NIV) – “for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”.
What is the “love of money” and why did Jesus Christ place serving money as the major hindrance to serving God?
Serving God involves living a life that pleases Him and doing what He wills. It means allowing God to control your time, decisions and actions. When you serve God, your biggest passion is about having more of God’s attributes in your life.
Serving and loving money is the complete opposite; it involves living a life obsessed with the accumulation of money in the pursuit of pleasure. It is a desire to pursue money primarily for your usage, identity and security. Money is neither moral nor immoral. It is our attitude towards money that matters. That is why the “love of money” (not just “money”) is what the bible talks about as a root of all kinds of evil, and this is the biggest enemy to making miraculous decisions.
How do you know if you are currently plagued with the ‘love of money’ disease? Some of the symptoms include lying, stealing, gambling, cheating, corruption and murder in an attempt to gain more of it. Many people today do all these and even more to increase their potential to get more money. However, the love of money disease has more subtle symptoms – for instance, preaching, listening to or searching out money-making messages over other messages that will help or aid spiritual growth. Have you noticed that most messages in some Christian circles today are centred on money (or “making it)? A person’s prayer life is also a pointer – either there is insufficient time devoted to prayer due to work pressures (the job that brings money), or when we even pray, the prayer points are focused on what God needs to do to bless us materially. Even giving to the work of God primarily to receive more money or to avoid the devourer from touching what you already have is another symptom of the disease. A believer with a heart of genuine service to God gives because he loves God and His work, and not primarily to avoid devourers.
Let’s face it, the love of money has eaten deeply into today’s church, and that is why we do not make miraculous decisions or operate in the miraculous like God wants. The love of money will make you cruise in another realm that is far below the realm of the Spirit. It wants to make you operate at a disastrous level, when you should be at a miraculous level. Judas Iscariot made a disastrous decision to betray Christ because of the love of money; Paul made miraculous decisions because he dealt with this widespread weakness – for instance, rather than stay in Jerusalem where there were established structures and generous donations (like some pastors would do today), he went to the gentiles based on God’s leading. Today, we have a miracle in our hands – he wrote most of the New Testament books. At some point, he was taking donations to the churches in Jerusalem that initially had more money. Paul wrote to Timothy in I Tim. 6:17 “(KJVA) “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy”. Paul admonishes us to still put our focus and trust in God, no matter the material blessings we have.
Several years ago when I began to study this plague and how to overcome it, I stumbled on 2 passages that really helped me. Romans 12:21 talked about overcoming evil with good, while Luke 18:18 – 23 describes the story of a man who claimed to have kept all the commandments of God since he was young yet asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. When Jesus told the man to sell all he had and follow him, the man went away sorrowful. If Jesus had given you a similar instruction, what would your response be? Can you give out all you have and start afresh with God? I recommend answering this question sincerely at least once every year.
I recently shared my experience in obeying God (and learning from Romans 12:21) by giving generously to support the ministry, how I set “giving goals” each year and how God has been helping me to fulfil the goals even if it means emptying my bank account. To my utmost surprise, within one week of discussing this, many brethren who attended that meeting came to ask me for money to the tune of over four million naira. Apart from reminding them that during the message, I said my account became empty for the particular example I shared, I became more aware of how deeply this plague had eaten into the body of Christ. It appeared that the message was lost and the money became the new focus. Please do not let it happen to you after reading this!
Leaders are often required to make challenging decisions that affect not just their destinies, but the destinies of several people they lead. When our hearts are saturated with the love of money, then all kinds of evil decisions that will indirectly destroy our lives and that of our followers will erupt. The Message translation of I Timothy 6:9-10 reads “But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time …” Let’s consciously address the ‘love of money’ in our lives so we can always make decisions that bring about positive and powerful events in our lives and those of our followers.
– Tope S. Aladenusi
I conclude this periodical on the third enemy – the devil. This heading of course largely includes demons, evil spirits, etc commonly referred together as spiritual wickedness in high places.
Unbelief in the existence of demonic influence is largely unscriptural since the Word – our basis of standard, is replete with descriptions of various contacts with demons and their influence. The New Testament gives us the glorious understanding of the works of these beings of old. In the Old Testament all that happened to men was viewed as coming directly from God but in the New Testament this is better clarified as we are made to understand that every good and perfect gift comes from the father of light with whom is neither variableness nor shadow of turning.
For you that is born again, your relationship with the devil has been clearly defined from the word. Once you were held tightly by his grip and were led wherever he suggested. Scripture says once we were as sheep gone astray. Again we are reminded that we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air – the spirit now at work in the children of disobedience among whom we all had our conversation in times past fulfilling the desires of our flesh and our mind and were children of wrath just as the others Eph 2:1 – 3.We were weak to save ourselves from this enemy for we were held in bondage by Him.
But now in Christ Jesus we have been delivered from the powers of darkness and have been translated into the kingdom of his dear Son – Col 1:13. Notice the wordtranslated signifying that there is now a change of position. You and I have crossed enemy lines. No longer are we in the place where we can be influenced directly wherein we were held.
Hebrews 2 and verse 14 describes this wonderfully: Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by His death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Now that the victory has been obtained for us in Christ Jesus, the only way to bask in the reality of this victory is by maintaining our ground of conviction. Ephesians chapter 6 defines this using a word – “stand”. This word ‘stand’ largely means to make this your place of abode, your dwelling place. The battle is not by fist fighting the devil or jostling for corrupted things He stole. The battle now is simply by maintaining your ground of conviction in all that Christ Has done for us. 1st Peter 5: 9 – Resist him (i.e. the devil), standing firm in the faith…
In conclusion, walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time for the days are truly evil. Don’t waste energy. There is a format and a predetermined way. Walk in this now and always.
A common strategy to walking in the victory Christ has obtained for us is simply maintaining our ground of conviction. The deed on the cross cannot be changed. You are a victor. Walk in this reality now and always
– Dr bolaji akanni
Saying the world is the enemy of the Christian is sometimes hard to believe. Do you mean this beautiful world? But then again the world and its system of operation are under the control of the devil. Eph 2:1 -3 aptly describes him as the prince of the power of the air. Compare John 12:31
The Christian however has been delivered from this world and the wrath which is to come – Gal 1:4. He is no longer conditioned to walk according to the course of this world because he has been set free – 1st John 5:4. It is in this glorious state of freedom that we are able like John to identify the true state of this world.
What do we mean by the world? I John 2:15-16 (MSG) – “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world–wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important–has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him”.
You cannot live meaningfully as a Christian when you seek to use the world order as a guiding light -Rom 12:2, Gal 6:14. This is because all that is in the world is enmity to God.
These values of the world have been woven into every fibre of its system. It may sound farfetched: and I assure you it is not, when you fail to realise that there is no zone of comfort. God’s perspective of science, education, finance, health, politics, entertainment, etc is different. Let’s use love as an example. Besides being built on a sensual foundation, love in the world does an assessment of the object that would be benefited using various measures e.g. wealth, fame, profitability, beauty, etc But the love of God is the volition of God expressed irrespective of the object that would benefit nor it’s attribute. This is also how the Christian has been called to love. This however is stupidity to any person in this world.
But you are not of this world anymore – 1st John 2:6. Finance sees constant giving as leakages but God thinks differently. Health says it is impossible but God thinks differently. Education determines wisdom, God thinks differently. Till you realise the standards of this world are not the standards of God, you would live short of who God has called you.
Realise that in all this we have not talked about the people in this world because it is not primarily people or what they have done as much as the thinking that has influenced him/her to do what he has done. This is only identified and done away with in Christ Jesus. 2nd Cor 10:4 – 6
Only a believer conscious of his heavenly citizenship upholding the values of the country that He belongs to would shine in this crooked and perverse generation – Phil 2:15 – 16. I leave you with this advice from Paul under inspiration of the Holy Ghost….those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For the world in its present form is passing away.1st Cor. 7:31
Dr. bolaji akanni
