Let me first just say that before I write about what God has laid on my heart recently, that first and foremost I always know that it's primarily for me. Far from thinking that I'm spiritually ahead of anyone here, rather I believe that out of everyone, this calling will test me more, will be harder for me than everyone else, and that if anything, I am last when it comes to achieving anything in this area. But, by the grace of God I am what I am, and thank God it doesn't take achieving anything or having a great track record to be qualified to share what the Lord is speaking. Thanks be to God that only Jesus is worthy, and only He is qualified! I also realise the weight of what I'm about to write, so I don't write it without a fair bit of 'fear and trembling' on my behalf, so please bear with me.
In that context, and hopefully understanding where my heart is at here, let me share what the Lord revealed to me recently. While I believe it is primarily for me, I also know that the the Word says in 1 Cor 12v7: 'Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.' So here goes. In short, I believe the Lord wants to encourage His people to embrace the poverty that is coming to them. He wants to encourage us to welcome it, just as we would welcome an old friend. Why? Not because we would welcome suffering (we endure suffering for His sake), but because the Lord is revealing very clearly that through such poverty, our lives will be able to make Christ all the richer. Whenever those in the New Testament were made poor by this world's standards, their lives became a continual outpouring for Jesus' sake, and there was nothing that hindered them from being so effectual for the Kingdom of God.. When poverty comes to us, we'll need to realise that it has been appointed by the Lord in order that we might fulfil the plans and purposes that He has for us in doing His will. In the LOSING, there will be much to GAIN, but that 'much' will be spiritual desires, spiritual callings and spiritual service. When we become poorer in those things in life that don't really matter, and that we have unwittingly taken to close to our hearts, Christ will take us closer to Himself in a practical sense, and higher and further in those things that really do matter- those eternal things. The treasures of this present time, as we know, are temporary, but Christ is wanting us to store up more spiritual treasures, and more treasures that will last forever.
In one sense, we all live this out in ways in our lives anyway. We give and empty ourselves for others (and in that sense, we are poor for ourselves but rich for others and for His service). Families lay down their lives and their desires for their children. Spouses lay down they lives for each other. Parents lay down their lives for their kids and employees and employers spend their hearts and souls for Christ's sake in their jobs as service for Him, and His people spend their money for each other, for charitable causes and for His Church. God already sees the ways in which we are giving and laying down our lives for Him, and He takes note of it and is not unaware of it and will reward it by His grace one day as well. However, His people will be experiencing this in a greater way in the future, and divine poverty for a divine purpose is on its way.
Now, not I am not saying that all will be poor. The Word shows that most of His people in the New Testament were provided enough to get by and a few were rich, so obviously that will continue in a broad sense. Nevertheless, just like His people will be entering a time of storm in the future as a whole, so will we be entering a time wherein we will also be experiencing poverty in a greater way and a way we haven't necessarily experienced before. God will be calling His people to lay down their life to a greater extent and to trust Him in whatever they face. God will bring the grace that we need to experience such a thing, but we must realise that this is God's desire for us. In realising this, we'll be guarded against becoming offended at God, and displeased and frustrated with Him. Instead, we'll be able to welcome the extent of the poverty to come, because it will be sent with sufficient grace and sufficient purpose. It is also coming because of the LOVE that He has for us, and the passionate heart that He has for His people. It is coming because HE WANTS THE BEST FOR JESUS' SERVICE AND THE BEST FOR US.
Often as the people of God we get so overjoyed and thankful that God says in His Word that He will provide for us (and rightfully so in the good way), that we forget what type of provision is promise for us. Many people and preachers take it too far and start saying to the people of God that God promised us that we'd all be rich, and that we all need to be rich in order to be able to bless His Kingdom! In a word, this is absolute GARBAGE. Such belief, teaching and preaching has caused so much grief to the people of God and so much doubting of their own faith and of the power of God, that it just so devastating to think about. Not only that, but false teachers and preachers have built their own kingdom with such teaching and led so many of God's people to believe that God the only way God can build His Kingdom is if they give all their money to Churches who mainly will just use it to cultivate places that reflect more of what the world loves and values, and the pride and prestige of men, rather than the simplicity, love and humility that is in Christ. Yes, Jesus may use some to bless His Kingdom in this way, there's no disputing that, but that is not the norm (1 Cor 1v26), for most money is a temptation that makes serving the Lord for the right reasons and with the right motive HARDER, not easier: 1 Tim 6v10- '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.' Jesus even said that God cannot serve two masters, either he will love the one and hate the other or vice versa:
Matt 6v24: "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
No, God never promised that we would be rich and have overflowing provision, rather, He promised that we would be taken care of enough for what is NEEDED. Just like we are given SUFFICIENT grace for each day, so are we promised SUFFICIENT provision for our lives, not OVERWHELMING provision. Matthew 6v31: 'So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat? or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Notice the context for God's provision here; God will give us the NEEDED/NECESSARY things to provide for us. Furthermore, notice that Jesus also spoke to these Christians saying, 'Therefore do not worry about tomorrow...' So these Christians were WORRYING EVEN ABOUT WHAT THEY WOULD DO FOR FOOD AND CLOTHES THE NEXT DAY! Just like the children of Israel in the wilderness, God's manner to them was each and every day, and so it was to the children of God here that Jesus was speaking to. Jesus wasn't saying, 'don't worry about next month or next year, because what you have today will do for tomorrow.' No, He was saying that whatever they NEEDED TOMORROW would be provided for them tomorrow. In the West we have grown used to having so much, that we don't even think about the provision for tomorrow, or even for next week, month or year, because we know they'll be some type of provision. But the Lord is saying that we too will experience the need to trust God in the same way for the future, and that He will provide what we NEED.
In allowing this type of poverty to come to them, both the Christians in the wilderness and these Christians in the New Testament, allowed God to receive glory after glory and honour after honour, as people continually saw and witnessed that God was a God that took care of His people in ordinary but also miraculous ways. People saw that Israel and His people didn't depend on themselves, and didn't worry and lose the plot when their own ability to provide for themselves went by the wayside, but instead they saw a people that contentedly trusted God for their provision, step by step, and day by day. This served to be an INCREDIBLE WITNESS for just the type of God that our God is- a caring God who takes care of His people, but also of the people of God- that they are a people who aren't their own gods, and who don't trust in themselves, but trust in Him. This also speaks to the world to say that our God is someone who doesn't love what they love- we don't have a God who is in love with material things! We have a God who loves spiritual things! And so should we and the Church represent Him as such. And this is another reason why such poverty is coming.
Part of the prayer that Jesus said His disciples should pray every day was, 'give us this day our daily bread.' And should we not pray that also? Should we not expect that God, when it is His will, also take us through a wilderness? and a time where complete dependency on God in that way should be our lot as well? The answer is that we should expect it when we know it is God's will for us, because it will bring great honour and glory to the name of Jesus! It will be a great testimony to those that don't know Him, that there is a God in heaven that provides enough for His people! whatever the season! We should expect it because the Lord represents Himself in the way HE WANTS TO, NOT HOW WE WANT TO REPRESENT HIM. That, again, is one of the reasons why the leaders of His Church in the new testament were kept in the state they were.
That is why I use the term 'poverty' too. Really it won't be poverty in the truest sense of the term (not necessarily), but in the sense that we have never experienced before. We have been blessed with so many riches in the West, that what is coming will seem like poverty, but really and truly God will provide what we need, no matter what comes.
If people are still not convinced that this is often God's will for His people, all we have to do is look at the myriad of examples in the Word to see that this type of lifestyle and provision is usually that which His people are called to:
1) Although Abraham was given a promise, he lived His life in tents, as a stranger and pilgrim in the land of promise- Heb 11v9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. / At one point God said to Abraham that He would be His portion, and God would be his exceedingly great reward.
2) Moses chose to forsake the pleasures and riches of Egypt for a life of suffering and a life lived in the wilderness (where God provided the manner!)
Heb 11v24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
3) Most of those that God used mightily, God also called to hardship in the way of lack- Heb 11v37 ...They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
4) The Apostles were those that lived moment by moment on the provision of God, suffering with lack at times too:
1 Cor 4v8-11 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! 9 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. 10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! 11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.
This was also Paul warning the Corinthian Church that what they were doing with the Church of God was not God's will. They were abounding in riches as a Church, and Paul was saying quite clearly that that was not God's will for them, rather that God desired His Church to be a humble thing, even a spectacle that people might see that the power of Christ wasn't of them, but of Him alone.
5) Peter was an Apostle who didn't have much at all- Acts 3v6: Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."
6) Our Lord was born in a stable, and often had no place to lay His head:
Luke 9v58: Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
The encouragement however is that, despite whatever type of form of poverty that is coming to His people, the Lord will remain their provider, and they will have sufficient for whatever their need is. Not only that, but God will work His marvellous purposes out, just like He did in the book of Acts. We will see the great goodness and glory of the Lord, a great outpouring of His Spirit, and His amazing power!
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