(Editor's Note: Look for Parts 1 and 2 under "Author Archives.")

There is a golden calf being paraded around today. It's old. It's rotten and crumbling from the inside. But there are people still buffing and shining it up to make it look appealing to the masses. What is it? It's a stinking, dead cow dipped in fool's gold. And it's called poverty.

The church took that heap of dead trash and cloaked it in religious "holiness." For centuries we've all been taught that it's wrong to believe God for financial blessings and expect anything but spiritual blessings from God. We've been taught to forget what Jesus did on the cross and instead live by the original curse - digging in the dirt by the sweat of our brow to get what we need.

It's a big, fat, sad and sorry-looking lie that's still being paraded today. And as a full-Gospel teaching, Holy Ghost and fire-kicking preacher, I'm one in a growing group of thousands of believers who refuse to bow down to that religious cow one more day.

The truth is I used to be a dirt digger just like the rest of them. As I said in the last two segments, most of my Christian life was spent struggling for every cent I needed out of the ground for the sake of the Gospel. I knew little about the way God's system worked when it came to finances. Consequently, I lived as Haggai 1:6-7 says: I sowed much. I reaped little. And what I did have seemed to go into a bag with holes because I just couldn't seem to keep it.

I used to think that it was just plain wrong for a preacher or any "true" Christian to be interested in anything to do with finance. When I preached, I steered clear of the subject. If I had to take up the offering, it would take two minutes, tops. I didn't talk about prosperity and I felt guilty for everything the Lord ever gave me. The bottom line: I had a dirt-digger's poverty mentality.

I kept that dirt-digging mentality until one fateful day in 1991. I was jogging and meditating on a past seed I'd sown, when suddenly God opened my eyes, and gave me a revelation on His scriptures concerning finances. He showed me one of the major reasons for my problems. He told me that I had not considered my ways when it came to giving. And since I wasn't giving according to the scriptures He laid out in the Word, I wasn't reaping what He said I could have.

God gave me a revelation on sowing and reaping right there on the pavement as I jogged. He expanded my thinking and showed me the reason and the method for prosperity, - not my way, but His way. That was all it took.

God Doesn't Live in Poverty, Why Should You?
Prosperity isn't some big taboo for Christians. It is not some weird unscriptural teaching for money-hungry fools. Fools are the ones who get destroyed by prosperity—at least that is what Proverbs 1:32 says!

It's important to get wisdom and understanding on this issue. After all, if God thought prosperity was as bad as some preachers do, He wouldn't be living in Heaven. He'd be hanging out in the housing projects! He doesn't live in poverty or anywhere near poverty and He didn't create you to live in it either. You're His kid!

Would you like to see your kid struggling? No! God is a good Father. The same way He wouldn't give you a stone if you asked for bread, He wouldn't give you poverty if you asked for prosperity (Matthew 7:9). Poverty is a curse. Prosperity is a blessing!

This message of prosperity is not just for the rich man; it's for everyone. Regardless of their social or economic background, God's will is that all of His children have prosperity. He doesn't want one person to miss out. That's why He has the Holy Spirit out there working day and night to draw people close to God.

God doesn't wish that one perish spiritually, physically, emotionally or financially. He wishes that all men knew the truth so that it can set them free!

There are two things that will cause the promises of God to manifest in your life - faith and patience. One without the other won't work. If you want to shed the dirt-digger mentality, you need to have a revelation of God's will concerning prosperity—not just for somebody else, but for you personally. It's got to be a heart thing first. Then, through faith and patience you'll see your heart thing turn into a harvest thing!

Prosperity Starts in the Heart—It's a Heart Thing
Although it seems on the surface that money is the "root of all evil," if you study a little bit you'll find out that most scriptures that condemn riches do it because of a faulty heart issue. It's a heart thing!

Have you ever read 1 Timothy 6:10 for yourself?

"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

Notice that it doesn't say money is the root of all evil. It says that the "love" of money is the bringer of sorrow and the root of all evil.

And many people, who don't have a dime to their name, are in love with money! They sit around dreaming about what they'd do if they were rich. But riches don't come to men and women who dream. They come to those that walk in the ways of God.

In fact, if you do a study on God's servants, you find out that those who followed God and obeyed His commandments experienced His blessings. As long as their heart was right, God didn't have a problem with it. The same is true today.

If you've got hidden greed or lust or stinginess in your heart regarding money, don't sweat it another day. Let God clean it out. Don't leave that dirt hanging around. Dirt-digging days are over! Renew your mind to God's Word concerning prosperity. Get clean so God can show you the mystery of sowing and reaping. Get clean so that you can become blessed and know what to do with prosperity when you get it.

"Sprang Up" Produces Destiny
Financial prosperity is crucial to the Gospel today because we live in a day and age where we can reach the masses simultaneously. Is it free to go on worldwide television? No. It costs some bucks—big bucks!

When God gave me a vision to reach the lost via worldwide television over twenty years ago, I had brown hair. It turned gray before that vision started to come to pass. Now, my hair is white and I'm finally doing what God gave me a dream of over twenty years ago.

Why didn't it happen sooner? Why didn't it happen when I had brown hair and could scream real well when I preached? Because I was digging around in the dirt—trying my way to get every cent I could to get this Gospel on television! But that was my problem—I didn't understand sowing and reaping. I didn't know I could expect a harvest that would spring up, increase and bring forth a thirty, sixty or hundred fold return on every seed that I sowed in good soil.

Consequently, I couldn't step out into the fulfillment of that vision. I had to lose that old, dirt-digging, poverty mentality so that I would not choke on the worldwide television bills.

But today, I've got a "sprang up" mentality. I have no fear that God is going to meet each and every need of this ministry! Why? Because it's His work. He'll do it! As long as I obey Him, He'll follow through with His promise.

You see, now I know what it takes to be successful from God's point. It takes faith—in His Word, in His ways and in His system of operation, which is sowing and reaping. After all, how can we touch the world for Jesus if we don't have a dime to help get the message out?

Worldwide television gives us the ability to reach the masses all at once. In Jesus' time, people would have to walk, get on a camel or ride in a boat to get the Gospel out. Today, we've got television and the web. It's easier than jumping on a camel and it reaches millions at once with the Gospel message.

We can refuse to allow a poverty mentality to choke out the great commission to Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. That's why there is nothing more important to me than fulfilling my call as an Evangelist. I want to preach this Gospel, so it can set people free from the bondage of sin, sickness, depression, poverty and anything else that is holding them back from walking free!

There's nothing like having the joy of Jesus in your heart and feeling free! A merry heart doeth good like a medicine—it energizes you and makes you feel good! I don't like to feel bad. I've tried sick, sad and disgusted. And do you know what? I don't like it.

Joy is better. I believe that's why God leads me to share humor in my messages. I never used to be funny before I was saved. I believe that's an anointing God gave me. Laughter opens the soul and the Holy Ghost invades the heart with the life-changing Word of God.

The lies about Christian prosperity aren't freeing, they're suppressing and they show the dirt-digging, poverty mentality for what it really is—a lie from Satan for the sole purpose of hindering the Gospel message from reaching people.

After all, if the devil can get believers so absorbed with their own financial struggles; most won't have the energy to think about others. And if they're bound by financial pressures all the time, who is going to believe them when they say that living for God can set them free?

You Qualify For Prosperity
If you're worried about whether or not you can have prosperity because of who you are, or where you live or whatever, don't be. God has given you the right to enjoy His blessing and have prosperity in your life for one reason: He loves you. He wanted you to be blessed from the beginning. That's one of the reasons He sent Jesus to die for you - to receive the blessing Adam and Eve had before they threw it all away.

The first thing God did for man was to bless him (Gen. 1:22). When the fall came, one of the things mankind lost was that original blessing of God. That's why Adam was told he would have to work by the sweat of his brow from then on. Any blessings that were given in the Bible up until Jesus' death on the cross were given at God's discretion when He found a man who He deemed righteous, like Abraham.

When Jesus came and shed His blood for all of mankind, He did it to bridge the gap between God and man - to set things right once again. One of the things Jesus' blood did was to break the curse and get back the original blessing. All the curses that came upon mankind because of the fall were hung on Jesus when He was crucified.

With Jesus' great sacrifice for all of mankind, He opened the door for you and me to receive the full, blessings of God once again. Jesus broke the power of man's original sin - and the cursing that came afterwards! That's why Christians can say that through Jesus the curse has been broken over their lives and that through His blood, they're entitled to the blessing of Abraham (Gal. 3).

On the cross, Jesus broke the power of sin! Jesus broke the power of hell, death and the grave! Jesus broke the power of sickness, disease and poverty! In 2 Corinthians 8:9 Paul assured us of exactly what Jesus did for us. When, by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he wrote:

"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."

Did Jesus experience poverty? Well, considering He came from Heaven, what do you think? The greatest house ever built can't compare to a home made in Heaven.

That's why I always say, you can't impress God with your stuff! He's walking on gold streets. Yours are concrete with potholes big enough to lose a tire in! He doesn't mind you having things, as long as things don't have you. It's His will that you get used to abundance here on earth. That's exactly what you're going to experience in Heaven.

Thy Will Be Done
The Lord wants you to experience an abundance of life on earth and in Heaven. In Matthew 6:10 Jesus told us to pray "...Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." On earth, as it is in Heaven! Is there financial struggling in Heaven? No way, man! The very foundation of Heaven is layered in precious stones and there's a front gate made of one pearl!

Where God is, there is no poverty mentality—and consequently there is no lack. None of that cursed junk can reside in the presence of God. His glory wipes that stuff out. That's why you can't get through the gate with sickness. You immediately are healed when confronted with the pure presence of God.

And if you think you're getting in there with a poverty, dirt-digging mentality, you're wrong. That's going to fly right out the window when you're confronted with the pure presence of God too. God's even going to change your clothes! Instantly you're going to be fitted with a gleaming robe of righteousness! Glory to God!

God loves you whether you receive everything He promised to you or not. He loved you even while you were a sinner. He is so merciful that He loved you when you didn't love Him. He loves you when you do right and when you do wrong, but His Word does have one major catch - it only works when you put faith in it and obey it. You've got to believe His Word and act on His Word to see His Word come to pass in your life.

God won't take over and do everything for you when it comes to financial prosperity. He set up a system that requires faith, in every area of your life. But, just like everything else the Gospel teaches, you've got to allow the righteous-making blood of Jesus to keep your heart right if you want to succeed. And all it takes to make sure you're heart is right is to be repentant.

Repentance means turning from what you recognize is wrong (whether that is wrong thinking or acting); asking for forgiveness from God concerning it and then honoring God by allowing Him to wash the space clean!

It's not about being perfect. You can't do that anyway. It's about keeping yourself open to God's house cleaning and recognizing when you're hanging on to the dirt!

Centuries of Dirt
This isn't the time for Christians to retreat on prosperity. There is too much important work to do for dirt-digging days to continue. Dirt-digging days are over! Harvests are springing up for those who are willing and cheerfully ready to believe in God's system of sowing and reaping.

If you want to experience "sprang-up" time, you're going to have to allow God to remove any wrong ideas you might have about financial sowing and reaping. That's tough when you've got generations of religious condemnation hanging on your back. But God can free your mind from the residue of centuries and decades of religious condemnation and bad teaching against prosperity. Satan sold his lies about poverty to the church and it's time for us all to kick the idiot out and start living the blessed life God sent Jesus to the cross to give us.

One way to do this is to confront our unspoken ideas about sowing and reaping and measure them up against God's Word.

What Goes Around Comes Around
You've probably heard people say the phrase, "what goes around, comes around." Have you ever noticed how much people believe in retribution when it comes to sowing bad seeds in life? Yeah, people are quick to believe that you get a return on bad sowing. But, why do so many never, ever expect to get a return on good seed?

When people sow seeds according to God's Word, they should expect to receive a harvest. They should expect that "what goes around comes around" - whether they're planting deeds or seeds!

Luke 6:38 tells us to "...Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.... "

Then, the latter part of the verse tells us how much we can expect when we give: "For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."

In other words, whatever measure we give is what God is going to use to measure our harvest back to us. And what does He use as a measuring cup? Mark 4:8 promises: "And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some hundred."

We can expect that what we sow, we will also reap.

It isn't fleshy and anti-spiritual to have something. God originally created you to live in a beautiful garden called Eden without the burdens of sin, sickness or lack. That's why people are drawn to beautiful places and things on earth. God likes beauty and you were made in His image so it only stands to reason that you'll like nice stuff too. But the big difference is that God doesn't count His wealth by the gold streets. He counts His wealth by the souls He possesses.

God's greatest asset is a soul. It's worth more than the whole world to Him. And that's how we, as His kids, should feel too. We're in the last of the last days; we can't afford to have a dirt-digging mentality. Souls are at stake.

If you've been clinging to a dirt-digging mentality, I challenge you today to free your mind of your doubts concerning prosperity. Renew your mind to God's Word concerning finances. Don't let centuries of religion tell you what you can and cannot have. Instead, get a revelation of prosperity in your spirit so that you can eradicate the poverty mentality in your own heart and mind.

Decide today to drop your shovel. Stop digging around in the dirt, hoping for a blessing. Look up. Think higher. Think bigger. Put your hope and your faith in God and the system of sowing and reaping that He put into effect so long ago. Then, watch as God brings His promise to pass in your life—thirty, sixty and one hundred fold!

Prayer:
If you've decided to make dirt digging a thing of the past and start new, pray this prayer with me right now:

Father, I love You and I want to trust You in every area of my life. I am making a decision today to have faith in You and in Your Word when it comes to prosperity in my life. I ask You to give me wisdom and understanding concerning Your plan for my prosperity and help me to wash away any wrong thinking I may have about finances. I thank You that You have made a way through Jesus for me to be blessed spiritually, physically and financially. I thank You for sending your Son Jesus to the cross for my prosperity—I believe that Jesus took the curse of poverty on my behalf. From now on, I will no longer limit You in the financial area.

If there is any sin in my life, I ask your forgiveness for it right now so this prayer won't be hindered. I thank You, in advance, for prospering me! I will not be a dirt-digger another day because You are my Divine Provider! I accept Your provision! In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen! Jesse Duplantis Ministries
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