But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:
‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you,Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
The gospel of Matthew is my favorite book in the Bible. Many times the Lord brings to my remembrance verses in the gospel of Matthew. In Chapter 4 the Lord has given me some understanding in regards on the prosperity gospel and how to fight temptation. The prosperity gospel is in the Bible. Its in Matthew chapter 4, after Jesus was baptized, received the Holy Spirit and went into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days. The devil took that opportunity to tempt Jesus with health, wealth and prosperity. But you might ask "So who is giving all this money, cars, houses, etc that these televangelists and prosperity preachers talk about?" The answer is Satan. Now I am not saying that God isn't capable of giving us the things we need, but remember that He is sovereign and He gives according to His will. But according to the prosperity gospel, God is reduced to a kind of ‘supernatural bellhop’ attending to the needs and desires of His creation instead of us surrendering our needs and desires for His needs and desires.
In Matthew 4 verses 1 through 3, Satan tempts Jesus with prosperity by showing him that Jesus is the Son of God by turning stones into bread. Notice, the devil used stones, a plural word that meant there were more than one stone. The stones probably looked like bread because of the size, shape and color. Jesus fought back with the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. He is showing us how to yield our sword and fight back. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 "that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord." Also, the text In Matthew 4 suggests that the Spirit commanded this fast and if Jesus would have broke this fast, it would have been an act of disobedience. Even though Jesus could have supernaturally made the stones to bread, He stayed obedient and Jesus was able to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus denied Himself for God's provision and He had put all His trust in God.
Next the devil took Jesus up on to one of the pinnacles of the temple and told Him to thrown Himself down. This is the "health" portion of the prosperity gospel. The devil twisted scripture to try to trick Jesus into tempting God. Satan knows scripture too. He takes the truth and mixes it with lies. Much like the prosperity preachers do. Satan quoted Psalm 91:11-12 "For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone." This is why it is SO important to read the Bible. Its life and death folks! We have an enemy that hates us, an enemy that doesn't discriminate and our enemy is relentless. But He wasn't fooling Jesus. Satan implied that God is trustworthy only when He rescues us from suffering and danger. But God is trustworthy even when He allows for us to suffer. Jesus fought back and quoted Deuteronomy 6:16 "You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah." Jesus was referring to to the time when Israel, angry and thirsty, questioned God's presence until He miraculously produced a stream of water from a rock. If Jesus would have given into the temptation, He would have displayed that His faith was weak.
I'd like to say something here and this is mostly just my opinion based on what I know and what I have seen. I say the truth because I love you. If I hated you all I would not say anything about it. Sending money to a televangelist for healing or a hundredfold blessing does not show God that you have faith. What it means is that you are being deceived by a false teacher and that you don't know what the word of God really teaches. Folks, we are in the last days and Jesus warned us that in the last days there would be many false prophets and many who would say they come in His name. That they would perform miracles and fool the very elect. I am astonished that other believers do not see this. I've seen in other mature believers what the word of God does and it very obvious when somebody has been spending time with the Lord. Its very obvious when someone is not spending time with the Lord too. Spiritual maturity has nothing to do with how many years you have been going to church or how long ago you prayed the "sinners" prayer. Spiritual maturity depends on how much time you have spent with the Lord and how much He has grown you. Someone who understands the word would see these things and know the season we are currently living in and would see through the sheep's clothing, the ravenous wolves that have infiltrated the flock. I am very much against the prosperity gospel and prosperity preachers. I will do as the Lord commands to expose the works of evil and warn people about these false preachers. The prosperity gospel is the gospel of demons. Back to the lesson at hand.
The last attempt by Satan to tempt Jesus is by taking Jesus up on a very high mountain and told Jesus that He would only bow down and worship him, Satan, he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. That right there is the "wealth" portion of the prosperity gospel. Satan does exercise some authority on earth but the kingdoms on earth belong to God and He will give the kingdoms of the earth to the Messiah, not Satan. Also, God is the one who gives Satan his power and allows him to do things. If God doesn't allow it, Satan cant do a thing about it. Anyways, Jesus responded with Deuteronomy 6:14 "You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you " and 10:20 "You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name." The 1-2 punch combo. If Jesus had worshiped Satan in order to gain worldly power, it would have indicated that He valued the creation more than the Creator and valued more the kingdoms of earth than the kingdom of God. God is the only one who is worthy of worship. The love of the things of this world indicates that the love of the Father is not in you. Check out 1 John 2:15 " Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." I know its hard, but we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us.
The other day I was reading 1 Timothy 6:7-11 and I had to post this along with this message. We brought nothing into this world and we cannot take anything with us from this world when we die. Anything above nothing was all a gift from God and we should be thankful for that. We should be content with food and clothing, with these we will be content. Anything extra is a gift and God is worthy of all praise for giving us what we need and for the extra He gives. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare (a trap), in many senseless (meaningless) and harmful desires. That is so true. Those desires plunge people into ruin and destruction. Think about it. Look through out history and even in current times. Kingdoms have risen and fallen. Great men have gained tremendous wealth and loose it all faster than they gained it. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Money isn't evil. The love of money is the root, the beginning of all kinds of evil. You cannot worship God and money. Its though this craving to be rich that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. I looked up the word "pangs" and it is defined as sudden pain and mental or emotional distress.
Let me make this clear. God is good, powerful, sovereign, just, righteous, holy and almighty. You can't exaggerate or praise the Lord too much because He is all that and much more. I do believe that the Lord can bless us with health, wealth and prosperity. But that should not be our motive to seek, worship and believe in God. Our motive should be to know God more through His Son Jesus Christ. Let me put it to you this way. Jesus Christ is God's selfie. If you know Jesus, then you know God. God blesses us according to His will and for His glory. He protects us and keeps us from things. I praise the Lord for the many times in my life He has kept from me that I wanted. He knew that they would not be good for me. Sometimes what we want isn't what we need. Sometimes what we need isn't what we want. We have to trust the Lord that He knows all and He knows what is best for us. Also, planting a seed does not mean to plant a monetary seed. The seeds of God are seeds of truth, His word. One thing I am learning is to trust God in the really hard times. Me and my family are currently going through a storm right now. Tell you what, this storm has driven me to prayer, worship and His word. God is faithful to His word and He is not slacking as some call slackness. The promises of God are YES and AMEN through Jesus Christ. You must have faith or you cannot please God. You don't even need a lot of faith. Jesus said that if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, that is all you need to tell a mountain to move and it will be cast into the ocean.
Prosperity preachers misuse and twist the word of God to convince people that it is Biblical what they teach when in fact they are doing exactly what Satan tried to pull on Jesus. Prosperity preachers take a lie and wrap it with some truth. A half truth is still a lie. Jesus said in John 8:31-32 to the Jews who believed in Him “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Dust off your Bible and dig in.
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