Preacher's Corner With...

Pastor Matthew Allen

Kingdom Minded Fellowship

Proverbs 10:22.

"The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it."

How many times have you heard a member of a congregation or a religious leader get up and testify about the blessing of God upon their lives, as they've recently become the recipient of a new car, a new home or a sum of money; and use the above passage of scripture to validate their claim?

Then six months to a year later, a number of sorrows evolve within what they've once called God's blessings, i.e.

(1) Financially unable to properly service and maintain the car, (2) The bank repossesses the car, (3) The bank forecloses on the new home, and (4) Start avoiding/ducking people and sorely complaining of folks coming to borrow money or ask for financial assistance. How quickly have these persons forgotten the "and he added no sorrow with it" part of their testimony?

The misappropriating of God's word has a great deal to do with the level of ignorance that exists among the religious community. This is the breeding ground for undisciplined, itching ears, gullible Christians that have and will continue to become victims to various forms of unbalanced, and in some cases false teachings about prosperity and the blessings that are coming forth today in Jesus' name.

Understandably so, Yeshuwa Messiah (a.k.a. Jesus the Christ) never called His followers Christians, but rather He always called them disciples/disciplined ones. As it is a proven fact that religious Christians are good at reading and quoting a few scripture verses; whereas the Apostle Paul in writing to his disciple and spiritual son namely Timothy didn't just say to him "read" but here's what he said in:

II Timothy 2:15. "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

This word study in the Greek is: spoudazo, spoo-dad'-zo; which has several meanings as follows (1) to make effort, (2) to be prompt or earnest, (3) to give diligence, or be diligent, (4) to endeavour, and (5) to labour.

Watch this! And don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that all religious leaders are of a twisted mindset when it comes to rightly teaching about the blessing; it's just that many of them are teaching out of ignorance based upon that which they've heard another religious leader/hireling teach and preach.

Listen! It's by accident that the scripture says "Rightly dividing the word of truth" for this also means that the word of truth/word of God can be wrongly divided. And I make absolutely no apology in saying that if there is ever a time that God's word is being wrongly divided for selfish monetary gain, that time is now.

For the thousands of fragmented, powerless churches today are all competing against each other for their portion of the undisciplined religious Christians (prey) community; that gives little to no attention in truly studying God's word. But rather relies solely upon the teachings of some religious leaders. Thereby, today we've got thousands of Christians, who as a result of the incomplete teachings are of the mindset that (a car, a house, a job, etc;) is the blessing; and nothing could be further from the truth. For the blessing is not a thing such as (a car, a house or a job, etc;) but rather the blessing is God's empowerment upon one's life.

This erroneous teaching has two main negative affects that have absolutely nothing to do with the kingdom of God:

1) It helps in fuelling the myth that "Because God is blessing Apostle, Bishop, Pastor or Doctor; with fine cars and houses and if I want to be blessed also, I've got to continue sowing financially into my religious leader's life, even if I have to go without"

2) It puts a yoke and a burden upon the necks of the poor in spirit, thereby causing many to feel unworthy as they're not driving or living as their leaders. Which in most cases leads to the sin of idolatry, whereby these persons begin to render a form of worship to their religious leaders. It also serves as a blockage to those on the outside, who would want to join/be a part of a local congregation; but are wise enough to see through this erroneous teaching.

Let's quickly trace the origin of the blessing, to actually see what it is and the purpose of the blessing.

Genesis 12:1-2

1. Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee:

2. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

Please note: (1) That the blessing is not a house; for Father Yahweh told Abram to leave his father's (Terah) house, (2) The blessing is God's empowerment "And I will make of thee" and (3) The purpose, "And thou shalt be a blessing.

This word blessing in the Hebrew is: Berakah, ber-aw-kaw'; which means a benediction, an act of approval.

The cars, houses and other material possessions that man craves in some cases are the byproducts of the blessing. There is so much more to share in order to bring some form of clarity and balance back into the church.

Stay tuned next week for part 2.

For questions, comments we can be contacted via E-mail:pastormallen@yahoo.com or Telephone: 441-2021 or 225-3850, Pastors Matthew and Brendalee Allen Kingdom Minded Fellowship Centre Int'l. ?