Isn’t It More Spiritual to Be Poor?

With tears in his eyes, the veteran missionary looked at me. He had gathered his children and grandchildren around him at the front of the church building. I had just finished teaching that God wanted to be the God of “more than enough.” Generally as I proclaim the message of biblical prosperity, people respond and ask for prayer to be free from poverty. But I realized God was doing something different as this man approached me with his extended family gathered around him.

Here was a precious man of God and his wife who had spent much of their lives on the mission field. As they approached me, he gathered his sons and daughters and put his arms around them. He wanted me to pray for his whole family. He shared that early in his life he had felt called to the mission field and told his wife and family that they would “always be poor” because they were called to be missionaries. He went on to share about their experiences of never having enough money. When they were on the mission field and when they were home, they never seemed to have enough, always barely scraping by. Now he saw the same lack in the lives of his children. He wanted me to pray for them and break the power over these words he had spoken over his family. He wanted his family to meet and know God as El Shaddai, the God of more than enough.

Knowing the power of our own will and words, I asked him to pray first and cancel his words, “we will always be poor,” over himself and his family. He stood in his place of God-given leadership authority over his family and prayed to break the power of these words. Then I followed in a prayer of financial blessing for the family as God met them in a beautiful time of prayer and restoration. The whole family left with a burden lifted, anticipating God’s abundant financial blessing. Who said missionaries should be poor anyway?

One of the fun things I do when I am training leaders is to help them identify and develop their spiritual gifts. It is always such a pleasure to help people discover how God made them and gave them special grace in specific areas. This almost always helps them to find fulfillment and effectiveness in what God has called them to do. It is in taking a closer look at one of the spiritual gifts that we discover why some are confused and think it is more godly or spiritual to be poor.

In studying spiritual gifts we find a gift called voluntary poverty.¹ Voluntary poverty is defined as choosing to live below a normal standard of living to minister to a people group or an individual. It works many times alongside of the gift of missionary. Church history is full of stories of people who operated in this gift, such as George Muller and John Wesley.

Could it be that some Christians see this gift in well-known missionaries and church leaders (past and present) and hear their powerful, inspirational testimonies, yet make the mistake of thinking this is now the standard for everyone rather than a special grace that is given only to some? It seems that many times Christians who live in financial lack hold as their heroes of the faith some of these spiritual giants who had the gift of voluntary poverty, not realizing they themselves do not have the same grace. This could be the cause of some Christians not experiencing God’s abundance in the area of finances.

In his book Find Your Promised Land,² Korean businessman Israel Kim targets this same incorrect thinking. One of the lies taught about resources is that holy people should be poor. This concept of poverty and piety was developed during the Dark Ages by monastic orders of Catholic monks who were reacting to the audacious wealth, greed and corruption of the Roman Church. In those circumstances it may have seemed right, but in truth it is a curse that has kept many talented and anointed people from fulfilling their God-given destiny. They see how hard it is to simply survive and decide that living in poverty is no way to exist. The idea that poverty is a sign of humility and devotion to the Lord is simply false. If it were true, the wretched poor within the “10–40 Window” would have no need for evangelization.

Many Christians say God is good, but because they have always struggled financially, they have developed a mindset that God is stingy and is holding back blessings. There are two sides of this coin. We must be convinced that poverty and lack are a curse, and we must be convinced that God is a loving, abundant provider.

It is important that we realize from reading the Bible that God considers poverty to be a curse. We find this to be true when we look at Job’s story. God was blessing him with health and abundance; however, it was when Satan intervened that God’s blessings were interrupted. Let’s read it.

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land” (Job 1:9–10). When Job was under attack from the devil, he encountered poverty, sickness and calamity. A friend of mine is fond of saying that if you are not convinced that poverty is a curse, you should go on a trip to the poorest sections of India to see what it does to people. He notes that you will also be convinced of the close association of religion, poverty, sickness, and death. All of these are included in the list of curses in Deuteronomy 28:15–68 for disobedience to God.

The first car that I ever owned had a problem with the transmission, and it would leave a puddle of fluid under my car when it sat in the same location for any length of time. I got into the habit of always looking under my car to check for a leak before I drove it away. Sometimes the leak would be bad enough that it would leave a trail of fluid as I was driving away. Consequently, I developed the habit of always looking in my rear view mirror as I drove away to see if I was leaving a trail of fluid on the road. For many years I maintained this habit and expected something to be wrong with my vehicles even though they were mechanically sound and did not leak any fluids.

Was I really supposed to live like this? As I pondered it, I concluded that this was an expression of the spirit of poverty that had attached itself to me. I asked the Lord to help me break free of it. It took some time, but I can say that I am free from it today. I now enjoy driving the vehicles God has given us without the nagging fear that something is wrong mechanically or will go wrong with them.

I believe we must be totally convinced that God is an abundant provider—not just sometimes when he is in a good mood—but that his nature is to provide “more than enough.” It is how he does things. Can you imagine standing there when Jesus turned the water into wine? The scripture says in the book of John that six stone water jars used for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons, were filled to the brim. Filled to the brim? By my calculation that would be 160 gallons of wine. We do not know how many guests were at the wedding, but that is a lot of wine. Abundance is part of his nature. He fed the five thousand men (not to mention women and children), and there were baskets of food left over.

Is our picture of Jesus really correct? Do we realize how Jesus lived? He was well taken care of by his Father. Jesus and his party were accused of living in celebration and luxury. Maybe it was true. Why was he welcome at parties with the gluttons and drunkards? This would have been the wealthy people of the community. Maybe they invited him because they were hoping he would turn more water into wine? I don’t know.

Jesus was not destitute and poor. He was born in a manger because the inn was full. It was a symbolic act because he was the Lamb of God. His earthly father (Joseph) was a businessman going to pay taxes along with everyone else. Later, the wise men came to visit him in a house.

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh (Matthew 2:11).

Jesus himself was either self-employed or working in his father’s business until age thirty. He was not homeless and poor. If it is more spiritual to be poor as some Christians think, then we would have to say that Jesus was not very spiritual!

Jesus took time to meet the needs of both wealthy men and poor beggars. However, when he called his disciples he spoke only to men who were successful, working businessmen. We find out at his crucifixion that Jesus wore clothing that was valuable. It was valuable enough that hardened soldiers did not want to destroy it. People followed Jesus because he had authority and knew where he was going. He had wealthy women traveling with his party. In fact, Luke indicates that the wife of the manager of Herod’s household was traveling with Jesus and financially supporting him.

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene), from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna, the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means (Luke 8:1–3).

Do you think that Joanna slept in the dirt? I do not know, but I doubt it. She was married to Herod’s treasurer. I am inclined to think about what happens when we go to the mountains for a weekend with friends. When it is just the guys for the weekend, it is okay to rough it a little and just take the bare essentials. But when our wives accompany us, the environment tends to be a little more comfortable. Jesus had a treasurer named Judas who carried a money box. I suppose we could say that the money box was empty, but do you really think Jesus would have had someone carry an empty money box around? I would be surprised if this was true. As stated previously, many Christians will say God is good, but because they have always struggled financially, they eventually can develop a mindset that God is stingy and holding back blessing, when just the opposite is true.

Without realizing it, we can communicate this stingy view of God to those around us. For years my wife and I were involved in training youth leaders to lead youth groups. Food and snacks for ravenous teens are a big part of youth ministry. As we trained youth leaders, one of the practical things we encouraged them to do in this area was to buy good quality, name-brand soda and snack food to give to the kids. Why did we do this? Youth leaders are presenting a picture of the nature of God to the teens at a very impressionable age. Do we really want to demonstrate to them that God is a cheapskate who provides cheap stuff for his kids? No, we want them to see that God is a loving, abundant provider.

God loves the whole world, but he has an agreement with those of us who are Christians. Let me explain by talking about the owner of our local professional sports team. The owner has a general relationship with the fans and invites them to come to the games and enjoy them. He wants them to come, and he does his best to put a winning team on the field for them to enjoy. If some fans get disappointed and angry, they can stop coming to the games and it is no big deal. However, the owner of the team has a written contract with his players and coaches. There are specific commitments and expectations for both sides. They are legally bound to this commitment. In the same way, God has made an agreement with Christians through his Word to provide abundantly for more than just their needs. Though we know he loves the whole world, he has a contract with those who have taken his offer and signed on to his team.

What does it mean when the scripture says he delights in the prosperity of his servant? “May those shout for joy and rejoice, who take delight in my vindication; And may they say continually, ‘The Lord be exalted, Who delights in the prosperity of His servant.’” (Psalm 35:27 NASB).

It means it makes him happy to bless you, financially and otherwise! God wants to give you the desires of your heart. Let me qualify that by saying that as you get closer to him, the desires of your heart are the same as the desires of his heart, and your plans are his plans. He wants to give them to you:

“May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed” (Psalm 20:4).

In the next chapter we will explore the idea that it takes money to do things for God. If our heart’s desire is to follow his will for our lives, we will find our desires in alignment with his desires.

1 C. Peter Wagner, Finding Your Spiritual Gifts (California: Gospel Light, 2005).

2 Israel Kim, Find Your Promised Land: Getting Through Your Wilderness (Pennsylvania: Destiny Image Publishers, 2009).