Prosperity: The untold Gospel

People have always being using the Word of God (Gospel) for selfish reasons. Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4 Verses 2 to 4 said:
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
The Gospel has been perverted and is being perverted and will continue to be till Jesus Christ comes. There are so many untold aspects of prosperity in the Bible. Prosperity is one of those aspect of mankind God has laid natural principles for. One does not need to be a Christian to prosper; as He has made it free to mankind irrespective of one's religion. "Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches." Psalm 73:12, kjv. However, there are significant difference between a prosperous Christian and a prosperous non Christian especially those that got it through evil means. (Proverbs 10:22, Psalm 37:7 ).

Untold Gospel:
According to the law, there are many conditions in which God bless humanity. They include; obedience to God, prayer, promise to Abraham and his heir and tithing. But somehow tithing is the most common one and almost all preachers of prosperity use this. This is so because this is the only one that leaves the preacher with financial benefits. Hardly do people preach about prosperity through obedience to God, because it doesn't benefit most of the preachers of prosperity.

1. Obedience: King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 12:13 said " Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." All that God ever wanted and wants from humanity is OBEDIENCE. In this, He is well pleased with man. "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:" (Exodus 19:5). And this obedience to God comes with a benefit. Deuteronomy 28 extensively talk about this. And this is repeated in many other places in the Bible ( Deuteronomy 29:9, Job 36:11, Psalm 128:1, Deuteronomy 5:33, Psalm 1:1-6, Joshua 1:8...) The untold part of this is that prosperity preachers hardly ever talk about this. Why is this so?

2. Prayer: Somehow we have been made to believe that one should not pray to God to provide for him; and that he that prays for prosperity is a lazy person. Well, this is somewhat complicated. Sometime ago, I asked a question on facebook: "they say nothing good comes easy, what then is God's favor; something we work for or sometime bad?" It was the argument between the role of prayer and favor in prosperity among Christians I had in mind when I asked this question. Well, in Exodus 16 God fed the Israelites with food from heaven. In 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 Jabez prayed for God's blessings. In Matthew 6: 25-34 Jesus Christ talked about our needs for food, clothes and shelter and that we should not trouble ourselves about that because he can. And in Matthew 7: 7-8 Jesus Christ talked about asking God for anything and he that asks receives. Meaning one can also ask for wealth.
© Jokpa Ishaka