The so-called prosperity gospel has received a lot of negative press over the years. But David Friend, pastor, entrepreneur and podcast host, says the truth about prosperity comes down to a simple biblical principle that people make complicated: God loves us and wants to bless us.
“When I first became a Christian, I kind of thought that Christians had to be poor and meek and quiet and had to sit around and not really say much and not earn a lot of money,” he tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network. “And then as I read the Word of God, I discovered in Deuteronomy 8:18, it says, ‘You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth.’
“So He wants us to be blessed. He wants us to prosper in all things,” Friend says. “And so that’s the message I want to get out. I want people to realize that God loves us, and God wants to bless us. And when we read in the Word of God that we’re supposed to give to the work of the Lord, it’s not so God can put us in bankruptcy. No, it’s so God can open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that we cannot contain.
“And so we serve an amazing God, a God who believes in prosperity, and I believe in the message, and I believe that God’s people need to step up and just take control, just receive that in their life and be blessed to the Lord,” he says.
Friend offers two simple steps for moving into financial blessing. “Step one to be blessed financially is to put God first in everything; that means pray and put Him first. And then in your giving and your budget, put Him right at the top—that you’re going to give to Him. I believe 10% of what we make should go back to the Lord. I believe in that. And I’ve taught that for years, then I also believe that when we do that, we become a better steward of what God has given us, we become a better manager.
“Some people say, ‘Well, how can I give away 10% of what I have to the Lord, because I can’t afford it?'” Friend says. “And I’ll say, ‘No, no, you can’t afford not to.’
“Because if you give to Him, it will make you a better manager of what you have, because you have to adjust your budgets accordingly,” Friend says. “But then don’t just give 10% to the Lord, I believe, give 10% to yourself and save 10% of what you make. And I believe that we can live on 80% of what we make, if we can really adjust to do that. … And if we do that, people literally in their 20s and 30s. Today, if they just saved 10% of their income every single month, that’d be worth millions of dollars by the time retirement comes around.”
For more wisdom on how God wants to bless us financially and otherwise, listen to the entire episode of the Greenelines podcast here, and subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform for more inspiring and informing stories like this one. Check out David Friend’s own podcast, Quality Christian Living, also on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}
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