Love's plan of increase

S. SEKOU ABODUNRIN

[I encourage you to read Lk 19: 1 - 11 before reading further]

And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. (Luk 19:2)

You do not need to read too far in the gospels to catch the general feeling that the jew had towards someone of Zacchaeus' standing. The Pharisees classed the sinners and the publicans as first-class citizens of some looney part of hell. Here we have the impact of such a publican recorded in the word of God forever. There are lessons that we can learn from this. Notice that Zacchaeus is not just a publican, he is not even one of the noted publicans, he was the chief, You could say that he was "god father" amongst the publicans! The bible is also not silent about the fact that he was rich. He had mastered how to use manipulation strategies to obtain wealth and that plan was working.

There is a scarcity of what we see in Zacchaeus - a rich man running, not after money, but to see Jesus. He tries to press through the crowds, then this rich man climbs up a tree just so he might catch a glimpse of love. Somehow the crowd couldnt see all this! love was making claims on Zacchaeus, but religion was blind to it. It is beautiful that Jesus locates this fellow and reaches out to him.

Until Zacchaeus met Jesus, he was a typical, rich, chief-publican but everything changed after an encounter with Jesus as the wisdom of God revealed. I am persuaded that Zacchaeus perhaphs understood the love plan best of most characters recorded in the earth-walk of Jesus. He did what the rich young ruler couldnt do, and he did it of his own accord! You recall that Jesus is the word of God in action. In order words, this noted jew came in living contact with the word of God and he received the word of God into his house as guest. Let us watch carefully what happens when the word passes through Jericho to locate Zacchaeus. There is something about waiting upon the word that hands you over to true greatness in God.

We do not know exactly what Jesus spoke to Zacchaeus that caused the radical change as it is recorded in this passage, but it is obvious that he would have shared with him the concept of true riches that were hidden in God's word. Zacchaeus was a reservoir of wealth. Somehow whenever the money gets to him it gets stored up and the flow of increase does not reach out from him into the society. In other words Zacchaeus represents the system by which poverty rules over a locality. Like most of the religious gurus of our day, If you had walked around the town where Zacchaeus was you would have reason to suspect that the wealth was truly with the wicked and you might in fact see behind the scenes enough to realise that this is the method by which satan affects the circulation of wealth thus enslaving both the rich and the poor. Someone would quickly suggest that some generational curse or some other ancestral thing was holding that city bound. This is where things get exciting in this record. Now it is obvious that there is serious stranglehold on finances in that town, but how does Jesus affect this stranglehold that satan has over such an area?

I want you to notice that Jesus does not enter into that town seeking to rent the strongest camel that could take him up the tallest building in order to "pull these strongholds down". He realises that satan cannot legally touch the money. Men must be involved somehow in order for the financial strategy to be effective. If the men are influenced, everything changes.

The love of money is the root of this evil. The secret to breaking down this evil system therefore will be to re-assign the love-life of Zacchaeus! The love-relationship that Zacchaeus maintains with money, together with the ideas, thoughts and practices of the publican has been used to erect a stronghold in Zacchaeus' heart. The strength of this stronghold is sustained by the degree to which Zacchaeus is schooled in the ideas, thoughts, and love relationship he maintains towards money. Outside of these thoughts, ideas and emotional attachment about finances, there is no stronghold. These strongholds then become the channel through which money is drained from circulation into the reservoir of the wicked. Zacchaeus is a typical example and not an exception to this law.

Jesus, the living word, exposed Zacchaeus to the love of God. Zacchaeus had a love-need and love reached out to him. The people feel that the method of Jesus wouldnt work. They murmured and grumbled because their religious sensibility was violated. They were loveless. Jesus pays no attention to it whatsoever. You see, religion enslaves man and binds his mind until he is not free to think creatively. Zacchaeus is affected by the force and wisdom of this love that is poured on him through Jesus. This drives out all the fear that Zacchaeus had about people and the financial realm and it effectively dismantled satan's regime enforced through Zacchaeus' stale lovelife. This is the lesson that Jesus taught here so emphatically. The way to dismantle satan's stranglehold on the financial realm is not to do extensive city marches battling spirits and devils. You see, men spend money, not spirit beings. The way to affect the money is to systematically dismantle the ideas that men have where money is concerned. Zacchaeus was supplied with the wisdom of manipulation and being manipulated. This is a corrupt wisdom. If every man around had operated in the wisdom of God, the spirits will still be around, but effectively useless. The secret then is to expose the soul of Zacchaeus to the living word who is the wisdom of God in motion. Zacchaeus didint know God's strategy. This gave room for satan's manipulations. Jesus plugs this knowledge gap and supplies Zacchaeus with the very wisdom of God and Zacchaeus cooperates! The salvation of Zacchaeus' soul was in effect the financial salvation of that town. Notice verse 8

And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

Zacchaeus had caught unto the very wisdom of God! Imagine the impact that this outflow from Zacchaeus will have on that city. Suddenly there was bounty flowing towards the poor. The money wasnt coming from heaven or from satan's hands. Wisdom was flowing from God through his word, while money was flowing through Zacchaeus. The abundance was flowing from the love of God that had affected Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus had used the fear-tactic of false accusation to drain money from the poor! The people had also succumbed to fear-tactic which kept them impoverished. God was now using Zacchaeus to extend his mercy and grace in that town. Now let us walk through the same town 2 weeks after. The very atmosphere is changed!

The demons are not dead, they have been profoundly neutralized by the word!! The man had lost God's love plan in the financial realm and Jesus leads him back to it as the living word. The impact of this was so profound that the people thought that the kingdom of God would appear immediately. They had seen the religious leaders use fear tactics and laws to affect the flow of money. They had seen the publicans use the same fear-tactic through extortion and false accusation, but when they saw love's impact they immediately connected with the kingdom. The word of God contains the keys that bring exaltation in finances according to God's love plan.

...to be continued