Bible Economics – Hundredfold & Other Stories

S. Sekou Abodunrin

Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. Ps 35:27

Literally when David said "righteous cause" he was referring to the plan of God for his life for him to ascend the throne of Israel. Some were against this plan - notably Saul while a great number were anticipating it with excitement.

The "righteous cause" is not some church building project or the likes, but the furtherance of the plan of God for our lives. The plan of God promotes godlikeness. This cause is firstly in God, then through Christ it gets into the believer. When we understand this cause we are to be wild with joy! It is obvious that there is a righteous cause in God that makes him delight in the prosperity of his servant. It makes sense that if God has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant that he must be more than pleased with the prosperity of his sons. We are to shout for joy about this. In other words this kind of prosperity starts with a relaxed attitude of joy.

While it is true that God delights in the prosperity of his people, we must not lose sight of the fact that there is a godly means by which God brings about his will. The believer often falls for things that have an appearance of truth when it comes to finances more than any other area of christian thought. You need a healthy grounding in God's word to differentiate between what is objectionable and what is permissible in money matters as it concerns ministry.

For example...... There are those who proclaim the idea of a “hundred fold return”. According to them this means a hundred fold return on their giving, but is this scriptural? The concept is drawn from the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 19 and mark 10. The reference from Mark is outlined below:

28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's,
30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. Mk 10:28 - 30

If you were to go by Matthew's account [Please read Mt 19:27 – 29], Jesus responds to the question posed by Peter and gives a time frame for the fulfillment of his answer. What Mark presents as “this time”, Matthew shows to be “in the regeneration”. The regeneration refers to the period when Jesus will seat upon the throne of his glory. This is a definite period when the twelve apostles of the Lamb will sit on their thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. We know that Jesus is sitted in glory at the right hand of God. When Jesus said “verily”, he is emphasising the certainty of the truth he is trying to get across.

Oh! the countless doors of fellowship that open up through the new birth and the proclamation of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You have new relationships and a new system of measuring treasure. That is what he is teaching there.

Think about this, what did the people forsake? They forsook houses, brethren, sisters, father, mother, children, lands and wife. Jesus said that they would receive a hundred fold.

Some twist this around and "forsaking" suddenly becomes “sowing of money”. The truth is that the hundred fold return is never applied to money in the New Testament. If we maintain that the passage above is teaching receiving back a hundred times of what was forsaken then we would be making Jesus teach that the fellow who forsakes one piece of land would receive 100 pieces of land and that the fellow that forsakes 1 wife would receive 100 wives!

This interpretation doesn't line up with the rest of the word of God. Lets put the “hundred-fold return” principle to a simple test.

Say you walk up to cash point, withdraw money in your national currency and convert enough of it to obtain £1. I am choosing the pound sterling because I live in England and the pound sterling is somewhat strong.

You “sow” this £1 and receive £100. You then immediately sow this £100 and receive £10000. This is hot! You sow the £10000 and receive £1m.

According to the hundred-fold teaching then there is a three step process to turn £1 to £1m!

Trouble is, I know too many believers who have succumbed to this teaching for years and are still trying to “believe in” their returns. They will most likely never handle £1m in their lifetime simply because people who handle that kind of money hardly succumb to that kind of reasoning!

If I want to get all religious I'd remind you that 8 is the number of new beginnings and that we should not stop at three iterations of that supposed hundred fold principle, so “sow” £1m and receive £100m. Sow £100m and receive £10bn. You are now a billionaire!! Sow the £10bn and receive £1 trillion. In order to have a new beginning, sow the £1 trillion and receive £10000 trillion. This takes you into the stratosphere. The trouble is, that kind of money does not exist and then don't forget we are talking about a single chap who started with £1 and in 8 steps he now owns £10000 trillion, what would happen if more believers acted on this?

I hope that they do not. The reason is obvious – the teaching of hundred-fold returns as it has been taught will actually not do in this lifetime what the proponents are saying that it will. This is a myth that appeals to so many christians even when it doesn't stand up under scriptural evidence and basic arithmetic.

The whole thing rises or falls together. We must not succumb to the tendency to pick and choose what we want from verses of scripture or have hundred fold have different meanings for different things. The truth is that if this has worked for those who preach it, they should be requesting people to send in their home addresses so the ministries can send money to them!

There is a concept that we can learn from the Apostle Paul.

Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful 1 Cor 7:25

Paul is giving instructions about relational issues in general and marriage in particular. On this most important theme he says that he has no commandment from the Lord for singles!!

The point is that unlike the example set by the Apostle, the typical example set on TV today always wraps everything to do with money and ministry around a “word from the Lord”! It is as though we believe that if these statements are not prefixed or suffixed with these obviously outlandish and blanket promises supposedly from the Lord we are on shaky ground.

The Truth is that not everything in ministry or related to ministry requires a direct command from the Lord. We can go by the plain revelation of the word in these matters.

The Spirit of God thought it important to imprint it upon our hearts that we do not have to say the Lord has said when he has not. Many christians fall for this “the Lord has said ..” strategy for fund raising. This would lead us to believe that very often when people feel passionately about certain issues that they want to impress upon others they fail to discern that the “leading” they have is not really the Lord speaking, but their conscience.

There is nothing wrong with having strong convictions about issues that are important to you, and these convictions could be about religious and noble causes. There is however a whole lot wrong with trying to pass off your convictions as a leading from God for other people to act on. Paul was convinced about certain things as is every thinking man. He was however faithful enough to impress upon the Corinthians the difference between what the Lord says and what he felt impressed and convinced about.

He knew that it was unscriptural to make a commandment out of that which the Lord had not spoken.

You see, a man who fellowships with God's mind and has learnt faithfulness knows that he has the freedom to give instructions to the church without invoking the “God has said” trump card. A trustworthy man wouldn't resort to these methods.

I think that many times people are too hard on the ministers who champion these TV pulls for money. They are often accused of being greedy. The truth is that it is those who respond to these pulls who are really greedy or maybe it is a partnership of greed between the minister and the listener. The power of these appeals is that there are desires lurking in the heart of the hearers that they are planning to fulfil using any available means. This gets exploited on TV a lot.

There has been an amazing flow of money into christian ministries and more people are exposed to christian broadcasting. I am able to rejoice because we know that irrespective of the preacher's motivation the word once preached is able to deliver people [See Philippians 1: 18]

Those who preach these things take the great inflow of money as proof that “the message” “works”. That kind of reasoning would lead us to believe in the long run that the drug cartels have something that “works” for it brings in money! In reality, who is it really working for?

We have a good example in Acts 11 on giving and “The Lord said ..”

27 And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.
28 And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.
29 Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:
30 Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. Acts 11:27 - 30

The prophet Agabus gives a clear word of wisdom about a time of global scarcity that was going to affect the christians in Israel more than others. We can learn many valid lessons from this scriptural example.

God was going to bring prosperity to the Christians in Judea. He was going to do it through the giving from other christians. We note that the Christians did not give this gift to Prophet Agabus.

Prophet Agabus does not even tell them to “sow”. He was a prophet and not the Holy Spirit. He stopped where the Spirit stopped. He did not say that those who “sow” would get a new chariot from Damascus, a jar of water from Jesus' baptismal water or a piece of the cloth that was used to wrap baby Jesus.

The believers there were mature, we are not told that anyone confessed against this global scarcity. They acted smartly knowing that the time of scarcity was coming.

Agabus does not give the people a specific HOT amount that the Spirit of God says that 777 Christians are to give. He does not present things as though God was in crisis “The word of the Lord came to me saying that if 77 of you give £777 right now ..”

Change is coming to the body of Christ. .... to be continued

Elijah, the Widow and the Rest of us

S Sekou ABODUNRIN

I encourage you to read the piece in 1 kings 17: 9 – 16 many times over before proceeding

25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath Lk 4: 25 – 28

The story of Elijah and the widow is replete with instruction for our day. Some might think that this was an everyday occurrence in Elijah’s powerful ministry, but in reality Elijah clearly didn’t have an anointing that flowed in his life that “guaranteed” that every one who “sowed into his ministry” would have a supernatural financial turn around. If he had claimed such, he would have been fleecing the impressionable widow who was in a dire situation. We know this to be the case because the Lord Jesus said that Elijah was sent to one widow alone. For all we know then this event was not repeated. Elijah was not aware that millennia later there will arise precious folks who will claim that poor people should sow their last financial resource into their ministry and trust for financial breakthrough.

There is a whole army of new Elijahs it seems. Every one seems to have a supposed, “debt cancelling” anointing these days. I want you to realise that neither the Old Testament prophets nor any of the New Testament ministries practiced or preached this. It doesn’t make sense to pick and choose what portion of biblical records we will follow. If we stay true to the example set by Elijah, the first thing we need to establish is to recognise and discern what the Lord is saying to the minister and then to understand and discern what the Lord is saying to us.

Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. 1 kings 17:9

If we go into the details of this, the Lord spoke to both parties concerned. He did not leave it to the prophet to go convince or pressure the woman into “sowing”. The Lord commanded Elijah just as he had also commanded the widow. Elijah did not do the convincing or commanding. We see that the Lord had spoken to the widow about Elijah’s sustenance before he spoke to Elijah about the provision that will flow through the widow. That’s the first principle in these matters – you must discern the leading of the Lord for yourself. This leading will not be one-sided. I often hear of people who give because God told a certain minister that all those who give would get such and such!

The pattern seems to be that one should be careful to obtain money from people without finding out what the Lord has instructed them to do. Elijah walked in confidence knowing that the Lord has also spoken to the woman. Some seem to think that whatever a minister says, the Lord has spoken. Let me put it simply, the Lord has a voice, he will speak to you by himself or through his word. You are responsible for judging the things you hear. Do not offload this responsibility on someone else no matter how mighty or anointed they are. You do not go about looking for opportunities to disbelieve ministers; neither do you open your mouth like a day-old chick to swallow anything that is spoken to you.

There is another point I want you to see, God instructed Elijah to dwell there. In other words Elijah was required to move to the locality where the widow was. Elijah wasn’t to get up the next morning after eating his meal or receiving the “miracle offering”, climb upon his golden donkey and ride into town to declare himself as “good ground” for the next available widow. If he had done that he would have been wrong. The principle and practice that we see in Elijah is that a minister that makes such pulls for money or the resource of others should be accessible to them.

I have heard of ridiculous things like £7, £77 or some other juxtaposition of 7s! Elijah wasn’t going to require 77 shekels or 777 shekels simply because 7 was the number of perfection. He wasn’t only going to make blanket guarantees to the widow. He was going to stay around to see the widow walk in the turn-around that he had spoken of! The Lord gave Elijah specific instructions. Elijah was to dwell, not roam around.

Put more simply, God didn’t allow his holy prophet the luxury that some of us ministers allow ourselves today. It is common practice to hear a minister tell those that have “sown” in response to the promise of a guaranteed financial turn around, when those things don’t come to pass, that it is likely the “sower” didn’t exercise faith to pull in the harvest! Clearly Elijah didn’t practice such nor did the Lord expect him to.

The pattern we see however is that Elijah was to dwell with the widow such that he was going to be around to pull in the harvest. If faith were called into operation to call in this “harvest” it would be Elijah’s faith. The woman had acted in corresponding action by supplying the resources to sustain Elijah; now the ball was back in Elijah’s court that the word of the prophet must not be seen to have fallen to the ground. It therefore makes sense that God instruct Elijah to move into close proximity and dwell. He was to instruct the woman until the “harvest” came in.

According to the testimony of Jesus, Elijah was sent to only one widow. This instruction that God gave Elijah then wasn’t for everybody, nor was it some universal message. It was singular. If we are not careful we will do some religious arithmetic and end up with some formula like

Mighty prophet + poor widow + gift from widow = supernatural provision for widow

Elijah knew no such arithmetic. The equation I made up above lacks the most important part – what has the Lord spoken to each person personally? Elijah didn’t multiply his revenue stream by enlisting all widows claiming that the “system” works. We know that there were many widows in Israel at that time. If he had built his ministry around this he would have succeeded for people respond to this type of thing. His heart was with his Lord and he wasn’t going to take advantage of the widows for you can imagine what the other widows in town would have tried having seen that things that happened when the widow responded to Elijah.

Apparently Elijah trained Elisha properly. How do we know?

27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Luke 4:27

Elisha didnt know the supposed bible fact that Naaman could "sow into the anointing"!

If you read the full story about Elisha, Naaman actually offered him money.

Have you noticed that people are more likely to give after a miracle has occurred? Should a wise minister receive such money? Thankfully Elisha didn’t receive such. In this case it wasn’t even Elisha that asked for it! Some that emphasise a money-anointing connection would gladly bring out the offering basket after such a profound miracle asking the fellow who has received the miracle to “sow unto good ground” or name the seed "my miracle turn around" :)

… to be continued