Without a doubt if or when we are given choices between wealth or lack, riches or poverty – many people if not all would most definitely go for the former. Almost everyone wants to live and bask in abundance, I have heard people say that it is better to cry in a lush car or house than otherwise. As sweet and nice as it is to have all the luxuries of life, our dear Jesus Christ tells us in Luke 12:15 that the true essence of life doesn’t exist in the abundance of our earthly possessions. Our beloved Jesus goes into detail to explain to us the true essence of life, the true essence of living with the analogy of a parable. I find this parable of the rich fool profound because it describes the state of mind and life of many individuals in the world and sadly even in the church. Aside from pointing us to the facts, knowledge, and wisdom for becoming rich towards God – this parable reaffirms my belief in the word of God. It validates the authenticity of the word of God, written centuries ago yet still relevant to this moment.
Jesus was prompted to share this parable because a man within the crowd who should have been listening to the word of God seemed to be consumed with other trivial things. Jesus Christ was speaking to the crowd about the fear of God, wearing our identity in Christ like a badge only for this man in the crowd to scream out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me” – Luke 12:13. If this happened in this time and age, I can only imagine the “bombastic side-eyes” and looks this man would have gotten! Because “tell us” how sharing inheritance and wealth was related to what Jesus was speaking about. The first thing Jesus Christ addressed as He spoke to this man was:
Watch out & Guard Yourself from all forms of Greed:
Jesus Christ was a man filled with wisdom: He was there with wisdom as the earth’s foundations were laid – (Proverbs 8:22-2-31, John 1:1, I Peter 1:20). So He can identify the root and depths of things. For example, when He shared His plans to go to the cross with His disciples, He could discern or identify that Peter’s response although out of care was not of God( Matthew 16:21-23). We can see in this scenario that Jesus can identify that the root of this man’s statement was greed and covetousness. Therefore, Jesus Christ addresses it and admonishes the crowd about greed and covetousness. Whosoever reads the scriptures to take heed lest we allow greed and covetousness to take over us -Luke 12:15. This attribute in any man stems from not caring for our spirit man adequately and allowing the flesh to grow disproportionately. The Bible already tells us that the flesh profits absolutely nothing! Therefore, when we give it legroom and liberty to grow and call the shots, it will crave to be filled with the things of the world. Sadly these things lead to unprofitable things such as greed, malice, jealousy, and the like. Covetousness has its root cause in the works and activities of the flesh. A man or woman who gives himself or herself to the grooming of the spirit man would only be satisfied with God and nothing in this world would be so desirable to as much as want to covet such. I pray that the good Lord helps us to take heed lest we fall into the hands of the flesh.
Right after identifying and dealing with the man’s question, Jesus Christ goes ahead to point us to the wealth that matters, lasting wealth which is wealth towards our good Lord in heaven. You know something that I have come to realize over time is that everything that exists in the physical is a simulation of things that exist in the spirit realm. The ability of man to store up wealth in barns, banks, or vaults is possible because it first exists in the spirit realm. So you see as men and women accumulate wealth and store them up over here on earth, some wise men and women are also storing up wealth with God.
Jesus Christ took His time to share the keys and ways to store up wealth in heaven and how to become rich with God. This kind of wealth transcends this earthly realm, it is such that has eternal value hence we all should invest our time and energy in amassing this kind of wealth. Keys I will be sharing
in this week’s blog post:
God Gives Increase, He should be acknowledged and praised:
In Luke 12:16 Jesus tells us that the ground of this certain rich man yielded plentifully. A close look at this verse somewhat tells me that it wasn’t exactly anything this rich man did that led to the increase – it looks to me like it was the mercies of God and systems put in place by God that led to the increase. I mean God’s word tells us that some people plant, others water but it is God who gives the increase – I Corinthians 3:6-9. Although this man planted. tilled the ground, watered and so on the ground could yet not yield anything for him. However, to his fortune, the ground yielded so much for him. The right thing to do at that moment was to bow to his knees or scream at the top of his lungs to give all glory to God who gave him increase.
When the good Lord blesses us however small or large, we should cultivate the habit of acknowledging Him.
Ask the Lord, “What Shall I do ?”:
This man’s barn was filled up to an overflow, and he had a somewhat good problem of not knowing what to do with them. Amid his disarray, he said to himself -“what shall I do?” This is a question he could have directed to the good Lord who would have given him directions as to how to appropriate his abundance. Instead of seeking God’s counsel and wisdom, he turned to his wisdom; to tear down his barn to rebuild a bigger one. In my opinion, tearing down the barn and rebuilding a bigger barn was probably a waste of time and resources. This is something that happens when the use of a thing isn’t exactly known; misuse and abuse would be inevitable. God blesses His children so we can show forth His glory on earth; this is not limited to just dressing nice, wearing the nicest things, living in the best houses, taking vacations to the best places, and so on. He blesses us so we can be blessings to others, the people, and the community around us. Apostle Joshua Selman says this a lot, God blesses men through men. So my dear friend, as often as the Lord gives you increase ask Him, “What shall I do, Lord?”. This my dear is one of the ways to store up your wealth in heaven and be rich toward God
Live not for yourself only:
This is a follow-up to the question discussed above. A son and daughter of God filled with His Spirit is always looking for ways to serve God, to serve God’s children, and to live for the Lord on earth. This wasn’t the case for this rich man, he appears to be a man who was living for himself and himself only without caring for the community around him. The life that we all have been called to live is a life laid down in worship of our God and this entails living it all out. Jesus Christ who is our model never lived for Himself, He lived to see the whole world saved. He was thinking about you and me all through His life and ministry on earth. The one time He felt like giving up on it all at Gethsemane, He cried out to the Lord in desperation for help. Right after He completed His purpose on earth, God exalted Him and gave Him the throne by His very right hand(Mark 16:19, I Peter 3:22). That is the shortest definition of, “to be rich towards God” or to store up wealth in heaven”.
I would love to add that Jesus Christ made time to care for His physical, mental, and emotional health. The Bible tells us that He was hungry and sought to get fruits from the fig tree but cursed it because the tree bore no fruit. This gives us an inkling that Jesus Christ ate healthily. The Bible also tells us that He slept, and He found time to go away to be with His Father in prayer. So we see He took care of His physical being. I cite this to encourage us not to let ourselves down as we live our lives to the fullest. As we live our lives; serving, pouring into lives, and serving our communities – please make time to rest your bodies, soul, and spirit.
May the good Lord help us all to live like Jesus, Amen
Find and Put no rest in earthly Possessions:
Let us take a look at the state of mind of this rich man, it isn’t surprising at all because it is the state of mind of so many people who live in our world today. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.”-Luke 12:19. In this man’s mind, he was so sure he would live for so many years, and for those years all he had planned out was to eat, party, and be merry. What a waste of life! There is so much more to life than just eating and being merry every day. By all means, eat and be merry but do it in season, not with all your life. This man yet again failed to acknowledge the God who gave Him His breath to live and make the best use of time.
Let us see God’s response to this man’s pride, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? I find it interesting that God said, his life will be demanded of him. I can’t help but think about what the bible tells us about giving accounts about our lives at the end of time. For this man, It doesn’t look like he did much. The final blow in his face was the last question posed to him, “then who will get what you have prepared for yourself!” That is the thing about storing up wealth here on earth – every single thing here on earth will all pass but wealth stored up with God will last till eternity.
These, my dears are inexhaustible ways to become rich with God but it all starts with a solid relationship with our Lord Jesus. I hope you are in one with Him, He loves and cares for you my dear. Just in case you haven’t chosen to walk with Him yet – I encourage you to say yes to Him today. He makes all the difference in a life that accepts Him.