Don’t throw away your shekels!

I was just reading 1 Samuel, and got to this passage:

Saul and his servant were searching for two donkeys from his father’s herd and could not seem to locate them. Saul thinks they had better head home:

But [the servant] said to [Saul], “Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor; all that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go.” Then Saul said to his servant, “But if we go, what can we bring the man? For the bread in our sacks is gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?” The servant answered Saul again, “Here, I have with me a quarter of a shekel [a half an ounce] of silver, and I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way.” …And Saul said to his servant, “Well said; come, let us go.” So they went to the city where the man of God was. (1 Sam 9:6-8, 10 ESV).

So, I say to myself: “I wonder if any Prosperity Preachers use this text and derive a principle that, if you want God’s blessing you should seek out a man of God and give him a financial donation?”

For those of you who do not know the details, the prosperity gospel is a variation on the Christian message. I would not call it a gospel, or Christianity; it is no more closely related to Christianity than Mormonism. It says, people have a divine spark within them. If they command in faith a thing to come to pass, then it will happen. Hence, sometimes it is called Word of Faith or Rhema teaching (rhema is a Greek term for “word”). Although they use similar language, the difference between this idea and the “prayer of faith” are immense. Prayer = asking God for a thing and trusting in him to act. Prosperity = the power resides in me. A non-Christian version of prosperity teaching is taught in Rhonda Byrnes’ The Secret.

Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, T. D. Jakes, Benny Hinn stand within the multitude of prosperity preachers. Trinity Broadcasting Network is filled with them. In our times, Paula White is one of the most prominent of this group, because she is the religious counselor to Donald Trump.

By the way, many or most of these preachers reject the label “prosperity gospel”, regarding it as misleading or pejorative. This means that if someone regularly states “I am not a prosperity evangelist” he or she may probably has been called one; and probably IS one.

The next stage is what we run into most often and which attracts the most criticism: prosperity evangelists focus heavily on wealth. They preach that poverty, lack of success, family difficulties, illness are signs that you do not have enough faith. They ask for donations – not simply to keep the ministry operating, mind you! – but because without a gift of faith, or a tithe, or a seed offering, you are signaling that you do not have enough faith. And that gift should not go to your local church or to the poor or to missions but to the preacher’s own organization. This is why so many faith preachers are wealthy people – their message is, “Of course I’m wealthy, it’s because I have faith! And if you want to prosper, you will hitch your wagon to someone who is so filled with faith power!”

You can get a sense of the direction a movement takes by the breadth of its vocabulary. You can tell a lot about the prosperity gospel by the many, many honorable titles it assigns to its donors: seed-faith givers, covenant partners, faith sowers, kingdom investors, harvesters, partners in blessing, destiny helpers, breakthrough givers, builders of the kingdom, vision supporters, friends of faith, and many more.

Faith preachers typically use Old Covenant teachings in a way that have been surpassed by the New Covenant. So: Joseph went From Prison to Palaces through his faith, Job was rewarded for his faithfulness, David became king over Israel (but neglected are the truths that for years Joseph was a  slave and then imprisoned even while he trusted God, Job pass through horrible loss and suffering, even while he stated his faith in God, David was brutally treated by Saul and others for years even though his faith in God was firm).

The preceding is a long backstory for why I left Saul and his servant, seeking for donkeys (for animal lovers: yes, they eventually turned up!).

Anyway, my question was: “I wonder if any Prosperity Preachers use 1 Samuel 9 to derive a principle that, if you want God’s blessing you should seek out a man of God and give him a financial donation?” (It better be heavier than a quarter shekel, to be sure!) A few minutes online gave me an answer: Yes, to be sure! This is an African prosperity preacher in Nigeria, The Apostle “S.”, who used that very text. (For complicated reasons I will leave him semi-anonymous, you can look it up if you wish: The Concept of Prophet’s Offering).

I quote:

God puts a man of God into your life. One way of receiving blessing is to sow into that man’s life. You are robbing yourself if you don’t give to me…because of the office I occupy.

Gary: now, many criticize such preachers because of their lavish lifestyles: clothes, jewelry, jets, houses. But Pastor S. will have none of that! God wants you to bless his man, and once you do that, (I do not exaggerate) its none of your business what he does with it! He likes the image of a “buffet of graces” to describe what you will get if you give to his work:

A person might look around to see who is prospering financially and say of the Apostle S.: “I have seen the buffet of graces that work in him, I bring this [gift] to the prophet with this understanding…whatever he does with that money is none of your business… (poor audio) when Isaac was going to give Esau a blessing, he asked for venison, tasty food. By giving him what he wanted, Esau would open the gate for a blessing. I need delight so that my grace may flow, there is an atmosphere that allows the release of grace.

Meaning, bring the Apostle a very nice gift if you want a blessing! Because grace won’t flow unless he fells delight!

And briefly, he argues that this concept mirrors 1 Samuel 9, where Saul seeks to honor the prophet with a gift before receiving guidance. In fact, the Apostle S. frames it as a spiritual law: honoring a prophet financially unlocks prophetic grace. I assume, however, that he is talking about something much more substantial than a half ounce of silver (back in Saul’s day, that would buy a very small bag of groceries).

My counsel is: pray about how to invest your money in God’s work. But before kneeling before a faith preacher with a lavish gift, you might think of kneeling in front of a hungry family with bags of groceries. Two groups that I volunteer for: support a Bible translation for a people group that has never had one, at Wycliffe Associates. Also Meals on Wheels in the USA.

“Don’t throw away your skekels,” by Gary S. Shogren, PhD in New Testament, Professor at Seminario ESEPA, San José, Costa Rica