i just wanted to respond to the question is any one wealthy beyond the norm. I suspect that i fit that category….

isn’t prosperity and poverty all relative. I forget the exact figures but i think that the majority of the world is in poverty. Many try and survive on less than a dollar a day.

Isn’t how much a person makes or how wealthy they are irrelevant. Its what they do with there wealth that counts. They can be generous or stingy. Whether they are generous or stingy is there choice and I am not to judge. I am just responsible for the way the way I live my life.

Some people give 10 percent to church or charities. others give 90%. Some give nothing. I look to myself and not to what others do.

The whole cheesy prosperity doctrine does get under my skin though. You know those nights when you cant sleep so you turn on the TV, and there’s the well dressed preacher sitting on a lavish chair telling you that if you just send in your “love offering” of such and such a price, you will get this annointed oil cloth to put on what ever ails you and you’ll be healed!!!

OOOHH!! That makes me so angry!! 😡

We get them on the TV here as well. I hope all my american friends don’t take personal offence to this but I think that certain breeds of American Christianity have a lot to answer for.

I was pulled in by all that many years ago but now, far out no way, I mean the annointing is for free, no cost and these people put a price on healing, dont they even realise that they are potentially grieving the Spirit of God???? Now thats dangerous territory. Wasnt their a man following Paul around doing something similar and Paul rebuked him and told him to repent or else he was in danger of what he was doing? As in using the annointing for gain? mannnnnnn wake up peoples I feel like saying, makes me wonder that if one day people wake up to this will there be a mass fall away since people will feel led astray. 😯

Thank goodness God knows who does this in ignorance and knows the hearts of the people that thoroughly believe in it, makes you wonder that maybe thats why you dont hear of many healings. I mean one meeting I went to, the annointing was so powerful it was electric, then the preacher did his call for healing and zappppp the annointing left, why???? He was making legs grow and you could see that it was a sham, but to people present it wasnt, one girl with MS took off walking but it was hype, she fell over and hurt herself, it was very sad. Ive seen and heard some authentic situations that blew me away so I know it is actually possible but if the annointing isnt there or leaves and its just all hype, it wont happen. That night of the Preacher I just mentioned, I got a big break through from just a little old man quietly praying for me completely un-noticed.

Exactly!

Being from a pentecostal background, I have been to plenty of “healing services” where an out of town evangelist passes through and people flock to the one night service to get healed. I always remember thinking “why cant this happen on a regular sunday service?”

I remember listening to a sermon once where the pastor talked about there being a greater number of miricles actually happening in third world countries rather than richer countries. We are brought up very priveliged if you think about it. I mean, right now Im typing on my laptop, waiting for roomservice to show up with my steak dinner that I just ordered. Yet right down the road from my hotel here in El Salvador there are tin roof shacks with dirt floors that are smaller than my bathroom that have 5 people living in it. Our “needs” to many people are luxuries to them. I have always had a roof over my head, and clothes on my back, Ive never gone hungry. I grew up in a church that had a beautiful building with a sound system and lights and carpet and nicely apoholstered pews that were comfortable to sit in.

It seems that we dont have to have a lot of faith in God because our needs are already met. How can we ask for a terminal illness to be healed when we dont have enough faith to believe that God really will “open up the flood gates of heaven” if we tithe our measly 10 percent. Something to think about….. 😉