Power To Prosper

3. Loving vain persons: Proverbs 28:19 says, “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.” When a person is constantly found in the company of unserious people and those who don’t work hard, such a person would put himself into poverty.

4. Laziness: Many Christians are very lazy. Instead of them to pray for ideas that would fetch them money, they would fold their hands and keep saying, “O God, we are looking at your face.” Anybody who is spiritually lazy cannot get anywhere with God. If you are lazy physically, you will not get on well as well. The Christian journey is not a journey for the lazy ones.

5. Mocking the poor: Proverb 17: 5 says, “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker; and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” People who are fond of making mockery of the poor and laughing them to scorn shall receive the wrath of God. Don’t say, “Me, I am not in your category. I am made of a better stuff. I wear only expensive clothes and not these cheap stuff that you people wear.” If you have ever looked at somebody created by God and said things like, “I don’t mix up with riff raffs like you,” you have mocked the poor and reproached their Maker. You did not create them. You did not decide on your own whom was going to be your parents before you were born. They too had no choice. If children had choice of parents, you would not see twins at the middle of the market with their mothers begging for bread. Mocking them is reproaching God. Sisters who tell their husbands things like, “You are a useless man. You are not like that man over there that has just bought a new fridge. You are just wasting time, you are a useless man,” are mocking the poor and are reproaching his Maker who will not take it kindly with them.

6. Failure in tithes and offerings: Malachi 3: 8-10 says, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Failure in tithes and offerings is a strong key to poverty. When you give God your tithes and offerings, don’t sit down like a businessman who said, “O God, I have just paid ten thousand naira to you and that means that you have to give me one hundred thousand back. God, do you understand?” In this case, you are doing business, you are not giving. It must be willingly and cheerfully given. Believers don’t borrow their tithes. If you borrow your tithe, you must pay twenty per cent on top by the time that you are bringing it back. Ten per cent is just the minimum that God wants you to bring to His house. It is different from the offerings, which you must give to God. Failure to do that would amount to God not opening you the windows of heaven and pouring you out a blessing. Many believers are labouring under this curse without knowing. They always say, “I pray all the prayer points, I did all the things that should be done and yet nothing.” The question is, are you faithful in paying your tithe?