As believers in Christ, we need to be saved and delivered from mammon, and we need to be rich before the Lord, depositing our money in the heavenly bank and not seeking to be rich on earth.
When the Lord was on earth, He didn’t seek to be rich, neither did He encourage His followers to do so; rather, again and again, He told them to leave everything and follow Him.
People around us are seeking to have more riches, accumulate more wealth, and have more “passive income”; we, however, as citizens of a different kingdom, have a different banking system.
We deposit our money in the heavenly bank, and we seek to be rich before the Lord, even to be rich in Christ and with Christ.
Our valuation system needs to be changed; we need to read the Bible and pray over the words in the Bible, allowing the Lord to infuse us with Himself and change our system of values.
As those who follow the Lord by having Him as our life and everything, we treasure what He treasures, we love what He loves, and we hate what He hates.
And the way we deal with everything, including with the usurpation of mammon, is not by making a decision to stop doing this or that, or an abrupt change in the way we do things; rather, it is by abiding in the Lord.
It is only by seeing the heavenly vision, being infused with Christ, and having Christ as our life and everything, that we can live to the Lord, not being usurped by mammon and having no idol.
The Lord Jesus said in Luke 18-19 that, for us to enter into the kingdom of God, inherit eternal life, and be saved, we need to be delivered from mammon.
In a sense, we need to be delivered from Satan; in a practical sense, however, in our daily living, we need to be delivered from mammon.
When we see that mammon is an idol when we realize that we need to be delivered from pursuing after riches and wealth, we will give ourselves to the Lord to enjoy Him and love Him, and it is Him in us that will cause us to be delivered.
Once we see the Lord, appreciate Him, enjoy Him, and experience Him, we spontaneously are delivered from anything that usurps Him.
We were made to enjoy God, contain God, express God, and be filled with God; however, Satan uses many things to usurp us and distract us from the meaning of our human existence.
May we return to the Lord in His word, pray His words in our fellowship with Him, and allow the Lord to deliver us from mammon and from any idol, so that we may be rich before the Lord and be saved to the uttermost.
Cooperating with God by Faith to find Peace by being Delivered from Mammon in our Experience
There is such a difference between the young ruler who came to the Lord in Luke 18 and Zaccheus in ch. 19.
The young ruler came and was confident in himself that he did this and that, he fulfilled all the law, so he was wondering what’s more to do.
When he heard that he had to sell all he had and follow the Lord, he realized that this is impossible with man, for it was like a camel that had to pass through the eye of the needle.
So he went away sorrowful. Zaccheus, on the other hand, didn’t have teachings or doctrines; he simply wanted to see Jesus, and because he was short in stature, he climbed up a sycamore tree; the Lord saw him and told him, Today I must stay in your house.
The Lord knew who he was, that he was not a nice person but rather, a tax collector, but He still went to his house.
It doesn’t say that the Lord gave a long sermon or told Zaccheus to do anything, but Zaccheus’ reaction to the Lord’s visit was that he was saved from mammon, being willing to give away half of his possessions and restore what he took from others in a wrong way.
When Jesus comes, when He speaks a word, mammon is removed.
We simply need to cooperate with the Lord by faith to find real peace by being delivered from mammon in our experience.
If the Lord were to answer Peter’s question, Then who can be saved? He would probably say, Zaccheus!
When we open to the Lord and invite Him into our situation, when we have Jesus with us and we abide with Him, enjoying Him by faith, we are saved and delivered from mammon.
The Lord may not speak to us specifically concerning our love for money or pursuit of being wealthy, but we are touched and spontaneously restitute what we take wrongly, and give ourselves to the Lord in a practical way with all we have and are.
What seems to be impossible with man is more than possible with God, and this is not by teaching or doctrine, nor is it by convicting others with eloquent speech or exposing them.
It is by us contacting the Lord and having Him come to be with us.
If we are willing to see Jesus, as Zaccheus did, if we make a move toward Him to just see Him, He will come in and dine with us, and our whole being will be changed, rearranged, and reconstituted with Himself.
Things that we thought we could not do for it was impossible with man, we can now do, for Jesus is in us and with us, and all things are possible with Him.
May we put aside our desire to gain more doctrines or strive to improve ourselves and just come to the Lord as we are, seek to see Him and know Him, and He will reveal Himself to us.
Once we see the Lord, salvation will enter into our house, and we will truly be delivered from mammon.
We will no longer seek to be rich in this world but we will desire to be rich before the Lord, for we realize that real riches are before God and not before men.
No matter what we have done before, how we have behaved, and what we did to accumulate and have what we have, we simply need to seek the Lord and open ourselves to Him; He will come in, and salvation will be ours.
Lord Jesus, we come to You as we are. In ourselves we can’t make it, we can’t do it, and we can’t be it; we cannot free ourselves from the usurpation of mammon. We give ourselves to You, Lord, and we open our being to You. Come in, dear Lord, and be with us. Grant us Your visitation and Your presence. We love to be in Your presence, having Your speaking and seeing a revelation of Your being. We open to You every avenue of our being. All things are possible with You, dear Lord. In Your light we see light. Only You can deliver us from mammon and grant us true peace. We come to You as we are, and we welcome You in our being. Bring in Your salvation and deliverance!
Seeking to be Rich before the Lord, Rich in God, by Investing in the Heavenly Bank
In the Bible we have a revelation of the “heavenly banking system”; there is the human, earthly, corrupt, complicated, and biased banking system, but God’s banking system is very simple and pure.
If we read the Gospels, again and again, the Lord required one thing from us: everything; He wants us to sell all and follow Him, leave everything and follow Him.
The Lord doesn’t want us to be in poverty; He wants us to be rich before the Lord, rich in God.
When we believe into the Lord, we became rich men, for Christ as the real riches of the Triune God, the genuine riches in this universe, entered into us.
However, as we live our daily life on earth, we may pursue being rich here on earth, instead of investing in the heavenly bank.
Even in Christianity, there are many “preachers” who teach that a Christian should be prosperous, for God wants to bless us and give us prosperity; they teach that a Christian should be rich.
If we look at the New Testament, the Lord Jesus was not rich but rather poor, and all the apostles were not rich but rather, they left everything to follow the Lord, investing everything in the heavenly bank.
In the world, we may invest in the things that we think we get the most benefit from, and we may deposit our money in the bank that gives us the most interest.
However, we may not trust the heavenly banking system, for mammon may still have a strong grip on us.
We may think that it is safe to deposit our money in a bank that offers us at most three per cent interest, but it is not safe to invest in the heavenly bank where we get ten thousand per cent interest.
This shows that, by default, though we are Christians who have God’s life in them, we are usurped by mammon, and we are not rich before the Lord.
May the Lord change our system of valuation; may we realize that we need to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to us (Matt. 6:33).
Paul spoke concerning the heavenly banking system in Phil. 4:15 and 17 where he didn’t ask the Philippian believers to send him money but rather, that they would have fellowship with him in the account of giving and receiving, for he sought the fruit which increases to their account.
Each believer has an account in the heavenly bank, and we can invest in this account by giving to the Lord and to His work, to those who work for Him, to the poor, etc.
In Matt. 6 we see that the Lord speaks of making a deposit in our spiritual bank account; day by day we need to make deposits into our account in the heavens.
The Philippian believers opened an account with Paul, and whenever they sent him some money, they had fellowship with him in the account of giving and receiving, and they invested in the heavenly bank; they sent gifts to Paul, and in return, they received God’s repayment.
This doesn’t mean that we should just give everything to the preachers who ask us to give them your money, or that we should just give whenever a need arises in the church.
It means that our whole daily living needs to be in the way of seeking to be rich before the Lord by, on one hand, enjoying Christ as the real riches of the Triune God, and on the other hand, being delivered from mammon by investing our money and riches in the heavenly bank.
We need to be before the Lord concerning this, for this is a very personal matter, something in which we can’t and shouldn’t talk about to others.
The more we give, the more we invest in the heavenly bank, the more our God will fill every need of ours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
May we be those who make sure that the ledger is greater on account of giving to the Lord, not being stingy but rather, trusting in Him and loving Him, for we want to be rich before the Lord, rich in God, rather than being rich in this world!
The riches in this world come and go; literally and actually, money comes and money goes, riches come and go, and everything that is physical is here today and gone tomorrow.
Our deposits in the heavenly bank, however, are eternal, and God will never be outgiven; we can trust in Him for everything, giving in secret, for He knows and rewards us in secret.
Lord Jesus, we want to be rich before the Lord and not rich in this world. Save us from the usurpation of mammon and bring us into a living of depending on You for everything. We trust in You, dear Lord, and we want to invest our money and riches in the heavenly bank. We just want to enjoy You, Lord Jesus, as the real riches in this universe. Oh, the riches of our Savior, so unsearchable, immense! Amen, the fullness of the Godhead we can now experience! Amen! Yes, Lord, we love You, we enjoy You as the real riches, and we trust in You! We want to put everything we have and are on God’s side and serve God. We want to be those who are rich in God, those rich before the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, and portions from, The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 59, ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Material offerings and the Lord’s Move Today, week 1, entitled, Principles of Material Offerings (1).
- Hymns on this topic:
– Arise! the holy bargain strike— / The fragment for the whole— / All men and all events alike / Must serve the ransomed soul. / All things are yours when you are His, / And He and you are one; / A boundless life in Him there is, / And kingdom yet to come. (Hymns #473)
– O Lord, how rich Thou art to us, / Thy love reveals the measure! / The boundless riches of Thyself, / In spirit here we treasure. (Hymns #187)
– Draw and win and fill completely, / Till the cup o’erflow the brim; / What have we to do with idols / Who have companied with Him? / Captivated by His beauty, / Worthy tribute haste to bring; / Let His peerless worth constrain thee, / Crown Him now unrivaled King. (Hymns #437)
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