If You Wanna Be Rich....

Are you ready to come out of poverty?

I came across a message taught by our Pastor, Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn, on January 20, 2019, that gave the solution: Fix your witness.

Have you ever thought: Why do I seem to have a good job, make good money, work hard, but still feel poor or not have what I think I should?

The answer is in your investments.

You're not investing in the right thing: The Word of God.

He said, "You can be in spiritual poverty even when you make good money because you won't or can't bear witness to the Word of God." We bear witness to the Word of God by testifying and edifying the truth of what has been taught by the preacher—by promoting the will of God and joyfully celebrating how someone has shown or sown godliness in our lives.

If you find yourself having trouble bearing witness to the truth of God—the truth that has been taught, the truth that has been told to you or shown to you—it’s because you are bankrupt in belief.

Chief Apostle Gunn explained that bankruptcy and a heart of unbelief come from focusing so much on what you don't have or what you didn’t get that you wanted.

Discontentment is a fertilizer for unbelief.

And because we are not content with the life God has given us, the Word He has sent us, the salvation He has made available to us, and the help people have been to us, we cannot be a true witness of the Word, and therefore are the poorest of the poor.

We hold back from glorifying God, His Word, and from edifying the body and others by not backing up what is right and true. Because we are ungrateful, and an ungrateful heart can never be satisfied.

To take it even further, the poverty we are experiencing now because of our unbelief, because of our refusal to be a witness to the Word, is nothing compared to never being able to experience the true riches of Heaven.

"Godliness with contentment is great gain." — 1 Timothy 6:6

Chief Apostle Gunn said, "When you fight the Word, you can't go to Heaven. Even if you got saved, even if you went to church all of your life. You have to believe God with your life, not just with your mind."

He explained that when you repent and pray, then you can truly receive the truth of the Word and respond to it. That's where your witness comes from. And then you will reap the benefits.

Chief Apostle Gunn taught us that Judas walked so close to Jesus, but he was the farthest from Him. He will never experience the true richness of the Kingdom and being with the Lord.

Why? Because he was more focused on money and what he did and did not have, or what others had, than being a witness for Jesus, His teaching, and truth. But Mary knew that being close to Jesus and glorifying Him was true wealth. In fact, she took one of her most expensive investments and poured it out at Jesus’ feet. And what she gained could never be measured.

John 12:3–8

3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples (he who was about to betray Him), said,

5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.

8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”