DESTINED for SUCCESS
by Marty Delmon
Destined for Success
© Marty Delmon
Published by RPJ & Company, Inc. on Smashwords
This book is also available at: www.rpjandco.com.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. For information, please contact the publisher.
Copyright © 2009 by Marty Delmon
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
Destined To Possess Riches
One day my husband and I took a walk. We decided to stroll in a luxurious shopping mall, a beautiful place full of statues, fountains and sophisticated shops. Hardly anybody was there. In turning a corner we chanced upon an auction installed in the hallway. On a table along the side all sorts of little delicacies, cakes, cookies and chocolate covered strawberries had been arranged for the expected audience. So we helped ourselves, piled some goodies on little plates and sat with the other spectators waiting for the auction to begin.
It turned out to be an elegant fur shop auctioning its coats. The crowd numbered twelve or so people therefore the coats sold at a bargain price. One gorgeous coat valued at $12,000 went for $2,000. At that time in our lives, money was not a problem. We had started to receive the effects of putting into practice the Biblical principles of wealth in finances and money had begun to enter our bank accounts.
While we were sitting there, I turned toward my husband. He was sweating. His eyes bulged out of his head. His face had turned red. I thought to myself, “This man is either going to have a heart attack, or he is going to buy me a fur coat!” We came from very simple backgrounds and I had a difficult time imagining myself owning a fur coat. I put down my little plate of sweets, took his plate from him, set it on a chair, grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of there! We ran around the corner and had a good laugh at how close I came to owning a fur coat.
I forgot the incident, but one night not long after that as I was doing the dishes the Lord spoke very clearly. He said, “If I didn’t make the fur coats of this world for you, who did I make them for?” I had a hard time answering that question! Did He make them for worldly people who are not saved? It would seem that way because they’re the ones who have them. Didn’t God put all the good things on the earth for his own people? Didn’t He make abundance for those that He loves and cherishes? Jesus said that He came so that we would have abundant life (John 10:10)! However when you see who has the riches of the world, it can easily be seen that it is not the people of God! The children of God, the Christians, do not have the abundance.
The people of the world who don’t know what to do with money are those who have the riches in their possession. I believe the last thing that Satan wants is for Christians to have money because he knows that if we have the money in our possession we will spend it on the spreading of the Gospel around the world and his game will be over! That’s why he works so hard for the money to be in the possession of the people of the world. They will spend it only on themselves and to satisfy their own desires.
We, the Christians, are destined to possess riches. The Bible tells us that we have been created to have all the blessings. We who are born again know that Jesus Christ became poor so that we could become rich. But the perpetual debate asks, “Of what nature are these riches? Are they physical or are they spiritual? Are we concerned with wealth here on earth, or do we wait for heaven to obtain this wealth?”
That is why my subject is money. Should Christians have any? What should they do with it? Is money really the root of all evil? And the only source for the answer to all these questions is the Bible. All other arguments come only from men. From the beginning to the end the Bible speaks of wealth.
Sometimes it is good to go back to the beginning of things. For example, the Lord loves for us to remember our beginnings with Him. In speaking to the Church of Ephesus He said:
REVELATION 2:4
Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Do you remember how much you loved the Lord at the beginning when you were first born again? Your relationship with Him was better than any romance novel! The Lord wants us to return to that first love.
Sometimes it is necessary to return to the beginning of things in order to better understand what is happening now. Sometimes it is the only way to see the truth because between the beginning and today men have corrupted the intentions of God for their own purposes. That has happened with money. The original intentions of God were for His people, those who loved Him, believed in Him, walked with Him and served Him, to have the wealth of the world.
PROVERBS 13:22
But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
Man corrupted this intention to the point that today the Body of Christ has been taken captive by a spirit of poverty. That is exactly the opposite of the plan of God! The spirit of poverty produces an impoverished mind, that is to say that poverty rules the thought life. There are a myriad of ways in which the spirit of poverty manifests itself in the thoughts of people. For example, some Christians think that they only need a little bit of money but not enough to provide a level of comfort that would make people jealous. Other Christians feel they need to live by what they call “faith”, but in reality this means they barely have enough money to feed themselves! Others decide they are going to get a lot of money, enjoy it, and so they let their Church attendance slide in order to avoid being embarrassed by their riches.
Here is the truth: poverty was Satan’s idea. He made poverty out to be attractive and popularized the idea in the Eastern religious thinking. Then he introduced this idea in the Church of God in the fourth century when Constantine nationalized Christianity. Overnight the Roman Empire became “Christian” whether the people were born again or not. As a consequence the people simply brought their own traditions into this new religion. One of their traditions alleged that God wanted people to suffer and to be poor.
Greed is also an idea that comes from Satan, the act of accumulating wealth for strictly personal reasons. There’s nothing wrong in acquiring riches, but what is so bad is to do it for egotistical goals. It is doubly tragic to see someone with a poverty mentality full of greed.
Pride is another offshoot of Satan. He persuades people to be proud of the money that they earn. What a ridiculous idea! Money is nothing more than a tool. Tools must be maintained in good condition, but it is illogical to attach pride to them. Does a hairdresser have pride in his scissors? A sculptor in his carving tools? A writer in his computer? A dishwasher in his soap? When Satan’s ideas are considered with objectivity, they appear as the lies and deceptions that they really are.
But that’s enough about Satan and his works! What does God want for His own? In order to respond to that question, we must go back to the beginning. What were God’s intentions concerning prosperity, wealth and money for the man and the woman that he created? These are the first words God proclaimed from His own mouth regarding man:
GENESIS 1:26
Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
In reading that, does it seem that God wanted us to only get by? That we have just the minimum of comfort? That we depend on others to feed us and give us clothes? Or that we should be embarrassed by what we possess? NO! A million times no! God made us in His image. He designed us to reign. He destined us for riches. But then Adam fell! Adam sold his dominion to Satan and Satan, instead of Adam, became the god of this world.
2 CORINTHIANS 4:3, 4
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
The fall of Adam brought death and destruction to the spirit of man. Spiritually, God and man were no longer “connected”. Man must be born again, spiritually, in order to be reconnected to God. However, the fall of Adam did not change God. He has always loved His creation and has always wanted to bless His people in whatever manner they would permit Him to do so. God did not stop blessing those who served Him. With the fall of Adam man acquired the knowledge of good and evil, which means that man then had the opportunity to choose between good and evil.
DEUTERONOMY 30:19
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
There is a distinction in the Old Testament between the sons of man and the sons of God. The sons of man were those who chose to live without the guidance of God. They lived according to their own passions and became evil.
GENESIS 6:5
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
The sons of God, however, preserved their relationship with God and lived in a manner that pleased Him.
GENESIS 6:9
Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Look at Enoch.
GENESIS 5:24
And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Each day God and Enoch took a walk together. One day God brought Enoch home for supper and Enoch never came back. Now that’s a close relationship! Noah was a just man who found favor in the eyes of the Lord. After the flood it is written:
GENESIS 9:1, 3
So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.
God said: “I have given you all things…” That seems rather generous, doesn’t it? Consider Abram, the man who became Abraham. God said:
GENESIS 12:2, 3
I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
What did that blessing mean in terms of money?
GENESIS 13:2
Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
Abram and his nephew Lot had to separate from each other because:
GENESIS 13:6
Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.
It does not seem to me that Abram had only a narrow margin of comfort, or that he had been incapable of feeding his family, or that he was embarrassed by his wealth. He took his riches in a good way. He took them as receiving the promise of God! After that the Lord gave a new name to Abram in that he called him Abraham, which means, “father of many nations,” and it was said of him:
GENESIS 24:1
Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.
His servant said of him:
GENESIS 24:35
The Lord has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great; and He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys.
God does not treat His children any differently today. That which He did for His servant Abraham, He will do for His children now, if not more. Doesn’t a man treat his son better than he treats a servant? Under the Old Covenant the people of God were called servants. Under the New Covenant the people of God are called His children because the blood of Jesus has been used to adopt us into the family of God.
GALATIANS 4:6, 7
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
At the death of Abraham the Bible tells us:
GENESIS 25:5
And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac.
But Isaac became even richer than Abraham.
GENESIS 26:12-14
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.
If the servants of God invoked envy from those who did not serve God because of their great riches, shouldn’t the children of God invoke envy from the children of Satan, the unbelievers? The servants of God invoked envy, even when they were in captivity. The people who walked with God continued to prosper even through 430 years of slavery in Egypt.
EXODUS 1:7
But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
When the time came for Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, God assured their financial riches. He instructed Moses:
EXODUS 11:2
Speak now in the hearing of the people and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold.
In verse 7 Moses clearly says to Pharaoh:
But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.
God makes the same distinction today between His people and the people of the world. He makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine equally on the good and on the bad, but He promises an abundant life to His people, to those who recognize Jesus as Lord and obey His voice.
JOHN 10:10
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.
ISAIAH 1:19
If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
When the Israelites left Egypt, they left behind them the shackles of man.
JOHN 8:36
Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
The Israelites began their journey toward the Promised Land as rich people.
EXODUS 12:35, 36
Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
The Presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is our Promised Land on the earth. It is He who leads us towards wealth. Moses led the Israelites for more than 40 years. Before his death, he gave them final instructions. These instructions are also for us. There is only one difference. The Israelites had a multitude of laws to strictly follow. We have only one: the law of love.
JOHN 13:34
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
The easiest manner in which to practice this law of love is to act as if each person that you meet is Jesus in disguise. In fact, that is not a supposition, it is the truth. Each born again person has the Spirit of Jesus in him and each unsaved person has the necessary potential for the Spirit of Jesus to live in him because Jesus died for each of them. When Jesus comes in our heart and we become born again the Bible says that the love of God is poured out in our hearts.
ROMANS 5:5
Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
It is like the familiar fairy tale told to children about a certain king. An evil sorcerer cast a spell on him and he was transformed into a vile frog. The only way of breaking that spell was for a pretty princess to kiss him. He finally found one who agreed to kiss him and when she did the spell was broken. The king married her and they lived happily ever after. Maybe it was the Holy Spirit who inspired that story. Satan certainly transforms people into ugly frogs but the love of Jesus makes them become kings!
REVELATION 1:6; 5:10
1:6 And has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
5:10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.
He has commanded us to love. We must let the love of God be poured out in our hearts. And if we do this, we receive these blessings:
DEUTERONOMY 28:1-14
1 Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.
2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:
3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7 The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
9 The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.
10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.
11 And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
12 The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.
14 So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
After reading this do you think God wants His people to be poor? From the very beginning God wanted us to be rich! He blessed men financially then, and He does the same right now, if we will permit Him to do so. If we will unburden our minds from that poverty mentality and submit ourselves to the plans and purposes of God, He will bless us financially.
Take another look at Verse 8.
8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses….
One of God’s plans and purposes for us is to have personal storehouses. What’s a storehouse? To me it is a savings account. To others it could be mutual funds. Some might call it investment property. The Lord knows where to put the money that He wants in a storehouse. Saving is a mandate from God; after all, He promises to bless it and not only bless it but He commands the blessing on your storehouse.
Try it. Try putting some money aside every time you receive money and see what God does for you! Do you live from paycheck to paycheck? Try reducing your spending in order to put some money aside, every month, and see what the Lord will do for you. He believes in saving. With the help of God, most millionaires are just ordinary citizens who saved their way into having a million or so dollars.