“We don’t worship God to get his good gifts. We worship God because God is infinitely worthy of our worship, whatever gifts he gives or doesn’t give us.”
(Kate Bowler) I’m sure you’ve heard the following:
“You are a King’s Kid as a Christian, you are royalty! You shouldn’t settle for second best!”
“God favour should overflow into your life as you walk in God’s anointing and enjoy health and financial prosperity!”
“God hates poverty and illness, you should claim your victory!”
“If you’re not walking in full victory of sin, illness and financial difficulty, you either lack faith or have unconfessed sin. Jesus came to give us abundant life!”
This is the Prosperity Gospel.
The Prosperity Gospel (PG) is called so because it teaches that God desires all his people to be prosperous. Physically prosperous. Healthy and wealthy.
To put it simply, the PG is the belief that God grants health and wealth to those with the right kind of faith.
The PG movement (according to Kate Bowler1, an assistant professor of the history of Christianity in North America at Duke University) has its roots in the late 1800’s in American tradition of New Thought. That is, that positive thoughts yield positive circumstances; and negative thoughts, negative circumstances.
The American New Thought movement took a Christian slant with a Pastor named EW Kenyon, who ministered in the US in the early 1900’s.
Christians, Kenyon said, should avoid words and ideas that create sickness and poverty; they should instead “speak life”.
Christians should repeat to themselves, “God is in me. God’s strength is mine. God’s health is mine. I am a winner. I am a conqueror.”
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