Lately I've felt a God tug to study "Mammon" and how to be a prayer warrior in this area. Sandie Freed has a great book out on this very subject and I'm learning so much. I think the whole Mammon issue is behind so much our country is dealing with--apathy, poverty, materialism and more.
This book is important enough to me that I plan to jot down my notes and share them here. Please, please, please get the book. I'll only highlight key points that spoke to me. It's a rich (pun intended) book filled with life changing information.
Here are the notes from the introduction and chapter one.
Sandie Freed Crushing the Spirit of Greed and Poverty
Introduction:
Mammon is simply not the love of money; rather it is a demonic spirit that attempts to set itself up as equal to God. God is God and the opposite of God is mammon. If you are not serving God, you are serving Mammon. It is a choice.
Mammon is the name of an ancient idol, and since demonic spirits are behind every idol and every form of idol worship, we can conclude Mammon can also be an evil spirit.
In writing this book Sandie prayed Psalm 94 over readers.
Chapter One: God and Mammon
Have we allowed anxiety, worry and stress to turn us away from God? Do we trust in riches more than God? If so, the false god Mammon is tightly strapped to us, and we must become disentangled from him in order to follow God and serve in His kingdom.
Deuteronomy 28. This is not about money being the root of all evil. God wants us blessed. He simply doesn’t want money to be a false god in our lives.
Proverbs 12:24. This is also not about the name it and claim it gospel. Prosperity can be taken to extremes. This is about money as our source rather than God. That is evil.
Godly prosperity is not having wealth for the sake of being wealthy, but rather having enough to fulfill our purposes in God. We are to use the prosperity God gives us to promote His kingdom and bless others along the way so they can fulfill their purposes in God.
God’s intent for you is for you to understand the evil, repent for your involvement with it and become properly positioned for your inheritance and blessing.
Mammon is name of Syrian god who presided over wealth. Not just money but time, talents , opportunity and authority are all wealth. Mammon of unrighteousness means the god who the unrighteous worship: wealth.
Satan attempts us to depend on money to meet our needs more than God, who is our Provider. If we don’t believe God is able to meet our daily needs, we are “bowing down” to a false image concerning God.
If we listen to the voice of the enemy concerning money and provision and we honor the lie over the truth concerning the Lord’s ability to provide for us, we are basically bowing down to the enemy. If we imagine God doesn’t care if we are able to pay our bills or that He won’t bless our tithes and offerings, we have a false image of God.
Evidence of Mammon at work.
1. Giving above tithe. This isn’t bad at all…it’s the follow through. People prayed for a promotion or windfall to bless the church. In the middle of the money coming into possession, a spirit of Mammon came in their hearts and corrupted them. The people didn’t follow through and in fact, ended up leaving the church every time. Overnight the most faithful church members left the church defiled and seduced.
2. A Death prayer. Many believers want to give to a church addition/building project and came to leadership saying they had a lot of money coming to them through inheritance. Before long people are praying for death to fulfill the project. That’s Mammon attempting to pray for a quick release which in truth was a sudden death to a family member. A true prayer is something specific for the family and for God’s will to be done in the situation. Most of the time after the family death the person who promised the money suddenly heard from God not to give to the addition and again, they end up leaving the church altogether.
3. Businessmen in the church not guarding their hearts. They stand up and make promises to deliver big bucks when projects come through. They mean it. Prophets warn them that the enemy is setting a trap and they need to guard their hearts. Business leaders ignore the advice, get the money, won’t return calls, never give the money and they also leave the church.
4. The trap of pastors praying breakthrough to have a debt free church. Again this is not evil. In the pursuit of being debt free the pastor developed a lust for money. The church received a million dollars and the pastor spent it on his own use—drugs, prosititues, he literally took the money and ran, leaving the church in worse debt, and devastated.
Mammon attaches itself to all. Leaders, parishioners, all.
Read Psalm 111:5, AMP
Out of fear we neglect the tithe and close our pocketbooks instead of giving joyously.
When money masters us, servanthood is required.
Money itself is neutral.
Worry-distraction, anxiety. Rooted in the word merizo, and that means to divide, differ and disunite. This is how we become double minded.
Bondage is a lack of liberty. Our main problem is we don’t know who we are or whose we are.
Pray about any areas you can identify with spirit of bondage. Ask forgiveness and seek repentance. Proclaim you are the Lord’s and you want to live free indeed!
http://www.juliearduini.com
Surrendering the good, the bad, and---maybe one day---the chocolate
Julie Arduini: The Surrendered Scribe BookSneeze Review: "Big Red" Holy Bible for Children featuring 3D Art
 | Latest tweet: As I write I'm catching up on dvr watching. #theevent. Not sure what to think on this one but I keep coming back. #smallville was perfection |
No comments:
Post a Comment