The Rich Man in Hell

Tuesday 15 November
READ: Lk. 16: 19 - 31
MORE LESSON: Mark 10: 23 - 25

The story of the rich man and Lazarus has made many people to erroneously believe that wealth is sinful and poverty is synonymous to holiness. They claim that since the rich man went to hell and Lazarus went to Heaven, then it is good to be poor and poverty will make you righteous. This ideology is unscriptural. Those that advocate this doctrine forget that Lazarus went to meet Abraham in Heaven and Abraham himself was a super-wealthy man. So it wasn't wealth or poverty that led the rich man or Lazarus to where they went. The rich man went to hell because he refused God and lived in sin. If any man lives in sin and refuses salvation in Jesus Christ, such a man will go to hell whether he is rich or poor. If Lazarus, in his abject poverty, had not accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour, he would have suffered on earth and still gone to hell.
Lazarus could have been rich and still made Heaven if he had learnt the ways of God as far as prosperity is concerned. A person can be saved and if he doesn't learn the principles of God for prosperity, he will still be poor; that is what happened to Lazarus. God doesn't have problem with His children being wealthy and prosperous, He only has problem with riches taking a man's heart away from God. This is the reason Jesus warned, ...how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God: Mark 10:24 -25.
A man who is rich and spends his wealth on sin and self, taking no account of the things of God, when he closes his eyes in death, he will not escape hell. However, a man who is rich and submits his life to Jesus Christ and uses his riches to further the course of the gospel, when he leaves this earth, he will find himself in eternity with Jesus Christ. God has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants (Psa. 35: 27). This prosperity should not take us away from God but make us come nearer to Him and give our all to Him.

Prayer/Action
* Father, let Your blessings upon my life draw me closer to You, in Jesus’ name.
* I receive the grace to use my gifts, talents and worldly goods to serve God, in Jesus’ name.
* I will not be poor in life, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
All prophecies of fall and failure over my life, by the blood of Jesus, I destroy you, in the name of Jesus.