Poverty destroys and prevents people from being able to do that which the Lord calls them to do. There is an oppression to poverty and an inability to do what you have been called to do.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor, that through His poverty you might become rich.”
2 Corinthians 8: 9
But what about this verse:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5: 3
A spirit of poverty seeks to oppress and hinder us by holding us captive in a place where we never have enough strength, finances, resources, or ability to do what the Lord calls us to do. A poverty of spirit means we recognize that we need Him and are only complete in Him. Smith Wiglesworth explained:
this is one of the richest places into which Jesus brings us. The poor have a right to everything in heaven. “Theirs is.” Do you dare believe it? Yes, I dare.
The Lord does not intend for us to walk defeated and held captive by a spirit of poverty. Now many have taken His provision message as a gold ticket to live where they always have to have the best of everything. The truth is such people never break free from the spirit of poverty. They fear not having enough, so always seek abundance, and they are more in love with this life than with the Lord.
John wrote:
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
1 John 2: 25
Who or what has captured the throne of our hearts? In the Secret Place, the truth is revealed, and we can see in our secret place life what we are in love with by what has captured us. Smith explained:
I believe, I know, that I was very poor. When God’s Spirit comes in as the ruling, controlling ling power of our lives, He gives us God’s revelation of our inward poverty and shows us that God has come with one purpose: to bring heaven’s best to earth. He also shows that with Jesus He will indeed “freely give us all things” (Rom. 8:32).
Our eyes must be on Him and no things. He would gladly and freely give us all things that we need if we would focus on Him. We all hate and fear poverty because we know it is not good. But the real poverty we should fear is the poverty of Him. There must be a daily crying out for Him.
From what perspective are we looking? Smith explained a couple:
An old man and an old woman had lived together for seventy years. Someone said to them, “You must have seen many clouds during those days.” They replied, “Where do the showers come from? You never get showers without clouds.” It is only the Holy Spirit who can bring us to the place of realization of our poverty; but, every time He does it, He opens the windows of heaven, and the showers of blessing fall.
On this earth, we will have challenging days and days where it looks like we might go under. But I am not looking to my circumstances but to Him. Paul is a powerful example of a man whose heart belonged to the Lord and was truly rich.
“Not that I speak in regards to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Nevertheless you have done well that you share in my distress.”
Philippians 4: 11-14
The condition that Paul found himself in didn’t determine his joy or contentment. He understood how to walk in Him so that what he was going through was always a light temporal affliction. He understood how to be consistent in victory irrespective of circumstances.
A poverty mindset holds you captive to the past, so you can’t enjoy the now and the thought of a better tomorrow grows further and further away. The spirit of poverty will oppress you and seek to convince you that God has failed you.
But Paul broke that spirit of poverty such that even on those so-called bad days, he understood that as he focused on the Lord, the Lord was working something greater behind the scenes. We don’t see what is really happening when a poverty spirit controls us, but when you are free in Him and focus on Him, you know He is in control and working all things for your good.
A poverty spirit will always have you walking in fear and doing everything according to the natural man. Unless we learn how to be poor in ourselves and wholly dependent on Him, we will never break free. Smith explained:
But I must recognize the difference between my own spirit and the Holy Spirit. My own spirit can do certain things on natural lines-it can even weep and pray and worship-but it is all on a human plane. We must not depend on our own human thoughts and activities or on our personalities. If the baptism means anything thing to you, it should bring you to the death of the ordinary, where you are no longer putting faith in your own understanding but, conscious of your own poverty, you are ever yielded to the Spirit. Then it is that your body becomes filled with heaven on earth.
We don’t walk by faith in ourselves and what we can do but in Him. What we do comes out of our Secret Place dwelling in Him. He has our hearts. You can see people who may be rich based on earthly standards but poor by heaven’s standards. How do you know? Paul said it was good that the Philippians supported him during his difficult seasons, not for his sake but theirs:
“But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?’
1 John 3: 17
What John and Paul were not saying was, “Whoever is manipulated by people to make them feel guilty so they give,’ but they explained that if I have the ability to give and know, I should give and refuse because I don’t want to lose what I have, His love is not in us.
Smith explained:
How may I get nearer to God? How may I be in the place of helplessness-in my own place and dependent on God? I see a tide rising. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” God is making us very poor, but we are rich because our hands are stretched out toward Him in this holy day of His visitation to our hearts.
Are we rich in Him or in the world? The Lord is not against us having good things and money, but we must always be richer in Him. Smith explained:
When we grasp this idea of being poor in spirit and identify ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, we have come to a place where we now see that all things are possible with God. We recognize that God has an unlimited supply, and in our poverty of spirit, we are entitled to all that God has, “for [ours] is the kingdom of heaven.’
True wealth comes from being found in Him so that our circumstances can’t take us captive. We stand always in the revelation that “this is the day the Lord has made.” Further, even in the darkest hour, we know this is the day of salvation. We have peace because He has our hearts. If our peace depends on things, then a spirit of poverty oppresses us.
Smith explained:
When Jesus came to Sychar, a city of Samaria, “being wearied from His journey” (John 4:6), He sat down by a well. His disciples were not with Him because they had gone to buy food in a nearby city (v. 8). When they returned, they saw Him at peace. He was not looking for food but was quite relaxed. When Jesus was not interested in eating the food they had bought, “the disciples said to one another, `Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”‘ (v. 33). This shows us the possibility for man to live in God, to be absorbed in God, with no consciousness of the world under any circumstances, except as we bring help to it.
I have said this many times because we need to get it; we must be rapture in Him before the rapture. You may have a different opinion on the timing of it, but if we are always found consumed by Him and found in Him, then we will no longer belong to this world and will be at the right place at the right time doing the right thing.
Smith explained:
He comes to enrapture our souls, to break every bond of mere human affection and replace in us the divine instead of the earthly, the pure instead of the unholy, the eyes of faith that see God instead stead of human feelings. The divine Son of God is to be in us, mightily moving through us, as we cease to be.
You are never richer than when you stand fully surrendered, emptied of all earthly things, and found lost and then found in Him. Your validation doesn’t come from people. Your comfort does not arise from your circumstances. Your ability to give is not dependent on your bank account.
“And God IS ABLE to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all SUFFICIENCY in ALL THINGS, may have an ABUNDANCE for every GOOD WORK.”
2 Corinthians 9: 8 Emphasis added
And remember that He gives not just a seed for eating or surviving in this life, but the seed for giving so that you continue to have a harvest.
“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.”
2 Corinthians 9: 10
Wow! Did you get all that and receive all that?
