Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (7 page)

The Lord could not give a lot of money to most of His people because it would destroy them. Money is a tool, a means of authority and can be easily misused. Many people with large amounts of money who do not have a close walk with the Lord use their money to manipulate and control others. Money is leverage and it can easily influence others. That’s why if a person genuinely desires to be a vessel fit for the Master’s use, then there must be proper training involving financial stewardship. Job in the Bible was a man whom God could trust with great wealth. Yet even Job went through times of testing, but in the end, God brought him out with twice as much as he had before.

About a year ago my wife and I went over to visit some good friends of ours who were going through a very difficult time financially. The husband had previously been earning a very good net income of over $350,000 a month. But his business suffered a major setback that was completely unexpected and eventually the whole thing shut down. On top of his business failure he was served legal papers stating that he was being sued for a large amount of money. This whole series of events sent my friend into a mental depression that lasted over a year.
He had fallen from such a high place and was now struggling to pay his basic utility bills while also having fallen behind on his rent. He had gone from living in a massive luxury home to a little tiny cabin back in the woods with his family.

When I talked with him, he reminded me of Job who was so perplexed that he was perplexed with his perplexities! However, as we shared dinner together in their little cabin and talked about the Lord, we began to laugh as we realized that God was doing a deep work in this man’s life. As we sat at the table, I happened to look over to the side and to my surprise I saw Job himself sitting in a chair in the corner of the room! But he wasn’t the Job who was sad, depressed, and ruined. It was the Job who had come out on the other side and had developed a deeper walk with God through his trials and difficulties. In this vision I actually saw Job sitting there, and I’ll tell you one thing, he was looking mighty good. He looked middle-eastern with deep, dark, sparkling eyes and he had on a beautiful robe. He had a long flowing white beard that reached all the way to his chest. He looked magnificent! I turned to my friend at the table and said, “Cheer up, you are coming out of this and your fiery trial has ended. God will now raise you back up just as he did Job.” It was only a few months after this that God began to lift this man back up in financial strength. He was offered and accepted a position as Vice President of Sales for a major international health related corporation. The money is flowing strong again, and needless to say, he is no longer living in that tiny, cramped little cabin. Even the legal troubles he was facing are being resolved in a peaceful way. The best part of all is that
he views his purpose of having prosperity as being a means not just for himself, but to be led by the Holy Spirit in ways that he might further the Lord’s Kingdom in the earth.

This is another reason you should be careful with whom you align yourself. I’ve read many stories where saints of God have taken vows of poverty because they considered wealth and riches to be evil. In reality, what they were doing was joining themselves to a curse. There is nothing holy about poverty. It is a product of the curse that came upon the world through Adam’s sin. But we have dominion over lack and poverty through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In my heart, I believe the reason some of the great saints of previous generations took vows of poverty was because they desired a walk with God where they would not be distracted with worldly cares. I believe their motives were certainly right, but they went about it the wrong way. Money is not evil. It is neutral and can be used for good or evil depending upon who has it. I believe the Lord today is looking for those who are willing to make “vows of prosperity.” Along with a “vow of prosperity” it would be good to make a “vow of humility” to keep one’s feet firmly planted on solid ground. We should be willing to stand in faith for God’s very best. We should embrace the full covenant blessings that Jesus purchased for us at Calvary. Let the Holy Spirit lead you regarding the financial mantle He has for you.

Be open to the multiple and various mantles that you need to walk in victory in every area of your life. While visiting with
a dear minister friend recently, who is much older then myself, he shared with me that he counted up all the mantles he knew of that he had received in his life. When I asked him how many he could identify, he said, “I’ve counted twenty-seven of them.” I encourage you to step into that multicolored tunic similar to what Joseph wore and be clothed with the full provision that God has for you.

Although you will not find the word
mantle
in the New Testament Scriptures, the principle still applies today. Keep in mind that before Jesus went to the cross, much of the emphasis throughout the Old Testament was placed upon
exterior
or
outward
things. For example, under the Old Covenant, all of the male Israelites were required to be circumcised, as God instructed Abraham in the following verses.

This physical act of circumcision was an
outward
act that joined God’s people in a covenant relationship with Him. Today, as a New Testament Christian, you
do not
have to be physically circumcised to be in a right relationship with God. We see this clearly outlined for us in the New Testament, such as in the following verse:

When we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, the old sinful nature is “cut-off,” or circumcised by God, and we receive new life within our spirit. Through this example, can you see how God desires to place the emphasis on the
inward
heart of man, rather than the
outward
physical man? The same transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant regarding foods has also taken place. This is an area where many New Testament Christians continually try to get back under the Mosaic Law.

I know Christians who would be shocked if they saw me eat a shrimp or a porkchop. In order not to offend them, I wouldn’t eat it in front of them because their understanding of these things is limited and it would offend their conscience. The Old Testament food groups that were classified as “unclean” were foods that were represented as types and shadows. God was endeavoring to speak symbolically to His people through these foods. The whole point God was trying to make was the importance of keeping yourself pure and clean to avoid
sin. The unclean foods represented sin. (See Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14:3-21.)

Under the New Covenant, you can eat pork if you want to. To me, it doesn’t taste that good, so I rarely eat it, but that’s a personal matter of taste and preference. Some teach that the “unclean” foods are unhealthy for you. While I would prefer to eat higher on the food chain, such as a piece of halibut over a piece of catfish, I am still free in Christ to eat catfish if I want to. A few years ago the oldest man in the world died. He lived in China and was 127 years old when he passed away, and was often featured in leading newspapers around the world. In one interview just before he died, he was asked his secret of longevity. His confident response was, “White rice and good pork!” This man ate white rice, which has hardly any nutritional value, and pork, which is very fattening, and eventually died as the world’s oldest man, verified by his authentic birth certificate. Consider the following Scriptures
from the New Testament
regarding food:

This was written by Paul the apostle and he was as Jewish as a person can be, yet he understood the truth about food. Stop and think about it for a moment. How can eating a piece of fresh,
grilled Blue Marlin (a fish without scales) make you unclean? How can a piece of fish make you unclean in the eyes of God? Isn’t the blood of Jesus more powerful than a piece of fish? It’s the blood of Jesus and His grace that justifies you before God, not your eating habits. The following verses by Paul should settle the argument forever regarding food. Please remember that these verses are from the New Covenant where we are saved by grace through faith, and not by our keeping a system of rules and regulations that only serve to magnify a person’s shortcomings.

The fourteenth chapter of Romans is my favorite chapter in the Bible. Paul received personal revelation from the Lord that there is no food that is unclean. We know Paul is speaking about food because he references his statement of
nothing unclean to food
(see Rom. 14:14). You can eat non-kosher food because God gave the “green light” on all food as being edible. Of course, some foods are definitely healthier than others. It’s a big world that we live in. Some cultures enjoy eating snakes, spiders, and bugs. Personally, I try to eat healthy and exercise
often. There is some value to the dietary laws found in the Book of Leviticus as far as certain foods being more sanitary and healthy than others (see Lev. 11). We should all acquire a good understanding of how to eat healthy so that we are able to take good care of our bodies.

But again, the bigger picture is that of walking in love. As I said before, there are those who do not know about New Testament teaching along this line. If I ate a shrimp in front of them it would upset them. So, because I love them, I will keep my faith to myself and be careful never to put a stumbling block in front of them. This not only concerns food and drink but anything that would be a hindrance. The focus under the New Covenant is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and walk in love. The inward focus will produce the correct outward results.

In much the same way, the mantles spoken of in the Old Testament were only an
outward
representation of a specific anointing in which the Holy Spirit would manifest Himself upon a person. As I mentioned earlier, the mantle which Elijah the prophet wore had no supernatural power in and of itself. Under the Old Covenant, the mantle was only an outward representation of what was really a degree of anointing given by the Holy Spirit. There are many examples throughout the Old Testament of how God would anoint certain physical things to be used as an outward demonstration of God’s power and glory. We see this in the story concerning the bones of the prophet Elisha.

What caused the dead man to come back to life when he touched the bones of Elisha? Were the bones of Elisha any different physically from the bones that you and I have? No, his bones were just like ours. The dead man was brought back to life because of the residual anointing of the Holy Spirit within the bones of Elisha. You could say that while he was alive he was
saturated
with the power and Presence of God.

In like fashion, if you go into a room that is full of people who are smoking cigarettes, you will come out smelling like cigarette smoke even if you do not smoke yourself. If you spend a lot of time with God in fellowship and prayer, then you will become saturated with His Holy Presence and He will get all over you. So it was not the bones (the outward evidence) that raised a man from the dead, but the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Follow along with me and grasp the truth that it is not a cloth or an animal skin (mantle) draped around someone’s shoulders that enables him or her to do miracles. It is the Holy Spirit who works miracles through God’s people!

We also see another example of this in the story found in the Old Testament Book of Judges concerning Samson and his long hair. Some Christians actually think that Samson’s incredible, supernatural strength was because of his long hair. In my life I have met many guys with long hair, yet I never met one of them who
could demonstrate the type of strength that Samson had. What was the source of Samson’s great strength? Was it his long hair? Was it due to Samson having a Gold Card Membership at the local gym? Was it due to a high protein diet or an excessive consumption of red meat? No, it was none of those
outward
things. Then why was he so strong? He was strong because the Spirit of God was the source of his strength. When the Holy Spirit would come upon him, he would be transformed into a super-man. When he was under the anointing of the Spirit of God, it didn’t matter if he was outnumbered a thousand to one. He was simply invincible as long as he stayed surrendered to the Lord.