Ask Balaam

“Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; it robs them of life” Prov.1:19.

God wants us to pay attention to Anger and Hope Deferred because they detune us.

#3. Greed. Greed is a major de-tuner. Greed robs you of life. Greed, like anger and hope deferred, is an express way to a detuned life. Ask the prophet, Balaam. Balaam introduced himself as the one that sees a vision without closing his eyes. What a resume! He was so tuned, accurate and sharp that he did not need to close his eyes to pray, he just sees into the supernatural. But because of greed, Balaam became so blind that even his donkey could see the angel that the prophet could not see. Greed blinds the sharpest eyes. There is so much God wants to do with us and through us but sometimes the greed of what is before us blinds us from seeing God and His plans for us.

Something happened to my wife and me years ago. Someone gave us nine hundred thousand naira cash. At that time, which was over ten years ago, nine hundred thousand naira was much more than it is now and you know there are always things to be done. But as I took the money into my room, the Holy Spirit said give him back his money. So I called him and gave him back the money. He wanted to know why but I said, just take the money and go; it is okay. I did not tell him God told me to return it because he would feel bad. I just did what I was told.

Greed would have made me keep the money and back then I would have been in serious trouble. Six months down the line, some investigators visited me. Apparently, the money was stolen and he told them he gave it to his Pastor. So they came to meet the Pastor. And the woman said, you Pastors just collect money from people. You do not care about how they got the money and she just abused me. But as a Pastor, I had to remain calm and take all the insults. When she was done, I asked her to call the man. And when he came, I said, you brought the money. He said yes and I said what did I do with the money? He said, you gave it back to me. You should have seen the woman’s face; she was ashamed. That was how God delivered me from reproach. What about you? What has God said to you to leave alone that greed is not allowing you to?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I pray that greed will be flushed out of my life completely and that I will remain spiritually sharp and obedient to Your voice, in Jesus Name.