DIVINE INTERVENTION TO BREAK THE POVERTY SPIRIT 7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
12 “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”
13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’
”15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah. (1 Kings 17:6-17, NIV)
David Hino says, “The spirit of poverty is more than a lack of money. People with wealth can have the spirit of poverty. There are poor people who have a wealthy mindset and wealthy people who have a poverty spirit. People who are never satisfied and hoard demonstrate a poverty spirit. A poverty spirit says, “I can’t” and a wealthy spirit says, “God can.”
The poverty spirit is a mindset and learned behavior. The spirit of poverty is actually a spirit of fear, which comes from a lack of trusting God. In 1 Kings 17, the widow was preparing for her and her son’s last meal as she had nothing more than the physically limited flour and oil left to eat. In verse 13 Elijah told her, “Don’t be afraid.”
She had to activate her faith and trust the Lord when he instructed her in verse 14 to give up her last to feed Elijah. The prophet knew God had provision in the unseen realm that she knew not of. The widow gave up all to gain more than enough by trusting God, through His prophet’s word. One of the names of God is Jehovah Jireh - the Lord our Provider. Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
Breaking the spirit of poverty is breaking the mindset of only trusting ourselves and not God. God’s ways are not our ways. We are limited and God is limitless. God operates in the supernatural, when we can only see the natural. It takes aligning ourselves with God and trusting Him, especially in the area of our finances. God challenges us to stop robbing Him, to “test or prove Him” in His system of firstfruits, tithing and offerings. His promise is that He will “open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out such a blessing that there will not be room enough to store it! “(Malachi 3:6-10) As Elijah said to the widow, “first make me a cake”
Rebuke the spirit of poverty, not just with your mouth, but with your ACTIONS! God says in Luke 6, verse 38, “Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” There are times when giving when we don’t see it breaks the back of the fear the enemy is attempting to strangle us with, and says, “I trust GOD to provide!”
FORMULA: Study God’s Word + Believe God’s Word + Meditate on God’s Word + Act on God’s Word + Speak/Confess God’s Word = Blessings in every area of your life including finances.
Prayer: “Today I will trust you God! I know you will supply all my needs as your Word has promised, if I would just trust you and let go of control and make you Lord of my life, including my finances. Lord, break the chains of poverty over my life and my family’s life. You are Jehovah Jireh, my provider and I will worship you with tithing and offerings going forward. I want to be a blessing to your people. I want to leave an inheritance to my children’s children. I want to live abundantly in this life with financial freedom and give glory to you Heavenly Father. Please forgive my unbelief and lack of trust in you Lord. You said to test you in this area, so I will take you up on your word and trust you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.”
Tiffany Smalls
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