Here's an often-overlooked way to disarm poverty thinking
Years ago, shortly after my wife and I met Jesus, we went on a road trip through California.
We crossed over into a certain county, and we instantly felt a change in the atmosphere—something was different over here. We both felt this weird, unpleasant sensation.
We didn’t know it at the time, but later we came to realize we were feeling the darkness operating over that county. The darkness was trying to talk to us, and we did not like what it was saying.
This happens with money and financial fears all the time.
When we talk about money and overcoming poverty thinking, we aren’t just talking about human issues. We are also talking about “spiritual forces of wickedness” that try to talk to us and influence us away from the gospel of peace (see Ephesians 6:10–12 NASB).
The enemy broadcasts his messages over different regions. He speaks out ideas like these:
“It’s never going to work.”
“It’s not going to be enough.”
“You’re going to run out.”
“You’re right to be afraid.”
We go in and out of these regions, which is what happened with Dawna and me during that road trip. We felt the sudden change but didn’t realize what it was.
What if we believe what the enemy is saying?
When we’re in a region where the enemy is declaring, “It’s never going to work” or “You won’t have enough,” we will have a hard time standing against him if we already believe those lies:
“I’m going to fail.”
“I’m not going to have enough or be enough.”
“My resources are drying up.”
“It is wise for me to be afraid, because I don’t want to get hurt.”
A poverty mindset will “tune in” to the demonic broadcast and start to listen to it.
I don’t want to make the enemy’s work seem big, but I do think it’s good to understand the mechanics he uses. The enemy is just a creature—he was made—and all he can do is steal an idea from God and try to distort it.
What can we do to reject the enemy’s broadcast?
The good news is, the things of God are also a broadcast—one we can use to displace the enemy’s broadcast.
We can disarm the poverty mindset and free ourselves from the enemy’s broadcast at the same time as we practice simple spiritual disciplines like these:
Worship
Prayer
Fellowship with other believers in Jesus
Fasting
Reading the Bible
Spiritual disciplines aren’t just things we do because we are supposed to. They actually help us say no to the enemy’s voice whenever the darkness tries to influence us.
If you want to experience greater freedom from poverty in your life, apply a few of the spiritual disciplines I have listed above, especially reading the Bible.
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Yes, we might feel trapped for a season—but as believers in Jesus, we have the most powerful leverage the world has ever seen. There is nothing more powerful than God, and He knows everything, including how to free us from any situation.
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