The Characteristics of Wealth

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 1:31 (NKJV)

The Origin of Wealth

True wealth is a spiritual phenomenon, in that it comes from God, and all the natural components of wealth, gold, pearls, diamonds, precious gems and stones, and agriculture with its trees and fruit, are spiritual in origin.

The Bible tells us plainly that the precious minerals are building materials in heaven. They furnish the streets, the gates, the walls and the temples of the heavenly sphere.

Wealth is the covering of God's habitations. He used what we today call wealth to build the environment of His dwelling places. The elements of wealth are therefore a means to an end, and true wealth can be defined as an environment of desired intent, the abundance of provision and strength in an environment.

It was no different when He created and furnished the earth. He made sure there was abundance. He planned for the wealth of humanity by setting in place a host of abundance that would cause man to thrive in his environment.

The Four Rivers

He deliberately planted a garden called Luxury for His man, and there were four rivers whose names together meant "increase shall burst forth rapidly into fruitfulness." The land surrounding those rivers was full of gold and every precious stone and mineral, and all this was so before the man was formed, suggesting that, according to God, wealth must be man's starting point, and not poverty, the lack of anything. Whenever anything is not in surplus, there is lack; there is poverty and impoverishment.

The first man was born into wealth, abundance and an enabling environment, to fulfil God's desires and plans. Without wealth, God's plan cannot be fulfilled. True wealth is inherited, not worked for. What men work to get is what today is called mammon: false riches, or worldly riches.

God's Economic System

The first economic system was based on management, not on transaction or capitalism. Man's primary responsibility was the management of wealth, not its creation, which is the capitalistic or satanic system. I will say more on this later.

This became God's measure, through the generations, of whom He would trust with true riches. The principle is that the one who manages well will be given more; this was God's substitutionary arrangement after the Fall.

The ability to manage is essential, not only in financial matters but in our lives. Management is the underlying reason for productivity, and for the cultivation of the resources at our disposal. God is saying today: manage well what you already possess. The idea is not to toil, but that practising this principle will produce in us a circumcised heart, one that allows God to deliver the wealth of the nations to His people.

The Curse of Mismanagement

Poverty and struggle occur when mismanagement prevails and the principles of management are despised. Having more increases accountability and value; having less is the result of wasteful tendencies, of mismanagement. These things are spiritual. Truly speaking, all poor people are prodigal.