God Says, "I will break the back of the Spirit of Poverty"

"BUT you must tear down the altars on the high places" 

171 times in the Bible there are references to tearing down high places. There is even a song about it. One I like. The problem is good Christian men and women are still sacrificing to idols on the high places. They may not have an asherah pole or an altar to Baal in their backyard.. yet they live a life of fantasy as if they did. Even the wealthiest man who ever lived, Solomon, who had married foreign wives, sacrificed on pagan altars on the high places.

1 Kings 3:3 (KJV) And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.

Why did they do this? What purpose did it serve. I don't think Solomon believed in Baal or any odd god. He had heard from and seen the manifestation of the true and living God. There must have been some other influence.

He did it as a way to show his wealth.  A way to appear above it all.  We know this because the Queen of Sheba came and brought wealth to him and he astounded her with his.  There is little evidence of her devotion to Jehovah God.

This kind of conspicuous consumption, the showing off of one's wealth has always been the downfall of people called of God.  Hezekiah showed off his wealth and it cost his heirs the kingdom.  He said, "At least there will be peace in my time".  His selfish conspicuous wealth flaunt doomed his children.

When King Solomon's son Rehoboham took the throne, the kingdom split and collapsed.   Civil war became the curse of the nation once again. 

The problem with outlandish conspicuous consumption for those who are leaders, for those who have authority, for those called of God is that those things become traps, high places. Strongholds that are erected against the knowledge of God. 

2 Corinthians 10:4-5
(4) For the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds.
(5) We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

These things become an obstacle for the work given to a man or woman of God.  How many people who God has wooed by his Holy Spirit has been put off because of the offense of conspicuous consumption by clergy.  "They only want your money" becomes the excuse.

One at this point can become defensive.. but I am here as a prophet to warn against indulging every whim that wealth can bring. The reality is once you have experienced true wealth and after the spirit of poverty is broken from you, you will find that your appetites come into line.  The wealthiest people on the planet for the most part live pretty simple lives without ostentatious external consumption.  Only people trapped in poverty need to have $300 shoes, $2000 suits, $300,000 cars, or million dollar homes.  When I see this in the area in which I live, one of the wealthiest in the nation, I know there goes a man or woman TRAPPED by poverty driving their Rolls, living in a mansion they can't afford.   The spirit of poverty starts in the soul.

Getting free of the spirit of poverty starts with tearing down the altar to Baal in your life.  Recognizing that more is an unending appetite. 

In Ecclesiastics 5 it says: 10He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity. 11When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on?

The spirit of poverty has a slogan, "He who dies with the most toys wins".   Yet many who God called out of poverty never have broken the chains that poverty imposed on them long ago.  As long as they are subject to this spirit, they will live broke and broken.  Never enough. Holes in their pockets. 

The real issue is those who preach uber prosperity are those most afflicted with the spirit of poverty.

Learning to be content.. and secure in the Lord and his provision is the only true prosperity that exists anywhere.. Find that and find peace.  Break free from the spirit of poverty.  Break down the altars in the high places.