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Breaking Free from the Spirit of Mammon and Babylon!
I believe the spirit of Babylon and its worldly, religious system and
the spirit of unrighteous mammon are working to keep the church from
prospering in a kingdom way. Both these spirits, together with
poverty, pride, and greed are a real hindrance to the true riches,
abundance, and Godly prosperity we are to enjoy.
The Spirit of Mammon!
"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and
love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24 NKJV).
"Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness"
(Luke16:9 KJV).
The only thing Jesus said that you could not serve was mammon and
serve God also. Our resources can serve God. But what spirit is on it
greed or generosity? Mammon desires to have your love and loyalty and
turn your heart from God. Mammon is the greedy pursuit of gain and
keeps us from true kingdom riches.
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through
this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced
themselves with many pangs" (1 Timothy 6:10 ESV). You need to
understand that money in itself is not evil but a blessing. It's the
love and worship of money that's the spirit of mammon, and it works to
keep us from true kingdom wealth and favor. In other words, greed,
covetousness, and selfishness are all manifestations of the spirit of
mammon.
"If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth,
(mammon) who will entrust to you the true riches?" (Luke 16:11 ESV)
Money, or possessions and blessings, is not the problem-it is the
spirit that controls our thinking, values, and actions. Your attitude
towards money reveals your attitude towards God. We can have
possessions as long as possessions do not have us.
Jesus said,
"You cannot serve God and mammon!"
What is mammon? It's the prideful, arrogant spirit that rests on
money that hasn't been submitted to God. However, money that is
submitted to and serves God is blessed by God! Greed finds a home in
the heart of the poor just as much as in the heart of the rich. The
condition of our heart is what needs to change. We need to watch the
unrighteousness motives of our heart to even advance the kingdom and
stay pure. When He has changed the condition of our heart regarding
money, He will be able to trust us with much more, as He knows that we
will use it wisely for the kingdom of God. The spirit of mammon is
fighting for position in the hearts of God's people. It knows that
they cannot serve it and the Lord at the same time! God is generous,
and mammon is inherently selfish. Mammon is an Aramaic word that
essentially means riches. It is linked to a sprit of Babylon-the
Syrian's god of riches. We must defeat mammon-the love for money that
is a spirit and a world system. The contrary spirit to unrighteous
mammon is "we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and
all these things the heathen are looking for will be added unto us"
(see Matthew 6:33).
Mammon always promises things that only God can give like security,
significance, identity, independence, power, and freedom. Mammon tells
us that it can insulate us from life's problems and that money is the
answer to every situation.
Overcoming Poverty and Greed
Here are a couple of spirits that run in the company of mammon-pride,
greed, and poverty. The spirit of poverty will cause you to be ashamed
of the blessings of God! The spirit of pride does not acknowledge God
for His blessings. The spirit of greed causes us to hold on to all
that we have or seek even more. When someone says, "That's a nice car
you have," pride says, "It's that newest import and it is loaded with
all the options, I paid a bundle for it." Poverty says, "We bought it
from my brother to help him out. It's really a piece of junk and was
really cheap." Greed says, "Don't even think of borrowing it."
Gratitude says, "Thank you"
This spirit keeps us from God's true plan to prosperous us and enable
us to see great kingdom riches. The mammon spirit works with the
spirit of poverty. This causes the state of constant wanting-it is the
torment of never having enough. It will cause us to feel guilt and
shame all the time, for whatever blessings of the Lord we have in our
lives.
In the biblical sense of the word, mammon is the spirit that rests on
money. Did you know that all money has an influence to it? It either
has the Spirit of God on it or the unrighteousness spirit of mammon.
Money that is given and submitted to God for His purposes has the
Spirit of God on it and multiplies. It cannot be consumed by the
devourer. I'm convinced money that has been submitted to God and
wealth that is devoted to serving Him rather than trying to replace
Him is blessed by God.
Babylon Spirit
God hates the spirit of greed-the "spirit of Babylon." The Babylon
spirit and system says trust in riches and self. It's a prideful,
greedy, and arrogant spirit that denies that we need God. The spirit
of Babylon says let us build a tower, let us make our own name for
ourselves, and let us reach to heaven. The spirit of Babylon inspires
hidden idolatry in God's people. It works to drive our focus and
attention on greed and self-indulgence, like unrighteousness mammon
gained through a worldly system of self and pride. The Scripture does
not identify a "spirit" called Babylon, but it is certainly a
spiritual force that comes forward in man's activities. Babylon was an
ancient city where man rose up in idolatry and rebellion against God
originating in the Tower of. It is man building His own kingdom apart
from God. This brings confusion and independence.
The "spirit of Babylon" motivates human organization and building
with man at the head. It is the root behind all the world religions
trying to reach heaven by human effort. The stories in the book of
Daniel capture the essence of God's people in the midst of Babylon.
The body Of Christ is being called into the marketplace-an arena that
the spirit of Babylon controls. It is easy to mix the spirit of
Babylon into our organization, church, or business and not realize it.
We have been trying to serve two masters. It doesn't work. But with
the Lord's help, we are learning to hate unrighteous mammon and love
God. But how do you hold on to God and despise mammon when we live in
Babylonian system? This spirit works to divide our focus and true
pursuit of kingdom work and riches.
Babylon is a system of doing business. The stronghold of the
workplace is mammon and pride. Dependence on money and misplaced trust
are at the core of a Babylonian philosophy of life. Revelation 18
describes a time when God will judge this Babylonian system. It is the
one place that we see a system destroyed in one day, even one hour. I
do not believe Babylon is a particular city, but a world system.
"Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her" (see Revelation
18:8 NIV). "Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one
hour your doom has come!" (Revelation 18:10 NET)
There is freedom from Babylon and the curse of materialism and
earthly values.
Breaking Free
We must overcome this spirit of mammon that says buy and keep
(greed), but the kingdom is to sow and reap! Mammon says cheat and
steal, and God says give and receive. Mammon is full of greed and
selfishness, where the nature of God is generosity.
Put God First
Generosity
Be a faithful steward (tithes, offerings)
Be found faithful in little
Repent
In Him,
Todd Bentley
https://twitter.com/iamtoddbentley
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