“God will open the floodgates of heaven for you. He will bless you abundantly. Blessings and prosperity are already yours. Just claim it, declare it, speak it and prepare to be amazed!” We all love to hear this message from preachers. Sure, it is Biblical. Jesus did say that whatever we ask for in prayer will be ours if we believe that we already have it. We are indeed told that God will open the floodgates of heaven for us. Jesus told us not be concerned about our daily needs because we have a Father in heaven who knows what we need. (Mark 11:24, Mal. 3:10, Matt. 6:31-32) But, this is not all that the Bible says. The problem with prosperity preaching, is that it shows people a distorted picture of who God is and where we stand in relationship with Him. The distorted picture looks like this: I have the right to be blessed and to live a prosperous, trouble free life because I believe in God. Therefore He must do and give whatever I ask for in prayer. God is the

Luke 17:1 in the Amplified Bible says: “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Stumbling blocks (temptations and traps to lure one to sin) are sure to come, but woe (judgement is coming) to him through whom they come!’” Now surely, if you are a born again child of God, you will not set up traps to lure people into sin! So this verse does not apply to you, right? Especially the next verse where Jesus warns that it will be better for such a person to be hurled into the sea with a millstone around his neck! (Luke 17:2) Definitely not talking about you, right? That’s what I thought for a long time. Until recently. I was reading through the Book of Luke and intended to just quickly browse over this part. But, that’s where the Holy Spirit stopped me right in my tracks. I was reminded of what the apostle Paul told the believers in Rome: “Then let us not criticize one another anymore, but rather determine this – not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block or a source of temptation in ano