Exposing the Decadence of Poverty

Poverty is the lack of any good thing, the depravity to not attain it and the ignorance not to detect your need for it. Ignorance itself is a lack of knowledge, a form of poverty. Poverty takes many forms. Personally, the worst form of it is having something good in abundance and not benefitting or seeing the need for it. Do you understand how complicated that is? You can have something in abundance and not see its relevance until you lose it.

See, once you identify the extent of poverty, you’ll hate it completely. In no way should we embrace or defend any form of poverty. One of the systems of the world is poverty. It’s a weapon fashioned to cause many to fail and fall. Because we live in a fallen world, limitations are everywhere. There’s always a problem, a need, a lack. There seem to be endless possibilities of evil but limited definitions of good. Thus, the spirit of poverty is a tangible part of the systems of this world. You cannot go through the vicissitudes of life without encountering poverty.

The Spirit of Poverty

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus became poor so that we can become rich. There are several dimensions of poverty and the most serious of them all is spiritual poverty. We were created to be rich towards God. We were made to have a rich relationship with God. Once we take God out of our lives, we are like fish outside water. God spoke to the earth to produce trees, the skies to produce birds, the sea to produce fish and Himself to create humans. God is our national habitat. Outside of God, we step into depravity.

In Isaiah 61, we see that the Messiah came to bring the Gospel to the poor. In God, we have all sufficiency in all things. In God, we lack no good thing. Immediately sin came into the picture, poverty became an environment. Thus, poverty has a spiritual component to it. God does not have need of anything. He is All-sufficient. That is the aseity of God. If you don’t realize your need for Him, you’re the poorest amongst all. If this kind of poverty is not what you want to first get rid of, you have no business reading on.

In Psalm 69:22-23, David prophetically prayed a deadly prayer against the wicked; the material prosperity and good health of the wicked should cause their eyes to be blind towards their need for God. The end goal of this life is to be extremely rich towards God. We need to break free from anything that seeks to deprive us of God, even if it includes good things. The enemy does not mind if you prosper as long as you don’t prosper in this area. Prosperity in every other area apart from this is meaningless.

The Mindset of Poverty

Poverty is not only spiritual, it is mental. There’s a mental component to it. If someone has lived in poverty for so long, giving them a lot of money will not solve anything. Poor people are quick to ask for money when they meet rich people. Remember this when you become wealthy; philanthropy does not solve the problem of poverty. Jesus Himself said that the poor will always be among us. It’s a mindset. Give them everything physical and they will still remain poor. Poverty has a technology of turning gold into dust.

If you want to bring someone out of poverty, it’s best you train their minds early on. Education is one of the cures of poverty. That’s why wealthy people will rather build a school in their village than to distribute cash.  However, don’t ever be discouraged from helping the poor and needy in society. It’s one of the things written all over Scriptures, and it pleases God. That notwithstanding, if it’s your motive to bring them out of poverty, tackle the roots and not the fruits. Otherwise, it becomes a sinkhole for your wealth. The mindset of poverty is so strong that you don’t realize how normalized it is.

When some poor people become rich, it shows. They lack discipline. Money controls them and amplifies their weaknesses. They don’t see money as a tool. They see it as a god. They scramble for things they never had, enjoy the pleasures of sin they couldn’t afford and make mistakes they cannot repay. Then they are back to square one. This has happened to many NBA players. They grew up poor and ended up poor after retirement. You cannot have more money than your level of wisdom and financial literacy. You cannot be richer than your mindset. Eventually, your finances fall back to the level of your thinking.

The Effects of Poverty

One time I looked round at my environment, and I saw so much filth. In the midst of the filth were all kinds of food sellers. Filth is normalized in our minds because of poverty. Mediocrity is accepted in our workplaces because of poverty. Office workers can compress all their work done into one hour, and yet, they were on their phones for five. No one can complain about their work ethic because the money being paid them is not even enough. As long as artisans are paid, they don’t mind doing a mediocre job. Motivation rises and falls with money. This is all the doing of poverty.

Tell me why you save your meat until you’re done eating? Why are you not taking good care of yourself? Because you can’t afford to. Poverty. If the only thing that is stopping you from doing something you know you should do is money, it’s the mindset of poverty that’s affecting you. In our world today, we think the only reason why we go to work is because of money. Meanwhile, it has not always been so. When I wrote why the world system is all about money, I explained how the world has changed because of that. See, if someone can afford your release clause (this is a football term), they can get to do whatever they want. Why? Poverty mindset. Don’t have a release clause!

Ghana is not a lawless country. Africa is not an orderless continent. The inability to enforce law and order is as a result of this same decadence. The police department is not paid well, so just an extra tip can cause them to overlook all sorts of offence. They have families to feed, remember? Everyone wants to become a politician, not because they have the country at heart, but it brings them closer to the national cake. The people complaining can be silenced by a few dollars, and those still making noise are doing so because they are not benefitting from the corruption. Corruption exists because of poverty, be it material or moral poverty.

The Weapon of Poverty

The ups and downs of life are many times manipulated by poverty and mammon. If money can change your theology, then poverty shaped your upbringing. The system can be designed to make the standard of living better for everyone, theoretically. It’s all a matter of distribution, and we have talked extensively about Kingdom distribution. Practically, the system is designed to keep masses poor because poverty makes one a slave. One of the few ways to rule over a fellow human is to make them poor. Once they are dependent on you, they are enslaved to the very system destroying them. A society where everyone is financially independent is difficult to manipulate. So poverty is used as a weapon by the elite to control the masses.

As long as Africa remains poor, there are many who benefit. Africa is not poor by accident. It’s by design. Many corporations and international institutions benefit from our poverty, and make sure our system is designed to keep us poor. All the humanitarian aids they lend to us is meant to destroy our industries and keep us dependent. When leaders who challenge the system come on the scene, their associates are still manipulated by extravagant amounts of money so they can destroy the system from within. This has happened countless times. Poverty is a weapon fashioned against Africa. We are not financially free as a country. We are not economically free as a continent. Our political freedom is therefore a mirage. Such a paradox; rich in natural resources, poor everywhere it matters.

If the only reason why you’re committing a sin is because you lack money, that’s the poverty system working against you. Single people sleep with married people and they know it’s wrong. They are not even enjoying themselves. It’s money they need. The systems of the world can make you a slave because of poverty. Release clause have caused girls to off pant. If not for poverty, why will you ever accept something from a stranger? Poverty sets people up for greed. Poverty fuels a lot of envy. Our efforts to avoid one sin causes to justify another sin. The love of money is birthed in many because they tasted poverty and swore to make it by hook or crook. Therefore, they became crooks.

Why will you spend all your life doing a work you hate, and is known to destroy people’s health before they reach retirement? To escape poverty. Anything that puts one in survival mode will cause them to think about today at the expense of their tomorrow. There’s a poverty you can taste and selling your soul to the devil becomes a valid temptation. Do you think it’s normal to sacrifice your loved one for money? Poverty is a weapon fashioned against your destiny. It coerces people to make many wrong choices because they were trying to avoid many wrong choices.

So you see? Poverty is one of the underlying cause of many sins. What is enjoyable about sleeping with a man old enough to be your grandfather, if not poverty? That man will rather marry a woman from a rich family and think but that choice, they escape the hard life of poverty. The reason why money has so much power in our world today is because of poverty. Money is man-made, remember? Poverty has indeed become the sole reason for critical decisions of life; it’s determining what courses children should do, who they marry, where they stay etc. all in an effort to escape the decadence of poverty.

We have more to discuss for the whole month of May…
The habits of poverty
The control of poverty
Moral poverty
Emotional depravity
Lack of will & willingness
The victim and slavery mentality