THE LOTTERY GOSPEL
There are more people that play lottery than we would really know. This is not just in terms of those who play anonymous but about those who gamble their performance in order to strike God’s favour and blessings in their life.
A lottery gospel is one that states “do the best that you can do, fast and pray when told to, observe all observances for you might not know which will get heaven to respond to you.”
It’s a game of chance. It’s about pressing in until God bends to your favour. We have such in a prayer acronym that is known as P.U.S.H (Pray Until Something Happens). So the whole idea is that when God is impressed and satisfied with how far you went without food, then He tells the angels “It’s time, he has paid his dues give him what he wants now”
What kind of a God who is a father will only respond to the needs of his children only when they have asked enough or pressed him well enough. Religion has presented God as insensitive and demanding.
The lottery gospel mentality projects a God who hardly cares until his favourite song is played on the radio. Just the same way some people believe that God only shows in the meeting when their favourite hymn or song is done by the choir. The anointing of God’s spirit has his own Top-10 charts.
At certain cases which I have personally witnessed the praise has to be sung in a very vibrant tempo or it will delay the move of the Spirit. So we have to strike the right chord, right song, right clap, right dance, right beat for the Spirit of God to manifest in our services before the people can be blessed.
That is totally unlike the Christian faith in the Bible. God does not need to be pleased by you employing the right combination of prayer, fasting and praying. He is only pleased by faith (Hebrews 11:6)
When we place our faith in Christ, we are resting from our own labors and sins. The labour to be blessed and prosperous ceases in true faith. Faith says that I have the blessing even in the face of disqualification because it sees Jesus as the qualification.
Only after religion enters do we begin the vicious cycle of performance based Christianity, where we feel that we must do things to please God. This cycle takes our rest away from us, forcing us to “stay saved” with our diligent works and “get blessed” by our good works. The joy of salvation will always be at the mercy of our last failure.
The parable of the persistent widow is not to teach us persistence is the way to please God, it is supposed to contrast the judge and our Father. Jesus said “your father is NOT like that!” so persistent prayer and fasting is not the way to God. He is already dwelling in us waiting to hear us speak our desires. He gave us an invitation: “Cast all your cares upon Him, for he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7)
God is not waiting on you to strike the right combination of good works for Him to bless you. He has already blessed you in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3)
Faith is not a try-your-luck approach to God. Faith is borne out of revelation, a revelation of the heart of the Father towards you. Your faith is well communicated when you know what the Father has blessed you with (Philemon 1:6)
Stop expecting that one day heaven will respond to you. Its too late because before you were in that situation heaven had already responded when Jesus came to be the end of your struggles. So Rest in Him and find peace.
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