This week on Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural: Does God want you rich? When you hear things like “seed faith” or “God wants you to be a millionaire,” you have to wonder. What’s the truth on lack and prosperity? Jim Richards has fresh understanding on how God sees it! As a child of God, success and prosperity are your God-given destiny. So why do so many Christians live in lack? Even with all the books and teachings, many are still left longing for God’s abundance.
Is there a supernatural
dimension?
a world beyond the one we know?
Is there
life after death?
Do angels exist?
Can our dreams contain messages
from Heaven?
Can we tap into ancient secrets
of the supernatural?
Are healing miracles real?
Sid Roth has spent over 35 years
researching the strange world of
the supernatural.
Join Sid for this edition of
It’s Supernatural!
Sid: Hello. Sid Roth
here. Welcome.
Welcome to my world where it’s
naturally supernatural.
Whenever I turn on television, I
hear things like, see faith,
prosperity, God wants you to
become a millionaire.
I want to, how about you.
Would you like to know the truth
about prosperity teaching?
Is a God, is see faith God?
Is there a wrong version?
Is there a right version?
What is the truth?
How many of you are interested
in knowing?
I am.
Well I’m here with Dr. Jim
Richards and I don’t know a
better person to ask the
question, is there anything
wrong with the popular message
today, which is all lumped
together called prosperity
teaching?
Jim: You know, it’s so sad to
have to day it that the truth of
God has been twisted that it’s
become something that feeds
greed and self-centeredness, and
makes it almost impossible for
people to grasp God’s realities
for us prospering, for us living
in abundance.
Sid: Well that begs the
question, does God want all of
us rich?
Jim: You know something?
God wants all of us living
prosperous lives.
He wants us living our lives
where our needs are met.
He wants us living our lives
where we’re comfortable.
But more than anything else, he
wants us to live that God kind
of abundance where we have
resources to invest in the
world, change the world, change
people’s lives.
You know, the truth is the
reason the world is in the shape
that it’s in today is because
the church has taught that there
is something spiritual about
being poor and the wicked has
control of the resources.
And God made it really clear
many times in the scripture that
when the wicked have the wealth,
the wicked will rule and the
righteous will moan.
Sid: You know if I was God and I
was a casting director, I would
pick you to be a specialist in
this area.
Let me tell you why.
James was raised in extreme
poverty.
His dad was an alcoholic.
His dad not only didn’t
contribute to the finances of
the family, he actually took
money away.
His mother made $19 a week.
There were three kids.
You really had a tough time as a
kid.
Jim: Poverty was the norm for
us.
I mean, we were one of those
families that you pass all of
your clothes, and you know, you
might, you would have one pair
of shoes.
I can remember taking tape and
taping around my shoes so the
soles would stay on the bottom
of my shoes.
And you know, you might have one
pair of pants.
That’s it.
You’d just wear them until you
couldn’t stand to wear them
anymore, and then you’d strip
down and wash them, and let them
dry.
And that’s all we had.
And you know like you said, my
dad would come back many times
and break into the house, steal
all the food that we had, steal
the heating oil that we had in
the winter.
And so growing up in that kind
of situation, that becomes the
norm for you, and really, your
beliefs start being molded.
Sid: So you had what many people
had, a poverty mindset.
Jim: That’s right.
Sid: Now explain to me with this
poverty mindset there’s actually
been studies that after a few
generations.
Explain that.
Jim: Yeah.
You know, and the Bible tells
us, the Bible tells us that if
something happens for several
generations that it will
continue on in our children, and
that’s not because God is
cursing us.
It’s what the study reveals, it
says that if three or four
generations of children grow up
in welfare, grow up in
destitution, that by the fourth
generation they come into the
world hardwired for that kind of
life.
And it will be very unlikely
that they will ever get out of
poverty by time several
generations have gone through
this.
Sid: But there is there light at
the end…Jim: Oh yes there is.
Sid: … of the tunnel.
As a matter of fact, at 28, he
really, you thought he hit rock
bottom before.
He gets sick and he owes so much
money to the doctors and the
hospitals.
You’d never paid that back.
Jim: No.
Sid: And one day, you’re saying
a prayer in your own house and
all of a sudden, you hear, and
it’s his wife, oh, I broke it.
Seriously, she didn’t say that
to you.
Jim: It’s the truth.
You know, I had gone from
desperate poverty to just the
getting by mentality.
You live just getting by, just
barely getting by.
And I was thanking God for our
food one day and I was just
saying, “Father, I thank you
that you live us.
I thank you that our needs are
met.”
My wife said, “Jim, I am just
sick and tired of just having
our needs met.”
She said, “I don’t think this is
God’s plan for us.
I don’t think this is how we’re
supposed to live.”
Now at that time, I just walked
through getting healed and it
took about three and half years
from this genetic disease that I
was born with, and should not
have survived, should have died.
And at the end of it, I get
healed, and I look around and
I’m so deep in debt that it
looks impossible that I would
ever get out of debt.
And we were just barely living
from hand to mouth.
Sid: So you started studying the
Bible.
What did God show you about the
principle of sowing and reaping?
Jim: You know, the first thing
that I understood about sowing
and reaping is sowing and
reaping is not an external
thing.
It’s not like I’m going to give
and God is going to owe me
something back.
And that’s kind of, that’s part
of this get rich scheme that’s
been presented to us, you know,
improperly, if you will, from
the Christian community.
It’s not like I’m going to force
God.
Sowing and reaping is about
something that happens in my
heart so that as I invest from
the heart of generosity, so as I
develop myself where love is
motivating me.
And I’m investing in the world
and investing in other people,
it changes something inside me
that gives the capacity to
receive, not just to receive,
the capacity to even perceive
the opportunities for wealth.
Sid: Jim, by his own experience
pulled himself out, with
biblical principles, out of
debt.
But God doesn’t want you just
pulled out of debt.
He wants you to prosper, to meet
all of your needs, your family’s
needs and then take care.
Can you imagine being able to
take care of the community, take
care of the needs of other
people.
It’s available.
And when we come back, I want
him to teach a little on that.
We’ll be right back to
It’s Supernatural!
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We now return to
It’s Supernatural!
Sid: James, as he began to study
the Bible, found out that man
was originally wired for
success.
Explain.
Jim: Yeah.
You know, the very first thing
that God said to man was, “be
fruitful and multiply”.
We’re created in the likeness
and image of God and we are
designed to rule and reign in
life that kings.
And we’re not supposed to be
like the paupers.
We’re supposed to be like the
kings.
And so one of the things I
discovered is that the first
place we have to start is, is it
really God’s will?
Is this really what God wants
for us?
I began to see that the Bible
says, “God takes pleasure in the
prosperity of his servants.”
I began to see all of these
promises.
Sid: So why is it today if
someone is in ministry or a
strong Christian they’re not
supposed to get prosperous?
They’re not supposed to have a
big home.
Why is that mentality there if,
from originally we were supposed
to be blessed?
Jim: You know, there’s been a
deception in the world from the
father of all lies that has
gotten woven into Christianity
throughout history.
And when these lies appear they
appear in many forms to try to
steal from us what God has given
us through his word and through
the finished work of Jesus.
And so you see this lie manifest
in two different ways.
You see it manifest in this
extreme concept of greed and get
rich quick schemes, and all this
kind of stuff.
But then there’s the other side
of it where there’s something
spiritual about being poor,
something, some blessed aspect
of it.
Sid: Is it that the devils tries
to get us coming and going?
Jim: Yes it is.
It is like he’s going to give us
every lie that could possibly
fill us.
But you know, the Bible says
that poverty is the destruction
of the poor.
Man, when you’re poor, you don’t
have time for God.
You can’t take care of your
family.
You’re struggling, you’re under
pressure.
And that’s actually a form of
temptation.
Anything, according to the
meaning of the Greek word for
temptation, anything that causes
me to strive is something that’s
trying to seduce me into
compromising my life.
Sid: Is poverty a curse?
Jim: Yes it is.
The Bible is very clear that
poverty is the curse of the Law.
And that really brings us to the
next phase, and on my journey, I
was realizing that Jesus
delivered me from the curse of
the Law.
And you look at that and you go,
and I remember saying, now God,
I know this is true.
I know this is your truth, but
I’m not experiencing your truth.
Sid: Is that what, in other
words, we were wired for success
with Adam and Eve.
Jim: That’s right.
Sid: Then came the Fall.
Jim: Yup.
Sid: What happened?
Did we get rewired the wrong
way?
Jim: We didn’t get rewired.
We got programmed.
We got conditioned.
You know, the oldest lie that
Lucifer brought to Planet Earth
was that God is not good.
He is not the one that’s going,
that you can trust.
He’s not the one that’s going to
do good things for you.
You need enlightenment and you
can do it for yourself
independent of God.
Oldest lie in the world.
Sid: You talk about boundaries,
imaginary boundaries that limit
us.
Explain that.
Jim: Well the Bible says in the
Book of Proverbs, fourth
chapter, 23rd verse, it says,
“Guard your heart with above
else that you guard because out
of it flows the issues of life.”
That word, “issues” could have
just as well been translated as
boundaries.
And what that is telling us,
it’s telling us that all the
limitations in our life, we may
think they’re out here.
We may think they’re because of
the economy, we may think
they’re because of the
circumstances, we may think it’s
because of the people that
oppose us.
But the real truth is all
boundaries are determined by
what we believe about ourselves.
And I realized that I accepted a
definition of myself that was
based on what my life had been.
And I had to look at the Word of
God and say, who does God say
that I am.
And I started connecting to me
resurrected with Jesus, me being
a new creation.
When you connect with the
resurrected Jesus and you
realize that all the promises of
God, every promise that God has
ever made to anyone is yes for
you, when you’re in Jesus, that
boundary is going to expand.
Those limitations are going to
start going away.
Sid: Do you feel you have any
limitation?
I mean, coming from the
background that he came from, I
mean, you could not have been
economically lower than you
were.
How in the world did you turn it
around for yourself?
Jim: You know, this is God
working in your heart.
You know, and I’ll tell you
something.
When my wife and I began to see
these biblical principles, we
realized that we had done the
same thing with poverty that we
had done with sickness.
Yeah, I had good excuse to be
sick.
I was born with this.
I didn’t do anything to make
this happen.
I didn’t, you know, this was a
genetic.
You know, when you got an excuse
for something then you justify
it and you live with the excuse.
And I’ve done that with
sickness.
Well you know what?
I realize that I was looking at
my life saying, you know, I had
these doctor bills.
I didn’t do this.
I didn’t do anything wrong.
I didn’t mismanage any money.
I wasn’t dishonest.
But you know what?
That was an excuse because I was
allowing my circumstances to
define how big God could be.
I want to tell you something,
Sid.
We got on our knees at the food
of our bed one night and we
apologized to God, literally.
We just said, Father, we know
you love us.
We know that when Jesus was
raised from the dead that he
conquered all the curse of the
Law and we have no right to live
this way.
We have no right to be
destitute.
And we repented.
That means changed our mind.
We changed our mind and we made
a determination.
We said, God from this day
forward, we will never be here
again unless we’re here because
we’ve given it all away or
unless we’re suffering for
righteousness sake.
But we will never be desperate
again because we have failed to
trust you and operate your word
in our lives.
Sid: Do you, most people though,
there’s going to be economic,
throughout the world, in the
last days.
Jim: Right.
Sid: Do we have to go through
that?
Do we, is there anything we can
do to prosper in these last days
or is it just inevitable?
Jim: Well you know, Isaac sowed
in the time of famine and the
Bible says he reaped incredibly.
And all the Bible shows us, you
know, Joseph, Daniel, all of
these people, they prospered in
situations where that they
should have suffered in.
Sid: You know what I believe?
I believe when times are tough,
God is going to make believers
shine.
Jim: Oh yeah.
Sid: And it’s going to be,
there’s going to be such a
contrast everyone is going to
want to be a believer.
When we come back I want to find
out more about this.
Jesus taught us to pray to our
heavenly Father: Let your
kingdom come, let your will be
done on Earth as it is in
Heaven.
Did you know that no one in
Heaven is broke or hungry.
No one in Heaven is suffering.
It’s time to take back all that
the devil has stolen from you.
Success and prosperity with
purpose is your God-given
destiny.
We will be back with more of
It’s Supernatural!
in just one moment.
We now return to
It’s Supernatural!
Sid: You know, we’re living in
such a selfish age, me first,
self, self, self, self, me, me,
me.
Tell me about the grace of
generosity as opposed to
selfishness.
Jim: You know, that’s the
phenomenal thing.
See, we want our prosperity to
be something that increases our
life on every level, not just
financially.
And see, so many times when
people begin to look at this
prosperity thing, it’s all about
getting more, it’s all about
having more.
And so Paul says, he says, just
as you exceed in speech and
spiritual gifts and all of these
things, make sure that you excel
in this grace.
And he’s talking about this
grace of giving.
And as I began to look at the
Word of God I discovered
something so phenomenal.
And see, here’s the thing about
grace, God’s ability that works
in us, that makes us strong.
It’s the same thing, it’s a
different terminology.
It’s the same thing as saying
the Holy Spirit working in me,
you know, the same thing.
But grace is like a two-sided
coin.
You can only get the grace, the
capacity to receive what you get
the capacity to give away.
See, I’m never really, I wasn’t
so interested in being wealthy.
I was interested in taking care
of my family, serving my family.
I was interested in investing in
the world, reaching the world of
Jesus and giving to ministries,
and helping other people.
And so I was seeking God for
this capacity to give things
away.
And what started happening is I
started having this capacity to
recognize and move in realms of
success and prosperity that I
had never moved in.
I mean, God would show me things
that in the past I would have
withdrawn from.
And I would, he would show them
to me, I would step into them,
bam, prosper.
Sid: You stretched your
boundaries.
Jim: That’s exactly what
happened.
Those boundaries, see, because,
since grace works in my heart
then it can only work if I’m
believing the truth and that
truth is going to always expand
my boundaries.
Sid: Now you learned a lesson
the hard way that God is our
source.
Tell me about the time you were
embezzled.
Jim: I came home from a mission
trip to find out that that day
my home, our ministry property
was going to foreclosure.
I had $36,000 in overdraft fees
at the bank.
Every bill that we had was
probably 90 days old and I
discovered that an accounting
person had embezzled, while I
was out of the country, every
penny that we had.
And in typical embezzlement
situations, you never get any of
it back because they’ve spent
it, they’ve blown it on
something.
And so you know, we’re looking
at this.
This is tremendous, and
particularly, this wasn’t that
long ago.
At my age, you know, you lose
everything, you’re thinking, I’m
starting all over again.
Well you know something?
My wife and I sat down and we
just said, you know what, we can
spend our life fretting over
this.
We can be angry over this.
We can have all kinds of
negative emotions or we can
invest that same effort into
just trusting and following God.
The Lord is my shepherd.
He leads away from lack, away
from want.
And we knew that if we would
just follow God, the same God
that got us there the first time
would get us there again.
And you know, my staff would
come today every day and they’d
say, well Jim, what are we going
to do today?
I’d say, we’re going to serve
people today.
That’s what we’re here for.
And we’re going to listen to
God.
And you know, there would be
those days where there was like,
if we don’t have $100,000 by
noon, we’re gone.
And we would just pray and they
we would just serve people like
we always did.
And we didn’t make it about
trying to get it back.
And you know the real truth is,
in about nine months, we were
caught up on everything.
Sid: Nine months.
Jim: In about nine months.
Sid: That’s good.
Jim: And about 18 months, we’re
talking about $170,000 to the
IRS besides what was stolen.
But we’re talking about in 18
months, our income actually
doubled.
Sid: Okay.
There are people watching us
right now, you are and you’re
saying, I desperately need help.
I want to ask Dr. James Richards
to pray a supernatural prayer
over you and you get open, open
to receive.
Jim: Before I pray, I want to
say one thing.
Are you willing to give up all
of your excuses?
It doesn’t matter how you got
there.
It doesn’t matter if it’s your
fault.
It doesn’t matter if it’s
somebody else’s fault.
Are you willing to give up all
those excuses and say, God is
God.
His promises are sure.
Jesus was raised from the dead.
He delivered me from the curse
so I can make this journey.
If you make that decision then
you’re ready to receive.
Father, in the name of Jesus I
speak life, I speak blessing.
Lord, I thank you that the
hearts of these people that are
hearing these words are going to
start exploding with a new
capacity, a new hope, a new
outlook to believe you and to
walk with you in this path of
provision, in the name of Jesus.
Sid: Something supernatural has
just happened to you.
I want you to study your Bible
of what God’s, this is exactly
what James did when he was
challenged by his wife.
You study what God has to say.
You get it in your heart and
then you do it.
But make sure first of all that
Jesus is your Messiah and Lord.
Jim: That’s right.
Sid: Make sure that you’ve
repented of your sins, you told
him you’re sorrow and believe
the blood of Jesus washes you
clean, and you have a fresh
start, and you have no past, but
you have that same old brain and
that stinking thinking.
So renew that brain to the word
of the Living God and devil
watch out, you’re not going to
have one of those people any
more.
If God is for you, who can be
against you.
Jesus taught us to pray to our
heavenly Father: Let your
kingdom come, let your will be
done on Earth as it is in
Heaven.
Did you know that no one in
Heaven is broke or hungry.
No one in Heaven is suffering.
It’s time to take back all that
the devil has stolen from you.
Success and prosperity with
purpose is your God-given
destiny.
We will be back with more of
It’s Supernatural!
in just one moment.
Sid: Next week on
It’s Supernatural!
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