A Circle Of Greed, The Luciferian Result

Ambition, aspiration and struggle for success, hard work are all good things within their proper boundaries. The unbridled desire to acquire is where we move over into greed and covetousness. Greed is a root of many sins. Abuse of power, selfishness, covetousness, infidelity, stealing, lying, murder, all have root in greed.

I met a very wealthy man a few years ago whose entire life was based in greed. He had worked hard to become wealthy and he took up investing. As he invested he became addicted to acquiring more. It didn't seem to matter how much he acquired, he always wanted more. In the midst of all that acquisition, he had to protect what he had acquired. It became a driving obsession and he never saw that he had left no room for G-d in his life.

This man was trapped. He was bound by the world system and the rules of commerce that drove him to make more and more money to acquire more and more things. While he had all the natural things that money could buy, and while he had things that satisfied his soulish emotions and intellect, he had no spiritual satisfaction. In fact, he was spiritually dead.

In all his acquisition, he had not obtained understanding from the L-rd. He missed that all his acquisition was never his in the first place. He missed that G-d Himself was and is the Owner of all he had acquired. He never saw that he was merely a custodial steward over what belonged to G-d. Hagai / Haggai 2:8 "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts."

Some people are never satisfied with what they have. They constantly eye what others have too. It's a circle of greed.

I've seen this same greed operate in a man who had nothing. I saw him lust and envy after what the rich have. He had nothing but his focus was no different. He had spent his entire life trying to find a way to get what a rich man has. When he could not obtain wealth fast enough through hard work, he resorted to theft and gambling. There was no end to what he would do to obtain just a little to spend upon his lusts. He always complained about those that had more than him. He was the person who would take advantage of people just because he felt they owed him something. He couldn't say no to an offer to make more money.

Greed is behind some murders and sex trafficking. Worldwide sex trafficking is at an all-time high. I recently overheard a man speaking in a restaurant. He was bragging to his friends that he had recently visited an Asian nation and could get a virgin there at will. It was his new place to visit.

Greed is what causes cheating in sports. The driven ambition to acquire a medal pushes even nations to cheat. For the glory of man, people sell their proverbial souls. Look at the recent Olympic rulings over gymnastics.

Greed is what exploits the poor with poor wages to give suburbanites store bargains. Companies pay their employees low wages as part-time employees with no benefits so they can lower their prices to make millions. It doesn't matter to the corporate greed that they are keeping individuals poor to enrich others.

And yet those poor with the poor wages are just as greedy because they refuse to say "No" to the exploitations of the wealthy. As a result, they hold the wages low. Because they are greedy for anything at all, they sell out instead of holding out for higher wages and injure themselves, their families, friends and co-workers too.

I was channel surfing on my television recently when a show caught my eye. It was a reality show where a beautiful, rich and famous young lady was looking for a best friend. Girls were put through rigorous tests to prove their loyalty and the traits that this lady wanted in her new best friend. As the show progressed, the contestants fought, lied, backstabbed all in greed so they could hang out with a rich girl.

Everyone looked at the contestants as greedy but no one looked at the famous young lady. She could buy whatever she wanted and could acquire whatever she wanted, including putting others through hoops of sin. And on top of it all she claimed to be a "Christian." The bottom line? Her show sells advertising. It makes her even richer. It's pure greed.

We even see greed in operation regarding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. No one wants to take responsibility for the oil spill but it exists. According to B'resheet/Genesis 1:28 "And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it (using all its vast resources in the service of God and man); and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth." This earth and it's vast resources are our responsibility. Instead of using them in the service of God and man, they have been hijacked by a few for self gain and in the process they have corrupted the environment.

Greed drives gambling. I was in Las Vegas some time ago to attend a wedding. While I was waiting in the airport to leave, I saw a husband and wife who were waiting on their plane to arrive so they could go home. The wife was so greedy for that one win that she played the slot machines in the airport dropping one coin in after another. As their plane boarded, the husband tugged and tugged at his wife, but she would not leave the slot machine. He got more and more aggressive with her trying to get her away from the machine but she continued to fight him off with one arm while she used the other to gamble. Finally he boarded the plane without her and the plane left and she continued dropping in coins not even noticing. As a matter-of-fact, she was still gambling when I boarded the plane to leave.

Corporate greed sends jobs to other lands not realizing that those very jobs they move were used to sustain the economy that makes it possible to purchase the products those jobs produce. Once upon a time that would have been called "insanity." Today it's called cost savings.

Some of today's corporate CEOs earn more in one half day than one employee's yearly wages. And even in a failing financial climate, they have no shame in taking such pay.

Greed is one of the hallmarks of false prophets and unfortunately many have great difficulty understanding the difference between greed and the prosperity of the blessing of G-d. They are not the same. One is based in the world's way and one is based in G-d's way.

G-d has a great deal to say about greed. The Word warns against every form of greed. The worst part is that greed is idolatry. Ephesians 5:5 states "For be sure of this; that no person practicing sexual vice or impurity in thought or in life, or one who is covetous (who has lustful desire for the property of others and is greedy for gain) for he (in effect) is an idolater -- has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."

Here's the bottom line:

Will you be greedy for what you can acquire?

Yeshua - Philippians 2:6-7 "Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God (possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God), did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, But stripped Himself (of all privileges and rightful dignity), so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave) in that He became like men and was born a human being."

Or will you lay down all you have for G-d and man?

G-d's Word has something to say about the Luciferian result. Yechezk'el / Ezekiel 28:16-18 "Through the abundance of your commerce you were filled with lawlessness and violence, and you sinned; therefore I cast you out as a profane thing from the mountain of God and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud and lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I lay you before kings, that they might gaze at you. You have profaned your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities and the enormity of your guilt, by the unrighteousness of your trade. Therefore I have brought forth a fire from your midst; it has consumed you and I have reduced you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who looked at you." Do you see this? The unrighteousness of his trade. The lawlessness and violence of his commerce.

G-d wants us to be content with Him and what He provides for us. G-d lacks for nothing and wants for nothing. In covenant relationship with Him, not in the spirit of competition of the world, can we find true shalom (nothing missing, nothing broken.) G-d Himself is to be the Acquisition. G-d Himself is the true riches of heaven. If you have G-d, you have access to all He owns including all the silver and all the gold.

In G-d's ways, the planet is whole and love overcomes death. In G-d's ways, everyone is special and everyone has enough. In G-d's ways animals are treated with dignity and respect. In G-d's ways there's room for everyone to be successful.

There is nothing wrong with working hard for honest gain. And that brings me to the ponzi schemes, the Nigerian scams, etc. Not only are those that perpetrate scams full of greed, so are their "so-called" victims. Both are committing the same sin. Both are greedy for gain and both want something for nothing. The reason the scammer walks off with the goods is simply because he has put forth more labor in the acquisition.

Greed has even made its way into the supermarkets by a tactic called "unjust weights." Mishlei/Proverbs 11:1 says "A false balance and unrighteous dealings are extremely offensive and shamefully sinful to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight." I have seen manufacturers selling products that "appear" to be like normal but the sizes are different. They have figured out a way to use unjust weights to look innocent but scam the purchaser out of a few extra cents.

Greed is why the world is receiving judgment in money issues.

The way we deal in matters of commerce reveals our spiritual status. G-d is about to reveal His glory through golden vessels who have been faithful, even with the riches of this world. They have no love for money but have faith in their G-d. Their souls are not for sale. They are not motivated by having to have something this very moment, but are motivated by G-d. They are not basing their lives on the world's sytem of economics but on G-d's system of economics and reward. 

These golden vessels know that to be exalted they must serve; to obtain they must give; to reap they must sow; to go high they must go low; to be seen they must hide in secret; to gain they must lose, to live to G-d they must die to self. 

I have a question for you to meditate upon this month. What if G-d really means what He said in Ya'akov/James 4:1-5 "What leads to strife (discord and feuds) and how do conflicts (quarrels and fightings) originate among you? Do they not arise from your sensual desires that are ever warring in your bodily members? You are jealous and covet (what others have) and your desires go unfulfilled; (so) you become murderers. (To hate is to murder as far as your hearts are concerned.) You burn with envy and anger and are not able to obtain (the gratification, the contentment, and the happiness that you seek), so you fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask. (Or) you do ask (God for them) and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is (when you get what you desire) to spend it in sensual pleasures. You (are like) unfaithful wives (having illicit love affairs with the world and breaking your marriage vow to God! Do you not know that being the world's friend is being God's enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy of God."?

I have no interest in becoming G-d's enemy like ha'satan and Pharaoh. The hour is late. Time is running out. Eternity is running in. Time is compressing. And money surely is not worth one's very soul.

It's time to make a choice. We are either the world's friend or we are G-d's friend. Let's keep ourselves out of the circle of greed. Let's break the luciferian result trying to operate in our lives.