I live in a country where people want quick and easy money. The idea of overnight riches is a dream everyone holds dear. The closest they can get to the realization of that dream is lottery, so they poured their resources and faith into it believing “One is one day” I’ll get lucky and have the perfect combination or reasonably good combination of numbers. This is a dream shared by tens of millions of people in this country, hundreds of millions of people on this continent and billions of people on this planet earth. It also became a reality for so many too.
One day I was with one of my mentors and a friend. This friend asked my mentor a question “What is God’s standpoint on money lottery? Obviously, He’s used it to bless so many and yet many believe it is a sin and wrong for believers to be engaged in it since it is a game of chance and God wants us to live by faith”. Wow, that question hit me because I also share his view. Sometimes I feel it’s madness because of the way people do it, they are radical believers in it. There may not be money for them to eat that day but there’s always money to play lotto, same goes for the rich, middle-class and the low-class. I thought to myself there must be a “demon” behind this that’s making everyone so “crazy”–excuse my language (by the way, there is no demon behind it, just the lures of instant riches.).
My mentor being a wise man that he is, having heard the question, he didn’t reply immediately. He waited for us to be settled and ready, then he made a simple statement – “God uses it but it is not the norm for Him”. We knew that’s the answer right there, it was a true statement, based on a witness within and a little knowledge of the scripture. We really didn’t think much about it but often I’d think about it. I wanted to know definitively and be able to explain to someone else, say a new believer who doesn’t know much of the scripture and wanted answers. I trusted the holy spirit to reveal it to me,then left it at that.
I was in a program recently and we had a guest minister from Canada, He ministered on “Spectacular Or Supernatural”. He ministered from John 5:1-11. Now, this was months after, as soon as he started I just knew, even my spirit told me “right there is the answer”. I’d known about this story, known about spectacular and supernatural but never saw it in that light. I might have to take a while to explain, please bear with me.
There was a pool in Jerusalem called Bethesda, from time to time an angel of the Lord would come down to stir it up and the first person that got into it would be completely healed of any sickness or disease. Hence the bible recorded there was a great multitude (not just multitude but great multitude) there. You can imagine a country where there’s such pool, probably there would be hundreds of thousands of people there, all waiting to be the first to get in the pool. As you would imagine, the number will be increasing by the day which makes the chances of anyone entering the pool first be almost improbable (say mathematically, 1/1,000,000). Does that sound familiar? A lottery company once said you have more than a 1,000 times better chance of an asteroid or comet killing you (using the long odds) to winning a jackpot. Does that mean people don’t win it? Of course they do, same way someone gets healed every time the angel stirs up the water, one person in a million.
Take note of something here, the angel was from the Lord, so it was God healing these people one at a time. I honestly believe God bless people through lottery. It is “a way” but not necessarily “the way”. It is a sign (a spectacular thing). Signs are for unbelievers to believe in God but as a believer, we have supernatural provision.
Jesus (the embodiment of the power of God) walked right through the midst of these people to heal one man and nobody noticed anything because they were too focused on the pool. Healing was walking right through them and no one could notice it. If only they could tap into that power walking through them, they would have been healed. The power to heal every single person there walked through them, healed one man and walked back out unnoticed because they were focused on the Spectacular they failed to see the Supernatural.
There were promises of healing to every Israelite (Deutronomy 7:15, Exodus 23:25). All they had to do was believe it and they would have been healed – that was a guaranteed thing because God himself made the promises to them but they abandoned this and went in search of the sign at the pool instead. They left a sure thing and went after an almost improbable thing. The same is what is happening today, believers are leaving the sure promises of prosperity/blessing/healing from God himself in search of the signs meant for believers. They release their faith for the improbable, which makes it hard and frustrating for them when they could have stayed with the Word of God.
My conclusion: Is it a sin? NO. Is it wrong? NO. Does it work? YES. Is it for believers? NO (except if led)
There are enough provisions in the Word, you don’t need to chase after signs, all you need is in the Word. Stay with it and see it deliver astounding results.
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