Can God Bless Us Via Worldly Means?

Friday, 28th August 2009

Those of you out there who consider yourselves to be practicing Methodists, please do not read on lest this stumbles you...

I have a serious confession to make. I visit the Singapore Pools outlet every now and then to place a wager on Aston Villa, my favourite soccer team. Once in a while, I do also buy 4D and Toto (I bought 7557 when I got my new X5 last December and also bought the $288 Prosperity Pack during the recent Lunar New Year).

I do not want to be a hypocrite about this, pretending to be a goody-two-shoes on the surface. But before anyone out there casts the first stone, I suggest you standby a few hundred more because I know of many fellow Methodist church-going people who either visit such outlets on the sly, or get their friends and relatives to buy on their behalf.

Anyway, four days ago, I happened to pass by the outlet that is located near my office and was prompted to step in to see what the odds for the game between Liverpool and Aston Villa was. After all, Villa had lost their first game 2-0 at home to Wigan, while Liverpool had just thrashed Stoke 4-0. This same fixture between the two sides last season ended with Villa being thrashed 5-0.

Well, as it turned out, the odds for a Villa win was at a fantastic 9.80! In other words, for every $1 wagered, a return of $9.80 would take place if Villa beat Liverpool. Since the payout was so good, I decided that just for the fun of it, I would place a bet of $10 and even uploaded a photo of the betting slip onto Facebook. I have a number of Facebook friends from my home church, so I wonder if that photo ruffled any feathers among them...

Well, guess what? Villa won the game 3-1! This only goes to show that all things are possible to him who believes :-)

And this brings me to the title of today's blog entry. Would I be considered a heretic if I had said that God had prompted me to step into the outlet to check out the odds? Or was I hearing the voice of the evil one?

The very next day after the above incident, I was driving my wife to work and listening to a CD on Healing and Financial Breakthroughs. We heard this awesome testimony about a guy who was in dire straits financially and even lost his job in the recent downturn. It would have taken him 2 years to clear his debts. He went to see his pastor for prayer, to which his pastor snapped his fingers and told him that God's timing was better than man's. Just 24 hours later, God not only miraculously cancelled his debt overnight, but provided him so much more that even after settling those debts, he had the means to renovate his house and go to Japan for a holiday! The testimony did not specifically mention that he had struck Toto or 4D, but what was obvious was that the windfall he got was an instantaneous and substantial one. Question: Was this supernatural cancellation of debt from God or from the devil?

On a similar note, a fellow church member also shared with me that he was given 6 numbers in a dream, but because of his Methodist upbringing, he dismissed it as not from the Lord. That same week, those very 6 numbers were drawn in that very week's Toto! Question: Was the vision given by God or by the devil?

Which brings me back to what I blogged about in March 2009 about provisions and channels. If we ask God to prosper us, do we also dictate the way He is to do so because of our religious upbringing? Elijah lived during the Mosaic covenant and was taught that ravens were unclean animals. If he had allowed legalistic thoughts about the channel being contaminated to clought his mind, he would have missed out on God's provision for him.

What are your thoughts on this? Please comment...