I need to apologise in advance as this post may be lengthy, but I believe that if you read to the end you will be blessed no matter how small, so please stick with me.
Every believer faces this conflict at least once in their life, but I find that this issue is more apparent whenever we decide to embark on ministry work or kingdom business. What is this conflict? Mammon vs. God.
Mammon is not just money as others would have us believe as money in itself is not enough to replace God, Mammon is the spirit of the treasures of this world, that which is considered important and glorious in the eyes of the nations: money, status, fame, independence the list goes on. We have been cleverly indoctrinated into the world’s systems, it’s norms, beliefs and ideals so that we accept that we need money to live, we desire to be independent and we want to be well regarded, where do we tend to get all of this from? Our work. The danger doesn’t lie so much in the fact that we need to live but more in in the fact that after a while we may slowly become consumed by Mammon, when our desire for it merges and gradually begins to gain ground over our desire for God. This is already happening within the church with prosperity teaching, particularly within churches that stem and originate from areas of extreme poverty and deprivation. I have heard of church leaders saying many things, using and misusing the scripture to justify their beliefs from the not so innocent God wants us to have life in abundance (meaning God wants us to be stinking rich) to Jesus must have been really rich in order to feed 5000 people! Right before our eyes the Word of God has been slowly transformed into the Word of Mammon.
I recall when God told me to leave my job, many people thought I was crazy, after all what’s the point of studying for 4 years and then working for 5 to just leave my job and laze about? God would never ask let alone tell anyone to leave their job right? In their eyes, my job gave me worth, without it I held very little worth or value to them. And when I then decided to go into Kingdom business, they told me that it was impossible to run an ethical business, that I had to play according to the rules of the game if I wanted to be successful. When I refused to accept that I couldn’t run a business on Kingdom principles they thought I was crazy, yes even other Christians did!
Working for His Glory 