"The spirit of poverty: Puts blinders over believer's eyes. Puts fear in the hearts of believers. Steals ambition. Makes dreams seem impossible. Tears you down by reminding you of past failures. Makes you feel less qualified than others. Drives you into the back rows of life. Convinces you that the biggest win would be not to lose. Twists Scriptures about money, wealth, greed and covetousness. Those who say, "I don't care about money" or "I'm not getting into the greed game," are not being anti-greedy, but, instead incredibly selfish. You should always want more so you can help more, and you should want extra to help other people. This is what the Bible teaches." -- Dr. David Williams
What a display of pure carnal thinking. So according to Dr. Williams, Christians who do not find themselves wealthy have blinders over their eyes besides the fact that the greatest levels of faith are often found in the poorest of countries. Poor Christians have no ambition and live with fear in their hearts. They constantly ruminate over past failures, feel less qualified, and live in the back rows of life. He then accuses them of twisting Scriptures and in the same breath claims the Bible teaches us to be greedy! Only in the mind of someone worshiping Mammon can you believe that it is selfish to not be greedy. This is most certainly NOT what the Bible teaches. Dr. Williams can pretend all he wants that his real motivation for seeking wealth through greed is to help people but we all know that is not what is going on here. That is like people who like to point out that Joel Osteen does not take a salary from his church, which he shouldn't. He still is worth over 30 million dollars by selling books to the same people he refuses to take a salary from. How miserable does Dr. Williams view his Christian brothers and sisters who happen to not be rich?
"The poverty spirit has stages: Poverty mentality or poverty thoughts. Poverty beliefs. Poverty addiction. Poverty spirit--and like a magnet that clip on demon begins to attract lack, decrease, poverty, debt, loss, hardship, scarcity, and shortages. The poverty spirit's gifts to you." -- Dr. David Williams
Please do not lose sight of the fact that he is making all of this up. There is no Scriptural support for any of this nonsense. I love that he believes that poverty is an addiction for people. So not only does he not understand poverty and the Bible but he does not understand addiction either. It is important to recognize that Dr. David Williams is not only loathing poor Christians but he is blaming them. They have a poverty mentality. They have poverty beliefs. They are demonically influenced. No sir. They are not. Now he lists what he claims are the symptoms of a poverty spirit:
Symptom 1: They are repelled by what they classify as "materialism." You mean as Jesus taught us? To not store up treasure here on earth where it can rust and rot? Instead to store up treasure in heaven? Is that what you mean? I am repelled by a man claiming to be a Christian leader teaching Christians that they need to be greedy and if they are not they are just being selfish and must a demonic spirit of poverty around their neck. That really repels me.
Symptom 2: A person with a poverty spirit is in denial, comforting themselves with words like: "Everyone has debts." "Others are experiencing the same thing." "Well, it's just the way it is--others are in the same boat." Right. I must have missed that portion of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus said we must self-flagellate if we find ourselves in debt and never seek comfort.
Symptom 3: The poverty spirit convinces people that money matters are shameful to talk about, especially in church thus, lack is presented as a virtue or some kind of righteousness. It is not shameful to talk about money matters, in church or otherwise, unless you are talking about them like this. Unless you are twisting the entire canon of Scripture to suit your blind carnal greed. Unless you are abusing the flock by demanding they adhere to the tithing portion of the law. Money is not shameful like it is also not the source of all evil. The love of money however, as displayed sickeningly here by Dr. Williams, is quite shameful and evil.
Symptom 4: Judging successful, productive people as "money grubbers" or "thieves." This is what is known as a red herring. The issue is always how they became rich. If it was through illicit means or manipulation then yes those judgments are indeed righteous. Notice a key flaw in his thinking. Successful and productive people must also be rich. No beloved. I know plenty of successful and productive people who follow the Word of God and are not rich by this world's standards. They have so much more to give back to the body of Christ then this man as well.
