Welcome to the search for prosperity. Many people see prosperity as the possession of riches especially cash and expensive items that they can purchase. Some others are less materialistic and see prosperity in terms of achievement of life goals or fulfillment of childhood dreams.


Sadly in Nigeria irrespective of how you see it, success only makes sense to most people if you have money to your name and that is why it is an attractive topic to teach in ‘church’ because of its mass appeal. Recently RCCG joined the elite society of private jet owners with its acquisition of a =N= 4bn 15 seater plane that it claims is for evangelism whereas a reality check clearly shows it is a fulfillment of fleshy desires. With or without a jet evangelism is possible but what difference does it make anyway? As long as blind, pig headed pseudo Christians would rather look the other way, then any show of extravagance with church funds is in order.


Now to the real issue of this article, in life gold or money is actually in abundance, but it requires resourcefulness to unearth. There are cases of where penniless, uneducated men with no connections whatsoever become stupendously wealthy over time just as majority of Nigerians including well educated and well connected ones are either middle class or poor people.


So what is this anointed gold rush? It is the search for earthly success at the expense of real spiritual growth. That is more like what many church goers these days seem to be doing. The poverty situation coupled with massive unemployment, ignorance, uncivilized social expectations and few dissenting voices to this trend encourage many so called Christians to become treasure hunters. For instance, while Chris Oyakhilome can boldly state that “no man can stop you, this is your season, it is your time” evidence judging by his lifestyle and wealth clearly shows that he is actually referring to himself. The real people making money from this gold rush are surprisingly not the treasure hunters, nor miners nor those in search of gold rather and ironically it is those who sell the tools to the treasure hunters. When you buy Mathew Ashimolowo’s book on the right way to invest, do you really think he is talking as an investment advisor or as a pastor? Perhaps David Oyedepo is an expert entrepreneur for him to convince business executives to attend some of his seminar like services? Who knows perhaps even Aliko Dangote might learn a thing or two from him.


The truth is that business men make money by observing consumer behaviours and exploiting them. For instance when people act in a certain way out of ignorance, fear or greed, it is a good opportunity to exploit, just become resourceful and see things for yourself you will have more money than you need in no time. Ask Christian Oyakhilome and S.O Olubuyi of Christ Embassy and Triumphant Christian Centre, they have grown in leaps and bounds. How can I forget Sam Adeyemi, ever smiling, multi millionaire career public speaker and motivator, who pretends or thinks he is a pastor? These men are wise, they will not dare invest in the ailing textile industries or the sometimes risky and unprofitable but capital intensive rigours of publishing, transportation or other forms of manufacturing which would have otherwise provided jobs for many unemployed people including those that attend their wealth building institutions they call church, and yet they expect people to belief that they possess brilliant knowledge of how things should work. Well if they must show people how to create wealth, it should only be done after they have ran successful business empires not ‘churches’.


If you haven’t understood my point yet, ask yourself why your pastors can see victory, prosperity, success, abundance, break through, increase, promotion, upliftment, defeat for the enemy, unending supernatural and spiritually practical result oriented failure proof anointing only if you pay your tithe, sow a seed, or do thanks giving whereas people of other faiths including muslims, pagans and atheists also experience same without doing same? The answer is because wealth is a result of resourcefulness. Ask bill gates, warren buffet, carlos slim, Aliko Dangote or Oprah Winfrey if this is not so. Whereas you are busy involving yourself in a gold rush that profits the man/woman who calls himself/herself a pastor. Here is what I mean, you work and earn a salary but the economic realities deprive you of your much desired satisfaction, so naturally you want more money, your pastor the shrewd holy business man knows that as long as you are not resourceful, the tendency is to seek gold in form of prosperity (money) hence you find him preaching sermons with topics like “Kingdom strategies for prosperity”, “the 7 Ms of money” and “from scratch to cash” If your pastor is busy teaching you how to build wealth but is clearly making money from your anointing/consultancy fees (that includes tithes, seed offerings, first fruits, thanksgiving and what else is there to list?), he is a perfect example of a shrewd businessman. Why? Because he knows that treasure hunting is a failure 94% of the time but business enterprise rewards at least 35% of the time, so he is more likely to make more money than you regardless of how many ‘sermons’ you listen to or how determined or inspired you are.


Word of advice, to be resourceful means to be efficient with the use of time, knowledge, energy, intelligence and habits. Even if you earn =N= 40,000 a month, learn how to budget, save, invest and remain consistent. Just cut your cloth/coat according to your size, invest for retirement, your future home and acquire life changing assets and see if this gold rush will thrive. I am not saying do not go to church or do not support your church programmes with your money, but only give as you are led and as you can afford and not because you are coerced into paying 10% of your income as tithe and what have you.


It is all done in God’s name. Amen