Taking Down the Giant of Mammon Worship in the Church Today

1 Samuel 17:45-51

⁴⁵ “David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! ⁴⁷ And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”

⁴⁸ As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him.⁴⁹ Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.

⁵⁰ So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword. ⁵¹ Then David ran over and pulled Goliath’s sword from its sheath. David used it to kill him and cut off his head.

When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they turned and ran.”

The Church has seen in many instances the manifestation of the works of the spirit of Mammon. Mammon is defined as wealth regarded as an evil influence or false object of worship or devotion. It is also the name of the devil of covetousness. This demonic influence has led many leaders, including church leaders, to trade their devotion to God and having clean hands and a pure heart for fame, increased influence, and financial gain. Without their realization, these leaders have vowed their knee to Satan and chose to worship him instead of the One who already owns the earth and everything in it. The One who created them and those material things, positions, and power they worship (See Genesis 1; Matthew 4:8-10; Psalm 24:1-2; Psalm 50:10).

By vowing to the enemy of the healing of God’s people, many houses of God have made themselves object of the overthrowing of the tables of the spirit of Mammon that rules in their midst because they failed to make God’s house a house of prayer instead of a den of robbers. 

Matthew 21:12-14 shows us how Jesus did this and why, 

^12 "Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. ¹³ He said to them, ‘The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!’

¹⁴ The blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them.”

Something some of us have seen in the realm of the spirit is that even when there is prayer in some houses, there is still a resistance to turn from serious violations to God's will and the principles of His Kingdom by the leadership. This then results in a hold up to the answer to their prayers because God is no respecter of persons. He gives to each one according to our deeds and what we have truly sown in our life if there is no repentance. 

Colossians 3:24-25 confirms for us, 

^24 "Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. ²⁵ But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites." NLT

To give a little background on the intentions of God to heal His people that had been prevented by the worship of Mammon in His house, Matthew 21:1 says, “As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives… 

Bethpage in the Greek language means house of green or unripe figs. In other words, this gives testimony of a church house where everything looks good in the natural, but in the spirit realm, the leadership constantly took fruit and ate it before the right time. This was done without realizing that unripe fruit can become poisonous. Thus, constantly consuming unripe fruit transformed them into a place outdated, irrelevant to the moves of the Spirit of God, and a place plagued with Mammon worship, Religion, and the manipulation and control of the spirit of Jezebel (they all work together. Where you see one you will also see the other two). This is what the people of Israel did after they were brought out of Egypt. While Moses was taking time to seek God's guidance for their advancement in the new territory, the people built a golden calf and called it their god who brought them out of Egypt. 

Exodus 32:1-8 tells us,

¹ “When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. ‘Come on,”’ they said, ‘make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’

² So Aaron said, ‘Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.’

³ All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.⁴ Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, ‘O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’

⁵ Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, ‘Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!’

⁶ The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.

⁷ The Lord told Moses, ‘Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. ⁸ How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’””

These people had taken the wealthy provision God made available for them to enter their land of promise which they were to eventually pass down to their children, and instead, use God’s provision to worship another god. That is why prior to entering the temple in Matthew 21, as Jesus approached Jerusalem, He made the announcement of the fulfillment of a prophecy given by the prophet Zechariah where Jesus, the Just and Savior King would come to His people gentle and mounted on a colt, the foal of a donkey (See Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 21:5) and the people who witnessed this fulfillment glorified the Lord by shouting,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!”

The people were glorifying the Son of David who had come in the midst of them and whom they acknowledged was sent by the Most High God. However, shortly after, Jesus used force to drive out the temple thieves—the money changers who were there to make a profit out of the sacrifices of the people. But this is not all. In the same chapter, verses 18 and 19 state that early the next morning, as Jesus was coming back to the city, He was hungry but the nearby fig tree had no fruit. 

The fig tree symbolizes spiritual food from the Word of God that supplies the nourishment to the people as it not only encourages and transforms them, but also exposes their sins, their rebellion, mistakes, and lack of understanding of God and His ways to begin their healing process as they repent. This exposure is not for public ridicule, but for their private repentance and is also designed to help them walk in right standing with God and reach spiritual maturity as they engage in their healing process. Jesus was looking for this kind of food, but the fig tree had no such fruit, only leaves.

The leaves represent healing, but the healing from this fig tree was partial and not lasting because it was not a deep healing that sets the people free through the renewing of their minds. But we can receive this kind of healing from the tree of life that stands by the river of life which supplies this spiritual nutrition and healing. 

Ezekiel 47:12 says,
 ^“Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river. The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, for they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple. The fruit will be for food and the leaves for healing.’”

Revelation 22:1-2 reiterates, 

¹ “Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. ² It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.”

But a lack of fruit that nourishes and the absence of leaves that heal completely is the evidence of a house where Mammon worship is very present and the people are prevented from growing to maturity and learning how to walk in right standing with God. Instead, they live in a perpetual wilderness season where they suffer the consequences of their lack of knowledge and spiritual immaturity because their sickness (sinful nature and wrong thinking) is not dealt with as mandated by the word of God (Seek Ephesians 4:11-16).

That is why Jesus said to the fig tree that had no real evidence of healing the people of their sinful nature and wrong thinking, “Never again will fruit come from you.” The Scripture says that at once the fig tree withered. We want to see the withering of Mammon worship in God’s house by the true repentance of the leaders where they seek the Lord and really allow Him to examine their hearts and with a broken and contrite spirit ask Him to deliver them from every evidence of the influence of this spirit in their life since being under this influence has made them instruments of the enemy against the true healing of God’s people.

Salvation alone was not what God intended when Jesus died on the Cross for us. Jesus received 39 cuts to His body on behalf of our healing of every sickness and disease and oppression of the enemy. 

Isaiah 53:5-6 reveals,  

⁵ “But he was pierced for our rebellion,
    crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
    He was whipped so we could be healed.
⁶ All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
    the sins of us all.”

Our God is faithful to fulfill His Word, especially when His people cry out to Him for help. He responds by coming swiftly with force to drive out the demonic influence of Mammon worship that has prevented the people to go past the point of salvation to their healing and deliverance by His Word and its manifestations. That is why we see as we revisit 1 Samuel 17:49 that the giant Goliath stumbled and fell face down.

Falling backwards represents rebellion, pride, and a lack of repentance, but falling face down means that the demonic influence leaves the people and they are able to truly and wholeheartedly repent (turn their lives around and change their thinking) from worshiping and following another god and raising idols to returning to the worship of the One True God. What followed was the cutting of the head of the enemy with its own sword. This means that as the people, beginning with the leaders, take action in producing fruit that shows their true repentance, the enemy loses authority and power over their life.

As they continue to produce good fruit, giving evidence of a right standing with God, and giving the authority of their life to the Lord Most High and the influence of the Holy Spirit with obedience to the Word and follow His leading, this will reveal the abundant life Jesus died to give them and no longer will they be subjected to the killing, stealing, and destroying of the enemy of their lives because they have learned to fight back by submitting to God and resisting the devil (James 4:7). 

To God alone be all the glory. ▪

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Scripture by the New Living Translation NLT unless otherwise noted. 

Definition of Mammon by Google