The spirit of poverty is more than just money, even though it manifests in the realm of finances as well. The spirit of poverty is a way of thinking and those thoughts manifest in actions and decisions. Poverty is a lower level of thinking; a worm mentality; a sinner identity; it masquerades as piety, but in actuality it is a spirit of poverty. The spirit of poverty dresses itself in self-righteousness, religious jargon and nefarious activities. The spirit of poverty is no respecter of persons, it is in the rich of this world and the poor; it is in the CEO’s of companies and the one sleeping under the bridge. It is a way of thinking that is incongruent with the Word of God.

The longer I am a believer, the more I spend time in the Word of God, and the more I believe those who really love me, both God and people, the more I realize the spirit of poverty is a counterfeit to our call to royalty. Royalty is not crowns and robes of people in positions over kingdoms, it is a way of thinking, acting, talking, manifesting your identity. 1 Peter 2:9 says, we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. We are royalty, but we talk, think and act like poverty. We eat cheap food in both the spirit and the natural. We drink cheap teachings, we preach cheap sermons and we believe cheap lies, because we are more accustomed to poverty than royalty.

Royalty thinks differently, they speak differently, they carry themselves differently. Wisdom is royalty. Proverbs 8 says, “For I am Wisdom, and I am shrewd and intelligent. I have at my disposal living-understanding to devise a plan for your life. Wisdom pours into you when you begin to hate every form of evil in your life, for that’s what worship and fearing God is all about.” Royalty recognizes royalty. Royalty thinks like a resource center, like a distributor, like a generous one at all times. Royalty is always wanting to better everything about everyone. We are called to be royalty and it is time to cast off the spirit of poverty and put on the robe of royalty for we have nations to disciple in the ways of royalty.