The subject of prosperity is not about money. The subject of prosperity is the battle for your soul. You must understand this: the issue of prosperity is a battle for time and a battle for your soul. That is what you are fighting for. It’s not about money, it’s not about houses. It is a battle for your soul and a battle for time. I just need to lay this foundation.

The most precious thing on earth is time. You see, a dying man doesn’t need a bigger property, he doesn’t need more education, he doesn’t need an honorary contract. A dying man needs time. This means that no matter what I take from you, if I leave your time intact, I have not truly deceived you. The real way to deceive you is to take your time, because destiny is measured in terms of time.

This means that what I do with your time, I do with your destiny. This is one of the reasons why delays are so dangerous, because delay is a system of time manipulation. It’s not the event you are being denied, but the time factor—because everything that functions on this earth is tied to time. This is what we call healthy, balanced prosperity teaching. It may not make your heart feel good at first, but you will gather wealth like gold. It’s not about money, because as soon as our idea of prosperity becomes centered only on money, we miss the point.

God gave man time. Now, observe this: it takes time to know God, it takes time to impact a generation, it takes time to be a good father, it takes time to be a good husband or wife, it takes time to build meaningful relationships, it takes time to know the Holy Spirit, it takes time to be there for people. And the devil has discovered that since all good things depend on time, all he needs to do is deprive man of it—and that’s it.

Wherever Satan sees time, his attention is drawn. And the question he asks is: “Why do they have time, and what are they doing with that time?”

Jesus once said, “I must do the works of Him who sent me while it is day; the night is coming when no man can work.” Only the spirit will work at that time, but as long as you are a man with a mortal body, you cannot work once night has come.

Parents, there is a time when you must raise your children properly, because the night is coming when you can no longer do so. You must build a relationship with your aging parents while there is still time, because a day will come when you will no longer see your mother…

Satan says: That time is what I want. Satan has no real interest in your money or possessions. What he wants is to steal the time you should be using to build with God, your family, and so on. Be vigilant.

Listen carefully, your destiny has nothing to do with money. It is a battle of time and a battle of the soul.

But Satan, analyzing how man lives on earth, discovered that the system is driven by the economy. Yet in the Kingdom of Heaven, the real currency is time. That means how we use our time, especially in matters of kingdom life, is of utmost importance.

In fact, your skills exist because you had time to acquire them. So Satan, after years of study, discovered that most men will give the majority of their time in exchange for money, and he said, “This is it, I’ve found the key.” He continued his research for decades and found that most of man’s time is invested in chasing money, and he said: “Now let me do something to that money so that you chase it every day of your life. If I can kill you, it’s better for me, but if I can’t, I’ll tamper with your time.”

Poverty is not the absence of material goods—it is the condition where your time is perpetually sacrificed to Satan. Let me show you three scriptures that will change your life.

“The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all.” Proverbs 22:2

Let us retain from this verse that God made them all. Whether you choose to be Abraham, Lazarus, or a rich man, God still made you. He didn’t make you that way—but He is the Creator. Now verse 7 is where it gets worrying. It says:

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7

This means the unbelieving rich will rule over the prayerful poor. The rich in anything rule over the poor. If you are poor, the disadvantage is that it subjects you to the point where you are no longer master of your time. This is about time. If I am a servant, I no longer have the luxury of managing my own time—you tell me when to wake up.

This is why, whenever Satan wanted to block the arrival of Jesus, he sent Israel into slavery. And in slavery, they no longer controlled their time. Now, please observe this—there was a strategy in Egypt.

This is a burden that a generation must shed once and for all, otherwise very soon, we will kill each other and eat our own children. Wasn’t it hunger that led women to eat their children? If women ate their children, imagine what the men would do—because a mother does not forget her nursing child. So when a mother turns her child into a meal, it means the situation has become dire…

(When you send your daughter into marriage for financial gain, you are harming your child.)

This is not the kind of teaching you choose whether or not to listen to. It is selfish to ignore this teaching because you are listening not just for yourself, but for the sake of a generation and your children—born or unborn.

“When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons: Why do you look at one another?” Genesis 42:1

Egypt represents a place of slavery and captivity, an antichrist system, but because there was food, the prophet said to his sons, “Why are you standing around doing nothing?” Let us note here that he is about to send his sons into captivity for the sake of food. He also said:

“Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy some for us there, that we may live and not die.” Genesis 42:2

Yes, even a prophet can die if there is no food. Imagine being a prophet, but where you currently are, there is no food—and you hear there’s food in Egypt, the nation of bondage and slavery. Though you don’t want to send your children there, you still do so because hunger may kill you.

You see here, the only reason Israel went to Egypt was hunger. They ended up meeting a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, and he turned God’s people into slaves—that’s how it happened. While they were enslaved, the privilege given to them was that straw was provided so they could make bricks and mortar.

When Moses came to propose an exodus, Pharaoh said: “Isn’t it because you still have time to cry out to your God? The free time you have left, you’re using it to call on God, and now I hear you want to be free? Keep them busy—stop giving them straw. Let them use the remaining time to go fetch their own straw.”

This is a strategy our generation is still suffering from today. The moment Pharaoh sees you still have three free hours, he’ll do something to the economy to ensure that your remaining time is now spent chasing money. “Even as your soul prospers.” 3 John 1:2

The world system wants you to prosper while your soul is dying. I can know what economic system you operate in not by looking at your bank account, but by the state of your soul. When I see that as you rise, your soul decays, I know you are operating in a system that is not from heaven.

So understand this: Satan is not afraid to give you money—you can have gold like dust. What he wants is your soul. That’s why the Bible says:

“What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26

In the world system, you buy the whole world with your soul, just like you pay for water with money. The currency of exchange is your soul.

When Satan took Jesus to the mountain, they weren’t talking about material things. He said: “Bow to me, give me access to your soul, and I will give you all this.” That has always been his strategy—and it still is today. It is a battle for your soul, brothers and sisters, and a battle for time. It is not a battle for influence or fame or greatness…

This text is an excerpt from the book  “The Mystery of Time and Money” written by Kenou Landry Hinnouho. 

We invite you to read the next article: “TWO KEYS TO PROSPERITY.”