My wife and I have a burden for the poor. We feel God’s compassion for the oppressed and the downtrodden. That sense of mission led me as a single man to evangelize to poor people on the Caribbean islands, preaching the gospel and ministering to the sick.

    It was there, groaning and travailing in intercessory prayer one morning, that I had a spiritual vision of Jesus – kneeling in prayer – and saying, “Father, send me to the poor!”

    My wife and I once relocated our family to an area of Dallas where minorities lived, where the majority of families had no father in their home, thus causing lower income levels. I wanted to see them evangelized and be blessed spiritually and materially.

    We moved to Africa in 2001 and shared with natives that were truly poor. Then I got food poisoning and went to a private clinic. The total ER bill was $36 U.S. dollars. (By mistake I was charged too much.) Outside were people with no money to get in. Preaching in Cuba, we saw poverty being imposed by Castro’s cruel communist government.

    Are you poor? Or do you have more than enough so you can share? I once heard the Spirit of God whisper words to me: “Misery to the miser but surplus to the sower!”

    The greatest poverty of all may be in fancy neighborhoods, seen in Yankees, southerners, whites, blacks, and even religious folk. What is this most terrible poverty?

    It is poverty of spirit! An impoverished spirit is like as a dried-up raisin. The juice is gone. Detached from its vine, it is shriveled, shrunken, devoid of life, as good as dead.

    Is your Inner Man alive or is it shriveled up; dead; dry; dormant; devoid of God’s life?

    Are you unable to hear God’s voice? Unable to sense his presence? Unable to discern what pleases the Father? Feeling dead inside? Weighed down with guilt? Then you are a victim of the “poverty spirit.” You need to get hold of The Cure!

    What is the cure? The cure to having an impoverished spirit is to connect with the life-giving Spirit of God by means of the riches of Christ’s grace. How do we make this supernatural connection? By something so simple … child-like faith!

    Whoever comes to God must come by faith … by believing that he exists, that he rewards those who seek him. How do you seek God? By praying to him and by reading the Bible. It’s that simple. You can know God! The Spirit of Truth is here to help you.

    God is ready and willing to reveal himself to you. He does this freely because Jesus has paved the way by suffering on the cross. Because of Jesus, you can tap into “the riches of his glorious grace.” You can become one of earth’s privileged human beings – who partake of heaven’s glory and grace – if you simply put your faith in God and begin to seek him in prayer. I dare you. Try it today!

Ron Wood is a writer and minister living with his wife, Lana, and their retired Jack Russell Terrier in NW Arkansas near their six lovely grandchildren. They have served as pastors in Assembly of God, Baptist, and other churches. Ron teaches workshops in Bible seminars. Email: wood.stone.ron@gmail.com.