Breaking the Chains of Lack: The Spirit of Poverty Exposed
There’s a war most believers are silently losing, because they don’t recognize the adversary they’re fighting. It’s subtle. It’s generational. It’s spiritual. And it shows up everywhere. It’s the spirit of poverty, mental poverty, natural poverty, spiritual poverty.
Poverty isn’t just a lack of money, it’s a mindset. A spiritual chain. A distorted identity that keeps you begging when you’ve been given the authority to build. It’s a war against your destiny, your inheritance, your faith, and your perception of God as Father. And for many of us, this war didn’t start in adulthood, it was sown in childhood, reinforced through trauma, fed by fear, and passed down through bloodlines that knew more about survival than sonship.
The Pattern Beneath the Pain
For years I thought I was simply content, even humble. Truth is, I was still bound by the spirit of poverty. But behind my hesitation to dream and my fear of abundance lurked a deeper lie: You don’t deserve more. My prayers were safe, survival based, and small, not because I didn’t believe in God, but because I didn’t believe He wanted that much for me. Not someone like me. I didn’t doubt God’s power, I doubted His willingness to lavish me with His blessings.
See, poverty doesn’t just empty pockets. It shrinks dreams. It starves faith. It strangles boldness. It causes you to undercharge, over give, and never advocate for your worth. Poverty will stop you from even seeing your worth. It convinces you to settle, stay quiet, and blend in. And in the background? The spirit of lack is laughing, because it knows if it can keep you in a poverty mindset, it can keep you out of alignment with God’s vision for your life.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 KJV
Mental Poverty: The Invisible Prison
If poverty is the chain, mental poverty is the lock. It isn’t about intelligence; it’s a thought system wired for limitation, born of fear, rejection, and survival. It sounds like:
“People like me don’t win.”
“Dream small and you won’t be disappointed.”
“Take whatever they offer; at least you have something.”
Proverbs 23:7 KJV says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee.”
The Hebrew verb behind “thinketh” pictures a gatekeeper. Whatever thought you allow past that gate becomes the reality you live. Mental poverty is the gatekeeper that bars abundance at the entrance of your mind.
The Hebrew word for “lack” is ×—ָסֵר (chaser). It means to be deficient, to be without, to be in need or decrease. But in its root form, it’s tied to the idea of being made less. In the pictograph language, it paints the image of a fence (protection) being broken, allowing something precious to leak out. Poverty is the evidence of something divine having been stolen or withheld, not by God, but by deception, trauma, or disobedience.
Poverty: The Spirit That Starves the Soul
Let’s be clear: The spirit of poverty is reinforced by demonic roots, rejection, abandonment, false humility, fear, idolatry, and unbelief. Poverty is not just a social or economic condition. The enemy doesn’t need to attack your bank account when he can keep you in a false perception built on lies. If he can make you feel unworthy of overflow, he never has to worry about you walking in it.
Spiritual Poverty: A Distorted View of God
Spiritual poverty shows up when we begin to see God through the lens of our lack instead of His love. When you’ve been fatherless or rejected, it distorts how you approach the Father. You pray as a beggar instead of as a child. You see God as withholding, not generous. You believe abundance is for “others,” not for you. But Abba says in:
Psalm 84:11, “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
This isn’t about prosperity gospel. This is about kingdom inheritance. When we shrink our prayers and dim our expectations to match our wounds, we walk in spiritual poverty, living on crumbs while seated at the King’s table.
“But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.” Matthew 15:26-27 KJV
We are His children, we have been adopted. We should not be asking for crumbs, just to survive. Jesus said the bread is for His children.
The Roots: How the Spirit of Poverty Enters
Rejection & Abandonment: When love is withheld early in life, we begin to feel unworthy of receiving. We carry that into adulthood, believing we’re unworthy of wealth, help, or rest.
Neglect & Trauma: Trauma creates survival thinking. You don’t plan, dream, or sow. You hoard. You fear loss. You shrink.
False Humility: The lie that says desiring increase is prideful. That wanting more means you’re not content. But godly humility is agreement with who God says you are.
Disobedience & Idolatry: When we chase comfort, people, or systems more than God, we step out of divine provision. Like the children of Israel, disobedience can keep us in the wilderness, eating manna instead of possessing the land.
Injustice & Fear: We’ve been taught, directly and indirectly to be accept poverty, to be ok with lack. That asking is wrong. This is not biblical thinking, because Scripture tells us:
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”Matthew 7:7 KJV
Poverty in the Workplace & Life
The spirit of poverty doesn’t clock out when you go to work. It shows up when you underprice your value, stay silent in interviews, or settle for crumbs out of fear you’ll lose everything. It’s the voice that says, “Just be grateful they hired you,” even when you’re giving more than you’re being paid for. It’s the fear of negotiating, the hesitation to counteroffer, and the chronic mindset of “I don’t want to seem greedy.”
But God gave Israel vineyards they didn’t plant (Deut. 6:11). That wasn’t striving, it was inheritance. He doesn’t want us to labor like slaves. He wants us to receive like sons.
“and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;” Deuteronomy 6:11 KJV
The Wilderness vs. The Promise
Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land should’ve taken 11 days, but it took 40 years. Why? Because poverty wasn’t just about location, it was about mindset. They murmured, doubted, feared. They saw giants, not God. They remembered slavery more than they believed in freedom.
Many believers are wandering, not because God is delaying them, but because the mindset of Egypt is still in their heart. Poverty teaches you to expect disappointment, so when God opens doors, you self-sabotage out of fear.
Breaking the Spirit of Poverty
To break this spirit, you must confront it spiritually and practically.
Repent for agreeing with lies about God and yourself.
Renounce the spirit of poverty and all its roots: rejection, fear, idolatry, trauma.
Sow by faith, not just financially, but sow your time, trust, worship, and obedience.
Renew your mind with the Word of God. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Rom. 12:2)
Ask boldly. Knock. Seek. Expect. (Matt. 7:7)
Write the vision (Hab. 2:2). Wealth is tied to vision. God funds what He authors.
Teach your children to walk in faith, not fear. Break the language of “we can’t afford that” and replace it with “we’re believing God for increase.”
The War for Identity
This isn’t about money, it’s about identity. The enemy wants you to think you’re poor, powerless, and regular. But heaven calls you anointed, appointed, royal, and dangerous. And until you start believing that, the spirit of poverty will have access to your life, not because God willed it, but because you didn’t break agreement with it.
Final Word: Victory Is Your Inheritance
Beloved, poverty is not your portion. Survival is not your standard. God is not withholding, He is waiting for alignment. Your prayers must grow. Your vision must stretch. Your identity must be rooted in the truth of who God says you are.
You are not cursed.
You are not stuck.
You are not forgotten.
You are marked.
And once you break agreement with the spirit of poverty, you’ll see what’s been waiting on the other side of obedience. You’ll see inheritance flood every place survival once ruled. The land is still flowing with milk and honey. The vision still stands. The inheritance has not expired.
Because once mental poverty loses its grip, lack loses its license and legacy begins.
So rise. Sow. Renew. Believe. Break the chains of lack. And walk into the land God already called yours. The land already has your name on it.
© 2025 The Anointing Grace | Sherita Jones
.jpg)
0 comments