Download God=s Will is to Prosper You

God’s Will is to Prosper You!
God's will for people is to prosper. The Scripture says, “I pray above all things
that you might prosper and be in health” (3 John 2), and, “For you know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor,
that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). In life there is a
fear of not having enough but God reassures us that, “He will supply us all our
(material) needs according to His riches in heaven by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
Throughout both the Old and New Testament prosperity is always viewed as a blessing
and poverty as a curse. The prosperity God speaks of is not only spiritual in nature, it is
also financial. He wants our spirit, soul, and body to be whole and well off (1
Thessalonians 5:23). God says He delights in prospering His servants (Psalms 35:27).
Prosperity does not come by accident. It comes by taking certain actions and
refraining from others. By following God's ways we can become prosperous. In this
session you will discover the will of God concerning prosperity, how to receive it, and
how to avoid the pitfalls of poverty.
What is God's will for you financially?
The Word of God (i.e., the Bible) is the will of God. God inspired people in times
past to write down His thoughts and ways to us (2 Peter 1:21) so that we could know
about Him. God does not say one thing and will another. If He did, He would be a
“house divided”, or worse, a liar. But it says eight times in the bible that God does not
lie (e.g., Numbers 23:19). It says His ways and will are knowable (1 Corinthians 2:10,
Ephesians 5:17 – unwise not to know). If we can be born again by His Words (1 Peter
1:23), then surely we can receive other things from His hand by the same means of faith.
It is God's good pleasure to give us His kingdom (Luke 12:32).
The Scripture always speaks of material prosperity as a blessing and financial
lack as a curse. In Deuteronomy 28, God says it is a blessing to not only have enough
(verses 4-6, 8,11) but more than enough so that some can be given away to others (verse
12). This was a promise given by God to Abraham many many years ago. A Christian
has been given the same inheritance he enjoyed Galatians 3:29 says if you are Christ’s
than are you Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. Let’s just read right
now what we are heirs of through Jesus and Abraham. Beginning at verse one of
Deuteronomy the 28th chapter: “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the
voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I
command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the
earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey
the voice of the LORD your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you
be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground
and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your
flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when
you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The LORD will cause your
enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out
against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The LORD will command the
blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will
bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you. The LORD will establish
you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the
commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the
earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of
you. And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the
increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the
LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open to you His good treasure,
the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your
hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the LORD will
make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you
heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are
careful to observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I
command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.”
This covenant, or set of promises, still applies to us today. Deuteronomy 7:9 says,
“Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, Who keeps
covenant and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments to a
thousand generations”. Since the time God made that covenant with Abraham, there
have been many fewer generations than a thousand that have lived and died. So it still
applies to us.
The financial blessings promised in Deuteronomy are the result of doing what
verses 1 and 2 say in that same chapter, which is, to do God's commandments. God's
commandments can be summed up very simply: love God with all your heart, mind,
and body; and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39; this is the so-called
Great Commandment). Our hearts must be motivated by love else faith in God's
promises are not effective (Galatians 5:6 says faith works by love – no love, no effective
faith). If we do not walk in love toward God and others, we really have not done
anything (I Corinthians 13:1-4 says, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And
though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my
body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”
The same 28th chapter of Deuteronomy goes on to describe the curses of God.
Included among those curses are lack of finances. God considers poverty a curse. The
Good News is that Jesus took upon Himself all those curses on the cross two thousand
years ago so that we don't have to (Galatians 3:13). There are conditions, however, to
prosperity, as there are to any of the promises of God.
How to Receive Financial Prosperity from God
The first and foremost precondition to financial prosperity is prosperity of the
soul. 3 John 2 says, “Beloved, I pray above all things that you may prosper and be in
health, just as your soul prospers.” The soul of a person is the mind, will, and emotions.
Someone who is not prosperous in these areas cannot become prosperous financially.
There are unsaved people who are financially prosperous but they are generally people
who have a modicum of prosperity of soul. To prosper in the soul we must obey the
Truth. John 17:17 says the Word is Truth, and Jesus said the truth will make us free. To
prosper with God you must first accept His Son as your Lord and Savior. You must also
do what He said to do, and not just in the realm of finances. Jesus said, “If you love Me
you will do what I say” (John 14:23).
Next, we must get rid of fear. A fear controlled mind is not prosperous. 2
Corinthians 10:4,5 says to throw out thoughts that oppose the truth of God. God does
not want us to live in fear; He calls fear a form of bondage (Romans 8:15). The opposite
of fear is love and peace. A description of a prosperous person is someone who has
control over his or her mind. Do not let your mind think whatever it wills. Take control
of it and tell it what to think. God gives us the desire and power to do these things.
Philippians 2:13 says that He works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure; 2
Timothy 1:7 says He has given us a spirit characterized by power, love and selfdiscipline.. He says to keep our thoughts on things above and not on things of the earth
(Colossians 3:2). Someone who is prospering mentally has control over his or her mind.
The mind cannot successfully be controlled without the Word of God and the Spirit of
God through Jesus Christ.
To prosper soulfully, a person's will must be in submission to His will. You
cannot ask God to break your will. God will not violate our will like that. Humans are
born with a free will, now and forever. God is love, and love goes hand in hand with
freedom of choice. We must choose whether or not to follow God. God does not control
people. If you had no will you would be like someone in a coma, or with a lobotomy.
There is power in a person's will - it is what makes us like God. We have the power to
die and go to hell if we want to and there's nothing man or God can do about it. We can
also choose our own eternal destiny by following Jesus Christ. God created man in His
own image. Spending time with God and His Word will make this task much easier. He
has given us a spirit of self-control. It is made strong and effective by using it. Use what
little you may have and it will increase in strength.
Someone who is emotionally prosperous is someone who can control his or her
emotions. This does not mean we are to be emotionless. It means we do not allow our
emotions to contradict and supersede the Word of God in our lives, or lead us around
by the nose. Someone who cries over a song about lost loves and bad luck, and pays
good money to hear about it over and over again, is not prospering in his or her
emotions. Those things are emotional Band-Aids covering a hurt that has not been dealt
with through the Word and Spirit of God. Ask God to heal you of the hurt that causes
you to seek those palliatives. Some people, sad to say, do not want to be healed
emotionally because then they do not have anything to complain about. If they do not
have anything to complain about, they will not have anything to say, and if they have
nothing to say, people may not hang around them, and that's intolerable. We need to let
go of our hurts, let God fix them, and move on.
3 John 2 basically says you will never prosper, or be any healthier, than your
soul. One can be born again and filled with the spirit, and not be prosperous in the soul.
You can pray down revival for a whole city and still be poor as a church mouse. Why?
because you have not received a revelation of God's Word in the area of finances. You
can have great faith in one area of your life and have little or none in other areas. Does
God still love you and are you still going to heaven if you are in this predicament?
Absolutely! But to receive the fullness of God's grace in the area of finances you will
need specific revelation accompanied by faith and action. It is difficult to go about doing
the will of the Father in financial bondage.
So, what makes a soul prosperous? The Word of God. The Scripture says, “In
your patience do you possess your souls” (Luke 21:19). Patience does not mean to sit
there and take it. Patience means consistently doing things the same way all the time,
regardless of the circumstances. It means endurance. A man that's patient on the Word
of God says, “I'm prospering by the Word of God and I don't care what circumstances
might seem”. Through faith and patience do we inherit the promises of God (Hebrews
6:12). Someone standing on the Word reacts the same way all the time because the
Word doesn’t change. By allowing the Word of God this kind of authority and power in
your life, you will possess your mind, will and emotions.
Work
The Scripture says, “If a man will not work, he should not eat” (2 Thessalonians
3:10). We must engage is some sort of work activity to prosper financially. Some of you
listening to this may be living below a desired standard, perhaps on some sort of public
assistance program or with someone who is supporting you financially. It is God's
desire, not only that you support yourself, but that you might financially bless others
with support. God has a way for you to get out from under dependence on others or the
government, and become dependent on Him alone. You should not feel condemned or
judged guilty for such dependence. All humans are dependent on other humans at one
time or other in their lives. But we don't have to stay in that state.
God's reason for financial prosperity is twofold: 1) to establish His covenant on
the earth (i.e., to preach the Gospel; Deuteronomy 8:18) and, 2) so that we can have
money to give to the needy (Ephesians 4:28). God's prosperity is not meant to buy more
and more things to indulge our fleshly desires. God says if we ask for things with the
wrong motive, for example from greed or fear, He will not grant our requests (James
4:3). The right motive for finances is to be dependent on no one but God and to have
enough to give some away. This is a process. It may take a life time to achieve but it is
doable. Let this be one of your goals in life. The Scripture says without vision or goal we
cast off the restraint (Proverbs 29:18) and fall back into the temptation of dependence on
the world, people, or the government. There is nothing wrong with government
assistance programs, supporting parents, or helpful people. But God has something
better for you.
God says He has given everyone power or ability to acquire wealth
(Deuteronomy 8:18). What a promise! You might be saying to yourself, “I don't have the
ability to work”. Maybe someone reading this is even handicapped and physically
unable to work. God's ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than
our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). Ask God to reveal to you how this promise can come to pass
in your life. He says if we ask anything according to His will, He will answer it (1 John
5:14,15). It is God's will for you not only to work but to do well financially. In the
natural circumstance of things this may seem impossible but “all things are possible to
him that believes” (Mark 9:23). It will take a supernatural act of power to accomplish
this and we have a supernatural Father in heaven to do it!
Tithing
There are many principles in the Bible (Hebrews 6:1). One of them is the principle
of tithing. Tithe means ten percent of something. Financially, it means giving God ten
percent of your gross income to your church. Tithing was first recorded in Genesis 14:20
when Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils of war to Melchizedek, the king of Salem. The
Law of Moses later established the principle of the tithe (Deuteronomy 26:2), and Jesus
also spoke of giving tithes to the church (Matthew 23:23).
Malachi 3:10-11 describes the promises accompanying the tithe: “Bring the whole
tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this, says the
LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out
so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from
devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit, says the
LORD Almighty. Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful
land.”
The “storehouse”, in this promise, is the place where we are fed spiritually. This
is usually your church. If your church is not feeding you spiritually you might
prayerfully consider going to another church. (Before doing this, however, check to see
if you are feeding yourself on the Word and being obedient to the things God has
instructed you to do individually). The blessings that result from tithing are many: It
says: 1) the floodgates of heaven are opened pouring out blessings without number tithing allows God to give to us through others; 2) the devil is restrained by God
Himself from messing with us, our family, and our stuff; 3) timely return on seeds sown
in offerings; 4) blessing to the point where others see it and are amazed.
Caution: these promises do not come without a price. Deuteronomy 29:9 says,
“Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all
that you do.” All the promises of God are usually in the form of: “If you do this... God
will do that”. Often we delight in the part that God does but we neglect to do our part.
Tithing takes faith. Faith comes by exposing yourself to and thinking about and
meditating on the Word of God (Romans 10:17). You might want to write down all the
verses in this session and think about them. Look up the word meanings in a bible
dictionary or concordance. Ask God to reveal to you their meaning and import in your
life. Speak them out loud so you can hear yourself say them. Let them sink into your
heart of hearts until they take on a life of their own in your heart. Faith is a matter of the
heart, not of the intellect. Merely acknowledging the truth of Scriptures is not faith.
Tithing must become a decision because when financial times get rough, unless
you have made a decision to tithe, you will probably back off from giving for fear of not
having enough. When you put your tithe into the offering bucket, don't just plunk it in
there. Pray over it and believe God for the return on it: see your stuff not being messed
with by the devil; see yourself receiving revelation from heaven – “the floodgates of
heaven opening”; see yourself being a “delightful land” to others. This won't happen
over night. It takes years and years for it to fully manifest, perhaps a lifetime.
Giving
Another principle of the Bible is giving and receiving. Paul spelled it out in
Philippians 4:15-19. He said in verse 19 that God will meet all our financial needs
through His riches in heaven - not according to the economy or our bank account
balance. This He will do as we give to others. In fact, God said that when we give
offerings to others, we would experience financial abundance all the time for every
possible occasion of giving in the future. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 says, “But this I say: He
who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also
reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of
necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound
toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an
abundance for every good work”. Let’s break this down a bit. It says that we receive
back what we have sowed in the same proportion that we give: give a little, get a little;
give a lot, get a lot. This is commensurate with your income. Someone with a six figure
giving $100 is nothing because, proportionally, it is a miniscule amount. Someone who
is in financial poverty, on the other hand, might consider this a huge amount of money.
Someone like that giving $100 would earn him a great return. Jesus was very impressed
once with a woman who gave a very small sum into the church coffers. She gave all that
she had. Compared to everyone else, it was still a very small amount of money. But to
her, it was her entire estate. Wow!
Another thing this passage mentions is that the amount of offering is up to you,
as you purpose in your heart. This is different from the tithe which mandates explicitly
10%. Notice also it says we should do it from an attitude of gratitude and love, not one
from necessity. We shouldn’t give because we have to; we should give because we get
to. God is speaking here about a prosperous heart of giving rather than one steeped in
fear or greed.
Remember, the purpose of giving is to receive more, so you can give more away,
so you can receive more, so you can give away more, etc.. The return by God to us from
the tithe is unlimited (Malachi 3:10); the return on offerings is up to one hundred times
the sum given in faith. Matthew 13:23 says, “But he that received seed (of the Word)
into the good ground is he that hears the word, and understands it; which also bears
fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty (fold).” This
scripture actually says any promise from God has the option of returning nothing all the
way up to a hundred times what is sown. So if you sow seeds of kindness, depending
on how you water and nurture the seed, can return up to 100X the amount you sow.
Money can be sown. God multiplies financial seeds sown He says in 2 Cor 9:10. God’s
return on anything has a capacity of a hundred times. This is not percent, this is times.
We are to give tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:8). Why? So God can bless us big
time! If we hide our finances under a rock by not giving tithes and offerings, God is not
pleased with us. Jesus tells a parable in Luke 19:12-27 that describes His sentiments. “A
man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to
return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them $2000 to invest. Put this money to
work,' he said, 'until I come back.' But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after
him to say, 'We don't want this man to be our king.' He was made king, however, and
returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in
order to find out what they had gained with it. The first one came and said, 'Sir, your
money has earned ten times the original amount. Well done, my good servant!' his
master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge
of ten cities.' The second came and said, 'Sir, your money has earned five times the
original amount. His master answered, 'You take charge of five cities. Then another
servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your $2000; I have kept it laid away in a piece of
cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not
put in and reap what you did not sow. His master replied, 'I will judge you by your
own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out
what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn't you put my
money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?
Then he said to those standing by, 'Take his $2000 away from him and give it to the one
who has ten times that amount. Sir,' they said, 'he already has ten! He replied, 'I tell you
that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even
what he has will be taken away.”
If you choose not to give tithes and offerings, God still loves you despite your
fears, stinginess or greed, but you force Him to be limited in how He can bless you. The
amount you give in offerings is as much as you purpose in your own heart to give, or as
much as God Himself may prompt you in our spirit to give. God loves a cheerful giver,
not one who gives grudgingly. You can be cheerful about your giving because you
know there's more where that came from! You can give as often as you like and are
encouraged to give continually so that you receive a continuous return on our giving.
Alms
You should also give alms to the poor. This is money given to either an
organization that feeds and cloths the poor, or to a poor individual directly. God
promises to return to you what you give to them: “He that has pity upon the poor lends
to the LORD; and that which he has given will He pay back to him” (Proverbs 19:17).
You can incur a curse for not doing so: “He that gives to the poor shall not lack: but he
that hides his eyes (from the poor) shall have many a curse” (Proverbs 28:27). Giving to
the poor causes an attitude of gratitude for what you do have to develop in your heart.
Jesus said it is a happier thing to give then it is to receive (Acts 20:35). Giving to the poor
also allows God to give back to you, so you can give more away...etc. .
Vision
You have got to see yourself prospering. It has been said that if a rich man's
wealth were to be taken away from him, in five years he would be rich again. Why?
because he still has on the inside of him the vision, attitudes, and knowledge of what it
took to get it the first time. The Word gives us the vision, attitude and knowledge of
obtaining wealth. No promise of God can be used effectively without first having an
inner image of it first. We tend not to think in words but in pictures. For example, if I
say the word 'dog', you immediately conjure the picture of a dog in your mind. What
you must do is picture the prosperity of God on the inside of you. God framed the
world with words (Hebrews 11:3). The force of faith in those Words was powerful
enough to create the picture, and then, on the outside, the physical universe. The same
process works in you.
This is how God does it. Isaiah 55:9-11 says, “For as the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not there, but
waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower,
and bread to the eater: so shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not
return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in
the thing where I sent it”. The Word has inherent power to make itself come to pass. It
is full of grace (John 1:14). Grace is the supernatural ability given by God to do
something. As you receive God's Word in your heart, believe it, and act on it by
speaking it and doing it, God sees to it that it produces. There is no such thing as a
Word from God that will not produce. As long as you remain good ground, and satan is
kept out of things, it will produce. It has to.
There may be an image of poverty on the inside of you. That failure-filled, sinfilled nothing of a person died when you were born again! When you made Jesus Christ
the Lord of your life you became a new creation. That poverty mind set is the “old
man” that has passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17). There was born on the inside of you
that day the image of God Who can do anything. God calls this the “new man”. You
must “put it on”, however, in order for it to work in your life. Wealth is the ability to
accomplish God's will to meet the needs of humanity. If you have the Word in your
heart, you can meet any kind of need. See yourself meeting the financial needs of others.
1 Corinthians 10:24 says, “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”
To obliterate the vision of poverty on the inside of you, you may have to fast and
pray until it is replaced by God's will and vision of prosperity. You must change the
image on the inside of you. You may have to take a few weeks off from work, from your
family, and listen to God by tape, meditation, and prayer. Someone might say, “I don't
have time.” Well then you will not experience victory in this area of your life. It's just
that plain and simple.
Is it a sin to borrow money?
No. If that were so, God would be telling the Israelites to sin when He said they
would loan to other people (Deuteronomy 28:12). The trouble with borrowing money,
however, is that it is controlled by the world's system. God says we become the servant
of the lender when we borrow (Proverbs 22:7) and satan is the god of this world (2
Corinthians 4:4). Serious spiritual problems can result from borrowing: the lender tends
to become your supplier and not God.
Psalms 112:7 speaks of the established heart. What is your heart established in?
In lack, in poverty, in fear,..., in the economy, or in yourself? How established are you in
the Word and God's prosperity? To fix your heart in immovable concrete it has to be
fixed on the Word of God because the Word will never pass away or change (Luke
21:33). Feed on it and feed on it, day and night and night and day. It is not a sin to
borrow but make it a goal in life to get out of debt and get into a financial position of
giving.
How does poverty come?
Poverty is a curse. If you are in a situation where your parents brought you up in
poverty, as they themselves were brought up in poverty, etc., chances are there is a
curse of poverty operating in your family. A curse is a supernatural influence of hell
that affects your life in a negative way. There are many curses described in the Bible.
The Good News is we can get rid of them by repentance and by the power of Jesus'
Name. The Scripture says that the “curse causeless shall not come” (Proverbs 26:2),
meaning, a curse has no legal right to influence you if you have done nothing to bring it
on yourself. Unfortunately, satan is an outlaw and does things that he is legally not
allowed to do. But, unless we enforce the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus
(Romans 8:2), he will do it anyway, just like an outlaw in our time might rob a bank
even though it is illegal to do so. Our task is to enforce what Jesus already accomplished
in the heavenlies (Galatians 3:13) and break off causeless curses of poverty from our
lives. To do this, pray this prayer: “In the name of Jesus, I break off the curse of poverty
over my life and tell it to be gone! Now! The curse causeless shall not come. Satan I bind
you from your activities of poverty off my mind, off my body, off my family, off my job,
off my hands. I loose the angels (Matthew 18:18) and the Word of God to bring
blessings of the tithe and offerings my way so I have more than enough. In Jesus Name.
Amen”.
There are some curses that we may be burdened with which you consciously or
unconsciously have brought on yourself, thus allowing satan legal access to “steal, kill,
and destroy” in your life (John 10:10). One way you can do this is by unforgiveness. We
might have experienced poverty growing up and are bitter toward parents, toward the
government, toward family, etc. who you thought ought to have done you better. They
may have indeed been at fault but it is not your place to judge. God is the judge
(Romans 12:19). Your task is to forgive those who have wronged you (Mark 11:25). By
not forgiving others and judging them, you shoot yourself in the foot because satan
then has legal right to keep poverty on you. When you extend mercy for wrongs done
against you, this bars satan from bringing the same judgment back on you (Romans 2:1),
and allows God to bless you.
You might be of a certain nationality or ethnic group which has caused you grief
or even shame. It may have caused you bitterness against a majority group. You may
not have experienced any of these things directly but by association with others who
have. This also is a possible source of curse. The remedy here is to repent of
unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, murderous feelings against any, and ask God to
forgive you. God says, “He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of
all unrighteousness” when we confess sins to Him (1 John 1:9).
There is a curse for not giving tithes and offerings. Malachi 3:8,9 says, “Will a
man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, How have we robbed You? In
tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed Me.” By
disobeying God we effectively tie His hands from helping us (Galatians 2:21).
Deuteronomy 28:15-17 says, “But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the voice
of the LORD you God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I
command you this day; that all these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you:
Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be
your basket and your store”. These are directly related to poverty and prosperity.
Verses 32 and 33 put the loss of labor in the same class as loss of children and grief. God
says to lose labor is a curse.
Another source of curse is the traditions of people (and the church) which make
the Word ineffective (Mark 7:13). An example of this might be the tradition that says
poverty is a way God teaches us to be holy. The Bible says that God uses His Word to
teach us. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that
the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work”. God
does not make you sick and impoverished to try and teach you something. The devil
does things like that. Confirm everything you hear in the Word (including the words of
this recording!
There may be other sources of curses in your life. Ask God to reveal them to you
so that you may get rid of them. God wants you to be free and prosperous!
Attitude
Attitude is another source of poverty. An attitude of foolishness can make you
poor. Proverbs 1:32 says, “The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” A fool is
someone who will not take instruction from the Word (Proverbs 15:5). The Word is
God's instructions to humanity. The Word prospers the soul. The Word is the only way
to prosper without wealth destroying us. It is the only thing powerful enough to
exercise dominion over material things because of the carnal nature of man. A fool is
someone who does not know the correct attitude to take toward money. We have all
heard of people winning the lottery who, five years later, are just as poor as before.
Why? because they do not know how to handle money. Learn from the Word.
Another foolish attitude to take toward money is to put your trust in it instead of
in God. God says His Word will make us rich (Proverbs 2:1-4). One of the things that
will choke the Word is not riches but the deceitfulness of riches (Mark 4:19), thinking
that if we have enough money everything will be OK. The Scripture says the love of
money - not money itself - is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Satan controls this
world, and money, more or less, controls the world. Ecclesiastes 10:19 says money is the
answer to everything. As long as you are fretting over not having enough, you operate
in fear and satan effectively becomes your god. If you have borrowed so much money
you cannot feed your family because the interest rates are eating you up, you have
played the fool. Increasing your comfort by increasing your debt removes you from the
blessings of God because you are not doing what God told you to do with what
prosperity you do have. What little you do have will be taken away from you when the
bank repossess your stuff because you can’t meet the payments. Poverty makes you
bitter, especially when there are folks around you who are prospering. It is a curse and
it is designed to kill. Your needs will be met when you purpose in your heart to meet
the needs of others (Matthew 6:33). This is not something you try, this is a life style.
Material things can create burdens. Most of our problems stem from things: the
car breaks down, the washer needs to be replaced, the lawn mower needs a new engine,
the car needs washing, the fence needs to be painted ... . We are a thing-oriented society.
There is nothing wrong with things, otherwise Jesus would not have said, “Seek first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things would be added to you”.
The problem with things, thought, is that we always want more and more of them.
Proverbs 27:20 says the eyes are never satisfied. A prosperous attitude is one of giving
instead of always receiving. It is an attitude of being content with what you have and
your Lord Jesus. The world’s notion of prosperity is to heap of more and more things to
oneself. God’s idea of prosperity is the ability to give to others, knowing that as we give,
we receive back much more in kind.
A rich man named Rockefeller was dying of stomach ulcers many years ago. All
he could eat was milk and crackers, and he was dying on that. The doctors could do
nothing for him. Laying on his bed one night he had the brilliant idea of giving all he
had away before he died. This was the man who started the March of Dimes fund for
the handicapped. He got so caught up with the idea, so thrilled about what he was
going to give away next, that he got well! Not only did he get well but he never did
succeed in giving all he had away. Instead he received back more than the sum he
started with.
Do it!
Someone might say, “Well, I don't have anything to give.” That's not true; if
nothing else you have a smile and a hand shake to give, you have a testimony, you have
a song, a hymn, your pots and pans, you have a coat, you could fast a meal. God said
He gives seed to the sower (2 Corinthians 9:10). If you determine in your heart to be a
sower, God will provide. Give your best, not your left leftovers.
If you have listened to this recording and agreed with its message yet do nothing
about it, you have just wasted your time. Jesus said you lie to yourself by hearing and
not doing what the Scripture says (Matthew 7:24-26). None of God's promises will work
for you unless you do what they say to do. God will make good on His Words: “Has He
said, and shall He not do it? or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?”
(Numbers 23:19).
The Laws of Prosperity
There are natural laws, like gravity, and there are spiritual laws. Romans 8:2
says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of
sin and death.” Romans 3:27 speaks of the “law of faith” and James talks about the
“perfect law of liberty.” Spiritual law works in the positive and negative arenas of life,
for the believer and the unbeliever. The law of the spirit of life is the positive law and
the law of sin and death the negative. They both are energized by the law of faith. The
Greek word for “law” means the same as we define it in English and there is only the
one Greek word used for the concept in the whole bible. Laws, by definition, are
universal, that is, they work for anybody all the time, regardless of the circumstances.
For example, the law of faith can get you born again whenever and where ever you
invoke it. Jesus has already paid the price for your sins and mine. It’s a done deal. He
did this two thousand years ago and He only did it the one time. When someone is born
again, Jesus doesn’t have to die on the cross another time for him. The grace that brings
salvation has already appeared to all men (Titus 2:11). God says whoever calls upon His
name will be saved. This aspect of “whoever” makes salvation universal. It makes
salvation a spiritual law that anyone can operated and benefit from at any time. Like
natural laws, however, there are conditions and knowledge that are necessary for it to
work properly. Romans 10:9 delineates the details of the spiritual law of salvation: “If
you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has
raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The conditions for the spiritual law of
salvation are stated: 1) confession of the mouth, and 2) belief in the heart. When these
two conditions are met, salvation is manifest in the spirit of the one operating it. It must
result in salvation every time. Some might object that one cannot be so definite about it
because it seems to put God in a box. The answer to this is that God put Himself in a
box voluntarily. If God did not want to do so then He shouldn’t have made the promise.
A promise, by definition, puts one in a box. If I promise you that I will meet you at the
post office tomorrow at 3 PM, this constrains my activities the next day around 3 PM. If
I don’t show up at the post office at 3 PM this means: 1) I was lying and never intended
to meet you there, or 2) I was unavoidably detained and couldn’t make it. Well, God is
not a liar and nothing can detain Him from doing something He purposes to do. God
has invited all of humanity to partake of His salvation. It is a universal invitation.
Regardless of who operates it, God will respond every time because it is a spiritual law
that God has set up.
Let’s now look at a carnal or natural law example to see the correlation. The law
of lift and thrust causes a multi-ton aircraft to take off the ground and fly. The law of
gravity has been temporarily superseded by the laws of lift and thrust during this time.
The thrust comes from the engine that pushes the airplane forward. The shape of the
wings causes a local low pressure area to form over the top of the wings, causing them
to be pushed upon by a higher pressure system underneath the wings. Since the wings
are connected to the rest of the airplane, the craft now rises off the ground. The law of
gravity has not been eradicated but simply overcome by a superior force of lift. It works
every time without fail, so long as there is enough thrust and the lift is sufficient to
create an overcoming force against gravity.
There is a knowledge associated with all this, both in the natural and in the
spiritual. In the natural, men attempted to fly for about four hundred years before they
were successful. Since the Renaissance men tried to create flying machines
unsuccessfully. It wasn’t until the Wright brothers succeeded at Kitty Hawk in the early
twentieth century that man finally understood the physical laws involved in flight.
During these four hundred odd years there were no doubt many who said man was not
suppose to fly or that man was not suppose to understand these laws. Many say the
same things about spiritual laws. Some probably said if God intended for men to fly
He’d have given them wings. Some probably said God never intended for man to fly,
basing their statement on the hundreds of years of failure. All these sentiments about
flying are incorrect. The only reason man didn’t fly in the year 1602 was because no one
understood the laws that governed flight at that time. A Boeing 747 could have flown
just fine back then if anyone knew how to fly one and build one. The laws of flight were
the same then as they are now. Well, spiritual laws are similar. It takes knowledge of
them for man to benefit from them. God says, “My people perish for lack of
knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).
Some would say that to be a Christian means to be of a certain political
persuasion. The Bible says nothing of the sort. This is ignorance of the Word of God.
Some Christians have no idea about the laws of giving and receiving when it comes to
financial prosperity. We tend to relegate spiritual things to ephemeral, spooky, antiintellectual hocus pocus. One reason for this is that our natural minds are at odds with
God (Romans 8:7), and the ways of God are so much higher than our own (Isaiah 55:9).
It was not that long ago – about three hundred years ago - that most Christians thought
that the office of an evangelist was non-scriptural and someone operating in it was a
heretic. Now it is common place. Why? Because there was no revelation knowledge of
this aspect of the kingdom of God three hundred years ago. It had been lost from the
collective knowledge of the Church in the Dark Ages. It took the spiritual law of sowing
and reaping, as described in the Parable of the Sower in Mark chapter four, for believers
to rise out of spiritual darkness and take hold of that God-sanctioned office once again.
Men and women were persecuted for operating in the office of evangelism for years
before it was widely accepted.
All the promises of God operate under spiritual law. Remember, laws are
universal to all and work at all times regardless of the circumstances. The law of giving
and receiving will work in the poorest countries of the world and in the richest. Laws
do not discriminate between types of humans, between certain denominations, nor do
they work only under certain governments. Nowhere in scripture does it suggest that
the promises of God concerning finances are for only a select few, or that they are only
for a bygone era. They are all couched in the idea of “whosoever.”
One of the spiritual laws God has revealed to us is the law of love. In Matt
22:37-40 Jesus said, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments
hang all the Law and the Prophets.” The law of faith is contingent on the law of love: no
love, no manifestation of the promise. Faith works by love (Galatians 5:6). Love doesn’t
think about itself (1 Corinthians 13:5) - it is selfless. If we’ve got our selves on our mind
we’re not operating in the love of God. If we sow to reap a return on our giving so that
we can amass more wealth we are sowing for the wrong reasons and God will not
honor it (James 4:3). This is a violation of spiritual law.
When a believer acts on a promise of God and it doesn’t turn out the way he or
she thought it should, there are several conclusions that people make. One is that God’s
promises don’t work, that God doesn’t want us to prosper, or doesn’t want you to
prosper. Remember the example of the airplane? Some explained away failure by this
very same sentiment. It wasn’t true for the failure of natural law anymore than it is true
to explain spiritual failure. If there is a failure in spiritual laws the proper recourse is to
ask yourself what you did wrong. Better still, ask God what you did wrong. The nice
thing about God, that is not true of natural law, is that He’s trying to get it to us. He’s
trying to bless us with all spiritual and natural blessings. He’s trying to prosper us. He’s
not trying to withhold wealth from us. So we can take hope in the fact that God will
somehow reveal to us where we went wrong if we’ll seek His face and pursue Him in
this area of finances.
The reason natural laws seem so much more obvious to us is because we humans
are so highly developed in our minds and in the things of nature. We have studied and
studied and developed our knowledge over the centuries to the point where it has
almost become a god to us. We worship natural knowledge. The knowledge of Good
and Evil has eclipsed the knowledge of the Tree of Life. The scripture says in the end
times knowledge would increase. I believe this is happening in our time. The last I
heard the doubling time for natural knowledge is about three years – so every three
years we double what we knew from three years prior. This is remarkable. I believe
spiritual knowledge is also increasing. I don’t know that we have reached the spiritual
state of the first century church but we’re getting very close. Jesus said we will do
greater works that He even did while on earth. I believe this applies to the promises of
God that deal with finances also. God said all the silver and gold - or wealth of the
world - was His, and the glory of the latter house would be greater than the former
(Haggai 2:8,9; his house is the church). This glory is speaking of wealth. God’s glory
certainly manifests itself in other ways but money is one of them. Just read about
heaven in the book of Revelation and what terms are used to describe it. It is a
fabulously wealthy place. God is wealthy. If you are uncomfortable with wealth than
don’t go to heaven because that place is loaded! Our heavenly Father is unspeakably
rich! Jesus wears a gold band around His chest just for decoration (Rev 1:13)!
There is a tendency in all of us when we hear things like this to become greedy.
This may be conscious or unconscious. The love of God doesn’t operate in greed. The
first thing we’re going to have to learn about the spiritual laws of prosperity is that it is
not based on greed. We will have to escape this mentality. 2 Peter 1:4 says, “By which
have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you
may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world
through lust.” Fortunately, God’s promises include escaping from our own lustful nature
in order that we might handle wealth with the proper attitude. Paul says in Romans
6:11 that we should “reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.” In order for the spiritual laws of prosperity to work in our lives
we must position ourselves to receive them. Our hearts must be “sprinkled clean” from
impure motives and selfish desire.
Jesus was fairly well to do. He had His own house where his staff of twelve regrouped and stayed at in between outreaches. His income, provided by wealthy women
(Luke 8:3), supplied not only His material needs but also those of His staff. If I could put
this in modern terms, assuming a yearly wage of $40,000 a piece, this comes out to
nearly a half a million dollars a year income. This is a small business. He had a treasurer
- Judas - to keep track of things. He wore a rich man’s coat (John 19:23). I believe Jesus
avoided ostentatious display of wealth for our sakes, not His own. If this were not so
then heaven would be a rather drab place, materially. In addition, Jesus fulfilled the
whole law perfectly, and under the Law, God the Father is obligated to bless Him
financially as per the Abrahamic covenant as described in Deuteronomy 28.
The next step toward operating in spiritual law with effectiveness is to build up
our spirits. Spiritual law is just that - it’s spiritual. It’s not natural. We are born in the
natural but we end up in the spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:46). If we spend all our time and
energy in developing our natural senses and abilities without also doing the same with
our spirits, we will not even see spiritual laws, let alone operate in them. Is this to
suggest that we become hermits and totally divorce ourselves from worldly endeavors?
No. I’m not suggesting that. I am suggesting, however, that we spend less of our leisure
time with worldly things - like watching TV and entertainment. There’s nothing wrong
with these things per se, but they don’t promote spiritual growth. If we are going to
operate in spiritual laws we must spend more time with God and with the things of
God. We must saturate ourselves in the Word and in His spirit. We should be going to
churches that promote such activity. Don’t waste time. Moses said, “Teach us to number
our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom” (Psalms 90:12).
Speaking in tongues is a quintessential method of building up spiritual muscle.
Jude 20 says that we build up our spirits when we pray in the Holy Spirit. Praying in the
Holy Spirit means speaking in tongues (1 Cor 14). It can also mean praying in ones own
language under the power of the Holy Spirit. In either case, our minds can benefit from
the revelation received. This is what the parable of the Sower in Mark chapter four is all
about. This is why it is called the master parable (Mk 4:13). When we pray in the spirit, 1
Cor 14:13 says we can ask God for the interpretation so that our minds may benefit. As
we pray in the spirit concerning the spiritual laws of prosperity, we begin to understand
how these laws operate. Our minds become renewed to these realities and we then
release them with our words and actions on the earth. This supernatural knowledge can
come directly by interpretation of a tongue or, I find, in the course of the day thoughts
will come to me which are the interpretation of what I had said that morning in my
prayer closet. We can be flowing in continual revelation knowledge as we sow and reap
daily. I believe this is partly what God promised us when He spoke of believers being
like trees by the river whose leaves don’t wither in drought and that continually bear
fruit (Ps 1:3).
For years I gave offerings by mail to several ministries. I still do to this day. One
day, several years ago, I had all my checks written out to these various ministries and
had placed them in stamped envelopes ready to be mailed that next morning. The Lord
spoke to my heart and said, “You know you wasting your seed,” referring to the stack
of envelopes on my desk. Immediately I knew what He was talking about. He wasn’t
suggesting that the ministries I was giving to were not godly and that I shouldn’t be
giving them offerings. No, what He was saying was that I wasn’t believing on a return
on my giving. The ministries were being blessed but I wasn’t getting any reward for my
giving. God usually, if not always, “kills two birds with one stone” so to speak. He
intended for both the ministries and my bank account to be blessed. Because I was not
believing for a return on my offerings, as He said I should, it was a concern to Him, thus
His statement of wasting my seed. This was an ignorance on my part of spiritual law. I
sort of knew about sowing and reaping at the time but really wasn’t operating in it. God
was wanting to bless me financially. This indeed happened a few years later after this
incident. When I got married my wife owned a beautiful house. I did not marry her for
her house! On the other hand, I was not that stupid or blind to not see that if I married
her, her house came with it! I believe our marriage was and is divinely ordained. I also
believe that my giving of finances resulted in this material blessing in addition to a
perfect wife.
Not too long after this incident, the Lord also enlightened me about giving
cheerfully. At the time I was giving to probably eight or ten ministries on a regular
monthly basis. Most of them I was excited about. There was a joy in my heart about
giving to these folks of my finances. Things were happening in their respective
ministries and I was learning from several of them via books, tapes, and television. A
few of them, however, I was giving to “out of necessity,” that is, I gave because they
were Christian, they were doing the right things, but I had not joy about them in my
heart. These ministries were definitely of God, make no mistake. I would not have given
of my finances to any ungodly organization. No, it’s not that they were doing anything
wrong - indeed, they were doing many good things - but I just didn’t have any joy in
giving to them. 2 Cor 9:7 says, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not
grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” The joy of the Lord yields
the spiritual force of joy, and good cheer yields courage. We need joy and courage to
carry out our respective ministries. We don’t need things in our lives that rob us of our
joy. It is no doubt the case that there are other members of the Body who derive great
joy in giving to those ministries which did not give me the same joy. That’s OK! We
must recognize that we are not all the same body part. A pancreas cell probably doesn’t
have much in common with a liver cell. Both are necessary, but both have discrete
needs and environments in which they live in. The Body is diverse. There is a unity of
the members yet, within it, there is diversity. Be happy in what part you play in the big
picture.
To recap up to this point, we’ve found out that it is God’s will that we prosper.
We found out His reasons to prosper us - to establish His covenant on the earth and to
give to those in need. And we’ve explored some of His ways of prospering us, through
tithes/offerings/alms, through a prosperous soul, and by giving. There are many
examples of this latter principle in the bible. Elijah was instructed by the Lord to look
up a widow in the town of Zarephath to sustain him with food (1 Kings 17:12). She and
her son were apparently on the brink of starvation themselves and had only one tiny
meal left before they completely ran out of food. Elijah asked her to feed him first! Can
you imagine? What boldness on the part of Elijah. And this had to be a step of faith for
the woman. She went ahead and did as he asked. She ended up with more oil and flour
than she knew what to do with, and that, in the middle of a famine. Another example of
giving and receiving is the boy and his lunch, giving it to Jesus to feed the five
thousand. The lunch consisted of five barely loaves and two small fish. After Jesus
supernaturally fed everyone with this small amount of food, twelve baskets were taken
up of left overs that people were too full to eat. God multiplies your seed sown, it says
in 2 Cor 9:10.
The amount we give is not really important. It’s how much it is relative to your
income or bank account statement that counts for a greater or lesser return. At one point
Jesus stood in the temple next to the offering bucket to observe what people gave of
their finances. He noted that most gave of their abundance, that is, they gave from their
excess funds. It wasn’t really a significant financial burden or sacrifice for these people
to give like that. Then along came a widow who placed her entire living into the
offering receptacle - two mites, the smallest denomination that existed at the time. Jesus
commended her highly to His disciples. What possessed this woman to give all that she
had? Even though the absolute amount is insignificant, to her it was everything she had!
How many people do you know that give everything they have in the offering plate?
Some would say this is foolishness on her part. Jesus didn’t - he commended her. How
will she live now? Will the church have to pick up the tab for her foolishness by housing
her somehow or giving her money to get a bed for the night? I doubt it. She must have
heard Jesus talking about giving and receiving. Why else would she do such a thing?
She must have believed in her heart that she would receive back in kind and then some.
So are we to give all that we have away? Before you answer this question, ask
yourself what do I believe will happen if I do? Where is your faith level at? Do you have
the faith for this? If so, do it! God will be glorified when you receive the return and you
tell everyone about it. It’s actually easier to give when you are poor than when you are
rich. Jesus said it is easier for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God than it is for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle (Mark 10:25). I myself do not have the faith to
give away all I have. My faith level is around the hundred dollar level at this time. I am
in the process of increasing my faith beyond this. It used to be around the five dollar
level, so my faith has increased. If you just plunk your money down without the faith to
back it, all you are doing is blessing the other person or the church. God is moved by
faith (Isa 55:11). In answer to the question, how much should I give, the answer is
however much the Holy Spirit prompts you, and if He doesn’t prompt you, then give as
much as is in your heart to give. Ask yourself where your faith level is at, then go from
there.
God says He meets our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We
must expand our sense of need beyond ourselves. What are your needs? They are not
your rent, our your mortgage, our car payments, etc. Why not include our brothers and
sisters in Christ as our heartfelt need? Why don’t we take on the needs of the world as
part of our sense of need? Our income, it says in Eph 4:28, is only our seed sack. It says,
“Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands
what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” Like a farmer
who sows seed for the next year’s crop, the wages we earn as we work are for giving. It
doesn’t say we work for a living. It says we work to give. Sure, we’ll use some of it to
pay for the things of life, but our attitude ought to be one of giving, not of barely getting
by, or, assessing our lifestyle on the basis of how much we make.
Now someone might object about all this prosperity gospel stuff that the
scripture is not talking about material wealth but spiritual wealth. Let’s look at that a bit
more carefully. Deut 8:6-18 says, “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the
LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the LORD your God is
bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that
flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and
pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which you will eat bread without
scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose
hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the
LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not
forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His
statutes which I command you today, lest - when you have eaten and are full, and have
built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks
multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied...”. There it is. Silver and gold is
wealth - money. God’s intent is that our pocket books prosper. How else are we
suppose to establish His covenant on the earth? It takes money to build churches and
pay salaries, to buy supplies and food for the poor. How are ministers of the gospel
suppose to get around? Are they suppose to walk? Not very efficient, and it tends to
wear out people before their time. God can afford it. Remember all the silver and gold
on the earth is His.
In Gen 17:1,2 God spoke to Abram saying, “And when Abram was ninety nine
years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, I am the Almighty God; walk
before me, and be perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will
multiply you exceedingly”. Notice He didn't say I’ll make my covenant with you and
make you so poor you wished you'd never seen me. No, He said I’ll make you rich in
land and in posterity.
We are beneficiaries of Abraham’s covenant through Jesus Christ, it says in Gal
3:13,14. Verse 16 goes on to say, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises
made. He did not say, And to seeds, as of many - or plural; but as of one, And to your
seed, which is Christ”. The seed here is talking about Jesus. Jesus is the seed, or
offspring of Abraham. This Abrahamic covenant, then, is actually between God and
Jesus. As we believe on Jesus we are allowed to participate in this covenant and its
benefits.
Verse 17, “And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years
later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it
should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer
of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. What purpose then does the law
serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the
promise was made.” This is talking about Jesus. The promise was made to Jesus! not to
us. God, through Abraham, got a promise of prosperity into the earth and there was
nothing the devil could do about it. Once the promise is in here it will come to pass once
somebody will take it and believe it. Abraham took it and believed it. He took it for
himself and it came to pass for him, even though God was talking to Jesus. Abraham
was just a forerunner of what was to come. If the promise was only to him, then it
would benefit only him. God let Abraham birth the promise into the earth by believing
it; this is what eventually got Jesus permission to come down. God gave the earth to
Adam (and us) in the form of what we might call a lease. We are legally responsible for
it and have delegated authority over it, but it is still owned by God. Well, Adam chose
to relinquish his lease agreement over to satan at the Fall. So after the Fall, neither
Adam nor God had legal access to the earth. For God to accomplish His will on the
earth He has to work by permission. God speaks words of promise to anyone who will
receive them. Abraham believed God. This gave God now legal access to begin the
process of redemption through Jesus Christ. God bringing Jesus into the earth was the
greatest prosperity the earth had seen up until that time.
So why didn't the Jews know about the breadth of this covenant before Jesus?
For the same reason we Christians are for the most part “strangers from the covenant”
(Eph 2:12): ignorance and unbelief, mostly. Jesus operated in His ministry under the
Abrahamic covenant. Everything Jesus did was available to any Old Testament saint.
Remember, Jesus, it says in the 2nd chapter of Philippians, did not act as God while on
earth. He voluntarily removed from Himself those attributes of God and became a
mortal man, under the Abrahamic covenant.
I want to look at one last scripture before I close. 1 Tim 6:17-19 says, “Instruct
those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the
uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.
Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,
storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they
may take hold of that which is life indeed.” Why does God want us to prosper? Verse 19
says we lay up treasures in heaven when we give so that we can lay hold on eternal life
(zoe). On first blush it would seem that these verses are simply saying that as we give
we can expect to receive some reward in heaven. And this is true. But God always kills
two birds with one stone. The word “future” here does not mean in heaven. It just
means future. Not only will you receive reward in heaven but, more to the point, we
can expect to receive zoe life here on earth for what we give. There is a time when even
rich people need a harvest for their investing while here on earth. What will we need
money in heaven for? We need it now.
Isa 43:26 says we should put God in remembrance of his Word and promises. We
don’t do this because God forgets or is senile, rather it is another way of saying to “lay
hold on eternal life”. The violent take the kingdom by force, Matthew says. There’s a
certain aggressiveness necessary when it comes to God. When you were born again you
stepped up to the plate of heaven, so to speak, and “reminded” God of His promise of
salvation. Matthew also said in the 11th chapter, the 12th verse, that we suffer violence by
satan to try and thwart us from receiving from God. A contractor once came to his
pastor concerning his finances. Apparently he hadn’t received any job offers in quite
some time and was getting a bit worried. He asked for prayer. The pastor, by unction of
the Holy spirit, asked him to bring his checkbook when he came to his office for prayer.
The pastor knew this man was a tither and wanted to see the check stubs that showed
as much. They both prayed over those tithe check stubs and reminded God of His
promise in Mal 3:10. They also reminded the devil that he had no business over this
man's finances. Not very long after they prayed the contractor started getting job offers
again, so many in fact that he was having to turn some down. When a similar thing
happened in the future, the contractor himself now would pray the same prayer, and
jobs would start up again. He was laying hold on treasures he had stored up.
This ends this session. For additional information regarding this and other materials,
write to Bright Star Ministiries, 1909 36th St., Missoula MT, 59801, or visit Dr. Reschke’s
web site at brightstarministries dot org.