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Biblical
Prosperity in Perspective 1
Basic Elements of
Biblical Prosperity, Part One
by Pastor John Hamel
Some years back as I sat at my desk preparing to preach a
message on Biblical prosperity, I bowed my head and asked the Lord this
question. “Lord, why do so many people reject the prosperity
principles of Your Word?” Before I could even finish that question, the Lord’s answer shot immediately up
out of my spirit. “Ignorance.”
I immediately
reached for my favorite New England Lexicographer, Noah Webster. He
defined ignorance as “Lacking knowledge. To be unaware.”
I
remembered immediately that the Bible says, “My people perish for a lack of
knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6)
Ignorance does not
mean that someone is stupid. Ignorance means that someone is lacking
knowledge. The cure for ignorance is knowledge. People make
false, religious and traditional assumptions about God’s will concerning
prosperity because they lack knowledge of his Word.
This is why we
will focus today’s study on the four basic elements of true Biblical
prosperity. Through this simple study you will receive the basic
knowledge that you need to begin eradicating any ignorance concerning
Biblical prosperity.
Basic
Element One ... God
Is God able to prosper you financially and materially?
Does He possess what it takes to prosper all of His children financially
and materially? The Bible says He does.
The Bible says that He
is able to bring prosperity to us in ways that exceed our highest hopes and
desires. (Ephesians 3:20) This is true even if you live in the most
impoverished areas of the world.
The Bible also says that above all
things, our Father God desires that we prosper financially and materially
even as we prosper in our spirits and in our bodies. (3John 2) You
can look at these verses yourself and the Holy Spirit will open them up to
you. One verse that we will look at together is found in Psalm 35.
“Let them shout for
joy and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: Yea, let them say
continually, Let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the
prosperity of his servant.” (Psalm 35:27)
Here the Bible
reveals that the Lord has pleasure when His children prosper.
However, we also see here that prosperity is conditional. The Lord’s
children must favor His righteous cause in order to qualify for His
supernatural prosperity. The way to favor His righteous cause is to
keep the preaching and teaching of God’s Word worldwide your priority, even
as it is His priority. Get that straight and God will know that He
can trust you with the type of prosperity we’re going to talk about in this
series. So, yes, God is able and God is willing to prosper His obedient children.
Basic
Element Two ... You
God is only allowed to prosper you to the extent that you allow
Him to do so. Yes. It is all up to you. If you do not
believe in prosperity, you will not receive prosperity. If you doubt
it, you will simply have to do without it. You must be willing to
believe that it is God’s will to prosper you simply because the Bible says
it is God’s will to prosper you. Only those who are willing to believe will receive
supernatural prosperity. (Isaiah 1:19)
People who say,
“Well, if it’s His Holy will for me to have money
I will have it. If it’s not, I won’t.” are speaking in ignorance of
His Word. It is God’s will to prosper you.
We must never say or pray, “If it be Thy will…” when it comes to things
that the Bible reveals are indeed the will of God. The Bible says if
we will keep our priorities straight and seek first the advancement of His
Kingdom, in our personal lives and in the Earth, everything we have need of
will literally chase us down.
“But seek ye first
the Kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew
6:33)
If you were to go back
and read Matthew 6:24-33 in context, you would discover that Jesus is
talking to His Covenant Disciples. He was telling them, even as He is
telling you today, that if you are seeking prosperity in order to be able
to do your own thing, you may as well quit right now. He is not going
to help you. However, if you keep the Kingdom,
and the lost and bound people of the world first, then you better start
making plans to prosper. Prosperity is full force
on its way to you.
Basic
Element Three ... God's Word
So we see that God is willing and able to prosper us. We
see that we must be willing for God to prosper us for the express purpose
of expanding His Kingdom throughout the world. Yes, He wants us to
have comfortable homes, reliable transportation, every bill paid in full
and enough left over to give the way the Bible instructs to give. The
more we invest into the preaching of the Gospel, the more we will have to
live comfortably during our probationary period
here on Earth.
But we must answer the question, “How will God prosper
me?” That is a good question. The answer is simple. God
prospers His children through His Word.
We must make the
decision from this point on to listen only to what God’s Word says about
prosperity. It is time to shut out all negative voices that speak
against Divine Prosperity. We must listen only to the proper
preaching and teaching of God’s Word. That is how faith for prosperity comes, by hearing the Word of
prosperity preached and taught. (Romans 10:17) When we sit under
proper prosperity teaching, it gives birth to faith for prosperity.
As that faith is released through our mouths,
prosperity begins to come.
As we begin to say,
“Thank You, Father,
for taking pleasure in my prosperity because my priorities are straight, in
Jesus’ Name.” Prosperity begins to come. It begins as a trickle
of prosperity. It turns into a brook of prosperity. The brook
turns into a stream of prosperity. The stream turns into a mighty
forceful river flowing into your life.
Suddenly all of your needs are
being met in ways you never even considered.
Suddenly God is using
you to meet the spiritual and physical needs of the suffering people of the
world in a bigger way than you had ever imagined.
We will continue
with Basic Elements of Biblical Prosperity in part two of this study.
If you arrived at
this lesson through a link, you will find the remainder of these lessons at
our JHM Online Bible Training Centre. Just click on
"Supernatural Provision" when you arrive.
Be blessed … John
and Barbara Hamel
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to Be Born Again (Receive Christ as Your Savior)
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