The Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:16). The Greek word for love in this scripture is “agape,” which is a special kind of love that is unconditional and self-sacrificing. God so loves mankind that He gave His only begotten Son to die for us in payment for our sins (John 3:16). In fact, the death of Christ was intended by God as a demonstrative manifestation of His love (Romans 5:8). The truth is He loves us so much He calls us the sons of God (1 John 3:1); in other words, He has adopted into His personal family those people who are willing to return His love and accept the Lordship of Christ in their lives.

Further, the Bible on many occasions describes the Lord as long-suffering, full of loving kindness and merciful. Out of these qualities flows grace which is the unmerited favor of God that produced forgiveness. The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance (Galatians 5:22-23).

In short, God does what He is. He performs acts of love because He is love. In essence, the central message in the New Testament, after grace and salvation, is about a God who wants to abide together with His believing adopted children so that His love will be perfected in them (1 John 4:16-17). And once we are abiding together in love, God will do anything we ask (John 15:7). Indeed, love is supposed to be the focus of New Testament Life.

We can know for certain that “God is good” because the Bible says that He is. The Word of God is Truth (John 17:17) and perfect (Psalms 19:7). It is eternal and has existed from the beginning; it is itself a manifestation of God Almighty and has always been with God (John 1:1-2). Therefore, you can rely on the Word and trust in what it says. If it says “God is good” then He is.

Following now are a few examples in scripture where it says that God is good:

1. Nahum 1:7 “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble”
2. Matthew 19:17 “there is none good but One and that is God” (Spoken by Jesus)
3. Romans 2:4 The goodness (kindness) of God leads us to repentance.
4. Psalm 25:8 “Good and upright is the Lord”
5. Psalm 33:5 “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”
6. Psalm 34:8 “taste and see that the Lord is good”

When the Bible uses the word “good” in describing God, it means that He is kindly, merciful, One who bestows benefits and blessings, loving, etc. This is the God we serve! Please note from the preceding section that one of His nine principal attributes is goodness (Galatians 5:22). Since God is love, He only performs good and righteous works that manifest who He is.

Throughout scripture we can see God acting out of goodness and kindness and mercy. Since He is good, most of the “bad” things that come into the lives of Believers are the consequence of sin and so they flow to us from the Curse. It is true that Jesus has set us free from the Curse but if we choose to operate in the flesh anyway, to temporarily prefer the World over the Kingdom of God and His Word, we are again subjecting ourselves to the results that the World lives by. In other words, by lapsing into our carnal nature, we inadvertently put ourselves under the terms and conditions of the Curse.

God is not the author of sickness and disease nor did He bring us poverty and lack. Those things and the other problems in life that keep us from enjoying total shalom peace (nothing missing, nothing broken) are the result of our own doing. The reality is we ourselves through our own sin cause these things to happen in our lives and then we blame God when what He is doing is working to help us make the most of our negative experiences and make us stronger.

Many people believe that God arranges trials and tribulations for us to go through so that our faith will grow and we will become stronger. But this is not what scripture says. What it says is that the trying of our faith develops patience (James 1:3). The truth is, faith grows by experiencing God do wonderful and loving things in our lives; in fact our faith can be severely tested to the point of breaking when we experience trials. Trials, tribulations, afflictions and persecutions are the result of the hostile environment we have inherited from Adam and even though God did not create those problems, the Word says through many scriptures that we can stick close to Him times of trouble, He will see us through it, He will provide the strength to endure what we are unable to overcome on our own. The bottom line is we need to throw off the bondage of manmade religion and stop blaming God for things He never started. Instead we need to stay as close to Him as we can so we can endure our difficulties of life in love, joy, peace and total victory. Yes, there will be trials but by faith we can live in victory even while they’re going on!

Another thing we need to do is learn more about what the Word really says concerning the relationship between God and our trials. These things are too important for you to rely on what a Preacher tells you once a week or what this Newsletter says every three weeks. The Bible says that God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6) and often we experience bad consequences from taking wrong actions when we didn’t know any better. If we violate a biblical principle of life, we can expect to experience an undesirable consequence even if our violation occurred in ignorance. Therefore, we desperately need knowledge and the only way to acquire true knowledge is to get into the Word of God ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to provide revelation directly to our spirits. Then we will learn, we will stop violating biblical principles of conduct and we will finally begin to walk in victory complete in Christ.

Friend, the truth is God is good and this fact results in the following Law of biblical prosperity: in order to be biblically prosperous, you must come to the realization that God can only do good. He loves you and He is on your side. Once you accept this reality by faith, you will begin to trust Him to lead you through life so you can fulfill your destiny in the Kingdom of God. When you come to trust in Him by faith, then you will see that very often the things you once saw as trials and tribulations weren’t really so bad; they were only bad as a matter of your perspective at the time they occurred. Once you are trusting in God you can only see yourself in victory so that the difficulties of life no longer cause anxiety and stress. Your perspective has changed. You are at peace and you are prosperous because you see (perceive) yourself that way by faith. You are trying to live your life lined up in every respect with the Word of God, secure in your knowledge of the Word and who you are in Christ.

The Bible promises that you can have what you say and believe (Mark 11:23-24). Will you say and believe what the Word of God says or will you believe what manmade religion and the World say? If you believe what the Word says, you will believe that God is good and if you do, He will respond and you will see His prosperity begin to abound in your life. God bless you today for reading Prosperous Life Newsletter.

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