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"Owe no man
anything..."
-Romans 13:8
"...the borrower becomes the lender's
slave."
-Proverbs 22:7
"...the
righteous man shall live by faith."
-Romans 1:17
"...without
faith it is impossible to please Him."
-Hebrews 11:6
"No one can
serve two masters..."
-Matthew 6:24
"The Lord
will make you abound in prosperity..."
-Deuteronomy 25:11
"...God
loves a cheerful giver."
-2 Corinthians 9:7
"...the
Lord... is giving you power to make
wealth..."
-Deuteronomy 8:18
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Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus!
Biblical prosperity is the state of total well being where God
is meeting all your needs: spirit, soul and body.
In the last issue of Prosperous Life Newsletter we
discussed God' priorities for how we are to use the
money and material possessions He provides. As we saw there's
a big difference between His priorities and the ones we tend to
pursue if left to our carnal desires and wants. In this issue we
want to delve more deeply into His purposes for those priorities
and what He trying to accomplish.
In the form of a brief review, God is very interested in how we
deal with, relate to and use our finances in this present life.
You may have observed that about two-thirds of the parables in
the four New Testament Gospels are concerned with money,
possessions or property. Although Jesus said and did much
more than what was actually recorded in those Gospels (John
21:25), it's reasonable to conclude from the content of those
recorded parables that money was and still is an important
topic for Him. Indeed the parables are there in His Word
because the Holy Spirit wants to teach us how to deal with
present financial issues. Therefore, the instruction from the
parables is part of the ongoing process of being conformed
from who we used to be into the image of Christ (Romans
8:29).
In the previous Newsletter we dealt with the question of why
God is so interested in how we handle our finances. Why is
there so much teaching about it in the Word of God? And we
saw that one reason can be found in Luke 12:34: "For where
your treasure is, there you heart will be also" (see also
Matthew 6:21). In other words, whatever you value highly in
life will be important to you. Jesus was trying to teach us that if
we hold money in too high a regard, we are likely to end up
with wrong priorities in our lives because the power of money is
so strong it will become of higher importance to us than the
Kingdom of God (Luke 12:31). Jesus taught that when that
happens, when money is too important, we will then prefer to
store up for ourselves treasure on earth instead of treasure in
Heaven (Matthew 6:19-20, Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke
12:21, and Luke 18:22).
Another reason the Lord is so interested in how we handle
money is the simple principle that if we fall in love with our
money or possessions, we're sure to fall into evil. Does the
Bible not say that "the love of money is the root of all evil"
(1 Timothy 6:10)? It also says that the love of money leads
to disappointment, dissatisfaction and destruction (1 Samuel
8:3, Proverbs 1:13-16, Ecclesiastes 5:10, Jeremiah 17:11 and
Micah 3:11-12) as well as to sorrow and wandering away from
the faith (1 Timothy 6:10 and James 5:3). Thus, it can be said
that although Jesus came to give us abundant life (John
10:10), the love of money conflicts with the
manifestation of that gift and must be dealt with if God's
purposes are to be fulfilled.
God is so interested in how we handle our finances because He
has purposes for the use of those finances in the life of each
Believer. We're not supposed to continue carelessly making our
own frivolous spending decisions even though most of us are
still doing just that. No, God has a better way and He has a
purpose for everything we do.
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God Always Operates Out of Purpose |
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It's important to understand about God that He doesn't do
anything in the universe without having a purpose for what He
does. He is after all the God of purpose; therefore, His provision
is always attached to purpose. He doesn't do things aimlessly
according to how He feels on one particular day versus some
other or on whether or not we'll be happy and content. On the
contrary we must learn to be content whether we receive a little
or an abundance (Philippians 4:11, Hebrews 13:5). Likewise
His provision is not tied to our need. What He DOES do is
provide ALWAYS according to His specific purposes: some of
them are universal purposes that apply essentially to all
Believers and are articulated in His Word and others are
individual purposes that He has established for the life of each
Believer.
Now, most of us are quite sensitive about our money and
possessions and God uses that sensitivity as a primary means
for teaching us to consider His purposes. At PLN we
don't believe He's engaged in a massive program of
withholding and releasing provision in order to make us learn
essential lessons. Certainly He could if He wanted to, but He
doesn't have to because for the most part the choices we
ourselves make produce the consequences and results we're
living out in our lives. The Kingdom of God is set up that way
because Jesus already paid for your abundance at the Cross.
To withhold it now would contradict the perfect and complete
work of Christ at Calvary. So, as we're living through the
consequences of our own actions, the Holy Spirit uses what we
are living through to teach us, to comfort us and to lead us
back to victory.
The manner in which we use God's provision is called
stewardship; therefore, stewardship is really about
using God's provision for the purposes He has established.
What do we do with what He provides: do we consume it on
ourselves without thinking or do we seek God and His Word to
determine His purposes? If we're ignorant of the principles of
stewardship or worse if we know them but refuse to submit, then
He's not able to trust us to use His provision for the purposes
He's established. Poor stewards then are those Believers who
can't be trusted with His provision. And so because of poor
stewardship our provision will tend to be diminished from the
abundance God would otherwise prefer for us to receive. The
GOOD steward is the one who pursues an understanding of His
purposes and then strives to live by them.
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Universal Purposes |
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According to the Word of God, there are several universal
purposes God has for His provision that apply generally to most
Believers:
1) To Learn to Put the Lord First - God
requires that we put Him first in our lives. We have to
learn to do that because our carnal nature
refuses to do it until it has been retrained. Learning to put God
first is for our own good because if we don't, we will put
ourselves first in His place which always results in disaster and
death. The easiest way to learn to put God first is to return a
tithe to Him on all His provision. The Holy Spirit
then uses this "sacrifice" to help us learn to put God first in all
areas of life. If we resist tithing, the task of learning to put God
first will be much more difficult for most people and they will
eventually have to come to the point of returning the tithe
anyway. Even if you go to a church where they don't teach
tithing, the fact remains that tithing is a biblical responsibility,
a financial principle that every Believer needs to embrace for
his/her own good. It's a practice that preceded the Law
(Genesis 14:20), that Jesus endorsed (Matthew 23:23) and that
was never discontinued anywhere in scripture after the New
Covenant was established even though Jesus had a number of
opportunities when He could have done so.
2) To Establish His Covenant - The next
generic purpose is to establish (or confirm) His covenant
(Deuteronomy 8:28). He has promised to provide; therefore, His
act of provision serves to confirm what He's promised to do so
that all people will know that He's a God of covenant that can
be trusted. In line with this we're to use His provision to assist
Him in raising up His Kingdom according to the instructions we
can find in His Word and those He speaks to us individually. We
must learn not to consume this part of our provision on our own
agenda but to give both tithes and offerings into His work
(Malachi 3:8-11) as directed by the Holy Spirit. Most Christians
resist tithing and substitute their own system of giving which
over the centuries has produced a Church that's under-funded
and much less effective than it should be. It has also produced
a body of Believers that have difficulty putting God first in their
lives. Man's systems always fall far short of the ones God comes
up with and the tithe was intended, and still is, as a major
means for establishing His Covenant on the earth.
3) To Bless Others - Another major part of
God's provision is designated for the purpose of blessing others.
One of the most relevant scriptures on this subject can be
found in 2 Corinthians 9:8-9 which says that one of the
purposes God has for our sufficiency and abundance is that a
portion be used for good deeds. God himself provides seed to
the sower (verse 10) which the sower (the Believer) must not
consume for his/her own agenda. That is, we are not to "eat"
the seed that God has provided for the purpose of doing good
deeds. This requires that we confer with the Lord continually so
that we know which portion of His provision is for the Kingdom
of God, which portion is for others and which potion is for us.
4) To Provide for Our Basic Needs - The
Bible says that we should not worry about provision for meeting
our essential needs because God will take care of them
(Matthew 6:25-34). Through this purpose we come to learn to
trust Him in all areas of our lives. Once the Believer can by
faith get past this fundamental reassurance, the way is open for
other uses of His provision. Basic needs include housing, food,
water, clothing, etc., the necessities of life. As discussed in the
previous Newsletter, it's important for Believers to avoid
indebtedness so that debt repayment doesn't become part of
our "need" structure. Since God advises as a general rule
against going into debt, it's hard to convince Him that He's
responsible for providing funds for your interest payments.
5) To Compensate Believers for Faithful
Service - The Bible says that a laborer is worthy of his
wages (Luke 10:7). Therefore, those who produce fruit for the
Kingdom of God can expect to receive appropriate
compensation for their work. When you give offerings of your
money out of love to bless others, you are producing fruit. And
whatever you give up for the sake of the Gospel will be
returned to you in this present age a hundred times
over (Mark 10:29-30). Therefore, a portion of the money God is
providing you is a return for the good fruit you've produced for
the Kingdom of God. As you prove your faithfulness with a
little, God will trust you with greater amounts and He'll reward
you with increasing compensation.
When we receive God's provision, we're expected to disburse it
more or less according to these universal purposes. Therefore,
we must be knowledgeable stewards fully understanding our
responsibilities and spending time with the Lord so that we
properly allocate His provision among the various purposes. For
this reason we can't just wait at home for God's favor and
blessing to fall on us. There's a lot we have to learn and there
are important responsibilities to be assumed in order to qualify
to receive His favor and to be ready to use it for the right
purposes when it comes. Then once we have spent time with
the Lord we should always make our expenditures in faith
believing and trusting that the promises of God found in His
Word will be fulfilled in our lives because we've been faithful
to pursue His purposes before we made our
expenditures.
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Individual Purposes |
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There are also individual purposes which God
has established for the life of each Christian. Indeed, God has
a special and unique plan for each Believer and there are
many examples in scripture of people who found the favor of
God so they could accomplish some particular purpose(s) He
had for a particular time and place. God is the same yesterday,
today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) and He is still using favor to
empower His people to accomplish His purposes. Every
Believer needs to find out from God what specific plans and
purposes He has established for their particular lives and then
expect His favor as an empowerment to accomplish them.
Sometimes you may not even know God has given you some
purpose until the favor shows up. Whenever you do receive
God's favor and blessing, you need to confer with Him and find
out why He's providing them. If you fail to do so and you
consume His favor on your own priorities instead of on the
purpose(s) He was intending that you deal with, the favor will
be cut off and you'll have to wait for the next time. The faithful
steward is the one who has learned over time to discern the
purposes of God and then use His provision in a precise way to
accomplish those specific purposes.
God's purposes for the life of any one Believer are different
than those for any other. For this reason, we can't look at what
He's doing with others to try to figure out what He wants us to
do. The only way to know His purposes for your life is to
develop a relationship with Him and then be led by the Holy
Spirit. Friend there's no other way.
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Some Final Thoughts |
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The bottom line today is this: if you want to enjoy the fullness
of biblical prosperity in your life, you'll need to understand and
pursue God's purposes for the finances you have been
provided. You'll need to bring your purposes into line with His;
He will not bring His into line with yours. When your purposes
DO line up with His and when you ARE using your finances the
way He wants you to, then you'll discover the abundance that
Jesus won for you on the Cross of Calvary.
Thanks for reading Prosperous Life Newsletter today.
God knows you had other things you could have been doing
and He takes note that you are pursuing Him. God bless you
and we'll be looking for you again in three weeks.
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Sinners' Prayer |
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If you have never invited Jesus to become the Lord of your life,
you can do so today by saying the following simple prayer:
Jesus I believe in you and that God raised you from the
dead. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. Please forgive me
for my sins and come into my life today.
If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already come into
your life and you are a new creation. Now ask the Lord to lead
you to a good faith based bible teaching church where you can
be developed to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God. If
you're unable to find a church, give us a call and we'll help
you find a good one.
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Prayer Requests |
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Please e-mail your prayer requests to:
[email protected]. We'll be honored to
bring them before the Lord each Tuesday morning at 10:00
AM, Eastern Time.
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Donations |
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If you have been blessed and edified by
Prosperous Life Newsletter, please pray about
making a Spirit-led love offering to support the work
of the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). PLN is a non
profit [501(c)(3)] gift to the Body of Christ so your
financial gifts are tax deductible (please consult your
tax advisor). You may mail your check or money
order payable to Cornerstone Consulting Ministries to
10621 N. Kendall Drive, Suite 113, Miami, Florida
33176 or click on the donation tab for other payment
options. May God bless you with His abundant
harvest from sowing your precious seed into this
Ministry.
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Questions and Suggestions |
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It would bless us to have an opportunity to answer your
questions concerning any of the areas covered by the ministry
of PLN. We would also be happy to consider your
comments and suggestions. Please feel free to e-mail them to
us or give us a call anytime during normal business hours at
our toll free number 1-800-357-4223.
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