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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! THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS PREVIOUSLY SENT WITH AN INCORRECT TITLE. SORRY FOR THE ERROR!
Biblical prosperity is the state of total well being
where God
is meeting all your needs: spirit, soul and body.
The following article is an annual message parts of
which are
now repeated for the fifth consecutive year on the
subject of
starting the New Year out on the right foot. We hope it'll
bless
you and your family as you get ready for a new start
and a new
chance at biblical prosperity and victory. Hopefully
you've
listened to our recent reminders and you're
successfully
avoiding the temptation to run up a lot of new debt as
you get
ready to celebrate Christmas in less than a week.
But looking beyond Christmas and as we approach
the end of
2008, many families are involved in drawing up a new
plan for
next year. As in most things there are two versions of
this
process. The secular community often refers to it
as "making
New Year's Resolutions." In a general
sense "resolutions" are
goals people want to strive for especially in difficult
areas of
life where past victory has been frustrated.
Also, "resolutions"
tend to be self-focused pertaining to the achievement
of man-
centered objectives. Success is dependent upon
one's own
efforts to achieve the objectives.
Many Christians will also go through year-end
planning but our
thinking should be different. There's nothing wrong
with
forward thinking per se, but for Believers the effort
should focus
on reconnecting with the purpose and plan of God
instead of
on the pursuit of personal goals. The Christian
approach
should be God-focused and Kingdom oriented; it
should be
concerned with the achievement of Spirit-led plans
and
purposes. Success will be defined by our faithfulness
to God's
plans, by our willingness to let Him carry them out as
He wants
to and by the resulting manifestation of biblical
prosperity in
our lives: spirit, soul and body.
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Understanding Spirit-Led Planning |
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At first the two approaches seem to be similar; they
are both
trying to develop a plan for next year. But they are really
quite
different. One considers God and puts His Kingdom
first; the
other doesn't consider God and puts the person first.
One is
based on submitting to and depending upon God; the
other
features overcoming personal shortcomings through
self-effort.
One is Spirit-led; the other is led by "the lust of the
flesh, the
lust of the eyes and the pride of life" (see 1 John 2:16).
The basic requirement for Spirit-led planning is the
ability to
hear from God. In turn, our ability to hear is dependent
upon
the closeness of our personal relationship with Him.
How well
do we really know God? How much time do we spend
in His
Word and in seeking His companionship and
direction? The
result of having a close and intimate relationship is
ultimately
a continuous "revelation" of God's will for our lives.
In the New Testament the Greek word that's often
translated as
REVELATION means to DISCLOSE. In other words, by
divine
REVELATION, the Holy Spirit is working to DISCLOSE
His
plans and purposes for our lives so that we have
direction and
a basis for faith and hope. The composite of the
various plans
and purposes is often referred to as His VISION and
as long as
we try to live our lives within the boundaries of God's
VISION,
we will experience His goodness, His abundance and
His
blessings. Indeed, we will experience the very best He
has for
us.
The Bible says in the Old Testament that “Where there
is
no “vision,” the people perish�” (Proverbs 29:18). So
it’s
important for God’s people to be involved in a VISION.
The
Hebrew word for VISION in this scripture also means
REVELATION and so another meaning would be that
where
there is no REVELATION the people perish. Or for the
New
Testament Believer, if we cut off God’s ongoing
REVELATION
through carnality, resistance, indifference, lack of
relationship,
disobedience, rebelliousness, tradition, religion,
dullness,
hardness, etc., then the victorious PRESENT life of
abundance
Christ won for us at the Cross of Calvary will PERISH,
or be
severely impaired, and we will lead lives of defeat and
discouragement instead of prosperity and abundance.
One of the English dictionary definitions of the word
VISION is
INTELLIGENT FORESIGHT. The question we have to
answer
is this: on whose intelligence does the Believer's
FORESIGHT
depend? Without question the FORESIGHT we are to
have in
our lives should be based on the intelligence of God,
which
comes by revelation that springs from having a strong
personal
relationship with Him by faith through Christ.
In sum, for Believers the development of a New Year's
plan
should be a process of reaffirming God's VISION for
our lives
based on His personal REVELATION. By
apprehending that
VISION the Believer then has direction that has come
from
God Himself and we can feel secure in immersing
ourselves BY
FAITH in the flow of that VISION in the weeks and
months and
years ahead. In so doing we make ourselves eligible
for the
continuous manifestation of biblical prosperity in every
area of
life.
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Characteristics of God's Vision |
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The vision that God makes available to Believers is
always a
vision of INCREASE. The Bible in both the Old and
New
Covenants establishes that God is the LORD of the
Increase. In
other words, He's the One who causes things to
increase (1
Corinthians 3:6-7) in the lives of Believers. He's never
the one
who causes decrease; He's not the one who steals
and
diminishes things (John 10:10). Nor does He
decrease to purge
things for some "higher purpose." The increase that
comes
from
God brings no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22). God's
increase is
always good and flows to people of faith out of His
love and
total goodness.
Another way that scripture refers to INCREASE is the
word
PROFIT. For example, the Bible says in Isaiah 48:17-
18 that
it's God who teaches us to PROFIT. Following is the
complete
scripture for your consideration:
"I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit,
who
leads you in the way you should go. If only you had
paid
attention to My commandments! Then your well-being
would
have been like a river, and your righteousness like the
waves of
the sea." (NAS)
Friend, we need to understand these verses of
scripture. Since
God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), these
words
apply to us today just as they did to the people of
Israel (and
Judah) 2,700 years ago. The Hebrew word translated
here as
PROFIT means "to ascend" or "increase." You could
also
translate it as "to prosper." God is always increasing,
always
prospering His creation and this is the vision He
wants you to
have for your future; it's the desire of God's heart to
increase
you and your family in 2008 (Psalm 115:14). How
does He
increase us? According to this scripture, by leading us
in the
way we should go. If we follow closely along the path
the Holy
Spirit lays out for us, we're SURE to increase; we WILL
experience success.
But we also have to pay attention to His
commandments,
which is to say we have to understand and pursue the
principles we find in His Word. Those principles are
the basis of
the BINDING Covenant God has established with His
people. If
we'll be obedient and do what we're supposed to do,
the Lord
is bound by His agreement, by His Word, to respond
as He has
promised. If we do this we'll experience a flow of well-
being
like a river. The Hebrew word translated "well-being"
is
SHALOM which also means peace and/or prosperity.
It's the
type of "prosperity" where nothing is missing or
broken in your
life; everything is working right for you spirit, soul and
body and
you're totally at peace. This is the increase that God
brings and
wants us to incorporate into our plans and pursuits for
the future.
Does this mean that God's vision for you is free from
tribulation
and persecution? No, such difficulties come to us
because we
live in the World. Indeed, for the time being we have to
live IN
the World even though we're not OF it (John 17:14-18).
The
World brings tribulations and persecutions and even
within the
Body of Christ sometimes there is persecution for the
Word's
sake as we struggle to understand the Truth. God
does not put
tribulations and persecutions on His children but what
He does
do is provide sufficient grace so we can make it
through our
difficulties in victory and in peace. Friend, it's entirely
possible
to experience SHALOM peace and prosperity while in
the very
midst of our storms. God's vision provides the grace
to do this
and when we stay within the vision we will be able to
overcome every challenge and in the process be able
to glorify
God.
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How to Receive God's Vision |
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But, do you really believe that this is the VISION your
Almighty
Father has for you? We read about it in His Word but
then we
seem to find many ways on many occasions to doubt
it and
give up on it. Friend, the Word of God is Truth and
Truth is not
subject to our actual experiences. Just because we
haven't
experienced all of His INCREASE yet doesn't change
the
Truth. What it means is that we have to examine
ourselves and
find out HOW to actually RECEIVE what Truth has
promised to
provide.
It is God's intention that all Believers be Spirit-led, not
head-
led, or money-led, or feelings-led, or emotions-led, or
people-
led or circumstance-led or flesh-led. The sons of God
are to be
Spirit-led (Romans 8:14). When people are born
again, the
Holy Spirit comes immediately to dwell within them to
begin
the process of LEADING them to the Truth (John
14:16-17) so
they can conformed to the image of Christ (Romans
8:29).
Believers are spirit-beings and God communicates to
us Spirit-
to-spirit. Therefore, to receive the Lord's vision for our
lives, we
must be willing to commune with Him and hear what
He wants
to teach us. The better we know Him the easier it will
be to
recognize His voice, the more familiar we'll be with His
ways of
communicating. Most of the time He doesn't speak in
an
audible voice but by an inner knowing, a witness that
confirms
that the Holy Spirit has communicated a particular
truth
(Romans 8:14). You just KNOW that He has spoken to
you and
in that manner you come to KNOW God's vision for
your life.
The Bible says that Jesus only did what He SAW the
Father do
(John 5:16-19). In other words Jesus received His
VISION for
what He was supposed to do by WATCHING the
Father. When
and how did Jesus WATCH the Father do those
things? Many
people think He must have had some supernatural
way of
communicating or that He had seen the Father do
these things
before He came to earth. But Jesus was subject to the
same
ways of doing things as we are (Philippians 2:7); the
difference
was He spent a lot MORE time communing with the
Father
than we do and He had developed His faith into the
force that
could move mountains. He could SEE His Father in
His Spirit;
He knew His voice and He watched Him day to day as
He
walked out His earthly ministry.
Receiving God's vision doesn't mean we receive it all
at one
time. Most Believers want to SEE the whole picture so
they can
live out of the "security" of their flesh; but that's not the
way
God works. Receiving God's vision means we locate
the path
that He is on and wants us to follow along together.
Once we
SEE the path as spiritual VISION, then we must be
willing to
step out in faith one faith step at a time and
accomplish the
plans and purposes He has for our lives. His Word
will show us
the way: "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to
my
path" (Psalm 119:105). But note that the Lamp is at
your feet;
you won't be able to SEE out along the path for a great
distance. Faith takes us one step at time; if we could
SEE the
whole path, where would the faith be? Typically you
have
enough light to see where to take the next step or two
and
even that much light requires that you pursue a close
relationship with both the Holy Spirit and His Word.
The closer
the relationship the more you will SEE, the sharper
and more
detailed the VISION, the greater the accomplishment
for the
glory of God.
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Elements of a Good Financial Plan |
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As part of the overall process of reaffirming the
family's vision,
PLN has always recommended that every Christian
include an
annual review of the family's financial plan. Here's
how it could
work. Biblically, God has appointed the husband as
the family's
financial visionary and it's his responsibility to consult
the Lord
along with input from his wife and the other
counselors God
has placed in his life. The husband's role is to
prayerfully seek
after the vision from God; the wife's role is to
prayerfully agree
that what her husband hears, what he SEES, is
actually from
God. When the consultations have been completed,
husband
and wife should be in total agreement as to what the
family's
financial vision (direction) will be for the coming year. If
they
are not in agreement, they should continue to consult
the Lord
and each other until they come into agreement.
An essential part of the process should be to carefully
record in
writing everything God tells you. The Bible says in
Habakkuk
2:2 to "Record the vision and make it plain upon
tablets, that
he may run that reads it." In this scripture we have the
same
Hebrew word for VISION as in Proverbs 29:18; so
without a
VISION we perish but with one written down we can
RUN with it
to accomplish God's plans and purposes. When you
have
written down everything the Lord tells you to do, when
you
have recorded His revealed vision, you will have your
financial
plan for the coming year and you will be able to act on
it in
faith.
Once God has given you your financial plan for the
coming
year you should be prepared to start confessing and
acting on
it so you turn His Word into prophecy for your family.
Be
prepared to release your faith for the fulfillment of His
Word in
His time and in His way. And, be prepared as well to
release
your faith for the manifestation of the fullness of
biblical
prosperity for you and your family.
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Applying God's Vision to Our Finances |
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The hardest part of implementing your financial vision
will be
to actually launch it into motion. For example, if part of
your
God-given vision for next year is to start getting out of
debt,
you must first DECIDE you really want to do that and
then take
action. You can't make progress until you take the first
steps.
For the lack of those first steps most families continue
to wallow
in their indebtedness for most of their lives.
Likewise for the other financial areas, once the basic
decisions
have been made, you should begin to take
action. “Faith, if it
has not works, is dead�” (James 2:17). If you ask
God for action
plans, He will speak them to your heart and He will
guide you
throughout the year by faith. First make the decisions;
then,
take the related actions keeping close to the Lord to
be sure
you don’t inadvertently deviate from the path the Lord
wants
you to follow.
By the way, if in fact you are presently indebted, getting
out of
debt OUGHT to be a part of your financial plan. In
previous
issues of Prosperous Life Newsletter we've
discussed how
indebtedness interferes with God's purposes for the
family and
for the Kingdom of God. Accordingly, working to get out
of
debt should be an automatic part of a Christian's
financial plan.
Your financial plan should also include a written
MONTHLY
SPENDING PLAN (budget) for your family. God will be
pleased
to give you the details of your Family Budget if you ask
Him for
them. Then, once you have a written budget, everyone
in the
family will be in agreement together and with God as
to what
your living expenses should be so you will be in a
position to
avoid overspending and incurring further
indebtedness. You'll
also have a basis for faith to believe God for a specific
income
to cover all the expenses in your budget. If you have
sought
the Lord in the preparation of your Family Budget, and
if you
are faithful to return your tithes cheerfully and give
bountiful
offerings, He will be faithful to see to it that ALL your
financial
needs are met and exceeded.
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Some Final Thoughts |
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Accessing the revelation of God should be something
that's
going on all the time in a Believer's life. We don't want
to wait
until the end of the year to seek the Lord about
something. We
certainly shouldn't wait until the end of the year to
pursue a
closer relationship with Him. But the beginning of a
new year is
a good time to "recertify" God's vision, to get back on
the right
path and to launch a fresh start with renewed faith.
Certainly, revelation and vision are key benefits that
come from
regularly pursuing a close relationship with God but
most
people try to get by with less and in fact our carnal
nature
craves to avoid a relationship with Him altogether. But
if we
step out in faith that His Word is true and that He will
disclose
Himself to those who pursue Him, we'll be rewarded
for our
efforts. The truth is no matter how hard we try to avoid
a close
relationship, nothing else works. When we finally give
in to that
immutable reality, the blessings and prosperity of God
will
begin to flow toward the abundance He has intended
for us
from the foundation of the universe.
As you prepare for the New Year, purpose to
strengthen the
unity of your family in pursuing your goals together. Be
of one
accord as you make ongoing decisions. Make an
irrevocable
decision to pray together and seek the Lord daily.
Decide to
increase your efforts to develop a closer relationship
with the
Lord. Being able to hear from Him depends on it and
comes
from time spent in His Word. Also, purpose to be a
person of
prayer in the New Year. Enter into the battle with the
enemy
with prayer and faith confident that the Lord will protect
you
from your enemy and give you the victory.
Thanks for reading Prosperous Life Newsletter today.
We'll be
looking for you again in three weeks on January 9,
next year. In
the meantime have a blessed Christmas and New
Years
holiday full of hope and joy for what God is going to do
in your
life in 2009. May God bless you with the fullness of His
spiritual
blessing and favor. Happy New Year!
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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 I receive You as my
Lord and
Savior. I believe You are the Son of God and that He
raised
You from the dead. Thank you that my sins are
forgiven and
that I am reborn, a new creature in You.
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 should be tax deductible (please consult your tax
advisor).
May God bless you with His abundant harvest in return
for
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.
� Make A Way Ministries, Inc.
10621 North Kendall Drive - Suite 120
Miami, Florida 33176
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