Thanks for looking into Prosperous Life Newsletter today. We've prayed that this article will edify you with the TRUTH of God's Word and cause your FAITH to grow stronger (Romans 10:17).
All this year we've been writing about how THANKING God always winds up benefiting the ones who're doing the THANKING. It's almost like a type of boomerang: we throw out THANKSGIVING and it comes back to us in multiplied FAVOR and EMPOWERMENT. Hundreds of scriptures confirm this principle but they require some study and meditation to reveal and connect all the dots. Of the fifteen articles we've published so far on this subject, more than half have focused on aspects of THANKSGIVING we had not fully considered before. They were revealed by studying the Word of God and having it illuminate some new ways of thinking. The truth is, every time we've looked for a new perspective on THANKSGIVING we've found one and it's beginning to seem like maybe this is an almost inexhaustible subject. Today's article is in that spirit.
I don't have to tell you that millions of families are suffering financially these days. You already know that even if you haven't been directly affected by all the layoffs, lost jobs, cutbacks, unemployment, foreclosures and credit card problems. Most people have been affected to some degree and as we now try to make a rebound, there's a tendency to look for worldly ways to develop solutions. That's all the Flesh knows how to do. But those things still won't work out just like they didn't work out before. No, the right thing to do is search the Word of God for the answers and ask the Holy Spirit how to use what we find there. God wants to help us solve our problems and He's already provided many of the answers we need in His Word. Our assignment is to look for them and then start using what we find.
The Principle of Honoring God
There's a great scripture in the Old Testament that we'll build on today because it so clearly illustrates that when God tells us to do something it's for our own good:
"Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed" (1 Samuel 2:30).
Now to really understand this scripture takes a few minutes of looking up the Hebrew words behind the English and then doing some meditation to hear what the Holy Spirit wants to teach. To HONOR someone means to put VALUE on that person or to ESTEEM them. We VALUE or ESTEEM the person we're HONORING and we consider the relationship to be VALUABLE. All through the Old Testament God observed that His people VALUED other gods and other things ahead of Him. That was important because He LOVED His people (God IS love) and He wanted their highest VALUE to be their relationship with Him because it was for their own good. He had something to give back to them that was (and still is) triggered by HONORING Him.
Notice that God also said that if you don't HONOR Him it goes by default to "despising" Him. It's not like you can say, "God I HONOR you second best." Or "God I like you almost as much as I love my money (or my security or whatever)." No, God says that "if you don't HONOR Me, if you don't VALUE Me, then you despise Me. And by the way, if you despise Me, I will despise you." God doesn't deal much with in between stuff. It's either one way or the other: HONORING or despising.
But on the other hand, if we HONOR God He will HONOR us. What does it mean to be HONORED by God? Looking more deeply into the Hebre, one of the meanings of that word conveys the bestowing of RICHES and not just a few RICHES but heavy riches. Now check this word (kawbade) out for yourself in your Concordance and draw your own conclusions but I can tell you before you jump to the wrong one that this Hebrew word is talking about money-and-possessions-riches, about the VALUABLE physical benefits He blesses folks with in the natural realm when they VALUE Him. It's certainly true that this word might also be used for "spiritual blessing" but there's no way you can exclude financial blessing from the definition of this word because it's the key point. If we put VALUE on Him, He will put VALUE on us. If we give VALUE to Him, He will give VALUE to us and it'll be heavy, overflowing VALUE. The way I see it, if we HONOR God consistently and continually and honestly, we put ourselves in position to receive financial blessing NOW.
Connecting to Thanksgiving
We should want to HONOR God because we love and VALUE Him. You can't HONOR God just so you can get something back from Him. No, it has to be real HONOR, real VALUE:
"Then the Lord said, because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore...I will deal with them...the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed" (Isaiah 29:13-14).
So just going through the motions won't fool God and it won't work. What it does is cause us to lose what little wisdom and discernment we've been able to develop through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. No, it has to be sincere HONOR and then He will respond by HONORING us. HONORING God doesn't come natural either; in fact, the Flesh will fight you every step of the way trying to keep you from honoring anything other than yourself or things in and from the World systems where everything can be assessed by the five natural senses. We have to work at HONORING God by overriding our Flesh and forcing it to go along with what we know is right. And the best way to learn to HONOR Him is by cultivating a lifestyle of THANKSGIVING:
"He who offers a sacrifice of THANKSGIVING, honors Me" (Psalm 50:23).
Sacrificial THANKSGIVING occurs when we THANK Him even when our Flesh doesn't want to which is almost always. It also occurs when we THANK Him in FAITH which means to THANK Him for the manifestation of His HONOR before the fruit of it actually shows up. You can be sure it will show up because Jesus has already taken care of HONOING Him. The blessing and favor and grace were released from the moment the blood of Christ ratified the New Covenant. Now all we have to do is to take possession by FAITH of the HONOR He has already released. THANKSGIVING by FAITH teaches us how to receive the HONOR Jesus died for us to have. THANKSGIVING is something to give back to God every day and soon we'll see those heavy riches showing up in every area of life: spirit, soul and body. That's the way the New Covenant works if you have the FAITH for it.
But, God doesn't HONOR us with His riches just so we can consume them on our own lusts, so we can accumulate possessions and big bank accounts. No, the purposes of the riches that come from God's HONOR and GRACE, according to scripture, are to expand His Covenant on the earth and be a blessing to others. This is the true Bible-based PROSPERITY message, not the one we hear portrayed all over the Body of Christ, the one that so many Christians close their ears to just at the mention of the word PROSPERITY. The truth according to scripture is that God wants His Kingdom to PROSPER and by FAITH we can all be a part of the plan of God.
Thanks for joining us today and we'll be looking for you again in three weeks on Friday, November 12. By the way, Prosperous Life Newsletter has been faithfully published every third Friday since January 1998 and we hope it's a blessing to you. Please feel free to pass it on to others. May the Lord bless you and your family with His GRACE by FAITH.
Sinners' Prayer
If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:
Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I receive forgiveness for my sins and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.
If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.
Donations
If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, would you consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7)? PLN is a non profit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Simply go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting to the following link. God bless you for your love and generosity.
http://www.creditcounseling.net/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1
Prayer Requests
If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. God bless you.
http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx
