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PROSPERITY SCHOOL 101
Part Twenty - An Introduction to the Force of Hope        

  

Beloved I pray above all things that you might PROSPER - 3 John 2

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 By: Dr. Bill Miller                                                 Volume XVI Number 7                                                 February 17, 2013
  

Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship:

 

Thanks for joining our Bible Study on the subject of biblical PROSPERITY. Let's start with a summary of a few major points we've looked at up to now so that new readers are up to date with us and we're all hopefully in one accord:

 

PROSPERITY is a bible word and it's mentioned there more than ninety times in a positive context which doesn't include hundreds of other references to the words success and abundance. Unfortunately though, this great bible word has gotten a bad reputation because of some wrong teaching to primarily Gentile Believers for the last 1500 years or so. The fact is PROSPERITY is a BLESSING from God (Deuteronomy 28:11-12) and the scriptures are clear that God's PROSPERITY includes all sufficiency in everything INCLUDING OUR FINANCES leading to financial abundance that we're supposed to use for the performance of EVERY good deed (2 Corinthians 9:8). And it's God Himself who gives us the ability to obtain that wealth so we can help Him establish His Covenant on the earth (Deuteronomy 8:18). In sum, God has PROSPERITY for us and as New Testament Believers it's our responsibility to RECEIVE His gift through GRACE by FAITH and to then use it in the ways He instructs us in the Word.

 

It's also clear that there are NO scriptures instructing us to avoid PROSPERITY in the New Testament. What God meant for a Blessing under the Old Covenants is still a Blessing under the New Covenant. Let me be clear: there are are no scriptures that say PROSPERITY is Old Covenant and that we should be satisfied in the Church Age with financial insufficiency. It's not there even though man-made tradition has been trying to teach Christians to avoid the pursuit of wealth for centuries. The New Testament does NOT say to avoid wealth, it says rather that wealth can be a corrupting influence unless you learn to use it correctly according to scriptural instructions. If avoiding wealth is what we're supposed to be doing, we have the Apostle Paul looking rather silly don't we in 2 Corinthians 9:8 when he was talking specifically about money telling us that by GRACE we can have ALL SUFFICIENCY IN EVERYTHING?

 

And why are two-thirds of the parables of Christ about money, property and stewardship? He sure didn't teach those principles so that people would glory in their insufficiency and poverty and we know this because other scriptures are not consistent with that point of view. The parables don't say Jesus was canceling one of the Father's Blessings from Deuteronomy 28:11-12. No, He taught those principles so we could learn how to work with His ABUNDANCE (John 10:10) and be FINANCIALLY able to do the future work of the Church (the Body of Christ) which is to go into the ENTIRE World to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15) and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). In short, He was teaching us to avoid MATERIALISM, not to avoid the PROSPERITY of God! There's a BIG difference!

 

The bottom line is that it's okay for New Testament Believers to actively HOPE for the time in our lives when God's PROSPERITY fully manifests and we're actually able to bless other people financially and to bless any church or ministry God puts on our hearts and to provide the finances to establish on the earth God's New Covenant with Christ. HOPING for God's Blessing to manifest is NOT covetousness, which is what tradition has tried to convince us, if we understand what biblical HOPE actually is.

 

Hope Defined

 

As we saw last week it's not possible to please God without FAITH (Hebrews 11:6) and that's why we're supposed to live by FAITH (Romans 1:17). We also saw a definition of FAITH that includes the word HOPE (Hebrews 11:1) and I'm restating my interpretation of that definition as follows:

 

FAITH is the unwavering confidence that you've ALREADY taken possession of the things of God that you're hoping for even though you can't presently perceive those things yet with your five physical senses.

 

Bible HOPE is NOT what many people think it is. It's NOT "wishing" for something like: "I wish I could be PROSPEROUS some day." No friend, Bible HOPE as translated in the New Testament directly from the original Greek means to confidently expect something to happen: "I am confident that if I do what the Word says to do my PROSPERITY will be showing up at any moment. I can't see it physically yet but I'm HOPING for it and I'm BELIEVING for it because the Lord has promised it to me and I trust Him."

 

Notice from Hebrews 11:1 that FAITH and HOPE work together. You can't please God without FAITH but you can't have FAITH unless you first have HOPE. According to this verse, FAITH is what validates your HOPE. You're expecting a promise to arrive and you use your FAITH to join your HOPE to God's GRACE, and from the GRACE comes the empowerment to RECEIVE what you're HOPING for by FAITH. It's awesome how the Kingdom of God works, isn't it?

 

How Tradition Kills Our Hope

 

For that reason, there are forces to contend with that are trying to kill our HOPE and here's a little story to illustrate how that happens. On a particular occasion maybe ten years ago or so, I was conducting a workshop for a group of financially disadvantaged people. These were people who had never been able to accumulate reserve funds in their whole lives nor had they ever owned their own homes, and some of them had been waiting 30 or 40 years WISHING for a better life but not knowing how to achieve it, not really believing they were capable of accomplishing much anyway. During the workshop I began to talk to them spontaneously about the possibility of accumulating an estate for their children and grandchildren, and that by following biblical principles step-by-step they could improve and grow financially. There was suddenly an excitement in the room and a feeling of optimism that was so strong we could feel it. Maybe that was because most of them were Believers. Indeed, I was sure the Holy Spirit had made a lasting impression on most of those folks and that something positive was about to happen with their finances.

 

But, after that workshop one of the leading ministers there who had overheard my comments criticized me to my face for giving false HOPE to those poor people because if they started HOPING for something they weren't going to be able to accomplish, they would become frustrated and unhappy with life and be worse off than had they not hoped for anything. And this minister from one of the country's largest Protestant denominations whose father was a Pastor said to me: "the poor will always be with us (John 12:8) and Jesus Himself was so poor He had no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20)." And I was instructed to never again give financial HOPE to those people in my future workshops.

 

HOPE is a powerful word in our Bibles because according to what it says there, we can't have FAITH without it. But the experience I'm sharing with you tonight is a typical example of how the traditions of men profoundly and erroneously REMOVE the power that the Word of God has to change our lives (Mark 7:13). People take a couple of scriptures out of context and make a whole theology out of them even though that theology is in conflict with hundreds of other scriptures. And believe me when I tell you that this particular theology is a widespread obstacle to the flow of God's PROSPERITY to the Body of Christ.

 

Yes, there will always be poor among us but they don't have to be the same ones all the time. When they get a hold of the TRUTH from the Word of God they're going to stop being poor! Poverty is a part of the Curse and Believers aren't supposed to be stuck there because we've been redeemed from the Curse (Galatians 3:13). And regarding the poverty of Christ which millions and millions of Christians believe today, Scripture actually shows that Jesus was a skilled craftsman and small business owner until He started His ministry at age thirty, that He was a property owner, that He dressed very, very well, that by FAITH He could have food and money any time He wanted it, that He was well educated and that His ministry had numerous financial supporters to the extent that it provided for the needs of all His disciples and it needed a Treasurer (Judas Iscariot) to keep it all organized. When Jesus said He didn't have a place to lay His head that evening, you need to read the context thoroughly before you rush out to create a theology of poverty. If you read all of Luke 9:51-58 you'll find it clear that His comment about not having a place to lay His head was related to the refusal in verse 53 of a Samaritan village to allow Him to spend the night there because He was in route to Jerusalem. As a result, He was in the process of moving on to another place and His remark was related to not having been able to lay His head somewhere in that Samaritan village. There's no indication there whatsoever that He was talking about how poor He was, and the facts are He wasn't poor.

 

Your Hope Can Be a Force for Change

 

Because of those traditions and others like them that we discussed a few weeks ago, many Believers have had their HOPE stunted or cut off entirely. That would explain part of why their FAITH is also so weak. But if confident expectation is the basis of all FAITH then we can override all those traditions and our circumstances as well by creating and nurturing our HOPE until by FAITH our HOPE begins to produce change in our lives. Where do HOPES come from? That's a key question, isn't it? You begin to HOPE when you find a promise in the Word and you decide to AGREE with it. Folks will either AGREE or disagree with the Word; indeed, there are really only two choices: you either AGREE or you don't agree. 

 

So we start by studying the Word to find the promises to AGREE with, in this case promises about God's PROSPERITY. Then we decide to AGREE with those promises and then we can begin to HOPE for them. We're confident that our PROSPERITY will show up and we release our FAITH which says that we ALREADY have it because of what Jesus did at the Cross. And by believing we ALREADY have it we connect to God's GRACE which is the empowerment for the fulfillment of our HOPE. You're the one with the leading of the Holy Spirit who decides what you're going to HOPE for and you're the one who nurtures what you've decided on. If you want to see PROSPERITY manifest in your life, find the scriptures that agree with what you want and decide to AGREE with what the Word says instead of all those traditions that are trying to steal, kill and destroy your HOPE (John 10:10).

 

Along with your study of the Word another way to make your HOPE super strong is working to SEE yourself being PROSPEROUS or SEEING yourself involved with whatever else you're HOPING for. You SEE these things with your imagination in your MIND (Lamentations 3:21). If you can't SEE yourself achieving something, you're almost sure not to achieve it. Most Believers are not PROSPEROUS because we haven't SEEN ourselves being PROSPEROUS. This is how you make your HOPE a FORCE for change. HOPE flowing out of the WORD charges your FAITH with power and then FAITH connects you to whatever GRACE you need for making that HOPE into a reality. In short, don't disregard HOPE in this mix because it's a key component once you know what it really is and it's been overlooked for far too long. HOPING for God's PROSPERITY the Bible way will make you PROSPEROUS. 

 

Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night February 24, 2013. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing causing you to PROSPER in every area of life!

 

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 acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven 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.

 

And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:

 

Romans 10:9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ephesians 2:8

 

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. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.

 

http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx 

 

Donations

 

If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, you may want to consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). God has instructed us to simply provide folks with an opportunity to sow seed into good ground so in due season you'll be eligible to reap a harvest and the rest is up to you as the Spirit leads. For your information PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link. We appreciate your support and generosity.

 

http://www.creditcounseling.net/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1 

 

 

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