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 tonight by re-emphasizing a particular point we're trying to get across in this series. The basic idea is that God has PROSPERITY for the members of His family (Believers) and the desire of His heart is to get it into our lives so we can use it for His purposes. Indeed, the Word of God says that the Curse of insufficiency (Deuteronomy 28:48) ended at the Cross of Calvary (Galatians 3:13). According to that second Scripture you and I were RESCUED (redeemed, ransomed, set free) from the Curse and if God sent His own and only-begotten Son (John 3:16) to shed His blood and die a horrific death so that among other things we could be rescued from insufficiency, then the least we can do is AGREE with a related PROMISE that's mentioned in our Bibles more than 90 times, hundreds of times if you include the references to the words abundance and success.
The problem for perhaps most Christians is that we aren't PROSPEROUS financially so we look for reasons to explain why that part of the promise hasn't showed up. We see in the Word that God has it for us, it clearly says so but when we don't have it, we look around for a reason, an explanation for our failure. One reaction is that maybe we've misinterpreted the Word so we buy into a theology of insufficiency based on taking a few scriptures out of context and ignoring the great witness of other verses that encourage us to expect God's PROSPERITY. Or perhaps we embrace another idea that God Himself must be withholding our financial PROSPERITY either for the purpose of getting our attention so He can teach us something or because we've sinned so much lately He's punishing us for all our dirty deeds.
But no matter how many times we've heard these things taught around the Body of Christ, NONE of this reasoning seems to me to be scriptural. The problem is that traditions are very strong, strong enough to effectively "invalidate" the very POWER of the Word of God (Mark 7:13) and our Flesh wants to embrace one of these "obvious" explanations instead of making the effort to discover what the Word actually says about it. It's a lot easier to just blame God for failing to deliver on a promise like FINANCIAL PROSPERITY than it is to go into the Word and figure out for ourselves precisely why it's not showing up.
The TRUTH is God has already RESCUED us from the Curse and its insufficiency. And He doesn't use the Curse to teach us things because the Holy Spirit is our Teacher (John 14:26) and why RESCUE us from the Curse only to go back and put us under it again to teach us something instead of teaching us from the Word. And He's not punishing us for our sins anymore (Romans 4:15, 5:13, 2 Corinthians 5:19, Hebrews 8:12) because Jesus was already punished for them. If you can set aside all the traditions and look at the Word without traditional influence, you'll be able to conclude that there must be some other reason that your FINANCIAL PROSPERITY isn't showing up. If according to His Word God wants for us to receive His PROSPERITY, is there something that perhaps YOU are doing that's LIMITING what God wants to do to get that PROMISE from Him to you?
What About the Sovereignty of God?
Now the natural quick reaction is that God is SOVEREIGN and no one Believer or not has the ability to LIMIT anything God wants to get done. SOVEREIGN is a popular Word these days and it's often used to convey the idea that God CONTROLS everything. But the word SOVEREIGN has nothing to do with CONTROL. Please by all means look it up for yourself in your Dictionary. SOVEREIGN has to do with AUTHORITY. Who's in charge? For example, the Queen of England is SOVEREIGN in Great Britain but she's not able to CONTROL all her subjects.
God is SOVEREIGN too, but in addition to being SOVEREIGN He's also uniquely able to CONTROL everything He wants to control. He's SOVEREIGN according to the correct use of the word in that He has ALL authority but then He chooses to NOT CONTROL everything, even though He could if He wanted to, so that we human beings can be able to make our own choices and decisions. The fact that He also has fore-knowledge about everything we choose doesn't change the reality that you and I make our own decisions. If we want to we can decide to DISAGREE with God and go our own way. For example, many people are choosing NOT to get born again even though it's God's expressed WILL that everyone on earth be saved (2 Peter 3:9). He knows what we're going to choose before we've made our decisions but He supernaturally chooses to not interfere in our decision process.
"Well, doesn't the Bible say that God's causing all things to work together for good (Romans 8:28)?" Yes that's true but if you read that idea in context it's NOT saying He's controlling everything that's happening on the earth. No, you have to read the entire verse to find out that it's talking only about Believers who love God and are called according to His purpose, and it's for them that He's causing all the things that happen including bad things to work out to our good. He's not controlling everything that happens but He's taking what does happen and causing it to work out for our good.
Confusion about the subject of God's SOVEREIGNTY causes people to think/say that He's ALLOWED bad things like for example insufficiency to come into their lives in order to address some particular personal purpose. But that would make Him a Respecter of persons in violation of His own Scripture (Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11) and the Truth is God's ALLOWING everything that happens on the earth to go ahead and happen. The earth is spinning out of control under the influence of sin and its related Curse, and God's ALLOWING all that to happen. But as Believers we have the Holy Spirit leading us (Romans 8:14) and He's trying to give us direction and wisdom to help us make the right decisions and go in the best direction. The bottom line is that God has had nothing to do with any financial insufficiency ever in your life. He already provided GRACE a long time ago so you could become PROSPEROUS in every area of life. So if you're experiencing insufficiency you're the one with the help of your Adversary who's responsible for it and you've somehow LIMITED the Holy One of Israel from connecting you to His GRACE.
The Example of the Israelites
I'm pretty sure that some folks don't like to hear that they're the cause of their own financial problems but friend the Word is TRUE and it says that God doesn't take back His promises. Look at the bright side: if God wanted you to be poor there would be NO way you could ever overcome your poverty. But since you're the problem instead of Him, you can learn what to correct, take your LIMITS off Him and then by abiding in Christ raise yourself up into the PROSPERITY He wants you to have.
For those of you who don't think it's possible to LIMIT God, consider for a moment the example of the Israelites. Indeed the Bible says we're to consider them as examples for our own lives so we can avoid repeating the dumb things they did (1 Corinthians 10:6). As the story goes, God had promised to take them to a new special land after He successfully led them out of bondage in Egypt. But the Israelites didn't trust Him to deliver on His Promised Land. There were after all obstacles to overcome in order for the promise to be fulfilled, and rather than face all those difficulties, most of them preferred to just go back to Egypt and put themselves back into the bondage they had previously cried out to God to be delivered from. Their lack of trust and their complaining and disobedience grieved God to the max and in the KJV of the Bible there's a scripture that bears directly on this topic:
Psalm 78:41 = "They turned back and tempted God, and LIMITED the Holy One of Israel."
God wanted to lead the Israelites to His new Promised Land right after they left Egypt, but they resisted Him and God had to wait for a whole generation to die off before He could make good on His PROMISE. The Bible says they LIMITED God, they thwarted His plan and vision. He didn't override their poor decision or get rid of the leading trouble makers so He could get things moving again. No, He permitted the Israelites, regular people just like you and me, to make their choice and delay His plan for 40 years. God was ready to move on immediately, it was His WILL to take action right away; but the KJV says He was LIMITED by their fear and their decision to turn away from the Promised Land.
Some Concluding Thoughts
In sum, God has a special PROSPERITY just for His people. The Word is clear about it. But from the very outset of the process we LIMIT the power of His GRACE to connect us to that PROSPERITY by failing to AGREE with the Promise of it just like the Israelites did with their promise. Instead of AGREEING with the Promise or PROSPERITY and AGREEING with all the things God says about it, we go along with those man made traditions because they explain away our own failure and make us feel better about ourselves. The real failure is that we don't go ahead and aggressively march into the Promised Land to take what belongs to us. Most of us are sitting around waiting passively for PROSPERITY to fall on us one day when instead we should be taking action and releasing our FAITH in the ability of God to deliver on His Promise.
Jesus died on a Cross so that GRACE could abound to Believers and we could connect to it by FAITH. But real FAITH that's alive and produces results requires action (James 2:17), it requires trust and confidence in the Word and that God will SOON deliver on His Promise of PROSPERITY. It also requires understanding that our PROSPERITY doesn't depend on any person or employer or corporation or government or on any other man made or man-related source. The emergence of God's PROSPERITY in our lives depends on our active PURSUIT of God's Promise in FAITH confident that we'll succeed in apprehending everything He has for us.
Yes, it is possible to LIMIT God and most Believers have been LIMITING the connection to God's PROSPERITY for centuries. We can change that picture soon enough by coming to believe that God loves us enough to want us to be PROSPEROUS. Stop doubting it and AGREE with the Word while you're watching your life change for the better sooner than you think.
Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night March 3, 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.
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