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

 

Thanks for joining us again as we continue discussing the subject of biblical PROSPERITY. As you hopefully know by now the underlying purpose of this series has been to defend the bible word PROSPERITY that's mentioned in scripture in a positive context more than 90 times. The reason for doing that is because over the years it has acquired a bit of a tattered reputation as a result of some shaky teaching to the point that the Body of Christ has been moving toward a revised definition of it that's negative and unscriptural. The Truth is God has big plans for your PROSPERITY and He wants you to receive it and then use it NOW according to His plans and purposes. In short, Bible PROSPERITY is not about Christians becoming rich, although that might happen along the way; no, the PROSPERITY of God is about INCREASING His Kingdom.

 

A week from now we're all going to be celebrating Resurrection Day. Even non-believers celebrate it without really knowing why. But almost 2000 years ago a phenomenal thing was accomplished in a three day span that included the crucifixion and physical death of Jesus followed shortly after by His Resurrection back to life. In remembrance of that event many Believers will be greeting one another next Sunday with the phrase, "He is risen" to which the appropriate response is, "He is risen indeed." Most Christians understand that Christ raising from the grave was/is something miraculous and that somehow as a result of it they have received eternal life by the expression of their Faith. But with just a little more study we can get a bigger picture of what Jesus accomplished on that Resurrection Day morning and some of what He accomplished has to do with our PROSPERITY.

 

Understanding What Jesus Accomplished

 

Most Believers probably also realize that man is sinful by nature and that we inherited that characteristic from Adam. On our own we're incapable of being holy enough to please God and because of that we're not able to ever be in a true relationship with Him. And so, since Adam sinned until Jesus came, mankind had been separated from the true fellowship with God that Adam had enjoyed before he sinned. Indeed, God considered us His enemies (Romans 5:10). Normally it's not a good thing to be an enemy of God Almighty and we were headed for a bad ending because God cannot by His nature abide with the presence of sin. In sum, there was mankind who cannot avoid sinning against God who cannot tolerate the sinning. Eventually the result of that confrontation would have been the judgment and WRATH of God on all mankind. But fortunately even though we couldn't stop our sinning God loved us anyway and He had a plan.

 

All sin requires punishment before God can forgive. In other words sin has to be paid for and this is a biblical principle to keep in mind as we move toward Resurrection Day. And oh by the way the payment has to be made in blood which is why folks under the old covenants tried to find forgiveness through the sacrificing of animals. But the Bible says that "...it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" ((Hebrews 10:4) so a lot of animals were being sacrificed under those old covenants but there was no forgiveness no matter how many laws and rules and regulations they also tried to follow to please God. It just can't be done that way. There's nothing a sinner can DO, no sacrifice or holy act or good deed or anything else that can pay for one's own sins.

 

So keeping in mind that in a newsletter format like this it's not really possible to give this subject a full review, God's plan was this: let one man who never sinned pay with His blood for all the sins of everybody. And of course that turned out to be Jesus who never sinned not even one time even though He was fully man and subject to the same temptations and challenges and sufferings in life that all the rest of us are (Hebrews 2:18, 4:15). He became the substitution for the rest of us and it was His blood that atoned, that paid for all our sins (Romans 3:25). And it's not just Believers He paid for by the way; no, the Bible says He paid for the sins of ALL mankind (1 John 2:2).

 

And it gets even better: yes, Jesus shed His blood on the Cross and that blood paid for all our sins but also as a result of that we can be reconciled to the Father simply by making Jesus the Lord of our lives. And by that reconciliation we can be restored to the fellowship with Him that Adam lost in the Garden. And we can even come right up to the throne if we want to and talk with Him and receive His love directly and personally (Hebrews 4:16). And through that reconciliation we also receive eternal life (Hebrews 5:9, 1 John 2:25 and 5:11).

 

But there's more: the payment that Jesus made was for all time and for all sin (Hebrews 9:12 and 10:12). That means all past, present and future sins have ALREADY been paid for. In other words our sins were forgiven 2000 years ago and forgiveness was waiting to be received when we finally accepted and submitted to the Lordship of Christ. And our future sins were also forgiven 2000 years ago so forgiveness is no longer an issue. Indeed, when we're born again we simply RECEIVE the forgiveness that God ALREADY released for us at the Cross. We were ALREADY forgiven but we have to RECEIVE it by FAITH in Jesus. And the work of Jesus was so complete that God the Father has supernaturally FORGOTTEN all our sins forever (Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17). Thus His forgiveness is without reservation and doesn't require us to request it over and over again when we sin. It's done already! A complete work has ALREADY been carried out and there's nothing we could possibly do to add to it.

 

But of course there was also a Resurrection; Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. In fact, He's still alive and His Spirit dwells within every Believer. A risen Christ abides in each of us and we abide in Him. If He hadn't come back to life, we couldn't be abiding together. And by coming back from the grave He's available now to be the Mediator between God and men of a New Covenant (1 Timothy 2:5 with Hebrews 12:25) that's a better covenant with better promises (Hebrews 8:6) than the former covenants that God had developed with a number of other folks including Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses. The New Covenant was established on the blood of Jesus but it exists now because He RESURRECTED from the grave and can be its Mediator. Because He RESURRECTED from the grave we have an eternal ADVOCATE with the Father (1 John 2:1) we wouldn't otherwise have, an Intercessor (Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:25) to represent those of us who have joined the Household of Faith. And if we had more space tonight we could keep on discussing all the great things that happened on that original Resurrection Day.

 

Connecting Forgiveness to our Prosperity

 

Now going back to the subject of PROSPERITY, we don't want to lose sight of the fact that among all these other things, another benefit of the work of the Cross is that we were redeemed from the Curse of the Law and in Christ Jesus we were restored to the BLESSING of Abraham (Galatians 3:13-14). REDEEMED means to be "rescued" or "ransomed" so we have been RESCUED by the payment of a RANSOM from the Curse of the Law. The essence of the Curse is that disobedience leads to a number of negative things in life that you can find listed in Deuteronomy 28, verses 15-68 and one of those curses is INSUFFICIENCY (Deuteronomy 28:48) which is the opposite of PROSPERITY. But now with the Law taken out of the way by its fulfillment at the Cross of Calvary, It is the resurrected Christ who now connects the New Covenant back to the eternal Covenant God made with Abraham.

 

The importance of that reconnection is that we can live life by FAITH the way Abraham did, and so under the New Covenant we live through GRACE by FAITH. This means that the PROSPERITY of God comes the same way: through GRACE by FAITH because it was part of the blessing of Abraham. It's no longer held hostage by the Law and we're free to work it out for ourselves by FAITH. Under this New Covenant God has released all of His FAVOR and EMPOWERMENT, which is His GRACE that makes it possible to receive by FAITH everything the Father has. There's nothing held back, there are no limits or restrictions on what Christians can accomplish in and for the Kingdom of God under the New Covenant if they know the Word and live in Christ by FAITH. Indeed, the Scripture says that we can do ALL things through Christ (Philippians 4:13) so what we have to do is accept the scripture the way it's written and TRUST in it as we step out in FAITH to DO the things we BELIEVE God is calling us to do. Therefore, under the New Covenant the PROSPERITY of God is yours to have and use through GRACE by FAITH, pure and simple.

 

In closing tonight, a lot of Christians have professed their FAITH but they haven't really RECEIVED their forgiveness. The forgiveness is a sure thing but a lot of folks are still trying to impress God with their good works. We should do good works because we love the Lord but they're not going to result in any extra favor right now and they're not going to impress Him or make your trials and tribulations go away. When you sin just thank God for His forgiveness and go on about your life without sin consciousness on your mind because until you fully RECEIVE the revelation of your forgiveness, you're going to have trouble connecting to His GRACE because GRACE is undeserved. You can't work your way to GRACE. Rather you connect to it by FAITH secure in the knowledge that the work that Jesus performed at Calvary was complete and that you're a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) who can do all things through Christ even though you commit a sin once in awhile. In other words, stop trying to be holy in your strength so Jesus can do all the heavy lifting in your life and His holiness can shine through you.

 

Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night March 31, 2013. In the meantime RECEIVE every spiritual blessing causing you to PROSPER not only in finances but 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 Savior and Lord. 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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