Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!
We're so glad you joined our discussion group tonight as we continue with the subject of bible-based PROSPERITY. We're still going to school to learn about God's type of PROSPERITY which is totally different than the world's MATERIALISM and we hope you've learned some things by now about this special BLESSING that God has made available by GRACE through FAITH to the Body of Christ.
God's kind of PROSPERITY is defined as a surplus of provision over and above our needs in every area of life: spirit, soul and body. It's not just about money and finances but it DOES include money and finances. And it's not about attracting surplus finances to consume on our own agenda but for disbursement into the Kingdom of God according to His agenda and His priorities. The word PROSPERITY in all its various forms is mentioned almost one hundred times in Scripture either as a BLESSING or at least in a positive context. It's the Holy Spirit's English word for one of God's most special BLESSINGS (Deuteronomy 28:11).
Now when we say that God's PROSPERITY is available to us by GRACE through FAITH, we need to be sure we understand what that means. PROSPERITY comes by GRACE because it's undeserved and it's an expression of God's FAVOR and empowerment. It's underserved because there's no good work or good deed Believers can perform to qualify for it or to impress God for it or to make it come to them. It's ALREADY fully available and that availability isn't influenced by one's performance. Rather, PROSPERITY comes through FAITH because it's only available to those who believe in God, and it manifests to those who'll believe for it and take possession of it by FAITH simply because they see it in the Word as something they can have.
God's PROSPERITY has always been made available to His people from the beginning of the Bible until now no matter which Covenant the people were living under. Wherever the PRESENCE of God is, you'll find His PROSPERITY. But it certainly hasn't always been made available the way it is now, fully released and fully available by unmerited FAVOR. That's only possible now because Jesus has already PAID for it. To appreciate what we have now under the New Covenant, we can compare it to what went on before under the old covenants.
Old Testament Obedience
And to make the proper comparison we need to see the Old Testament in three distinct parts: Part One is where Adam and Eve in the Garden are in close fellowship with God before their fall; Part Two is the time from their fall until the beginning of the Covenant of the Law that God made with Moses; and Part Three is the 1500 years of living under the Law up until the arrival of Messiah.
During Part One Adam and Eve enjoyed God's presence and lived in perfect PROSPERITY where all their needs were met plus there was abundance in every area of life. Their responsibilities were to take care of the Garden (Genesis 2:15) and to work on expanding it into the entire earth (Genesis 1:28). They were given one rule to submit to and as long as they obeyed it, things would stay okay. But Adam was clearly told that if they ever DISOBEYED and ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die SPIRITUALLY which meant in the original Hebrew that they would experience a spiritual separation from the presence of God (Genesis 2:17).
Eventually they did DISOBEY and began Part Two. In their fear of the unknown consequences Adam and Eve actually initiated their separation from God (Genesis 3:10) allowing the curse to come into the world (Genesis 3:14-19) and resulting in their exit from the Garden (Genesis 3:23) with the related loss of their PROSPERITY. They experienced spiritual death immediately. They lost their position of favor in the Garden, in other words they lost their GRACE, and they had to take up a new line of work outside the Garden. We don't know from Scripture if the Lord ever gave them another opportunity to demonstrate their willingness to be obedient but it's certainly noteworthy that they were not included in the group of Old Testament FAITH people mentioned in Chapter Eleven of the Book of Hebrews.
After their spiritual separation from God and His GRACE until the time of Moses, which is to say during Part Two, God selected certain people He could make His FAVOR available to even though the spiritual separation created by Adam and Eve continued. These were people who had FAITH which made them God's people and they were empowered by their FAITH to OBEY any specific instructions they received from the Lord. For example, Abram was instructed to leave his homeland and go to a new place which he OBEYED in FAITH confident that God would take care of him (Genesis 12:1-4, Hebrews 11:8). And the result was that he was mightily blessed with God's PROSPERITY (Genesis 13:2, 15:1, 17:2). In short, during this part of the Old Testament God made His GRACE available to selected individuals who He could count on to OBEY His instructions in FAITH.
But later on when the people of God had come out of Egypt and were introduced to the Law, Part Three began and PROSPERITY became conditional upon the people's OBEDIENCE to the specific regulations of the Law (Deuteronomy 28:2, 11). The people had decided they didn't want to hear the voice of God any more (Deuteronomy 5:25) so they assigned Moses to hear from Him on their behalf and the result was the Law. What started as the Ten Commandments soon became more than six hundred rules of conduct that the people developed to govern their society and for 1500 years they tried unsuccessfully to obey all those commandments. Still even under the Law God gave His FAVOR to certain people of FAITH like Joshua, King David, King Solomon and a few others. Directionally their works of obedience impeded the effects of the curse but it was a constant battle trying to keep the Law with no permanent success. And during the last 400 years of Part Three, God stopped speaking to His people altogether even through the Prophets which made the people cry out for their Messiah who would come to restore their spiritual connection to God that Adam had lost.
New Testament Restoration
And that brings us up to the New Covenant when everything was changed for the better. The first important thing to take note of is that because of the work of Jesus on the Cross, everyone who decides to become a Believer has their spirit part of them reborn and rejoined with the Spirit of God. In fact, the Holy Spirit comes to actually dwell in the hearts of all Believers. And He has promised He will never withdraw His presence from a Believer (Hebrews 13:5) which means that PROSPERITY is available to anyone who will receive it by GRACE through FAITH.
Now an important part of the New Covenant is that we have been redeemed from the Curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13) which means that you as a born again Believer have been RESCUED from it, you have been set aside and deemed RIGHTEOUS by the Work and the Name of Jesus so the Curse has no power over you. If you commit a sin which everybody does from time to time, it will open a door to the enemy to try to come into your life with his curse to make your life difficult make you think you've been separated from God again. But to block that from happening so it has NO effect on you, all you have to do is the following:
1. AGREE with the Word that what you did was a sin.
2. THANK God for the forgiveness you ALREADY have through FAITH in Christ.
3. Turn away from the sin and go in the opposite direction from it which means to REPENT.
4. RESIST the enemy with the authority and the weapons you've been given in the Word.
5. Kick the enemy out of your affairs and close the door to him by FAITH.
Everything in the New Covenant is easier than it's ever been before if Believers can understand what Jesus has accomplished for them and who they are in Christ. You and I can walk in God's PROSPERITY now free of the Curse of the Law, free of the curse that's operating in the world every minute of every day. We do that by GRACE, which means to receive God's favor and empowerment even though we don't deserve it, even though we might have disobeyed some bible instruction just a few minutes ago, through FAITH which means to believe we have it before we actually experience it.
Friend, under the New Covenant you've regained access to God's PROSPERITY. You've been reconnected to the BLESSING of Abraham through FAITH (Galatians 3:14) instead of having to obey a bunch of rules and laws or by performing a lot of good deeds. Jesus has already done all the good deeds that needed to be done and all you and I need is our FAITH made strong by the renewing of our minds through the hearing of the Word with our spiritual ears (Romans 10:17). This is the strongest and most effective PROSPERITY the world has ever seen and you can have it all by FAITH.
Once we know that we know that God's FAVOR is already fully available, what we should do with that knowledge is step out in FAITH to pursue the fruits of His PROSPERITY by performing the work in the Kingdom that He instructs us to do. We expect PROSPERITY to be the result. We expect His FAVOR to show up because the Word says Jesus already paid for it. That's why we can have it. God wants us to PROSPER through FAITH. But we have to believe it and PURSUE it by FAITH. We have an advocate on our side and all we have to do is mention His Name to keep the enemy out of our activities. Friend, the way this has been set up it's almost impossible to miss His PROSPERITY once we understand what we have in Christ. Looking at the past as we've done in this article can help us appreciate what we have now in the New Covenant. If God is for us who can be against us (Romans 8:31)?
Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again next Sunday night on November 17. In the meantime may you RECEIVE through FAITH every available spiritual blessing while you 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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