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

Welcome back everyone. We hope you had a great THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY and are enjoying this special season of the year. If you've been following along with us then you know we've been talking about God's PROSPERITY for over a year now presenting the position that according to Scripture PROSPERITY is a blessing from God (Deuteronomy 28:11). Also, it has ALREADY been made available to Believers by GRACE through FAITH because of what Jesus accomplished on the Cross. God's PROSPERITY is not just about financial things but it always includes our finances. Let me be clear: you cannot exclude finances from the New Testament concept of God's PROSPERITY. And, PROSPERITY is the Holy Spirit's word for this particular blessing and it's unscriptural to use it in a negative context. It's also unscriptural to try to equate it with the world's MATERIALISM because they're entirely different. One is a blessing from God; the other is from the Curse and we all need to see the difference.  

Now most Believers want to experience the fullness of God's PROSPERITY in their lives. But the reality is they're not enjoying anything close to that. In fact many of us are frustrated because we've prayed and released our faith and rested on the Word but PROSPERITY has not manifested as we had hoped. Traditional religious teaching tells us not to be frustrated by this because we're supposed to be in lack anyway so God can get our attention and make us humble. In other words, we would be better off just to forget about PROSPERITY. But that's not what the Word of God says. The Word says that God wants us (you!) to be prosperous, that He's given you the power to prosper (Deuteronomy 8:18) and that He's actually trying to push you, to help you into that PROSPERITY. So why then would we still not be seeing it manifested even after we've released our faith and fasted and rested and resisted doubt and done all the things we thought we were supposed to do according to all these articles and ideas we've been looking at for more than a year?  

The Commandments of Jesus

For many good and devout Believers a very possible answer to this question can be found in Matthew 22:37-40 where one day Jesus answered a question posed by an expert in the Law of Moses who was there among the assembled Pharisees. The question was this: Teacher, which is the greatest (strongest or most important) commandment in the Law? Scripture says that the expert was testing the Lord but Jesus answered Him without hesitating:

(37) You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all

your mind. (38) This is the great and foremost commandment. (39) The second is like it,

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (40) On these two commandments depend the

whole Law and the Prophets.

Jesus answered the expert's question by giving two clearly stated commandments, (1) to love the Lord, and (2) to love other people as you do yourself. Notice that Jesus repeated the word commandment in His answer so it was clearly His intention that they continue on as commandments instead of becoming suggestions or guidelines for how to lead righteous lives. Indeed, many other verses in the New Testament refer to the commandments of Christ and exhort us to obey them: John 14:15, John 14:21, John 15:10, 1 Corinthians 7:19, 1 John 2:3, 1 John 2:4, 1 John 3:22, 1 John 3:24, 1 John 5:2, 1 John 5:3, 2 John 6, Revelation 12:17, Revelation 14:12 and Revelation 22:14.

Surely of some surprise to the people assembled there that day would have been the fact that Jesus summed up the Law of Moses with only two commandments. Jewish folks were used to hearing about 600+ commandments. And He stated them in a way that conveyed His authority to synthesize the Law down to only two issues. The essence of what He said was that you can fulfill the whole Law by just carrying out these two commandments: love God and love our neighbors.

Another point to bring out is that in order to love our neighbors as we should we need to love ourselves, not in a narcissistic way but as God sees us. Except by FAITH we can only love others up to the same level that we love ourselves or lower. And many Christians have trouble loving themselves because they don't fully understand yet the love that God has for them nor who they are in Christ. They don't appreciate their own value to the Creator of the universe. The Bible says that the Lord has chosen to not remember our sins (Hebrews 8:12, 10:17) and is no longer holding them against us (2 Corinthians 5:19, Romans 5:13). How can we refuse to love someone that God sent His first born Son to the Cross to die for? How can we refuse to love ourselves when the Father says we are His handiwork (Ephesians 2:10)? Friend, you need to learn to love yourself, you must insist on loving yourself so that even when the enemy comes to convince you how bad you are, you can come to love others and fulfill the commandments of Christ.

The final point to bring out about these verses is that Jesus said that all the Law and everything the Prophets have ever said depend on, or are subordinated to, these two commandments. In other words, none of the other laws or principles of conduct in the Kingdom of God will function properly and fully unless they come through LOVE. In fact, the Bible confirms that even our faith won't work if it doesn't come out of love (1 Corinthians 13:2). Friend, Matthew 22:40 says clearly to those who have ears to hear (spiritual perception) that the Laws of biblical PROSPERITY won't work for you if they don't come through LOVE. Therefore, if your PROSPERITY has been a little short perhaps it's time to consider where you are in your love-walk.

The Meaning of Love

Now, the New Testament that we read in English is a translation from the original language it was written in which was mostly Greek. The Greek language is more precise, more specific than English so in order to discover the deeper meanings of what the writers were saying under divine inspiration, we need to study the Bible in its original language. The truth is there are almost 20 Greek words there that have been translated into the single English word "love." Following are a few of the main examples:

Phileo is love for a friend

Philanthropia is love for mankind

Philadelphia is brotherly love

Eros is physical love as between husband and wife

Agape is unconditional and self-sacrificing love

The Greek word that has been translated "love" in the scriptures cited in the previous section is the word "agape." Agape is the kind of love that God loves His children with. It's the kind of love that Jesus had when He went to the Cross of Calvary on our behalf. Since it's unconditional, it doesn't depend of being loved in return; it doesn't have any strings attached. Agape love says, "no matter what you do I will love you. I make a decision to love you and there's nothing you can do or not do to change that." Agape love also says, "I put your welfare and your interests ahead of mine. I will even give up what benefits me if that's what's required for you to be benefited." It is with this kind of love that we're called to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbors as ourselves. It is a decision to be made and it is this kind of love that opens the door to the working of the biblical laws and principles in the lives of Believers.

Are Christians Really Expected to Obey the Commandments of Jesus?

When many Christians read these scriptures from Matthew 22, there's a tendency to gloss over the message and go on to something else that's more relevant and possible for real life. They sound nice but they're not really possible to obey. But Jesus stated and restated them as commandments which He would not have done if they were impossible to keep or if they were not important. Jesus would never have set us up for failure by giving out commandments we're not able to keep.

Well you might say, "Maybe the English translation commandment is too strong for the original Greek word that was used in these scriptures." Maybe Jesus meant this more like, "this would be nice to work on when you have some time." Or, "you should work on this after the Rapture." But no, the Greek word here is entoly which is a very strong word for the English translation "commandment." The Greek means that what has been said is a precept that has been communicated by someone with legal authority who has the power to enforce his order, similar to an injunction issued by a Judge or a court order. This strong word was used intentionally and it says, "I have the power, the authority, to pass out the punishment if you disobey. And it's clear from the scripture itself that Jesus was speaking for the here-and-now, not for the afterlife. The truth is obvious: God is serious about having us try to obey these commandments now.

Moreover, Jesus said, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love..." (John15:10). When it says that you will abide in His love, it means that you will actually dwell together with God because God is love (1 John 4:16). This is an important revelation because Jesus also said that "...apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). In sum then, in order to dwell with Christ and connect to the benefits of His love, we must be working to keep His commandments. In other words, if we're sincere about wanting to experience biblical PROSPERITY, we must abide in Christ, which in turn requires that we keep His commandments. God doesn't give us His GRACE because we keep His commandments though because GRACE is undeserved. Rather, the keeping of His commandments improves our spiritual perception so we can PERCEIVE the GRACE that God has ALREADY released for us and then connect to it.

For many Believers it's time to slow down and study these scriptures a little more closely and seriously. By nature we don't LOVE others easily, whether God or man, because we're too concerned about ourselves. Nevertheless, when someone in authority has commanded us to do something, he's expecting us to carry out his orders. In fact, in this case the Lord is waiting patiently for them to be carried out so He can advance the work of the Kingdom. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit is working with each of us to overcome our selfish flesh and bring about perfected LOVE in our lives so that by FAITH we can actually do what has been commanded. And when finally we do submit to the LOVE commandments of Christ, we should soon thereafter find biblical PROSPERITY beginning to overtake us.

Thanks for dropping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again next Sunday evening on December 8 and we hope you'll join us each week as we continue studying the subject of bible-based PROSPERITY. Until then may God bless you and your family with the total PROSPERITY of Christ!

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