Seeking Jesus First - May 25, 2023
God has blessed His people. What is the blessing? It is a spoken word that empowers success. As with any empowering or saving word from God, it must be believed to be received. All of God’s promises (blessings) are in Christ, “Yes”, and in us, “Amen” to the glory of The Father.
He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (See Eph. 1:3) Every promising word from God has been spoken over us and given to us. We receive these words by believing them.
Is it alright for one Christian to prosper?
If it is alright for more than one Christian to prosper?
Is God a respecter of persons? “Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.” (Acts 10:34, NKJV) Other versions say, “God is not a respecter of persons.”
If God does not “play favorites”, how is the blessing, healing, prosperity and promises distributed? It is not distributed. It is released to all who believe. The promises are hanging over every person on earth waiting for the person to have faith in God.
God has not determined to make certain people prosper and certain people live in poverty. He is determined to respond to us according to faith.
The Old Covenant was based upon works. The Current Covenant is based upon faith.
The Old Covenant REQUIRED God to respond to obedience and to disobedience.
The New Covenant requires God to respond to faith.
The New Covenant is a return to the Abrahamic Covenant with extra sauce! Abraham was a friend of God and was blessed in every way by God. God spoke an empowering word which Abraham believed and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Through faith in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham has come upon the Gentiles. The extra sauce is receiving Holy Spirit and Adoption (not merely friends but blood/spirit related family!).
Now, how could either covenant put a requirement on God? God is not a man that He should lie. It is impossible for God to lie. So God places requirements on Himself by the words that He speaks. This is not a problem for God because His word is His will. When God wants to do something, He speaks it first (Amos 3:7).
If you think God does not want His children to prosper financially, please repent from that wrong thinking.
If you think God is going to do it in your life without you believing it, please repent from the wrong thinking.
God’s blessing is on what you put your hand to do. You will reap what you sow. Give and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, and running over, and with the measure that you mete out, it will be measured back to you. This is a law in the earth like gravity and lift. So, you can determine whether or not you stay grounded.
Explanation: A farmer counts the cost of planting. He works hard to ensure that the ground is ready to receive the seed that he plants. After he plants, he makes sure that the water is adequate, the pests are repelled, and the weeds are irradicated. And he waits expectantly for the harvest. When he reaps his crops, he eats, stores, sells, shares, and saves the best seed for planting again. In this way, he prospers year over year. It is not a get rich quick scheme. It is a growth process tied to diligence and faithfulness.
This is how the blessing of God makes us prosper.
“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” (3 John 2, NKJV)
But, yes, prosperity can be tied to faithful giving. Do you believe the promise? “According to your faith, be it unto you.”
Prosperity is tied to faithful and diligent working as well as a generous spirit.
“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.” (Luke 16:10, NKJV) “‘For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” (Luke 19:26, NKJV)