God’s Prosperity III
Joshua 1:6-8
Be strong and of good courage, for this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.
God wants us to succeed and prosper!
These verses let us know God wants us to succeed and prosper. That is God’s will for all his children, to succeed in all He commands them to do. So many preach against this today. Just ask yourself the opposite, God wants me to fail and live a defeated life. Does this sound like a loving father? What good father would wish this on his child? Not one. We all want our children to be blessed with all life has to offer them. In education, work, and family. We want them to prosper not only materially but also spiritually. So why do we believe God wants the opposite for us. To put it plainly, to preach otherwise is just religious nonsense. You have to be religious to believe this!!
So the question is; If God wants us all to be saved, healed, blessed and have success, why are so many Christians living in sickness, poverty and failure?
That is the reason for this article. To help you get out of religious nonsense, and to get you to start living the way God designed us to live.
I have not mentioned this in the two previous articles, but in verse six, it says:
Be strong and of good courage, for this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
God told them to go into the promise land and they will divide as an inheritance!
God told them right from the beginning they will be victorious, the battle is already won. But there are some conditions to this victory. It is not automatic! God shared with them the desired outcome but they need to follow His directions to win. This means work, it means a fight is ahead. It does not say there will be no effort on your part. It means as God says three times in these verses, be strong and very courageous.
Assembly Required!
Here is an example; have you ever tried to put something together and decided not to read the directions? You go out and buy a wonderful product, but it says “assembly required.” If you would follow the directions, you would be successful.
Human nature seems to tell us we do not need the directions. We can do it on our own. But after a few frustrating attempts, we finally come to our wits end. Sitting there frustrated we want to break the item, but we finally and reluctantly open the directions. Then step by step, in no time we have an assembled product.
Why then do we insist on doing things our own way? We become frustrated and even worse, often fail. This is a picture of so many lives today. Frustrated, confused and wanting to break something. We experience this in our marriages, our relationships, our finances and at work. Is this not the reality of so many believers and unbelievers alike? But where do we find these directions for this life? No other place than “The Bible.”
Changing directions
God does give us direction in the Bible. But like the example above, so many continue in their own wisdom. We do not even think to look at what God says about our lives. We get married, have children, start careers and business and never ask God. Remember God knows how to do all things.
We believe life is like the Doris Day song;
Que sera, sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours to see
Que sera, sera What will be, will be.
But this is not real, life takes vision, direction and guidance.
I heard this at church; “Failure to plan is a plan to fail”.
Sadly many find this out the hard way, with bankruptcies, divorces, broken homes and broken hearts. Our tendency is to plow ahead with no direction or guidance from “God, the “one” who created all things.
In my last blog, I shared about Joshua 1 verse 7. We covered the first few points about:
- being strong and courageous,
- observing (studying, practicing) the word of God,
- not turning it the left or right. (doing it your own way)
The preceeding points are the overview of any battle. This blog now covers the basics, the “nuts and bolts,” the how to of living. This blog will contain daily insights and practices to begin our success to any and all areas of your life.
Listen to what is coming out your mouth!
The Bible says; In the beginning God created the world by speaking it into existence. God speaks and it happens. Whatever God does is successful and prosperous. Putting it simply, if you learn to study God’s ways and His principles, you will succeed.
So many including myself love telling everyone about our circumstances. We love to tell others how many problems we have. We love to share the details of our marriages and of divorces and how bad everything has been. We get home from work and complain about our job. The doctor gives us a bad report and we let sickness and diseases define who we are. Telling everyone who comes across our path “what the doctor says” is not healthy, nor is it encouraging others to live for God.
But the verse says The Book of Law (Bible) shall not depart from your mouth.
Also the word says in Proverbs 18:21, Life and death is in the power of the tongue, and all those who love it will eat of its fruit.
What does this mean? This means we need to start speaking about what God says about our situations. We need to learn to speak life over things of our lives, not death. Speak blessings over our children, our spouse, our work and our finances, not curses.
Again we love to tell others our tales of woes;
- we never win!
- Our ship never comes in!
- We never seem to have enough money to make ends meet!
- I get the flu every flu season!
- We proclaim curses over our children; “You are just like your father, stop being stupid, you will never amount to anything”.
Sound familiar?
But God says:
- let the weak say I am strong, Joel 3:10
- I am the head and not the tail, Deuteronomy 28:13
- I am blessed coming in and going out,
- To bless the work of thy hand, I shall lend and not borrow. Deuteronomy 28:12
- I can do all things though Christ who strengths me. Philippians 4:13
- God shall supply all your needs…. Philippians 4:19
- who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases. Psalm 103:3
There are so many promises the Lord gives us in His Word, these are only a few. We need to learn what God says and then practice speaking only what He speaks. Do not speak the circumstances, not what your doctor or your body is telling you. Not what your checkbook screams at you. Not what your family or kids look like now, but what God promised you. Dwell on the positive not the negative.
You shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do
I wish that learning to say “God shall supply all my needs according to His riches” was all there was to it! But that is not all. God is not Harry Potter nor does He even operate in that fashion. We call what Harry Potter does “black magic”. God does not work in “black magic” nor is God the “great cosmic vending machine”.
You cannot just say, God will supply all my needs according to His riches and continually refuse to follow God’s plan for money. Many refuse to give and continually use God’s money for only selfish desires. So many are maxed out on credit cards for all the newest electronics, fashions and cars. This does not work. I have met so many Christians who speak the right words and the proper verses but forget to meditate on and observe God’s word about finances. We cannot use God’s money only for our selfish gains, and then wonder what is happening when we come into a crisis situation.
So many speak health but forget to follow God’s ways for eating. God warns us about stressing and worrying over ever situation. I once was praying for a lady at church. She was angry at God! She was over weight and suffered from diabetes. She was determined to find out why God was not healing her. She told me she spoke verses over her life ever day! So she demanded an answer from God! The Spirit of God came back to me and told me to tell her “I cannot not heal you because if I did, you will only get diabetes back in a week.” I spoke what the Holy Spirit said, “You have failed to follow your doctors advice. You have refused to change your diet. You have refused to stop eating the things that are killing you …. “, and she knew she received an answer from God. Yes, she spoke the right words, but her actions did not line up with God’s direction in his Word.
In our marriages, God gives clear directions for husbands and wives. But so many men balk at the idea of loving their wife as Christ loves the church, unconditionally, and how many times have I heard women speak out against submitting to their husband. Both are rebelling against the King of Kings. God invented marriage! God knows how marriages work best. But we like to write marriage off as an old culture thing of the Bible. Meanwhile 50% of Christian marriages end in divorce. No different from the world. Why? Because we conduct our marriages just like the world does and then we wonder why we are failing so badly. We are failing to follow God’s plans.
We need to first observe and learn what God’s Word says and then follow it. Then we can learn how to speak blessings and not just tell others about our circumstances. This does not mean denying what is going on in your life. We do not live with our heads in the sand. What we need to learn is to value what God says more than what we see and hear. We have a tendency to think the physical realm trumps the Spiritual, that the physical (what we see and hear) is more real than the Spirit world. Remember, it was the Spirit (God) who created the physical realm. God created the (physical) world. So we need to remember to follow Spiritual direction and not the physical ways.
You might say;
- I was told I have cancer but God says I am healed and I receive God’s Word.
- it is a financially tough time but we are following God’s ways now and we are coming out of this mess.
I am not saying to live in denial of the situation. What I am saying is that we need to value what God says, more than what the situation says. Who knows more about cancer and healing? God or your doctor?
For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.
I love how God put this: for then YOU will make your way…..,
Who makes your way prosperous? You! If you follow God, then you will have success.
God does have a perfect will for our lives. But we have to cooperate just like Joshua.
It is interesting that in Joshua chapter 7, Joshua had to do battle with a little tribe of Ai, after he just had a mighty victory against Jericho. He did not seek the Lord but instead followed his own wisdom and past victories. He then experienced his worst defeat. Yes, he knew God’s will, but he decided to follow his own ways and he lost. It cost everyone. In chapter 8, dejected, Joshua went to the Lord, and then the Lord gave him directions on how to win the battle. After that He had success. There is so much to learn and glean from the book of Joshua along with the rest of the Bible.
Now the only question is, do you want to prosper and live a successful life?
Written by Dennis Stauffer
Edited by Gary Green (Praise the Lord for him)
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