God has established
His covenant
in the earth. Everything
He does is deter mined by this covenant. Jesus of Nazareth was born into this world, died on the cross, went to hell, paid the
sin price, and was raised from the dead because of the
covenant God made with man. God does not show partiality by choosing certain
people to save or to heal; His blessings are
for all the people who
meet the conditions of the covenant
(see
God has established
His covenant—for salvation, for heal ing, for deliverance, for prosperity—and these provisions of the covenant are set out in God’s Word. His Word is His covenant,
His bond. When you consider
a person’s word, you think of his integrity: Will he do what
he says? Is his word
good? Is his name good? A
person’s name is judged as good or bad by whether or not he keeps his word. Your name doesn’t make your word good. Your word makes
your name good. Herein lies the power in the Name of Jesus; His Name is good because His Word is good. God has magnified His Word even above His
Name (see Psalm 138:2).
God’s covenant
has been established in the earth. Now man must establish his heart in God’s covenant.
It is the combination of the established covenant that produces
results. If you heart is not established
in the covenant, then the covenant
will never mean anything to you. Ephesians
2:12 says, “That at that time
ye were without
Christ, being aliens from their commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no
hope,
and without God in the world.” Being without God is spir itual
bankruptcy. It doesn’t matter
what God has done—if you don’t know about it or can’t get in it, you are spiritually bank rupt. Eventually, you will become physically
bankrupt in one form or another. You will have nowhere to turn. You can’t depend on your physical
capabilities
because
your flesh just
isn’t enough to get you through. Certainly, this is true of your mind, your mental capabilities. Men
with the strongest minds in the world are committing suicide
at an alarming rate!
A man without God in the world is a man without a covenant.
He has nothing to believe. He has nothing
to rely
on. There are many Christians who actually
do not know what
to believe. They
say, “How does this work? I’m
trying my best to believe God, but I just can’t seem to do it!” There
are many fine, upstanding people—born again,
filled with the Spirit of God—who
are absolutely defeated in every area of their lives (physically, mentally, socially and financially). Why? Because they don’t know the covenant. If they don’t know what God
has said, there is no way He can reach them.
Someone
might say, “I’m going to believe
God.” Well, what about Him are you going to believe…that He is God? This
is fine, but it won’t go very far. You must find out what the covenant
says God has agreed
to do. A businessman has that much sense.
When two people
enter into partnership together, they must know what to believe. If they don’t,
they will get into a misunderstanding. Both of them can be com pletely honest
and still destroy
the partnership simply
because they do not understand each other and do not know what to expect
from one another.
You as a believer
have God’s covenant, God’s Word. It is available
to you. However, if you don’t put it to use, you are on
the same level as the man who does not know salvation is for
him. He is hell-bound. You are poverty-bound or bound in some other area where the Word gives you freedom.
If you do not use the covenant, you will live in defeat.
This was true in my life. I was born again and filled with the Holy Spirit but lived almost four years in total defeat
as a Christian, particularly
in the area of finances. I was trying my best to believe
God. My intentions were good, but I
had no idea of what was available
to me and no knowledge of what God has provided in Jesus
Christ. Satan kept me behind the eight ball continually!
You see, a man can have a million dollars
in the bank, but if he can’t write a check,
he is as destitute as the next guy!
A good illustration of this is the man who saved his money to come to America. He scrimped and saved and finally got the money for a boat ticket with just enough money left to buy a box of crackers
and some cheese.
He rationed
it to provide a little each day until the boat landed. During the voyage,
he would look into the dining room where everyone was eating and then go back to this room and eat his little food ration. When the boat was anchoring in the New York Harbor, a stew ard stopped
him and said, “Sir, I’ve noticed that you haven’t eaten a meal throughout this trip. Is our service offensive to you? Is the food unsatisfactory?” The man answered, “Oh, no! I’m not offended.
It’s just that I only had the money for my ticket. The wasn’t enough left over for meals.” Then the stew ard said, “Well sir, the meals were included in the ticket!” You see, those meals were his, but he didn’t know it! His ticket was an agreement. It belonged to him, but he didn’t know the
terms of the agreement!
He had as much right to those meals as the captain
of the ship, but he settled for crackers and cheese
instead.
Most Christians have been “eating crackers and cheese” by not knowing
their covenant
with God, by not
knowing what is already theirs through Jesus Christ.
The Established Covenant
Abraham…Moses…David…Solomon…why did God bless these men? Why have so few men found the blessings of God in finance? We need to renew our minds to God’s reason for financial blessings. In the book of Deuteronomy, we see the
predominant rule to remember
in living a prosperous
life: “And
thou say in thine heart, My power and the might
of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But
thou shalt remember the
Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth
thee
the power to
get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore unto
thy fathers,
as it is this day” (Deuteronomy
8:17-18).
The predominant
rule: God gives the power to get wealth.
Why? To establish His covenant.
Let’s read further from Deuteronomy 9:5-6:
“Not for thy righteousness, or
for the uprightness of
thine heart, dost thou
go to possess their land:
but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them
out from before thee,
and
that he may
perform the word
which the Lord swore unto
thy fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy right eousness; for
thou art
a stiff-necked people.” In other words, Moses was saying, “God didn’t drive those people
from their
land
because of your righteousness. He did it because He prom ised to do it. He had made an agreement
with Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.”
Now the people did
everything they
possibly could
to keep
Him from it. They broke the covenant
in every way, but God instituted the priesthood to offer sacrifices for their
sins. They had no righteousness
to rely on, so God gave them a way out. He went to great lengths to establish the covenant
even among unrighteous
people!
Deuteronomy 29:9 says, “Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and
do them, that
ye may prosper in all that ye do.” According to this, we should be prosperous
in everything
we do, but we must keep the words of
the covenant.
God gave instructions along these same lines to Joshua dur ing the most critical
situation of his life. Moses was dead and Joshua
was to take over leadership of Israel in his place, a very difficult job to do. Moses…the man who talked
with God face
to face…the
man who produced water
from a rock in the mid dle of the desert. Moses walked
in prosperity! When he needed water, God gave him the ability to get it. The power of God brought the water, and it was priceless! This is real prosperity!
Now I want you to realize the uniqueness
of Joshua’s
situa tion. This is the moment when both the natural world
and the spiritual world are hanging
in the balance.
These are God’s
people; if they fail, there will be no Jesus! If God fails them, there
will be no redemption! God must keep
His covenant alive in the earth in order to bring forth Jesus, the Redeemer. He had to have a man who would
listen to Him.
At this critical
time in history, where
does God put the exclamation point? What does He deem important? He speaks to Joshua and says,
There shall not any man be able to stand before
thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I
will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong
and of good courage: for unto this people shalt
thou divide for an inheritance
the land, which I swore unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very
courageous, that thou mayest observe
to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant
commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left,
that thou mayest prosper
whithersoever thou
goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night, that thou mayest observe
to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success…be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee
withersoever thou
goest (Joshua 1:5-9).
In verse 5, we see the key to wealth and prosperity once again: “I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Here is God manifesting Himself to man! Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 28:20,
“Lo I am
with you always, even unto the end of the world.” He said in John 14:16 that He would send the Holy Spirit as our comforter to abide with us forever. Prosperity
is a byproduct of God walking
with us and manifesting Himself to us.
God could have told Joshua many things—to fast so many days each week
or to pray so many hours each day. He could have said, “If you’ll believe Me, I’ll do great miracles,” or “If you’ll believe Me, there will be a cloud by day and a pillar
of fire by night.”
He could have said, “You’ll not have to worry when
you come to another Red Sea or when your enemies come against you.” But He didn’t say anything
of the kind. At
this important
hour in Joshua’s
life—at this vital time in the plan of redemption—God said, “This book of the law shall
not depart out of thy mouth; but thou
shalt
meditate therein day
and
night, that
thou mayest observe to do according to
all that is written
therein: for then
thou
shalt
make
thy way prosperous, and then
thou shalt
have
good success.” Another translation says, “You shall deal wisely in all the affairs of life.”
What did God put first? Meditation in His Word.
With one word of His mouth, He established
Psalm 138:2 that says He has magnified His Word even above His Name. You see, when you put the Word of God first in your life and it
becomes your final authority, prosperity is the result.
It is inevitable because the Word of God covers every situation
in life. THE WORD IS FINAL AUTHORITY.
All these words God spoke to Joshua would have been use
less if he had disobeyed and not meditated in the Word day and night. Only by meditation in the Word will you be able to see how to do what is written
there. Proverbs 23:7 tells us that as a man thinks in his heart,
so is he. Learn to take the Word of God and meditate
in it. Then when the world says,
“There’s no way out,” you can just smile and say, “Oh yes, there is a way. His Name is Jesus.”
God said, “If you
will meditate in
My Word, you will
prosper
and
have
good success.” In other words, you will deal wisely
in all the affairs of life. If you do this, prosperity will be no prob lem.
It doesn’t matter
who you are or what situation you are in,
if you can deal wisely
in all the affairs of life, you will triumph.
Paul and Silas proved this when they were in jail. They praised God
at midnight, and evidently
they dealt wisely
in that affair because
the prison
doors popped open!
A good businessman
knows that making money is not his biggest
problem. Anyone can make money if he knows how to
deal wisely. He can take 50 cents and turn it into a fortune
if he knows exactly what to do with it. If you knew exactly
how to deal
wisely with
the money in your purse or billfold—if you knew what to do, where to go, whom to talk with, and what to say—success would be inevitable.
The truly successful man is one who knows
the Lord, has learned to believe
God, and can share it with others. This man is valuable
to God, to himself,
to the people around
him, and he is dangerous to Satan.
Remember, it is God who gives the power to get wealth
in order that His covenant
may be established. God and His Word are one. When you are in the presence of the Word of God, you
are in the presence of
God Himself. John 1:1 says, “In the begin
ning
was
the Word, and
the Word was
with God, and
the Word was God.” There is no way that you can have God manifested
in your life without
His Word. Now there are special manifesta
tions of God’s grace,
but the Christian is not supposed
to live on these. We are to live a constant
manifestation of God’s pres ence
from His Word. You keep
His Word, and He will manifest
Himself to you. Nothing thrills me more than to know that if I wake up in the middle of the night with some problem, all I
have to do is reach for my Bible. This is the manifestation of
the power
of God. It will work every time for anybody who will use it! When you realize
that this manifestation of God is available
all the time and begin to walk in the light of it, you will become prosperous.
We have seen from the Word that God has established His covenant in the earth,
but what about the new covenant? The Word says it is a covenant
of righteousness based on better promises. As we have read in Deuteronomy, God called Israel stiff-necked
and unrighteous. According to the new covenant, we have been made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.
God does not see us a stiff-necked people. (He sees us many times as an untaught people
because we do not know the covenant, but we are not stiff-necked
and unrighteous.) He sees us through
the blood of the Lamb: spotless, blameless, beyond reproach. Israel was the servant
of God; we are the sons of
God (see Galatians 4:7).
We need to realize
our rights as His
children and citizens of the kingdom of God.
To illustrate, let’s look at the parable of the prodigal
son from Luke 15. For many years we have read this story without realizing its full significance, and it has a very important appli cation in the area of prosperity
which has been entirely over looked. As we have read about the prodigal
son coming home, we’ve stopped
there. Our minds have been on him, but what about the other son? The prodigal
son took his inheritance
and squandered it. When he returned home, his father killed the fat
ted calf and threw a big party welcoming
him with open arms.
Then the other son came in, saw what had happened and got mad at his father. He said, “I have stayed with you, and you have never even given me a little
goat. Yet when he goes off and wastes his money, you celebrate
by killing
a calf for him!” Then his father said, “But, son, everything
I
have belongs to you.” In other words, he was saying, “You could have had a fat ted
calf anytime you wanted it. It belongs
to you. I’m pleased that your brother has come home, but you could have had it for
the asking!” You see, the other son would
have settled for a
goat when the calf was his all the time! The inheritance belonged to both sons; only one took advantage
of it. The
older son did without because of the littleness of his thinking.
Most Christians are cheating themselves out of their full inheri tance in Jesus Christ
because of the littleness of their thinking.
By not knowing their
covenant, they do not know their rights as children
of Almighty God!
Poverty vs. Prosperity
In Deuteronomy 28, we see the blessings that come from obeying the Word of God. For instances, verses
11-12 state, “And the Lord shall
make
thee
plenteous in goods, in
the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land
which the Lord swore unto
thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure.” You
see, God blessed Abraham
and his descendants with prosperity
because He swore it in the covenant. Praise
God!
Then beginning with verse 15, we find an outline of the curse
of the law. “But it shall
come to pass, if
thou wilt
not hearken unto the voice of
the Lord thy God, to observe to
do all his commandments and
his statues…that all
these curses shall
come upon thee, and overtake thee.” This curse spells complete
and total poverty in every area of life. Poverty is not a blessing
from God. To believe that
it is, that it carries
with it some sort of humility, is to believe that
God is the author of the curse,
and
He is not! God is the author of the blessing.
God did not curse Adam; He built a garden for him and provided everything he could possibly ever need or want. Satan is the one who brought in the curse.
When Adam united with Satan,
everything in the earth was cursed.
Then the covenant
God made with Abraham provided
an umbrella—a protection,
an avenue
of escape from this curse. As long as Abraham walked with the Lord and listened to His Word, he was protected; but the moment
he disregarded the voice of the Lord, relying on his own umbrella
and become
vulnerable to Satan once again.
Why does it seem so difficult to get along with God? He
knows the difference between
right and wrong and the foun
dation
laws upon which these values
are constructed. He has understanding and wisdom about the laws governing life. He established
His system to work a certain way,
then Satan deceived us into believing
that the opposite was true.
God is not being disagreeable with us. He is refusing
to agree with Satan. This happened with Eve in the Garden of Eden. God
has said, “If you eat the fruit, you will surely die.” Then Satan came along and convinced
her that it wasn’t true by saying, “Can it really
be that God has said…?” He convinced her that God’s Word was not true, so she disobeyed God and Adam followed
her. The law functioned
and at that very moment they died spiritually. Physical death was to follow years later.
From the time of Adam’s fall, man was cursed. Through the years he was trained under deception
and did not have
the necessary spiritual knowledge and understanding
to escape it. After several
generations has passed, Adam’s teachings
to
his own sons had been forgotten, and no one knew
anything about God or about spiritual
law. Most of the things God has said were absolutely
foreign to the human mind. Jesus said, “Give and it shall be given to you again,” but this is contrary to our thinking. We say, “That’s stupid! It doesn’t make sense…anybody knows that if you give it away,
you won’t have it anymore!”
But God knows the foundation principle
of the law of giving. Satan
knows it too, but he will try to deceive you in order to keep
you ignorant,
weak and power less so that he can govern you.
When God made His covenant with Abraham, most people could not understand. As long as they obeyed
God, they were blessed. However, when they relied on their own understand ing, they would go back under
the curse again.
God was telling
them, “If you won’t follow My Word and do what I tell
you, there is nothing I can do for you. I cannot
usurp authority over your own free will.”
Let’s stop and consider
for a moment that when God made is His Covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
He promised
to take care of them and their descendants. They were free
men!
Consequently, every Jewish slave who bore the lash under Egyptian rule was a free man! There
was only one problem… they didn’t know it! Therefore, God called Moses and gave him the ability and authority to write down the covenant
God had made with Abraham.
This way, the people would
know what had been done and what had been agreed
to. Moses went forth in
the name of the covenant, performed miracles by the power of God in the face of Pharaoh,
and led God’s people
out of bondage. They could have gone free 400 years before,
but they didn’t know their covenant! God has laid out His innermost thoughts and desires, His perfect will, in the form of a contract
and placed them in the Bible. They are available to set us free from Satan’s authority,
by the Spirit of God in the Name of Jesus. Jesus
said, “If ye continue in my word, then are
ye my
disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you
free” (John 8:31-32).
We have seen from the Word that the covenant of God has been established. We have seen that prosperity is a blessing
of Abraham and that poverty is under the curse of the law. How does
this affect us as members of the Body of Christ under the new covenant?
Galatians 3:13-14,
29 says, “Christ hath
redeemed us from
the curse of
the law, being made a
curse
for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
hangeth on the tree: That the blessing of
Abraham might come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
And if
we be Christ’s,
then
are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Jesus bore the curse of the law in our behalf.
He beat Satan and took away
his power. Consequently, there is no reason
for you to live under the curse of the law, no reason
for you to live in poverty of any kind. Many born-again
believer’s
live in spirit ual
poverty, spiritual malnutrition. They are mighty,
spiritual supermen in the embryo
but not in growing an ounce because they are not being properly fed. Spiritual growth
comes only by feeding and acting on the Word of God. “Desire the sincere
milk of the word, that
ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2).
Since God’s covenant
has been established and prosperity is a provision of this covenant,
you need to realize that prosperity belongs to you now! Someone might say, “God can see into the future.
He knows that if I had money,
I would spend it unwisely
or act ugly with it. That’s why I don’t
have any.” Well, you are probably right! The fact that you have more faith in this than you have in the Word of God and in your own competence as a Christian is keeping
you robbed.
Satan sold you that lie, not God. You must realize that it is God’s will for you to prosper
(see 3 John 2). This is available
to you, and frankly,
it would be
stupid of you not to partake
of it! When a man realizes that prosperity belongs
to him, takes the Word of God, becomes prosperous,
and then gives it away,
he is valuable.
The Apostle Paul learned
the spiritual law of giving and operated it profi ciently. He was strong
enough in the Lord to believe for pros perity, receive it, then give it away.
This is a valuable sacrifice; it really means something.
The Word of God says, “Give,
and it shall be given
unto you again.” As you begin to operate this law, you will see that you can’t get rid of it! As you give, it will be returned to you faster than you can keep giving it away! As we read in
Deuteronomy 8:18, God gives us the power to get wealth
in order to establish His covenant. He does it because
He said He would! When you fully realize
that you have Him and
He has you, that you can do all things through
Christ Who
strengthens you (see Philippians 4:13), all the pride
in your heart melts and you know that without Him you can do noth ing. As you begin to understand these things,
you won’t be afraid to give. You won’t be afraid to turn loose of it. When you give,
you will receive
and have even more to give, a constant flowing! Praise the Lord!
The Established Heart
God has established
His covenant
in the earth, but it is not enough
just to know this.
For the covenant to be of any value, we
must have our hearts established in it. Psalm 112 is a perfect
description of the established heart. It describes
the prosperous
man and gives insight into his prosperity. Let’s examine
it closely.
“Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man
that feareth the Lord,
that deligheth greatly in
his commandments.” What type of man is blessed of God? The man who fears the Lord and delights greatly in His commandments,
in the established covenant of God.
“His seed shall be mighty upon the earth: the generation of
the upright shall
be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth forever.” No one can take it away! When
God give you something, you should
have no fear of losing it. God has given you His Word. You can stand firmly on it because it belongs to you!
“Unto the upright there
ariseth light in the darkness: he
is
gracious, and full
of compassion, and righteous. A good man showeth favour, and
lendeth: he will guide his affairs with dis cretion [or good judgment]. Surely he shall
not be moved forever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in
the Lord. His heart is established.” God has established
His covenant,
and this man has established his heart in the covenant. His heart is fixed, trusting
in the Lord. You can’t scare him with bad tidings about the fuel shortage, high interest rates or anything
else. He
trusts completely and totally in the Lord and gets what he needs by his covenant with God. When you are established
and oper ating in the covenant
of God, Satan can’t corner you.
You must
realize that prosperity
is the will of God for you.
Knowledge of His will brings results.
Once you know for sure that something
is God’s will, you should not be without it any longer. If you do not know that healing belongs to you, you will hesitate, wondering if it is God’s will and never establish
it in your own life. You will never really believe
it for yourself. Many people have
been healed through the prayers of other believers and still have difficulty with their health
even after
God has healed
them a dozen times.
However, once they see in the Word that healing belongs to them, that Jesus bought
and paid for it at Calvary, that He bore the stripes,
then they will
not accept sickness again.
Why? Because the Word becomes established
in their hearts and a force
rises up within them—the force of faith. This is also true in prosperity.
Poverty is under
the curse of the law, and Jesus Christ
has redeemed us from the curse
and has established us in abundance, not bare necessity!
Stop and think for a moment.
What is your heart established
in? Sin or righteousness? Death or abundant
life? Sickness or dis
ease or healing
and divine
health? Poverty or prosperity? Faith or
fear?
The only way you
will establish your heart so that it is absolutely
fixed—concrete and immovable, trusting in the Lord—is by the Word of God. Go to the Word and feed on it: read it, study it, meditate in it. Then your heart will be estab lished, fixed, trusting in the Lord, and Psalm 112 will be a description of your life in Christ Jesus.
The Wisdom of God
The established heart comes by meditation in the Word of God. We have seen from the book of Joshua that if a person will
meditate in the Word day and night and do all that is writ ten
therein, he will prosper and deal wisely in his affairs. It is through
this kind of meditation in the Word that you will dis cover
what God has to say about finances.
Proverbs 3:13-14
says, “Happy is the man that
findeth wis
dom, and the man that
getteth understanding. For
the mer chandise of
it is better than the merchandise
of silver, and the gain thereof than
fine
gold.” In other words, there is a better market for wisdom and understanding
than for gold and silver.
The merchandise of it is greater;
and will provide
more. Solomon proved
this. People from faraway
countries heard about the wisdom of Solomon and brought him wealth and riches because of it.
Verses 15-16, “She [wisdom] is more precious than
rubies:
and
all the things
thou
canst desire are not to be compared unto
her. Length
of days is in her right
hand;
and in her left hand riches and honour.” Wisdom actually possesses riches and honor. Does wisdom
belong to us? Again, we go to the
established
covenant for the answer.
Let’s see what the Word has to say about it.
First Corinthians 1:30 states this very plainly that
Jesus has been made unto us wisdom. James 1:5-6 says, “If any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask
of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and
upbraideth not; and it shall
be given him. But let him ask
in
faith, nothing wavering.” Paul prayed in Colossians 1:9-10 “that
ye might be filled
with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That you might
walk worthy
of the Lord unto
all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work.” We should
bear fruit and succeed
in every endeavor, and
the
wisdom of God enables us to do this.
Now I take for granted that you understand
the importance of prayer
in all these areas. Spend time before God and in His Word. Let Him reveal to you His wisdom and His understanding.
You are probably
familiar with 2 Corinthians 5:17: “There
fore if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are
become new.” Are you in Christ?
If so, then you are committed to Colossians 2:2-3: “That their hearts might
be comforted, being knit together in
love,
and
unto
all riches of
the full assurance of
understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and
of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge.” We read earlier from Proverbs that one hand
of wisdom holds riches and honor and the other hand holds length of days. These are some of the treasures of wisdom—all of them are hid in Christ.
Wisdom is in Christ. You are in Christ.
Wisdom is in you! It belongs
to you! Welcome to where
the
riches are!
In financial
dealings, the
truly wise man, one who is operat ing in the covenant
of God, will not borrow money.
He will not obligate
himself in this way.
A man who borrows
money is
relying on the world’s system of finance and will never be in absolute
control of his affairs. God has a system of finance which will provide
everything you need. It is not a sin to
borrow money, but there is a better
way. Why not use it? There is a higher life. Reach for it!
This is a very difficult area where businessmen
are con cerned, but God can and will provide
everything any business man can conceive in his heart or mind. God has a way! This is something you grow into spiritually.
If you want to believe
God
for thousands of dollars to operate your business,
you will have to start by believing
Him for your next shirt and tie. As you do, you will grow into a position where
you can believe Him to provide
large amounts of money. The wisdom of God will cause these things to happen,
and it comes forth only by spending time in
the Word.
Suppose Henry Ford walked up,
handed you a book, and said, “This book contains
every secret that I
have learned in the automobile industry, in the manufacturing business, and in the stock market. It has been tried and proven over a period of years to produce absolutely
if you will read it one hour each day and meditate in it.” Would you trade an hour’s sleep for the success Henry Ford enjoyed? This and so much more is available to you by reading
and meditating in the Word of God. Commit yourself to
it. Make up your mind and heart before God.
It is the responsibility of every member of the Body of
Christ to believe God for the abundance
He provides.
When one of us falls short in this responsibility, the whole Body of Christ suffers because of that one cell. (You may not use your little
finger very much, but if it is sore, your whole hand suf
fers.) As believers, we have a responsibility
to provide for the needs of our brothers
and sisters around the world.
If we lack, they will suffer for it.
Now you can see that the basic reason
for the operation of faith is to meet the needs of mankind. You may not need much money
to be happy and successful in your own life, but people are
starving and dying
throughout the world.
Someone must provide for them. They don’t know how to get it for them selves. There are even preachers going hungry!
The biggest complaint from people is that all the preachers are wanting money. Do you
know the best way to stop that complaint? Give to
them! Don’t get into strife with them; bless them with your giving and pray for them.
The covenant
is yours. The wisdom of God is yours. It resides within you. Bring it to the surface by meditating in the Word of God and giving God the opportunity to share His sys tem with you. When you let Him be your source of supply,
you can live independently from the world’s system. The Word states so plainly in 2 Corinthians that without aid or support
you can continue to be generous in every good work.
This is the attitude God is looking
for. This man is unlimited in the things of the Lord.
Praise God!
When we began plans for our first television series, people said
that we couldn’t do it because
of the tremendous cost of
such an operation. One man offered us, at half price, an esti mate of $750 per finished minute.
For a 60-minute program,
the total production cost would
have been $45,000.
The thought of financing a weekly
series for one year at that price was
overwhelming! For a series
of five programs, they quoted
us $350,000. Then the Lord said, “Why don’t you give Me a chance?
You’ve asked the experts
about it; now let Me in on it!”
So I did. God moved—and
we filmed the five-part series
for
$3,750! The Apostle Paul said, “…the world is crucified unto me, and I unto
the world” (Galatians 6:14).
The first and most important rule for you to follow in oper
ating in the power
of God and living by faith is this: 100 per cent
committal to the Word of God and its authority in your life. As God told Joshua,
the best way to prosper is by meditation in the Word. Don’t just study it; there is a difference
between med itation and study. Study
involves digging in the Word, running references in a concordance, and so forth; but meditation many times covers
only two or three verses
of scripture. Read a verse several times.
Roll it over in your mind; be quiet and listen to God for 20 or 30 minutes. This has been the way I
have learned many things about the Word and about Jesus’ ministry.
The Spirit of God can say enough
in one sentence to last you a month! He was sent here to teach us the deep things of God (see 1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
Let me give you an example from my own experience. Some
time ago, I decided to find out how to operate financially according to the Word of God. I believe that
God had a finan cial
system that most Christians did not know. This was evident in
my dad’s life. My parents
decided when
they married that they would tithe their income
for the rest of their lives. They knew very little about believing
God for finances. My dad relied on his ability to work. He was an excellent
sales representative
and God blessed
his business. When I entered
the ministry and started studying
the Word of God, I
read where God said to bring the tithes into the storehouse
and He would open the
windows of heaven (see Malachi 3:10).
Well, I could look at my
dad and see that this wasn’t working in his life. He made more than
a good living, but he worked
for every dime he got! So I
began to study this and question the Lord about it.
One thing that He showed
me was the pride
element in most businessmen, especially the ones who worked hard
like Dad. You couldn’t
give my dad anything;
he was the giver! If God wanted
to give him something,
He had to channel
it
through the business or Dad would actually
get uncomfortable
and embarrassed if someone
tried to give to him. This is wrong. God
showed me that most businessmen
don’t know how to receive simply because of their pride.
I
had been praying in the Spirit, praying
in tongues, for sev eral
hours one day in preparation for a meeting and the Lord spoke to my heart.
He said, “I want you to teach these people on
tithing.” I said, “What do you mean? I don’t
know anything about it myself!” All I knew was that the word tithe meant 10
percent! I tithed
because that’s
what I had been taught at home
and in church. (Two things
I knew—get saved
and tithe. We heard sermons for 50 weeks each
year on salvation and the other
two on tithing!) Well, I
continued to pray and the Lord
kept bringing up the subject
of tithing. Finally
I said, “If You want me to teach on tithing,
You’ll have to teach me first.”
He said, “Turn in My Word to where I introduced it, and I’ll show you.”
So I began to meditate in these scriptures. I would read from the Word, then close my eyes,
and listen
to God. If my mind started to wander, I would go back to the Word and read it again and again and again and think about it and listen
to God some more. You need to spend time listening to God! What will you pay for success?
In fellowshiping with God around the Word, I
began to learn some things.
God has His system under wraps, hidden
in the Word, and meditation is the key to the mystery. This way Satan
can’t get his hands on it. (Later in the book I will
share some of these secrets
on tithing with you.)
One time I
was meditating about Peter catching
the fish with the money in its mouth. I realized
this was a financial operation, so I decided to find out what God had to say. I
must have read that story 50 times and ran into a blank wall each time!
I could see that Peter needed tax
money and Jesus
told
him to go fishing.
He caught the fish and got the money out
of its mouth. I would
run that through
my thinking, sometimes
for hours, then get up and say, “Well, Lord, I know
it’s here somewhere, and by faith, I claim
the revelation on it!” Finally,
in prayer one day I picked up my Bible,
flipped it open to that passage,
and read it once more. Then I
saw something I had
read over and over again. Jesus said, “Get the money out of the mouth
of the first fish.” Peter was going to catch a mess of fish! Then
the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “Son, don’t bind Me
to finances. I can handle the fish just as I can the money.”
I saw
what I had been missing!
I had been centering
on the one fish. Now if I had been in Peter’s place, I would have jerked the money out of the fish’s mouth,
run down to pay the taxes, and then realized that
I didn’t have anything
to eat. I would have been
so shortsighted that I
would have thrown the fish back and missed out on the rest of the catch.
If there was a first fish, there
had to be a second
and so on. Peter was a commercial
fisherman and knew how to market those fish. Jesus obviously
loaded his boat again.
I would have spent part of the money
on something to eat and still couldn’t
have paid my taxes. I thought, “I have been believing for the money to buy an auto mobile when I should have believing
God for the automobile
itself!” The Lord said, “That’s
right. You have had Me bound to
that little channel of money.” Then He said something I’ll never forget, “Son, if I send
you a cow with a bag of money around her neck, for goodness’
sake, milk her before you send her home!” The Lord has a tremendous sense of humor, but I
didn’t know it until I began
to fellowship with Him and meditate
in His Word.
The Rich Young Ruler
There is another area that I want to share with you about God’s
financial system. In Mark 10:17-23,
we find the story of the rich young ruler. This is one of the most misunderstood incidents in the whole
Bible. We have read this in the light of
the world’s traditional system, thinking
God wanted to break that young man but this is not so. We have misunderstood it for the same reason
that the rich young ruler missed God—igno rance of the Word of God. He did not know what the covenant
said. He knew “the
Law” and the Ten Commandments, but the Abrahamic Covenant covered
much more than these. God made
an agreement with Abraham
and promised to do certain things if he would obey the Word; then the prophets were raised up to add to this covenant
and record it for Israel to use. Let’s read Mark’s account of this conversation.
And when he was gone forth into the way,
there came one running,
and kneeled to him, and asked
him, Good Master, what shall I
do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the
commandments, Do not
commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness,
Defraud
not, Honour thy father
and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed
from my youth. Then Jesus beholding
him loved him, and
said unto him, One thing thou lackest:
go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure
in heaven: and come,
take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and
went away grieved:
for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disci ples, How hardly shall they that have riches
enter into the kingdom of God!
Before you begin meditation in the Word, you must commit yourself to the absolute
truth of John 10:10. “The thief cometh not,
but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am
come that
they might have
life, and that
they might have
it more
abun dantly.” Whenever I read something that seems contradictory to this, I
immediately stop
and straighten out my thinking.
The truth is hidden
in some way, and
I rely on the Holy Spirit to
reveal it to me. God is not our problem.
He does not steal from us.
He is the giver of all good things! When you commit your self
to this basic truth, you block Satan and deal a deadly blow to deception.
As long as you are open to it, Satan will prove
that God wants you to live in poverty
and in sickness to teach you humility.
He will try to convince
you that the rich young ruler couldn’t
receive eternal life because he had money,
but Satan is a liar and the father of lies!
Here is how the Lord revealed the truth to me: As I read Mark 10:20, “And he answered and said
unto him, Master, all these have
I observed FROM MY YOUTH,”
the Lord spoke to me and said, “See, this is why he was rich.” Then He pointed me to
Deuteronomy
8:18 about the Lord giving power to get wealth in order to establish His covenant. This young man was evidently walking
in this part of the covenant.
The Lord said, “Do you think I would ask something
from him that I hadn’t given him in the first place?” You must realize these two facts: (1) God is the only reason you have anything, and (2) He will never ask you to
give up something without giving you something better in return.
Verse 21 says, “Then Jesus beholding him
loved him.” Now some people think
that God doesn’t
like people with money, but this says that when Jesus looked
at the young man, He loved him…before He said anything about giving away his pos sessions. You see, He loved him and what He said was to the man’s
advantage.
Then the story
continues with, “Jesus…said
unto
him, One thing
thou
lackest.” What he lacked
was working
revelation of the covenant. The young man only did as he was supposed to.
He presented himself as knowing the Word, and Jesus tested
his knowledge by saying, “Go thy way, sell
whatsoever thou hast,
and
give to the poor, and
thou
shalt
have
treasure in heaven:
and come, take
up the cross, and follow
me.” What did the
young man do? He walked off sadly because he had great possessions.
Jesus could have stopped him right then and explained what He meant, but if He had, the man would have obeyed in the natural and not by faith. If he had asked Jesus
to explain Himself, He would have.
Each time His disciples
asked Him to explain a parable,
He did, but He never explained it
in order to get them to act on it. If the man had really known the covenant, he would have thought, “What does the covenant say
about giving to the poor?” He would have remembered Proverbs
19:7 that says, “He that hath
pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that
which
he hath given will he pay him again.” This was the biggest financial deal that young man had ever been
offered, but he walked
away
from it because
he didn’t
know God’s system of finance.
He didn’t take the time to inquire; he just assumed that God wanted to break him. Instead of being Word-minded that young man was money-minded.
When the rich young ruler walked away, Jesus
said, “How
hardly shall they that have riches enter
into the kingdom of God!”
Then an interesting thing happened. The next verse says, “And
the disciples were
astonished at his words.” We have just taken it for granted that Jesus and His disciples didn’t
have anything. But the Bible
describes Peter, James
and John as professional fishermen. They owned more than one boat, and they had household servants! When Jesus spoke
those words, it shook them. It was adverse to what they had seen. They were astonished at His words!
Jesus was not poor in His ministry. He had a treasurer! Turn off your religious
head and read the Word of God as if it were your newspaper.
Another point I
want you to grasp is the reality
of Jesus’ words, “Come, take up the cross, and follow me.”
What does “the cross” refer to? “The cross we are to bear” is selfish, unlovely people.
The greatest
commandment is that we love one another. Unfortunately, some people are not easy to love, but we are to love them anyway. We are to bear one another’s
burdens and uphold
one another. We must stop strife with the love of God. This is our cross. Do
you realize the significance of His words, “Come…follow me”? These are the words
Jesus spoke to every man He commissioned as an apostle. When I
saw this, the Lord said, “Wouldn’t
this man have been the logi cal
replacement for Judas? Judas failed because of the love of
money. He even stole from the bag! This young ruler was an excellent businessman; he was honest and had operated the covenant from his youth. He was perfect for the job, but he
turned his back on this tremendous opportunity to follow Jesus.
Now let’s read on from Mark 10:25.
It is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a nee dle,
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?
And Jesus
looking upon them saith,
With men it is impossible,
but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
Then Peter
began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I
say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or chil dren,
or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,
But he
shall receive
an hundredfold now in this time.
IN THIS LIFE! He intended to give the rich young ruler a hundred times what he had!
Jesus said, “…an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and
brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and
in the world
to come eternal life.” The
moment God begins
to bless you, you will get persecuted
because
you become dangerous
to Satan. You begin to know that
God is the source of your success,
that He is the one giving it to you, that there is an endless
supply behind you and an endless supply
in front of you. All you must do is be a channel
for it and giving is
the key that opens the door. Jesus knew the
spiritual law of giving,
and He operated it proficiently. He gave
to the poor at such an astonishing
rate that when Judas left the room during
the Last Supper, some people
thought that he must be going
to give to the poor.
Do
you want a hundredfold return on your money? Give
and let God multiply
it back to you. No bank in the world offers this kind of return! Praise
the Lord!
This is operating and using what the Bible
calls “the royal law.”
Love your neighbor as yourself. Be as quick to care for the needs
of others as you are your own needs. The world knows
it exists; they call it “the golden rule,” but they don’t understand
how if functions and neither
do most Christians.
This whole system of finance must be operated by faith in order
for it to function properly. My dad was tithing
as God has said, but he was not believing for the return on his giving. He has
it stacked up in heaven, yet he was getting no benefit from it here on earth. Finally,
when he learned
some of these things, he started
believing God and he is better off financially
today in retirement than he was when he worked
so hard. He began to
mix his faith with God’s Word concerning finances. There are many
tithers who say, “Why, I couldn’t
ask God to give any thing back to me!” This shows that they don’t really know what the Word says about tithing.
When God introduced
tithing in
the book of Deuteronomy, He commanded the people to say to Him,
“Look down from thy holy habitation and bless your peo ple
with a land that flows with milk and honey.”
They were commanded to say this to the Lord!
Remember, the basic fundamental
law for establishing your heart in the covenant
of God is meditation in the Word. You must commit yourself to the fact that God’s Word works. Meditation is fixing your
mind
on
the Word. Here are seven
steps to help you learn how to meditate God’s Word:
1. Apply the Word to you personally.
2.
Allow the Holy Spirit to make God’s Word a reality in your heart.
3. Carefully ponder how this Word applies
to your life.
4. Dwell on how this Word from the Lord changes your situation.
5.
Place yourself
in agreement with what God’s Word says about you.
6. See yourself
as God sees you.
7. Begin to realize the integrity of God’s Word.
You must commit yourself to the fact that God’s Word is true and that it works!
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