Solomon, the wisest man to walk the earth before Jesus Christ came, wrote these words in Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2  To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

Ecclesiastes 3:6-7  A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.

As others have written, there are different seasons in life — planting in the spring, watering and weeding in the summer, and harvesting in the fall. There is also a time to put away a great deal of goods into our storehouses/bank accounts and a time to put in less. There is a time to give out of our storehouses and a time to save. One lesson here is that if you do not plant in the spring when the times are prosperous, there will be nothing to harvest in the fall, and the winter can be a time of mourning.

Winters in life can be any number of things such as a loss of a job, an accident, slowing of the economy or another emergency.

These lessons are taught in the Bible. Remember Joseph? He saved diligently 20% of the crops for seven years. At first, what he saved may have seemed like a pittance in the bottom of the vast granaries. It is the same with us. At first, the money saved may seem insignificant, but over time it will become much greater if we are faithful.

Most people spend and consume a lot during times of plenty, but when the cycle turns, they have nothing to fall back on. God teaches us to save during those times of plenty. The record of Joseph is in the Bible for a reason. Then in Proverbs, God gives us the example of the ant. Ants fill their storehouses all summer during times of plenty so that when the winters of life come, they have an abundance to sustain them.

We, too, can smooth out the rough patches in the economic cycles we live in by diligently filling our storehouses in the good years. This is a lesson that the wealthy have learned. Then when the lean times come, and come they will, they have the funds to do what Joseph did. Joseph used what he had stored to accomplish two things:

1. He fed the people by selling the stored grain.
2. The people gave him their cattle, their jewels, and their land in payment for the food.

They had not saved during the times of plenty. Eventually, they even sold themselves as slaves to Pharoah so that they could have something to eat and stay alive.

We can learn a similar lesson from the wealthy. They save diligently during times of great prosperity while others are spending, and when the dark days come, they have the funds to buy the bankrupt businesses, houses, etc. for pennies on the dollar. This is one way fortunes are built.

Luke 19:24-26“Then, turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who has ten pounds. ‘But, master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten pounds!’ ‘Yes,’ the king replied, ‘and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.

If we use well what God has given us by giving, saving, and staying out of debt, He can trust us with even more. God may show you at times how to help people. In the church, there is always a need for finances to run the church. At times, there may be a need to build hospitals, youth camps, retirement centers, and a need to support missionaries. George Muller gave thousands of dollars for Bibles to send to other countries.

Our great desire should be to walk with our Father, believe His Word, and see His promises come to pass in our lives. Faithfulness with our finances is a wonderful place to start this adventure with our Father into The Prosperous Life He desires for us.

Isaiah 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

There are two records in the Bible that, although they do not relate directly to financial prosperity, they have some important points from which we could learn. Jesus Christ, in his ministry, referred to these two records in Luke.

Luke 4:25-27 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

The first of these records refers to Elijah the prophet. To feed and hide the prophet during the famine, God sent Elijah to a widow woman of Sidon. This woman was not of Israel, but God knew that when she heard the saying of the man of God, Elijah, she would believe and obey.

1 Kings 17:12-15 And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.

She was willing and obedient, and she ate for many days.

You could have looked from the outside on her life and said, “Well, isn’t she lucky!”  Or she could have felt of herself that she was lucky. But was it really luck? The truth was that she obeyed what God had told her by way of the prophet Elijah.

Why did God not do this for all the widows in Israel? If you read the context in the record of Luke, you will understand that Jesus was teaching about believing. There are not many that believe what God has said – at times, very few. Those who do believe and obey have great results. She ate for many days.

The other record that Jesus referred to was the healing of Naaman the Syrian. Once again, Naaman was not of Israel. Jesus said there were many lepers in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none were healed except Naaman. There is no record of any other leper even approaching God and asking for healing.

2 Kings 5:14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Naaman was willing to ask. He believed and obeyed what God had told him by way of the prophet Elisha. Therefore, he was healed of his leprosy. This miracle was instant.

Looking from the outside, it could appear that Naaman was lucky. He could have felt lucky. But was it luck? The truth is that Naaman obeyed what God had said by way of the prophet Elisha, and he received the results.

Both Naaman and the widow ate of the good of the land. They were both willing and obedient. They were both not of Israel. Interesting. God is not a respecter of persons. He is only a respecter of conditions. Both met the conditions. They were willing and obedient, and so they ate.

After a few years of giving/tithing, saving, and staying out of debt, you could radically change your financial position. All three of these God has told us to do. Are you willing and obedient?

Some have found that as they diligently pursued saving more of their income, that there was even more they could save. It began to stack up quite nicely after a few years. They could feel lucky especially if they grew up poor and have lived paycheck to paycheck for years. Others could observe this change, and it might appear like luck. But is it luck? No! It is being willing and obedient, and God has said that if you are willing and obedient you will eat of the good of the land.

Here are a couple of additional promises that show God’s great desire for His children:

3 John 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

The prospering of our souls in part is to study God’s Word, believe it and obey it. Make God’s Word the standard of our lives.

Not many are willing to rise up and be obedient to tithe, to save and get out of debt, but to those that do are the blessings of God in their pursuit of The Prosperous Life.

There is a classic record at the end of 1 Chronicles that ties giving and thankfulness together. On this national day of Thanksgiving, I would like to share it with you. The setting for this is the prayer that David offered to God when David and the people gave of their prosperity the things needed for the building of the temple that Solomon was to build.

1Chronicles 29:10-14  Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.

Our times are different because our biblical administration is grace, not law, like in David’s time, but we too can have thankful hearts like these people did when we give.

Here is the beginning of a list of things to be thankful for:

Salvation
New birth
Eternal life
The food he provides
All spiritual blessings
Having His spirit born within
That He hears ALL our prayers
The manifestations of the spirit
How He walks and talks with us
God’s watchful care over our lives
For the prosperity He gives His children

In this record, these people and David gave willingly back to God for His service and what He had given to them. The people recognized all they had belonged to God anyway. So it was with a thankful heart that they gave.

The best motivation for giving is not because we were told to or because we would feel condemnation if we don’t or out of fear that God won’t love us or accept us, but we give because we believe His word. We give because the One that gave us eternal life asked us to. We give from a thankful heart. We give because of our love for Him.

To give back to God from a thankful heart because we believe His Word is all part of aligning our minds and hearts up properly in pursuit of The Prosperous Life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Many years ago, I heard part of the 73^rd Psalm:

Psalm 73:3-7 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

I thought, if this is what being wealthy is like, I want nothing to do with money. But I soon came to realize that you must work – your family must eat! But still, I wanted nothing to do with money. I was tithing but still very broke. I did not know what to think or believe. As I began to learn the truth about prosperity, my wife and I had the challenge of changing our minds on several levels.

Part of the challenge of prosperity is the changing of our minds to see the possibility of wealth in a whole new light.

Years ago, our culture adopted the religious “Christian” idea that to have much money is wrong. Our culture believes that the wealthy are greedy, are not honest and obtained their wealth in the gray areas of the law if not illegally. Thus, we have wealthy people depicted in the movies as Dr. Evil and the TV show, American Greed. Sometimes they are referred to as the filthy rich.

Additionally, Christianity has taught and believed that to be truly humble and walk with God you must give up all worldly goods and live from hand to mouth.

God tells a completely different story in His Word.

When God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God wanted a family. Children that He could walk and talk with. Children that would love Him. Thus, when He put man on the earth, He also put within the earth everything His man and His family would need to live a healthy and prosperous life.

God put iron, coal, and oil in the earth in such abundance, that without these we would have never had an industrial age. God created and put within the earth all the precious minerals, like gold, silver, and platinum. God created all the inert gases that light your fluorescent lights and make your party balloons float away. God put in and on the earth, everything man would need to be able to enjoy his life here.

Then God put His spirit in man. God gave the man a body and soul so that His man could live here and enjoy the earth He had created for him, and then God put His spirit in man so He could communicate with His family. Then God made Adam His under ruler … in essence, Adam became the god of this world.

When Adam sinned by eating from the forbidden tree, he committed high treason against God. Adam handed over the dominion of the creation to the devil.

Once the devil had dominion, he began to funnel much of the wealth of the world to his people. These people are the ones spoken about in the 73^rd Psalm that we read earlier.

AND the devil began to cloud the minds of God’s people about the truth of what they had a right to. As we have seen in other blogs, the devil may be the temporary god of this world, but our Father still is the one that owns the silver and gold and the cattle on a thousand hills.

Once we understand this is true, it is easy to just mentally agree with that truth but not really act on it. Some call this mental assent. The challenge is to not only agree but to believe that what God lays out in His Word is the truth about money and then line our lives, our thinking, and our believing up accordingly.

If these truths become part of your life, then you would tithe/give, save, get out of debt, and learn how to invest and see the prosperity your Father gives you grow. That would involve changing the mind from not only agreeing with these truths but acting on them as well day after day for the rest of your life – living as the sons and daughters God designed us to be.

God’s truths about wealth and prosperity must be retaught in each generation because our mutual enemy puts the church to sleep concerning them over and over. Therefore, much of Christianity is poor when our father’s great wish above all things is for us to prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers.

I will conclude with this quote which seems appropriate:

“One often encounters the viewpoint that anybody who loves God and who believes what God’s Word says is either destined or duty-bound to be poor. What a shame it is that Abraham was excluded from that particular destiny or duty! Abraham had believed what God had said. He had gone where God had told him to go. But he was NOT POOR, rather he was VERY RICH – in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Something must have been wrong! Perhaps what is wrong is not something which was wrong with Abraham, or it is not something which is wrong with God, but perhaps it is rather something which is wrong with our understanding. Abraham was VERY RICH, and he was called by God in Scripture “the Friend of God”.

So, the challenge presented here is to read the records and verses in God’s Word for yourself and then act upon the principles God has laid out in His Word. The reality will become clearer and clearer that God has called us to His family, and His great wish for us is to enjoy The Prosperous Life.

Many years ago, I taught someone about tithing/giving on a Friday night. They went home and shared what they learned with another young man. He tithed for the first time in his life on Sunday. On Tuesday, his pager went off and found they had a liver for him. He was jaundiced and needed a liver very badly or he would die. Now he had one. Coincidence? NOT! He was already born again and had manifested the spirit within, but he needed to learn about tithing/giving to receive what His Father wanted to give him back. A huge repayment for a small gift/tithe.

Apparently, each of us has different pieces of the puzzle we need to put together to see the promises of God come to pass in our lives.

Personally, we had to learn to save our money. Save part of what God gave us back as He promises to do in His Word. In Proverbs, God teaches us that we are to honor Him with the first fruits of all our increase, and then He promises to fill our barns (storehouses) for honoring Him — keeping Him first in our lives. I finally saw that a barn or storehouse in our day and time was more like a savings account. Once we diligently started to save, as we were paying off debt, our lives became dramatically different — more prosperous.

I recently read a book by a well-known preacher that God had to teach him personally about prosperity. This is because, overall, the church does not teach what God really says in His Word about how to prosper financially.

That man had laid out his bills before God and said, “You promised if I was obedient and willing, I would eat of the fat of the land.”  He told God his car had been hauled off for junk, and he was afoot. His children were not well fed or clothed, and his family was not well housed. God told him you have “faith” (we might say believing) for healing and I can see that, but you have none for finances. You have “faith” to see people born again and to teach them how to manifest the spirit born within, but you do not apply that “faith” (believing) in your finances.

When God put Adam in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam dominion over everything. Adam, through a treasonous act, gave his dominion over to the devil. Now the devil is the god of this world. As the god of this world, the two main places he can mess with the lives of God’s children is their finances and their health. Partly, how the devil has messed with the prosperity of God’s children is through wrong teaching/wrong doctrine in the church. You cannot believe beyond what you are taught. If you are taught wrong doctrine, that really impedes your growth financially, as that is our topic here.

The preacher said God told him the devil is the god of this world, but that God still owns the cattle on a thousand hills. God says all the gold and the silver are His. God did not put all this abundance on the earth for the devil and his cohorts. God put these blessings here for His children, His family. We just need to claim what is rightfully ours.

In the 23^rd Psalm, it says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not WANT.” That is more than just having food and clothing. God has also promised that He will supply all our needs in Christ. Malachi says God will rebuke the devourer for our sake. Perhaps if you have tithed, saved and endeavored to believe all God has said concerning prosperity, you may need to ask Him to rebuke the devourer and trust that He will. Then expect to see the promises of God come to pass in your life.

Perhaps, we could take a lesson from George Muller and start with small requests. As our trust and believing grow, we can ask for bigger needs to be met and trust God there also.

Each of us may have different areas we need to rise up in. There is much to learn in our walk with God as we grow in our understanding of The Prosperous Life, and as we wait for the return of our lord from heaven.