Lack of funds to meet current debt, bills and long-range obligations has been a problem for a couple of thousand years for God’s people. That is how we would classify poverty.

As I have looked at the subject of prosperity, the verse in 3 John 2 has interested me.

3 John 1:2-4 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

I wondered why did God pick health and prosperity? He could have said, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you walk in love, renew your minds, forgive one another, manifest the spirit I gave you at the time of the new birth or many other perhaps more spiritual things. But He chose health and prosperity. Why?

In these two areas, our enemy, the devil, has great leverage to afflict God’s people/children. As we will see, God set forth the pattern to overcome these problems years ago.

The first thing to note here in 3 John, verse 2, is that the two verses that follow this speak of God having no greater joy than to hear that His children walk in truth. So that health and prosperity here are tied in verse 2 and verse 4 with walking with God.

This is a large subject, and I am only going to attempt to scratch the surface here. To start, I want to go back to the Pentateuch, but we need a verse from Galatians first.

Galatians 3:13 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 a tree:

What was the curse of the law that Christ redeemed us from? Well, those curses are listed in Deuteronomy 28. They are divided into two categories.

Curses Financially

Deuteronomy 28:15-20  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 statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the ffield.  Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.

Deuteronomy 28:38-40 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.

Curses for Health

Deuteronomy 28:22  The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

Deuteronomy 28:27-29 The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:  And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

Deuteronomy 28:35 The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

Conclusion of the Curses.

Deuteronomy 28:45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

Our subject is prosperity, and, in these verses, we see that poverty is a curse.

God’s great desire for His people, His children and His family is health and prosperity. God’s archenemy, the devil, desires for all God’s children to be sickly and poverty-stricken. In this same chapter, God lists out the blessings that will be ours if we walk with Him and obey Him.

Blessings for Finances and Health

(Notice that these blessings are contingent upon listening to and doing His commandments)

Deuteronomy 28:1-14  And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee. 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 sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

One of the things we learn here is that God is extremely interested in seeing His children healthy and prosperous. So much so that part of what Jesus Christ paid for was to redeem us from the curse of the law, the curse of poverty and ill health. What a blessing!

But remember, nothing comes automatically. The promises of God are available to us by our believing them. Even the first of the promises, salvation, comes by confessing the Lord Jesus with the mouth and BELIEVING in your heart that God raised him from the dead.

We bring these promises into our lives the same way. We see them come to pass in our lives as we trust/believe that God will do as He has said.

Now, some may say, “Well, that is all Old Testament under the law. We are not under the law anymore nor are we of the tribes of Israel.”  True, but just as God’s desire for health and prosperity for us is laid out in 3 John 2, He laid out His instruction for the same to His people in Deuteronomy. A couple of verses in Romans and 1 John may help.

Romans 13:8-10  Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 

 1 John 5:2-3  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Israel under the law, was to hear, to do and to keep, all God’s commandments to see the blessings come to pass in their lives. Our commandment is that we walk in the love of God. By walking in love, we have fulfilled the law.

We saw in 3 John 2 that the great desire of God is that His children prosper and be in health even as our souls prosper.

Prosperity and health have been issues for people ever since the fall of Adam because our adversary, the devil, hates the children of God. In a fallen world, where the devil is the god of this world, God sets out in His Word how to live a prosperous and healthy life. This is the great desire of our Father for us.

This study answered the question for me as to why God chose prosperity and health in 3 John 2 to be the two great things God desired for His children as their souls prosper.  What a loving Father we have. What a wonderful piece of understanding to add to our believing about The Prosperous Life.

1Timothy 4:1-5  Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

A certain Christian group would have many fewer lawsuits if they allowed certain of their leaders to marry. Where did this forbidding of church leaders to marry come from? Doctrines or teachings of devils.

Some groups forbid the eating of certain types of meat, and some secular groups forbid the eating of meat altogether. Where did this teaching come from? Doctrines of devils. Teachings from misguided souls that listened to the wrong source.

I read a short book the other day written by a preacher much older than I that said he grew up in a denomination that said, “God, you keep him (talking about the preacher) humble, and we will keep him poor.”

Where did this teaching that having money was wrong come from? Same as the others. Doctrines or teachings of devils. Since the first and second century, the church has taught that to have money at all was evil. That the pious have renounced all worldly goods. That if you desire more than the needs for the week, you are greedy. God must have changed because God did not present poverty as a virtue in the Old Testament. For instance:

Genesis 24:35 And the LORD hath blessed my master (Abraham) greatly; and he is become great: and he (God) hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses.

Job 42:10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

2Chronicles 32:29 Moreover he (Hezekiah) provided him cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance: for God had given him substance very much.

If you think that God only prospered certain people that He especially loved and you are not good enough or lovable enough, consider this:

 Romans 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

In the book of Proverbs, God would be addressing all His family, and there He states:

Proverbs 8:21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures (storehouses).

In the last book of the Old Testament, God reminds us:

 Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; ….

Toward the end of the New Testament, God again reminds us of another great truth:

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

Health and prosperity are the two great areas where the devil attacks God’s children. But no matter how much you have been attacked by the devil in these two areas, you have the right to reach out and claim your God-given heritage.

The idea of having a lot of money being sinful started as early as 100 AD and came into its own around 300 AD. Here are several quotes from the early church fathers:

You are not making a gift of your possession to the poor person. You are handing over to him what is his.  Ambrose of Milan, 340-397 AD

Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours but theirs.      John Chrysostom, 347-407 AD

Instead of the tithes which the law commanded, the Lord said to divide everything we have with the poor. And he said to love not only our neighbors but also our enemies, and to be givers and sharers not only with the good but also to be liberal givers toward those who take away our possessions.  Irenaeus, 130-200 AD

The rich are in possession of the goods of the poor, even if they have acquired them honestly or inherited them legally. John Chrysostom, 347-407 AD

Now you can see better where this poverty teaching in the church comes from. It came from twisting the scriptures to a devilish end. Our Father is the same today as He was in the days of Abraham, Job and Hezekiah. He is the Lord God, and He does not change. He desires above all things that we prosper and be in health as we keep Him first and love Him in our lives.

2 Peter 3:16-18 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them concerning these things. (In them some things are hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable twist around, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures unto their own destruction.) You, therefore, beloved, since you have foreknown these things, watch so that you are not led astray by the delusion of the lawless ones and fall from your own steadfastness. Instead, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and unto the day of the age. Amen. (WTJ)

The more you look at what God actually said in His Word, you can see His desire for you is to prosper and He wants to fill your storehouses with good things.

So, if you have begun to tithe/give and save as God teaches in His Word, you might find some good books on how to save, invest and become a good steward of the wealth your Father has in store for you.

Learning to look at God’s Word for yourself for your doctrine is all part of The Prosperous Life.

One of the great benefits of being human is our capacity for rational thought.  We can observe, think, analyze and change if we want to.  Although most people change slowly, it is possible. Trees on the other hand are stuck right where they are.  If storms or fires are coming, there is nothing a tree can do but endure.  But we are not trees.

People change all the time. A young person with no knowledge of engineering goes to school and after a few years, they graduate as an engineer. Another person chooses psychology and learns how people think and how to help them. Another person decides to be a plumber and does what it takes to learn and to get a contractor’s license.

Animals other than humans live mostly according to built-in instinct. Ducks fly south in the winter, bears hibernate and salmon return to their birthplace to lay eggs. As people, we can step back and change any part of our lives that are in disarray and come up with a new plan. Only humans can do that.  Even people of only body and soul can change the course of their lives. With Christ in us, we can do even more.

If you don’t like how your life has been going, you can tear up the script and write a new one. Sigmund Freud said that we cannot change. He taught we are the products of our genetic code, and we are the products of our parents and our environment. Many say of other people in poor circumstances that it is not their fault, it is how they were raised. But these things are lies. God asks us to renew our minds, and many people in God’s Word made some drastic changes in their thinking patterns such as the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus and David after he was confronted by Nathan the prophet.

God’s Word gives us the underlying principles that govern a prosperous life in so many areas. Others having successfully incorporated those principles into their lives have written books and teach courses on how they accomplished what they were seeking. By reading their books and taking their courses, we can take a shortcut to accomplish the same thing. Instead of making all of the mistakes and having the frustrations that comes with changing, we can shortcut that by learning from others.

In Ephesians, God tells us to not let the sun go down on our wrath, yet many people find getting rid of anger hard to do.  So, they take courses in anger management to learn how not to become so angry. Take a course to learn how to do what God asks us to, what a unique thought.  How about a course or book on marriage or handling finances, or forgiveness?

Many people come from families that hold grudges against even their own family members — mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and even exes. If you grew up this way, it may take some work learning how to change your thinking patterns.

God says not to be drunk with wine wherein is excess, so some people join Alcoholics Anonymous to learn from previous addicts the shortcuts to go from being addicts to being sober. A shortcut is not cheating. It means learning from other people’s mistakes so that we don’t have to repeat them in our search for deliverance.

People join Toastmasters and become public speakers. (Some people fear public speaking more than death.) But after they have faced the fear, risen up and opened their mouths hundreds of times, the fear goes away. They have changed.

But if you will notice, all of the changes I just listed were changes that occurred inside the person. A person does not change because of his surroundings, circumstances or his appearance. You cannot go to the beauty parlor or The Gap and come out a new person.  What is inside is still the same only the outside looks different.

You cannot change by moving to a new city or state.  As Emerson said, “We carry our Goliaths with us.”
When you change the way you think, the way you believe or the focus of your life in a certain area, then your outer world can begin to change.

I read years ago that some family lines continually produce preachers, nurses and teachers — those concerned with helping others. Other family lines constantly have members in jail, are thieves or prostitutes.  These are learned behaviors and are passed from parents and relatives to young children. Children grow up being exposed to certain mindsets — good or bad.

I met a lady that lived in the country northwest of where I live, and she worked as a highway patrol trooper.  I asked her where she was originally from because of her nonlocal accent.  Her family was in another state.  She said she moved here when she had children because she did not want them raised around her relatives.  She did not want them to grow up and be acquainted with their lifestyle.  She said those negative traits in her family were stopping with her.

I don’t know what traits, habits, or mindsets her family had that she did not want her children to grow up with. In the movie, Hell or High Water, at the end, the main character said, “Poverty is a disease that is handed down from one generation to the next.” It also reminded me of President Harry S. Truman who had a sign on his desk that said, “The buck stops here.”

If like the lady, you have negative family traits, you can decide that they stop with you. If your family has high divorce rates, you can learn together how to stay married. If your family has a problem with forgiveness, that can end with you. If your family has a problem with handling money, you can teach your offspring how to prosper. We have the ability to change any part of our lives we want to, but it may take some work.

You can’t have a strong family if you merely talk about building a better relationship with your spouse and kids. Take some courses, read some books and learn from the shortcuts of other people. Make a plan, and put it into action. You have to get out of your comfort zone. You have to step up and do the work.

Excerpts from Change Begins with Choice by Jim Rohn

1.    Any day we wish, we can discipline ourselves to change it all.
2.    Any day we wish, we can open the book that will open our minds to new knowledge.
3.    Any day we wish, we can start a new activity.
4.    Any day we wish, we can start the process of life change. We can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year.

We can also do nothing. We can pretend rather than perform.
And if the idea of having to change ourselves makes us uncomfortable, we can remain as we are. We can choose rest over labor, entertainment over education, delusion over truth, and doubt over confidence. The choices are ours to make.
As Shakespeare uniquely observed, “The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves.” We created our circumstances by our past choices. We have both the ability and the responsibility to make better choices beginning today.
And if I may be so bold to offer my last piece of advice for someone seeking and needing to make changes in their life: If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree. You have the ability to totally transform every area in your life. And it all begins with your very own power of choice.

“Our dilemma is that we hate change, but we love it at the same time.
What we want is for things to remain the same but to get better.” –Sidney Harris

No one can change your life for you.  They can only open the door. They can show the way. God can light the path, but we have to walk through the door and follow the path for ourselves.

So in our quest for The Prosperous Life in the area of money, take a course, listen to podcasts, read some books, formulate a plan, and get started.  It is never too late. Along the way, you may find you need to change your plan in ways you never thought of in the beginning. Our Father will be with you lighting your path all along the way. Eventually, you may be able to help others with the process of change in the area that they struggle in. Remember, You Are Not A Tree.  You can change any area of your life that needs it.  This is all part of living The Prosperous Life.

The Winds
One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow,
‘Tis the set of the sails and not the gales
Which tells us the way to go

Like the winds of the sea, are the ways of men
As we voyage along through life
“Tis the set of the soul that decides its goal
And not the calm or the strife.

–Ella Wheeler Wilcox