Victory! (2012) by Gerry James

Saturday, February 11, 2012

 Prosperity of God is a Foolish and Narrow Way

We've talked a lot about blessings and prosperity.  But those words can mean many things to many people - in fact, they can mean almost diametrically opposed things to many people.   There have been great arguments about whether Jesus was poor, rich, or in between in his physical existence.  We have seen the excesses of the greedy who claim an unction from God, and the Bible itself warns us that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil.  What does the promise of prosperity mean?  Is it "only" spiritual blessings? (I'm sorry I have to laugh at that qualifier)  I think it's a fair question and is a subject worthy of exploration,  so I'm going to spend some time talking about prosperity, if God wills.

For me, my understanding is that true prosperity is not using God to "get" for me, me, me... although I can indeed have the desires of my heart.  However, my relationship with God has greatly changed my desires over the years.  Think about falling in love.  How many of you have the urge to change yourselves to "fit" more compatibly with the object of your heart's desire?  His / her desires become your own.  That happens when we fall in love with God.  It didn't happen for me overnight.  I'm still being shaped by this Relationship.  So all I can tell you is that right now, for me, the definition of true prosperity is:  having the God-given ability through faith to be used by God's power to meet the needs of mankind in any realm of life.  I saw in the Bible, Peter approach the Lord fearful, because some men were claiming that Jesus and His disciples didn't pay their taxes and through faith Jesus pointed Peter to the money that was necessary.  Jesus became a blessing of money.  I also saw the disciples see a beggar at the gates of the temple who was lame.  That's how he got an income because he wasn't able bodied for the physical labor required in their day.  He begged for his income.  These disciples said, "Silver and gold have we none.  But such as we have we give unto you" and they allowed the power of God to flow through them and the mans ankles were healed and suddenly he could walk.  Now to me, those disciples gave greater prosperity to meet the need than Jesus had when he provided the tax money.  This man didn't need to beg anymore.  He could go get a steady income now and have his own money.  But actually one "giving" was not greater than the other.  The Source was the same.  The motive was the same.  We only notice the difference because we have a different view of prosperity than God.  We're looking at it from opposite sides.  I'll explain that in a few lessons, but the point is here that prosperity in both instances met the need presented.  That was part of the promise given to Abraham and passed to the Seed - to bless all the families of the earth.  In neither of these instances did it require the givers to be rich in silver and gold to meet the need.  So prosperity has very little to do with the abundance of  or lack of money you have.  It's the amount of God you have -- and whether you are trying to use Him - or allowing Him to use you.

In the film so popular at Christmastime, "It's A Wonderful Life", Clarence the Angel is telling James Stuart's character, George Bailey, that there is no money in heaven.  To which Bailey replies, "Well, it comes in pretty handy down here, bub".

LOL.  We can all relate to that, can't we?  Yet the Bible teaches us that prosperity is having the Presence of God working in us.  Genesis 39:2 says: "And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man."  What? The circumstances we find Joseph in at that time was that he was serving as a slave - a well-favored slave, but a slave nonetheless - in the house of Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharoah.   Yet the Lord called Joseph prosperous.  Because the Lord looks at things differently than we do.  His thoughts are not our thoughts.  And He knew the end of Joseph from the beginning; those circumstances were subject to change.  But even if in our eyes they had not changed...  Joseph was still prosperous because "the Lord was with him."  

There is a currency in the Kingdom.  It's not money.  And the Kingdom isn't "out there" somewhere.  The Kingdom is within you.  Being prosperous isn't going to mean that God is going to make us all millionaires.  It does mean He will deliver us and