Most people think that their job is their work. That’s just not the case in God’s Kingdom!
Paul, talking to slaves two thousand years ago, told them to serve honorably with joy and there would be great reward for them. There can’t be a worse job with less natural reward, comfort or satisfaction, yet Paul looked beyond their slavery to their work of serving the LORD. Even slave labor is rewarded if done unto the Lord and not to men.
When reflecting on Peter’s work we don’t think of his fishing skills, even though fishing was his vocation. We think of his leadership skills in the church. We don’t model ourselves after Peter by getting a job on a boat!
Thinking of Paul the tentmaker, we don’t seek wisdom on how to sew tents. He earned money to pay bills by sewing, but we think of him as a great missionary and adventurer. He didn’t consider himself a sewer of tents, as but a man of God. How do you consider yourself?
Our own personal experience can be a formidable hindrance to walking in the abundance Jesus Christ made available to us. You might say, “I love God and I’ve never had any money. I’ve never been rich and God still loves me. If prosperity really is God’s will for me, then He would have given it to me a long time ago.” These objections are real, but that doesn’t make them legitimate! Just because we haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean it isn’t the will of God for us.
We lived in sin and experienced emptiness, separation and spiritual blindness before discovering salvation in Jesus. Does that mean it was God’s will for us to live in that dark world? No! We just hadn’t heard and responded to God’s Word on the subject. Our decision to act on God’s idea, His Word, and His substitutionary sacrifice for our sins opened a whole new world to us.
I believe we can change our personal experience in the financial realm as well. Armed with truth, you can go into the arena of need and come out a winner!
Faith is a force coming out of the spirit man. It is being convinced of a truth spoken by God even though you don’t see it yet.
I remember an incident years ago when I was still learning how to walk by faith. I was facing a tuition payment at Bible school, and my boss had just told me she was closing the shop where I worked and there would be no paycheck! My roommate was pretty nervous about it because he had seen several students dismissed because of no payment.
It was serious yet I had the greatest peace, and when I arrived at school on the last double-due payment date I had joy in my heart. By now my roommate thought I was going crazy, but confidence remained fixed in my heart as I went up to the Dean of Students to explain my problem. He looked at my records and said there was no problem…that morning someone had paid in full for the semester!
It requires the utmost discipline to hold to that truth when all evidence says otherwise—in fact it’s real work! If your mind cannot stay focused, then you don’t stand much chance of seeing your faith miracle, because you will flood your thought life with doubts and fears, which will put out the light of faith. Our work is to believe!!
There is a picture of poverty that can attach itself to your thinking. We were preaching in Tomsk, Siberia, and the hall was full of graffiti. The chairs were all broken and it smelled of poverty. I asked the pastor how long he had been meeting there and he said five years. I told him that was unacceptable! Get some paint and a hammer and make this place respectable even if you don’t own it. Poverty thinking will keep all your people bound to low expectations in life.
A new power is in operation, a new land is available for every believer—but there will be giants to face. Who cares?! If God said the land is ours, who can stop it from being ours? Well, our own expectation and unbelief can. The children of God forgot the promise of God. They forgot that God was with them. They forgot that giants are not bigger than God.
Even if you have lived in poverty all your life and haven’t made ends meet for years, you can change your past experience now by embracing the words of life and blessing contained in Scripture. When we understand that prosperity is an inheritance of the believer, then no giant of past experience can stand before us!
Jesus took off His heavenly riches and became as you are so you could be as He is. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Some would say that this is just a “spiritual blessing” of riches. We agree – you are blessed with His presence, but His presence always brings material blessing.
I love the story of David when he was attempting to bring the ark of God back into Jerusalem. The ark carried the actual presence of God at that time in the earth. When one of David’s men touched the ark and fell dead, David decided not to take it into the city but left it in a house. “And the ark of God remained with the family of Obededom in his house three months. And the LORD blessed the house of Obededom, and all that he had” (1 Chronicles 13:14).
If all we receive is the spiritual blessing of God’s presence in our lives because our body is His house, then His presence will do for us at least what it did for Obededom!
The devil wants to convince you that prosperity isn’t for you. If that doesn’t work, he’ll try telling you that prosperity isn’t for you today, but maybe tomorrow.
He pulls out his flip chart and starts reciting all the reasons why you don’t qualify. He wants to know what you’ll believe, so he can lock you into that belief system of limiting the unlimited God. Then he’ll recite to you the reasons for your poverty:
“God wants to keep you poor to train you.”
“God has hidden blessings for you in poverty.”
“Jesus was poor and you’re following His example.”
“Poverty is a form of holiness.”
Don’t allow yourself to land on his flip chart! Keep your spirit alive! Paul said, “Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
God has given you power! You are not a victim, but a VICTOR!
King Solomon is considered the richest man who ever lived and also the wisest man before Jesus Christ. The same spirit of wisdom God “placed upon” Solomon has been “created within” you, the believer in Jesus. This wisdom gives you power to make good choices and brings favor to your life. We see that financial wealth is not alone a satisfaction, but wisdom is the principle thing in life. Solomon’s prayer for wisdom was a key to unlocking wealth.
“Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. “Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for— both riches and honor— so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings” 1 Kings 7:13.
We see that financial wealth alone is not a satisfaction, but wisdom is the principle thing in life. His prayer for wisdom was a key to unlocking wealth!
“We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father.” Colossians 1:11-12 NLT
Strength from God for the journey will see you through life’s most difficult challenges. Having lived in Russia for approximately 10 years I learned how God can provide even our simplest request in the most difficult economic situations. I remember one winter in the early 90’s I wanted a pair of gloves to match my coat. No one was selling anything but Soviet-style grey and black gloves, and there weren’t a lot of those available. My coat was multi-colored and I wanted a pair of matching red gloves. To my missionary friend it seemed like a fantasy to desire a pair of bright red gloves in the, at that time, dull, dirty city of Moscow, but one morning as we emerged from the Moscow Metro (subway), there on the corner stood a grandmother selling an assortment of brightly colored gloves! My friend gasped and said “Look! Leslie, there are your gloves!” This was a tremendous testimony to this young missionary who did not have much income and who had no experience living by faith.
“Have faith in God,” Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours… Mark 11:23, 24 NIV
Remember today that God provides strength for the journey! Have faith! He is with you even in the small things!
Imagine your children asking you to buy them some ice cream. What happens when you give your child an ice cream treat? They are so happy and so grateful; they eat it with such great pleasure. They have ice cream on their face and hands and it is dripping on their shirt, but they are so happy because they are loving that ice cream. How do you as a parent feel then? “My babies are so happy and grateful. I will buy them something yummy again!” Isn’t that right?
Our heavenly Father is just as happy to answer our prayers! He tells His children, “Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full” John 16:24). He tells us, “Ask that your joy may be full. I want to bless you. I want to help you. All you need to do is ask Me.” God wants us, His children, to rejoice in the same way a child rejoices when he receives something from his parents!
Faith is BELIEVING when all apparent indicators tell you that things are not possible! Faith is KNOWING that regardless of what your body or circumstances are telling you, that God has a different outcome for your story!
