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!
When I go over to Russia and look into their eyes, feel their emotion and see where one van could reach one thousand villages or one evangelist with one hundred dollars could fill a tent with a thousand people each night, I am stirred to find money for the harvest. God never intended for anyone to be lost and spend an eternity in a hell designed for the devil. He gave the greatest gift of his Son for the salvation of people. He is constantly looking for men and women to get involved in his plan of redemption.
Every lost person is a mission field, and every Christian is a missionary. GOD NEEDS YOU!
Without you His hands are tied, His voice is silenced and His feet are sunk in the sand. He has not given His great Gospel plan to angels to proclaim, nor allowed His Son to walk on the earth like He did for forty days after the resurrection. He has entrusted to us the Gospel and believes that we can get this most important job done!
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!
The key to success is not the absence of mistakes or failures, but the ability to learn from them.
As we travel the nations and work in new cultures, we have opportunity on a regular basis to make mistakes, as well as see others make mistakes. I actually carry a notebook and write every decision or incident that went wrong. Why do I spend time doing that? Two reasons. First, I do not want to repeat the same mistake twice. Second, I do not want to repeat the same mistake twice! Memories can fade so it’s good to keep a written memory of the day’s decisions. The learning curve teaches us that haste is the forerunner to mistakes.
Haste has ruined many a budding love story and many prosperous business partnerships. We live with a God who has planned the universe and He has some long range plans for you. Build your life with an expectation that He is building it with you, and don’t get in a hurry and take the detour of mistakes!
Proverbs 28:20
A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.
The boundaries are limitless for our prayer life! If you have a concern or a problem, you have been given a free invitation to pray about everything. As children we badger our parents with every kind of question imaginable. We learn that we have open access to communicate and that no question is too silly. Over time we mature and our questions change.
As a young Christian we also have every type of question imaginable. As we mature, we learn the heart of our Father and the essence of life in Him. Our questions become more focused and pertain to the situations we face rather than about His character and His willingness to answer us.
Start praying now! The more time you spend with Him, the more you will understand Him and the lighter your load will be. Let Him carry your burdens – His shoulders are big enough!
Rome did not fall because of war, but from boredom and avarice. Alexander the Great did not die in battle, but from boredom in a drunken stupor. We are not designed to live in the safe harbor, but on the high seas. The pastors and leaders of society that fall today do not do so in the effort and struggle to succeed, but in the boredom of their success. Do not allow the hardships you may face today to reveal a crybaby within you, but rise to the task at hand and discover the way to overcome.
The great businessmen of yesterday were not those who waited for retirement and watched a clock. We don’t remember the great spiritual institutions of a different era, but we do remember and are inspired by the men and women who pioneered them in the heat of battle. There is no life marked solely by success, but by failures which rose to success.
Friends, do not dream of a safety net, but of a net that can catch fish. Your safety is in your courageous heart to pioneer new projects and new dreams. Some of you will be the tip of spear in the battle, and others will be the force behind the spear that gives it power to thrust forward. All the positions are important when you go to war.
Jesus did not pay a price for you to be weak.
Jesus did not become your substitute so you would fear.
Jesus did not fill you with His spirit for you to run from the battle.
This is your greatest hour. This is our time! Do not let the winds of adversity howl in your ears driving you to hide behind safe doors. The world is waiting to hear your voice speaking peace to the storm!
One of my most important life-experiences came as I was helping Jean, a woman who attended our weekly feeding program. Our local city had issued a notice that she was to clean up her property or they would haul off all her possessions. What was so tragic is that although she owned a beautiful home, she lived on the front porch! You could not even find a pathway through her home. Though she was a gentle soul with a love for nature and a concern for suffering people, she had a serious mental struggle.
Our local outreach group organized a team to clear her property—not an easy job since to her, everything seemed valuable. I remember sitting on the street curb, dirty from head to foot, picking up seeds that had just spilled from her pouch. At that moment a car load of young people sped by, shouting, “Look at the street people!” Then I realized—they were talking about me! But as my eyes caught Jean’s, I saw joy—because someone cared enough to help her pick up her little seeds.
I have carried that experience with me to over 60 nations! Why? A well-lived life is a life engaged with serving others! If you are sad or depressed, remember there is always someone else who is sadder and more depressed than you. So go out and get busy interacting with others! Then, as Jesus said, you will discover there is no greater love than to lay down your life for another (John 15:13).
True human value is not found in serving yourself, but in serving others!
If I were to put a bunch of apple seeds into your hand, you would probably get a picture of what could be produced from them. The same is true if I filled your hands with turtle eggs.
If I were to put the seed of a human into your hand, try and think of the possibility!
We look at the Japanese bonsai tree and admire its artistically dwarfed size and shape. Most of humanity has gone through an unseen process much like the bonsai tree. Humans have been restricted, confined and twisted to a shape of another’s liking.
It may have been through religion, family criticism, personal inferiority and fears, or the example of others that you feel dwarfed and twisted, but Jesus came to set the captives free!
Each of us has an ability to dream of the possibilities in our future. It is a risk to go beyond the parameters, but no one will ever know the height that you can grow to until you allow yourself to reach. God has put a future in you that reaches into eternity. Stretch for it today!
Most people are aware that they have 5 senses. Some become greatly skilled at one or more, but have we developed our 6th sense? With this sense we touch the unseen realm. With the 6th sense we see what others cannot see and expect what others think is impossible.
The 6th sense is the FAITH sense. Jesus encouraged people to use this sense. He said, “Only believe,” all things are possible to those who believe.
The unseen God is a faith God. Without using faith we cannot please Him, but it is possible for all to please Him. Your heart knows things your hands, taste, eyes, ears, or smell cannot understand. Before you die make sure you see at least one miracle, but really go for it and see one a day!
After we have accepted Jesus Christ’s gift of salvation and are enjoying the freedom of the redeemed, we would be wise to do a little checkup to make sure we haven’t unconsciously slipped in any way from redemption into religion.
The following are 5 differences between Redemption and Religion:
- RELIGION is a “got to” way of life; REDEMPTION is a “get to” way of life.
- RELIGION is a door you must pass through in order to get into God’s presence;
REDEMPTION is an open door that is held open by Jesus, and no man can
shut it.
- RELIGION is man’s attempt to satisfy a holy God; REDEMPTION is God’s
attempt to make us holy by the sacrifice of a holy substitute.
- RELIGION is a shadow of the things to come without substance or power;
REDEMPTION is the reality of things to come through the substance of our
flesh and our words.
- RELIGION is form, a ritual, a tradition that acts like an empty shell, containing
no life or revelation within itself; REDEMPTION is an inner realization of the
Kingdom of God in the temple of our bodies that needs no form, ritual, or
tradition, because the King Himself resides within us!
