Fresh Mannaby Pastor Tim BurtIgnorance of God's will and ways can easily lead you to violate God's will without knowing it. That is why reading your Bible and learning how God wants you to live is life-changing. Hosea 4:6 (NKJV) says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." When I read that verse for the first time, I suddenly realized that it was talking about me. Living my life outside of God's ways was ruining my life. It was time to learn how to live for God!Before I surrendered my life to Jesus, I was ignorantly violating how God wanted me to live. I had never read the Bible nor cared to. I didn't even know if God existed, so how could I know His ways? But when someone shared the gospel and love of Jesus with me and told me that God wanted to forgive my sins and give me Heaven as a gift, that made me excited! I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior and began to go to a Bible-teaching church and read my Bible.It was in reading my Bible that I began to discover that I was living contrary to how God wanted me to live. I remember the first time I read Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT). It said, "When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God."I was shocked reading these verses. I knew inside that it was time to change my behaviors and live how God wanted me to—something I thought was impossible before but now had hope that with His help, I could change. And I began to read about blessing following obedience to God's ways. Right living leads to blessing! That shouldn't have been so hard to grasp. Yet, I never equated the two before. And so my first quest was, How does God want me to live?My second quest was, How do I make these changes in my life? The thought of being blessed by God sounded awesome, although I had no idea what that looked like! That is until I read the scriptures I left you with to read in my last post. Great blessing comes with living for God and not against Him, and that was my new goal. Until reading this, I had no idea that I had been living so far from how God wanted me to live. The changes weren't easy, but making the changes made me feel so much richer in God and better about myself!
3 John 1:2 helped me understand more fully that as a child of God, he wanted to bless me and bring good to my life. 3 John 1:2 NKJV says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”
This verse does not mean chasing down prosperity. This does not refer to a get-rich-quick plan. The Greek word for “prosper” means to get help along your journey and to succeed in the business of what you put your hand to. It is God’s will that you prosper in your journey through life at what you put your hand to for the Lord. And it is His will, through His grace, to help you in that journey! God's grace is His supernatural mercy and help toward the decisions you make and the efforts you put your hand to for God's glory. Again, we read that in the verses I left you to read in Part One of this message.
According to the word of God, many things contribute to prospering, such as love, planning, preparation, diligence, faithfulness, steadfastness, integrity, love, kindness, speaking truth, and more. These are all godly attributes that the Holy Spirit teaches you over time that develop your character through obedience to God concerning them. For example, before God, maybe you were defensive and hasty in giving defensive responses that led you to say many inappropriate things. But then you read the Bible verse Proverbs 29:20 (NKJV): "Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him."
Upon learning that verse, you learned that God wanted you to slow down in your reactions and words. Pause. And let God show you how to respond appropriately. As you practice that, you will become less reactive and more appropriate in your responses. That is prosperity. You are not blowing up your life, relationships, and people! Instead, you are improving your communication style and your ability to succeed. It might lead to a promotion instead of getting you fired!
Many Bible verses speak to how we conduct our thoughts, words, and actions in our daily lives and business. As we follow God's instructions, we mature and develop godly character traits. As we do, the maturity of understanding God's will, learning of God's ways, gaining the wisdom to do what's right and stop doing what's wrong: all these qualities, coupled with the grace of God, will lead us to mature and prosper in all we put our hand to for Him!
Genesis 39:3 (NKJV) concerning Joseph says, "And Joseph's master (Potiphar) saw that the LORD was with Joseph and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand.” Joseph walked in those godly attributes and in the favor of God, and God prospered him through His maturity and God's grace.Deuteronomy 29:9 (NLT) says, “Therefore, obey the terms of this covenant so that you will prosper in everything you do.”
God wants us to prosper in whatever we do so that we may glorify Him and be equipped to help accomplish His will on earth. That is what Abraham and Joseph's lives represented.Finally, 3 John 1:2 NKJV says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, JUST AS YOUR SOUL PROSPERS.” What does it mean for your soul to prosper?Your soul is made up of your mind and emotions. Your mind and emotions are trained in one of two ways: The first way and wrong way is haphazardly through the bombardment of life! Your mind and emotions think, believe, and react to the ever-changing circumstances and sources of information, evil reports, and negative information that hits your life each day. The second and right way your mind and emotions are trained is by you learning and believing and anchoring your thoughts and emotions in God’s word, His promises, and His will for your life, regardless of present circumstances. Meditating on these things keeps you rooted and stable and strengthened in your faith. The result: “…prospering in all things and being in health, just as your soul prospers.” So anchor your life in obedience to God's will, mature in His character, and pray and prosper at all you put your hand to as the Holy Spirit grows you up in Him!Joshua 1:8 (NIV): “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”In His love,Pastor Tim Burt
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