A Directive From God Part 1:God Wants You to Prosper

In fact, God has intended from the formation of the earth and the beginning of man that man will prosper. Before you jump to any conclusions let me preface this article with what it is not. It is not a prosperity gospel, at least in terms of the modern day trend, as it is not a gospel. To my knowledge there are four gospels, and none are called prosperity. The precept of the tithe and now giving under the New Covenant is not an investment strategy, again reminded of modern preaching that somehow concludes that God is running some sort of stock market exchange where you tithe or gift so much based on a calculated return. The thirty, sixty, hundred fold return is taken from Mark 4: and is the story of the farmer and scattered seed. It has nothing to do with money. The farmer is the one who brings God's message; the seed represents the different type of people who hear it and their ultimate reaction the message. We should never take scripture out of context and manipulate it to support a self serving point, which is exactly what occurs when someone takes a scripture like Mark chapter 4:1-20 and contorts it to fit with some scheme to suggest a return on an investment of your giving. Without judgment but with discernment, the obvious is stated. Its self promotion, the bible makes it clear that those who disseminate the word, particularly those who people repose confidence in and award some authority on the subject will be judged harshly on what they preach or teach. 2 Peter 2:3 "In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction is on the way".

Seed time and harvest is a biblical principle. Look around at life, a man impregnates a woman fertilizes her egg with his "seed" and nine months later is the harvest. Many of us have farmed or have or had gardens in our yards, plant the seeds or bulbs, water, let the sunshine and in time, after its season you can go harvest your veggies, or fruits. Seed sowing in the ministry works in a similar fashion, however there are some distinct differences. For example if a man impregnates a woman the harvest is a human child, not a goat. If one plants tomato's the harvest are tomato's not beans or cars or a spouse. No I haven't lost my mind I will explain a little further as we go. Suffice it to say that seed, time and harvest in the kingdom according to God's word may yield you a harvest completely different from your seed. I will explain further into the session, and it will all come together and make sense. That principle is a vehicle or catalyst to prosperity but it is not prosperity in and of itself, as God prospers us in many ways apart from any seed sowing. For example it rains, when it rains the ground is watered, the plant life flourishes the rivers, streams and lakes fill, the fish and plants and other life in these waters grow healthy, man takes both water to drink and food to eat from them. God has prospered us. He has prospered all of us, Christians and non Christians alike. This is general prosperity where all things dependent on water and the life forms that exist within it prosper, without any acknowledgment of God. To address it in Biblical terms many people think that prosperity means God is going to rain cars, house, or money from the sky, but that's not the blessing of God, those are blessings. Looking at proverbs 10:22 we see it says the blessing of the lord makes a man rich and adds no sorrow with it. Notice it did not say the "blessings" make you rich, it said the blessing. Abraham for example got the "blessing". God caused him to prosper. God did not drop camels or sons from the sky; he blessed Abraham empowering him to prosper with the ability to father a son. He likewise blessed Sarah with the ability to carry a child in her 90's. He has given you (us) the ability to prosper. He directs you to apply his word. It is your faith that will eventually bring about the results. It takes wisdom and knowledge of the word to receive prosperity, and understanding to apply the word. Know at this point prosperity is not a principle but a directive and promise from God and from Jesus in both the Old and New Testaments. We will look at some scripture to support this in part 2.