Godliness Ensures Prosperity

Godliness ensures prosperity.
Of course, when you use that word prosperity, people think about the natural realm—about financial and material prosperity. That’s true, but it actually means “to prosper spiritually. That is in spirit, soul, and body.”
According to the Bible, your physical, material, and financial prosperity depend on your spiritual prosperity.
3 JOHN 2
2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest PROSPER AND BE IN HEALTH [that’s physical prosperity], EVEN AS THY SOUL PROSPERETH.
When it comes to the realm of the natural, so many people don’t see the truth that God wants them to prosper financially and materially and also walk in divine health. They think, God wants only to bless us spiritually, all right. And that we may have to go through life poverty-stricken and barely able to get by.
But that’s not true, and we see that fact over and over in the Word. Second Chronicles 26:5 says, “And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: AND AS LONG AS HE SOUGHT THE LORD, GOD MADE HIM TO PROSPER.” If you’ll read all of this account, you’ll discover that God is talking about material and financial prosperity.
As long as we seek the Lord, God makes us to prosper. Again, Joshua 1:8 says the same thing: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

Did you notice what God said? He said you will make your way prosperous. Of course, God would be behind your prosperity. He’s the author of it. But your actions determine whether or not you make your way prosperous. You determine whether or not you prosper mentally or emotionally. It’s up to you whether you prosper in school, on your job, in relationships or in the ministry. It’s up to you whether you prosper financially, materially and physically. It’s up to you!
If you want to see a difference in every area of your life, and if you want to make a difference in other people’s lives, then GODLINESS IS THE KEY. Godliness is the divine art of living for God. Living a godly life will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success—spirit, soul, and body! With godly living you will receive divine protection, promotion, and prosperity!

The True Form Of Man

It should be of note that a person is what he loves, or rather, that he is the form of his love. It should also be known that the inner person, the inner man - which is the same as the spirit that lives within the man - is the form of his love. But this is not so with the outer person in the world, because the outer man has learned from early childhood to hide the desires of his love, indeed, to pretend and feign other desires than his true ones.

Everyone's own love which is the actual form of his inner person, remains in him, even after death for the reason that love is a person's life, and consequently, the real person, the true form of a man. A person is also what he thinks - (PROV. 23:7) - thus what his intelligence and wisdom are, but these are united with his love. For a person thinks because of his love and in accordance to it; in fact, if he is free to do so, he speaks and acts from it. From this it can be seen that love is not just a feeling or emotion that one may have at certain times. Rather, it is the very being and essence of a person's life, and that his thoughts are the resulting expression or manifestation of his life. Speech and action that spring from thought, therefore, do not spring from thought, but from love acting through thought.

I have been granted to know from a good deal of experience that a person even after death, is not what he thinks but what his affection is and what he thinks from that, which is to say that he is what his love is and subsequently his intelligence. I have also been granted to know that after death a person puts away everything that is not in harmony with the true love of his heart; indeed, that he progressively takes on the form, the look, sound, speech, behavior and manners of his life's love. It is for this reason that the whole of heaven has been set in order according to all the varieties in the affections connected with the love of good, and that the whole of hell has been arranged according to all the affections connected with evil.

Marriage And Spirituality

People who are truly in love know that marriage is one of the greatest blessings the Lord has given people. Yet some Christians have come to believe that it is better to be single because a single person can be closer to God. Some think that marriage is a distraction from spiritual things, or that it is just a way of meeting physical and emotional needs. Does marriage get in the way of spirituality? Or do marriage and spirituality go hand in hand? Let's begin at the very beginning. The very fact that the Lord has created us male and female (Genesis 1:27) seems to indicate that marriage is the intended condition for people. God's blessing on the first marriage makes this even more clear: "And God blessed them and said to them, `Be fruitful and multiply.'" (Genesis 1:28) Not only does marriage have the Lord's blessing—it is also His command: "Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel.... `Take wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished.'" (Jeremiah 29 :6) Jesus showed His approval of marriage by quoting the words of Genesis 2:24 : "And they shall be one flesh." So far there is no hint of anything less than ideal in marriage, and certainly nothing that should cause guilt. Just the opposite—"They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." So marriage is God's blessing for humanity, part of his plan for people. The Lord even said, "It is not good that the man should be alone." It is no wonder, then, that the daughter of Jephtha "bewailed her virginity," and that Solomon said, "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord." (Proverbs 18 :22) Perhaps the strongest evidence that marriage is a beautiful and holy ideal is the constant reference throughout the Bible to a marriage between the Lord and His Church. "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." (Isaiah 62 :5) "Your Maker is your husband: The Lord of Hosts is His name." (Isaiah 54 : 5) "`Turn, O backsliding children,' says the Lord, `for I am married to you.'" (Jeremiah 3:14) "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." ( Revelation 19 :7. See also Jeremiah 31 :32 ; Isaiah 49 :18 , 61 : 10 ; Jeremiah 2:32 ; Hosea 2:2; Ezekiel 16 ; Matthew 22 :2-9 ; 25 :1- 10 ; Mark 2:29 ; Luke 5:34 ; Revelation 21 :2,9; 22 :17 , etc.) If there were something less than ideal about marriage, then why would the Lord so often describe Himself as a Bridegroom and Husband? This comparison shows us that the true relationship between husband and wife is as holy, pure and wonderful as the true relationship between God and His people. There is a teaching of Paul that seems to conflict with this. He wrote, "It is good for a man not to touch a woman." (1 Corinthians 7:1) It may seem that Paul was advocating celibacy. But too often his teachings have been taken out of context. Note that he was writing in answer to a specific question (1 Corinthians 7:1) . He was not laying down a general principal, but a temporary suggestion. He said, "I suppose that this is good for the present distress, that it is good for a man so to be." (1 Corinthians 7: 28) His point was that a time of distress—perhaps referring to the threat of persecution—is not the best time for marriage. He did say, "He who is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord, but he who is married cares for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife." (1 Corinthians 7:32 ,33) Yet even here he does not mean that married men cannot give full attention to the Lord, for he says, "Let they who have wives be as though they had none." (1 Corinthians 7:29) Finally, note that Paul said repeatedly that this advice about temporary abstinence was his own opinion, not God's command. "I speak this by permission, not of commandment." (1 Corinthians 7: 6) "I speak, not the Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:12) "Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment." (1 Corinthians 7:25) "I suppose that this is good." (1 Corinthians 7:26 , emphasis added) Paul's general principles concerning marriage come out clearly when he says that it is a doctrine of devils to forbid marriage, (1 Timothy 4: 1,3) and that "marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled." (Hebrews 13 :4) So even Paul taught that marriage is good. Of course a single person can be just as Christian as a married person. Enoch whom we are told walked with GOD and was taken without seeing death was married. We are told: And Enoch walked with GOD after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters.-(GEN 5:21-24). In this less-than-ideal world not all are given true Christian marriages. But those who are blessed with true marriages know that marriage can be beautiful, holy and pure, a part of God's order for people.

And the Word Was Made Flesh

Of all the inspired Gospels, only two, recorded the story of the Lord's birth. However, the Incarnation is found in the doctrine of the Word made flesh, with which John's Gospel begins. The Lord from eternity was Jehovah, in human form, but not yet in the flesh; and as Jehovah willed to put on the entire Human, He assumed the flesh. Thus the simple but profound statement made by John records the fulfillment in time of the Lord's will to become Man in ultimates - to take on His own proper Human; and it is the basis of our belief that the Lord Jesus Christ who was born in Bethlehem was God incarnate: the Word that was in the beginning with God, and was God. Yet we must understand that the full meaning of scripture is not found in the letter alone. For instance, "flesh" does not necessarily mean the material body, but the sensuous which is the ultimate of the natural; and in this instance the reference is not to the material body which the Lord assumed from Mary but to the Human which He put on from the Divine itself. When the Lord was born, the Word was indeed made flesh externally or outwardly in His infant body; but this was not the complete fulfillment of that scripture, and the Word was not made flesh internally until the Lord had made the Human in Himself Divine down to the sensuous and had thus become the Word in ultimates. In other words, John's inspired writing is an introduction not only of the Incarnation but also of the Lord's glorification; and its fulfillment was marked by His saying, after His resurrection, "A spirit hath not flesh . . . as ye see Me have." This view takes nothing away from John's words as a profound statement of the Incarnation. Rather, it does carry our thought forward as to the glorification, for the sake of which, as the means of salvation, the Lord came. For the "flesh" in reference to the Lord signifies also His Divine essence - the Reality of which is the Divine Human; this mystery is that which GOD seek to bring all men into in HIMSELF.

The Divine Anointing For Ministry

Anyone with a ministry has to come to terms with the truth that God's purposes are advanced by the divine anointing of the Spirit, not techniques. God's method has been always to use anointed men. You can't achieve any God-given task without the anointing of His Spirit. You can have superb publicity and the finest of administrators, but only the anointing of God upon you will accomplish the task He has commissioned you to do.

The apostle Paul was both commissioned and anointed. As a result he was able to succeed in his assignment. God, he said, 'has made us able ministers of the new testament' (2 Corinthians 3:6). It was his anointing that brought him through the veil separating the natural from the supernatural in his ministry. Even Jesus, when commissioned to begin His public ministry, started by saying: 'The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, for He has anointed Me to...' (Luke 4:18). He was very clear as to His assignment and confident of the Spirit's anointing.

The anointing cannot be isolated from your task. It's not a case of O-o-oh, I've been anointed with the Spirit! I can feel the tingles all over me! Your anointing is not to make you feel good; rather, it is to focus God's power into the fulfilment of your God-given mandate and assignment. It was this apostolic anointing that gave Paul his apostolic authority. Writing to the Corinthians he said, 'The authority the LORD gave me is for building you up, not for tearing you down' (2 Corinthians 13:10).

People might try to copy techniques which they have seen others use to build a strong church. But unless they have the same anointing as those other people, they will accomplish little or nothing.

The Call To Apostleship

The common believe that apostles are no longer needed in the church,is not a fact supported by scripture.It is a fact thought that this all important ministry gift has been terriblely misused.But still does not rule out the fact that God still calls apostles.Without them, God's work on earth cannot be actuallised.The other ministry gifts may not find completness. All spiritual work must begin with the Spirit's call.All divine work must be divinely initiated. If the Holy Spirit has not said: "Separate Me that 'man' for the work to which I have called him," that man can never be an apostle. Only the divine call and commissioning of God with very specific assignment from God can qualify for the apostolic office. A true called apostle is one sent of God as a messenger with an assignment of a very specific nature. Apostles are not just raised. They come forth when there is a very major specific assignment of God to be carried out in an age or generation. I strongly believe, one of the great tragedy in the body of Christ today, is that so many "workers" have simply gone out; most of which have not been SENT. Most of these resulting, from personal desire, motivation from friends and even some elders and committees commission and send men out as apostles when they are not; some have simply taken this as a worthy title for them to have, and as such named themselves apostles-all of these are factors on the natural plane and they cannot take the place of a true spiritual call and commissioning from God. How many can truly say like Paul: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.."(Ephesians 1:1).It should be noted also, that it takes more than just giftings to constitute men apostles; it takes God himself, His will, His call, His mandate and commissioning.We must try those who say they are apostles and separate,the true from the false according to Revelation 2:2.In conclusion, recognising true apostles and allowing them to function will bring restoration breakthrough to the body

You Have Power Over Sin

The LORD Jesus, through His shed blood on the Cross of Calvary, destroyed and brought to an end, the power of sin in everyman that believes in Him. His death on the cross was the actual death of sin. He died not only that we be forgiven, but that sin, be removed from us. He destroyed sin the moment His blood was shed. He destroyed sin by the power of His death and shed blood. Believers can experience and live a life with no sin. John said, in 1 John 3:9 "Whosoever is born of God doeth not commit sin..."Christians must begin to see the possibility of living a sinless life on earth. Christ Jesus lived in that order on earth because it is possible. Sin should not have power over you. We are free because Christ died and shed His blood. Romans 6:10-13 declares: “For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” We are commanded not to allow sin into our lives because we are free. Paul tells us: “The moment you come to the Cross, you legally receive power over sin.” “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”We have a choice whether to allow leaven in our lives or not. Sin has been destroyed, and we have the power not to allow it into our lives