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Grace takes you from where you are to where God wants you to be. Therefore, wherever you are in your walk with Him in your life, there will be a progress that takes you higher and closer in your relationship with Him.
Studying the prayer of king David who experienced it in his life, gives rich insights regarding the nature of the Almighty God, and what He can do in your life to lift you higher ‘Both riches and honor come from you, and you reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all’. [1 Chronicles 29:12]
And valuable truth that can be gleaned through it, is that a) God is your source; b) He is in sovereign control, and, c) He has the power to lift you up, and give you riches and honor, enduring wealth in life.
Wealth that endures
In the sight of God, wealth is more than what is tangible; it is the intangible that is more valuable in His eyes, the wealth that is connected to His eternal purposes. And it is with a mind renewed by the wisdom of God’s word that you will know how it comes into your life for Godly prosperity comes only in Godly ways. These are wisdom’s words, in the book of proverbs, I love those who love me; those who seek me diligently will find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver. I traverse the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice, that I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth that I may fill their treasuries. [Proverbs 8:17-21]
The passage above enunciates very clearly how your treasuries may be filled with enduring wealth. And the overriding principle that comes shining through it is that, enduring wealth comes to ‘those who love me’. In other words, it comes to those who love and are passionate about the wisdom and power of God, who is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Wisdom prospers the person who is passionate about the purposes of God. Put simply it is
1) Wisdom ===> 2) Purpose (true riches) ===> 3) Prosperity
God’s purposes endure eternally; and therefore, in order to gain riches that endure, you need to be connected to the purposes of God. It all boils down to knowing the purposes of God, and being passionately connected to it.
The eternal purposes of the eternal God:
To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. According to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord. [Ephesians 3:10,11] The eternal purpose of God, which He has accomplished in and through Christ Jesus, is to manifest His manifold wisdom through the church. It is wisdom that fills your treasuries; and you are the church, through which God displays and manifests His wisdom. You therefore lack nothing !
The church
In the old covenant, the temple of God was restricted to a particular place. But in the glory of the new covenant that is immeasurably greater, your body is in itself the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your spirit permanently, when you receive Christ Jesus into your heart as your personal savior and Lord. But there is also the need to get a complete understanding, the full picture of the church as a whole, for there is also a corporate aspect to it. It is where Christ is the Head, and you are a part of the world wide church, as His Body. And when you are part of a body, you cannot exist by yourself. It is why being part of a local church is a vital necessity, in order to be connected to the purposes of God.
Together with the saints
That you may be able to comprehend together with the saints what is the width and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. [Ephesians 3:18,19]
It is in the gathering of saints as a church, in the mutual sharing of experiences of the love of Christ in each other’s lives, that you are edified and built up. You will then know the vastness of His love, and also experience the love of God in Christ, that has been poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit. And it is the eternal purpose of God to display through His church, His wisdom that brings true riches. Your role in it, therefore, as His church, is to be passionately connected to the purposes of God.
And His purposes for you, never change
God’s purposes for His children are everlasting and eternal; they remain forever. Therefore His purposes for you do not change, even if your circumstances change. It is illustrated in the life of Caleb who was forty years old when he received the promised word from the Lord, regarding his inheritance in the land of promise. And man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord. Caleb therefore, received strength through it to hold on to the promise of God, in the many long years that followed when he went through the wilderness journey along with the Israelites, who brought needless pain upon themselves because of their double minded doubts and fears. But today, his life is a testimony to you and I, clearly proclaiming that God’s purposes are not subject to change; they are eternal. Therefore, if you are in a situation right now, where you think you cannot do it, Caleb’s life speaks to you, saying that indeed you can !
For, God does not do anything as an afterthought. Even before a problem arises in your life, He has already prepared a solution to it. Everything that you are going to ever need in your life has already been prepared by God, even before you were born into this world. And the practical application of it would be, to heed the Lord’s command and not worry about tomorrow. For, His purposes concerning you are good, and they are eternal. And so, you can think about your future without worrying about it, for you have a future and a hope. Kingdoms have come and gone, but God’s kingdom and His eternal purposes remain that His wisdom may be displayed through the organism of the church. The church is not confined to a building, and a couple of hours of worship on a Sunday, though it definitely is a very integral part of it.
But, the church will never be over
For, when you are a doctor, you are the church, displaying the wisdom of God, as Jehovah Rapha the Healer. If you are a lawyer, as the church, you are there to plead for the oppressed, and be the voice of the voiceless. Whatever your vocation maybe, you are the church, be it in the workplace or at home, all through the day, and every day of the week. And when your time on earth comes to a close, you will join the heavenly throng, the multitudes who worship the Lord eternally.
Indeed, the church will never be over !
And Christ gave Himself for the church:
Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for her; that He may sanctify and cleanse her, with the washing of the water by the word. [Ephesians 5:25,26] The key word in the verse of scripture above is ‘loved’. Christ loved the church; it means ‘Jesus loves you’. And, it was to show His love for the church, that He gave Himself for her. He was passionate about the eternal purposes of God. And, such was His passion that it did not end with mere words. It was a working out of His love and passion in an action most stupendous.
God so loved you, and each and every person created in His own image, that He did not spare His only begotten Son, but gave Him up for the sins of the whole world. And, the Son who so loves you, that He gave Himself for you, will He not together with Him freely give you all other things too ? God is love; He is ‘always’ love. The passion of Christ toward His church, toward you and I who are part of the church, never changes, though you and I, are not always exactly lovable; and the church taken as a whole is certainly not perfect ! The passion of Christ is eternal, because His purpose concerning His church is eternal and unchanging. He loves you forever.
And in any relationship, even in close interpersonal ones, like a marriage relationship, when passion is connected to a divine purpose, there will be no room for indifference or apathy to creep in. Otherwise, pleasure will sooner or later wane in human relationships, only to reveal problems. And they would be due to human imperfections which were always there to begin with, needing only the close encounters of a wedded life to come to light ! But, when connected to the purposes of God, giving and sharing becomes easy and joyful in all your relationships. Going the extra mile will not be difficult when you are passionately connected to the purposes of God. You will give to others, and still remain full, because you have a God who continually fills you.
God who fills you
The church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. [Ephesians 1:23] In His passion for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purposes for the church, Christ gave Himself for it, to die on the Cross. And defeating sin and the evil one, He rose again to be the Head of the church. He now is the Head who fills all in all, filling every lack in your life, when His passion becomes yours. For, when you are His Body, the church, He will build you up. It is His eternal purpose.
‘I will build my church’
They are the words of the Lord, as He passionately proclaimed His role in fulfilling God’s eternal purpose; one that is valid even today, and forevermore. ‘On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’. [Matthew 16:18] Today, you are His church, and His purposeful promise comes to you. He promises to build you up, your home, your work, your church, your ministry, and everything that you are connected with, that they may be in alignment with the eternal purposes of God. His word will build you up and not tear you down.
The church built up – a) rooted, and b) advancing
Christ promises to build His church. It is His passion; one that is connected to the purposes of God. And it can be in two ways.
a) The church that is rooted and established strongly, in a position of strength and power that the work of the evil one cannot bring down, and
b) The church that is being built up by Christ, and is vibrantly moving forward, claiming and possessing more and more territory victoriously, with the hand of the enemy not able to stop it’s triumphal procession. Oh, what a glorious picture it is; and church history stands as a testimony to it. Nations, kingdoms, governments have come against it, but they exist no more.
It is a truth that speaks to you today, that whatever that is coming against you, His church, will not overcome you. For, when the Lord says that He will build His church, He most certainly will. It is why you can see a thriving church in every corner of the world. It may be an unknown tribe living far away from all civilization, but through the gospel being preached to them, ushering in the presence of the known God and His church amidst them, the light of the world transforms lives. It all happens as the passion that begins in the heart of God, flows into the heart of man.
To be filled with godly passion and zeal
Though he begins in a confrontational mode, Paul in his letter to the Galatian church, goes on to describe the intensity of his godly passion toward them as being like the pain of childbirth ‘My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth, until Christ is formed in you.. [Galatians 4:19] And to the Corinthian church, Paul expresses his godly passion to be a divine jealousy I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. [2 Corinthians 11:2]
A godly passion that is like fire
Jeremiah was otherwise known as the ‘weeping prophet’, for his words to the people of Israel were true, but mainly sad and melancholy. But when it came to expressing God’s love and passion for His people, Jeremiah’s words are fiery ‘If I say I will not mention Him, or speak anymore in His Name, then within me there is something like a burning fire, shut up in my bones’. [Jeremiah 20:9] The people may not receive his words, his message from God, but he cannot be indifferent or apathetic, is the prophet’s passionate cry.
Godly passion in you – the key that unlocks it:
The key to receiving God’s passion in you can be seen in the experience of the two disciples, on the road to Emmaus, as the risen Lord, whom they later recognized, joined and walked with them. They then said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us, while He was talking with us on the road, explaining the scriptures to us ?’. [Luke 24:32]
The key lies in hearing from Him, even as Samuel prayed, ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening’. It is when He speaks to you, even in your prayer time, or through His word, and you listen, that His passion can flow into you and become yours. A piece of coal in your hands looks insignificant, but when it comes into contact with fire, its color and its nature changes, until it ultimately becomes fire itself. Listen to God therefore, to receive His vision, His purpose for your home, your work, every aspect of your life. And prosperity is nothing but receiving from Him what He has already prepared, in order to fulfill what He has prepared for you, in terms of purpose and agenda.
The key question that you have to ask yourself is, whether you are going to be passionate about God, together with His eternal purposes for you. For, when it becomes your passion and purpose, you will prosper, and grow from glory to glory, till one day you see Him face to face.
God is passionate about people
God’s passion is for the people of the world. He so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, to die for the sins of the whole world. He shows no partiality. And when your eyes are fixed upon Him, and His passion, to receive from Him, you will become a passionate and purposeful person. Old or young, whatever stage in life you may be, there is no need to limit yourself, when it comes to receiving God’s passion and making it yours. It will see prosperity flowing into your life, that His purposes may be accomplished.
The man after God’s own heart
David was passionate about fulfilling God’s purposes in his life. And it saw the man who began as a young shepherd boy, deemed insignificant in his own family, rise up to be anointed as king, to a position of honor and riches and enduring wealth. And being gifted to be a psalmist, a writer of songs of praise unto the Lord, his psalms themselves are an eloquent testimony of how it all came about. They are not mere beautiful words, but are powerful to encourage and edify. They will build you up to receive God’s passion and make it yours, in order to receive through it all, the fruit of prosperity in your life.
1) ‘How lovely is your dwelling place…’
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts ! My soul longs, indeed faints for the courts of God. My heart and flesh cry out for the living God. [Psalms 84:1,2]
What set him apart from Saul, the previous king, was that David’s passion was all about God’s purposes. He had no personal agenda, and he reaped the benefit of being fully committed and passionate about the purposes of God. The loveliness of God’s presence was his experience; it was not just a poetically beautiful description. And he proceeds to declare his subsequent action in the same psalm, For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than live in the tent of wickedness. [Psalms 84:10]
2) Beholding your beauty
David’s passion for the presence of God in his life, every day, was all consuming; God was his priority over everything else. It is why he declares ‘One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that I will seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life; To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple’. [Psalms 27:4]
And how does one behold the beauty of the Lord ?
It is by seeing the manifestations of His passion for you, His perfections being displayed in and through your life. When you behold Him as your Healer, you experience healing in your life. When you behold Him as your Provider, you receive provision from Him that drives away your lack. When you behold Him as the victorious Jehovah Nissi, you overcome your battles.
3) My soul thirsts, my flesh longs for you
O God, you are my God; early will I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. [Psalms 63:1,2] David’s passion was a seeking after, a longing for the presence of God. It to him was like a thirst for water that arises in you when you are in a dry, waterless and barren land.
And what was the Lord’s response, to his longing and his thirst ?
The Lord blessed him in such a way, that David was able to thankfully proclaim, ‘My cup overflows’. [Psalms 23:5] And his confident confession of faith was, ‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life’. [Psalms 23:6] leading to the climax, his eternal dwelling place !
The peak of it all !
‘I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever’. [Psalms 23:6] It is the path of the passion of God, flowing into the heart of David and becoming his, to make him a ‘man after God’s own heart’.
How does it connect with your prosperity on earth ?
‘Now for the house of my God I have prepared with all my might, gold for things to be made of gold, silver for things to be made of silver….’ [1 Chronicles 29:2,4] His passion to build a house for the Lord was connected to God’s eternal purposes. It saw David and the people of the land, being blessed with abundant provision from the Lord. ‘Who am I, and who are my people that we should be able to offer willingly like this ?’, David acknowledged with humility the blessing of prosperity upon him and his people. David was able to offer one hundred and ten tones of gold towards building the house of the Lord. He was now the king of the land, but one needs to remember that he began as an insignificant young shepherd boy. David was passionate about God’s purposes, and God began to bless him in all ways, making him financially wealthy also. Even in your life, when you love God and seek Him continually, every day will be a day of progress. Connected to the eternal purposes of God, you will be a purposeful child of God. You may feel that you are not in a position of financial strength right now; but your present designation does not determine the prosperity that God is going to manifest in your life, in the days to come. God will increase you, even as he increased David; riches and honor come from Him. It is in your life and mine, not a mere ‘rags to riches’ story, but ‘redemption story’, one that endures eternally.
Let God’s passion flow into you
Seek God; listen to His voice. And let His passion flow into your heart, to become your passion too. Let that which is burning in His heart, burn in you. It is the blessing of the Lord that makes you rich. And wisdom says, ‘I will prosper those who seek after me’. So may your eyes be fixed not merely on what is external, leading you to spend your days in futile pursuits. Let Jesus, who is the wisdom and power of God, be the fire in your heart, the wind in your sails, be the anchor of your soul and the reason that you live, Let the passion of God be poured into your heart, to become yours. And may a prosperity that is enduring wealth come as a result of being connected to God’s eternal purposes for your life.
In the Name of Chris Jesus Amen.
