ABUNDANCE

 

HIS ABUNDANCE :

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap... - Luke 6:38, NIV

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.2 Corinthians 9:8

Our God is a God of abundance! He wants to pour out His abundance on you until you are so full that you are running over! But, notice how today’s verse starts. It says, “Give and it will be given to you.” That’s because your giving sets the blessing of God into motion in your life. When you give, you plant a seed. If you were to plant an apple seed, you wouldn’t just grow one single fruit. No, that one seed grows into a tree that produces an abundance of apples! That’s what happens when you obey God in your giving. You get an abundant harvest in return. You reap so much that you have to give it away, and the cycle just keeps repeating itself!

Is there something the Lord is telling you to give today? What do you have in your hand that you can bless someone else with? It can be financial or material, but take a step of faith today and open the door to His abundance in every area of your life!

KING OF HEARTS :

Mark 4:30, "And he said, Where unto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?"

The word "kingdom" means "the realm over which a king rules." When applied to God, it could refer to all creation, since "his kingdom ruleth over all" (Ps. 103:19), but the kingdom more often applies to His rule in and through those who are submitted to Him. "The Kingdom of God" more specifically refers to Christ living and ruling in our hearts. So praying "thy kingdom come" is praying for the expansion and influence of God's rule in the hearts of men everywhere and, ultimately, the establishment of His physical Kingdom here on earth at His second coming (Rev. 11:15; 20:4).

Throughout Jesus' earthly ministry, the Jews kept looking for Jesus to establish a physical kingdom here on the earth and deliver them from the oppression of the Romans. Although, during the Millenium, the Kingdom of God will physically rule over the nations of the earth, Jesus' Kingdom is spiritually established by His Word and not by carnal weapons (2 Cor. 10:3-5). Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation . . .behold, the kingdom of God is within you." (Lk. 17:20-21) Paul says we are already in the Kingdom of God (Col. 1:13). The Kingdom of God is therefore Christ's "invisible Church," His body. The Kingdom began during His earthly ministry and is still ruling the hearts of men today.

The new birth ushers us into the Kingdom of God which is infinitely greater in wonder and benefits than our finite minds can comprehend. To the degree that we do begin to understand how God's Kingdom works and apply our lives to it, we can experience heaven here on earth. Pray for a release into the physical of what is already present in your spiritual being

A Health and Wealth Christian

"And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day" (Deut. 8:18).

I have been accused of being a "health and wealth" preacher. My response is, "Guilty as charged!" God's Word is full of His goodness. In fact, God's goodness is in His glory. James 1:17 says that good gifts come from God and that God doesn't change. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that health and prosperity are good and sickness and poverty are bad. Health and prosperity are a part of The Blessing and sickness and disease are a part of the curse.

Galatians 3:13 says that Jesus came to earth to redeem us from the curse of the law. In other words, part of His mission and goal was to make a way for those who would receive Him to walk in life, health, and prosperity.

Did Jesus accomplish on the earth what He was sent to accomplish? Did Jesus complete the task that His Father sent Him to do? Did Jesus make a way for mankind to be redeemed from the curse of the law? Of course He did! Jesus did not fail in any part of the mission He was sent to do. Upon returning to the Father after His ascension, I guarantee you that Jesus did not have to make up an excuse or give a reason why He didn't do everything He was sent to do. He completed everything. He was the perfect sacrifice and paid in full everything that was to be paid for man's redemption.

The curse of the law, as described in Deuteronomy chapter 28, involved three parts: 1) death, 2) sickness and disease, and 3) poverty. Jesus paid the price in full for our complete redemption - not just a third, not two-thirds, but completely in full. When Jesus said, "It is finished," it was finished. God's plan is for us to replace the curse in our life with The Blessing. We replace death with life. We replace sickness with health. And we replace poverty with prosperity.

If it is true, and it is, that Jesus redeemed us from the complete curse, then how do we walk in The Blessing that He has paid for? Quite simply, a biblical principle is that we only receive what we believe. If we believe He died for our sins, we receive everlasting life. Does everyone on earth receive everlasting life? No. Even though it is available to everyone and even though Jesus paid the price in full so that the whole world could be saved, only those who believe in Him and receive Him as their Lord and Savior actually acquire everlasting life.

But everlasting life is only one-third of The Blessing. What about health and prosperity?

A Bible word we rarely used is propitiation. The simplest definition for this word is substitute. First John 2:2 says, "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." Jesus paid the price we could not pay. He died for our sins so that we could live. He substituted His death for ours. Because He died, we will never die.

About seven hundred years before Jesus was born on the earth, Isaiah prophesied that a Messiah was coming who would be bruised for us. Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophesy and in First Peter 2:24 we are told that by His stripes we have been healed. He paid the price for our healing. He took pain upon His body so that we could live free from pain. He was our propitiation. He was our substitute.

The third part of the curse was poverty. In the same way that Jesus died so that we can live and in the same way that He took on sickness so we could be well, He also took on poverty so we could live in prosperity. In 2 Corinthians 8:9, the Bible says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."

Although the prosperity message may not always be taught properly, and sometimes is even taught with the wrong motive, the truth is prosperity is a part of The Blessing and God fully expects us to receive completely all that He has sent Jesus to accomplish.

Heaven rejoices when someone receives eternal life. That is very true. "Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (Luke 15:10). But also there is great joy in heaven when a saint becomes prosperous. "...Let the LORD be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant" (Psalm 35:27).

Do not be deceived. God is the God of completeness. He doesn't do things halfway. So when He sent Jesus to redeem us from the curse of the law, He redeemed us from all of it. And we receive that blessing according to our faith.

So, the next time somebody asks you, "Are you a health and wealth Christian?" you should stand up straight and boldly say, "Yes, I am, because I am a child of God, the God of The Blessing!"

Scripture References:

"A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous."(Proverbs 13:22)

"I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, am the God of Israel." (Isaiah 45:3)

"Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: 'I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.'" (Isaiah 48:17)

"For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God...." (Ecclesiastes 2:26)

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:33)

Point To Jesus, Your Qualification

    But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God —and righteousness and sanctification and redemption —     1 Corinthians 1:30

When the devil accuses us of having done wrong and tells us that we don’t deserve God’s blessings, what should we do? Well, the Lord showed me one day what we are to do. We are to point everything back to Jesus, who qualifies us for all of God’s blessings.

So when the devil says, “You are not righteous enough,” just look to Jesus and declare, “He is my righteousness!”

When the devil says, “You are not holy enough,” just look to Jesus and declare, “He is my sanctification!”

When the devil says, “You don’t deserve to be healed,” just look to Jesus and declare, “By His stripes I am healed!”

When the devil says, “You don’t qualify for the blessing,” just look to Jesus and declare, “He is my qualification!”

Each time you point everything back to Jesus, the devil has nothing to say because Jesus qualifies you for all of God’s blessings. In and of yourself, you do not qualify. Without Christ, there is nothing good in you which can qualify you.

But with Christ, your disqualification becomes your qualification for the undeserved, unearned and unmerited blessings of God. And because God puts your life in Christ (Colossians 3:3), who is the all-deserving one, you become all-deserving. Because you are in Christ, you are qualified.

Jesus qualifies you because He died for you and gave you a blood-bought right to every blessing of God. You have a blood-bought right to a life full of meaning, purpose and abundance. You have a blood-bought right to walk in divine health. You have a blood-bought right to provision even when the economy is bad. You have a blood-bought right to preferential treatment because God favors you. You have a blood-bought right to the good life!

My friend, you have a right to all these blessings not because you are good, but because Jesus shed His blood and qualified you to have them. So don’t let the devil or anyone tell you that you can’t expect to walk in the blessings of God!

Thought For The Day

You have a right to all the blessings of God because Jesus shed His blood and qualified you to have them.

God’s Provision Exceeds All Your Expectations

So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.”… Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz… - Ruth 2:2–3

Are you believing God for a certain breakthrough today? Trust the Lord to position you at the right place at the right time to experience His provision. Believe that He has gone before you and prepared a provision that will exceed your expectations!

If you’re trusting God for a life-partner, for example, look at the story of Ruth. Of all the fields that she could have stepped into to collect grain, the Lord led her to Boaz’s field! Boaz then fell in love with Ruth and the rest is history.

In the natural, all the odds were stacked against Ruth. She was a poor widow and a Moabitess (a foreigner). But that did not stop her from putting her trust in the Lord’s favor. Now, that favor not only led to the provision of grain for her and her mother-in-law, Naomi, it also led to the provision of a blessed life partner.

Beloved, God’s provision will exceed all your expectations! Ruth was only believing for grain, but the Lord exceeded her expectations and blessed her with Boaz! Believe with all your heart that Jesus can do the same for you!

Jesus knows the burdens we carry and the tears we shed, but He is the healer of broken hearts, broken dreams, and broken lives. Trust Him. He never fails.

Eternal Life, Health, and Prosperity

Jesus became our substitute and redeemed us from the whole curse of the law. The curse, and how Jesus redeemed us, basically consisted of three parts.

The curse:

1) Spiritual death

2) Sickness and disease

3) Poverty

The redemption:

1) Eternal life (Hebrews 9:12)

2) Health and healing (1 Peter 2:24)

3) Prosperity (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Unfortunately for them, many people stop after one third of the curse has been broken in their life. Jesus paid the price to break the entire curse of the law, which included poverty, sickness, and spiritual death. We are good at telling people they need to become spiritually alive. We even tell them that when Jesus died on the cross, He became a curse (Gal. 3:13) and because He was cursed, we're not cursed anymore.

Why stop there? What about the curse of sickness and disease? What about the curse of poverty? He became our substitute in those things, too. The Scripture clearly tells us so. He paid the price you couldn't pay so that you can be rich.

He took the curse of poverty for you and He paid the price. Second Corinthians 8:9 says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."

This scripture can only mean that Jesus was the substitute for your poverty. He was the propitiation for that part of the curse of the law for you. It means that though He was so very rich (in heaven), yet for our sakes Jesus became like us (poor), so that we could become like Him (rich, enriched, and abundantly supplied)!

One time I heard a preacher say, "I don't want to use the word 'rich.' I'm just going to say 'doing well.'" Is it wrong to quote the Bible? Some denominations don't want to use the word "blood" because they're afraid it's offensive. Other denominations don't want to use the word "rich" because it's offensive. Who decides which words we take out of the Bible and which ones we don't?

I believe if you are healthy, spiritually alive and you've got some money in the bank, you can do more for the Gospel than if you're lying on your back in a hospital with a dead spirit and you're dead broke.

The devil does not want you living the Gospel. The Scripture says, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). What are the works of the devil? In John 10:10, Jesus tells us, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy..."  Sounds like the curse of the law to me. The devil wants to kill you. He wants you spiritually dead. He wants to steal from you. He wants to destroy your body. The devil wants you to live under the curse. Jesus shed His blood so you wouldn't have to live under the curse.