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Biblical
Prosperity in Perspective 12
Developing the
Capacity to Prosper, Part Five
by Pastor John Hamel
We are studying the
subject of Biblical prosperity in perspective for the express purpose of getting
free from poverty in order to save billions of lost souls.
Too many Believers
rail on the idea of Biblical prosperity because they are ignorant of what
the Bible teaches in this area. They have no idea that to rail on the
Doctrine is to rail on the Doctrine’s Founder, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Too many Believers hear Biblical prosperity being mentioned and
automatically think that those of us who believe in it are covetous, greedy
and hoarding. That is because some of Jesus’ Disciples are indeed covetous,
greedy and hoarding. They want prosperity so they can go out and buy
every contemporary Christian CD or MP3 that hits the marketplace.
This is not what we are talking about in these studies.
We are not talking
about prospering for the sake of self. We are talking about
prospering for God’s sake. We are talking about prospering in order
to seek and save the lost, to destroy the works of Satan in the Earth and, finally, about having our needs
met. I cannot possibly emphasize this enough.
Without shame I tell you right up front, I
am “a name it and a claim it.” When the Lord puts a project on my heart for
reaching the lost or teaching the saved, I “name” what I need to do it, and
I “claim” it by faith in Jesus’ Name.
As a matter of fact, I “demand” what I need to accomplish His will to come
to me, according to John 14:13-14. Get your Greek Lexicon
out and study those verses and you will discover that this is what Jesus
demands all Disciples to do when He gives them an assignment.
Check
out the word “ask” in those verses in your Lexicon and you will discover
that the proper translation is “demand.” Of course, I demand nothing
of God. I demand that Satan back away from my provision. I
place a demand on what God has promised me in the Bible using the words of
my mouth as Jesus instructed. (Mark 11:23)
I then also commission the Angels of God to cause whatever I need, in
Jesus’ Name. (Psalm 103:20) They do it, too.
So, yes, I am
indeed a Biblical “name it and claim it.” I learned how to be one
from my big Brother, Jesus. The principles that He taught me through
His Word and through His Ministry Offices, I am now sharing with you.
This is so you, too, will have enough money to do whatever the Father tells
you to do, whenever He tells you to do it, plus enough left over to keep
you out of debt, stress and anger.
Addition
First, Multiplication Second
I told you we were going to study
ingredients that need to be added to “the” measure of faith in order for
your faith to be sharp and effective. We will do this by going
through some verses in Second Peter, chapter one.
We will dissect the
verses as we go, separating and focusing on the individual ingredients that
must be “added” to your faith in order for God to “multiply” your wealth.
“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of
Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us
through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ:” (Vs 1)
Did you notice that? Peter just said
that you have the same faith that he had! Keep that in mind as we
go. Peter was not special. As a matter of fact, the Bible says
Peter was unlearned and ignorant. (Acts 4:13)
What made
Peter different was the time he spent with Jesus developing “the” measure of faith.
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you
through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his
divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and
godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and
virtue.” (Vss 2-3)
Is money relevant to life? Certainly
it is. It is the coin of the realm. You just are not going to
make it if you don’t have any. God wants us to have all things that
pertain unto life and that includes wealth for the spreading of the Gospel.
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and
precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
(Vs 4)
One of the great and precious promises God
offers is the wealth of the wicked being
handed over to obedient Believers. Another precious
promise is that we can partake of His Divine nature. We have been
created in His image and in His likeness. (Genesis 1:26)
One way we
are to be like Him is to be vessels of wealth even as He is a vessel of
wealth. All the gold and silver in the world belongs to Him. (Haggai
2:8) He desires to share it with us but only once He comes to know
experientially that we will use it to perform His will and not our
own.
He will begin to trust us only once we add the following to our
faith.
Added
Ingredient Number One
“And beside this, giving all diligence, ADD
TO YOUR FAITH VIRTUE; …” (Vs 5)
The original word for “virtue” being used
here means, “Excellence. Moral uprightness. Decency.”
It is talking about developing character
and integrity. A conning, cunning, dishonest individual, who is
always looking to reap all of the benefits with
none of the accountability, is going to come up barren and
unfruitful.
The Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Peter, is saying,
“Honesty is the Rule of the House. Add it to your faith and multiply
financially.”
Added
Ingredient Number Two
“… and to virtue [ADD] KNOWLEDGE …”
(Vs 5)
Knowledge of God’s Word in any particular
area will make your faith strong in that particular area. You simply
cannot know how or why God wants you to prosper if you do not study His
Word concerning prosperity. We are studying the subject of Biblical
prosperity to get free from poverty. We are Disciples of Jesus.
We are studying under Him, our Shepherd. We are learning His
will so we can act on it in order to reach the more than 3 billion people
who are waiting to hear about Jesus.
Jesus said the only way to get
free in an area is to study His Word in that area. (John 8:32; 15:7)
By the time you finish this series, you will be a whole lot further down
the road to tremendous wealth than you were when you started.
Added
Ingredient Number Three
“And to knowledge [ADD] TEMPERANCE
…” (Vs 6)
The word “temperance” simply means, “To be
masterful and self-controlled.”
It is important to notice that Peter
mentioned temperance after knowledge. This is because he is saying
that we must take the knowledge that we acquire of God’s Word and
masterfully put it into practice through discipline and self-control.
When God shows us something in His Word, we must grab hold of ourselves and just do it. We are to be doers
of the Word always and never forgetful hearers. (James 1:22)
Sometimes God will show us a principle in
His Word and then show us something we can do to apply it to our
lives. Sometimes it takes so much faith to obey Him, it makes the
head spin. Peter said, “Grab hold of yourself.
Exercise mastery over your will. Control yourself. Calm
down. Don’t flip out. Put what He is showing you into
practice. Just do it, He’s wanting to bless
you real big.”
I always say, “If what’s working in you
isn’t going to take faith for you to do it, it probably isn’t God to begin
with.” Whatever God tells us to do is going to take faith. (Hebrews
11:6) If we will control ourselves and obey Him, we will see the miraculous.
Added
Ingredient Number Four
“… and to
temperance [ADD] PATIENCE;” (Vs 6)
Patience means,
“Constancy. To be the same way all of the time.”
The world’s idea of
being patient is to let folks walk all over you without complaint.
That is NOT what Peter is saying. Peter is saying, “When you see
something in the Word, hold on to it no matter how your circumstances or
other people try to tell you otherwise. It will come to pass.” To
be patient, in God’s economy, is to speak and to act like God’s Word is
true even when everything and everyone else says, “It isn’t true.”
When my wife and I
do not know what to do, we say, “We hear the voice of the Good Shepherd,
in Jesus’ Name.” When there does not seem to be enough to do what He
is telling us to do, we say, “Our God meets all of our need according to
His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.”
We do this because we are
constant. We are the same way all the time, in spite of our sometimes
contrary circumstances. We are adding
patience to our faith by doing this.
Added
Ingredient Number Five
“… and to patience
[ADD] GODLINESS;” (Vs 6)
Godliness means,
“To do that which is pleasing to God.”
This is where the
Prodigal Son missed it big time. He was all about doing that which
was pleasing to “self.” That is one of the quickest ways I know to go
broke.
When it comes to
the tremendous wealth that is being poured out upon the Body of Christ, there is only one way to be pleasing to God.
Pursue it for the express purpose of seeking and saving the lost and
destroying the works of Satan in the Earth, first and foremost.
Pursue it for your own needs and comfort, last but not least.
Allow
Him to test you and prove you in this area. Let Him put you through
boot camp. Show Him that you mean business about being faithful in
all the little ways and He will promote you in ways you have not even
thought of. He will do exceedingly, abundantly above your highest
hopes and dreams. (Ephesians 3:20)
Added
Ingredient Number Six
“… and to godliness
[ADD] BROTHERLY KINDNESS …” (Vs 7)
“Brotherly
kindness” is actually one word in the original language. The word is
“Philadelphia” and it means,
“Love of the brethren.”
Some people get
involved in the Word of Faith movement and the message of Biblical
prosperity thinking they can tithe and still be moody and nasty. That
is the second quickest way I can think of to go broke. The Apostle
Paul said, “Faith works by love.” (Galatians 5:6) Love is the fuel that will keep your faith engine purring
like a kitten.
Forget to add love to your faith fuel tank and you are
going to end up stranded on the side of the road some dark night.
There is no telling how long you will have to sit there until help comes
along, either. It is just best to keep your faith tank topped off
with love as you are traveling the road to tremendous wealth and
prosperity.
A word of
Ministerial counsel here, if I may. Be very, very loving and
respectful to your Pastor, in
particular. Your Pastor is an under-Shepherd under Jesus, the Chief
Shepherd.
Do your Pastor right and God will do you
right.
Added
Ingredient Number Seven
“… and to brotherly kindness [ADD] CHARITY…” (Vs 7)
The word “charity”
here is “Agape.” It means, “Unconditional benevolence.”
There are only three powers in the Universe. There is the power of
God. He is the power of benevolence or goodness. There is the
power of Satan. He is the power of malevolence or evil. There
is the power of man. Man is a neutral power yielding to benevolence
or malevolence. There is no neutrality. Anyone who is not
submitting entirely to the written Will of God is submitting to
Satan. Anyone who is not investing their lives into gathering souls
into the Kingdom is opposing Jesus.
Jesus said, “He
that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth
not with me scattereth.” (Matthew 12:30)
Now, I didn’t write
this. I just preach it and teach it. Are you gathering souls in
love or are you causing them to be scattered through your compromise and
love of self? Are you yielding to God or to Satan? Are you
observing what God does in His Word and doing it like children who learn
proper behavior from their parents? (Ephesians 5:1)
We have now seen in
synopsized form, all of the ingredients that must be added to “the” measure
of faith in order to experience true Biblical prosperity. Virtue,
Knowledge, Temperance, Patience, Godliness, Brotherly Kindness and Charity
must be added to “the” measure of faith in order for “the” measure of faith
to be effective.
My wife, Barbara,
says it like this. “Faith is like yeast. Yeast alone has no
purpose. You have to add eggs, salt, flour, baking soda, water and
effort to cause the yeast to work. Yeast has no purpose on its own
other than to smell sour.”
If all you have is faith and are lacking
virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, kindness and charity,
you smell sour to God and to everyone around you. All you are doing
is stinking up the place, respectfully.
However, when you ADD these
ingredients to your faith, your faith rises like bread in the oven.
You’re a comfort to others, a beautiful fragrance and God is able to use
you to satisfy the spiritual and physical hunger of the world.
“For if these
things be in you, and abound, they make you that YE SHALL NEITHER BE BARREN
NOR UNFRUITFUL in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that
lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see
afar off [can’t see that trouble is coming], and have forgotten that he was
purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give
diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these
things, YE SHALL NEVER FAIL:” (Verses 8-10)
Be blessed … John and Barbara Hamel
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