PROSPERITY IN GOD - Levels of Prosperity in God
PROSPERITY IN GOD – Levels of Prosperity in God
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
October 17, 2017, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
At different seasons of my life, I heard the LORD speak to me, “Carolyn, I am taking you into another level of my prosperity.” I wasn’t sure what that would look like, but I knew that whatever it was, it would be good. Each time I heard this in my Spirit, I would begin to experience new levels of prosperity in different areas of my life:
- Financial worry or concerns were no longer relevant to my thought process.
- Peace concerning my future and present financial security.
- Peace concerning the support of the church and/or special meetings.
- No indebtedness.
- Seeing my children and church family prosper financially, emotionally and spiritually.
- Walking in a place of wherever there was a financial need, it was met when the need presented itself.
- Good health.
- My clothes and shoes never wear out.
- My hands are always full with blessings for others.
- My bank account is never empty.
- The church’s bank account is never empty.
- Doors of favor continue to open with goodness and good will.
- My enemies are at peace with me. I don’t even know who they are.
- Goodness and mercy follow me wherever I go.
- There is nothing I have need of.
- I am happy and content in who I am in Christ Jesus.
I can’t even list all the blessings of prosperity in my life. I have never shared this which the Lord has spoken to me at sundry times. I suppose this is the first time it occurred to me. Sunday this was quickened to me at the end of the service to pray for Darrell McManus’ son-in-law that he was coming into a new level of prosperity; then again I prayed it on Brother Darrell; then again on Sunday evening, after we had spent time in prayer and travail before the LORD, I sealed a another level of prosperity on those attending the Sunday evening gathering.
What is the “key to the Kingdom” that releases us into greater levels of God’s prosperity? Obedience and following the LORD’S heart is all I know. We know we go from faith to faith and from glory to glory. In the LORD’S glory is our prosperity.
What is prosperity: 1 Ti. 6:6: Godliness with contentment is great gain.
As Christians, we know we are to tithe and be givers. I do not preach or put our congregation under the “curse of the tithe.” We are under the blessing of the tithe. Every Old Testament curse was broken at the Cross when we appropriate it by Faith, the Holy Spirit and the Blood of Jesus
The Lord sent His Angel with Abraham’s servant to prosper His way to find a wife for Isaac. The Lord had already prospered Abraham in every way. So we can say the Lord sends His angels to bless us with prosperity. (Gen. 24:40)
Dake’s Commentary lists 7 laws of prosperity:
1. God with man: Gen. 39: 3: The LORD was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man…
Jer. 20:11: The Lord protected Jeremiah from his persecutors: the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one; therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail…
I don’t want my persecutors punished. Like I said, I have forgotten who they are and wish then no ill. I am at peace with everyone I have ever known. To me that is great prosperity, to not have offense or unforgiveness toward any one.
Ps. 119:165: Great peace have they which love your law; and nothing shall offend them.
2. Obedience: Deut. 28: 1-14: Blessing to the nation who obeys and fears the LORD and does not go after other gods.
a. God will set you on high above all the other nations of the earth and all these
Blessings shall come on you and overtake you.
b. You will be blessed in the city.
c. You will be blessed in the field.
d. You will have perfect offspring.
e. Your crops will be blessed.
f. Your flocks will increase.
g. Your baskets and storehouses will be full of good things.
h. You will be blessed in all you undertake.
i. You will have complete victory over all your enemies.
j. Your land will be abundantly fertile and productive.
k. You will be established as a holy people to God.
l. You will be established as a holy people to God.
m. All nations will be afraid of you.
n. You will be prosperous in goods, in children, in stock, and in crops in all the land.
o. The Lord will open to you all His good treasure.
p. The heavens will give you rain in due season in all your land.
q. The Lord will bless all the work of your hands.
r. You will be prosperous enough to lend to many nations, and you will not need to borrow from them.
s. The LORD will make you the head and not the tail.
t. You shall be above all men and never beneath them.
1 Ki. 2:3: Keep the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways… that you may prosper in that you do, and wherever you turn yourself.
3. Goodness to Israel: Ps. 122:6-9: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love you. Peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces…our God will seek your good.
4. Meditation: Joshua 1:8:This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, you shall meditate on it day and night. but you shall meditate therein day and night that you prosper wherever you; that you may make your way prosperous; you shall have good success; God will be with you wherever you go.
b. Psalms: Live Godly; Put your trust in God; have sins forgiven; free from imputed sin (false accusations); Help the poor; Live in God’s house; Draw strength from God; Worship God; Chastened by God; Fear God; Live undefiled lives; Obey God’s word; Walk in wisdom; Hear wisdom; Wait upon the Lord.
The emphasis is on that man who lives to the end in life for which God created him.
5. Faith: 2 Chr. 20:20: They rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa; as they went forth Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall you be established; believe his prophets, so shall you prosper.
b. Nehemiah 2:20: The Lord will prosper us in that which he sends us into. We must have faith in Him; not the circumstances.
c. We are to not be weary in well doing. If we do not cast away our confidence, our recompense will be a great reward.
It is not for the reward that we labor, but for His Glory and our love for Him, and His Kingdom. The glory of His Kingdom is more awesome that any earthly reward. Yet the glory of Heaven and our inheritance is poured upon us as we rest and live in Him and rejoice in His glory.
Our only motive can be seeking the LORD HIMSELF and His Kingdom purposes. We do not seek after prosperity or ministry, we seek Him.
6. Seeking God: 2 Chr. 26:5: Uzziah, King of Israel sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.
7. Hospitality: Lk. 6:38: Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together; and running over; shall men give into your bosom; for with the same measure that you give, it shall be measured to you again.
Christians who love the LORD will always delight to be givers. It is a great grace on our hearts to have a giving heart and to be free hearted. One of the ways to deposit the grace of giving into those who are needy and have a needy soul is to give to them. The joy of receiving will grace them in turn with the joy of giving. Many have not grown up in a family where love and blessings abound. If the only deposits they had in their lives were greed, covetness, lack, and need, this is all they know. When we give and forget we gave, we are making deposits of abundance into needy hearts. Will some take advantage? Yes! But we will soon know those who are grateful and those whose hearts are filled with iniquity.
The Lord also warns us of backsliding in prosperity:
Deut. 8: 10-14: When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which he has given you. Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God in not keeping his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes…Lest when you have eaten and are full, that you have built goodly house, and dwelt therein, when your herds, and your flocks multiply, your silver and gold is multiplied, that your heart be lifted up and you forget the LORD your God…
It is a grateful heart that Christ desires from us. Just as we delight to bless our children and be a blessing in life. He delights to bless us. He has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants. (Ps. 35:27).
Psa. 37:25: I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging for bread.
Just as we are grieved when people are ungrateful, it grieves the LORD when Christians murmur, complain, poor mouth, mooch, become free-loaders, or refuse to work. There are ministries who will never come to this church because they come in with one motive, to “fleece the sheep.” These are wolves who do not trust the LORD for provision for their gifts and callings.
The same is true of a hireling. These will only labor for their wages. Yes, if we are the one paying the wages, we must be fair. The owner of the vineyard will always pay the workers before they (as the owners) receive any reward for their labor. The owner of the vineyard has their trust in the LORD to be their reward.
Perhaps that is another “key” to the many levels of God’s prosperity. He is our shield and our great reward. The Lord repays our work with a full reward (Ruth 2:12).
For Pastor’s Appreciation, Jetta gave me one of her treasured books, Mysteries of the Glory Unveiled by David Herzog. The book is a chronicle of the golden glory revival which was sweeping the world in the late 1998 – 2000 (at the turn of the Millennium). The book was first published in the year 2000. I am going to summarize his story of three signs of the move of God:
The Lord spoke to Brother Herzog to expect three new signs for the next year. Those signs would signify the next coming move of God. He had read Ruth Ward Heflin’s book, Revival Glory, and was convinced this was the new level of glory of which the LORD had been speaking to him. He left Paris and went to Ashland, Virginia during the first days of January 1999. She asked him to speak. He said for the first time, he practically sang his entire sermon. During the service, gold dust appeared on their faces and hands. God did miracles of healing for those in attendance and prophetic words were given for the camp and for his ministry. He left there for Vancouver, then onto Europe. The gold began to appear wherever he ministered. Then in Toulon, France, the Spirit of Holiness pervaded the meeting and many began to weep before the Lord. They searched their hearts, and the Holy Spirit exposed hidden motives, bitterness, rejection, and other obstacles to walking in the glory of God. The walls and floor were covered with gold flakes.
The fact that he was seeing a whole new wave of unusual miracles convinced him that he was entering a new phase of revival.
Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard; that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he who is not offended because of me. (Luke 7:22-23).
“It is each to miss a new move of God or to be “offended” as each new move comes. It happens largely because revival takes on a different form each time it comes. The new move of God will have many characteristics of previous revivals, it will also have new elements of glory.” (David Herzog)
The Second Sign: At a conference in Amsterdam, he met a Dutchman whom God had been using to give His people gold fillings in their teeth. The next day he spoke at a church in the city before going to the airport to fly back to Paris. He had only 30 minutes to preach. In those few minutes, gold dust began to appear all over the faces of the people. Then a man screamed out, “I have a gold tooth!” In a later meeting in Ashland, he saw more than a hundred teeth turn to gold in a few minutes.
(Jus’ sayin’ – I have never witnessed someone receiving a gold crown on their teeth. However, I have witnessed the golden glory and if the LORD reveals himself in one miracle, who am I to say, he won’t do it with teeth being filled.)
He continues his story of revival in several chapters before he gets to the Third Sign. The Lord told him there would be three new signs. He saw the gold dust in Ashland and the gold teeth in Vancouver within the same week. The third sign again came in an unexpected manner.
He was attending an anointed conference, and the glory of God was very strong. He knew he was going to see the third manifestation of the glory that God has promised. It was not what he expected.
As the speaker ministered, the people got up out of their seats and began to surge forward laying money on the altar and the pulpit. It was an outpouring of spontaneous giving. Just as the people spontaneously laid their offerings at the Apostles feet, in Acts 4:35, this phenomenon happened again.
Brother Herzog says he questioned what they were doing because he knew the successful minister/speaker didn’t need the money. The speaker had a growing television ministry. Just as he was thinking those thoughts, the Holy Spirit prompted him to give to the man as others were doing. There was an explosion of God’s glory in the place, and people kept getting up throughout the message and going forward to give. He said he was still battling between his mind and the Spirit. However, the Spirit won out and he obeyed God. “After all, this man was reaching many more people with the Gospel than he was.”
Within days of his giving at that meeting, he was invited to speak on three different television programs around the United States. When he returned to Europe, television opened up to him there as well.
This was the same spirit of giving that had possessed the early followers of Christ. As they gave, the power of God was turned on in their lives. Suddenly they “had all things in common.” This refers to more than a physical sharing. They all had the same anointing and the same glory.
Acts 4:33: With great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was upon them all.
From that time, he attended the Brownsville Revival and the glory of that move of God came upon him after depositing into Steve Hill’s ministry. The harvest of that seed resulted in a six-month revival in Paris.
“Spontaneous giving released an atmosphere for signs, wonders and miracles and allows a person to partake of a grace working in someone else’s ministry.”(D.H.)
At Eastgate, all of our offerings are received as spontaneous giving. We rarely “take” an offering except for the poor or special needs. Our congregation “gives” their offering as part of their worship. The LORD directed me to do this from the first service of the church in 1998. It is the “flow” of the Third Day Glory. Until I read David Herzog’s book, I have never heard anyone teach or preach on “spontaneous giving.” It is just a regular part of our worship.
For those ministries who beg, manipulate, or coerce people to give to them, you are not operating in God’s prosperity.
Through the wave of signs and wonders of the moves of God at the time of the new millennium, the LORD released a new wave of wisdom, revelation and knowledge.
Through the internet in the past 17 years, we have witnessed the knowledge of the glory of the Lord filling the earth as the waters cover the sea. We have witnessed the restoration of the Prophetic Revelation Movement in the past 30 years. We have witnessed the miracle of the Kingdom of God (nations) being connected as one through the internet.
When the glory of Heaven and earth collide, supernatural provision comes or, new levels of God’s prosperity (as he spoke to me). As we go from glory to glory, we will also go into levels of prosperity. I am now persuaded that whatever level of glory we are walking in will coincide with a level of God’s prosperity. (This may not be about money/or it may be.) Our treasure will be in Heaven. We will walk in God’s economy and make withdrawals as we are about His business. There will be no worry, fear, or lack. Our future is secure. We have this confidence that our bank account is in Heaven. We just keep walking in the wisdom of the LORD, Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; for her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. (Prov. 3: 13-15).
Wisdom and revelation knowledge are the keys to the miracle realm. Jesus moved in miracle power through wisdom: Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by his hands. (Mk. 6:2).
I have barely touched the surface of the glory of the many levels of God’s prosperity. If I could give it to you I would. So, today, by faith in God’s word, we will release a greater level of God’s prosperity (through wisdom) to this gathering and to those who receive this Word.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of David Herzog, Mysteries of the Glory Unveiled, Destiny Image Publishers, Inc, Copyright 2000. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Bro. Herzog. I paraphrased his story of the three signs.