A SURPLUS OF PROSPERITY
Sunday, June 30, 2002
1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 28:1-2 NIV
11 The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity--in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground--in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you. 12 The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. Deuteronomy 28:11-12 NIV
God is a God of abundance. Anything He does, He does in a big way. He says that if we will obey Him in all things and if we will carefully follow all his commands, then He will bless us and open up His good treasury to us. Not only does He promise to bless us, but He also promises us that He will abundantly bless us. The Amplified Bible says that the Lord will make you have a surplus of prosperity. This word “good” is also translated as bounty, bountiful, graciously, joyful, kindly, precious, prosperity, wealth, welfare, well favored.
31 This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance. Job 36:31 NIV
11 You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. Psalms 65:11 NIV
When you obey God and keep His commandments, there will always be blessings on your life. God blesses His children when they love righteousness and also when they are cheerful, generous givers. When you have done everything you know to do to please God – there is a blessing coming your way!
Sometimes, however, you are doing everything you know to do and yet it seems as if nothing has happened for you yet. Remember that the blessings of the Lord almost always arrive unexpectedly. If you keep your faith activated – even though one moment you may see nothing, the very next moment the blessing will be pouring out of heaven!
This is how it works: You could be hiking in the canyons in the western United States on dry ground with not a cloud in the sky, but 30 miles away there is a sudden downpour. Because you are downstream, all that water is coming your way! It is called a flash flood! One moment you are walking on dry, dry ground and the next moment you are being swept away by a wall of water! When the blessing of God is headed your way, it might seem as if one moment nothing good is happening to you, but the very next moment, you could be overtaken and overwhelmed by the blessing of God!
25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness. Nehemiah 9:25 NIV
When we serve the Lord, He blesses with an abundance of all things. We will eat and be well nourished. The Scripture says that the Lord will open up His good treasure, the storehouse of His bounty, to us. Why? Firstly, He blesses us because He loves us, and secondly, He blesses us with more than we need, so that we can pass the blessing along to others.
13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality. 2 Corinthians 8:13-14 NIV
The Lord God has promised His obedient children a surplus of prosperity. He will show Himself abundantly generous toward us if we will be generous toward others.
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Defeating Strife
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Faith Facts
Faith is persistent
Luke 11:9-10 AMP
So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.
John 16:24 AMP
Up to this time you have not asked a [single] thing in My Name [as presenting all that I AM]; but now ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy (gladness, delight) may be full and complete.
Faith is single-minded
James 1:5-8 AMP
If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. 6 Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the
Faith & Praise
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