Prosperity on God's

Terms

Prosperity on God's

Terms

by

Dr. Frederick K. C. Price

Harrison House

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken

from the King James Version of the Bible.

Prosperity on God's Terms

ISBN 0-89274-670-X

Copyright © 1990 by Dr. Frederick K. C. Price

Crenshaw Christian Center

P. O. Box 90000

Los Angeles, California 90009

Published by Harrison House, Inc.

P.O. Box 35035

Tulsa, Oklahoma 74153

Printed in the United States of America.

All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents

and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any

form without the express written consent of the Publisher.

Contents

Introduction. .............................................................................7

1 Is Prosperity God's Will?. ...................................................11

2 The Blessing of the Lord, It Maketh Rich!. .......................27

3 Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches. .....................................39

4 The Origin and Purpose of Riches. ....................................57

5 It Is the Lord That Giveth Thee Wealth. ...........................71

6 God Shall Supply All Your Need. .....................................81

Introduction

There are many people who live clean and moral lives

that are beyond reproach! But they are whipped, defeated,

sick, poor and unable to pay their bills. While Christianity

most definitely needs positive role models from a moral

standpoint, it also most definitely needs role models of

those who have gained victory in their lives from a

material standpoint as well— but who have gained this

victory by doing it God's way!

I am convinced that if people do not see these

examples of successful, prosperous Christians, they will

continue to pattern their lives after men and women in the

world who have used its system to gain financial

independence.

Unfortunately, there are many Christians who wear

poverty and lack of material prosperity as a badge of

holiness. They consider their lack of this world's goods as

a criterion for spirituality, when, in fact, the Bible does not

support this hypothesis at all.

Most Christians are taught from the pulpit that they

will receive their blessings, material and otherwise, on the

"other side." So they continue to reject the goods of this life

that, according to the Bible, God wants to provide for

them. They have, regrettably, been listening to false

teachers, and obviously have not taken the time to read

and study the Bible for themselves. Because if they had,

they would know that God wants to bless them in every

area of this life now—not just in the "sweet bye and bye."

The devil has made a concerted effort to infiltrate the

Christian community through incorrect teaching—

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Prosperity on God's Terms

teaching that is inconsistent with the Word of God, but

which is rather consistent with the status quo of this

world's system. This erroneous teaching is based on

experience, and not on the Bible. Christians have to

understand that in order to do God's work here on this

earth, it takes the possession and right use of material

things! The Bible is full of the word on prosperity— full of

God's material blessings being showered upon those who

have been and are willing to be obedient to His Word

because they love and honor Him!

I believe this poverty syndrome that has plagued the

Christian environment for so long is a diabolical plot,

hatched by Satan himself, to prevent the spread of the

Gospel.

Why else would the average believer want to deny the

validity of that part of the Gospel message that addresses

the issue of prosperity, when the Bible is so full of

information on prosperity for God's people?

It has to be satanic deception for the Christian to speak

against prosperity. Satan very well knows that if we

become financially independent of our circumstances, he

will no longer control our progress. "Poor-mouthing"

Christians are not going to be very credible witnesses of

the goodness of God, nor will they influence very many

people. But more importantly, they are not going to get the

Gospel out. They are aiding the enemy—while rejecting

the command of God Who told us to promote the Gospel

—and they don't even know it.

If anybody in the world needs money, it is those in the

Kingdom of God! There is no shortage of money in the

world's financial structure; however, when Satan gains

complete control of the wealth of the earth, the Gospel of

our Lord and Savior will be totally hindered from getting

to the masses.

8

Introduction

Can't you see the clever scheme of the adversary?

We are God's tools in this realm, and unfortunately,

He is limited by His tools. We Christians have to get into a

position where we can function as powerful tools in the

hands of God. What's so beautiful about doing it God's

way is that in the process of being obedient to His will, all

of our own needs are taken care of as well. But because

most Christians are so busy just barely making it, they

can't focus in on the things of God.

It is clear that God wants His children to prosper. How

can anyone deny that? I certainly believe and agree that

prosperity should not be an end in itself, but rather it

ought to be the result of a quality of life, commitment,

dedication and acting in line with God's Word—that's

what ultimately produces the prosperity. But neither can

we deny that, according to the Bible, it is God's wish that

we prosper and be in health, even as our souls prosper. (3

John 2.) That verse is talking about material and spiritual

prosperity! God doesn't want us to be out of balance and

prosper in one area more than another.

I realize that the Bible says in Luke 12:15 that a

person's life does not consist in the abundance of the

things which he possesses. However, I also believe that the

Bible promotes the fact that God wants His children to

enjoy a full, total, complete style of life. He has made

provision through His Word for us to be fulfilled in this

life. Not only has He said that He will supply our every

need, He also wants to fulfill our hearts' desires. All He

requires of us is that we put our priorities in the right

order. Matthew 6:33 hits the nail right on the head: But

seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;

and all these things shall be added unto you.

God's will (His covenant) is for us to have life and to

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Prosperity on God's Terms

have it more abundantly— not just life, but abundant life!

(John 10:10.) It is clear that the abundant life is available to

us, if we will only take God at His Word!

There is really no way we can lose by following the

Word, and being obedient to God and diligent to do His

will. By following the directions given in the Bible, we

automatically bring upon ourselves the blessings of God,

which include prosperity.

Prosperity—spiritual, physical and material—is part

and parcel of the Gospel message! Christians should

rejoice in this fact, because through our prosperity, Satan

loses! Our wealth makes it possible to spread the Good

News—and that really is "the bottom line" of it all!

10

1

Is Prosperity God's Will?

1

One of my ministerial assignments from God is to

teach His Word in simple, direct, layman's terms so that

anyone from anywhere with an open heart and mind can

hear, learn and profit thereby. Do you know that God has

His specialists, just as there are specialists in various other

fields of human endeavor?

Take the field of medicine, for example. There are

many, many specialists in this area. There are specialists

for just about every part of the body, and then some. In

other fields, there are engineering specialists, agricultural

specialists, industrial specialists, and even tree specialists.

According to the dictionary, a specialist is one who

concentrates in a particular field of study, professional

work, etc.

You can call me God's prosperity specialist!

Faith, healing, the Holy Spirit, and, of course,

prosperity are areas in which the Lord has led me to

concentrate my teaching ministry. In this book, however, I

will be primarily dealing with those issues concerning the

material aspects of prosperity as it relates to the Christian

community and the spread of the Gospel.

Christians are God's tools on this earth. But because

most believers are so caught up in the struggles of daily

living, they are unable to concentrate fully on the things of

God; therefore, the powerful message of the Gospel has

been hampered.

The majority of believers today are handicapped by

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Prosperity on God's Terms

their own poverty, most of which is caused by their

disobedience to the Word of God. And how are they being

disobedient? There are, of course, many ways. One of the

primary ways is that they are robbing God! Yes, I said

robbing God. How? By withholding their tithes and

offerings, they are stealing from the source of all life! As a

consequence, they are robbing themselves of the blessings

God wants to bestow upon them.

Tithes and Offerings

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But

ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and

offerings.

Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me,

even this whole nation.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that

there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now

herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you

the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,

that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Malachi 3:8-10

Not only are some people not tithing, they are not even

giving offerings. So they are robbing God. When you rob

God, you are breaking a spiritual law. When you break a

law, then that law cannot work on your behalf. If you obey

God's commands, He will bless you materially and

financially beyond your wildest dreams—that is, if your

main desire is to please Him and not just to get something

in return.

Nobody could ever talk me out of tithing or out of

giving. Although as Christians we basically tithe and give

offerings to be obedient to the Lord, He does reward

obedience, and we can expect a return!

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Is Prosperity God's Will?

Giving and Receiving

The more you give, the more you receive,. The Bible

tells us in Acts 20:35: ...It is more blessed to give than to

receive. It is clear why this is so. The more you give, the

more you will automatically receive, because then your

seed sown is always multiplied. You can surely see this in

the natural: If you simply plant one fruit tree seed, when

the tree grows to maturity, you will have an abundance of

fruit on that tree as a result of planting only one seed.

The Word tells us in Luke 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 ye mete withal, it shall be

measured to you again.

Many people want something for nothing when it

comes to the things of God. And they want it right away.

Yet in the world, they know that things don't work that

way. Most people have enough sense to know that if they

go to their local bank, they are not going to get any interest

or dividends if they don't have any money invested in that

bank. Yet they always expect God to send them something

when they haven't invested in His Kingdom.

If you are not investing your time, talent, commitment,

or money, why do you expect anything? Yet, some people

even return to a life of sin because they think they're not

getting anything out of the Christian life. How can you get

anything when you haven't planted or invested? How can

you expect God to honor your desire, when you haven't

honored His command to give?

The Law of Divine Reciprocity

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Prosperity on God's Terms

There is a universal law of divine reciprocity. You

plant a seed, the ground gives you a harvest. That's a

reciprocal relationship. The ground can only give to you as

you give to the ground. You put money in a bank, into an

interest-bearing account, and the bank gives you interest.

That's reciprocity. The whole Word of God is based upon

this law of reciprocity.

Notice that Luke 6:38 says to give and that it shall be

returned to you, ".. good measure, pressed down, and shaken

together, and running over. . ." That means that you will

have an abundance—that means that you will have more

than enough.

Second Corinthians 9:6 states: “...He which soweth

sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth

bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” Matthew 7:1

says: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” Matthew 7:7

declares: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye

shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” The

Bible does not say, "Receive, and then ask!" It does not say,

"Receive, and then give!" No! It says, "Give, and you shall

receive!" It is also implied that, if you don't ask, you won't

get. If you don't seek, you won't find.

If you don't plant, you won't get a harvest!

God's Will Is Abundance

God's will is that we prosper: spirit, soul and body.

Third John 2 says: “Beloved, I wish above all things

that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy

soul prospereth.” It is very clear from this verse that God

wants us to prosper in every area of life. This scripture is

not limited just to the person to whom this letter from

John was addressed when he wrote, “The elder unto the

well-beloved Gaius...” (v. 1).

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Is Prosperity God's Will?

I believe the Spirit of God had this biblical book

incorporated into the canon of scriptures because what

John was saying to Gaius, the Lord is saying to everyone.

The Bible tells us that “...God is no respecter of persons”

(Acts 10:34). Consequently, He could not want Gaius to

prosper, but the rest of us to live in poverty. That would

not make sense. I believe that 3 John 2 applies to the whole

of Christendom. Jesus said, “...According to your faith be

it unto you...” (Matt. 9:29). My faith says that this scripture

is speaking to me. You need to believe that it is speaking

to you too, if you want to get your thinking in line with

the Word of God.

There are three aspects of this verse which pertain to

our betterment: 1) "...prosper...," 2) "...be in health," and 3)

"even as thy soul prospereth."

Soul prosperity has to do with the spiritual areas of our

lives. The "to be in health" covers our physical well being.

The word "prosper" refers to the material aspect of our

existence.

The soul is not the body, and the body is not the soul;

however, the spirit and the soul go hand in hand.

Although we separate the soul and the spirit when we talk

about them so that we can understand their functions, in

reality, they cannot be separated. If you get the water, you

get the wetness; and so it is with the spirit and the soul.

However, the soul and the spirit can be separated from the

body. In fact, that is exactly what happens at physical

death. The soul doesn't stay in the ground with the body

while the spirit departs—no, the body stays in the grave,

and the soul and spirit go together to heaven.

Man is a spirit; he has a soul; and he lives inside a

physical body. With each of these three component parts,

he is able to contact a different realm of life. With the

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Prosperity on God's Terms

body, through the physical senses, he contacts the three-

dimensional material world. Through his soul, which

contains the desires, will, emotions and intellect, he

contacts the realm of the mind and emotions. Then with

the spirit he contacts God.

When a person is born again, it is the spirit which

experiences new birth. The soul and body remain

unchanged. It is the desire of God that the spirit of man

utilize His Word to bring influence upon the soul so that

the soul in turn can bring influence upon the physical

body. That's why Paul wrote in Romans 12:1,2:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies

of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,

holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable

service.

And be not conformed to this world, but be ye

transformed by the renewing of your mind....

The mind is contained in the soul realm. The Apostle

Paul doesn't tell us to be renewed in our spirits, because

our spirits cannot be renewed; they must be born again. To

be "born again" means to start over. When a person is born

again, he becomes a brand new person. He gets a new life.

Birth produces life. To renew something is to take it and

"spruce it up." When you renew a house, for example, you

paint it, wallpaper it, take out a window and put in a door,

etc. What you are doing is working with the same basic

building you had in the first place to restore it to its

original condition.

Oppositions to Prosperity

There is a challenge to this subject of prosperity. There

are some who openly speak against it, and there are others

who very subtly attempt to undermine it. Yet the Bible is

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Is Prosperity God's Will?

full of prosperity!

One of the most celebrated passages of scripture

known to man is the 23rd Psalm. Folks who are not even

saved can quote this psalm which begins, “The Lord is my

shepherd...” (v. 1). Toward the end of this beautiful, poetic

psalm, the writer states: “Thou preparest a table before

me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my

head with oil; my cup runneth over” (v. 5).

Notice: "...my cup runneth over." If that's not prosperity,

I don't know what is! David didn't talk about having just a

little bit —down at the bottom. He said that his cup was

overflowing. If he had said, "Well, I have enough for one

swig; I've got enough in my cup for one swallow," then we

could say that he was not prospering. But he said, "My

cup runneth over." Any time a thing is running over, that

is a sign of abundance. If the cup is running over, then that

means that there is more than enough.

Think about Luke 6:38: “Give, and it shall be given

unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken

together, and running over....” That means abundance!

Let me give you a practical illustration to enhance the

point I'm making.

I had heard for quite a few years about a trash

compactor for the home. Commercial businesses have

been using this type of equipment for years, but then the

manufacturers began making these appliances for the

home too. When they first came out, I said, "We don't need

a trash compactor; we've got plenty of trash cans." Then I

began to notice that every time I would go to the trash can

or basket in the house, it would be full. It was absolutely

astounding the amount of trash you can accumulate in the

course of a week without realizing it. The big basket on the

back porch was always full. I had to take that thing out

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Prosperity on God's Terms

almost every other day, at least—sometimes every day. It

would be empty when I left home in the morning, but by

the time I got back in the evening, it would be running

over. Finally I came to the point that I got tired of that, so I

said, "I'm going to buy a trash compactor."

So I bought one. I got the biggest size available for

home use. I was amazed! We could go a whole week

without having to take out the trash—even more than a

week, part way into the next week! I have discovered a

secret about compacting trash. I turn the machine on and

get it going in the down cycle. When it gets to the bottom

of the cycle, it makes a very small pause before it starts

back up. Once it gets down to the bottom of the cycle, I hit

the stop button and that keeps constant pressure on the

trash. Every bit of air that is in there is squeezed out, and I

can get even more trash compacted.

That's what the Bible means when it says, "...good

measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running

over...."

It's not like a little bit of trash down at the bottom of

the basket, it's like trash in "...good measure, pressed

down, and shaken together, and running over." That's

abundance! And the Bible is full of abundance—God's

abundant blessings that He wants His children to have!

Why would any Christian want to deny the validity of

the prosperity message? Really, anyone who would do

that is dishonest, because there is no one who fights or

speaks against the message of prosperity who would work

this year on the same job doing the same work for less pay

that he got last year or the year before. Everyone is always

looking for a raise. No union would accept deliberation

over a new contract if its leaders came back from the

meeting room and announced: “Last year you were

making a dollar an hour, but we've settled for 75 cents an

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Is Prosperity God's Will?

hour. Last year you worked a 40-hour week, and we've got

a better deal; now you're going to work 48 hours per week.

Last year you had three weeks paid vacation, and we've

worked out a deal where you will have only a week and a

half of vacation."

Nobody would accept a deal like that! People don't

want to accept the status quo or less than they had before.

As far as pay is concerned, they are always wanting more.

People who oppose the prosperity message say, "Well,

this prosperity business can't be from God, because those

who preach it talk too much about material things." Yet

that is what they are working for. I'll wager that there is

not one of them who is working for free. There is not one

of them who works for an employer or even in a ministry

who says, "I don't want to get paid; I just want to work, I

don't need the money."

God Is Our Source

In my own ministry, I get paid a salary for serving as

pastor of Crenshaw Christian Center. That's my job. Like a

doctor or a lawyer or a ditch digger, I get paid for what I

do. We all work and get a salary. That's how we make our

living. But the pay that I receive for being a pastor is not

my source. I have learned that if Crenshaw Christian

Center folded and went out of business (which it's not

going to do), I wouldn't lose anything because God is not

out of business! If God ever goes out of business, we will

have a problem—a gigantic, "humongous," giant

economy-sized problem.

But for a company to go out of business is a problem

for those who work for it—that is, if they don't know how

to believe and act on the Word of God. Their job is only

one of the many available channels that God can use at

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Prosperity on God's Terms

any given time to pipe resources to them. If that source

dries up, it doesn't mean that God has dried up. It just

means that He will have to find another channel to use.

That is how you operate independent of the system.

When I say, "the system," I am speaking of the world's "set

up"—the economic and financial system of the world,

which is designed to keep the average person from getting

ahead.

There are certain people who are controlling the

economies of the world. A few people who have

staggering amounts of wealth control the rest of the world

through the system. The system was never designed to

help you get ahead. It was designed to keep you chained

to your typewriter or to the engine you operate on the

assembly line. It was designed to keep you tied to that

machine while you produce the goods that the wealthy

can enjoy.

Have you ever noticed that getting a raise doesn't do

you any good (unless you get an astronomical raise, like

moving from $20,000 a year to $40,000 annually)?

Have you ever noticed that every time you get a raise,

the cost of living goes up to consume that extra income?

Sometimes you end up worse off than you were before

your salary increase, because the cost of living goes up

faster than your salary. Have you ever noticed that? You

really don't get ahead by getting a raise in pay. The only

way a raise can help you is if the economy stays the same

in terms of the cost of living. But it doesn't!

Everything seems to escalate side by side. You get a

raise, and right away the price of food, clothing and

housing goes up. You can't take your raise and say, "Okay,

I've lived on $20,000 a year, so now that I have got a raise

and will be making $25,000, I'll have $5,000 to put into

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Is Prosperity God's Will?

savings." No, it doesn't work that way. Because the price

of everything you buy is going to go up along with your

raise in pay.

Besides prices, there is the graduated income tax. You

make a certain amount of money, fine! If you escalate to a

higher level of income, you simply move into a higher tax

bracket. You may well end up paying more taxes and

having less money to spend than you did before your

income increased.

This is not to be pessimistic. What I am trying to do is

show you why the world's system operates against the

message of prosperity—it wants to keep you locked into

the system. While you are locked into the system, you

can't give away the $10,000 you would like to give to the

work of the Lord because you need every nickel you make

just to live on. If the system can keep you struggling, then

you won't have anything left over to give away. If

Christians don't have anything to give, then the outreaches

of ministries are going to be curtailed because the only

people who are going to support ministries are Christians.

But if the Body of Christ doesn't have anything to give,

then ministries will come to a standstill because they won't

have the money they need to stay in operation.

The system operates on the basic principle: "We don't

loan money to churches." This is a calculated plan to

thwart the work of God. But God has a way to bless us over

and above the system! However, you will have to learn

how to operate by faith to get into God's plan.

Prosperity Is God's Will!

You can be the most dedicated Christian possible and

still struggle financially, economically and materially. I did

it for 17 years. Yes, I've been there! I know what it's like to

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Prosperity on God's Terms

be in want and in need. I have a master's degree in

struggling. That's the reason I don't back down to anyone

concerning God's Word on prosperity. I couldn't care less

what people think or what they say about it. Prosperity

may not be for them, but I guarantee you that if there is

only one person on this planet that it is for— it is me!

Prosperity may not be for you, but it's definitely for

me. My name is all through the Bible. When it says, "The

Lord is my shepherd," that means He is Fred's shepherd.

When it says, "Thou preparest a table before me," it is

talking about me, Fred Price. I don't care what anybody

thinks about me; people can think what they please, it

doesn't bother me in the least. When all my bills are paid,

and I have money in my pocket, in the bank and to give

away because the Lord has honored my stand on His

Word, do you think I care what people may think?

What God will do for one, He will do for all—all those,

that is, who take Him at His Word. Romans 2:11 says,

“...there is no respect of persons with God.” I love it!

There are some groups of people in the world who do

respect persons, but we don't have to be concerned about

them, because they are not our source. God, our Father, is

our source!

Third John 2 states, “Beloved, I wish above all things

that thou mayest prosper....” If God is no respecter of

persons, then He could not want one or two groups of

people to prosper and the rest of society to be in lack and

want. Because, if He did, He would be a respecter of

persons, and that would invalidate His Word. God treats

everyone the same—that is, everyone who will make the

commitment to do things His way. The qualifier is doing

things His way! You must be in tune, as it were, and in

harmony and in agreement with God's way in order to

receive His best. If you are in agreement with God's way—

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Is Prosperity God's Will?

which is outlined in His Word—then He is no respector of

persons, as far as you are concerned. If He blesses one

person, then He has obligated Himself to bless you or me

or anyone else who will make a stand on His Word of

promise.

Prosperity is for the total man: spirit, soul and body!

However, you have to consider each entity separately.

As previously stated in this book, I am primarily dealing

with the material aspects of prosperity. This is not all I

teach, and it certainly is not all I know, but it's a valid part

of life that the Christian needs to grasp if he is going to be

an effective force for God in this world.

The thing about it that's so bad is that the prosperity

message has been an understated part of life and has been

talked down, criticized, and even rejected for so long that

one almost has to be or appear to be fanatical and go to the

extreme to get things into right perspective.

For example, a ship is supposed to ride the water on

what is called an "even keel." This means that the ship is

supposed to lie flat, geometrically in line with the horizon,

sitting level in the water. If the ship should spring a leak,

causing it to take in a lot of water, it won't float There is a

law that says that a hollowed-out ship full of water cannot

float. If every air space becomes filled with water, that

ship is going to sink to the bottom of the sea.

Another thing that will happen is that a ship filling up

with water on one side will "list," which means that it will

lean toward the side where the water is coming in. A ship

can list so badly that it's almost on its side—it may still be

floating at this juncture, but over on its side. In order to get

that ship righted, you have to go to the opposite side and

apply enormous pressure to get it back to an even keel.

That's the way the old ship of Zion has been going— it

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Prosperity on God's Terms

has listed so far to one side with erroneous doctrine or no

doctrine, false teaching and faulty instruction, or mixed-

up and messed-up instruction, that you almost have to

appear to be completely fanatical to right the old ship and

get her back on an even keel!

Some Christians not only need to get back on an even

keel, they also need to get level with God's plan of

prosperity in the first place— they've never been there! They

don't even know that they are supposed to be prosperous.

They think that whatever happens is God's will.

Whatever happens is not always God's will!

It may be in His permissive will, but it certainly is not

in His decreed will. It is true that everything that happens

on this earth, God allows to take place. But to allow

something and to decree something are two different

things.

Everything that happens on this planet God allows to

take place. Otherwise it couldn't occur. If it could, then

whatever it is that happened would be a stronger force

than God. Of course, we know that there is no force

stronger than God; consequently, we have to say that God

allows, or permits, certain things to take place. But that

does not mean that He decrees them to happen.

For example, I am sure that at the very moment you

are reading this page some woman somewhere is being

raped or even murdered. Someone is committing adultery,

stealing, robbing, killing, or what have you. And God is

allowing these terrible things to happen. But I am also sure

that He is not saying, "It is My will for that man to rape

that woman, slash her throat and leave her dead in a

ditch." No! That is not God's will! It is not God's will that

kids shoot up heroine and sniff cocaine and eventually

blow their brains out. There is a difference in the decreed

24

Is Prosperity God's Will?

will of God and the permissive will of God. He has to

permit things to happen because He gave man a free will.

If we permit something, God has to permit it. Many

people don't understand that principle. They think that

because something happens, God approves of it. No, God

doesn't have anything to do with much of what takes

place on this earth day by day. What happens here is up to

us! Let me prove it by the Bible.

Verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on

earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye

shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 18:18

Notice what the Lord is saying in this verse. He is not

saying: "Verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever I shall bind on

earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever I shall

loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Notice where the binding and loosing begin. Where? In

earth—not in heaven. The ball is in our court. God says,

"Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

This does not mean that if you and I loose murder on

earth, murder will be loosed in heaven. There is no

murder in heaven. What God is saying in this verse of

scripture is, "Whatever you do down here I have to ratify in

heaven. I have to say yea and amen to it in heaven, because

you have the first move, and whatever you do is what is

going to be done."

God does not control our destiny, we do!

25

2

The Blessing of the Lord, It Maketh

2

Rich!

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,

being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is

every one that hangeth on a tree:

That the blessing of Abraham might come on the

Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the

promise of the Spirit through faith.

Galatians 3:13,14

Verse 14 of this passage does not mean to say that we

are going to receive the Holy Spirit as a gift. When it says,

"the promise of the Spirit," it means that it was the Spirit

of God Who gave the promise to Abraham.

In other words, God, through His Spirit, made the

promise. This is not talking about receiving the Spirit. Not

here, it's not. That's what it looks like it may be saying. If

you're not careful, you could get that impression.

Here's what I want you to see: In verse 13, we read that

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law...." In

verse 14, we are told the reason Christ did this—"That the

blessing of Abraham might come on th e Gentiles...."

If a person is not a Jew, then he is a Gentile. This

Passage says that Jesus was crucified that the blessing of

Abraham might come upon the Gentiles. Therefore, if you

and I are Gentiles, then we qualify to receive the blessing

of Abraham. All we have to do is find out how Abraham

was blessed, then we will know what the blessing of

Abraham was which we are to receive.

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Prosperity on God's Terms

If Abraham was blessed spiritually, then we know that

it is spiritual blessings that are going to come upon us. If

he was blessed "soulishly," then we know that it is

"soulish" blessings that we are promised. If he was blessed

materially, then we know that it is material blessings that

we can expect to receive from God.

The Blessing of Abraham: Spiritual or

Material?

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out

of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy

father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will

bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be

a blessing.

Genesis 12:1,2

Abraham did not live in the day in which Jesus Christ

lived. Therefore, he could not have accepted Jesus as his

personal Savior and Lord, which means that Abraham

could not have been born again. So if Abraham was not

born again, then really from a spiritual standpoint, he was

a sinner.

Everybody under the Old Testament was a sinner.

They may have been servants of God, and they may have

said yes to God's Word—the amount of Word that they

had under the Old Covenant—but from a spiritual

viewpoint, they were still sinners. They were operating

with a dead spiritual nature, dead to God.

Since Abraham was not, and could not have been born

again, he could not have received any spiritual blessing

from God, because he was actually cut off from God. God

dealt with Abraham just as He dealt with anyone else

under the Old Covenant. He dealt with them all primarily

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The Blessing of the Lord, It Maketh Rich!

from a physical standpoint. He had to. That's why He gave

them the Law. The Law had nothing to do with their

spirits. It was all fleshly oriented. It had to do with the

physical body.

God dealt with Israel through the flesh. That's all He

could do. He couldn't deal with them through the spirit, so

He condescended. In other words, man under the Old

Covenant could not come up to God's level; therefore,

God, out of His tender mercies and loving kindness, came

down to man's level and dealt with him in the flesh. Man

at that time was not able to come to God and approach

Him as we can under the New Covenant.

With that bit of knowledge, we can know a part of

what this 14th verse means: "That the blessing of Abraham

might come on the Gentiles...."

We know right now that the blessing of Abraham

could not have been a spiritual blessing. Well, what is left?

There are only two worlds: the spiritual world, and the

physical world. There is no third world. No in-between

world. Either you and I are in the spiritual realm, or we

are in the physical realm.

A Great Name

Now let's go back to Genesis 12:2: "And I will make of

thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy

name great...."

God said that He would bless Abraham and make his

name great. Your name can't be great if you yourself are

small. If your name is great, you are great. You can't

separate a person from his name. You can't say that a

person is great, but his name is lousy. So when God said

that He would bless Abraham and make of him a great

nation and make his name great, the way He was going to

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Prosperity on God's Terms

make Abraham's name great was by making Abraham

great.

Have you ever heard of John D. Rockefeller? Now

what does that name say to you? Money? Other than the

fact that he was fabulously wealthy, you probably don't

know anything about John D. Rockefeller. You don't know

if he was tall or short, fat or thin, educated or uneducated.

The only thing you can relate to John D. Rockefeller is

money, and a whole lot of it. What made him great? His

wealth made him great. His name became synonymous

with his riches. Otherwise he would be just another John

Doe. Of itself, the name Rockefeller is no better than the

name Jackson or Johnson. The name is nothing. It is what

is behind the name that is important.

So when God said that He was going to bless Abraham

and make his name great, He was telling Him: "I'm going

to bless you, and I'm going to make you great."

"I will make you a blessing..."

Notice the rest of verse 2: "And I will make of thee a

great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name

great: and thou shalt be a blessing."

You can't be a blessing until you are blessed yourself.

You have to be blessed in order to become a blessing to

others.

"...to all the families of the earth."

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse

him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of

the earth be blessed.

Genesis 12:3

God is saying here, "Abraham, I am going to bless you,

and then the people are going to bless you. Then, because

of you, I am going to bless the people who bless you, all

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The Blessing of the Lord, It Maketh Rich!

the families of the whole earth."

This is great!

This verse says the same thing that Paul said in

Galatians about being blessed, but it still doesn't tell us

from a definite standpoint exactly what the blessings were.

So, let's move on to something else.

Abraham Was Very Rich!

And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife,

and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in

gold.

Genesis 13:1,2

Here the Holy Ghost categorically tells us how

Abraham was blessed. No one can mess up this statement

with his "Mickey Mouse," five-cents' worth of gray matter,

and his two-day education. No one can say, "Well, the

blessing of God is spiritual, Brother Price."

In verse 2 of this passage, we are clearly told: "...

Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold."

Cattle. Silver. Gold. You can't mess that up. Thank

God, the bishop, the evangelist, the Sunday school teacher,

the black folks, the white folks, the Jew, the Gentile, or

anybody else— nobody—can mess this up. We have it

documented in the Book.

Thank God for all that I gained from school, but one

thing that I am so glad about is that I learned how to read.

Nobody can cheat me out of this, because I can read!

Notice what this verse does not say. It does not say

that Abraham was rich; the Bible records that he was very

rich! It doesn't say that he was almost rich. It doesn't say

that he was a little rich. It says that the man was very rich.

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Prosperity on God's Terms

Then it tells us how he was rich: in cattle, in silver, and in

gold!

Now tell me if cattle and silver and gold are spiritual.

How readest thou?

Think about it. Abraham wasn't even a Christian. He

wasn't even saved or born again. He wasn't filled with the

Spirit. He didn't have a covenant as good as ours, and yet

the man was very rich!

Notice in the 12th chapter, God said that He was going

to bless Abraham. From that I think we can safely

conclude that in the 13th chapter it was God Who had

made Abraham rich. But for more proof, we will read from

the 24th chapter of Genesis—and then get ready to put on

your dancing shoes!

God Blessed Abraham with Riches

In the 24th chapter of Genesis, we have the story in

which Abraham sent one of his servants to find a wife for

his son Isaac. This was the custom at that time. I don't

know what nationality the servant was, whether he was a

Hebrew or not; but at any rate, he apparently had picked

up on what he had seen his master Abraham do, because

he prayed and asked God for guidance in fulfilling his

task. Smart man!

He went to a certain place where he actually ended up

with some of the relatives of Abraham and his wife Sarah.

He came to a certain city, and as the women of that area

came to the well to draw water, he asked the Lord to direct

him to the one He had chosen to be a wife for his master's

son. He ended up in the house of a man named Laban, and

here is the rest of the story:

And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was

Laban: and Laban ran out unto the man, unto the well.

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The Blessing of the Lord, It Maketh Rich!

And it came to pass, when he saw the earring and

bracelets upon his sister's hands, and when he heard

the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, Thus spake

the man unto me; that he came unto the man; and,

behold, he stood by the camels at the well.

And he said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord;

wherefore standest thou without? for I have prepared

the house, and room for the camels.

And the man came into the house: and he

ungirded his camels, and gave straw and provender for

the camels, and water to wash his feet, and the men's

feet that were with him.

And there was set meat before him to eat: but he

said, I will not eat, until I have told mine errand. And

he said, Speak on.

And he said, I am Abraham's servant.

And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly; and

he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and

herds (this is the cattle we read about), and silver (this is

the silver), and gold (here is the gold), and menservants,

and maidservants, and camels, and asses.

And Sarah my master's wife bare a son to my

master when she was old: and unto him hath he given

all that he hath.

Genesis 24:29-36

Here it is spelled out very clearly in verse 35: "And the

Lord hath blessed him greatly; and he is become great: and

he hath given him...."

Let's paraphrase that verse: "And the Lord has blessed

my master greatly." Or we could say it this way: "And the

Lord has blessed Abraham greatly, and Abraham has

become great. And the Lord has given Abraham flocks,

and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and

maidservants, and camels, and asses."

Oh, that's out of sight! You have to be deaf, dumb,

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Prosperity on God's Terms

blind or dishonest not to see that this is talking about

material blessings.

Notice that the word "blessed" is used in this verse. We

read it in Galatians 3:13,14 which spoke of "the blessing of

Abraham." How did God bless Abraham? With cattle,

gold, menservants, maidservants, camels, and asses

(donkeys, burros, or whatever).

Abraham was blessed materially.

Blessing Versus Cursing

The Bible says that Christ gave His life that the

blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles. Well, I

am in Christ, and I am a Gentile, so there is no doubt

about who is supposed to be blessed: me!—and any other

believer who is willing to believe, receive and act on the

Word of God!

Galatians 3:13 says that “Christ has redeemed us from

the curse of the Law, that the blessing of Abraham might

come upon us.” We want to find out what that curse and

that blessing is.

What Is the Curse of the Law?

When I am teaching, I am always happy when I get to

Deuteronomy 28 because I know that faith comes by

hearing and hearing and hearing. (Rom. 10:17.) Some folks

get tired of hearing the Word. I don't ever get tired of

hearing it. Every time I hear it, I get more faith.

In the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, we find a

description of the blessings of the Law, and the curse of

the Law. In other words, what will come upon us for being

either obedient or disobedient to the Word of God. The

Law is ultimately God's Word. Don't just get locked into

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The Blessing of the Lord, It Maketh Rich!

the Ten Commandments or the first five books of the

Bible, which are usually referred to from a historical

standpoint as "the Law."

Anything God tells us to do or not to do is law.

God never makes suggestions. When the Lord tells us

to do something, that is not a suggestion. He doesn't mean

that we are to do it if we can work it into our schedule.

When He tells us to do something, He means for us to do

it. Not just think about it, but do it! God's Law is God's

Word—God's Word is God's Law.

In the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, it is interesting to

note that there are 68 verses. Only 14 describe the blessing

and 54 describe the curse. I believe the reason for this is

because God wants us to understand the enormity of the

curse so that we will avoid it as we would avoid the

Bubonic plague.

Take time to read all 68 verses of this passage. You will

find them interesting. Especially note the curse part. I am

going to cover the blessing part, but you most definitely

need to be aware of the curse part as well. If you don't

know what you've been redeemed from, sometimes you

don't have as much appreciation for what you've been

redeemed to.

At the time the Law was given to the children of Israel,

the original recipients of the blessings and cursings of

Deuteronomy 28, they were basically an agricultural

society, being mainly farmers, husbandmen—herders of

sheep, cattle and goats. Quite naturally, the blessings and

cursings centered around their mainstream of life, their

primary livelihood. However, the same principles

enumerated in this chapter still apply to us today

regardless of our occupation or station in life.

God's Word endures forever!

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Prosperity on God's Terms

The Blessings of Obedience

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken

diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to

observe and to do all his commandments which I

command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set

thee on high above all nations of the earth:

And all these blessings shall come on thee, and

overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of

the Lord thy God.

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt

thou be in the field.

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit

of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase

of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and

blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up

against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall

come out against thee one way, and flee from before

thee seven ways.

The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in

thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand

unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the

Lord thy God giveth thee.

The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto

himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep

the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in

his ways.

And all people of the earth shall see that thou art

called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be

afraid of thee.

And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods,

in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle,

and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the

Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

36

The Blessing of the Lord, It Maketh Rich!

The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure,

the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season,

and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt

lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not

the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt

not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the

commandments of the Lord thy God, which I

command thee this day, to observe and to do them:

And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words

which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to

the left, to go after other gods to serve them:"

Deuteronomy 28:1-14

Praise God for these great promises and blessings.

They belong to us— and we, as the Body of Christ, have a

right to claim them, possess them, and make them a part

of our daily confessions!

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3

Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches

3

When I first got saved, there was some emphasis

placed on the idea that Christians were not supposed to

have material wealth. As believers we could survive and

have enough to get along on, but we were never to seek

after material wealth. We were supposed to look forward

to the day when we would have ours "over on the other

side"—in the "sweet bye and bye."

It is a fact of life that there are many things in this

world that are good, nice, lovely, exquisite and desirable.

But according to some people, Christians are not to be

involved in the pursuit or acquisition of the material

goods of this life because these things are classified as

"worldly."

However, until we begin to walk in the spirit and walk

by faith, we will never really understand that Christians

have a right to (and should be the ones to enjoy) the good

things of life because of Jesus and the awesome price He

paid to bring us salvation and all that it entails. And the

only reason people do not understand this truth is because

they have been deceived.

There has been a rigorous effort on the part of the devil

and his demonic forces to infiltrate the Christian

community with false teaching. When I use this term

“Christian community," I am talking about all Christians

collectively, whether they be in a local church setting or in

their individual home setting.

Periodically, I will receive a letter from someone, or I

39

Prosperity on God's Terms

will run into someone, who is very down on Christians

having material wealth. Such people feel that a person is

not very spiritual if he possesses an abundance of this

world's goods. However, the Bible does not support this

idea, because in order to get the job done that Jesus

'started, it is going to take material possessions—namely

wealth!

To make such a statement in the Christian world is a

"no-no." Many believers use the "cop out" that if you look

at things that way, you might be tempted to make the

pursuit of money your primary aim in life.

Well, you might be tempted to do that even if you don't look

at wealth in that way!

Folks have been known to make money their prime

goal in life without being Christian at all. For any and

every thing you do, there is a risk factor involved—a risk

that you might go to the extreme, the risk that you might

go wrong. But you can do that anyway. Consequently, to

me this excuse is not a legitimate reason for shying away

or steering away from some of the things that some people

say Christians ought not to be involved in.

This is a deception of Satan to hinder the work of God.

Everything about the Gospel costs money. It is really only

when you are working in full-time ministry that you

understand what is involved in spreading the Gospel.

Then you can really see why the devil fights so tenaciously

to keep us ignorant of our covenant rights and ignorant of

the fact that God does want us to have material things.

God has never been opposed to Christians having things—

God is opposed to material things having Christians, and

there is as much difference between these two as night and

day.

"Charge them that are rich..."

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Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches

Charge them that are rich in this world, that they

be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but

in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to

enjoy.

1 Timothy 6:17

"Charge them that are rich in this world... ." Here we

know that Paul is talking about this earth—this planet—

not Heaven—because he says, "in this world." This is to

distinguish between the spirit world and the three-

dimensional physical world. If he had said, "Charge them

that are rich in the spirit," or "rich in God," or "rich in the

things of God," then we could say that earthly riches are

not for the Christian.

"...that they be not highminded..."

In other words, don't allow the fact that you are rich to

influence your mind to the point where you begin to think

that you are better than anyone else, or that because you

are rich you can get away with anything you like.

Many times this is what happens to a lot of "rich"

people. They get to the point where they really think they

are above the law. They get to thinking, "Hey, you can't

touch me, I am So and So!" They throw their weight

around—their "wealth weight," so to speak.

Yes, a wealthy person can become high-minded. I

know some high-minded folks who don't have a pot to

cook in. A person can be high-minded whether he

possesses any of this world's goods or not.

So that is the first point Paul is making here: "Be not

high-minded." But notice what else he has to say in this

verse.

"... nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living

God...."

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Prosperity on God's Terms

The reason the Bible says "uncertain riches" is because

riches change. Values change, and riches are only as good

as the present value system. What is valuable today might

not be worth anything tomorrow. Or what is worthless

today may be extremely valuable tomorrow. The value of

currency changes. Therefore, if all a person trusts is riches,

and then a radical change in the value system occurs, he is

in trouble because his trust is in his material wealth.

Notice the word "rich." This word is interesting; it

literally means "abundantly (copiously or lavishly)

supplied." This is what the inference is in this verse.

Obviously this has to do with us becoming channels to

bless other people.

You and I don't need an abundance to meet our own

needs; we only need enough.

For instance, if I have a loan of $5,000 to pay off in

monthly installments of $25, all I need each month is $25; I

don't need $26. I could use $5,000 to pay off the whole

debt, but really all I need in terms of my monthly

obligation is $25. As long as I have that amount each

month I am safe and free; everything is taken care of.

So if I come to the end of the pay period with $250 left

over and I only need $25 of it to pay my monthly bill, then

I am abundantly supplied. I then have the option, or the

opportunity, to squander the extra cash on myself, or use

it to be a channel of blessing to someone else.

But you and I can never get to be a blessing to others

until we are abundantly, copiously, lavishly supplied

ourselves so that all our own needs are taken care of. Then

we can become a channel of blessing to others.

There Is Plenty for All!

The way God blesses people is through other people.

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Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches

God does not drop money down out of the sky. It comes

through the hands of people. Some way, some how it

comes through the system, because everything that we

need is already available in the system. God has stocked

this world with all that is needed.

Every once in a while, people start talking about

running out of some vital resource; we are not going to

run out of anything. To run out of something is to say that

God has been caught short, that He did not know how

long His children would have to be here before Jesus came

back, and that He has let us come up short of what we

need to get by on until Jesus returns. God is never caught

short.

All shortages that we hear about are man-made; they

are created to drive prices up or down or whatever. It is all

designed for a few folks to make more money. There is no

shortage of anything. Nothing is short. Everything is

systematically designed to keep the average person

grovelling in the dust.

When you keep a person struggling to get his needs

met, you keep him under control. When he becomes

independently wealthy, he is difficult to control. But as

long as he is dependent upon the system, then it is as

though he is handcuffed to his job or machine or whatever

it is that contributes to his sustenance.

Economics is a systematic way of making the rich

richer and of keeping the average person producing for

the wealthy. Economics is a contrived system. Things

don't just happen, they are made to happen. There is no

shortage of anything that man needs to survive, but

shortages are deliberately created to make more money for

those in control. Everything is about making money. It is

greed and the love of mammon that keep the world's

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Prosperity on God's Terms

economic system going, that keeps the wheels turning.

Friend, if the work force did not show up for work for

30 days, this nation would come to a screeching halt—we

would be in big trouble. If the average person did not do

his job on a daily basis, this whole system would come to a

standstill. Can you imagine what would happen if the

farmer stopped farming? Can you imagine what would be

the result if the dairyman stopped milking? We would

have some real serious problems.

There is plenty of everything!

What we have to learn to do as Christians is to cut into

the pie and get our piece. But not just for us, but so we can

be a channel that God can use to marshal the resources

under the control of the Body of Christ to get the message

and the Gospel to the masses. In the process of doing that,

all our needs will be taken care of. But if all we have time

to do is spend our every waking moment making ends

meet, we will never get to the point where we will have

anything left over for someone else.

Riches Are Not Evil

First Timothy 6:17 tells me that there is nothing wrong

with riches. If there were something intrinsically wrong

with riches, the Lord through the Apostle Paul would

have said, "Charge them that are rich in this world to get

rid of their wealth." If God knew that you had hold of

something that was dangerous, something that could be

harmful or hurtful to you, then as a wise Father He would

do everything in His power to see to it that you were

separated from that thing. Yet He did not say to those who

are rich, "Get rid of your wealth," but rather He said two

things to them: 1) "don't be highminded," and 2) "don't

trust in riches."

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Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches

I want to thoroughly cover this area because this Bible

principle needs to get into peoples' spirits so that it can

begin to affect their souls or their minds in order to direct

their bodies.

Think about this: consider the average person who

devotes every day of his life to rising from bed, getting

dressed, driving to work, spending a minimum of eight

hours on the job, then coming back home to complete the

employment cycle. The average person uses up most of his

waking moments in making a living.

If you are an average working man or woman, you are

not getting rich, you are not getting ahead, you are just

surviving. Like most people, you are in a survival mode,

and that takes up the majority of your waking hours.

Think about what could happen if you did not have to use

all that time trying to provide for your own needs. Think

what it would be like if you could use that time to become

independent of the circumstances of life so you could

amass wealth for the purpose of making yourself totally

available to God as a channel of blessing, instead of

expending all of your time and energy trying to make it to

another step or plateau financially.

With regard to this area of trusting not in uncertain

riches, let's look at an incident in the life of Jesus which we

find recorded in the Gospel of Mark.

The Case of the Rich Young Ruler

And when he was gone forth into the way, there

came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him,

Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal

life?

Mark 10:17

"And when he was gone forth...., there came one

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Prosperity on God's Terms

running, and kneeled to him..." Notice that Jesus was not

the one who was running; the one running came and

kneeled before Him and called Him "Good Master."

Let's see what this young man wanted from Jesus.

"....what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" This

man was aware that he did not have eternal life, and he

wanted to find out about it. So He came running to the

Master, asking Him about this vital subject which

concerned him so much.

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me

good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit

adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false

witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.

Mark 10:18,19

Every person brought up as an Israelite knew the

commandments by heart. Whether he obeyed them or not,

each, individual Jew knew God's laws from childhood. It

was standard procedure in Hebrew homes for the parents

to teach their children the Law, so that almost without

exception every Israelite knew what God required of His

people.

And he answered and said unto him, Master, all

these have I observed from my youth.

Mark 10:20

This is marvelous. This young man did not say that he

had observed some of these commandments, or that he

had observed a few of them since high school or early

adulthood—the man said that he had observed all of these

commandments from his youth.

Can you imagine any person today being able to say

that he has never borne false witness (never lied), never

committed adultery (never had sex outside of marriage),

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Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches

never killed, never stolen or defrauded, never failed to

honor his father and mother?

That's why so many people today can't imagine being

prosperous—because they know they have not been living right

before God!

"... all these have I observed...." This is absolutely

astounding. And this man was not even saved, he was not

even filled with the Holy Spirit, he did not even have a

covenant as good as the Christian's. Yet he could say:

"...all these have I observed from my youth."

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said

unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell

whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou

shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come, take up the

cross, and follow me.

And he was sad at that saying, and went away

grieved: for he had great possessions.

Mark 10:21,22

A moment ago, this man had come running. He did

not walk at a brisk pace, he came running and kneeling.

Now he is sad at what he hears, and goes away grieving.

Why? "...because he had great possessions."

I want to use this verse to illustrate a point which

many Christians hardly seem to realize. Where did this

young man get his "great possessions"? He got them from

God! And he was not even a Christian. The reason he got

them from God was because he followed the Law!

The Bible says that God does not change, that there is

not even a shadow of changing with God. (Mal. 3:6; James

1:17.) If God desires poverty for His children today, then

He had to be in favor of poverty for His family back then.

But this man had great possessions—that is not poverty—

and he got them by keeping the Law.

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Prosperity on God's Terms

I am well persuaded (and I plan definitely to ask the

Lord about this when I see Him) that verse 22 of this

passage is incorrectly interpreted. (Notice that I said "I

believe"—me, Fred Price.) I'm not speaking for anyone

else, but I sincerely believe that this verse should read like

this: "And he was sad at that saying, and went away

grieved: for great possessions had him."

It is obvious that this was the case, because his

possessions had such a tight grip on him that he could not

turn loose of them. You talk about having a monkey on

your back. This young man had a monkey on his back, his

chest, his head, and standing on his toes. He could not give

up his possessions, even for eternal life.

It was obvious that the possessions had him. That is

the danger with things. If people are not careful, they can

allow things to control them. That is the danger of

possessions. But that is the same as saying that there is a

great danger of driving on a mountain road in the middle

of a storm, because you might get too close to the edge and

go over. You don't have to go over! Drive close to the

mountain, and you will not go over the edge.

It is just that simple. We don't need to be intimidated

by the devil and cheated or robbed of what God wants us

to have by listening to the lies of Satan who tells us: "Well,

you know, if you get all that stuff, it is going to control

you. It is going to own you. It is going to dictate to you."

No! No! No! It cannot, unless you let it!

"… go … sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the

poor...."

I want to show you something else that people have

missed—I missed it myself for years:

"Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said

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Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches

unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell

whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou

shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the

cross, and follow me."

Most people, when they read this verse, interpret it to

mean that Jesus was saying to the man that he was to go

and sell everything that he possessed and give all the

proceeds from the sale to the poor—meaning that the man

would be left with nothing.

That is not what this verse is saying at all!

All Jesus said to the man was for him to sell what he

had and give to the poor. He did not say, "Sell what you

have and give to the poor everything you get from the sale

of what you own." That would have left the man with

nothing.

The man came to Jesus and said that he wanted eternal

life. How was he going to get eternal life? In order to get it,

he would have to physically follow Jesus, because at that

time there were no local churches as we have them today.

There were no local pastors as we know them now. So in

order for this man to obtain eternal life, he would have to

follow the Life Giver. To do that, he would have to have an

itinerant ministry, traveling from place to place. It would

be a little difficult to drag along all of his possessions with

him.

Jesus wanted this man to turn all of his solid assets

into liquid assets so he could carry them with him. He said

to the man, "Sell everything you own, and give to the

poor." He did not say, "Sell everything you own, and then

give to the poor everything you get from the sale of what

you have."

I used to interpret this verse that way, and that is the

way most people interpret it. They think that what Jesus

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Prosperity on God's Terms

was saying was that the man was to be left with nothing.

But that would not have brought honor to God. In fact,

that would have been a denial of God's provision. Because

the reason that the man had great possessions in the first

place was because he had followed the Law of God.

Think about it: the man had great possessions, and he

had never defrauded anybody, he had never stolen or

even cheated on his income taxes—that is most amazing!

Do Not Trust in Riches!

And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his

disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter

into the kingdom of God!

And the disciples were astonished at his words.

But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them,

Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to

enter into the kingdom of God!

Mark 10:23,24

Doesn't that sound just like 1 Timothy 6:17: "Charge

them that are rich in this world, that they be not

highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living

God...."?

Now notice what Jesus said in the latter part of verses

23 and 24: "...How hardly shall they that have riches enter

into the kingdom of God" ; "...how hard is it for them that

trust in riches to enter the kingdom God." That is the

problem: trusting in riches— not the riches themselves.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a

needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom

of God.

Mark 10:25

Notice that Jesus did not say that a rich man could not

enter the kingdom, any more than He said that a camel

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Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches

could not go through the eye of a needle. He said it is

easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than

for a rich man to enter the kingdom.

And they were astonished out of measure, saying

among themselves, Who then can be saved?

And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is

impossible, but not with God: for with God all things

are possible.

Mark 10:26,27

If all things are possible, then the rich man can get

saved, and a camel can go through the eye of a needle. All

God has to do is make a very big needle. We limit God by

thinking of a sewing needle; there is no law that says that

a needle must be only so large.

"...Lo, we have left all...."

Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left

all, and have followed thee.

Mark 10:28

The common consensus today concerning the disciples

of Jesus is that they did not have anything, materially

speaking. If you do not have anything, you cannot leave

anything. If Peter and the other disciples had had nothing

but a welfare check coming in, then how could they have

said, "...we have left all, and have followed thee"?

The Bible does not indicate that the apostles were

without material means; in fact, according to Mark's

Gospel, Chapter 1, verses 19 and 20, the contrary is

indicated:

And when he had gone a little further thence, he

saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother,

who also were in the ship mending their nets.

And straightway he called them: and they left their

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Prosperity on God's Terms

father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and

went after him.

"...and they left their father... with the hired servants.. .."

If a person has hired servants, he is in good financial

shape. This does not sound like somebody who is on

welfare.

When Peter said, "We have left all," he was talking

about having given up something. The brothers, James

and John, were in a fishing business with their father who

had hired servants. This indicates that he and his sons

were in a pretty good financial condition.

The point I am making is that, in our minds, because of

traditional church teaching, we have had the idea that the

apostles were just a bunch of itinerant bums, jack-leg

preachers, who did not have a pot to cook in and who

were running around the countryside barely making it.

Matthew was sitting at the receipt of custom when he

was called to follow Jesus. (Matt. 9:9.) If anybody had any

money, it was the tax collector, especially in those days

when there were no governing bodies to keep control. A

collector could tell a person that he owed a thousand

dollars in taxes, and then the collector might keep nine

hundred for himself and give Caesar a hundred, which

Caesar was glad to get. Consequently, the tax people were

quite well off.

When Matthew left his job, I do not believe he did so

thinking that he was going to leave everything he had

without receiving something in return, something better

than (or at at least comparable to) what he already had.

When Peter said, "We have left all," that statement is

powerful in its implications, and we have not really seen it

in its proper light. Let's go back to Mark 10:29.

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Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches

A Hundredfold Return

And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto

you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren,

or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or

lands, for my sake, and the gospel's,

But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this

time (in this life, in this dispensation) houses (not house,

but houses), and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and

children, and lands, with persecutions: and in the

world to come eternal life.

Mark 10:29,30

Jesus is saying here that God wants us to have both:

the eternal life, and the houses and lands—"in this time."

But we have to put it together in its proper perspective.

We also need to add to Mark 10:30 what Jesus said in

Matthew 6:33: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and

his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto

you."

Where some people miss it is that they go out and try

to get the things first with the intention of coming back to

give God His portion.

You cannot do that!

Notice again the latter part of Mark 10:29: "...Verily, I

say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or

brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or

children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's."

" ... hath left..." There are two ways to leave things: you

walk out of your house, and you have left your house; or

you give your house away, and you have left your house.

You can also walk off and leave your money by becoming

separated from it; or you can give your money away, and

still become separated from it.

When you give something away for Jesus' sake and the

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Prosperity on God's Terms

Gospel's, He said that you will receive in return a

hundredfold. Don't get caught up in the fact of receiving,

but seek first the kingdom, then think about receiving.

You don't get the hundredfold return until you have given

something up for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel!

The Value of Tithes and Offerings

The primary thing that we have to give up in our

society today is our money. That is why tithes and

offerings are so important.

Back in the time in which Jesus lived, people would

bring their crops, a sheep or a goat or a lamb, because that

was their money. Their wealth was in the possessions that

they had. Our society is structured in a different way: our

wealth is basically talked about in terms of money. Your

net worth is determined by what it comes out to in dollars

and cents. You may have lands, you may own a house, a

car or even a yacht, but how did you get those things?

Basically you had to pay money for them.

In our society, money is the common denominator.

Therefore, the thing that we leave for Jesus' sake and the

Gospel's is primarily money.

Can't you see then the value of tithes and offerings?

Seek the Kingdom, Not Prosperity

You don't get into this Bible principle to get the

hundredfold return. Some people shy away from teaching

on this subject because they say that they don't want to be

a catalyst for folks getting greedy. That is their problem if

they get greedy. The truth is still the truth, whether people

misunderstand and misuse it or not.

I personally am not going to back off preaching the

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Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches

word of prosperity just because somebody may go out and

get greedy. What happens is, they're not going to get

greedy—they already are greedy. This principle will

simply show up their greed. A person is not greedy

because he owns a multitude of things; that is not what

makes one greedy! Greed is a quality some people have

whether they own anything of value or not. Simply

accumulating a multitude of possessions is not going to

make a person greedy.

Everyone is not going to get greedy, nor make the

acquisition of things the end in life. Those who do that are

going to do it whether I preach the word of prosperity or

whether someone else does. When I preach, I am speaking

to the Christians who do not know that prosperity is for

them, those who really not understand prosperity and

who are struggling as I was struggling, who are barely

surviving as I was barely surviving, those who have been

led to believe that Christians are not supposed to have

anything in this world.

All of the stories that we read in the Bible have been

there all the time. God did not just put the 10th chapter of

Mark in the Bible today or yesterday. It has been there

since the beginning. That is what is so sad about this

whole thing. This chapter was there when my creditors

were jacking up my car and repossessing it—and I didn't

even know it, because the churches I went to did not tell

me. They really didn't even encourage their people to read

the Bible. In Hosea 4:6 God said that His people are

destroyed for lack of knowledge.

God wants us to be prosperous. He does not want us

to seek prosperity for prosperity's sake, but He does want

us to enjoy the abundant life that Jesus came to bring us.

Prosperity ought to be the result of, and not the thing

itself.

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Prosperity on God's Terms

Prosperity ought to be the result of a quality of life,

commitment and dedication that is in line with God's Word.

Consider again the man who came running to Jesus

seeking eternal life. How did he get his possessions? He

got those possessions by following the Word of God. With

the limited knowledge that he had, he walked in that light,

and he had great possessions.

How in the world could God want you and me (who

are blood-bought and blood-washed) to struggle and

barely make it through life? Here was a man who was not

even born again. He came to Jesus asking for eternal life.

Jesus did not go to the man and say to him, “Want to

give you eternal life." The man came to Jesus asking what

he had to do to inherit salvation (that's what he was

asking about). In essence, what Jesus told him was, "I am

the eternal life now; and in order to get where I am, you

have to get beyond what is possessing you."

That is why Jesus told the man to go and sell what he

had. I am well persuaded that if the man had been

instantly willing to sell all he owned, Jesus would have

said, "Keep it." Because the man had obtained things

rightfully; therefore, why should he be deprived of them?

He had earned what he had by virtue of the fact that he

had kept God's Word, and God had honored His Word in

his life.

But Jesus perceived that his possessions were a

spiritual obstacle to the man, and the only way that he was

going to get the eternal life that Jesus had come to give

mankind was by turning loose of that which was keeping

him in bondage.

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The Origin and Purpose of Riches

4

Charge them that are rich in this world, that they

be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but

in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to

enjoy.

1 Timothy 6:17

I want to give you another confirming witness

concerning riches. There is really no problem with riches,

but with the attitude toward them, because riches are

neutral. Whether they are good or evil depends on our

motive and attitude in terms of the acquisition of material

things.

In making my point, I want to use something that is

unquestionable, in the sense that nobody can legitimately

argue with it—not even the proponents of the idea that

Christians are not supposed to have much of what is

commonly called "this world's goods." Because of this

idea, the Church— the Body of Christ—has been limited in

its ability to promote the Gospel on the scale that God

intends for it to be promoted.

If you have any doubt about God's will for Christians

to have material possessions—if you sincerely believe that

it is intrinsically wrong for believers to seek after material

wealth and earthly possessions—then I would like to point

out that in that case it would be equally wrong for Jesus,

the Holy Spirit, and God the Father to have material

things. In order to be consistent in this teaching, we must

admit that it could not be right for God to have material

things and His children to have nothing materially.

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The Bible says that we are the sons (and, of course, the

daughters) of God. Why would God, as a loving Father,

want us, His beloved children, to have less than what He

has? All things being equal, even earthly fathers want

their children to fare better than they themselves. Are We

to expect less of our Heavenly Father than we do of our

earthly fathers?

Let's see what the Word of God has to say regarding

riches. First of all, let's go all the way back to the beginning

of this planet earth, as we know it, as recorded in the

pages of the Bible. We will see that all of the material

things that are considered to be valuable, which make for

wealth, come out of this earth— all of them! Diamonds,

emeralds, silver, gold, all the precious metals and their

derivatives come out of the earth.

Who created the earth? God did!

If God created the earth, then gold and silver and

precious metals could not have come about apart from

God. God had to be the Creator of the riches of this earth,

if He created the earth itself.

God and His Creation Are Good!

In the beginning God created the heaven and the

earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and

darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit

of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was

light.

And God saw the light, that it was good; and God

divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he

called Night. And the evening and the morning were

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The Origin and Purpose of Riches

the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the

midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from

the waters.

Genesis 1:1-6

If God created the earth, or brought the earth into

being, then everything in the earth must be good, because

God said that it was good. He did not create it bad. He

created it and said that it was good.

It was good because God said that it was good!

That is not to say that it would stay good, but as it

came from the hand of the Creator, it was good!

Consequently, everything in the earth, and on it, must be

good.

The book of James tells us:

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from

above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,

with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of

turning.

James 1:17

If every good gift comes down from God, then nothing

bad can come from God. If there is anything bad, it did not

come from God, because the Bible says that every “good"

comes from Him.

God created two basic kinds of things: one kind had no

will of its own, the other had a will. God gave the thing

that had a will the greatest and most precious gift in the

universe, and that is the gift of free will!

Unfortunately, it is in the exercising of this gift that

corruption of what is perfect came about.

What is the opposite of light? Dark. What is the

opposite of up? Down. What is the opposite of north?

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Prosperity on God's Terms

South. What is the opposite of male? Female. What is the

opposite of sin? Righteousness. What is the opposite of

good? Bad or evil. Evil is really nothing but a perversion of

good! Evil is not something that exists by itself apart from

anything else; it is simply the opposite of good. It is when

good ceases to be good that it becomes evil. When evil

ceases to be evil, it becomes good. Evil has to be a

perversion of good; otherwise, God created evil.

There is a verse in the Old Testament which talks

about God creating the light and the dark, and the good

and the evil. (Is. 45:7.) But if you will study out that

passage in the Hebrew, you will find that in the original

language this verse was not written that way. The

implication is not that God created evil, but rather that He

permitted it.

In the Hebrew there are two senses: causative and

permissive. We only have one sense in English. What

happened is that the translators (and why they did this I

don't know, since I am not a translator and was not there

when this happened), contrary to the Hebrew, placed the

verb in the causative sense instead of the permissive sense,

which makes it appear that God caused the evil rather

than permitting it.

We do have to understand that these translators were

not always men ordained of God to do the job.

Translations were done by men who saw a need for the

Word to be placed into the various languages of the

people, and it was because of their scholastic ability that

they were given the opportunity to translate the Bible from

the original Hebrew and Greek into modern languages.

Many translations were made, and while we are grateful

for the dedication and work that was done by these early

translators, the fact remains that they were not always

men anointed of God. That is why we find the foul-ups.

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The Origin and Purpose of Riches

God is not fouled up. When He translates through men He

has specially anointed to do the job, you are not going to

find all these mixed-up words. Had the translators been

men called of God, the translations would have been just

as God meant them to be, because the Bible says that He is

not the author of confusion.

God did not, and does not, create evil.

God cannot be the creator of evil, because there is none

in Him. That is why He cannot be responsible for sickness

and disease. You cannot give what you don't have. You

can only communicate AIDS to another person if you have

it yourself. If you don't have it, you cannot pass it on to

someone else; you have to have it in some way, form or

fashion in order to communicate it. God does not have

sickness in Him, so how can He transmit it to you?

Sickness is the opposite of health. Sickness is a perversion

of good health, just as evil is a perversion of good.

In the book of James, Chapter 1, verse 17, it says,

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,

and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom

is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Since

every good and perfect gift comes down from God,

sickness, evil and darkness cannot come from above,

because there is nothing good or perfect about them.

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be

gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land

appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the

gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and

God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the

herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit

after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:

and it was so.

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And the earth brought forth grass

Genesis 1:9-12

Notice that the Bible does not say that God created

grass. It says that God created the earth, and the earth

brought forth grass. The grass did not come from God, as

such; it came from the earth which God created.

Everything After Its Own Kind

And the evening and the morning were the third

day.

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament

of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let

them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and

years:

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the

heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

And God made two great lights; the greater light to

rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he

made the stars also.

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven

to give light upon the earth.

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to

divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it

was good.

And the evening and the morning were the fourth

day.

And God said, Let the waters bring forth

abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and

fowl that it may fly above the earth in the open

firmament of heaven.

And God created great whales, and every living

creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth

abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl

after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and

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The Origin and Purpose of Riches

multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl

multiply in the earth.

And the evening and the morning were the fifth

day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living

creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and

beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And

God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and

cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth

upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was

good.

Genesis 1:13-24

"...after his kind."

This eliminates evolution.

If everything came from one source, then God would

have only had to create one source. But notice, He said,

"Everything after his kind." That means that cows don't

produce horses, birds don't turn into crocodiles, crocodiles

don't turn into rabbits, rabbits don't produce kangaroos,

kangaroos don't have snakes, snakes don't make whales,

whales don't make bees, bees don't make dinosaurs,

dinosaurs don't make elephants, and elephants don't make

mice.

There cannot be any such thing as evolution as we

have been taught in school because evolution requires one

common source, one origin, one thing, and out of that one

thing everything else comes. God said that He created

everything after its kind. That means that God started out

with a horse, and from the time that the first horse came,

horses are horses, and they don't turn into elephants.

The Creation of Mankind

And God said, Let us make man (not men plural, but

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man singular) in our image, after our likeness: and let

them (man and woman) have dominion over the fish of

the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the

cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping

thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the

image of God created he him; male and female created

he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them,

Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and

subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea,

and over the fowl of the air, and over every living

thing that moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb

bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,

and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree

yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

And to every beast upon the earth, and to every

fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon

the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every

green herb for meat: and it was so.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and,

behold, it was very good. And the evening and the

morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 1:26-31

"...and, behold, it was very good!” That means that the

man was good and the woman was good, and they were

separate. There were no female men and no male females.

Argue with God, if you like, but please don't argue with

me. I did not create anything. I am only repeating what the

Bible says.

God said that what He had made was good!

Therefore, anything other than what God made is not

good. You have to be deaf, dumb, blind or dishonest not to

see the implication of that. This would have to mean that

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The Origin and Purpose of Riches

gold is good, silver is good, diamonds are good, emeralds

are good.

Notice that God made it all and gave it all to Adam. He

did not give it to the devil's man. He gave it to the man He

had created. The gold and the silver and everything that

He had made, God gave to His man, Adam. That means

that God must have wanted Adam to have it. If He wanted

Adam to have it, then it must be all right for men to have it

today.

The average Christian who does not accept the idea of

material prosperity or who does not believe in having

things, as such, did not get that idea from reading the

Bible—he got it from some pulpit somewhere. If you read

the Bible, you will know that prosperity is for you. This is

only "Exhibit A." I am saving my best evidence for last. I

have not yet finished presenting my case.

I believe that we have established beyond a shadow of

a doubt that God made the material things of this earth

which speak of wealth, such as gold, silver, diamonds, etc.

Since God made these things, and since He considers them

to be very good, then it must be all right for Fred, one of

God's children, to have them. Since we have established

that God created material things, who do you think He

created them for—the devil and his crew? God did not

make them for Himself, so He had to have made them for

His man Adam, and we are the descendants of Adam...

Adam was a son of God. It is interesting to note that

Abraham was not a son of God, but Adam was. Moses

was not a son of God, but Adam was. Jacob was not a son

of God, but Adam was—that is, until he sinned, then he

lost (actually gave away) his sonship. This can be checked

out in the Gospel in Luke, Chapter 3, beginning at verse

23:

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Prosperity on God's Terms

And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years

of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph,

which was the son of Heli.

Then the passage continues to trace the genealogy of

Joseph back to the beginning, which we read about in

verse 38:

Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of

Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of

God.

When Adam sinned, he lost his sonship. He took

himself out of the family of God. That was why

redemption through Jesus had to come to mankind so that

man could be brought back into the family of God by

adoption. Adam was a natural son of God, but when He

sinned he cut himself off, and everybody else.

To restore man to sonship with Himself, God

established a divine "adoption agency"—Jesus Christ and

the Holy Ghost. Through them, man can again become a

son of God.

The Purpose of Wealth

I believe that I have established the fact that gold and

other material possessions are good. Don't accuse me of

being materialistic, because all I have done is expound on

what the Bible says God has done. If anyone is going to be

fair in leveling accusations, then he must call God

materialistic, because He is the One Who created the gold,

silver, diamonds, rubies, etc. All I am doing is talking

about what God has created.

There are two ways for a Christian to get wealth: one is

through the world's system (which is promoted by Satan),

and the other is through God's system. Satan has a highly

developed system, because he has a lot of willing

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The Origin and Purpose of Riches

customers. God has not had that many willing customers,

because they have been deceived and conned into

thinking that they are not supposed to have anything.

This kind of thinking has left the wealth of the world

to fall into the hands of Satan so that he can control it and

keep it out of the hands of the Body of Christ—which he

has cleverly done. He has everything wrapped up. The

majority of things are limited to his methodology.

Think about it: here is the Body of Christ whose Father

owns the world, and we cannot go to any bank, major or

minor, and borrow money to build a church. But the world

can go and get money to build a liquor store, a hotel, an

insurance building, an office building, or a burger joint.

All things being equal, a person with proper credentials

and collateral would have no problem getting money for

any of these ventures. But Christians go through hell itself

to get ten cents to build a church that is going to promote

God. Why? Because Satan is behind the system, and he

attempts to make everything difficult for the children of

God. Yet, it is our Father Who owns the earth.

Isn't that something?

And because the devil has kept the wealth of the world

out of our hands, we are at the mercy of the people who

have the money. And the people who have the money are

primarily Satan's people, or are in some way under the

control of Satan's people. In other words, the ones who

have the bulk of the wealth of this world are not the

people who are interested in or committed to the

proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so the

churches just putter along, struggling to make ends met—

and it shouldn't be that way!

It took me and my congregation 12 years to build a

church, and not because there is a shortage of money. It

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Prosperity on God's Terms

was the system that hampered us. It does not take 12 years

to build a hotel or a liquor store or a pool hall—you can

get a loan for that. The only way to break the system is for

us Christians to get hold of the wealth, and there is a way

to do that.

We cannot get hold of the wealth by forsaking the spiritual

aspect, because then it would be unstable wealth.

But we do have to get our hands on it. I intend to get

my hands on it for the main purpose of helping the

kingdom of God get the job done which God wants us to

do.

The world needs to hear the Gospel!

It is only because of the influence of the Gospel in the

western world that we have the kind of religious freedom

that we enjoy in this nation. You and I do not have to be

concerned about being killed or murdered because of our

religious beliefs. But we will be persecuted! The Apostle

Paul said, “...all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall

suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). This means that we will

be talked about, criticized, ostracized, etc. But we don't

have to be concerned about being burned at the stake or

put into prison, as many Christians were in the days of the

Early Church.

Some people have read about how things were in the

early days of Christianity. They have read about how

some believers were boiled in oil, or put into hot tar and

their skin shaved off their bodies. They have heard about

how in some countries around the world today Christians

are being persecuted. Without realizing it, they have

begun to believe that you have to be persecuted in order to

serve God. I don't believe that at all. I don't find that

anywhere in scripture. That is a fallacy. That is a deception

of the devil to cause us to open the door and create the

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The Origin and Purpose of Riches

kind of atmosphere that will give him license to burn folks

at the stake.

Things should get progressively better as the influence

of the Gospel dulls the edge of the sword of the wicked

one. Conditions ought to become better for us to live in

this world.

Don't misunderstand me, I am not unaware that things

will be bad at the end, but we are not at the end yet. In my

humble opinion, we have a long way to go before we get

there, based on what I see in the Word of God.

I believe 1 Timothy 2:1-3 gives good insight unto what

we as Christians should be doing in regard to

persecutions:

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications,

prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for

all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority

We don't have kings today in our nation, but we do

have those who are in positions of authority, so this verse

covers everybody: the president and vice-president, the

cabinet, members of congress, senators, judges, police

officers, firefighters—all those people who are in public

office, all those who govern us or who make decisions that

affect our lives.

...that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life (not a

burning-at-the-stake or a fed-to-the-lions type of life) in all

godliness and honesty.

Why?

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God

our Saviour.

I Timothy 2:4

According to the Bible, a peaceable life is good and

acceptable in the sight of God. It is acceptable to God for us

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Prosperity on God's Terms

to live in peace. But we are not going to have peace if we

don't first do what Paul exhorts us to do here in this

passage: pray for all who are in authority.

Thank God that He was able to get the attention of a

few folks to establish this nation in which people have a

right to practice their religious beliefs. So don't go around

looking for persecution. There is nothing intrinsically

valuable in being persecuted. Jesus simply mentioned that

persecution "goes with the territory." It is a natural result

of serving Him. He was persecuted, and we will be too,

because we belong to Him. We will never be able to

completely rid ourselves of some form of persecution,

unless we get rid of Satan, because he is the one who is

behind it all. But it ought to be controlled persecution. We

ought to be on such a plane of spirituality and have

created such an environment of peace that the persecution

will be minimal.

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5

It Is the Lord That Giveth Thee

5

Wealth

I believe that it has been firmly established in

preceding chapters that God's covenant (or agreement)

with us, which He made through His Son Jesus Christ,

promises us abundant life. The word "abundant" means

"more than enough."

But again, what is this abundance for? It is so we will

be able to give, to make what we have available to God for

His work.

Right now you may be thinking: "Well, I don't know

about making anything available to God. I am having a

hard enough time just paying my bills."

That is exactly the object of the system, that is what has

kept you trying to make it, trying to survive. If you ever

rise above the survival status and get to the point where

you are abundantly supplied in every area of your life so

that you do not have to think about your own needs, then

you will be able to become sensitive to the leading of the

Spirit of God and can become a channel of blessing to

others.

All of the material blessings that we receive from God

have to come to us through someone!

When you get to the place where you don't have to be

concerned about your own needs, you can have more time

to think about other people's needs—more time to think

about God!

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Answers Attract Others

Think about this: What made Jesus so attractive to

those among whom He walked almost 2,000 years ago? He

was probably attractive to them because He was sick all

the time. It was His illness that drew other sick people to

Him for healing, because He was always in the hospital

Himself. His weakness and disease is what drew their

attention to Him.

No!

You mean that sick people didn't come to Jesus

because they felt He could sympathize with their

condition because He Himself was sick just as they were?

No!

The Church world never thinks about this point: What

drew people to Jesus? He operated completely outside the

religious establishment of His day. By all standards,

because of His unorthodox life, He should not have had

anyone following Him. No one should have listened to

Him because He operated outside the synagogue system.

Yet He had people following Him by the thousands.

Why?

What was it about Jesus that attracted people to Him?

Could it have been that they knew He could feed 5,000

with a few loaves and a couple of fish? Could it have been

that He could provide food for hungry people, healing for

sick people, relief for hurting people? Was that it?

You have to get a person's attention before you can

preach the Gospel to him. It is hard to talk to a person

about getting saved when he is hurting, blind with pain.

You have to do something to ease his suffering before he is

ready or even able to listen.

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Give a hungry man something to eat, give a hurting

man something to take away his pain, and then tell me

that he won't listen to what you have to say! He will want

to know what you are saying then.

"What have You got going, Jesus? Tell me more!"

You may have to help that person first. How are you

going to do that if you don't have the ability to do it?

Sometimes Christians think all they have to do is stand on

the corner and preach about Jesus. But Jesus is about

meeting people's needs. Yes, spiritual needs come first, but

sometimes in order to get to the first item, we have to do

some other things to get a needy person's attention.

When you look as if your own needs are not met, who

is going to have any confidence to believe that you can do

anything for him? You have no credibility. Who is going to

listen to a loser?

Just imagine the scene: There you are, sitting on the

street corner saying, "Now, I am going to tell all you

people how to keep your cars and homes; I am going to

show you how to keep folks from repossessing your house

and car." And just about that time, your creditors drive up

in front of your own house to jack up your car and

foreclose on your home, nailing it shut. If you were one of

those people on the street, would you listen to someone

like you?

God's Purpose in Giving Us Power to Get

Wealth

But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is

he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may

establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers,

as it is this day.

Deuteronomy 8:18

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Prosperity on God's Terms

Notice that this verse does not say, "... for it is he that

giveth thee wealth." Wouldn't that be easier? We could

cut out some of these steps if God would just say, "I am the

Lord Who gives you wealth." But He does not say that! He

says that He gives us the power to get wealth!

Again, why? For what purpose are we to get wealth?

To establish the covenant!

What is the covenant? It is God's promise to provide us

with abundant life!

This is what is pleasing in the sight of God, and it is

what is going to attract other people.

Let's look at that verse again: "But thou shalt

remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee

power to get wealth..." (remember that "wealth' means

"goods, riches, substance") "...that he may establish his

covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.'

Apparently, according to this scripture, the covenant

cannot be established or completed without wealth.

I like to add words every once in a while; it helps to

make the meaning a little clearer. Notice where this verse

says, "... for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth,

that he may establish his covenant...." Drop the word "so"

right in between the words "wealth" and "that." Then the

verse would read like this: " ..for it is he that giveth thee

power to get wealth, so that he may establish his

covenant...."

In other words, there is a purpose for the wealth. The

wealth is not for wealth's sake, but the wealth is given "so

that." That is important to understand. "So that" what? " ..

so that he may establish his covenant which he sware...."

The "he" refers to God.

The implication here is that God cannot establish His

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It Is the Lord That Giveth Thee Wealth

covenant without our cooperation. God is under our

control in our individual lives. He gives us power to get

wealth so that He may establish His covenant with us

forever.

God Depends Upon Us

God is unlimited. But based on the way He has

designed the system to work, He is limited relative to His

establishing His covenant in us, because He cannot do it

without us.

Yes, God can do anything, by virtue of the fact that He

is God, and He has the power, but He cannot do anything

that would violate His Word, because it is forever settled

in Heaven. (Ps. 119:89.) If God were to violate His own

Word, that would make Him like man instead of God,

because men violate their word all the time. But God

cannot violate His Word without reducing Himself to the

level of a mere human being.

You will not find these particular words in the Bible,

but the principle is there: God's covenant is for us to have

"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." What is the

"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to which we are

entitled?

Satan will try to' play tricks with your mind, and you

will begin to think about people you know of in the world

who have, or appear to have, what we have mistakenly

thought was happiness—because they have a lot of

money. Money is a part of wealth, but a person can have

millions of dollars and still be poor—poor in health, poor

in peace of mind and heart, poor in friendships.

Who are your real friends? How do you know that

your best friend really loves you and not your money?

True wealth encompasses more than just material riches.

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Prosperity on God's Terms

I remember several years ago I read an article in a local

newspaper about one of the richest men in the world. I

believe it said that he had been married three or four

times. So apparently all that money he possessed had not

made him happy or provided him a totally satisfied life.

A lot of people think that if they could just get enough

money they would be happy.

But that is not necessarily true!

From what I have read in the Word, I believe there is a

place in God where you and I can have it all—the wealth

and the peace of mind that should go with it, along with

the wisdom of God to be able to live with that wealth and

deal with it wisely, so that it becomes the means to an end

and not the end in itself. The true wealth that God gives—

true prosperity—will have everything "going for it" and

with it.

Notice what this verse says: "...for it is he that giveth

thee power to get wealth...." That would have to mean

that the wealth is already here—that the wealth is not in

God's hands or under His control, because if it were, why

wouldn't He give it to His children? But the Bible says that

God gives us the power to get wealth. Therefore, whether

we get it or not is up to us. It is our duty and responsibility

to see that the acquisition of wealth does not become the

end of our existence. There is no problem with this

because Philippians 4:13 tells us that we can do all things

through Christ Who strengthens us.

The Purpose of Wealth

Remember, the purpose of wealth is to establish the

covenant.

What is included in the covenant?

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It Is the Lord That Giveth Thee Wealth

Abundant life and everything that goes with it!

This is talking about doing the will of God, about

preaching the Gospel, about proclaiming the Word of God.

It is talking about everything that has to do with making

life what it ought to be. It means happiness, health,

prosperity in every way and in every area of our lives: our

marriage, our children, our body, our business, our work,

our ministry.

Many times people cannot achieve success in life

because they have so many "hang ups." They can never get

to the point of accomplishment because there are all these

things that hang them up along the way: "Well, I cannot

do that because.. ." "I cannot have this because.. ."

"Christians are not supposed to do that because. . " "God

doesn't want us to have this because.. ." "The Church says

that we can't.. ."

All these are "hang ups" and roadblocks!

Before you and I can achieve God's best for our lives,

we have got to get rid of all the blocks that hinder us.

You have to have a tool to get a job done—whatever

that tool might be. It could be a typewriter in your

business; it could be a wrench, a screwdriver, a hammer or

a slide rule. It could be anything. This may sound strange,

but God has a tool—and that tool is you and me. In other

words, we are God's tools.

God is limited by His tools in the same way that a

craftsman is limited by the quality of his equipment. A

secretary is absolutely powerless if she has a typewriter

that has no ribbon in it. I don't want a surgeon operating

on me with a hammer and a chisel; if he does not have the

proper tools and equipment, he is severely hampered.

By the same token, God is hampered if He does not

have the proper tools. We are God's chest of tools. One of

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Prosperity on God's Terms

us may be a screwdriver, one of us may be a wrench, one

of us may be a hammer, one may be a saw, and so on. God

cannot fix anything the way it needs to be repaired if His

tools are not working properly!

You and I must get into a position where we can

function effectively as tools in the hands of God. We must

be about His business, accomplishing His will, not our

own!

In the process of doing God's will, all of our own will

can be taken care of. This is the unique and beautiful thing

about God's "set up." While you and I are busy doing His

will, our will is being taken care of. When we fulfill His

desire, our desire is seen to. This is just one of the "fringe

benefits" that go along with serving God.

But if we are not functioning correctly, then God is

going to be limited in what He can do—only because that

is the way He has designed the system.

Prosperity Pleases God

Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my

righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the

Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the

prosperity of his servant.

Psalm 35:27

If God has pleasure in our prosperity, He must have

displeasure in our poverty. The opposite of pleasure is

displeasure. The opposite of prosperity is poverty.

If God has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant,

what must He have in the prosperity of His child? If you

have been born again, then you are not a servant of God,

you are a child of God!

Removing the Roadblocks on the Road to

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Prosperity

I have said that sometimes there are different

roadblocks in the Christian life. They often come because

of association, observation and teaching. There are certain

things that Satan will use to block the minds of God's

people.

There are some people who cannot believe certain

things about God, only because they have been exposed to

a particular persuasion all their lives. They cannot believe

that God wants them to be well. There are others who

cannot bring themselves to believe that God wants them to

be healed. Still others have a hard time believing that God

wants them to be prosperous.

Many times people have been taught and conditioned

to think that they are supposed to be poor or sick—that

God is somehow pleased with or glorified by their

distress.

"I am suffering for the Lord," they say.

No, they are not "suffering for the Lord"! They are

suffering because they are ignorant—ignorant of God's

Word.

Such people are sincere about their beliefs. They are

not playing games. They are committed to the proposition

that they are supposed to be poor or sick "for the glory of

God"—that somehow God gets something out of their pain

and suffering.

In other words, they believe that if they can "keep a

stiff upper lip" through it all, and never renounce God,

that somehow the Lord will get pleasure or glory out of

their predicament. There are some people who believe this

so strongly that they cannot be talked to about it. They are

totally closed-minded on this subject. It is pathetic and so

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Prosperity on God's Terms

sad to see them being cheated out of all that God wants

them to have—yet they don't even realize it. All their

beliefs have come about because of association,

observation and teaching which has come from wrong

thinkers and wrong thinking. But until these roadblocks

are removed, these people will never be able to move into

the fullness of the things of God.

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6

God Shall Supply All Your Need

6

At the time the book of Philippians was written, the

Apostle Paul was incarcerated in a prison in Rome. Many

of the churches he had established, or been involved with

in some way, had sent personal items to him to minister to

his physical needs during his imprisonment. They were

concerned about him, because they loved him and

appreciated his ministry to them.

In response to their concern and generosity, Paul

writes:

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last

your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were

also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.

Philippians 4:10

In other words, Paul is saying, "You wanted to help

me, but you didn't have the opportunity or the chance to

do so."

"... for I have learned..."

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have

learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Philippians 4:11

Notice that Paul writes: "I have learned...."

The way you learn is a combination of precept and

example. In other words, you can learn by the words that

you are taught, but then what you are taught should be

augmented by what you experience. When this is the case,

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Prosperity on God's Terms

the experience will validate and confirm beyond any

doubt what you have learned from the book. What you

learn from a book is somebody else's experience, which

may be true, but the Word will never become rhema (alive)

to you until you experience it for yourself.

What happens with so many people is that they hear

the Word of God taught, and they rejoice in it. It sounds

great and wonderful, but they never take enough time to

experience the Word for themselves. They may do it for a

while, but because what they are believing for does not

manifest itself instantly, because results are not

immediately forthcoming, they say, "Ah, that stuff doesn't

work." They don't realize that in most cases time has to

pass before the manifestation occurs.

You have to allow time to pass before you can

experience a return on your effort. And sometimes it's not

until you have gone through something experientially,

over and over again, that it becomes real to you.

I'm not necessarily speaking of something negative—I

am talking about the normal process of learning which all

of us human beings go through in our daily lives.

It's like when you learn how to drive a car. You are sort

of shaky at first, and you are very careful because you're

nervous. After all, this is a big thing. Automobiles are

whizzing past you and trucks are going by; there are buses

and pedestrian traffic all around, and dogs and kids are

running across the street ahead of you. You have learned

all the proper procedures by studying the book, and now

you are having an actual experience of driving. But it's not

until after you have driven a while that driving becomes

second nature to you.

Eventually it becomes quite natural for you to drive,

but at first it is very traumatic to get behind the wheel. The

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God Shall Supply All Your Need

more you drive, the more proficient you become at

driving. The more accustomed to driving you become, the

easier it gets.

It's the same way with just about every experience of

life that we go through. Understand that I am mainly

addressing the positive side of learning. I'm not talking

about going through some hellish experience which you

have to experience 99 times before you finally get the

message. You don't need to go through hellish experiences

but one time—and really not even once!

If all of us were smart and learned from other people's

experiences, in addition to learning, of course, by

instruction from the Word of God, then none of us would

need to go through any hellish times at all. But

unfortunately, this is not the case. Consequently, some

people must go through some unhappy experiences over

and over because they will not learn any other way. But

having gone through a tragedy, surely we need not repeat

it again and again before learning our lesson.

Paul says that he has learned. The way he learned was

by personal experience based upon and confirmed by the

Word of God.

"...to be content"

"... I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith

to be content."

Now the Greek word translated "content" here in this

verse is very interesting. It literally means "to be self-

sufficient." It means "to be adequate in oneself." It means

"needing no assistance."

When we use the word "content," many times it carries

the connotation of: "Well, I don't have what I really want,

but I'll just content myself with what I have. I really want

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Prosperity on God's Terms

to live up on the top of the hill in a mansion, but I'll just be

content to live down here by the riverside in this shotgun

shack. I'll drive this horse and buggy; at least it gets me

from point A to point B. I'm not really satisfied with this

mode of transportation, this is not what I ultimately

desire, I would really like to have a Rolls Royce, but I'll

just content myself with it."

This word "content" doesn't mean that at all. What it

means is: "I am self-sufficient. I am adequate in myself. I

need no assistance."

If I am self-sufficient, if I am adequate in myself, if I

have no need of assistance, then I am content.

Now this self-sufficiency, this adequacy, this lack of

need of assistance is all based upon the fact that we have

God as our source. This is what Paul is alluding to here in

this passage. He is not saying that he is self-sufficient,

adequate, without need of assistance—in himself. What he

is saying is: "I am self-sufficient in the Greater One Who is

in me. I am adequate, I need no assistance, because the

Greater One abides within. I have the best helper anyone

could possibly ask for. I have assistance that is beyond the

realm of human understanding. I have supernatural

assistance by the Holy Spirit."

Then he goes on to elaborate on the cause of this sense

of contentment which he enjoys.

Knowing How to Live Victoriously in Every

Circumstance of Life

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to

abound: every where and in all things I am instructed

(by experience) both to be full and to be hungry, both to

abound and to suffer (put up with) need.

I can do all things through Christ which

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strengthened me.

Philippians 4:12,13

In this passage Paul lists the different states that one

could find himself in, and no doubt these are the ones that

he had come through successfully in his life and ministry.

He says: "I know both how to be abased (in other words,

how to be put down), and how to abound (how to be

above)..." Then he points out that he has learned from

experience how to be full and to be hungry, how to

abound and how to put up with need.

But notice something very carefully here, because if

you don't, you could fall into a trap. Paul is not saying that

we have to be abased. He is not saying that we have to

abound. He is not saying that we have to be full. He is not

saying that we have to be hungry. He is not saying that we

have to suffer need or go with our needs unmet.

Paul is not saying any of these things at all. What he is

saying is: "I, Paul, have learned how to go through all

these things." He never said that he was in them now, and

he never said that they were the goals of his life or ours: to

suffer want, to be in need, or to live with unmet needs. He

is simply saying that he has learned, by virtue of his

personal experience of going though these things, how to

deal with all of them.

What Paul is saying to us here in this passage is: "If the

situation necessitated that I go with 'my needs unmet, I

could do so, because I can do all things through Christ

Who gives me the strength to face life and to live

victoriously in spite of circumstances."

While Paul is not telling us to live in want, with our

needs unmet, we can be like him and we can survive

whatever comes, because we can do it all through Christ,

Who gives us the strength to do anything and everything.

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Follow Christ, Not Men

Most people can't do that. They would be totally

wiped out if a negative situation arose against them. They

would go to pieces and fall completely apart.

For example, I know some people who can't live the

Christian life in line with the Word of God because of

watching other Christians. Instead of taking their cue from

the Word of God, they attempt to follow other believers.

They attempt to measure Christianity by the actions of

other people.

That's the worst trap we could ever fall into. You and I

are never told to follow other Christians. We are only

encouraged to follow other people as they follow Christ.

But suppose they are not following Christ to the letter of

the Word. We will never know whether they are or not

until we ourselves know the Word sufficiently well

enough to judge their actions.

Friend, if I had become a Christian and a minister of

the Gospel because I had been watching other believers

and preachers, I would have quit 99 years ago. Based on

the garbage that I have seen, and the stuff that I have had

to put up with from other Christians and ministers, I

would have given up ages ago. But Jesus has never failed

me, and He will never fail you—if you will keep your eyes

on Him through the application of His Word to your life.

It is a fool's choice to follow other Christians and then

to throw up the actions of other believers as an excuse for

not doing what is right.

The Bible says that Jesus has left us an example. (1 Pet.

2:21.) We are told that we are to follow His example.

As a Christian you are not supposed to take me as

your example. Now I ought to live right, but you are a fool

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if you choose to follow me—of myself. You can safely

follow me only as long as I follow Christ. You can see an

example of Jesus lived out in human life and in human

flesh by following me, but still you are not going to know

whether I am doing what Jesus said to do or not unless

you know for yourself what the Word says.

A lot of Christians are lazy. They don't want to take the

time to study the Word. They don't want to devote

themselves to serious Bible study, to spend the time it

takes to research it and discover what it really says about a

particular subject. It is so much easier to just take

somebody else's word. That's the reason why, when I

teach the Bible, I have people look at their own Bibles. I'm

interested in people finding out for themselves what the

Bible says.

A Christian should be following Christ and not other

Christians. And I'll tell you right now, don't think that

when you come to stand before God you can use that old

alibi that you were misled by me or anybody else. He's not

going to go for it!

Can you imagine what the Lord will say to anyone

standing before Him claiming: "Well, Lord, I would have

done Your will, but Fred Price didn't..."

"Wait. Who's Fred Price? What does he have to do with

you?"

You will have to stand before God for yourself, just as I

will have to stand before Him for myself. That's why I

don't let anybody—my wife and children included—

hinder me from doing what I know is right to do. They can

do whatever they please. I hope they pray and read the

Bible. I encourage them to pray. I encourage them to read

the Word. But if they stop praying and reading the Bible,

that's their problem—not mine. I know what to do, and I

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don't have any excuse for not doing it. I'm going to have to

answer to God for myself for what I do and fail to do.

God Is Our Source

Paul tells us that he had learned how to be self-

sufficient in every one of the situations of life because God

was his source.

You can learn how to be self-sufficient by growing up

spiritually, because 99 people out of a 100 start out the

Christian life already whipped, defeated, sick, poor, scared

—or whatever. You didn't come into Christ already

spiritually mature, did you? The majority of us came in all

messed up. In fact, the reason most of us came to Him in

the first place was because we were messed up and

couldn't do anything for ourselves. He was the only One

Who would have us. Our family had given up on us. Our

relatives had kicked us out. Our friends had stopped

associating with us. Even the dog had started barking at

us. Nobody would have us but God. We all came to Jesus

with our bags full of "mess ups."

Even though you may have started out that way, you

can grow up—you can mature in Christ. As you go

through the various experiences of life, you ought to learn

something from each of them. At least you ought to learn

that you do not have to go through that same thing again.

You learn how to overcome by overcoming. You learn

how to win by winning. You never learn how to overcome

by failing; you never learn how to win by losing.

God is our source. Even if the economy folds up, we

don't have to fold up. In years gone by, our nation went

through the Great Depression. There were many people

who were millionaires, who had everything they owned

invested in the stock market. When the market fell

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through, they ended up killing themselves. They couldn't

take it; they couldn't handle it.

But Paul tells us Christians that we can do all things

through Christ. We don't have to fall apart or go to pieces,

because God is our source and Christ is always there to

strengthen us.

It is amazing to me how many Christians want instant

success. Success doesn't come instantly. In anything

worthwhile, there is a time factor involved.

God is our source, but even He takes time.

Blessed to Become a Blessing

Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did

communicate with my affliction.

Now ye Philippians know also, that in the

beginning of the gospel, when I departed from

Macedonia, no church communicated with me as

concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.

For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again

unto my necessity.

Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that

may abound to your account.

Philippians 4:14-17

"...ye did communicate with my affliction." Literally,

the word "affliction" means "tribulation." Paul is speaking

here about his having to be confined to prison.

"Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may

abound to your account." In my opinion, that ought to be

the watchword of the ministry. It also ought to be the

watchword to you as an individual Christian, that fruit

may abound to your account.

This is the purpose of the teaching of the Word, so that

you will be the recipient of the truth, and that you, by and

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through the truth, will be blessed.

Blessed to become a blessing.

But you cannot be a blessing until you are blessed yourself.

You can't give what you don't have, and you have to get it in

order to have it.

"... my God shall supply all your need..."

But I have all, and abound: I am full, having

received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent

from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice

acceptable, wellpleasing to God.

But my God shall supply all your need according

to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:18,19

The truth that is stated in verse 19 needs to be

assimilated into our thinking and into our spirits. Notice

what Paul says: "...my God shall supply all your need...."

Notice that he does not say that God will supply all

our "needs," but that He will supply our all "need." That

covers everything, all the time, at one time. Whatever you

and I need, our God will supply.

"... according to his riches in glory..."

How does God supply all our need?

"... according to his riches in glory...."

Not according to our poverty. Not according to our

empty wallet, not according to our empty meal barrel, and

not according to our empty refrigerator.

Sometimes what happens is that when people get to a

point of need, they start looking at the natural and try to

figure out how God is going to meet their need.

Then when they can't figure it out, they try to help

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God out—and that's when they get into trouble.

Don't ever start doing something on your own because

you can't figure out how God is going to meet your need.

My wife and I have gone through many things over

the years of our walking together in the Word. Many times

there was no way we could figure out how God was going

to meet our desperate need. Now as we look back, we see

that it was all taken care of. It's done and over, and God

did it.

"...by Christ Jesus."

How do God's riches in glory come to us?

"...by Christ Jesus."

It is through Christ that we receive God's riches to meet

all of our need.

In verse 13, Paul states: "I can do all things through

Christ which strengtheneth me." God can do all things

through Christ. And He has said that He will supply all

our need by Christ Jesus.

But We Have a Part to Play

But the way that we receive God's provision is to

follow the directives of His Word. It's a cyclical process.

And everyone in the cycle has a part to play in it. If any

one person in the cycle does not play his part, the cycle

breaks down. God has a part to play, Christ has a part to

play, the Holy Spirit has a part to play, and you and I have

a part to play. We know that God, Christ, and the Holy

Spirit are not going to fail to do their part, so that leaves us

—you and me.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. It took me

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many years to figure that statement out. I later learned that

it means that the strength of the entire chain is dependent

upon the strength of its weakest link. The rest of the chain

is only as strong as its weakest link because when that link

breaks, the whole chain is broken. Whatever amount of

pressure that weakest link can withstand determines the

strength of the entire length.

God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and you and I

are the four links. We are the weakest link of that chain or

cycle. If we don't do our part, then the Father, Jesus, and

the Holy Spirit are hindered from doing their part. Each of

us has our individual part to play.

This verse says that God shall supply all of our need

according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. But that

statement cannot be lifted out of the context of the entire

Bible. Sometimes we quote it to make a point that God will

always meet our needs, but in reality that statement is

related to everything else in the Bible that God tells us to

do in order to prosper.

If you and I don't do what the Bible tells us to do, then God

is not going to be able to supply our need according to His

riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

The Word of God is also the Word of Christ, and the

Word tells us what to do. If we don't do what it tells us,

then we have broken the link in the chain, and God cannot

meet our need.

For example, the Word of God says to give and it shall

be given to us. If we do not give, then it shall not be given

to us. There is no way something we have not given can be

multiplied back to us. I don't see why people can't see that.

It works the same way in the world. It's amazing how

some people can see this principle in operation in the

world, but have such a problem with it in the Bible.

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It's interesting that people can take $10,000 and put it

into a T-bill account, knowing full well that in order to

receive maximum benefit (and not be penalized) they have

to leave it there for the full term. Most people have no

problem with that concept. Yet many of these same people

expect God to respond yesterday. They just started

investing in the Lord's work today, but they want a return

yesterday. They can wait six months for a T- bill to mature,

and have no problem understanding the necessity for that

waiting period, but they can't understand why God's

promised return takes so long.

These people can spend four years going to college to

get a degree, and have no problem with that. They don't

cry or faint or pitch a fit or beat down the dean's office

door, crying: "I don't know why I can't get my bachelor's

degree. I've been going to class here for six whole months;

why won't you give me my degree?"

Do you know why? Because the academic system is

based on a principle. All things being equal, it takes

approximately four years of study to earn a bachelor's

degree. People will study and work and wait patiently

four years to receive their degree, but they won't wait four

days to give the Word of God time to mature in their lives.

They want it to "pay off" yesterday. They will wait six

months for a T-bill to come to maturity, but they won't

wait six hours for God to answer their prayers.

The bank has their $10,000. They won't see it again for

six months. Why didn't they put that amount into the

Church? Why didn't they invest that money in the Lord's

work? And then give Him six months to provide them a

return on their investment? No, they put their offering in

on Sunday morning and expect a return on the following

Saturday. When that expected return doesn't materialize

immediately, they are ready to say, "Ah, that stuff doesn't

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work."

If this describes the way you operate, I have something

to say to you: "You dishonest rascal, it will work if you

work it!"

Everything is governed by principles—by laws—and

you have to put them into action, and then give them time

to work.

God's Word Works!

My God shall supply all your need!

I can say this not only from the standpoint of

Philippians 4:19, but also from the standpoint of personal

experience.

God will supply your need. But you have to be willing to

make a commitment to the Lord.

Sometimes people look at me and see the things that I

have, from the standpoint of what the world calls success,

and they think that I am supposed to give them

something. I used to be that way too. I used to be a "cry

baby," a beggar, a borrower. I begged and borrowed all the

time because I never had enough. I would borrow from

anybody who would loan me money. Then I'd be up to my

neck trying to pay it back.

Once I discovered that God's Word works (my wife

can verify this statement), I never asked anybody for

anything or borrowed any more money to take care of my

personal matters. In fact, I stopped telling anybody about

my financial situation. Whereas before I used to cry all the

time and tell anybody who would listen: "Have I told you

about my latest problem? The canary swallowed the cat

this morning!"

However, once I found out about the Word, I had a

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God Shall Supply All Your Need

different attitude about how to handle my finances. My

wife and I agreed together and made a quality decision

that we were going with the Word—that it was going to

work for us, that it was going to produce the abundant life

for us. We had to sacrifice at first. We had to go without.

Many people don't want to make a sacrifice or go without.

We did so because that's what it took to get us to where

we wanted to be.

Now we don't go without any more, but we didn't get

to that place overnight.

Somewhere along the way you have to make a

commitment, and then honor that commitment in your

own life; otherwise, you will never know the reality of

God's Word for yourself.

Nobody can tell me that the Word of God doesn't

work. Nobody—but nobody— can tell me that the Word

will not do what God says it will do.

It works!

But It Must Be Put into Action!

But you have to be willing to make the commitment,

and it may cost you something in the beginning. But you

have to be determined to work the Word.

It cost us. We went without a lot of things because we

were seeking a higher goal. We saw what life could be

like, and we made a commitment to reach our goal. Now

we're blessed coming and going—just as God said we

would be—just as the psalmist wrote:

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel

of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor

sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law (the Word) of the Lord;

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Prosperity on God's Terms

and in his law (Word) doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of

water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his

leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth

shall prosper.

Psalm 1:1-3

"...and in his law doth he meditate day and night." Not

once a month, not just at Christmas or Easter, New Year's

Day or Groundhog Day, but "day and night"—night and

day!

"...and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Whatsoever.

Whatsoever.

"Whatsoever" means your marriage

relationship, your family, your children, your business,

your ministry. It means your job, your health—it means

everything!

But it won't prosper until you start doing what the

Word says.

It took me 17 years to get into the mess I was in. I

worked at it for 17 years. I had it down to a science. When

the end of the seventeenth year came, I was so fouled up,

so messed up, so strung out, so hung up financially,

economically, and physically, that I was nothing but a

wreck going some place to happen.

But my wife and I came out of that mess in a lot less

then 17 years. We have been out of it for a number of years

now, but it took some time. Now we can be a blessing. Not

only are we blessed, but we can be a blessing to others—

and that is the "bottom line."

However, I am careful about to whom I am a blessing.

I am not going to bless some lazy, good-for-nothing

somebody who doesn't want to take the time or make the

effort to make whatever commitment that is necessary in

order to ultimately succeed. I wouldn't give a person like

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God Shall Supply All Your Need

that a dime. I wouldn't even give him the time of day,

because he can do just as I did—but he refuses.

You too can make the same commitment I made. When

I see somebody making that commitment—when I see

somebody putting forth effort, I will help him (as I am led

to do so). I will give him something. I am not going to give

it to some lazy rascal who is just sitting around with his

hand out, saying, "My name is Jimmy, I'll take all you

gimme."

No!

I'll say it a million times, until Jesus comes: You have to

put the Word into operation or it won't work for you!

It takes dedication. It takes discipline. It takes staying

with it until it manifests.

Prosperity is, and always has been, for the Christian.

But it has to be on God's terms—and God's terms are

outlined in His Word.

97

OTHER BOOKS BY FRED PRICE

High Finance God's Financial Plan Tithes and Offerings

How Faith Works

(Also Available in Spanish)

Is Healing for All?

How to Obtain Strong Faith

Now Faith Is

The Holy Spirit—The Missing Ingredient

Faith, Foolishness or Presumption?

Thank God for Everything?

Marriage and the Family

Realm of the Spirit

Origin of Satan

Homosexuality: State of Birth or State of Mind?

Concerning Them Which Are Asleep

For a complete list of tapes and books by Fred Price, or

to receive his quarterly publication, Ever Increasing Faith

Messenger, write:

Crenshaw Christian Center

P.O. Box 90000

Los Angeles, California 90009

or call: Area code 213/758-3777

Additional copies of this book

are available from your local bookstore,

or by writing:

Harrison House

P. O. Box 35035

Tulsa, OK 74153

Dr. Price was born January 3, 1932, in Santa Monica,

California. He attended McKinley Elementary School in

Santa Monica, Foshay Junior High School, Manual Arts

and Dorsey High Schools in Los Angeles and completed

two years at Los Angeles City College. In 1976 he received

an honorary diploma from Rhema Bible Training Center

(in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma) and in 1982 was awarded

an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Oral Roberts

University (in Tulsa, Oklahoma).

In March 1953, Dr. Price married the former Betty Ruth

Scott. They have four children: Angela Marie Evans, who

is now Executive Vice-President of Crenshaw Christian

Center; Cheryl Ann Crabbe; Stephanie Pauline; and

Frederick Kenneth. Dr. and Mrs. Price have three

grandchildren: Alan Michael and Adrian Marie, children

of Angela and her husband, Michael; and Nicole Denise,

daughter of Cheryl and her husband, Allen.

Document Outline

- Prosperity on God's Terms

- Contents

- Introduction

- 1 Is Prosperity God's Will?

- Tithes and Offerings

- Giving and Receiving

- The Law of Divine Reciprocity

- God's Will Is Abundance

- Oppositions to Prosperity

- God Is Our Source

- Prosperity Is God's Will!

- 2 The Blessing of the Lord, It Maketh Rich!

- The Blessing of Abraham: Spiritual or Material?

- A Great Name

- Abraham Was Very Rich!

- God Blessed Abraham with Riches

- Blessing Versus Cursing

- What Is the Curse of the Law?

- The Blessings of Obedience

- 3 Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches

- "Charge them that are rich..."

- There Is Plenty for All!

- Riches Are Not Evil

- The Case of the Rich Young Ruler

- Do Not Trust in Riches!

- A Hundredfold Return

- The Value of Tithes and Offerings

- Seek the Kingdom, Not Prosperity

- 4 The Origin and Purpose of Riches

- God and His Creation Are Good!

- Everything After Its Own Kind

- The Creation of Mankind

- The Purpose of Wealth

- 5 It Is the Lord That Giveth Thee Wealth

- Answers Attract Others

- God's Purpose in Giving Us Power to Get Wealth

- God Depends Upon Us

- The Purpose of Wealth

- Prosperity Pleases God

- Removing the Roadblocks on the Road to Prosperity

- 6 God Shall Supply All Your Need

- "... for I have learned..."

- "...to be content"

- Knowing How to Live Victoriously in Every Circumstance of Life

- Follow Christ, Not Men

- God Is Our Source

- Blessed to Become a Blessing

- "... my God shall supply all your need..."

- "...by Christ Jesus."

- But We Have a Part to Play

- God's Word Works!

- But It Must Be Put into Action!

Table of Contents

Introduction.

1 Is Prosperity God's Will?.

2 The Blessing of the Lord, It Maketh Rich!.

3 Trust God, Not Uncertain Riches.

4 The Origin and Purpose of Riches.

5 It Is the Lord That Giveth Thee Wealth.

6 God Shall Supply All Your Need.

Prosperity on God's Terms

Contents

Tithes and Offerings

Giving and Receiving

God's Will Is Abundance

Oppositions to Prosperity

God Is Our Source

Prosperity Is God's Will!

The Blessing of Abraham: Spiritual or Material?

A Great Name

Abraham Was Very Rich!

God Blessed Abraham with Riches

Blessing Versus Cursing

The Blessings of Obedience

"Charge them that are rich..."

There Is Plenty for All!

Riches Are Not Evil

The Case of the Rich Young Ruler

Do Not Trust in Riches!

A Hundredfold Return

The Value of Tithes and Offerings

God and His Creation Are Good!

Everything After Its Own Kind

The Creation of Mankind

The Purpose of Wealth

Answers Attract Others

God's Purpose in Giving Us Power to Get Wealth

God Depends Upon Us

Prosperity Pleases God

"...to be content"

Knowing How to Live Victoriously in Every Circumstance of Life

Follow Christ, Not Men

Blessed to Become a Blessing

"... my God shall supply all your need..."

"...by Christ Jesus."

God's Word Works!

But It Must Be Put into Action!