SOUL PROSPERITY

Thank God for cleansing and redeeming my soul.

This is not for everybody, this is not milk, this is meat.

It's not faith if it's just faith in faith, it's faith in Christ Jesus that is the saving faith.

Lord I exalt you and your Word above all things.



The Elder John wrote to one of his brothers in Christ saying,



Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

3John2 (NKJV)



As your soul prospers.



As we learn to allow difficult times, situations and circumstances to shape us and not stunt us.

As we mature In Christ, our minds, our wills and our emotions are conformed to the image of Christ.


Then we don't have to be persuaded because we are persuaded.



If there were no situations to overcome, what would be the proof of our faith in God?
To obey is to believe what God has said.


James said,

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing and trying of your faith proves endurance.

Persuaded folks will endure because they understand that God is not slow nor slack concerning His promise.

When we received Christ we were saved in that instant.
Now we have to allow Christ to work in us.



Let endurance/patience do it's maturing work.
Amen



Y'all know I love Job.



This is what Job's spouse and friends should have been saying to him when he sat out there grieving at his losses, in ashes and covered in boils.



Hold on, God is faithful!

This prospers the soul.

We need a prosperous soul in order to handle any other kind of prosperity.



Job didn't have friends who were saying that to him.

But Job endured anyhow, because he had the hedge about him.


I pray that you have better support than Job did and if you don't, look to the Word and know that God loves you when everything isn't going right.


The enemy is betting that we won't follow God unless everything is going right in our lives.

But this is the time when all saints really have to dig in and stay before the Father.

Don't stop believing, don't stop listening, don't stop learning, don't stop loving.


That's exactly what the enemy bet Job would do.

He was betting that Job would give up if troubles, opposition or loss came his way.
The devil was betting that Job would curse God and die if he suffered some things.



If you lose the most precious and dear things in your life like family, can you keep trusting God?

If you lose your status, can you keep trusting God?

If you lose your money and all your helpers, and all your supporters and back up, can you keep trusting God?

If your body is stricken with pain and discomfort and your mind is pressed with grief that keeps you from making a living, can you trust God?

If you are not accepted in some circle, can you still trust God?



Because the enemy asked The Father, "Does Job revere you for nothing?"

Does Job love you and serve you expecting something in return or does he just love you for who you are?
The enemy found it unfathomable that we would run to God and serve Him for who He is.
You have to promise them some sort of promotion or they won't be bothered with you when times get tough.

Just knowing that God loves me is reward.
I'm not trying to sound humble and like I will refuse God's promise no on the contrary.
Because poverty is no more humble before God than riches are righteous before Him.

Understanding and grasping God's love is having proof that He will never leave you nor forsake you no matter what is going on around you.

Lion's Den, Fiery furnace, Giants, Raging Storms, Seas at your feet, Hunger, Jail, Death and sin.
In all these places God will snatch you out.

The devil will promise you the world just so he can snatch it out from under you.
But God will give you the earth.


The devil asks, is God that great that He would bless you for blessings sake?


YES HE IS THAT GREAT!
He did it in the beginning.

If The LORD doesn't do one more thing He is more than worthy of all the honor, all the glory, all the praise!

People walk away from God because they think that they are owed something and if they don't get it, they give up on Him.
We couldn't honor God enough to be owed anything.
I couldn't change enough diapers, or sing enough songs, or write enough words or minister to enough people to ever match God's gift.

So I don't do anything to try and obtain what I already have.
Whatever I do is from a heart of love and instruction from the Father.

Job talked to God because he knew that God desired to be his counsel.
Like He desires to be our counsel, but we like to hold court with our friends and dismiss the counsel of the LORD.


The devil understood that Job was mature and upright and he wouldn't be tempted with evil.

You wouldn't catch Job in a bar drunk or committing adultery or stealing from his servants or robbing God of tithes and offerings.
You wouldn't catch Job judging other folks actions, jumping to conclusions like his friends did.


You wouldn't find Job walking in pride, but you would find him praying to the Father about his cares and concerns.

Lucifer thought he found a way to prove that man's love for God was just raggedy and based on rewards, not knowing that we give our best because we love the LORD and want to please Him.


The LORD isn't withholding anything from us, we have it already.

Adam and Eve got this twisted.


The enemy said, You have blessed the works of his hands and his substance is increased in the land.
But if you take the things that the world believes are the true blessings from him, he will curse you to your face.


So the enemy came and challenged Job, he pressed and buffeted him hard.


Job didn't give in a top of all the accusations and affliction that he suffered at the mouths of his friends saying,
God would have brought you out if you were righteous, your table would be filled with riches if you were in right standing with Him.
Job 36:16,17



Job kept his faith in God.
Job was in right standing with the Father.

You have to know for your self where you stand with God or folks will have you screwy.

(Adam and Eve Genesis 3)



Job told the Lord, I have heard every opinion as to why this happened to me, but now I know and it has been revealed to my eyes.
Job 42:5
Job got revelation from the father and repented at the thought of even blaming God for it and this is why he was restored.

Some thought he was scared, some thought he must have done something wrong, and some thought he had too much integrity.


Not


The Father was angry at the so called friends of Job who had spoken their opinion as to why Job suffered affliction.

Affliction and persecution come for the Words sake.



This is why we all must have a personal and intimate relationship with the Father being quick to hear and slow to speak.


So that nothing can persuade us away from the truth of His love for us.

This is what happened with Adam and Eve, doubt was raised in their minds as to what the Father had already done.

Do you really know God's character?


Job knew that God makes His light to shine on the just and the unjust.

Matthew 5:43-48
Really meditate this portion because God has proven His long suffering in that He even desires for those who are against Him to be saved.
He is mirroring how we are supposed to walk in this scripture.

The Father puts up with a whole lot of stuff, yet He is not mocked.


If our God is long suffering with the heathen and hasn't completely turned from him yet, what makes you believe that He will leave you in the midst of your mess if you don't give up on Him?

We were the heathen once, but not for His grace we would still be.


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.


There are unjust people in this world who have wealth and that wealth is being stored up for the righteous.
Proverbs 13:22b

If they become the righteous it will remain in their possession, but if they don't it will be transferred to the righteous.


They are going to lose their wealth and they are not going to survive it like Job did, because their faith is conditional, their souls are not prosperous because they don't belong to Jesus.


Job's faith in God was not based in his wealth, health or family it was in God, and this is what made Job prosperous.
A prosperous soul endures grief and suffering wrong, because they know that in whatever situation, God is still God.


You don't continually come to God on behalf of any thing or anyone if you don't believe that He is and that He is able.
Even in trial and tragedy.


So brothers and sisters my prayer above all else is that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.


As our soul prospers and matures nothing can stop us.
In Jesus Name

Amen
VICTORY BEGINS IN THE SOUL