What is Prosperity?
Prosperity is the state of thriving, flourishing, and experiencing success or good fortune. While it is most commonly associated with financial wealth and economic abundance, a broader definition encompasses health, happiness, personal fulfillment, and peace of mind.
3 John 1:1-2 NKJV The Elder, To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth: (2) Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
3 John 1:2 AMPC Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers.
3 John 1:2 TPT Beloved friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and that you continually enjoy good health, just as your soul is prospering.
There is a connection between your soul prospering and your natural material man prospering.
Prosperity does not begin in your bank accounts. Prosperity does not begin in your wallet or purse.
Prosperity begins in your spirit and soul.
This is the problem with programs that try and help people financially and materially. It might temporarily address natural circumstances but does not change anything on the inside of the people they help. Therefore, in the long term, people are not helped to get out of their current circumstances.
How does your soul prosper? The Word of God is what makes your soul to prosper.
God is not about pushing people down – He is about pulling people up!
We are going to prosper outwardly as we prosper inwardly!
Do we think poor, believe poor, act poor, talk poor?
Being a good steward is not the same as being poor or having a poverty mindset.
There is such thing as poor people who don’t have any money, and there are poor people have a lot of money.
You can be rich and don’t have a lot of money yet!
Prosperity Defined:
2 Corinthians 9:8 NKJV And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:8 AMPC And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation].
2 Corinthians 9:8 TPT Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.
Kenneth Copeland – True prosperity is the ability to use the power of God to meet the needs of mankind in every realm of life: spirit, soul, body, financially and socially.
Prosperity (Hebrew and Greek): to advance; to push forward and make progress; to help down the road, to succeed in reaching, successful; thriving; abundance (John 10:10)
2 Kings 3:14-19 NKJV And Elisha said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you, nor see you. (15) But now bring me a musician.” Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him. (16) And he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Make this valley full of ditches.’ (17) For thus says the LORD: ‘You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink.’ (18) And this is a simple matter in the sight of the LORD; He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. (19) Also you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall cut down every good tree, and stop up every spring of water, and ruin every good piece of land with stones.”
Proverbs 4:18 NKJV But the path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
What kind of God did Abraham know?
Genesis 17:1-4 NKJV When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. (2) And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” (3) Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: (4) “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
Did God multiply Abraham?
“I am the Almighty God” – “El Shaddai” – “El” emphasizes God’s might and power. “Shaddai” – the root of this word is “breast” like a woman’s breast.
Genesis 49:25-26 NKJV By the God of your father who will help you, And by the Almighty who will bless you With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that lies beneath, Blessings of the breasts and of the womb. (26) The blessings of your father Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors, Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.
Shaddai – signifies nourishment, supply, and satisfaction. An infant’s total source of supply is the breast of his mother. That is what God is to us.
He is mighty to nourish, supply, and satisfy.
He is our complete source and supply.
When you understand this, you no longer look to people to meet our needs. You no longer put pressure on people to meet our needs.
This is the God Abraham knew.
I will always be fed because He can never and will never run out.
Another Thing Abraham Saw in God
Genesis 22:7-14 NKJV But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (8) And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. (9) Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. (10) And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. (11) But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” (12) And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (13) Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. (14) And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
“Jehovah” – the name of God meaning “the self-existent One”
“Jireh” – Sees
Pre-vision and Pro-vision – God is the Provider that makes provision for what He sees before
yehôvâh yir’eh
BDB Definition:
Jehovah-jireh = “Jehovah sees”
1) symbolic name given by Abraham to Mount Moriah in commemoration of the interposition of the angel of Jehovah who prevented the sacrifice of Isaac and provided a substitute
yehōwāh yir’eh: A proper noun designating Jehovah Jireh, a name given to designate the Lord by Abraham for providing a sacrifice in place of Isaac (Gen_22:14). It means “the Lord will see to it” literally but also means “the Lord will provide.”
God saw ahead what was going to be needed and provided the supply.
God is never surprised by your need!
Abraham knew a God Who is a blesser.
Abraham knew a God Who is a multiplier.
Abraham knew a God Who was his protector and defender.
What kind of man did God know?
- God knew a man that would obey Him. He would go anywhere and give anything that was asked of him.
- Abraham was a man that believed God could do anything and was not afraid!
- Abraham was a man of generosity and put others first; he was unselfish.
- God also knew a man who is a tither, who put God first!
- Abraham was a man given to hospitality!
Be the kind of person who loves to bless people, help people, make people feel comfortable.
God refers to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
What kind of God did Isaac know?
Genesis 24:35-36 NKJV The LORD has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great; and He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys. (36) And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and to him he has given all that he has.
Isaac knew a good life because of his father’s relationship with God.
Genesis 25:5 NKJV And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac.
Proverbs 13:22 NKJV A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
The wealth of the sinner will not continue on.
Where is it in the Bible that teaches us that it is not a good thing to raise rich children? Is our thinking such that we think that young people will not appreciate wealth unless they work for it?
Children can be taught how to have a strong relationship with God, and how to believe God and be generous and experience God’s blessing.
Genesis 26:1-5 NKJV There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. (2) Then the LORD appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. (3) Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. (4) And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; (5) because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Genesis 26:12-14 NKJV Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him. (13) The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; (14) for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.