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 are such things 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)
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.
God is our complete source and supply. You have one Source but may have many channels.
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
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 26:1-6 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.” (6) So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
God will bless you in the place you are supposed to be.
Being led by the Spirit is so important where prosperity is concerned.
Romans 8:14 NKJV For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
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.
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)
Isaac prospered because he was obedient to the direction of the Lord. His blessing was in that place and nowhere else.
There is only one place where the highest level of God’s protection, blessing, and prosperity and that is the perfect will of God.
Isaac knew the God of the hundredfold harvest!
Jeremiah 33:6-9 NKJV Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. (7) And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and will rebuild those places as at the first. (8) I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me. (9) Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them; they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it.’
Jeremiah 33:9 AMPC And [Jerusalem] shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth that hear of all the good I do for it, and they shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace, prosperity, security, and stability I provide for it.
Jeremiah 33:9 NLT Then this city will bring Me joy, glory, and honor before all the nations of the earth! The people of the world will see all the good I do for My people, and they will tremble with awe at the peace and prosperity I provide for them.
God performed SIGNS by means of prosperity just like He does with signs of healing and the miraculous.
Psalms 35:27 NKJV Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, “Let the LORD be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”
Genesis 26:15-18 NKJV Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. (16) And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.” (17) Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. (18) And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.
Genesis 26:19-23 NKJV Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. (20) But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him. (21) Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah. (22) And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” (23) Then he went up from there to Beersheba.
Genesis 26:24-32 NKJV And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.” (25) So he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well. (26) Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army. (27) And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” (28) But they said, “We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, (29) that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.’ ” (30) So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. (31) Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. (32) It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
Deuteronomy 8:7-18 NKJV (7) For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; (8) a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; (9) a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. (10) When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. (11) “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, (12) lest–when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; (13) and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; (14) when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; (15) who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; (16) who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end– (17) then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ (18) “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.