PROSPERITY IS BY CHOICE

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil” – Deuteronomy 30:15

PROSPERITY is by CHOICE, not by chance, luck or by force: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil” (Dt.30:15). The Bible was written by the most successful and prosperous Person alive – God! He is the intentionally prosperous God of abundance! He alone can do things on a grand and gigantic scale. The limitless expanse and immeasurable wealth of the universe and the earth are works of His hands: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psa.24:1). God fed over three million Jews in the wilderness daily for forty years without any special storage facility. He has enriched our world with every conceivable natural resource, mineral ore, precious stone, and treasure. He placed and planted them here, on deposit, for the good life which He wills for humankind.

Prosperity is a privilege backed up by our power of choice. Success is not an accident. It takes the understanding that prosperity is by choice and by obedience to Kingdom principles, to stand out. A person can be born again, even filled with the Holy Spirit, and still not be prosperous in his soul. A Christian can be spiritually vibrant enough to pray revival down on a church or preach to get many saved, and yet be living in poverty or sickness – if he or she does not believe the Word of God for her provision and health. The explanation is that such a person’s soul was not prosperous in those areas. His or her mind had not grasped the full revelation of the Word of God concerning healing and material prosperity. A person may be theologically sound, yet pitifully poor and miserably afflicted at the material and physical levels.

God’s creation is governed by laws at all levels. Nothing is by accident. There are laws governing every single thing in existence: laws of the spirit world and laws of the natural world. The spiritual world and its laws are however more powerful than the physical world and its laws. The world and the physical forces governing it were created by God’s spiritual force – the power of faith (Heb.11:3). When the force of faith is put to work, the laws of the spirit world function according to how God says they will. It is the same faith that causes the laws governing prosperity to function. They will work when they are activated, and will stop working when the force of faith is stopped.

Chapters 28 and 30 of Deuteronomy spell out God’s conditions for Prosperity, summed up in one word – Obedience! The first fourteen verses of chapter 28 reveal how to become prosperous, while verses fifteen to the end expose the abject poverty of those who do not follow the conditions. God is so plain in His words and so simple in His requirements: “if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways” (Dt.28:9b). God wants all of us and all our love, and in exchange He promises all of His exceedingly abundant blessings. God has no delight in curses, but He made laws perfect and set them in motion to perform abundantly for us, not against us. When people go against the law they’ll suffer harm. Those who break the law will be broken! God doesn’t harm men; men harm themselves by disobedience.

The first verse of Deuteronomy 30 also refers to a choice between “the blessing and the curse.” It goes on to emphasise the place of obeying God’s voice (v.2,8,10): “He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers” (v.5b). Verse 19 reiterates the choice: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” God cannot operate against His laws. He honours His Word, but we need to study His instructions carefully in order to set His laws in motion. Key among these is to “love the Lord” – not prosperity – with all of our hearts, souls, and minds!