3 John 1:2 (KJV) 2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
In Part One, we laid the foundation that prosperity has both an outward component and an inward one. John gives us the revelation that outward prosperity flows from inward prosperity of the soul. In this post we look at characteristics of the prosperous soul.
Characteristics of a Prosperous Soul
A Deep Fellowship with God
I want to make a contrast between relationship and fellowship. You can have a relationship with someone – they can be a relative, a sibling or parent or child – but if you have no contact with them, you do not have fellowship with them. Fellowship is an active relationship, characterized by interaction.
So how do you have fellowship with God? Well, let’s ask this question first – how do you have fellowship with a person? You spend time with them! You talk with them!
I’ve noticed this thing (at least it’s evident in the relationship between my wife and myself) that husbands feel that they have quality time with their wife when they do things together. Wives on the other hand feel that their quality time is satisfied when they sit down and talk together, and not just about trivial stuff.
So I feel like I’ve had my quality time when we do things, as simple as going to the grocery store, or when we go on hikes together. I express love by doing things for her – projects around the house, cleaning house, spending money on bigger house projects (hmmm – these are all about the house. Well, we did just move into a new place and we’ve been doing a lot of things in it).
On the other hand, my wife likes it when we go on trips in the car because she has me as a captive audience and we talk.
We can fall into the same trap with God – by doing things for God as opposed to just spending time with Him.
Talk with God
I could have titled this section “Prayer”, but purposely didn’t. Because for a lot a people, prayer is talking to God (or maybe I should say talking at God) and not talking with Him. Talking with God means you let Him talk to you also – you listen. A two-way conversation.
Some of us have to get over the lie that God doesn’t talk to us, that it is hard for us to hear from God. You sit down to have that quality prayer time with God, and your mind wanders all over the place and won’t shut up.
I’ve had lots of struggles with that. But I combat it with these truths:
God is always “broadcasting”, you just need to tune in to the right frequency. God is a Spirit (John 4:24), and He talks with our spirits.
You are His sheep, and His sheep know and recognize His voice (John 10:1-5).
Want to hear God more? Start including Him you daily activities, and not just in dedicated prayer time. We know the Holy Spirit is always with us, but we don’t treat Him as if He is. Maybe I’m just talking to myself here.
“I never pray for over 20 minutes, but I never go 20 minutes without prayer.” – Smith Wigglesworth
Worship and Praise
Praise is expressing love and appreciation for what God has done. Worship is being enamored with who He is.
Picture that you want an audience with the King of the Universe. How do you get there?
Psalms 100:4 4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
Another characteristic of a prosperous soul is being thankful. Having the “attitude of gratitude”. A big part of praise is expressing that thankfulness.
Note that this should be applied not only in our relationship with God, but with other people.
You’re on your way for an audience with the King, and thanksgiving and praise has gotten you into His courts. But you’re still in the hall, the waiting room, outside of the throne room. To get inside, we need to move into worship.
You see, a big part of worship and praise is focus. To get you to a place where your eyes are focused on Him and nothing else. To pour out love and appreciation and awe to Him.
Most churches use music as a vehicle for praise and worship. We even call that part of the service the “worship service”. And it can serve as an excellent way to usher people into the presence of God. It can also be used for that purpose in your own personal prayer time.
But just because you’re in the service and the band is rippin’ and playing your favorite songs, and you’re singing along and even raising your hands – doesn’t mean you’ve worshipped. Praised perhaps. Because worship involves a heart connection with God.
Mark 7:6 6 He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written (in Isaiah 29:13): ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.
Lord forgive me, I’ve been guilty of this. I attend Bethel Church in Redding, CA that has one of the best music departments in the world, and there have been some services where I haven’t connected and I’m thinking about other things, or maybe absorbed in the what the band is doing (I’m a musician and have played guitar in worship bands for almost 50 years).
The worship team are the ushers, they have a long line of people they are trying to lead into the throne room. For a while you can just follow along with the crowd, but at the last parts you have to be focused personally on Who you are going to see or else you end up just wandering off. You’ve been in His courts, but you didn’t make it to the throne room.
But once in, you’re not some lowly pion seeking an audience, approaching with fear and trembling. You’re family. You belong there. When the King sees you, His face lights up that you’ve come into His presence. He is as delighted to spend that quality time with you as you are with Him. That is when He can speak things to your heart that will literally change your life.
The Sacrifice of Praise
In the Old Testament, the sacrifice of animals was mainly for sin and purification. The Sin offering, and the Tresspass offering, these were obligatory.
But there were other types of sacrifices, and these were voluntary. The Burnt offering, Grain offering, and Peace offering. Some of these were given as thanks, or a celebration of the harvest.
Jeremiah 33:11 11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the Lord of hosts, For the Lord is good, For His mercy endures forever”– and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the Lord.
Hebrews 13:15 15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
In the New Testament we don’t offer animal sacrifices any more, but we are to bring the sacrifice of praise. This verse in Hebrews explains exactly how to give this offering: “… the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Although having a thankful attitude and thoughts of gratitude are good things, the sacrifice of praise – making that gratitude an offering – is done with your mouth.
When we hear the word “sacrifice”, it brings to mind something that costs you. David had this understanding. In 2 Samuel 18:34, the Lord told David to make an offering on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Araunah wanted to give the threshing floor and animals for sacrifice to David, but David insisted on paying full price, saying “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing”.
The greatest sacrifices of praise you can give is when you don’t feel like it – when pressures and circumstances don’t give you a reason to be thankful, yet you do it anyway, in faith.
Love for God’s Word and Ways
There are many scriptures that connect knowing God’s Word – and we also have to include being obedient to it – and outward prosperity.
Joshua 1:8 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Joshua had a tough act to follow – Moses. And God told him that the secret to his success would be to keep the Law – and remember, it had just been written – in his mind and on his lips.
1 Peter 2:2 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
2 Timothy 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Psalm 119 (the longest Psalm) is a love letter to God’s Word and His Ways.
Psalms 119:9-11 9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!
Psalms 119:103-105 103 How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 Through Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
The Word of God not only tells us about God and who He is and what He is like, it tells us about ourselves.
Identity
A prosperous soul knows who they are and what they are worth.
Many Christians have an orphan, or pauper mentality. At its root is a sense of unworthiness, of guilt and shame.
In art or rare items, the worth is measured by what someone is willing to pay for it. What was the price paid for you? The life of God’s own Son! You are of great worth to God. Jesus considers the saints (and if you are born again, you are one) a rich inheritance (Ephesians 1:18).
An orphan/pauper spirit approaches God as a beggar.
The orphan/pauper seeks to be blessed, rather than try to be a blessing to others. They hoard because they don’t know when more is coming.
This is more an inward self-image than an outward condition. There are people outwardly who have much, but still have a poor self-image.
What we need to take to heart, is that we are a part of God’s own family, and we are royalty! Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords, but that means we are the kings and lords! We are children of the king. That makes us royalty.
1 Peter 2:9 9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
We have access to the throne room. We can enter in boldly because we belong there.
Hebrews 4:16 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We aren’t beggars, trying to talk God into sparing us a bit of provision. We are meant to be co-laborers with Him, partners in bringing about His will in the earth. We have been given authority.
For an excellent study on this, see The Supernatural Ways of Royalty by Kris Vallotton.
Peace with Yourself
A soul that is truly prosperous is at peace with itself. We must realize that our past does not have to dictate our future.
Shame and guilt are cripplers. They can hinder your relationship with God, and your effectiveness and influence with other people.
Jesus bore all the shame and guilt for our sins on the cross. He gave us something else instead – His righteouseness.
2 Corinthians 5:21 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Righteousness means to be in right-standing with God. It is a description of relationship, not behavior. “But I thought all our righteousness is as filthy rags”. You’re right – but the key word there is our righteousness. We are depending on our righteousness whenever we are looing to our behavior to qualify our relationship with God.
Look at it this way – Jesus never committed a sin, yet he was made to be sin with our sinfulness. We never committed any righteousness, but we were made to be righteous with His righteousness. Now, any place you see a promise or blessing for the righteous – that is for us.
So we’ve talked about how guilt and shame for our past sins have been dealt with – sins of commission. A second area where it can come up is feeling like you don’t measure up, that you are not doing enough – sins of omission.
In both of these you are looking to your own performance to determine your worth.
See Righteousness, Theory and Application
Dying to self – you are already dead!
Generosity
A prosperous soul is generous. Generosity springs out of thankfulness and gratitude. The Lord has blessed you, so you want to bless others.
Generosity can be expressed in other ways besides giving money or things. Showing hospitality. Giving your time to help others – investing your life to make others’ lives better. Being an encourager.
How do you treat those that serve you (workers, waitresses/waiters, etc.)? Tip well. Pay the price being asked for when you purchase an item or service. Give more than is required.
1 Timothy 6:17-19 17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,
19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
“Well, I wouldn’t be considered rich in this present age.” That’s OK – generosity is counted according to what you have, not by what you don’t have (2 Corinthians 8:12).
Notice that Paul says that people shouldn’t be “haughty”. Treat everyone with kindness and respect, whether they are the CEO or the janitor. Jesus told us to treat people without partiality.
Or even if you don’t agree with someone’s political views. I am dismayed by the names and insults that people on either side hurl at the others.
1 Peter 2:22-23 22 “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;
23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;
Clarity of Purpose
Purpose. Why am I here? What should I be doing? This is a cry of every human heart. Without purpose, you are just existing. Purpose gives your life meaning, of fulfillment. It is one of the most important aspects of feeling that your life is prospering.
People who have lost the meaning in their life begin to doubt their reason to exist. Many have committed suicide.
It is that desire for meaning that drives people to seek for a cause to be aligned with. And they look in all kinds of places. Many join a cause where they believe they are serving justice and righting wrongs, but inside they are still just angry and depressed.
It is a Christian cliché that God has a purpose for your life. But it’s true!
As Christians we want to reach the end of our lives and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” Even though we are more than servants in God’s kingdom – we are His family – we want it to be recognized that we’ve done a good job.
Romans 12:2 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
If you’ve read many of my posts you’ll see that the renewing of the mind is one of my central themes. The first part of the verse says not to be conformed to the world. Don’t get caught up in its worldview, beliefs, practices, and culture.
The latter part of this verse tells us what the renewing of the mind enables us to do: to prove – and think of that as by proven experience in real life – what the will of God is.
It gives three levels of the will of God:
Good: literally beneficial. You’re doing those things that a “good Christian” does. Read the Bible, go to church, love people, share the gospel.
Acceptable: literally well pleasing. You not only do the practices that believers should in general, but you are led by the Holy Spirit. When He tells you to do something, you are obedient.
Perfect: when the Bible uses the word perfect it means something that has fulfilled the purpose it was created for. So this is a person who knows their calling, and is walking in it.
Conclusion
You may look back on these elements of a prosperous soul and see some where you are lacking. Welcome to the club! Even as I was writing them I see in my own life areas where I need improvement. Our life is a journey – the important thing is that we are moving and growing.
