It’s a shame that one would even have to preface an article about such a totally biblical issue as the one addressed in this post. But, I feel compelled to do so. That is the unfortunate result of the proliferation of counterfeit gospels.
Please understand that I am not one of those “prosperity preachers.” I do believe the modern “Prosperity Gospel” has brought immeasureable spiritual harm to the Body of Christ at-large on a global basis. However, too often we are wont to “throw out the baby with the bathwater.” There are a great number of passages of Scripture telling us how much God indeed does want us to “prosper and be in (good) health even as our soul prospers.” But, the last part of that Scripture is the weightier and balancing part. Prosperity, success, and divine healing and health taken out of context of the rest of Scripture that speaks of seemingly antithetical and counterbalancing matters can become an abomination to God because that is precisely what God calls “a false balance.”
There is no doubt that the pendulum has swung too far to the extremes concerning prosperity and success in the preaching and teaching of some, especially among the “name it and claim it,” “blad it and grab it” crowd — the so-called “Word of Faith” camp. Unfortunately, when that happens the swing of the pendulum is equidistant in the other direction as well. I’m for the true or correct balance in all things; and I believe God is too.
The problem is that when writing about such matters where there is controversy and error and excess on both ends of the spectrum it is difficult to speak the truth without sounding to those who favor one extreme of the pendulum swing that you are part of and aligned with those favoring the other extreme. In my own case, I’m not part of any camp except God’s. I have no denominational or protodenominational affiliations, alliances, or alignments. My desire is to be aligned with the Truth. Of course many would make the same claim, but any truth taken to extremes becomes error, yet the error of the extemists does not make the truth any less true.
I really believe the only safeguard against error in matters of truth is that we must have a contemporaneous co-existence of the Spirit with the Truth in order to come down on God’s side with a correct, rather than false, balance. As the Spirit said through the Apostle Paul, matters of truth are spiritually-appraised or -discerned. That’s why Jesus called the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. May we all seek and possess the “Truth” of the Spirit in all these vital matters of the Kingdom. With that preface, let’s move on to the message of this post.
Psalm 112
1 Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands.
2 His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.
In the previous posts, we’ve discussed verses one and two of this powerful prophetic Psalm. In this post, I want to talk about some of the import and application of verse three. As I said before, what a glorious picture the psalmist portrays of the life and posterity of “the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in His commands!” The list of blessings it says will accrue to that man is truly mindboggling! And they concern every aspect of life that, when the final curtain of life comes down, really counts!
Verse three states that wealth and riches are in the house of “the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in His commands!” What a declaration! What a command!
In our excavation of this Psalm for the truth it holds, we must keep in mind that the blessings it speaks of are for the person who fears the Lord and finds great delight in His commands. The blessings are not for those who have no reverential fear of God and who do not take pleasure in obeying the commands of the Lord but rather are resistant to them.
About three years ago, while in prayer, the Lord gave me a command regarding what on the surface may seem to be a rather simple revelation. However, it is much more profound than it may seem at first. He said, “Tell my people that everything having to do with walking and fellowshipping with Me and tapping into the vast benefits of My Kingdom have to do with being in agreement with Me!”
Wow! As I have pondered the depths of that statement since I heard it in my spirit, I have marveled over and been amazed at just how profound and how true it is. That truly is what it is all about — being in agreement with God. And as with all Kingdom principles, there is no gray area. It’s either black or white. As Jesus said, we’re either FOR Him, or we’re AGAINST Him — there’s no in between. The tree and its fruit is either good or it’s evil. You’re either IN the Kingdom or you’re OUT of the Kingdom. You’re either of your father the devil, or your spiritual progenitor is God the Father. You’re either saved, or you’re lost. There are no “tweeners” with God and the things of God.
Over the last thirty years or so, there’s been a lot of teaching on the topic of “the prayer of agreement,” “word of faith,” and related matters. But, over my three decades plus of ministry I can tell from my conversations with believers that the vast majority of the Body of Christ does not understand this “simple” revelation — that the Christian walk is all about being in agreement with God. Being in agreement with God, His Word, Will, and Ways, is the bedrock of true Christianity. I wonder how much easier our “walk” would be if we were not “kicking against the goads” most of the time. I wonder how much easier our lives would be if we would simply do what the eagle does — instead of fighting the wind currents, turn to fly with the wind of the Spirit, that is, position ourselves so as to be agreement with God instead of resisting Him. Our ALTITUDE, metaphorically speaking, is truly determined by our ATTITUDE in regards to agreement with God. We can either spend our lives wearing ourselves out spiritually, emotionally, and physically, flapping our wings (self-works) to navigate the course of our life, or we can simply start higher, because we live higher, and soar on the strong currents of the Spirit, meaning, get in agreement with God.
God tells us in His Word that we should, “Resist the DEVIL,” and that resistance will result in him fleeing from US. But, the opposite is true in our relationship with God. Instead of being resistant to God, we are to draw near to Him, and that will result in Him drawing near to us. In fact, it states categorically, that “He WILL draw near to you.” That indicates it is His will to draw near to us, and that happens when we make the first move toward Him, and also it is indicating that it is definitive that He WILL draw near to you. In other words, you can take it to the bank.
God declares to every believer: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'” (Jer. 29:11). Wow! God Almighty states categorically here unto whosoever will believe and receive it that He has PLANS for our lives, plans to prosper us and not harm us, plans to give us hope and a blessed destiny or future. But, in order to live the life God has planned for us, we must get into agreement with God about that life, about those plans. We must become cooperative with Him and His plans for our lives. It’s just that simple…or difficult…depending on our willingness to be in agreement with Him and in compliance with His conditions or commandments. In another place God declares, “If you be willing and obedient you shall eat of the good of the land” (Is. 1:19)
I am wholly convinced that we, the Body of Christ, collectively, have no idea how much God really does want to bring these promises of prosperity and good into our lives. One of the reasons for that I believe is two demonic spirits that prevail over the vast majority of people, including redeemed saints — the spirit of inferiority and the spirit of condemnation. To varying degrees, we are all like the ten spies who came back from their surveillance of the Promise Land, saying the land surely does have all the things in it God said it does, but “we are not able” because there are inhabitants of the land (albeit, illegal trespassers) who appear as giants in our sight and we appear as peons in their sight, so therefore we are not able to conquer and take possession of the Land, despite the Word of the Lord to us. There is some of that in us all, I suspect. And my observations tell me that there is a whole lot of that in the majority of people, including believers.
I wonder what would happen if church leaders all over the world would begin to attack those spirits in the lives of their congregations and followers, in a concerted way. I wonder what would happen? I wonder what would happen if pastors and other fivefold ministers would begin to exercise the authority and power they have been given by Jesus in the very first tenet of what we call “The Great Commission” and begin to cast (literally, drive) spirits of inferiority and self-condemnation out of their congregants and followers.
I wonder what would happen if say on “Independence Day” in nations all over the world, the Fourth of July in America, leaders would come into agreement and unity on that day, and stand before their congregations, and COMMAND under the authority of the name of Jesus, that devils that are causing people to feel inferior and condemned, and therefore unable or incapable of conquering and prospering as God’s Word says, to loose the people, to leave them, and set them free, them and their children and their children’s children? I wonder what would happen if leaders around the world would in unison declare this July 4, 2007 to be believers “Financial Independence Day?” I wonder what would happen if leaders and believers would begin to decree that, according to the authority of the Word of God, wealth and riches ARE in the house of God’s people?
My speculation is that hell would SHAKE! Chains of captivity would miraculously and instantaneously fall off their captives! Believers around the world would be LOOSED from their bonds of poverty and lack. Suddenly, multitudes of believers everywhere would experience a hell-shaking, earth-jarring, TURN AROUND in their lives, that would cause them to begin to prosper and have a hope and a future, exactly as God decreed in His Word through the Prophet Jeremiah. I believe if believers and leaders around the world will begin to believe what the prophets are speaking on behalf of God that we will truly begin to succeed and prosper (2 Chron. 20:20).
However, I also believe that you need not wait for the Fourth of July to be liberated from the strongly oppressive captivity of poverty. I believe there are some fivefold ministers who have been especially anointed by God as “deliverers,” Moses-types, who have the authority to deliver you out of the “Egypt” of bondage, degradation, and misery of slavery to the Pharaoh of poverty and financial captivity. There are anointed messengers who have been given authority from Heaven to decree release to you. You need to find one, and ask him to pray with you and decree these things into your life.
Now some would question whether or not this idea of decreeing things to happen is biblically sound. Well, all I can say is, look at what God says in this powerful passage from Job 22:
21 “Yield now and be at peace with Him;
Thereby good will come to you.
22 “Please receive instruction from His mouth
And establish His words in your heart.
23 “If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored;
If you remove unrighteousness far from your tent,
24 And place your gold in the dust,
And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks,
25 Then the Almighty will be your gold
And choice silver to you.
26 “For then you will delight in the Almighty
And lift up your face to God.
27 “You will pray to Him, and He will hear you;
And you will pay your vows.
28 “You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you;
And light will shine on your ways.
That entire passage pretty much speaks for itself regarding the financial blessings that shall come to the house of those who are yielded to and at peace with God, that is, IN AGREEMENT WITH HIM, who make Him their gold and silver, or treasure. But look at the promise in verse 28. It says that when we are in agreement with God, when we are revering and honoring Him as our silver and our gold, our true treasure, we will pray to Him and He will hear us, and supply us with the wherewithal to pay all our vows to Him, whether financial or spiritual, and we will also DECREE a thing, and what we decree will be established for us, or come to pass, and the light of God shall shine on our ways.
So do we have the power to decree that wealth and riches are in our house and have it to come to pass? My answer is: YES! Unequivocally and unquestionably! First we have to get into agreement with God that this is His desire for us. Stop all the nonsensical, religious spirit inspired thinking that somehow poverty is connected with spirituality. Remove the bumper stickers that say, “Poor, But Proud,” off our cars and and its curse off our lives. And begin to accept into our hearts God’s declaration that His plans for us are plans for prosperity and not poverty, blessings and not curses, in order that we might have a hope and a destiny.
There is so much more God has shown me through this powerful prophetic Psalm 112 that will bring abundant blessings into your life if you will simply receive it, believe it, comply with it, and decree it; in other words, if you will GET INTO AGREEMENT WITH GOD! Be sure to stay connected to hear the rest. It has the power to revolutionize your life.###
Dr. Steven Lambert was ordained in 1977 and holds several earned graduate/post-graduate degrees. Over more than four decades in ministry, he has served as a pastor, radio/TV host, adjunct-professor, Board Certified Doctoral Diplomate Christian Therapist/Counselor, and a speaker/commentator on a range of social, political, and theological issues, particularly as a recognized authority on the matter of ecclesiastical authoritarian abuse. He is the founder/Overseer of Ephesians Four Network (ephesiansfour.net) and its subsidiary, Ephesians Four Network of Deliverance Counselors (efndc.ephesiansfour.net). Dr. Lambert authored several books (catalog at realtruthpublications.com), many published articles, and is the founder/editor of Spirit Life Magazine (spiritlifemag.com). His bio, extensive blog, and scheduling information are available on his ministry website at: http://www.slm.org. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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