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by Richard Roberts

My wife Lindsay and I were in a Southwest Believer’s Convention in Fort Worth, Texas, and during one of the services, Kenneth Copeland called us up to the front and began to prophesy over us.

One of the things he said was that there was a new anointing coming on me to teach on the laws of prosperity.

Since that night, I have been studying on prosperity from the Bible’s perspective…not from the way the world looks at prosperity, but from the way God looks at prosperity. The Lord has moved on my heart and given me a message.

It’s a message that is so critical to our lives and to how we think about who God is and how He operates…whether we see Him as a stingy, selfish God, or as a lavish, giving Father. If I could change something about the way some people believe, I would do my best to help them understand: God wants YOU to prosper!

The Truth Regarding

Biblical Prosperity

I’ve never accepted the world’s idea of a “prosperity gospel,” but I want you to know that I do sincerely believe in Bible prosperity—the kind of prosperity God talks about in His Word.

And, let me tell you, God talked a lot about prosperity in His Word! So, God must have thought that knowing His principles concerning prosperity would be of great importance in our lives. However, nowhere in the Bible is a prosperity gospel mentioned or taught.

The term “prosperity gospel” and the teaching surrounding it was created by men…not God. Men, and women, have taken God’s Word out of context and used it to try to manipulate people into believing that if you give a certain amount of money, you can receive a miracle from God. That kind of teaching is in error and it is not scriptural.

However, I wholeheartedly endorse Bible prosperity.

Scripture clearly indicates that God Himself delights in the prosperity of His people (Psalm 35:27) and that it’s His highest wish that we prosper and be in health, even as our soul prospers (3 John 2). God wants us to prosper—in fact, to thrive—in every area of our lives. That includes our spirit, mind, body and emotions. That includes thriving in our relationship with God, and with others. And it also includes thriving in our finances.

The true message of biblical prosperity has to do with discovering and becoming acquainted with God’s ways of doing and being, and then emulating those ways of doing and being in our own lives. The problems arise because of not knowing God’s ways of doing things and in not knowing what God’s Word has to say about prospering in Him. We’ve all tried it the world’s way, and the world’s way does not work!

I heard Kenneth Copeland say, “The world’s shortages have no effect on someone who’s already in heaven. Therefore, they should have no effect on those of us who have made Jesus the Lord of our lives in the here and now.”

When we asked Jesus into our lives and confessed Him as Lord and Savior, our spirit-man was reborn and we were brought into fellowship with God, thereby putting us into a position to receive, by faith, everything that Jesus did for us on the Cross. Jesus redeemed us from our sin, and He paid the price for our healing, peace, and prosperity (Isaiah 53:5).

God wants us to experience the joy of having our prayers answered and our needs met. In John 16:24, Jesus said, Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. And in John 15:7, Jesus gave us this promise, If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

The question we have to ask ourselves is, are we abiding (living) in, and for, God? Are we allowing His Word to live in and through us?

Prayer and Faith...

They Go Hand-in-Hand

This God-kind of living and loving that I’m talking about is called “seed-faith living.” It’s not about some man-made theory. I’m talking about a prayer way of life…of calling those things that are not as though they are…and believing them in by faith.

God began to talk to us about prospering in the very first book of the Bible. In Genesis chapter 8, verse 26, He says, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest will not cease.”

You see, it’s a scientific and biological fact that everything in life comes from a seed. You and I came from a seed and without it, we wouldn’t be here. And as every farmer knows, you have to plant seed first before you can expect a harvest. A farmer would look pretty silly if he went out into his field to gather a harvest when he had failed to plant the seeds! First comes the seed, and then comes the harvest or the increase. It’s one of God’s natural laws. The cycle of sowing and reaping, of giving and receiving, will never end. Harvest time will always follow seed planting.

Sowing seed is about the giving of ourselves and planting good seeds—our time, our talents, our resources—into the lives of others and into the work of the kingdom of God. This kind of living (and giving) also positions us to receive all that God has for us as we walk out His plan for our lives. And we can rest assured that God’s plans for us are good plans for our benefit and not for harm (Jeremiah 29:11).

It’s also important to point out that God’s view of prosperity is about much more than just having money.

When people who are not born again think of physical and financial prosperity, they most often think of gold and silver, financial favor, power, or political and social favor. And when they think of mental prosperity, they believe it is only head knowledge.

But let me assure you… Wealth, power, and knowledge alone cannot solve every problem. And money makes a lousy god. It can’t buy good health or prevent sickness and disease.

It’s like my dad, Oral Roberts, used to say… “Any old dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live fish to swim upstream.” Swimming upstream goes against what the world has taught us about what it means to prosper. It’s going God’s way, under His direction—doing what He wants us to do—that will make all the difference.

Is It All about Money?