Financially Faithful - Part 1: Pleased to Prosper

INTRODUCTION
Financially faithful. What does this mean? Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean a lot to many Christians. A lot of church people are of the persuasion that when we one gets baptized, that this didn’t include their wallet. 
But the truth is – when one gives their life to Christ, they are committing to be faithful to Him in every area of their life, including their finances & possessions. In fact, it’s like in a marriage – Sure, we are supposed to have fidelity with our spouse, and yes, the Bible teaches us that even your body is not your own when you get married, but when we become one flesh with our spouse, being faithful means more than just these obvious things. It means that what is mine is hers, and what is hers is mine. Therefore, there’s not my money and Shannon’s money. It is our money – it doesn’t matter if I earn it or if it is given to her. Everything is ours. 
Well, our covenant with the Lord is the same. It is not our stuff and His stuff. He has promised to give us everything that is His. In exchange, He wants everything that is ours – including our finances. 
Now that doesn’t mean that the Lord expects us to give away everything that we possess. He understands that we have needs and desires. But this mentality that it’s “my money” needs to be erased. Our body is His. Our finances are His. In fact, our entire life is His. And what He expects out of His Bride is that we are faithful to Him in every area of our life, including the financial part of it. Amen?    
So let me first give you a quick overview of how this series will likely go:
We will spend the first several weeks talking about the spiritual side of being faithful with our finances – what God’s attitude is concerning us & money, what our mentality needs to be concerning us & money, and what are the principles of giving. Then, in the latter part of this study, we will get into more of the practical side of financial faithfulness by me showing you the things that the Lord has taught me how to steward our money. 
So we are going to tackle this subject from both the spiritual and the natural. Yes, there are laws of giving and receiving and promises that God gives us in this area that we need to renew our minds to and feed our faith on. But we can be doing all the spiritual things perfectly, and if we are not doing the natural things right, we can still suffer in this area. Just like it is with healing, you can feed your faith all day long on God’s Word concerning healing, but if you are eating donuts and drinking sodas all day, you are making it very hard on yourself to live a long and satisfying life. And the reason why is because there are natural laws that God has set up here on the earth that He is not in the business of superseding. For example, you wouldn’t expect a harvest of cotton if have not sowed the seed for cotton.
So, yes, there is both a natural and spiritual side to this subject and that is what we are going to deal with in this series on “financially faithful.” 
Now I am not teaching you anything that Shannon and I do not practice, nor am I teaching you anything that our church does not practice. You see, I believe that giving and proper financial stewardship does not stop with you, the parishioners. I believe it is a universal truth that all believers and ministries should be walking in. Our church gives 10% of everything that comes in. When Shannon and I started out, it was difficult for us. We really struggled in the beginning. So we had to press through for the first close to 10 years of our marriage and things are looking up, praise God. I also practice what I preach when I go overseas. For example, when I go to India and I preach in a certain village, I’ll have a little old widow come to me and give me just a few little rupees because she was blessed by our ministry. Well, those few rupees aren’t much to me, but they were to her. And because I believe so much in this principle, I’ll receive it. A cool little testimony of this is when we went to Mexico, and I taught in this particular church about how the kingdom of God operates, etc., I had a lot of people come up to the altar for prayer for financial things. Well, we saw miracles and breakouts just like we would in praying for the sick. Amen! 
So it doesn’t matter what country you live in, what the economic situation is at the time; God’s kingdom does not operate according to this natural world. God’s blessing will work (i.e. Isaac sowed and reaped a hundredfold harvest in the year of famine) as we operate according to His biblical principles of financial stewardship, and we will prosper. Amen! In fact, we need to understand that it works the same way in finances as it does with healing and even the salvation of our souls. For faith for finances comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God concerning finances. We need to respect this subject and incline our heart so that we can reap the benefits of it. 
Now I understand that there are preachers out there who teach on the subject of finances from an ungodly standpoint, but what I am going to attempt to do is teach on this subject both scripturally and ethically.
HOW WE THINK ABOUT MONEY
Now I want us to start off by looking at the way we, as Christians, think about money. I’ve come to find out that our lives will oftentimes reflect the way we think. In other words, as the Scriptures teach us, as a man thinks in his heart so is he. Therefore, we need to correct any wrong thought patterns. 
For example, there are certain people out there who have the mentality that you spend all you have, you run up those credit lines, and live for today’s pleasures. 
This is why, statistically speaking, people who win the lottery don’t hold on to that windfall for very long. The same goes for some young professional athletes who come out of very poverty-stricken situations who get signed to huge contracts. A lot of them also go broke. Why? Because of how they think of money. 
Therefore, our attitude, mentality, and way of thinking about money can greatly determine how much we attract or repel, keep or lose, etc. 
So let’s first look at what we learn in the Scriptures regarding the overall subject of finances …
MONEY IN THE BIBLE
You know, the Bible has a lot to say about the subject of money, riches, etc. Let me give you some interesting “gospel facts” about this subject…

1. Jesus talked more about money than He did about heaven & hell- and we know those are important subjects, don’t we? 
2. In fact, the only thing Jesus talked more about than money was the kingdom of God- which actually was His gospel. 
3. One fourth of Jesus’ parables use money as the object lesson. 
4. One out of every seven verses in the Gospel of Luke talks about money. 
5. Some have said that there are 500-plus Scriptures in the Bible on the subject of prayer and just a little less than that on the subject of faith – and we know just how important both of those subjects are – but there are 2,000-plus Scriptures that deal with the subject of money (this is where finances are used as teaching examples etc.).

So, needless to say, I think that this disinterest in many Christians to hear the church talk about money is way off base, don’t you? Why? Because if Jesus deemed it necessary to spend so much time referring to it, then His disciples ought to follow this same pattern, right? 
Nevertheless, what I have found is that the people who have the most problem with when preachers talk about money are two types of people:

1. Those who have money (i.e. those who are wealthy). Why? Well, it wouldn’t be that important to you if it wasn’t an issue in your life, but the truth is, whatever you are going through needs to be an area that you feed your faith on. 
2. Those who aren’t giving. Yes, one of the main reasons people don’t like to hear about this is because they are not doing it. For example, if you are living in sin, you don’t want to hear someone tell you the need to clean your act up, right? 

Again, I do understand that one of the reasons we disdain hearing the preacher talking about money is because there has been so much abuse on the subject. You don’t have to watch Christian television too long to find that preacher out there who is just trying to get in your pocketbook to pad his or her pockets. So, yes, I acknowledge this is a problem and always has been a problem. But you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater! Just because there are abuses on the subject and those out there who preach about it for self-gain, that doesn’t take away from the fact that the Bible has a lot to say about this subject.
THERE THE HEART WILL BE ALSO
But in Jesus’ constant emphasis of financial stewardship throughout His ministry, He was targeting the heart. He was talking about the motivations of our heart, etc.- using money as a good barometer of indicating where our heart is (Matthew 6:21). So it wasn’t that Jesus talked so much about riches and used it as an object lesson for wrong reasons, but because He was really getting at the hearts of His hearers in an attempt to uproot those thorns that would hinder them from entering into His kingdom. 
And this is the real issue to the Lord! The real issue is how closely our hearts are connected to our possessions, wealth, etc. 
Did you know why the Bible has so much to say about the rich & the poor? You find Scripture after Scripture in the New Testament where the rich seemed to be basically condemned and the poor are basically lauded as being heirs of the kingdom. Now this does not mean, just because someone has lots of money, that they are immediately disqualified from being heirs of the kingdom. Nor does it mean that, just because someone is below the poverty line, that they automatically are blessed spiritually. No, all this is saying is that, as a general rule, those with lots of possessions have the tendency to put their trust in their possessions and not in the living God. And this condition of heart is what keeps them from entering into the kingdom of God fully and abundantly. 
Now what is rich and what is poor is relative. Here in the United States, we think the rich is those who make six figures or either have inherited something to that affect. But we need to understand that the average lower-class income here in America would be considered rich in most other countries. So I say this to say, most of us in this room fall under the “rich” category—just in varying degrees. And this is one of the reasons why it is harder for us in this prosperous nation to enter into the kingdom of God—not necessarily being born again, but more or less the kingdom of God coming nigh to us. 
But people have taken Scriptures like these and have basically concluded that if you are rich, you’re condemned already. They will cite Scriptures such as that rich young ruler and say that if you want to be a Christian, you have to give everything to the poor. No, that is not what that passage is teaching us. What Jesus was honing in on there was that this particular man was trusting in His riches and unwilling to do this one thing to inherit eternal life – as evidenced by the fact that he went away sad. But how many of you know that there are also Scriptures that teach that when we give to the poor, we are lending to the Lord, and the Lord will repay us (see Proverbs 19:17). So this rich young ruler could have come out better off if he would have just done what the Lord told him to do to inherit the kingdom.  
But let’s look at this story of the rich young ruler in more detail because it teaches us some invaluable lessons about what hinders us from experiencing the kingdom of God more (see Mark 10:17-31) … This young man came to Jesus – wanting to know what he must do to inherit eternal life – and the Lord referred him back to the various commandments – to which this man responded that he had kept all these things from his youth. Then Jesus targeted the one area of his heart that was not yet yielded to the Lord – his wealth. Jesus said, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up your cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 10:21)
Now from an honest evaluation of Scriptures, you will understand that Jesus was not teaching here for people to take a vow of poverty and give everything they have away. But what He was doing here was targeting this guy’s heart and showing him the hindrance to entering the kingdom of God. 
As Jesus went on to say after he left sad, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.” This floored His disciples! And why? Because it was evidently not something Jesus said before and because it was uncustomary to the Jewish mind, who attributed wealth to God’s favor and providence. So then Jesus clarified in His next statement when he said, “Children, how hard is it for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:24). 
So what we see here is that the problem is not having riches; the problem is trusting in the riches that we have. Again, it is a heart issue. 
A PROSPERITY MENTALITY
So this is a major point that I want us to camp on this week because we have a lot of sacred cows in the Body of Christ that keep us from God’s best for us – and this certainly includes finances. 
Like it is concerning healing, we have heard so much unbelief that God puts sicknesses on us to teach us something or it might not be His will to heal you that now, it is hard for us to receive God’s best for us – which is divine health – because our hearts have been impacted with these sacred cows of the church. Well, we have also been fed lies concerning Christianity & money – like, we are not supposed to have any. How many of you have sat in churches that teach or at least imply that to be poor is to be godly?
Now the first thing about finances that we need to address is a very important yet controversial one in the Body of Christ. The idea of how God thinks about it and His will concerning it. 
There’s a lot of confusion about this in the Body of Christ – some taking the stance that God doesn’t want us having much of anything in this area and others believing that God wants you to have everything.  
So let’s begin this by looking at the foundation to this subject—what is God’s attitude towards us and money. 
Now we’ve already established that He does not mind talking about it – for finances is one of the most talked about subjects in the entire Bible. But what I want you to see this week is that God’s attitude towards our prosperity in this area is not the same as the picture religion has painted for us. 
So let’s look at a few verses that teach us that God doesn’t mind His people having things. In fact, you will learn from these verses that He actually is pleased when His children prosper. 
GOD’S WILL CONCERNING OUR PROSPERITY
The first one I want us to look at is one of my personal favorite verses – Third John 2. In fact, you’ll find that when I sign my name, I like to include this verse. 
It says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” The reason I have always liked to add this verse is because this is my prayer concerning all of you—that you would prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. But what I want us to focus on this month is that this verse does not just express my will for you, nor does it just refer to the apostle John’s will for the original recipient of his letter that we call Third John; this passage expresses God’s will for all of our lives! Let me explain …
Some have commented on this verse, saying that the truth contained in it was simply the apostle John’s desire for Gaius, to whom this short letter was written. Therefore, they say that this verse does not express the will of the Lord for all believers for all time, but this is simply incorrect. For who are we to determine what parts of the Bible are intended only for the original recipients of the letters and what parts are applicable to us? If this were so, how would we know if what was written to the Romans were just promises applicable to the believers in Rome? Or how would we know if what was written to the Ephesians was just meant for the select church in Ephesus? How then would we know what parts of the Holy Scriptures were written to us? 
The truth is that all of the Bible was written for our benefit and instruction! All Scripture is given by inspiration of God—being God-breathed so that we can know and understand God’s will for all of our lives. He is no respecter of persons! Therefore, what He moved the apostle John to say to Gaius is what God wills for all of His children along with Gaius to receive and embrace. So Third John 2 is God’s will for all of His children for all time! 
So let’s delve into this powerful verse, but let’s look at it from the perspective that God is speaking this directly to us…
YOU BE LOVED!
First of all, notice that God refers to you as His “Beloved” … This means that He is addressing those who (pardon the poor English) “be-loved!” In other words, since this verse is God speaking directly to us, by calling us His “beloved,” He is letting us know that we are greatly loved by Him. 
You see, this simple truth, if understood correctly, should help us to embrace the truths contained in the rest of this verse that our Heavenly Father wants us to prosper in every area of our lives and live in perfect health. Why? Because how many of you parents out there who truly love your children want anything less than the best for them? No, you want them to prosper in every area of their life and you certainly don’t want them to be sick and suffering! Any parent that wills for their children to be sick and to suffer should be locked up with the key thrown away! Why? Because if any natural parent did the things to their children that God has been accused of doing to His, that parent would be incriminated in just about every culture or nation on the earth today.
So how can we believe God is any different—especially when His love for us far outweighs any love that we have for our children? No, you “be-loved” and because God loves you so much, He wants you to succeed and prosper on all levels! Thank you, Father!
PROSPERING IN ALL THINGS
Now notice what the Lord starts off by saying to His beloved … He says, “I pray that you may prosper in all things.” 
What an awesome truth! God’s will is that we prosper in all things! Not just in some things; God wants us to prosper in everything! This leaves nothing uncovered! The word “prosper” literally means to be successful, to thrive, and to flourish. So God wants us to be successful, to thrive, and to flourish in every area of our lives! Praise the Lord, our success, growth, and prosperity is God’s will, and He wants us to prosper in every aspect of our life. 
Did you know God wants you to be successful in your career? He is not just concerned with what we consider to be the “spiritual things.” He wants you to be successful and to prosper in your business, and this happens as you seek first the kingdom of God in your secular job (i.e. as you practice godly principles and make your career’s aim to glorify God and be a blessing to others). He wants you to prosper in your vocation!
Did you know that God wants you to thrive in the arena of relationships? He wants you to have such a wonderful relationship with your spouse or significant other that you are in awe of the goodness and graciousness of God! He wants you to have such wonderful friends that add to you and that you can truly trust! He wants you to prosper in all of your relationships!
Did you know that God wants you to flourish in your finances? He does not want you struggling to make ends meet and living paycheck to paycheck! He wants you to have more than enough so that you can fulfill the blessing of Abraham that is on your life, which is being blessed, so that you can be a blessing! He wants you to prosper monetarily!
You see, being able to be a blessing to others is one of the main reasons God wants you to prosper in every area of your life. Sure, He wants you to be blessed simply because He loves you and wants the best for you, but He also wants you to thrive in every area so that you will not constantly be trying to fulfill yourself and can correctly put your focus on the needs of others. If you have needs that are unmet, that takes time and attention away from meeting the needs of others. God wants our cup to overflow so that we can share with others! Thanks be unto God! 
DIVINE HEALTH
Then notice what else the Holy Spirit told us that God desires for us in this verse … Not only does God want us to prosper in every area of our lives, but He also wants us to “be in health.”
This verse alone should dispel the popular Christian doctrine that sometimes God sends sickness into our lives to teach us something. No, God’s will is that we are healthy, not sick. To live in sickness, disease, and infirmity is no more God’s will for our lives than for us to live in sin, transgression, and iniquity! And this is exactly what you see in Jesus’ ministry, which was a perfect reflection of God’s will (see John 14:7&9 and Hebrews 1:3)! 
Acts 10:38 says that Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil! Why did He go about only doing good and healing everyone who responded to Him in faith? It was because this was (and always will be) God’s will! 
But as great as healing is, I want you to notice that Third John 2 does not say that God wants us to prosper in all things and be “healed”; it says that God wills that we be in “health!” In other words, this verse tells us that God not only wills that we experience healing, but that we experience divine health. For example, God’s perfect will is for our bodies to be so charged with His resurrection power that when germs or viruses touch our bodies, they die immediately. His perfect plan for our lives is that everything from our eyesight, hearing, and overall health is strong and living well above the norm. 
And this not only includes wholeness in our physical bodies but also health in our mind and emotions. The prophet Isaiah said that the chastisement needful to obtain our peace was laid upon Him. The apostle Paul said that the Holy Spirit has been given to us so that we can have a “sound mind.” This describes a soul that is whole and not weak and sick. Jesus purchased not only wholeness in our bodies, but also wholeness in our mind, will, and emotions! He wants us sharp and strong in our soul too. Thank you, Jesus!  
JUST AS YOUR SOUL PROSPERS
So God evidently has a greater vision for our lives than we do for ourselves … He wants us to be successful, to thrive, and to flourish in every area of life— which includes prospering financially, relationally, and vocationally! Not only that, but He also wants us to be whole and strong in every area of our bodies as well—which includes being healthy physically, healthy mentally, and healthy emotionally!
Someone then might say, “Trey, if this is truly God’s will for everyone’s life, then why do we see so little of it fulfilled in our lives?” That is a good question; I’m glad you asked …
The reason God’s will is not automatically experienced in a person’s life is because we have a part to play in God’s will coming to pass! It is true! Contrary to popular belief, just because something is God’s will doesn’t mean that it automatically will come to pass. 
For instance, it is God’s will to save everyone, is it not? Sure, God wills that none perish but all be saved and come into the knowledge of His Beloved Son (see Second Peter 3:9). But not everyone gets saved, do they? Why? It is because each and every person born on this earth must respond in faith to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sure, the grace needful to obtain God’s will has already been provided, but in order for us to obtain this grace, we must receive God’s will by faith! This is the only way to salvation! Likewise, the only way to receive every other part of God’s will—which is briefly listed here in Third John 2—is also by faith. 
And this is exactly what the apostle John said at the very end of this powerful verse … Third John 2 ends by saying that God wants you to prosper in all things and be in health “just as your soul prospers.”   
Now, first of all, we don’t have any problem believing that God wills for our soul to prosper, right? Sure, we all believe God wants us to grow up spiritually, for our hearts to be clean and hungry for God, and for our minds to be filled with thoughts of good and not of evil. We have no problem believing that do we? Well, if we believe that, we also need to believe that God wills for us to prosper in all things and be in health as well, based on this Scripture. Amen?
Now the two words “just as” are extremely important because they show us how God’s will of prosperity and health is going to come to pass in our lives… These two words literally mean “according to”, or better yet “in proportion to.” So what the Holy Spirit was saying was that our prosperity and our health is “in proportion” to our soul prospering. In other words, our prosperity outwardly is in proportion to our prosperity inwardly! 
So I suppose we better find out what it means for our soul to prosper if every other area of our prosperity is tied to that, don’t you? In other words, if our experiencing God’s will for prosperity in every area of our life and living in divine health is according to our soul thriving and flourishing, then I for one want to discover how my soul can prosper!
So Third John 2 is more than enough evidence to prove God’s heart for our prosperity. But since it is always a wise thing to hear a truth in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let me give a few more Scriptures that essentially say the same thing … 
You see, many miss this point because they are overly focused on what God desires for us to be doing. But I want us to look at a few Scriptures that really illustrate to us what His good pleasure is …
HOW MUCH MORE?
So let’s turn over to the example of Matthew chapter 7 because I believe there is something in this passage that the Father wants us to see…
In Matthew 7:7-8 where Jesus plainly said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” 
Well, there were obviously no stipulations added here. But didn’t Jesus know that people might get the wrong idea here? So why didn’t He add something like – “Of course, I’m not talking about indulgences here” or something like that? 
But here is what I want us to see … If you consider the verses after this – verses 9-11 – you will find that Jesus is expounding on His simple exhortations in verses 7&8 by using the illustration of how we who are evil (in comparison to the goodness of our Heavenly Father) know how to give good gifts to our children, so how much more will He give us good things when we ask Him? In other words, our belief system is evidently very important in this “asking” thing. We need to believe that our good Father will give us what we ask for because we are absolutely persuaded of His goodness and His love for us. Amen!
You see, we need to understand that our Heavenly Father wants to give to us good things and to be fruitful! John 15:8 says this is how He is glorified, when His children bear much fruit. Church, it is super important that we understand this—that God desires, wills, and is pleased with us being fruitful, not fruitless. He is not glorified when we are not reaching our full potential and being successful in life.
In Psalm 35:27, King David gave us a wonderful truth … 
He said in verse 27, “Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually …” 
Now there aren’t a whole lot of Scriptures that tell us to say anything continually. Sure, the Bible tells us to let the praise of God be continually in our mouth and to pray without ceasing, but I would venture to say that there are not many things God has told us to keep continually in our speech. 
So when the Bible tells you to say something continually, what do you reckon we should be doing? Making sure we say this continually! Say what? 
Say, “… Let the Lord be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.” 
Ok, so first, let’s ask some questions: Why does God want us to say this continually? He’s a God of love, right? So just as it is with praise & prayer, God does not want us to constantly communicate with Him and tell Him how wonderful He is just for His benefit. No, the epitome of love Himself is telling us to do this for our benefit, not His. Amen! 
Yes, what He is trying to accomplish in us here is found in the first statement – to “Let the Lord be magnified.” You see, to magnify something or someone is essentially to glorify them and to make them bigger. So what I see here is that the Lord wants us to continually say this because He is wanting this truth that it is His pleasure to prosper us to be blown up and made bigger in our sight. Which, in turn, will glorify and magnify Him in the eyes of those who see His goodness in our lives! You will magnify what you talk the most about, just as you will talk about what is already magnified to you. Glory to God!  
But the fact that God is pleased when His servants prosper is what needs to be magnified to us. But this truth has been more shrunk & diminished in most Christian’s eyes.  
Then in Luke 12:32, after Jesus was teaching His disciples about not worrying about their needs but told them simply to seek first the kingdom of God, He added the following statement- “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Amen! 
Here, Jesus was establishing our hearts in a very important truth—that the reason we do not need to fear or worry about our needs being met is because it is our Father’s (Again, calling them back to sonship and teaching this based on the relationship between a Father and a child) good pleasure to give you the kingdom!” 
So, again, our belief system of understanding the goodness and grace of God is super important to receiving from Him. And this Scripture teaches us that He doesn’t want to give us just enough; he wants to give us His kingdom—the very kingdom that He told us to seek. So what the Lord was saying here is seek first the kingdom because the kingdom holds all the things that you need and desire anyways. 
Many miss this because they think seeking the things is how they obtain them; No, Jesus taught us to seek His kingdom and we will obtain them! Why? Because every need and desire is found in His kingdom to start with. Amen! 
You see, Jesus said in verse 31 to seek the kingdom of God and all these things we worry about will be added to us. Then in verse 32, He told us not to fear for it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us that kingdom we are seeking. That speaks volumes to me! Why? Because in one thought, Jesus said don’t worry about your basic necessities but seek first God’s kingdom and they’ll be added to you. Then in the next thought, He says not to fear because it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Well, what were they fearing? Not having their needs met. So Jesus was establishing their heart in the truth that the Father wanted to meet their needs. And He was telling them how to see their needs met in fullness and abundance—by seeking the very thing that held the provision that they needed.  
Then, finally, in First Timothy 6:17, we have another wonderful truth about the Father’s desire for us …
He says, “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.”
I just love this verse because even in the midst of a verse that strictly warns people who possess wealth and possessions to not let their prosperity affect their humility towards God and towards man, Paul gives us another nugget of truth about God’s attitude towards our condition. He says that God “gives us richly all things to enjoy.” 
This tells me that our Heavenly Father desires to give us, not just some things; no, He wants to give us all things. Not only that, but He desires to give us not just all things, but richly all things. You see, God’s not cheap. Nor does He just care about our true necessities. This phrase tells us He has pleasure in watching you enjoy things. Glory to God! 
You see, when our children are young, we buy them all kinds of toys and things that really don’t have a lot of educational or spiritual benefit, don’t we? We buy them these things just because they enjoy them, don’t we? Well, where does that come from? From our Heavenly Father! Some things God desires to give you simply because you enjoy it. No, you might not need it. No, it might not be something that will draw you closer to Him. (Ex. of the Holy Spirit golf lesson).   
Isn’t it fun being a parent on Christmas? We love to give our children gifts and to see their faces when they unwrap them. This brings us joy, doesn’t it? Well, this is God’s heart too! This is where we get it from! The Lord writes these things to us today, so our joy may be full! Amen!  
Church, it is clear when you study both the Old & New Testaments that God is blessed when we are blessed. He doesn’t want His children struggling in their finances any more than you and I want our children struggling. He’s the one who gave us that love for our kids. Well, the King’s kids ought to prosper as well – especially considering the fact that our Father is the King of all the universe. For us to live like poppers would be a perverted thing. Amen? 
So let’s let our minds be converted in this area – knowing & believing with all of our hearts that our God wants us to prosper. In doing so, we will start attracting it more in our lives. Believe today to be blessed!