THE PRESCENCE OF GOD AND PROSPERITY

THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND PROSPERITY
Scripture: Genesis 39:2
Topic: The Prescence of God and Prosperity

"And THE LORD WAS WITH JOSEPH, AND HE WAS A PROSPEROUS MAN; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian."
Genesis 39:2

The Bible is full of examples of people who enjoyed the presence of God and its attendant prosperity. God’s presence creates prosperity.  This is one of the reasons why we must stay close to God.  

It makes sense to think that someone who is close to the king will have access to some of the wealth and riches that the king enjoys. This is why people are happy when their friend or acquaintance becomes the president of a country. The riches and power that their friend comes into, by virtue of his being the head of state, will surely affect them. Every king has friends and every king has people that secretly enjoy the wealth and prosperity of the throne.  

Mordecai was such a person.  He came out of the king’s presence completely overloaded with riches, wealth, promotion and prosperity.  

"And MORDECAI WENT OUT FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE KING IN ROYAL APPAREL of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honor. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them."
Esther 8:15-17

Mordecai’s experience of coming out of the king’s presence fully loaded with prosperity will be your portion as you seek to experience the presence of God in your life and ministry.  

When the presence of God fades away, the power of God that gives rise to genuine prosperity is gone.  Struggles and difficulties replace noiseless rent-free prosperity.  Rent-free prosperity is the kind of prosperity that people have when they do not have to make monthly payments for anything; whether it is a loan or a mortgage. 

Today, many people pretend to be prosperous but are actually drowning in debts.  Any kind of shaking or change in the equilibrium will lead to devastation and crises.  You will experience true prosperity when the presence of God is with you. There are some beautiful examples of this kind of spirit that comes from the presence of God.  

Joseph prospered as a slave because of the presence of God: 

"And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. And THE LORD WAS WITH JOSEPH, AND HE WAS A PROSPEROUS MAN; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
Genesis 39:1-4 

The scripture is quite clear on the source of Joseph’s prosperity.  The Lord was with him!  The presence of God was with Joseph and he prospered even when he was a slave. Today, people who are free cannot prosper in the same way that Joseph prospered when he was slave.  God was with Joseph and that is why he prospered as a slave.  

God was with Joseph and that is why he prospered in prison. Joseph the prisoner prospered because of the presence of God: 

"And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled. And Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison. BUT THE LORD WAS WITH JOSEPH, AND SHEWED HIM MERCY, AND GAVE HIM FAVOUR in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.  The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; BECAUSE THE LORD WAS WITH HIM, AND THAT WHICH HE DID, THE LORD MADE IT TO PROSPER."
Genesis 39:19-23

You will notice how Joseph prospered as a prisoner. People who are walking about freely are not able to experience the prosperity that Joseph experienced.  The reason for Joseph’s prosperity is written clearly in the Bible: “The Lord was with him!”

You must believe that prosperity is directly linked to the presence of God.  Today, many ministers claim to be teaching prosperity but actually have nothing.  There are people who have metamorphosed from being genuine pastors and evangelists into being motivational speakers all in the effort to get more money. People have thought that changing the message of the gospel into one of prosperity would lead to wealth. Unfortunately, most of these efforts have not led to prosperity.  

The fruits of these financial, business, motivational, and market place ministries have been to turn the church into a materialistic and lukewarm church.  Today, many Christians no longer love God but seek wealth. There can be no greater perversion of the gospel than this unfortunate emphasis on materialism. As a result of this, the church is left in weakness and poverty, unable to build church buildings, unable to have crusades and unable to reach out to the lost.

The presence of God departs from anyone who departs from the commandment of God.  Therefore, the prosperity of God also departs from those who shift away from building churches and evangelising the world as Jesus asked us to. Note this important scripture about obeying God:  

"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."
John 14:23

From this scripture, we see that obeying God causes God’s presence to come to be with us.  This means that obeying God will lead eventually to prosperity. When God is with you, as He was with Joseph, you will experience prosperity. What are the commandments of God? The commandments of God are to love God, to preach the gospel, to go witnessing and to build churches. Meditate on these things and you will discover that there is no greater task that God has given to us than to reach the world for Jesus Christ.  

This is why Matthew 28:19-20 is called the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.  The commandment to go into the world and preach the gospel, towers above all other commandments that Jesus gave.  It is when we obey His last and greatest command that we can say we have fulfilled the greatest commandment which is to love God.  Let us strive to regain the presence of God that is lost to the church.   

Desire the presence of God and experience the presence of God and you will prosper whether you are a slave or a prisoner. If Joseph prospered in prison, you can prosper as a free man. All you need is the presence of God.  I know that to some people this may sound simplistic.  You can argue with me but you cannot argue with the word of God.

Excerpt from:
The Anointing and The Prescence
Bishop Dag Heward - Mills

Comments

  1. JenipherTerry18 March 2022 at 06:57

    Psalms 16:11
    Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

    The presence of God departs from anyone who departs from the commandments of God.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chesang'18 March 2022 at 07:00

    There is no prosperity outside of God's presence. Desire God's presence, experience His presence and you will prosper. God we thank You for this teaching.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REASONS WHY YOU MUST REDEEM THE TIME - PART 4

Scripture: Psalm 90:9-12 Topic: You must redeem the time because that is the only wise thing to do with your life. Unfortunately, many people do not treat time and opportunity as a special commodity. Time is something rare and precious, which God gives to all of us. It is the only thing you cannot regain or get back. When it is gone, it is gone forever. God’s admonition to us is to use the time we have on earth to do as much for Him as possible. We must work while it is day. The only wise thing to do with your life is to redeem the time for the work of the Lord. "For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.  Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts un...
Read more

THE POWER OF BEING THANKFUL - PART 6

Scripture : Romans 1:21 Topic : Unthankfulness in a person is a door to many evils.  "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, NEITHER WERE THANKFUL; BUT BECAME VAIN IN THEIR IMAGINATIONS, AND THEIR FOOLISH HEART WAS DARKENED..."  Romans 1:21 The scripture above shows us clearly that many of the evils and perversions in this world came through unthankfulness. When men discovered more about the creation and discovered the beautiful earth that God had made, they were not thankful.  When they discovered planets, when they discovered the moon and when they discovered the stars, they were not thankful to God. And because they were unthankful, they became vain in their imaginations. Your imaginations become more vain, the more unthankful you are.  When people are unthankful they become almost mad. Their unthankfulness is a form of insanity. Why would you not be grateful for the oxygen you breathe, the air you breathe, the water you drink, the life t...
Read more

WHY PRAYER IS MYSTERIOUS PART 3.

WHY PRAYER IS MYSTERIOUS PART 3.  Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:17.  Topic: Why Prayer is Mysterious Part 3.  Prayer is mysterious because God is mysterious! God is mysterious and there is nothing we can do about it! If you think you will ever know everything about God then you must think again! God is not a man and we cannot know everything about Him. It is precisely because of the mysteries surrounding God that a lot of people do not pray.  In this series of our quiet time we will see the mysteries surrounding prayer and we will learn that these mysteries should not keep us from prayer but rather draw us closer in search of answers. 3. Mysteriously, God seems to want us to keep asking about the same things even though we have asked Him before.  "Pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:17  If God did not know about our problems on the first day, He must know our problems and our needs by the third day of our prayer. If He knows all things so well, why does...
Read more