“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. “Revelation 4:11
“Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.” Psalm 25:276
God declares in His Word that the reason that we were created was for His pleasure. The whole reason that you are on planet earth is to give God pleasure. Well, Psalms declares that the way we give God pleasure is to be prosperous and successful. In other words, we were created and designed by God to be prosperous and successful in every endeavor in our lives.
We were not designed by God to fail.
There are a lot of people who live by the philosophy, It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game that counts. Beloved, that’s not a philosophy, it is a failosophy! Vince Lombardi once said, “If you show me a good loser; I’ll show you a loser.” Notice, God never said, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in a person who tries to win…or tries to prosper. No, it gives Him His greatest pleasure when we prosper! You may be saying, “Pastor Thad, I think you’re going overboard. It may be okay to be successful. but it doesn” matter to God.” Well, let me show you the importance of winning with God!
In The Beginning
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Genesis 1:26-28 This passage of Scripture shows us three things about how God made us. First of all it tells us that we are made in God’s image. Have you ever known God to fail? Once? Almost? Absolutely not! Everything that God has EVER done had ended up in total, complete victory. It is against the nature of God to fail and we are made in God’s image. We are made to live in total and complete victory (see 2 Corinthians 2:14 and Romans 8:37).
Secondly, to further prove this, God gives us dominion and then blesses man! The word “bless” means to have the empowerment to prosper. So the first act that God did for man was to empower man to prosper. Now, why would God empower us to prosper if He didn’t care if we were successful or not! He wants us prosperous!
The third thing I want you to see is that the Lord then commanded man to, “be fruitful and multiply.” You may say, “Oh Pastor Thad, that is talking about kids and offspring!” Beloved, that is talking about everything! God made us in His image (who only had one Son at that time). gave us the empowerment to prosper and then said…PROSPER!
The New Start
And God blessed Noth and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. Genesis 9:1 The earth and all of its inhabitants have just been destroyed. Noah and his family have just come out of the ark and built an altar to worship the Lord. God comes down to talk with Noah and what is the first thing that he does? He renews the covenant of prosperity. He refreshes the empowerment to prosper on His people. He blessed them! God is telling us that no matter what you may have done, no matter what man has done, God hasn’t changed His mind. He wants us prosperous and successful. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). “For I am the LORD, I change not… (Malachi 3:6),
God’s Covenant Man
“And when Abram was ninety vears old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.”
Genesis 17:1-6 God was looking for a man with whom He can make an everlasting covenant. He finds Abram, who He ends up calling Abraham (adding the breath of life to His name). The covenant that He makes with Abraham isn’t a covenant of maybe winning and maybe losing! It is a covenant of wealth. God introduces Himself as “El Shaddai” (the God of more than enough) and then He says, “I will multiply thee exceedingly.” God was more than able to prosper Him and it was His only plan for Abraham to succeed in life! Notice in Genesis 15:1 what God calls Himself. “After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: 1am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” If you look in the Hebrew, those three words “exceeding great reward” literally means “quickly increasing money supply.” That is what God want to be identified as to the people He wants to prosper.
The Offspring of His Covenant Man
“And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of; Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father; And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 26:1-4 Isaac is in a time of famine on the earth. Everybody else was moving out of the area in order to be able to have successful crops and to water their cattle. However, God tells Isaac to stay in the land that God had put him. “See Pastor Thad, God sometimes what’s you in times of famine in your lifel” No, no, no! The reason God wanted him to stay in the land was so that God could bless him. While everybody else lost and left, Isaac prospered. Verses 12-14 tell us that he became so prosperous that his enemies envied him. Isaac was empowered to prosper even though there was famine in the land.
God’s New Covenant Men and Women
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith… And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Genesis 3:13,14,29 Notice that God sent Jesus to redeem us from the curse of the law (see Genesis 3) and made a way that we, the Gentiles, could receive the same promises that He gave to Abraham. The promise of blessing. However, He didn’t stop there. Hebrews 8:6 tells us, “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” God didn’t just bless us with riches and prosperity, he also blessed us spiritually. A lot of people like to just focus on spiritual prosperity, but if you throw out financial prosperity and physical prosperity then you are throwing out most of the Bible. God warns against adding to the Word of God or taking away from it (see Revelation 22:18,19). John 8:32 says,
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Notice that this doesn’t say only that the Truth shall make you free. It tells us that the Truth that we know will make us free. If you don’t know some-thing, you won’t live it (see Hosea 4:6). Beloved, God wants you successful. He wants you to be a winner in everything that you do, no matter the circumstances. No matter if there is famine in the land, God wants you prosperous! What is our job? Start believing and expecting his blessings today! Then you will start living it out in your life and start giving God the pleasure that He deserves!
