The Conditions - Introduction

I just want to go back over what I said yesterday by way of introduction. The theme of what we’re studying together is God’s Abundance. We took certain key words and phrases, positive and negative. The positive ones were rich and riches; wealth and wealthy; prosper, prosperous, prosperity; abound, abundant, abundance. We pointed out that the last two sets of words do not necessarily indicate ownership of large amounts of money or material possession. Rather, the key thought about abundance is we have enough for ourselves and something over to give to others. An example of abundance that I used in my book, I believe, in Faith to Live By — something comes to me while I’m saying that. I really deeply appreciate our Catholic brothers in the Charismatic movement and it’s a great honor to me that the Catholic Charismatic movement published the book simultaneously co-published it with Christian Growth Ministries. I think that’s historic. Really, it’s one of the honours I feel God has conferred upon me because the theme of the book is the just shall live by faith. That was the very text that started the reformation. When Catholics and Protestants can publish a book together on that theme we have come a long way! But what I want to say I want to say tactfully and carefully.

When I submitted the original draft of the book to my Catholic brothers—because they wouldn’t publish something that was out of line with what they believed — the thing they questioned was the teaching of abundance. It’s rather remarkable. I made some adjustments in the material which I feel has improved the book so I’m grateful for the questions that they asked. We need to know that for some sections of the Christian church the concept of abundance is almost offensive. It’s remarkable but true. I really was able to make it acceptable to them by pointing out that abundance does not necessarily mean great sums of money in the bank or great material possession. It means that we have more than enough for our own needs.

There’s one or two clear reasons why God wants us to have abundance. One is that it’s more blessed to give than to receive. So, if we only have enough to receive, we would only have the lesser blessing. But God wants us to have the greater blessing so he gives us enough not merely for our own needs but over an above that we may have the blessing of giving as well as of receiving. God, I believe, has promised to his people abundance. As I understand it, abundance is the level of God’s provision for his people.

So we’ve spoken about the positive words. Let’s look at the negative words for a moment and continue the review. The negative words were poor and poverty; want, need, lack and failure. I introduced failure because in many ways failure is the opposite of the scriptural concept of prosperity. Prosperity, again, doesn’t necessarily mean the ownership of vast resources, it means you get the job done successfully.

When Jesus sent forth his first disciples he told them, “Don’t take anything spare. Don’t take two coats, don’t take two shoes . . .” At the end of his ministry he reminded them of this and said, “When I sent you out like that, did you lack anything?” They said what? Nothing. So, they didn’t have a great entourage, they didn’t have a lot of unnecessary equipment but they had everything they needed. I’ve been a missionary in two fields. I’ve seen missionaries with cars and houses and salaries who lacked a lot of things. I just need to make these concepts clear. The key concept really, are abundance and prosperity.

Now I want to give you five basic principles without dwelling on them that we looked through yesterday.

1. Principle number one, God’s provision is in his promises. If we fail to claim God’s promises we cannot expect to receive his provision.
2. Principle number two, the promises are our inheritance. In the Old Testament it was a Promised Land. In the New Testament it’s a land of promises.
3. Principle number three, God’s promises are the expression of his will. When we know God’s will we pray with confidence.
4. Principle number four, all God’s promises are now available to us through Christ. Every promise that fits our situation and meets our need is for us now.
5. Principle number five, the fulfillment of God’s promises does not depend upon our circumstances but upon our meeting God’s conditions. The outstanding example of this, I would say, is Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness when God fed something like three million people without any natural resources whatever.

We looked at two specific promises of God, the first in Psalm 34:9–10:

“O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.”

And Psalm 84:11:
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

We pointed out that there are three conditions implied for receiving those promises.

• First, we must fear the Lord.
• Second, we must seek the Lord.
• Third, we must walk uprightly. On the basis of meeting those conditions then God assures us that nothing that is good will be withheld from us.

We need to understand that we have to consider what is good in two aspects. The first is is the thing good in itself, is it essentially good? That’s a philosophic term. That’s invariable. The second question is is the thing good for us in our particular situation? That’s variable because a thing may be good essentially and yet, in our particular condition, with our character weaknesses or our special problems, it might not be good for us. God in his wisdom overrules. He does not always give us that which is essentially good if it is not good for us in our particular situation. That’s one reason why we pray for things that apparently the word of God assures us we will have and we don’t necessarily get them. I’m the only person here today that has that problem, I know! Just be sympathetic with me because I’ve had that problem. You never have but you could have. And when it happens just bear in mind exactly what Eric was saying, “Do not doubt the goodness of  God. He always has your good as his ultimate objective no matter what happens.”

Then we began to examine the question what are we to say about riches or wealth or prosperity? Are they essentially good? My answer is absolutely yes. In Revelation 5:12, riches belong by right to Christ and they’re associated with power, wisdom, strength, honor, glory and blessing. Those are seven things that are absolutely good that belong by right to Jesus Christ and to the people of God.

In 1 Chronicles 29:12 we saw David told us riches and honor come from God. God is the ultimate source of riches and honor.

Deuteronomy 8:18, Moses reminded Israel don’t forget it’s God who gives you power to get wealth. He does it that he may fulfill his covenant with your fathers.

And then we looked in Deuteronomy 28 and 29. Deuteronomy 28 lists, first of all, all the blessings for obedience to God and then all the curses for disobedience to God. This is a very important chapter that every one of us needs to be acquainted with. We need to know the difference between a curse and a blessing because many of us at times are enduring curses when we should be enjoying blessings. We saw that prosperity and abundance are listed under the blessings, not under the curses. Likewise, we saw that poverty is a curse. I think we could look at that scripture and move on from there. Deuteronomy 28:47–48. This is part of the long list of curses that come for disobedience.

“Because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things . . .”

Note, that’s what God wants us to do. To serve him with joyfulness and gladness for the abundance of all things. We have more than enough of everything. That’s fantastic. But what’s the alternative if we’re unbelieving and disobedient? Remember, the root problem of Israel that kept them out of their inheritance was not fornication or idolatry or murmuring. What was it? Unbelief. Because of unbelief they could not enter in. In the chapter that Eric read we were warned the same thing can keep us out of our inheritance: Unbelief. What’s the alternative to receiving God’s blessing in this connection? Verse 48 says:

“Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things.”

You take those four things and put them together: hunger, thirst, nakedness, want of all things — without food, without drink, without clothing, without anything. I suggest to you the correct description of that is absolute poverty. You could not have more poverty than that. Please note, it’s a curse.

I’d like you to say that because it’s kind of liberating. Poverty is a curse. Poverty is a curse. Okay, now you’ve got it. It’s a simple message but it’s profound.