3 John 2, Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.(NKJV)
What is prosperity?
The word prosperity means in Hebrew, “to push forward, to break out, to go over, abundance, peace, and wealth.” And in the Greek: it means “to help on the road, to succeed in business affairs and to have a prosperous journey.”
Both the Hebrew and Greek dictionaries interpretations on the word prosperity are good. Since they support or agree with the word of God. In the Old Testament we find the Lord God exhorting His people to push forward into the blessings that He has for them; to break out, out of limitations over their own lives, and also not limit Him by their unbelief and disobedience. He told them to go over Jordan and possess the Promised Land, the land that flows with milk and honey, (the land of plenty and abundance)
He said to Abraham, “I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing”. (Gen 12:2, NKJV)
Gen 22:17-19, “blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” (NKJV)
In Deuteronomy 28:1-2, “if they diligently obey His voice to observe carefully all His commandments which commanded them, He told them that all the blessings shall come upon them and overtake them,” (NKJV)
In Job 36:11 the Word of the Lord said, “If they obey and serve Him, They shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. (NKJV)
And so on.
Also in the New Testament, it is clear that it is God’s will to bless and prosper His people in all aspects of their lives.
As we looked at it earlier the word prosperity in Greek: in the New Testament language means “to help on the road, to succeed in business affairs and to have a prosperous journey.” Yes the Lord our God wants His people, the believers to prosper and succeed in everyway. He wants us to have a prosperous journey. There is no successful journey without, spiritual, mental, physical and material prosperity or blessings. I have seen and heard many religious false teachings about prosperity contrary to the word of God saying, “Poverty is a virtue”
Poverty is neither a virtue nor a blessing, but it is a curse. No matter how you see it. There is no any positive side or any benefit in poverty. Poverty is one of the works of the devil against humanity (1 John 3:8). Also to be poor is not spirituality or godliness. If poverty was a blessing or godliness as some suppose, the Lord Jesus would not have come to destroy it, and deliver us from it. The scripture says, “Let God be true but every man a liar,” (Rom 3:3, NKJV). Therefore, when it comes to truth it is not what people say that matters, but what God says.
As traveling healing evangelist I minister to some sick and afflicted people who ask me saying, “Does God heal today? Is it His will to heal me? My answer to them is always yes, because it is recorded in His word that He would.
In the same way to you dear saints of God it is God’s perfect will for you to prosper, because it is recorded in His word that He would. God wants you to prosper, if it was not so He would not have said it in His word.
Please join me in reading the following passages of scriptures and meditate on them.
“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.” (Gal 3:13-14, KJV)
1 John 3:8, “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil,” (NKJV). Which one of those works of the devil was poverty. Which Christ came to destroy?
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Cor. 8:9, NIV)
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10, NKJV)
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Rom. 8:31-32 NKJV)
2 Cor 1:20, For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. (NKJV)
2 Peter 1:3, says, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: (KJVN).
John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” (NKJV)
If God says it He means it. Therefore receive the word of God to prosper.
The source of such success is God: “…as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper” 2 Chron 26:5. Also see Matthew 6:33.