In our day, it is common for preachers to tell people that if they bow their knee to Yeshua (Jesus), He will make them wealthy. These preachers have turned The Gospel of the Kingdom into a worldly prosperity gospel.
Often, these preachers use 3 John 1:2 as the foundational verse in their worldly gospel. In this verse, John says to Gaius, who was a Pastor of an assembly that John had established, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
In essence, the preachers say something like this, “The Apostle John said that his primary concern for us was that we would prosper materially and be healthy….and he said that we would prosper and be in health, in accordance to how our soul was prospering. So, bow your knee to Yeshua and He will cause your soul to prosper….and then you will be healthy and wealthy.
Is this what John had in mind when he wrote to Gaius? Well, let’s see.
When our mother gave birth to us, we entered into Satan’s kingdom. Then, Satan and his crew began to shape and mold us for their purposes. As slaves in Satan’s kingdom, our task was to think and act in ways that advanced the kingdom. Satan and his crew used the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes and the pride of life, to control us, and we were powerless to resist.
Yahweh (The Father) allowed Satan to lord over us. As we followed our lord, Satan, we broke Yahweh’s commandments and went against His will. Since, Yahweh created the universe, and He knows how we should interact with it, when we go against His instructions, we suffer unpleasant consequences.
The unpleasant consequences help us see that we are headed in the wrong direction, and that we need to make a course correction. We sense a terrible leanness in our soul, and we know that there has to be more to life. When we reach this point, and are looking for a way out, the Holy Spirit calls us.
The Holy Spirit arranges for us to hear the Gospel of the Kingdom. As we hear the Gospel of the Kingdom, and learn of King Yeshua, the Holy Spirit offers us the gift of repentance, and He gives us the grace to accept this gift. If we make a choice to accept the gift, and bow our knee to the new King, King Yeshua, then we leave our old kingdom, and enter into a new one.
Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, King Yeshua, comes to live in our heart. Since the King has set up His throne in our heart, our body, soul and spirit become His dwelling place. In other words, the King establishes His Kingdom in us, and consequently; we enter into His Kingdom.
As we reject our old king (king Satan), and stop advancing his kingdom by thinking and acting like him, and we worship our new King (King Yeshua), and advance His Kingdom by thinking and acting like Him, we find what was missing. We find peace, wholeness, success and contentment.
In other words, our soul prospers.
We have to fight to keep this peace, wholeness, success and contentment. We fight because, physically, we live on the earth, and Yahweh has allowed Satan to rule over the earth for now. However, spiritually, we are seated in Christ, at the right hand of the Father, in Heaven. The world pulls on us one way, and Heaven pulls on us the other. The soul is caught in the middle! Siding with the world brings leanness to our soul: Siding with Heaven prospers it.
This is what John was saying to Gaius. “Gaius I know that you are shunning the ways of the world system, and that you are seeking to do the Father’s will by fulfilling your calling as a Pastor; therefore, the Lord is prospering your soul. I pray that the Lord would also prosper your life, and keep you healthy so that you can fulfill your calling.” In other words, I pray that the Lord would prosper you and keep you healthy so you can succeed as a Pastor.
The Lord knew us before He laid the foundations of the earth. The Lord laid out a path for us to walk down, and He preordained the good works that we should accomplish. The Lord called us according to His plan and purpose.
Our soul prospers when we know Yeshua. Our life prospers when we find the path that Yeshua has preordained us to walk, and we walk it with Him. It’s all about Yeshua and His path for our life, that is, it’s all about Yeshua and His calling on our life. When we walk our path with Yeshua, He will supply everything that we need to fulfill our calling. So do not seek prosperity, seek Yeshua and to fulfill your calling, and prosperity will be added unto you!
Yahweh loves to prosper His people. However, Yahweh is more concerned about our character, than He is about our comfort. Character is forever; comfort is temporary.
In Proverbs 1, Yahweh says, “The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” Consequently, Yahweh is limited in how much He can give us materially. We set the limits on our material prosperity when we refuse to mature spiritually and obey Yahweh’s commands. So when we mature spiritually and obey Yahweh, we open the door so that He can bless us with more material things.
So is there a relationship between our soul prospering and our material prosperity? Absolutely! Does this mean that if we mature and obey Yahweh, He is obligated to bless us with material prosperity? No! Remember, Yahweh calls us according to His plan and purpose and He will supply all our need.
We all have different callings. Hence, we all need different things to fulfill our calling. Yahweh calls some people to be major givers and so He builds their character to ensure that they can support the weight of wealth. Then, Yahweh gives these people the gift of giving. These people support the work of Yahweh’s Kingdom and make it possible for others to fulfill their callings.
Yahweh blesses us with material prosperity according to His will, not ours.
So do we have a part to play in material prosperity? Absolutely! Yahweh promises to bless the work of our hands, which means that we must work. Yah has told us to plant seeds in His Kingdom so His Kingdom will release a harvest into our lives. Yah wants us to trust in Him to supply all of our need. Most importantly, Yahweh wants us to mature spiritually and obey Him.
So will everyone who gets born-again get wealthy? No!
Well, what about our health?
In Proverbs 18:14, Yah says that a strong spirit will sustain a man in his sickness. When we walk out path with Yeshua, our spirit prospers. When we have a strong prosperous spirit, our spirit will minister life to our flesh. When our flesh gets ill, our spirit will help our flesh recover. Since Yeshua came to prosper our spirit, He said that by His stripes, we were healed.
So is there a relationship between the prosperity of our soul and our health? Absolutely! Does this mean that if we bow our knee to Yeshua, He is, then obligated to heal our body? No! Remember, Yeshua is the Lord, and He calls us to fulfill His purpose, and He is more concerned with our character, than He is with our comfort. He heals us according to His plan and purpose.
So do we have a part to play in healing? Yes! We must eat right and exercise. We must forgive others. When we sin, we must confess our sins to one another to open the door for healing. We must look to the Body of Christ for healing because that is where the gifts operate. We must seek Yahweh’s gifts and believe that He has healed us. Most importantly, we must find our path and walk in it with Yeshua. Remember, Satan tried to kill John, but he could not because he had not fulfilled his calling. Likewise, if we have found our path, and are walking it, Satan can not kill us until we fulfill our calling.
So will everyone who gets born-again be healed? No!
Do I believe in healing? Absolutely! Yah healed me. Do I believe in material prosperity? Absolutely! I have everything I need to fulfill my calling, and more. Do I believe that all we have to do is get born-again and send a check to a preacher, and Yah will prosper us materially? Absolutely not!
What does all of this have to do with recovery? Well, I am glad you asked, because soul prosperity is just another name for recovery.
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