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I want you to read this simple, yet profound scripture:
Proverbs 16:20 “Those who listen to instruction will prosper; those who trust the Lord will be joyful.”
Here the word “prosper” means: “to be successful or fortunate, especially in financial respects; thrive; flourish.”
In other words, “Those who listen to instruction will be financially successful. They will thrive and flourish. If you trust in the Lord you will be joyful.”
Sounds simple right?
- Get instructions
- Do them
- Prosper
As the Lord led me to study this, He showed me scripture after scripture that taught essentially the same thing.
Here are a few more that stood out to me:
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” — there is a prosperity plan out there for you.
Isaiah 1:19 “If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the best of the land”
Isaiah 48:17 “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way that you should go. Oh, that you had hearkened to My commandments! Then your peace and prosperity would have been like a flowing river…”
Those four scriptures hold the key to your financial increase:
- Listen to God’s instruction, and you’ll prosper.
- God has a plan to prosper you. Let’s get that plan.
- Be willing AND obedient, you’ll have the best of the land.
- Hearken (listen and obey) God’s commandments, His instructions. He’ll teach you to profit, then your peace and prosperity will flow like a river.
It’s funny, often when I teach this stuff, I find people don’t actually want to hear it.
They want me to tell them exactly what to do, step by step, in order to increase financially.
But I can’t.
Because I don’t know what their instructions to prosper are.
I know what my instructions to prosper are. But I don’t know what your instructions to prosper are.
You’ll have to get that for yourself.
Your Instructions to Prosper
In most cases, you will find that when you are believing God for something, He will often give you a strategy that will help you obtain that thing.
But here’s the kicker, it will require your obedience.
He will give you instructions, but you must follow them.
Even if those instructions don’t seem to make sense in your head. (Hint: They usually don’t with God)
For example: When my wife and I were about to get married, we began to look for a home.
I currently owned a home, but at the time, I probably would have lost money if we tried to sell it. And she really didn’t want to move into that one, because she could only see it as the “dude” house, since there was always like 5 guys living there at any given time…
In my natural reasoning, I didn’t think we could get qualified for another home. She was a school teacher, and I didn’t really even have a job, plus I had a mortgage on the other home, so I thought there’s no way we could get a bank loan for another home.
So I took this situation to the Lord.
I prayed along these lines, “Lord, we need a new home, and my wife really doesn’t want to move into the dude house. She wants a home in this specific neighborhood, and that’s what I want too.”
I heard these words: “Put the house in your wife’s name.”
Instantly followed by the thought: “That won’t work, she’s on a teacher’s salary.” Then I reasoned that probably wasn’t God, that was probably just my own brain.
But that phrase kept popping up over and over inside me, “Put the house in your wife’s name.” so even though I thought I probably just made that up, I went ahead and called a mortgage company.
I told them the situation, and to my surprise, we qualified for a loan of $145,000 using just my wife’s name!
Now 145k wasn’t much, but it was more than I thought we could get.
But the Lord wasn’t done, it gets better.
There was one specific neighborhood we both wanted to be in. The main problem was 145k isn’t really enough to get you in that neighborhood.
But I wasn’t discouraged. The Lord knew my heart was in that prayer, and one day we saw a new home pop up for sale with a “For Sale By Owner” sign.
I called immediately and turns out the owner needed to move fast to start a new job in another state.
The asking price on the home?
$139,900.
We checked it out, the home was perfect for us, and my wife and I both had a “knowing” in our spirit that this was the right house.
We offered them full price and got the house!
To this day, there has never been a home for sale in that neighborhood for anywhere close to that price, even back in 2010 when we got it.
But It Gets Better…
And if God wasn’t already the best, He threw in a little bonus for us.
Turns out the reason He had me put the home in my wife’s name is because she was technically a first time home buyer.
At that time, the city we live in was running a promotion where first time home buyers would receive an $8,000 cash bonus if you bought a home within a certain time period.
I wasn’t a first time home buyer.
But my wife was!
So not only did we get the house of our dreams, in the neighborhood of our dreams, but we also got a nice fat check for 8k on top of it all!
We took that $8,000, wrote a tithe check for $800, then paid off my car, eliminating a $381 a month car payment, AND still had money leftover to pay off our credit cards!
That’s how God operates, over and above.
He gave me instructions.
I listened and obeyed.
I prospered.
The Cost of Ignoring Instructions
I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs, especially Christian entrepreneurs, and the Lord showed me that a lot of people aren’t currently flowing in profit, peace and prosperity because they have not listened to the Lord’s instructions.
With nearly every person I talk to, I’ve found that God led them in the way they should go years and years and go, (He gave them specific instructions to follow) but they haven’t been obedient to do them. (Remember Isaiah 48:17 up there?)
Now I’m not talking about being in straight up rebellion and telling God, “No, I won’t do it!” No, no, this is a much more subtle form of disobedience.
It’s not that we want to disobey God, it’s that we talk ourselves out of obeying God because His instructions don’t make sense to our natural reasoning, or most often, His instructions don’t pay the bills right away.
For example, several years ago my friend was praying about the direction to take his business. The Lord distinctly told him to “write everyday and build your platform.”
Fast forward two years later and my friends is in a bind because his finances are so tight.
He’s been struggling financially for years and years actually, and as we were talking it out, trying to dissect what was going on, several instances flashed in my head of my friend telling me the instructions God had given him.
But he had never acted on it.
He was not writing everyday, or at all really.
Isaiah 48:17 then came alive to me: God taught him to profit, God showed him which way to go, if only my friend had hearkened (listened and obeyed) to God’s instruction, then my friend’s peace and prosperity would currently be flowing like a river.
My friend was willing to do what God instructed, but he wasn’t obedient. Therefore he did not qualify to have the best of the land. (Isaiah 1:19)
Would writing everyday pay his bills? Not immediately.
But, now it’s two years later and who knows what could have popped off as a result of him writing daily and building his platform?
Book deals? (He’s a really good writer)
Speaking engagements?
Podcast interviews?
A massive blog following?
I don’t know, maybe all those things.
He received instructions, but has not yet followed them.
What was the cost of ignoring these instructions?
Perhaps years of peace and prosperity.
How to Get Your Prosperity Plan
This isn’t hard at all.
James 1:5-7 tells us how to do it: “If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God Who gives to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.
6 Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering no hesitating, no doubting. For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.
7 For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything he asks for from the Lord.
If you are deficient in wisdom in regards to your prosperity plan, your financial plan, your business, or anything really…
Just ask.
It says there in verse 5 that if you ask God, for the wisdom, it will be given to you.
Don’t hesitate, don’t doubt the instructions, just trust.
He will give you the instructions you need to succeed.
But it’s up to you to execute on them.
One more scripture to help you here:
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”
Seek His will, ask Him what to do.
Be willing AND obedient to those instructions and you’ll eat the good of the land, you will prosper and be successful in all you do.
Your Action Step
Check yourself.
Is there a specific set of instructions God has given you that you have not yet followed through with?
Something He told you to do long ago, but you never took action?
Or perhaps you said to yourself, “Well, that won’t pay the bills right now, so I’ll work on this stuff instead, and when that brings some money in, I can work on that Lord.”
I’ve had that exact thought MANY times.
Take some time today, get alone with God and get your instructions.
But this time, execute on them.
Carry this with you today, “Those who listen to instruction will prosper; those who trust the Lord will be joyful.”
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