Gods will to increase | |
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Increase
“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” 3 John 2
In John’s letter to Gaius he tells him that he desires and prays for him to have good health, that ALL may go well with him just as all is going well with his soul. This is increase! When we want to know the will of God we look into His Word for the truth. His Word is truth and gives us God’s perfect will.
I believe that God wants ALL believers to increase in every area of their lives, spirit, soul and body. Since the spirit is the most important part let’s discuss it first.
Our spirit:
First, what is our spirit? Our spirit is our heart, our real man, our “inner man” (Ro. 8:10,16), the real you. Our spirit is the part of us that has been recreated in Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”(2 Cor. 5:17)
We’re taught in Matthew 6:33 to seek His kingdom first and all these things will be added unto us. We are first, to seek Him, His ways and His righteousness. God never intended for a believer to receive Christ and then become stagnant in his walk with Him. His plan has always been for us to increase in our spirit and the only way to do this is feeding on His Word and fellowshipping with Him.
“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight,” Jer. 15:16. Jesus also said in Matthew 4:4, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
In other words, our spirits need to be fed just as our physical bodies need to be fed. If we did not eat food, symptoms of starvation would begin to ravish our fleshy body and, if not fed nutrients, we would eventually starve to death.
Jesus was trying to explain to people that our spirits have to be fed too; we cannot live on bread (physical food) alone. We have to feed our spirit man the Word of God and feed on the Word daily. We need a fresh word from God every day just as the Israelites needed fresh manna every day in the desert (Ex. 16:11,17,31). This is increase in our spirit man and this is God’s will for His people as most, if not all believers, would agree.
We are to increase in our spirit and not become stagnant or complacent.
Our soul:
We are a triune being and one of those entities is our soul. Our soul is our mind, our will and our emotions. The Word teaches us to increase in our minds. 1 Samuel 2:26 tells us that Samuel, “continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men.” Jesus also “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men”, Luke 2:52.
That word stature means to increase in development or achievement. Samuel and Jesus both increased in development and achievement with man. If you achieve things in this world, in the natural, then your mind is also increasing. You have to read, study, go to school, etc, to increase in knowledge of earthly things, so it is obvious that you’re increasing in your mind.
From the Word of God we see that it is God’s will to increase in our minds, in stature with man, since Samuel and Jesus were commended for doing so and Jesus was the perfect representation of God (Heb 1:3). Whatever Jesus did on the earth, we know is God’s will for us also.
Our body:
Our third triune entity is our body. Anything that pertains to our physical needs, healing and finances, would fall under “body”. Is it God’s will to increase here? Let’s see what His Word teaches us.
First, let’s look at finances.
In Deuteronomy 8:18 God said, “But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today.” God wanted the Israelites to increase in wealth.
Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord makes rich and He adds no trouble to it.” God’s blessing on His people makes them rich. The word blessing means to: empower one to prosper. God has always enjoyed the prosperity of His people, He desires for us to increase and has always desired for His people to increase in every way. “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of His servant” (Ps. 35:27).
“Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do”, Dt. 29:9.
Now some would argue that God does not want His people wealthy and increasing in finances. Some would say that the Word says, “Money is the root of all evil”, but the Word does not say that. It says, “The love of money is the root of all evil”, I Timothy 6:10. It is true, however, that we cannot serve two masters, Lk 16:13.
But if you are seeking God with all of your heart and you love Him with all your heart, soul and mind, then the Lord has made promises for you, the believer, to increase in finances.
Now some would be angry at me about this, but I’m only teaching the Word. “Well”, some would say, “those are His promises for the Israelites, but we’re under a different covenant, that’s not for us.” That is not what the Word teaches.
2 Corinthians 9:11 teaches us, “You will be made rich in every way, so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” No matter what anyone says, God’s Word says here that we will be made rich in EVERY way and why should we be made rich? SO THAT we can be generous on every occasion.
2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “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.” I had always been taught that this verse wasn’t referring to money. I was taught that it meant that we were rich in blessings. However, if you will look at the whole text of chapter 8 and 9 Paul is teaching the believers about money and Jesus was rich in heaven. He gave it all up, so that we could have plenty to give to others.
I believe that we are to be wise with our money, to invest it and to stay out of debt. God never meant for us to be greedy with money either. He desires for us to have more, so that we in turn can be a huge blessing to others.
Furthermore, the Word says in Galatians 3:13 that we are redeemed from the curse. Well, what is the curse? The curse is defined in Deut. Chapter 28 and it is divided into two sections: the blessings and the curses. Did you know that poverty is under the curse? Well, it is. Therefore, since poverty is under the curse and we’re redeemed from that curse, then it is not God’s will for us to be in poverty or lack because He sent His Son to redeem us from that.
As we see in His Word, it is truth that He desires for us to increase in finances.
In our health:
He also desires for us to increase in health.
As I’ve taught several times before, Jesus did the works of God, and Jesus always healed those on the earth. I will not teach on healing in this article, but if you desire to read more on healing, click here.
Read these verses in closing:
Psalm 105:24, “The lord made His people very fruitful, He made them too numerous for their foes.”
Psalm 105:37, “He brought out Israel laden with silver and gold, and from among their tribes no one faltered.”
Psalm 105:8-10,20,21, Because Joseph was in covenant with God, God increased him. The Pharaoh made him master over his household, ruler over ALL he possessed. God increased Joseph even during Joseph’s dark days.
To Abraham God said, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you… and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”, Genesis 12:2-3. You might say, “Well, that’s Abraham and that is under the old covenant”. Yes, this is true, however, the Word teaches us in Galatians 3:29 that we’re Abraham’s seed. “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” That means whatever God promised Abraham, He promised us! He wants to bless (empower one to prosper) you, so that you can be a blessing to others and advance His kingdom!
In John’s letter to Gaius he tells him that he desires and prays for him to have good health, that ALL may go well with him just as all is going well with his soul. This is increase! When we want to know the will of God we look into His Word for the truth. His Word is truth and gives us God’s perfect will.
I believe that God wants ALL believers to increase in every area of their lives, spirit, soul and body. Since the spirit is the most important part let’s discuss it first.
Our spirit:
First, what is our spirit? Our spirit is our heart, our real man, our “inner man” (Ro. 8:10,16), the real you. Our spirit is the part of us that has been recreated in Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”(2 Cor. 5:17)
We’re taught in Matthew 6:33 to seek His kingdom first and all these things will be added unto us. We are first, to seek Him, His ways and His righteousness. God never intended for a believer to receive Christ and then become stagnant in his walk with Him. His plan has always been for us to increase in our spirit and the only way to do this is feeding on His Word and fellowshipping with Him.
“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight,” Jer. 15:16. Jesus also said in Matthew 4:4, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
In other words, our spirits need to be fed just as our physical bodies need to be fed. If we did not eat food, symptoms of starvation would begin to ravish our fleshy body and, if not fed nutrients, we would eventually starve to death.
Jesus was trying to explain to people that our spirits have to be fed too; we cannot live on bread (physical food) alone. We have to feed our spirit man the Word of God and feed on the Word daily. We need a fresh word from God every day just as the Israelites needed fresh manna every day in the desert (Ex. 16:11,17,31). This is increase in our spirit man and this is God’s will for His people as most, if not all believers, would agree.
We are to increase in our spirit and not become stagnant or complacent.
Our soul:
We are a triune being and one of those entities is our soul. Our soul is our mind, our will and our emotions. The Word teaches us to increase in our minds. 1 Samuel 2:26 tells us that Samuel, “continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men.” Jesus also “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men”, Luke 2:52.
That word stature means to increase in development or achievement. Samuel and Jesus both increased in development and achievement with man. If you achieve things in this world, in the natural, then your mind is also increasing. You have to read, study, go to school, etc, to increase in knowledge of earthly things, so it is obvious that you’re increasing in your mind.
From the Word of God we see that it is God’s will to increase in our minds, in stature with man, since Samuel and Jesus were commended for doing so and Jesus was the perfect representation of God (Heb 1:3). Whatever Jesus did on the earth, we know is God’s will for us also.
Our body:
Our third triune entity is our body. Anything that pertains to our physical needs, healing and finances, would fall under “body”. Is it God’s will to increase here? Let’s see what His Word teaches us.
First, let’s look at finances.
In Deuteronomy 8:18 God said, “But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today.” God wanted the Israelites to increase in wealth.
Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord makes rich and He adds no trouble to it.” God’s blessing on His people makes them rich. The word blessing means to: empower one to prosper. God has always enjoyed the prosperity of His people, He desires for us to increase and has always desired for His people to increase in every way. “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of His servant” (Ps. 35:27).
“Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do”, Dt. 29:9.
Now some would argue that God does not want His people wealthy and increasing in finances. Some would say that the Word says, “Money is the root of all evil”, but the Word does not say that. It says, “The love of money is the root of all evil”, I Timothy 6:10. It is true, however, that we cannot serve two masters, Lk 16:13.
But if you are seeking God with all of your heart and you love Him with all your heart, soul and mind, then the Lord has made promises for you, the believer, to increase in finances.
Now some would be angry at me about this, but I’m only teaching the Word. “Well”, some would say, “those are His promises for the Israelites, but we’re under a different covenant, that’s not for us.” That is not what the Word teaches.
2 Corinthians 9:11 teaches us, “You will be made rich in every way, so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” No matter what anyone says, God’s Word says here that we will be made rich in EVERY way and why should we be made rich? SO THAT we can be generous on every occasion.
2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “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.” I had always been taught that this verse wasn’t referring to money. I was taught that it meant that we were rich in blessings. However, if you will look at the whole text of chapter 8 and 9 Paul is teaching the believers about money and Jesus was rich in heaven. He gave it all up, so that we could have plenty to give to others.
I believe that we are to be wise with our money, to invest it and to stay out of debt. God never meant for us to be greedy with money either. He desires for us to have more, so that we in turn can be a huge blessing to others.
Furthermore, the Word says in Galatians 3:13 that we are redeemed from the curse. Well, what is the curse? The curse is defined in Deut. Chapter 28 and it is divided into two sections: the blessings and the curses. Did you know that poverty is under the curse? Well, it is. Therefore, since poverty is under the curse and we’re redeemed from that curse, then it is not God’s will for us to be in poverty or lack because He sent His Son to redeem us from that.
As we see in His Word, it is truth that He desires for us to increase in finances.
In our health:
He also desires for us to increase in health.
As I’ve taught several times before, Jesus did the works of God, and Jesus always healed those on the earth. I will not teach on healing in this article, but if you desire to read more on healing, click here.
Read these verses in closing:
Psalm 105:24, “The lord made His people very fruitful, He made them too numerous for their foes.”
Psalm 105:37, “He brought out Israel laden with silver and gold, and from among their tribes no one faltered.”
Psalm 105:8-10,20,21, Because Joseph was in covenant with God, God increased him. The Pharaoh made him master over his household, ruler over ALL he possessed. God increased Joseph even during Joseph’s dark days.
To Abraham God said, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you… and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”, Genesis 12:2-3. You might say, “Well, that’s Abraham and that is under the old covenant”. Yes, this is true, however, the Word teaches us in Galatians 3:29 that we’re Abraham’s seed. “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” That means whatever God promised Abraham, He promised us! He wants to bless (empower one to prosper) you, so that you can be a blessing to others and advance His kingdom!
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