TRUSTING IN THE LORD AND GODLY PROSPERITY

TRUSTING IN THE LORD AND GODLY PROSPERITY

Trust is complete confidence or reliance, and dependence upon God with a likely expectation of His blessing or prosperity. It is conviction, confidence and expectation that God is more than able to do exceeding, abundantly more than what we ask or think according to His power at work in us [Eph. 3:20]. People must live in an attitude of awed trust in God, they can be assured that God will direct them in all their affairs and bless them.

God will remove obstacles and lead us to our desired goals. Trust in the Lord is to wholly and securely rely upon God’s wisdom, follow His counsel, power, and goodness, and depend upon his providence and promises, for direction and help in all our affairs. To trust in God is to depend on Him for bestowing on us every needful blessing, and to preserve us from all evil.

“And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee” Psalms 9:10 

“…but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits” Daniel 11:32

Trust or confidence in God is predicated upon our knowledge of what He is capable of doing. God can do all things! He created all things and so they are subject to His command to act according to His words. Such that trusts Him serves and worship God, having a spiritual knowledge and communion with him; and therefore could not be drawn off from him and his worship by flatteries or frowns, by promises or menaces: these were strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might; they held fast their Christian ethics, principles or moral codes, and the profession of it. They maintain their confidence in His ability to prosper, thrive or make them to flourish in all realms.

Prosperity is described as “the state wherein things succeed according to our wishes, and are productive of affluence and ease” by Cyclopedia dictionary. The world, with all its various productions, was formed by the Almighty, for the happiness of man, and designed to gravitate God to us, and to lead our minds up to him. The righteous sit openly down to the feast of life prosperously, under the smile of heaven. 

No guilty fears damp their joys and the blessing of God rests upon all we possess for there is therefore no condemnation in us if we walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Spiritual prosperity consists in the continual progress of the mind in knowledge, purity, and joy. It arises from the sharing of the divine blessing; and marks itself by frequency in prayer, love to God's Word, delight in his people, attendance on his ordinances, zeal in his cause, submission to his will, usefulness in God’s services, and increasing detestation of everything that is offensive to his person and glory.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in your own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” Prov. 3:5-7 [Check also Psalms 37:5, Psalms 84:12, Psalms 115:9-11, Prov. 28:26]

Trust in God simply means confidence in or dependence upon God. We trust in God because of His love, liberality, ability, relationship [Father and Son]; and His promises that can never fail. His conduct has been never to fail those who trust in Him [Psalms. 37:25]. Many believers are quick to say that they trust in the Lord but on close examination we find out that they still lean on their natural understanding, do not acknowledge God in all their ways and so God is not at the helm of affairs directing their path nor blessing them. At the same token the fear of the Lord is not in their heart and so they do not depart from evil ways that leads to destructions and they are often wise in their own eyes and hereby follow the path that leads to destruction and poverty.

Remember that those that be like Mount Zion [solid and rigidly believing the Lord with the whole of their heart] shall not be moved by the sways of life or the waves of the sea that come to distort their views of the possibilities in God.

“… Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper” 2 Chronicle 20:20

Prophets speaks as oracle of God declaring what the Lord God says that He will bring to pass, any man that believes these oracular utterances will prosper because there will be a manifestation of said word(s)

“And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord” Luke 1:45 

Trust in the Lord makes us to anchor our faith in God such that our roots are deep in God and we are immovable or unshakable when the storms of life meant to uproot our faith comes. There is however no mountain that we cannot deflate if our faith in the ability of God to save, deliver and provide for us is intact [Mark 11:23]. The blessings of God that cumulates from trusting Him is better described as fruitfulness of a tree whose roots are dipped perpetually in water found in wells, springs or rivers and they never lack nutrients needed to grow or live by.

“Blessed is the man that trust in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spread out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” Jer. 17:7-8

There is a realm in God that we ought to enter in called REST and it is unbelief that is the stumbling block that stands as a rock of offense that inhibit many goodness from the Presence of the Lord.

“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it… Seeing therefore it remain that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief” Heb. 4:1-2, 6 

The Lord through Isaiah the prophet had to ask “who shall believe our report, unto who has the arm of the Lord revealed to” [Isaiah 53:1]; doubt, fear, unbelief and anxiety and worry has rubbed many from the manifestation of the promises of God that unveils prosperity. The arm, power, revelation and manifestation of God’s promises that brings prosperity are unveiled only to believers’ current in and standing in the word of truth.

Knowing God that promised to prosper us is vitally important in accessing prosperity. He is prosperity personified. One of the names of God is the All sufficient or the big breasted [El-Shaddai] God. He has, own and the giver of all good things. All the silver and the gold belongs to Him and He is the owner of the cattle on the ten thousand hills and we have the assurance that for with God nothing shall be impossible to him that believes.

To prosper is to have God revealing His character as the all wealthy and rich person in your life in all ramification, remember He owns all the silver and the gold; He is the owner of the cattle on the ten thousand hills. That is the only way that we can explain how Joseph who is a slave in the house of Potiphar can be described as prosperous. He had the testimony that God was with him and so I can boldly say that there is no godly prosperity if divine presence is void in your life. The Presence of God releases the Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, might, counsel, fear of the Lord and quick understanding [Isaiah 11:2], which are the stimulants that stimulates prosperity in our lives.

Abraham can be described as wealthy and rich with many cattle, gold and silver. He believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.  He had hope when hope itself was lost, he staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief, he was strong in faith and giving glory to God; and he was fully persuaded that God was able to do as promised and it was counted unto him for righteousness [Romans 4:17-21].

“Hezekiah TRUSTED IN THE LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like Hezekiah among all the kings of Judah before him or after him. He was very faithful to the LORD and did not stop following him. He obeyed the commands that the LORD had given to Moses. The LORD was with Hezekiah, so he was successful in everything he did. Hezekiah broke away from the king of Assyria and stopped serving him. Hezekiah defeated the Philistines all the way to Gaza and the area around it. He defeated all the Philistine cities--from the smallest town to the largest city. 2 Kings 18:5-8 

The principle the above reforms illustrated is that when God's people obey God’s Word, they prosper and excel. God always desires people's welfare but they must do what is pleasing in His sight. Hezekiah prospered, because he sought God with all his heart, he was completely loyal and devoted unto God, he was faithful and he did what was right and good in God’s sight; and he purged out corruption. He rebelled against serving heathen kings of Assyria and destroyed idolatry and the high places of worship. He was so pleasing unto God that he was compared to David the man after God’s heart.

“Throughout all Judah, King Hezekiah did what was right and what was pleasing to the LORD his God. He was successful, because everything he did for the Temple or in observance of the Law, he did in a spirit of complete loyalty and devotion to his God” 2 Chronicle 31:20-21 

In New Testament terms, he did all for the glory of God [1 Cor. 10:31]. God rewarded Hezekiah's spiritual restoration of Judah [service and obedience unto God – Job 36:11] with a remarkable military deliverance and peace that passed all understanding. The surest way to liberty is to serve God.

“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower” Psalms 18:2 

We must trust in the Lord to be our protector and defender, and have no dependence on idols as an arm of flesh or lean on our own ways; It will said that we trusted in and was obedient to the Word of the Lord God [our buckler – 2 Sam. 22:31], and we will be guaranteed prosperity! Blessed are all they that put their trust in the Lord [Psalms 2:12]

“They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides forever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even forever. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts” Psalms 125:1-4