I Pray That Ye Prosper .part 1.

I Pray That Ye Prosper. Part 1. What is prosperity and how does it affect our health, physically and spiritually? “I pray that ye prosper and be in health, as your soul prospereth.” There are many descriptions of prosperity, depending upon who you ask. To some prosperity is ,money in the bank, power ,prestige, possessions, ect, and to others prosperity, is a trailer on a hafe acre of land ,food on the table and a job that pays the bills. 3rd John 1:2, John was speaking to Gaius, who was of bad health, but of strong faith. But John was speaking to us also, soul prosperity is most important to all of us, there can be a strong soul in a weak body. Here John was putting his prayer and importance on soul first ,then body. Its putting the health and physical prosperity as a result of soul prosperity. The greater the faith of an individual the greater the reward here in the physical. But our goal in life is not to gain wealth and position on this earth but to lay our treasures away in heaven. We strive for faith and soul prosperity ,to help others of weaker faith.To bear the imfermites of the weak and lend a hand to the low in spirit and heart. Health of the body is always secondary to salvation of the soul.The Bible states that bodily exercise prophets little, not to say that we don’t exercise to keep the body fit, but the body will pass away for an eternal body that will never die. The things that we do to our bodies to maintain them in good health ,will be of little use when it comes to our time to die.So then, What is prosperity? Its having a pieceful mine and close contact with God. Its knowing that all is well with you and the Father of all creation. Its being able to sit and watch different colored birds feed off the food you’ve provided for them on your porch. Its being able to go to sleep at night and not having to worry about waking up the next day. To look at prosperity we have to look at three people in particular, the rich man, Lazarus and Solomon. First lets look at the rich man, Jesus spoke about. Luke 16:19-31, “There {WAS }a certain rich man..” here Jesus made the positive statement about an actual person, with the word ,”was”, this man he speaks of was probably a man the people knew well,but to prevent unnessary tension among the people, Jesus did not call him out by name. The story was the important thing He wanted the people to remember. Jesus knew this mans name as He knew all men by name. This rich man had it all, money, power, prestige, possessions and security. His wealth was probably obtained legally, for the scripture says nothing to the contrary. He was probably an honest man, from a good family. In the view of the people and himself he was prosperous in many ways. Thats the way it is in todays world, sinners as well as christians, can be financially well to do, but we have to look at the rich man in a different way of prosperity. In his life he had it all except one thing, his soul was not right with God. He lacked compassion and charity.This man was under the Law of Moses, The Ten Commandments, he was under the law ,for Jesus had not fulfilled prophecy to its full extent and also, this man was already dead. The Bible states that ,”those that are under the law shall be judged by the law, and those without law shall be judged without law....” So here we have an honest, prosperous man who died and went to hell. Now on the other side of prosperity we have a man named ,Lazarus, which means,”God is help”, in the days that are spoken of here there were many people named Lazarus, it was a popular name. Many people were choosing names that depicted, God in their life. Now Lazarus was a beggar, not to be confused with the Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead, these are two different people. Lazarus, didn’t have anything, the scripture states that he was “laid” at the rich mans gate. The word here “laid” means, to be thrown or droped heavily” Lazarus was placed roughly at the gate by others that wanted nothing to do with him.With no family, friends, no religious leaders to help him, he was dieing of desiese and hunger. The important thing to remember, he was laid here because, they couldn’t find any other place to take him, he was rejected by all. Do you sometimes think the same thing about yourself, you feel that no one cares and that you have no place to go for help? I believe we all at one point or another in our walk with Christ, feel the same way, especially at the times that God allows us to walk a little way on our own to test our faith. Now Lazarus had a different type of prosperity, something that others could see, touch or understand, he had soul prosperity. It wasn’t that he was a bad man, to have all this sickness to come upon him, even the Bible states that, if and when we suffer, its better to suffer as a christian, which was also introduced under the Law. Bad things do happen to good people. With food and raiment, there with be content, which was probably the way that Lazarus lived his life. Depending upon God to provide his daily needs, while he concentrated his time on worshiping God. As you notice in the end ,both men died, weather rich or poor, the outcome of this life is still the same, death. In part two we will discuss the other side of prosperity, with David and Soloman. ars