Today we continue our series, “Progress On Purpose.” I told you that God wants us to walk in “NEW LEVELS IN 2021!” But if we are going to do so, we must be intentional about our progress. With that in mind, as we lay the foundation for the year, I told you that I would discuss “Leveling Up” in five areas:
1. Spiritually
2. Financially
3. Physically
4. Internally
5. Externally
We have covered the first one thus far. As we study the second (leveling up financially), I am breaking this down into the following five topics:
1. Soul Prosperity & the Answer to Poverty
2. Tithes and Offerings
3. Sowing into Ministry
4. Giving to the Poor
5. The Purpose of Prosperity
We have covered four of these five thus far. Yesterday I started on the fifth. We will flow in the same vein today.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God wants you to be a conduit of His favor.
I define favor as what happens “when God raises up people to use their power, ability, influence, and money, to help you in ways you cannot help yourself.” Whenever I preach or teach about the favor of God, people get excited, they say, “AMEN!,” and they pray for God to favor them.
If you go back to the definition of favor I use, it is clear that God is the one providing the favor, but His heavenly favor is manifested through human beings on this planet. In other words, heavenly favor flows through earthly conduits. Now that I have established that, and I hope you can picture that in your mind — God moving on the heart of someone else to use the power/ability/influence/money they have to BE a blessing to you — I want you to flip the paradigm.
Allow me to explain what I mean by “flipping the paradigm.” I will use Jesus as an example. Whenever I preach about the woman with the issue of blood, who came to Jesus to receive her breakthrough, who touched the hem of His garment, and who received a miracle as a result of her faith, most people in the audience identify with the woman. She was physically debilitated, financially in ruin, socially an outcast, and psychologically at her wit’s-end, but she came to Jesus and she got her breakthrough. Most people identify with her in the text and they can relate whatever they are going through to the plight of the woman. As a result, they start crying out to Jesus. There is nothing wrong with that. But you should not be walking with God for 10, 20, 30, and 40 years and still be identifying with the woman in the text. Jesus did not call us to live like the woman. He called us to live LIKE HIM! At some point, you are supposed to hear that story and see yourself as Jesus. You are supposed to see yourself as the one people come to when they need a breakthrough. You are the one people need a touch from… a word from… a release of heaven from. As Jesus is, so are you, in this world (1 Jn 4:17).
If you can understand that (the fact that at some point God expects you to be the answer to the world’s problems, because He lives in you and He has graced you to make a difference), then you can understand what I am about to say about favor. Like the woman with the issue of blood, whenever I preach or teach on the favor of God, and I say that God is able to raise up people to use their power, ability, influence, and money, to help you in ways you cannot help yourself, people get excited, and they ask God to give them favor with the people who have the money and influence. But at some point, God wants that to be YOU!
Remember, we are on this planet to advance God’s Kingdom. If the read the end of the book, you see that ultimately, the goal is for the kingdoms of this world TO BECOME the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ! (Rev 11:15). So God wants us to affect (with effects and influence), the people of this world and the systems of this world. Some people refer to the systems of this world as the seven mountains of influence. They are:
1. Government
2. Media
3. Arts and Entertainment
4. Business
5. Education
6. Religion
7. Family
My point is that God gets ahold of one of His children when they fully submit to Him, and he then raises them up in whatever mountain (or sphere) of influence they are involved in. God is able to favor them to get to the point where He can influence the entire system (or mountain) through His children; children placed in strategic places. The point I am making today is that God wants YOU to be one of these children.
Some closing thoughts as I wrap up this first point:
a) Stop seeing yourself as the person who always needs help. At some point, you have to become the person doing the helping.
b) God can bless you as an individual to be at peace, to have a sound mind, and to be financially stable. But the greater purpose is for God to use you as a CONDUIT of His favor and finance on this planet.
c) When God raises you up into a position of influence, and you have what I call “professional equity,” then please do not be afraid to use it. God is placing people in board rooms, on the boards of companies, and in positions to make hiring/promotion/financial decisions in large corporations. If that is you, and God has built up a certain level of professional equity with you to the point where you can either make critical decisions or influence them, then please use that equity. Don’t be afraid. You are there for a reason. There was a time when no one who looked like you or sounded like you, was in that position of influence. You are there now. SO USE THAT INFLUENCE for God’s glory! Speak up! Be heard! Don’t let God down.
d) If you are not in that position yet, open your heart to it. Don’t fight against the prosperity God wants to give you. Remember, it’s not about YOU! It’s bigger than you! It is all about what God wants to do on this planet!
*** Instead of being the person who needs the favor of God, please believe God to be a CONDUIT of His Favor in this world! Be the person people are seeking favor from!
*** When you are in a position of favor, please don’t be afraid to use it!
2. God wants you to be a conduit of Kingdom capital in order to fund the advance of His Kingdom on this planet.
a) Paul commanded the rich in this world to “do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” (1 Tim 6:18). He did not tell them to get rid of their money. He did not tell them money was bad. He did not say money was evil. No, Paul was teaching them to use their money to be a blessing to others. That counsel still stands today.
b) The Bible does not say you cannot have money. God actually goes out of His way to instruct those He has blessed with money to use the resources TO BE a blessing.
In Deuteronomy 8:10-20, the Lord had Moses to be very clear with the nation of Israel. God wanted His people never to forget who made them rich. They were once slaves, but God was preparing them to have houses and land. It was the Lord who got them out of slavery. It was the Lord who saw to it that the Egyptians gave the Israelites all their gold, silver and precious stones before they left. It was the Lord who had made them rich. So the Lord had Moses to say, “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 ancestors, as it is today.” If the Lord were against wealth, why would He give you the power to produce it? The Lord is not against money, He is against people falling in love with money. Don’t let that be you!
c) Accept the grace and the responsibility to walk in earthly prosperity. Some say, “Oh, I only want enough for my family and me,” or “All I need is enough to get by.” While statements like these seem ‘holy’ or ‘spiritual’ on the surface, they are actually selfish. You should want everything God wants to give you in order to do what He birthed you to do. You cannot feed the poor if you don’t have enough food for yourself. You can’t help pay someone else’s bills if you can’t pay your own. You can’t help put a roof over someone’s head if you don’t have a place to stay. Our God is a God of overflow because He wants us to bless others out of our overflow.
God is not opposed to you having ‘more than enough’ because He wants you to be in a position to help others. But it comes with a responsibility. The more you have, the more you have to manage and the more demands there will be from others. However, the same God who gave you the grace to increase will give you the grace to handle the overflow.
d) It takes money to do ministry. One of the purposes of prosperity is evangelism.
(Luke 8:1-3 ERV)
1 The next day, Jesus traveled through some cities and small towns. Jesus told the people a message from God, the Good News about God’s kingdom. The twelve apostles were with him.
2 There were also some women with him. Jesus had healed these women of sicknesses and evil spirits. One of them was Mary, who was called Magdalene. Seven demons had come out of her.
3 Also with these women were Joanna, the wife of Chuza (the manager of Herod’s property), Susanna, and many other women. These women used their own money to help Jesus and his apostles.
Another translation says that these women “used their considerable means to provide for the company.”
— God used people who were financially well-off to finance Jesus’ ministry. Guess what? God does the same today.
— Jesus never wanted for anything.
— Jesus never begged, He never asked for a handout, and He never lacked anything.
— Jesus was doing what the Father told Him to do; therefore, the Father saw to it that He had what He needed every step of the way. But many people miss the point that God used HUMANS to get Jesus the money He needed to do ministry. God does not send money from heaven. God sends money THROUGH PEOPLE! The point of today’s message is that there is nothing wrong with you being one of those people!
Tomorrow I will deal with the fact that God wants you to prosper in order to fulfill your divine purpose.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me about Kingdom favor and finance. You are able to raise up people to use their power, ability, influence, and money, to help me in ways I cannot help myself. I thank You for giving me favor with those in positions of influence. But I also thank You for making ME one of those people. You raise me up to the point where my voice matters and where I have the money to fund Your projects on this planet. So I will be the person people come to for favor. I will be a conduit of Your favor and finance on this planet. I release Kingdom capital and I operate in Kingdom influence. I level up in every area of my life in 2021! GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
