David [00:00:02]:
Last week we began looking into what it means to be prospered by God. We discovered that there are 4 words that define this. We are empowered to: 1.
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Advance. 2. Make progress. 3. Succeed. And 4. Be profitable. This is all a part of God’s divine order that he established in the beginning for us.
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The blessing spoken by our Father God over Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the beginning was and is a mandate for all humanity. It is still active and operative within mankind today. God wants this for us in every dimension of our lives—spiritually, mentally, physically, relationally, personally, professionally, and financially. In all these areas, he wants you to advance, to make progress, to succeed, and to be profitable. So why, why is this important? Why do we need to know this? Because God wants blessing to flow to you so it can flow through you. Out to the world around you. Wow, you are a vessel of blessing. God has created us to be vessels of blessing.
David [00:02:01]:
Hmm, praise God. Next, we drill down into what it meant to advance. We begin to look at that first word there of those four. And what we found is godly advancement is God moving his purpose forward in us and through us. We saw that there are 5 dimensions of advancement or 5 characteristics, and the first one was this: God’s presence. God goes before us, and prepares our path and makes plain the way. Psalm 32:8 in the NLT says, the Lord says, I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.
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One translation says, watch you with my eye upon you. God is with you every day. He’s watching you every day. And then in Isaiah 30:21, and this is in the Amplified Classic, Isaiah said this: And your ears will hear a word behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ When you turn to the right or to the left, God is right there every day wanting to guide us and direct us and show us the way. We simply have to be attentive to him, start the day in his presence, with him, with him. God loves to guide us and advise us. He wants to show you the best way. All we have to do is ask, ask and listen.
David [00:04:00]:
The second thing we saw, the second dimension of advancement with God, is God’s power. And that word there in the Hebrew, the Hebrew word here for advancement, and there are 5 Hebrew words that can be translated advance or advancement, so it speaks of power, and it means to push forward, to prosper, to break out successfully, to succeed. Hallelujah. 1 Samuel 18:14 in the NLT said this about King David: David continued to succeed in everything he did, for the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. Hallelujah. And guess what, guys? The Lord is with us every day. He surrounds us.
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He covers us. He wraps us. He encircles us. He’s right there with us every day. We just have to acknowledge Him, walk with Him. Paul said it this way in Ephesians 3:20 in the Amplified Classic: Now to Him who by and in consequence of the action of His power that is at work within us— there it is, His power at work within within us is able to carry out his purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams. God’s power works in us, through us, with us, and for us to accomplish his purpose and plan. The third thing we saw was God’s process.
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So we, we enter God’s presence, which connects us to God’s power. And then God says, let me show you the way. God has a process. A process is a journey of becoming more. It’s being all God created you to be. And we do this through steps, stages, and strategies that God takes us through. That’s a part of the journey—steps, stages, and strategies. We will always be growing and becoming more now and throughout eternity.
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You have unlimited potential within you, and God wants to maximize that potential for his glory. Advancement is progressive. It is ongoing. Going. It is a journey that we are always on with our Father God. Hallelujah. God’s process does 4 things as we’re walking out the process with him. Number 1, it builds us, it edifies us, it builds us up.
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It equips us, it equips us, it gives us everything we need. God has placed everything we need to go forth, make progress, succeed, to be profitable. It’s all within us in Christ. God’s process shapes us. It forms us. It fashions us. In essence, it transforms us. And the fourth thing here, we go through that process, all those steps, so we can be all he created us to be.
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God has so much more for us, and he wants us walking in the fullness of it. Hallelujah! Joshua 1:8 in the Amplified Classic. I love this verse. And this is what the Lord said. The Lord gave Joshua the answer right here. This book of the law— that word law can be translated this book of instruction, of direction, of guidance. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that’s written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.
David [00:08:42]:
We’re going to talk about that later. Good success. As we are in the Word and His instruction— and a context for that word law there, this book of the law, this book of the way things work. It’s like the law of gravity works in a certain way, and that’s why we recognize it and know it. And if you know the law of gravity well, You can use it for your benefit, for the benefit of others. We understand the law of gravity, but we also understand the law of lift, and if we can work those together, we fly. That’s why we can get in an airplane. That’s why a rocket ship can go into space.
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We understand the law and how it works, and then we can use it. And walk in its way. That’s what God’s saying here. What I’ve done for you, this book of the law, is the way. It’s the way to walk, the way to think, the way to live. And if you’ll do that, if you’ll meditate on it, you’ll begin to see it in new ways. Observe and do according to what’s written in it. It will show you the way.
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And when you’re walking in the way, when you’re walking in this book of the law, the way I’ve laid it out here, you make your way prosperous, you deal wisely, and you have good success. Hallelujah. And that’s not the only place in scripture God talks about that. Another one we’re very familiar with is Romans 12:2. Paul said it this way. This is from the Amplified Classic. Do not be conformed to this world, this age. Do not be fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs, but be transformed, changed by the entire renewal of your mind, by its new ideals and its new attitude, so that you may prove for yourself What is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God? Even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in his sight for you.
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God wants you to walk in the best. He wants his best for you. And if we will renew our minds, and the way we do that is by being in the Word, studying the Word, declaring the Word, sharing the Word, meditating on the Word, journaling about it, sharing it with others, teaching it, we will learn to walk in it and understand it in a way that empowers us to be all that God created us to be and to walk in all God has given us. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. The fourth thing we saw here So that’s God’s process. And so the fourth thing was God’s path. It’s walking with God. It’s walking with God.
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God’s way. God has a way. God has a manner of living. God has a lifestyle. It’s And I don’t have the verse right here in front of me, but it’s Isaiah 55. And that’s where he talks about, my ways are higher than yours, my thoughts are higher than yours. And that word way there in the Hebrew means his manner of living and lifestyle, and it means that it exceeds yours and mine. He lives far above us.
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In essence, he’s saying, The way I live is a lot better than the way you’re living. Come on up here with me. Come live with me. I’ll show you how to walk in my way. And walking with God implies there’s a rhythm to life he wants to teach us. There’s a direction in life he wants us to go. There’s a consistency of being in agreement with him, linking arms with him. Walking with him every day.
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Walking with God, going on his path, is a daily relational journey of aligning your will, your spirit, and actions with his will, his spirit, his way. What you prefer— prepare for privately in God’s presence you present publicly by his power. And that’s another reason God wants us walking in his presence, his power, his process, and with him on his path. David said in Psalm 65:11, Lord, you crown the year with your goodness, and your paths drip with abundance. Where you walk, Lord, there’s an abundant overflow is what that means, an abundant increase that overflows. If you walk in God’s path the way he asks you to walk, there’s going to be an abundant overflow. Wow, wow, wow. And what you learn and what he teaches you as you seek him in your private time with him and your devotion, your prayer time with him, You’ll get to share it with others.
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You’ll get to bring it forth publicly, and his anointing, his power will be on it. Hallelujah. Then the fifth thing we saw is this: God’s place. God has a place for us. And that word there in the Hebrew that can be translated advance, that fifth word, means to go up, to ascend, to rise. In Hebrew thought, if you stepped into a promise, you stepped up into it. You went up into the promise. The promise lifted you to another level.
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And so we advance by going from faith to faith, as Paul says in Romans. We go from faith to faith. Philippians 3:13-14, the Amplified Classic says this: I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own yet. But one thing I do, it is my one aspiration: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the supreme and heavenly prize, to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. There it is. He’s calling us upward. God has a place for us. Paul said it in Ephesians chapter 2.
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He said our place is seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Hallelujah! We’re seated in Christ in the heavenlies next to the Father God. Hallelujah! Praise God! That’s where you are today, whether you realize it or not. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! So what we see here in all this, what we talked about last week, was God’s divine pattern of kingdom advancement is this: God’s presence goes before you. God’s power works in you, through you, with you, and for you. God’s process shapes you, forms you, and fashions you. It transforms you. God’s path shows you the way, and God’s place elevates you, raises you up to that place that the enemy stole from mankind in the beginning.
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He stole it from Adam and Eve, but Jesus restored it through his sacrifice on the cross, his death and his resurrection. He restored to us everything that was rightfully ours, placed us back into our proper position with all the authority. Praise God. All the power, all the blessing God had for us in the beginning. And so when we understand the way God wants us to advance and how that is one way he prospers us, empowers us, It begins— we begin to see there’s a divine pattern here in we advance, we make progress, we succeed, we profit. And so these characteristics of being prospered by God— advance, make progress, succeed, profit— is a plan of God, a process of God. They’re characteristics that bring us, help us walk in all God has for us. And so last week we talked about in depth advance because that is the key, that is the foundation for being prospered by God, we saw.
David [00:18:40]:
And the second word there, so it says to advance, to progress, or make progress. That word progress is closely aligned with the word advance. They’re intertwined. Anywhere you go look them up in any dictionary, one is a synonym for the other, and they work together. And I love this, the first definition of progress, progress as a noun, is this: Progress is a royal journey marked by pomp and pageantry. Wow! God wants to take us on a royal journey with him. When we walk with him, when we enter into his presence, he’s preparing us to walk as royalty walks, to be a part of the royal family. That’s one of the ways we make progress, is to begin to walk in who we are in Christ, to understand that I am a child of God.
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Yes, I have earthly parents, but God used them to birth me for his plan and his purpose. I am a child of God. My mother and dad were children of God. We’re all a part of this family, this family of God. And so we’re on this royal journey. The second thing it says, it’s a state of procession, or another word, a stately processional. Wow, we see those. Every country has those processions of state.
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We see them in our country, see them overseas, and we honor those people who are in that processional. We progress because we are moving forward. We are advancing in God. As a part of His family. Another definition, it could mean a tour or circuit made by an official. Do you realize that you’re an official in the kingdom of God? Scripture tells us that we’re kings and priests here on the earth representing the kingdom of God and the Father of God. And one of the ways we make progress, one of the ways we advance, is when we take that to heart, we stand in that place and say, Satan, I don’t care what you say, you can get out of here. I know who I am in Christ.
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I’m a child of God. I’m a king and a priest reigning and serving here in the earth. My Father God, I’m here to bring heaven to earth, to see His kingdom come and His will be done here on the earth as it is in heaven. The third thing here for progress is, as a noun, is it’s an expedition. Hallelujah, we’re on an expedition. Glory to God. A journey, a march. We’re marching through this world.
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Hallelujah. It’s ours. Praise God. I love it. I have this thing that’s been in me since the day I was born. I love to go explore. Sometimes I like to get out and drive and I go find a road that I’ve never driven down. I just drive it just to see what’s there, where it goes.
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I love that. That’s a part of what God is saying here. God is an explorer. God is one who loves to take a journey, to look and see the beauty and the glory. The next thing it is, is Making progress is a forward, onward movement. We all are born, whether we realize it or not, the enemy tries to hide this from us, keep this from us, but we are born with an objective. God has a purpose and a plan for your life. He has an objective for you to accomplish.
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And as we seek him and we pray and learn and grow and advance and become more, we are on our way, making progress toward our objective. And you say, well, I don’t know what my objective is. Then pray and ask God. Just say, Lord, I thank you for showing me. Holy Spirit, thank you for showing me what God’s objective is for me. God will show you. God will speak to you in some way and show you his objective, the goal he has for you. The third thing here is, so we’re on a royal journey, we’re on forward movement, onward movement, and then the third thing is progressive development.
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To advance, to make progress, is the progressive development of all mankind, of humankind. We get better gradually. We want it instantly. As my son said once as he was growing up, Dad, why couldn’t I have been born just knowing everything I need to know? I said, “Son, you would have done just like I would have done. We’d have messed it up somehow.” No, we got to grow into it. We’re still sons of God, daughters of God. We’re still children of God. We’re still part of the royal family, but every day we’re growing into who God created us to be, pushing forward, pursuing him.
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Gradually getting better and better and better, knowing more and more and more, being filled with God’s wisdom so that we come forth and be all he created us to be. Hallelujah! That’s progress as a noun. Now let me share with you what progress is as a verb. Again, it means to proceed, to move forward, or to develop to a higher, better, or more advanced stage. It’s taking action. The verb here, it’s not just talking about the concept, it’s talking about the active engagement, actively progressing. Moving forward every day. I’m going to be better.
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I’m going to be higher. I’m going to be more. I’m going to take— as Mark Batterson says, God’s gift to us was our potential. He put within us the capacity and the power to be or become more. Our gift to God is how we maximize that for him, what we do with our potential. And it’s our choice. We get up every day. And so I get up every day thinking, I want to move forward today.
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And I’m trusting in God with this. I’m not trying to make it happen myself. I’m trusting God to show me the way. But I do— my heart’s desire is to move forward. My heart’s desire is to go higher with the Lord. To be better, to move to a more advanced stage in knowing him and understanding who I am and where he wants me to be. Wow. God wants you to make progress, and that’s a part of that whole thing we looked at last week of God’s process.
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And sometimes we don’t like God’s process. Sometimes we don’t like process at all. We want it now. We want to accelerate and we don’t have to do anything about it. Just get in the car and go. But God says, no, I got a plan. I got a purpose, but there’s a process to get you there. And if you’ll walk with me and learn from me, you’ll be, as Paul said there in Ephesians 3:20, it’s gonna be so far beyond what you can ask, think, or imagine.
David [00:28:13]:
You’re gonna be going, whoa, how did I get here? And how do we do this? Wow, God! God wants us to advance. God wants us to make progress. So as it says there in Joshua 1:8, we can have good success. Good success. Hallelujah! Good success means to be prudent, wisely understand something, to prosper, to have success, to cause to prosper. See, we are caused, we have, God says he gives us the power, the ability, the capacity to have good success, to prosper, to be more. Let me read this to you again. Joshua 1:7-8 from the New King James Version says this: only be strong and very courageous.
David [00:29:18]:
Now let me stop right there for a minute. God wants children who are strong and very courageous. He doesn’t want us being intimidated. Well, I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know if I’m good enough. You know, I don’t know a whole lot. God is here to teach us, to guide us, to bring us on the way. He says, “Be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law of which Moses my servant commanded you.
David [00:29:52]:
Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.” Get in the Word, walk in the Word. Don’t try to, you know, somebody comes along, “Well, I know a better way.” No, the Word says this, we’re going to walk in it. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. Pray it, speak it, declare it, mutter it. You shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it For then, once you prayed it, declared it, studied it, read it, meditated on it, mumbled it, then you observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then, once you do that, you’re walking in the path God has for us, then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. God’s plan, the way He wants to prosper us, is for us to have good success. Psalm 32:8, New King James Version, says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.
David [00:31:19]:
I will guide you with my eye. God, like I said in the beginning, God’s watching over us. And sometimes, you know, you’ll hear, hang on, don’t go that way. Go, just stay over here where I’ve got you. That’s not the right way. You’re gonna get distracted if you go there. That’s gonna take you off course. I know it looks good, but no, this way’s better.
David [00:31:46]:
That’s why we need to seek him every morning, every day, every night. God, I need your perspective. What do you have for me? Which way do you want me to go today? Where do you want me to be? Who do you want me to talk with and engage with today? How do I need to do this? Wow. God wants to instruct us and teach us and show us the way. Wow. That word here, good success. We have good success when we surrender our way to God’s way and we let him instruct us and teach us and guide us. And so then we advance, we make progress, we have good success, and you know what that leads to? Being profitable.
David [00:32:56]:
And I love this word profit here. We begin thinking money and all that, but profit here in the Hebrew means, it does mean to gain, it means to benefit, to avail. It means to ascend, to be valuable, to rise above. See, profit is being valuable and useful, being excellent, doing good, bringing benefit, to others or being benefited by others and by the Lord our God. That’s being profitable. That’s having profit. Now, is money a part of that? Sure it is, but it isn’t the whole thing. Don’t get focused on the money.
David [00:33:59]:
That comes. Jesus said, if you seek me first, if you seek the kingdom first, if you get in God’s presence every day, all these other things will be added to you. Really, when we profit, we’re coming to this place where he says, let me show you how to be valuable and useful to me and my kingdom and to all those around you. And out of that will flow everything else. Benefits will come to you. Psalm— or Isaiah 48 in the New King James Version says this: Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God. Now, He’s making a point here. He’s going, hey, this is me talking.
David [00:34:51]:
Pay attention here. I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit. God says, if you’ll seek me, if you’ll listen to me, if you’ll spend time with me, I’m going to show you how to be valuable, how to be useful in every dimension of your life, in your relationships, in your work, with your friends, with your family, and even financially. I will show you how to profit. And It goes on and says this, “Who leads you by the way you should go.” God has a plan for you, a purpose for you, a way for you to be successful and profit. Scripture there, it talks about in Chronicles, it talks about that the enemy, Philistines, I believe, were coming against Israel, and David said, “Lord,” he went and prayed, says, “How do I go out against them?” How do we go out knowing we’re going to have victory? And the Lord said, go out into the plain and face them head on. He did. They were victorious.
David [00:36:11]:
Well, they decided that, well, they were victorious that time, but we’re going to come again. We’re going to take these guys. And so David came and said, Lord, do I go out against them the same way we did last time? And the Lord said, no. He said, go hide in the woods around them and come in from behind them this time. Surprise them. They’re not going to be expecting this. See, God’s got a plan that works every time, and it’s not always the same way. He wants to show us the way, and He says He’ll even lead us.
David [00:36:54]:
He’ll go before us. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! 1 Corinthians 12:7, New King James Version says, but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. God’s Spirit is in us, working through us, working with us, working for us so that we profit one another. We’re all profited by God’s Spirit on each one of us. Another way to say this, the definitions there say it could say the Spirit is given to each one for the help of all, to be expedient for all, to be there ready for the advantage of all. Like I said last week, and I mentioned it in the beginning today, God brings blessing to you so blessing can flow through you to those around you. Hallelujah, hallelujah. That word prophet there in the Greek means to help, to be profitable, to be expedient for the advantage of one of those around you.
David [00:38:16]:
God wants you to advance. He wants you to make progress. He wants you to be successful, and He wants you to profit, bring, be useful and valuable, helpful and beneficial to others. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says this: All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good good work. Completely equipped, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So let me summarize this. That fourth characteristic of being prospered by God is to be profitable, which means to be helpful, serviceable, advantageous, means to create gain, to bring benefit. To avail means to ascend.
David [00:39:32]:
It means to be valuable, to rise above, to excel, to be useful, to do good, to be benefited or bring benefit. It means to be profitable in every dimension of your life, to have profit in all areas of life. For the help of all, for the expediency of all, for the advantage of all. It’s not just about us. God prospers us so that we can bless those around us and be blessed by those around us. Hallelujah! Glory to God! Glory to God! Glory to God! Glory to God! That It’s what God spoke over Adam and Eve when He said, they kneeled before Him and He said, be blessed. He blessed them and then He spoke to them how to bless the earth. Be fruitful, multiply, subdue, replenish, and take dominion.
David [00:40:42]:
Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow. God has so much for us. The enemy robbed us of so much, and God’s given it all back to us. And he’s going, come on, kids, walk in it. I love you. I’ll show you the way. Just come with me every day.
David [00:41:07]:
Let me show you the way. Praise God, praise God, praise God! God’s heart is to see us advance, make progress, succeed, be profitable as we walk out His plan and purpose for our life here and in eternity. This isn’t just a here-and-now thing, it’s a forever thing. As we stay in his word and walk in his way and grow in faith and glory, we become all he created us to be, and we maximize our potential for his glory. And we are all a part of his story. History. Of the kingdom. Wow, that’s who God made you to be.
David [00:42:11]:
Embrace it. Walk in it. You are prospered by God. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your insight and your revelation and who we are in you and all that you’ve given us and blessed us with. And Father, I pray that as we listen to this, and I pray people listen to this over and over, Father, that we begin to understand all you put into place for us, how you want to lead us, how you want to grow us, so that we walk in all that you have for us, Father, and be all that you’ve created us to be, so that we bring heaven to earth, that Father God, your kingdom come, your will be done here on the earth as it is in heaven. That we see your will, your plan, your purpose accomplished right here. And we thank you for doing it in us, through us, with us, and for us, Father, as we move forward.
David [00:43:11]:
And I pray that this week we go out and bless the world around us and show them your love. We show them your love as we walk in love with you, Father. Father, thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you for blessing us beyond measure. In Jesus’ name, so be it. God bless you. Pastor Connie is coming with a closing thought and a prayer. Go out there and be all God created you to be this week.
