I was born again in 1975 and early in my life of belonging to God, I saw God’s way guaranteeing success on this earth and I believed these instructions and set about to do what these scriptures instructed and for the past 30+ years, I have seen these instructions work in my life in everything I have set myself to do.
David once said:
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Psalm 37:25
God is faithful to fulfill everything HE says to us.
The time came for Moses to die … and God said the following to Joshua …
Joshua 1:2-9 … Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Have not I commanded thee?
Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
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God gave Joshua an assignment. Joshua was to replace Moses in leading the children of Israel into the promised land.
The assignment differs from our assignments but the way to achieve success is the same for us as it was for Joshua.
Hebrews 13:5-6 … Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for HE hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
God has given us HIS Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
Jesus spoke of this “promised” gift to come from God in the following scripture.
Acts 1:1-5 … The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that HE through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also HE shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith HE, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
When we have the Holy Spirit living in us, we have promises of God to us as follows:
- The Holy Spirit will teach us all things … secular & spiritual …
- The Holy Spirit will remind us of all Jesus has said to us.
- The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth.
- The Holy Spirit will show us things to come.
The Holy Spirit never fails. The Holy Spirit dwells inside each believer. The Holy Spirit is with us all the days of our life. The Holy Spirit is described by Jesus as “The Comforter” … and as “The Spirit of Truth” …
Jn. 14:26 … But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Jn. 16:13 … Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
How could we be defeated in this present life? The promised gift of the Holy Spirit is one of the great promises of God to the NT church.
God has fully equipped us to succeed in life and to enter into life eternal with HIM, with Jesus (the Word), and with the Holy Spirit.
All we have to do is labor to enter into HIS rest … Heb. 3-4
We enter in through faith in God, through believing what God has said, believing what HE promises … through acting on the promises of God in an appropriate way …
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At the time I was born again, 1975, I owned a small business in Dallas, Texas. It was a business in American Indian Arts … jewelry, pottery, rugs …
At that time, I received a phone call from a man living in Houston, Texas. His wife had opened a business dealing in American Indian Arts. He wanted to come talk with me about this business.
I was horrified at this idea. I knew nothing at all about business.
This man said he was a graduate of Harvard Business School. He was determined to talk with me.
He came to Dallas to my shop. He began asking me about my “marketing plan” for my business.
I was saying, “God help me.”
The man continued to persist wanting to know my marketing plan.
I was praying constantly as he spoke. Finally I said to him…
I am a Christian. So before I go out to buy art objects, I pray asking God to have the Indians make the objects.
When I get to the reservations where the Indians live, I pray asking God to show me the art objects that I need to purchase.
When I get back to Dallas, I pray, asking God to send out the angels to get the people to come into my shop to buy the items.
There was dead silence.
Then this man said: “Well … that’s a type of marketing.”
That is the way I ran my business and my life … God was my strength. The Bible and the Holy Spirit were, and still are, my light as I decide what to do on this present earth. And everything I have done since setting out to follow God has prospered and had good success because I have tried to do things according to that which God said in HIS Word.
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Psalm 1 …
1-3 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in HIS law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
It is not a matter of being a Christian … It is a matter of choosing the way of God, to meditate day and night in the Bible, to adjust to those scriptures that stand out to you, to pray for wisdom, for God to show you what to do, to then think on that word given you until you have the strength to actually do what that word says.
Jesus said: Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Mt. 7:13-14
Many Christians love their life and their relationships on this earth more than they love the Word of God.
You have to love the Word of God more than anyone or anything … even more than your own life, more than your own reputation, more than your own good name.
Mt. 13:44-46 … Jesus says … Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
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Unknown to me in 1975 when I was born again, I had a call of God on my life.
Shortly after I was born again, I was asleep in the night. I was transported into heaven. I was with God, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit. At that time, I was “merged into the body of Jesus,” … made one with the Word of God. (this was in the spirit … there were no images … it was a spiritual experience)
I was on fire for things of God …for the Word of God …
After that, my business meant nothing to me … nothing but Bible (and the church) meant anything to me. That is all I remember thinking about.
At the time this happened, I had 3 very competent women who worked for me so I didn’t have to go into the shop at all.
I just stayed in my apartment and read the Bible all day… and when God showed me something to do from the Bible I would get up and do it …then I would return again to my apartment and read the Bible, looking for that which I was to do on this present earth.
During that time, I felt God was showing me to stop watching TV, stop going to plays and such, stop going to football games … just to stay home alone and read the Bible and do what HE showed me to do.
(I’m certainly not saying this is what anyone else should do but this is what I felt I was to do and I lived this way for several months, maybe even for a few years.)
To show you how far removed I was from this world, at one point I went on a trip to buy merchandise for my shop. One of my workers went with me. My mother and dad came to the city where I was and we were all riding down the highway and someone mentioned Jimmy Carter. I replied, “Who's Jimmy Carter?” He had just been elected president of the United States and this was the first time I had ever heard his name. Everyone in the car was shocked!
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You may think things work out for me because these “special things” (being taken into heaven twice) and because of the strong call of God that is on my life, but I will tell you that I have met other Christians who do not have this type of call on their lives and they, too, prosper and have good success in all that they do because they have chosen to meditate in the Word of God and try to do what the Bible says and hear from the Spirit of God.
My assignment on this earth differs from your assignment and from Joshua’s assignment but the results are exactly the same for each of us who chose to live our lives by the following plan.
Joshua 1:8 … This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Psalm 1:1-3 … Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in HIS law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
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