Faith Bible Study Guide
Abraham’s blessing was threefold in nature.
1. It was a material or a financial blessing (Gen. 13:2,15; Deut. 28:4,5,8,11,12). 2. It was a physical blessing (Gen. 13:16; 17:16; Exod. 15:26; 23:25,26).
3. It was a spiritual blessing (Gal. 3:14).
In the New Testament, Third John 2 agrees that God wants us to be prosperous materially, financially, physically and spiritually.
3 JOHN 2
2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest PROSPER and be in health, EVEN AS TRY SOUL PROSPERETH.
Prosperity was not just for the Jews under the Old Covenant. Third John 2 was written to believers! The Bible is our final authority. I’m sorry to say, you can’t believe everything you read everywhere. You had better check up on what you read, I don’t care what kind of a periodical it’s found in.
For example in one periodical I was reading, a certain Bible scholar said that long life here on the earth was not a New Testament blessing. Well, I always thought the Book of Ephesians was in the New Testament, didn’t you! In fact, Ephesians 6, was written to the Church at Ephesus – to believers.
EPHESIANS 6:2,3
2 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.
Wasn’t the church at Ephesus a New Testament church? And wasn’t Paul preaching New Testament doctrine to them and instructing them in their rights and privileges in Christ – the blessings and provisions that belonged to them? Paul said, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise” (Eph. 6:1,2). What is the promise? “That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on earth” (Eph. 6:3).
Paul told the Church at Ephesus that long life belonged to them. If it belonged to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ at Ephesus, it belongs to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ today. If the commandment to honor our fathers and mothers is for today, then the promise – long life on the earth – is still for us today too. I believe the commandment part as well as the promise part. That promise is still to be enjoyed and practiced.
So, you see, you can’t believe everything you read unless you’re reading the Bible. I don’t care what it is you are reading, you had better check up on it, and see if it is in line with the Word of God. In our denomination when I was young, we were taught that material and financial blessings were just for the Jews, and we accepted that as fact. But I began studying the matter and I found that prosperity belongs to us as Christians as much as it did to the Jews under the Old Covenant.
In the first place, who are the Jews? The word “Jew” is just simply a short term or a nickname for Judah. The Israelites were never called Jews until after the twelve tribes split into Israel and Judah. But Judah didn’t have any more promise of material and financial blessing than any of the other tribes of Israel.
The Israelites all received or inherited the blessing through their father Jacob, called Israel. Jacob inherited the promised blessing through his father Isaac. Isaac inherited the promised blessing through his father Abraham. And so it’s not the Jews’ blessing; it’s not Israel’s blessing; and it’s not Isaac’s blessing. It is Abraham’s blessing.
That’s exactly what our text says, “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ . . .” (Gal. 3:14). Therefore, Abraham’s blessing is mine and yours. For years I swallowed that erroneous teaching that we ought not to have anything in life, and that we ought to go through life with our noses to the grindstone. That was supposed to be characteristic of humility and piety.
But I remember when I got ahold of this truth of prosperity, I was so thrilled I couldn’t sleep. Then after I got light on Galatians 3:14, other scriptures began to come to me, and the Holy Spirit said to me, “After all, didn’t God put everything on the earth that’s here? Didn’t the Psalms say that the world in its fullness is God’s [Ps. 24:1; Ps. 50:12]? Doesn’t the Bible say that the gold and silver and cattle on a thousand hills are the Lord’s [Hag. 2:8; Ps. 50:101? Then for whom did God make all those things?”
The Bible says that God made the world and the fullness thereof (Gen. 1:3-27; Ps. 89:11). He created everything, then He made His man, Adam, and said, “Adam, I give you dominion over all the works of my hands” (Gen. 1:28). By saying that, God was saying He made everything for His man Adam. He gave Adam dominion over the cattle on a thousand hills, over the silver and gold, over the world and the full-ness thereof. In other words, Adam was the god or the caretaker of this world.
Someone said, “Then how come the devil and his crowd have all the prosperity?” Because Adam committed high treason (Gen. 2:17; 3:6,7; Rom. 5:14). Adam sold out to the devil and Satan then became the god of this world. That is why in the New Testament, Satan is called the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). But Jesus, the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45-47), came to redeem us from the hand of Satan (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:13).
ROMANS 5:17
17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
The Amplified translation reads, “… [they] reign as kings in life through the One, Jesus Christ….” In this scripture, the Bible says that we shall reign as kings in life. That means that in Christ we have dominion over Satan in our lives. We are to dominate, not be dominated by Satan or circumstances. Circumstances are not to dominate you; you are to dominate circumstances. Poverty is not to rule and reign over you; you are to rule and reign over poverty. Sickness and disease are not to rule and reign over you; you are to rule and reign over sick-ness and disease. Each member in the Body of Christ is to reign as kings in life by Christ Jesus, in whom we have our redemption.