TITLE: Promise, Purpose, and Prosperity By Samuel Connelly 01/06/05 |
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Promise, Purpose, and Prosperity
“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness,
And all these things shall be added unto you.” –Jesus
Matthew 6:33 KJV
“But continually seek the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness,
and all these things shall be provided for you”
Matthew 6:33 NOP (New Open Version kjv)
As you study the verse here, you will quickly learn that Seek First, is translated Continually Seek.
The Key words, in this whole scripture is - CONTINUALLY SEEK.
- The Verb here is – Seek ( Pursue, Search, Hunt for, Inquire about, Try to find, Ask for, Look for)
- The Type of Seeking – Continually – ( Non-stop, Without Ceasing , Constantly, Persistently,
repetitively, )
- The Opposite -Intermittently (Now and then, From time to time, Occasionally, irregularly.)
This shows the kind of life a Christian must live. It is a life of continuous
(non-stop, with out ceasing) search ( pursuit, hunt for, inquiring). In this kind of life quest there is no room for laziness, lackadaisical attitude, or any place for anything that would stop, slowdown, or hinder the Christian from this on going search.
Now that we see what kind of life a Christian lives, and we understand that we are in an ongoing pursuit, let us look now at the object of our unending hunt.
“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness,
And all these things shall be added unto you.” –Jesus
Matthew 6:33 KJV
The object here is – The Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:10 (when He was teaching the people in what manner they should pray), “…Your
(God’s) Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth s it is in heaven..”
It is the will of God that His kingdom be manifested down here on the earth. This is why Jesus taught those
listening to pray like this. He wanted them to understand that God has a plan and a destiny to be manifested
on the earth.
Later, when asked about when the Kingdom of God would come,
Jesus replied,
“The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say,
‘Here it is,’ or ‘there it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”
- Luke 17:20-21
As Christians, we must have a lifestyle of continuous pursuit of these two things, His Kingdom, and His
Righteousness. There is nothing more that should get our attention.
Everyman on the earth is in a state of constant pursuit of something. Jesus gave us the objects that we must direct our constant pursuit towards. Man is in pursuit of material things, things that he may pile up onto his own lusts. They pursue; clothes, food, homes, cars, and power. In their continuous pursuit of these things they will use cunning, deceptive, and other sinful ways to gain them. Plus, the reason they are in pursuit of these things is only for selfish reasons. They believe if they can gain them all, their need for constant searching will be over, and their souls will be satisfied.
When sinners so desperately look for love, joy, peace, fulfillment, purpose and power they go the way of
sin to find them such as; sex, drugs, self-promotion, murder, alcohol, deceit, and every other sin known to
man. Yet all these things only give a fulfillment that lasts a while. So, sinners get a momentary, imitation
taste of pleasure and when it ends quickly, in their desire to feel it again, they sin more and more, never
being able to feel totally satisfied, so they are never able to stop sinning. It is addiction.
This is how Satan works. He is a salesman, selling mankind addictions. Selling them sins that give them a
momentary, illusion of pleasure or fulfillment.
Their pleasures in sin only last a little while, as they reap death which lasts forever.
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a
season;
- HEBREWS 11:25
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- ROMANS 6:23
As Christians, our # 1 affection should be Jesus Christ. So in our continuous search, we should find that the
core reason for our persistent pursuit, is to get closer to Jesus Christ.
If this is the case, then we will not be like the sinners who do not know Him.We will not be like those who
go after material prosperity. We go after Christ with Reckless Abandon.
As we go after Christ with Reckless Abandon, there is a promise from God to provide our spiritual and
material needs and desires, according to His good, and perfect will.
Let’s look more closely at the promise.
“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness,
And all these things shall be added unto you.” –Jesus
Matthew 6:33 KJV
Promise and Purpose –
1. PROMISE - The promise is that if we will continually seek His Kingdom and Righteousness, then He
will add all these things to us.
There is a system that is at work here. This is how it works.
IF WE – THEN HE.
This is a system that is at work all through the Bible. This is how God works. Let me show you from other
scriptures.
1. 2CH 7:14- If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek
my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and
will heal their land.
2. ROM10:9- that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God
raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;
3.MALACHI 2:2 "If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name," says
the Lord of hosts, "then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I
have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart.
4.MATTHEW6:14,15 "For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
5. 1 JOHN 1:9- If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
6.MATTHEW7:7 - "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened to you.
7. LUKE 11:9 - "And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and
it shall be opened to you.
8. REVELATION. 3:20 - 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens
the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.
You see how it works.
IF YOU- Do what ever it is that He requires
THEN HE – responds to our action.
This goes for good and bad actions.
IFWE listen to Him and do His will, THEN HE will act on our behalf and bless us.
IFWE will not listen or obey Him, THEN HE will act with Judgment upon our sinful actions.
Why? It is because Obedience brings Gods Blessings
And Sin brings God’s Wrath. This is how it works.
God always reacts to our actions. He always answers our actions with an action.
Look again to the verse in study.
“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness,
And all these things shall be added unto you.” –Jesus
Matthew 6:33 KJV
If the promise is that God will always react to our actions ( be them of Obedience, or Rebellion), then we can see here that IF WE continually seek His Kingdom and Righteousness, THEN HE will provide our every need, and desire. We also can expect the opposite to be true. IFWE will not continually seek His Kingdom and Righteousness, THEN HE will not meet our needs and desires.
As we constantly pursue Jesus Christ for the reason of getting closer to Him and pleasing our Father in Heaven, as a side benefit, God adds all our needs and desires to us, according to His will and riches in Glory.
“And my God shall supply all your needs,
according to His riches in Glory.”
- Philippians. 4:19
And we know that His Riches in Glory are limitless, according to His will and righteousness. What I mean by this is, if what you desire is selfish, or sinful, it is not in His riches, so He can not give them to you. His Riches are perfect, Holy, Righteous, and can only be used for the purpose of His will in our lives. It would be impossible for God to bless you with unholy or sinful gifts, because they do not exist in His Store house. He is a Righteous and Holy God, and so are His Gifts.
2. PURPOSE –
Now we will look at purpose, motive, and reason of the heart. Many Christians are seeking God totally for the reason of gaining spiritual and material goods. Many Christians would not be Christians if it were not for the promise of love, joy, peace, purpose, power, happiness, and eternal life. These are material Christians, living a humanism type of Christianity. They are in it for the promotion of person and soul. Many of these people never repented when they were saved. They only came to God to try out something new, not seeing their need for a Savior to free them from their sins. Many of them have never admitted to offending God, or even believe they ever have. If you have never repented, you have never been saved.
"I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
- LUKE 13:3
And they went out and preached that men should repent.
-MARK 6:12
And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
-ACTS 2:38
"Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may
come from the presence of the Lord;
-ACTS 3:19
"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere
should repent,
-ACTS 17:30
These people pray and quote prosperity scriptures to gain spiritual and material goods for selfish reasons. Then they do not understand why God is not answering their prayers. The reason God is not answering is because they are asking in selfishness.
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source, your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
JAMES 4:1-3
These people ask with the wrong motives. They ask for personal gain.
When you ask, if you ask according to the will of God, you will get it. What is His will? His will is that we obey His commands and bear fruit.
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.”
- JOHN 15:16
and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
-1JOHN 3:22
And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
-1JOHN 5:14
So if we do not ask according to His will, then He does not even hear us. If our motive for asking of the Father is for the purpose of fulfilling His Will, then we can ask anything, and He will give it to us. Just look at the promise in other scriptures here.
1. JOHN 11:22 "Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You."
2. JOHN 14:13 "And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son.
3. JOHN 14:14 "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
4. JOHN 15:7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it
shall be done for you.
5. JOHN 16:23 "And in that day you will ask Me no question. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you
shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name.
6. JOHN 16:24 "Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.
7. JAMES 1:5,6 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men
generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
8. 1JOHN 3:22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
9. 1JOHN 5:14 And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
10. 1JOHN 5:15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
I know that seeing the promise makes many people hungry for the blessing, but I want to pull out
something else here to help us understand why many do not get blessed.
Many see this verse this way;
“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness,
Then all these things shall be added unto you.” –Jesus
Matthew 6:33 KJV
Key word here is – THEN,
But the actual verse reads like this;
“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness,
And all these things shall be added unto you.” –Jesus
Matthew 6:33 KJV
Key word here is – AND
What difference does this make? Well it changes the motive of the person seeking God. In the way the verse really reads, it shows that we seek God for another reason than the gift. What reason would that be? It does not say here, but we know that it is not for material goods because if you could open your Bible and read the verse just above the verse here, you would see that it says that the Heathen go after those things and that God knows what we need, so do not worry about it.
Most likely, the person is seeking God, for the reason of finding Him. Not for selfish reasons of getting blessed. We are seeking the Father, not His gifts, the Creator, not His creations.
In the verse were I took out the word AND, and put in the word THEN, we can see that the person who reads it that way is seeking to get the blessing. They read it and see that if they seek God they will get what they want, so if I want to get my stuff I guess I will have to seek God.
So most likely, if the blessing is given, then the seeker will stop seeking (at least until the person needs blessed again). This would then disqualify him from the blessing because the blessing is only for those who continually seek the kingdom of God and His Righteousness.
For our God to be a responsible God, He must answer our prayers only after searching our hearts. If God was to give us every thing that we ask for with no regard to the motive for which we ask, then the world would be a total mess, or it would have come to an end a long time ago. Just take some time and think about all the crazy stuff that people ask for.
Think about it. No games could be played, because there could be no loser, because every one prays to win. No one would work because they could stay at home and get paid for it. We would never have too hot or too cold forecasts, so the planets ECO system would be thrown totally off. Also, the earth would be dangerously overpopulated because on one would die. It would be a world of little Gods, who are only interested in themselves. What a sick world. God sees these things.
In a devotional I have from the late Smith Wigglesworth, he says,
“God has a measureless measure for us to have, but we can not have it if we do not ask. We can not ask if we do not have faith, and we can not have faith if we are unrighteous or unholy. It is for the righteous, not the unrighteous or dishonest.”
PROSPERITY -
So we can see that everything in Christ is ours, but only if we are continually seeking His Kingdom and His Righteousness. We also see that if we are seeking Him for His stuff, then we will not get anything, because we must have true and righteous motives behind our seeking.
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