We come now to finances and prosperity. Many of us earn an income and we struggle along. We wish we had more, but we do the best that we can. We hang in there with our job and we just work, hope and pray.

We might keep on going that way. But people around us are getting wealthy and we say,

"Aren't they lucky."

We start believing the lie that we are not capable of this. We think that God never intended this for us and that He wants us to be poor.

I was recently reading a book that I found on the Internet that related to this subject. It was written by a Jewish Rabbi. He pointed out that if you look at the list of the top wealthiest people in the world, most of them are Jews.

Why is it that Jews are always wealthy? Because Jews have built into the fabric of their thinking that wealth and business is a good thing. It's a moral thing and is even the right thing to do.

They even link it to their commitment to God. Because you see God promised them abundance. He promised them the Promised Land and wealth.

You can't get a Jew to go for the idea that it is good to be poor. It just reacts against their whole programming and their whole archetype.

The Wrong Picture of Wealth

But we do it don't we? We say,

"The Lord said, Blessed are the poor."

Jesus said that because the poor need blessing. He didn't say that it is better to be poor.

But our whole programming has taught us that we shouldn't aspire for wealth. So we go in our super-spirituality, faithfully doing our work and not asking for too much. We just ask the Lord for enough.

The Lord gave them the manna every day which was just enough. But let me ask you a question. Did God intend them to continue living in the Wilderness and eating manna? Was it His plan for them to always just have enough?

No, He offered them a Promised Land with abundance and with more than you could ever need. Sometimes it takes a financial crisis or bad financial experience to make you wake up and say,

"I'm tired of living this way!"

You see people all around you rising up and prospering. You might see people that you knew as you grew up, who were less educated than you were and had less capabilities than you. They came from a worse part of society than you did, but they rise up and become wealthy.

What do we do? We say,

"It's not fair Lord. I have been faithful to you. I've served you, I've given and have done all the right things. This guy is a heathen and he is prospering!"

David had that problem once. But don't you know the salvation that Jesus purchased for you? The Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 8:9,

Though he was rich, he became poor so that you could become rich.

God doesn't want you to be poor. Then you hear the good news. There is a new way of making money.

Do you know where most of that good news comes from these days? It comes from the world, because they are the only ones who know this. Or it comes from a Jew who kind of brings God into it. But it doesn't come from Jesus.

But if a Jew, who only had the Old Covenant and not the New Covenant; and if an unbeliever who doesn't even have Christ can prosper in this world, what is wrong with us? We have believed a lie and are deluded.

What is it going to take to make you wake up? You need to come to the place where you say,

"Why should I settle for this any longer?"

Sometimes you need the day that turns your life around. But when that day comes, suddenly you find that living the way you were living and following the habits that you were following, are not going to bring the results. There will have to be some changes.

There will have to be some changes in your thinking. This means there is a repentance involved.

There will be a change in your habit patterns; in the things that you do. There is also going to be a change in your passions and the things that you desire, otherwise you are just going to stay the way you are.

Salvation for Your Health

How about health? You might say,

"I am doing okay. I don't need to do too much exercise because I'm pretty fit you know."

I always loved running when I was younger. It was the only thing I was really good at. I was too small to run in races and things like that, but I could do cross country running. I could run good distances. My legs were fairly fit and I held up pretty well.

I can't say that I ate healthy. I ate the things that I liked. And I can't say that I really did exercise. I hated gym, but I held it together. I was pretty good.

Well the years started to go on, and in my mind I still had the same picture. I was now round about my 40's, and one day my son-in-law kind of made a jibe at me about physical fitness.

I said, "Listen, I will race you around this park and I'll beat you!"

I knew I could do this because I was good at running.

He said, "You are on."

We started off with enthusiasm. But you know what? My body and my mind were in two places. My mind thought I could do it, but my body said,

"Who are you talking to? Me?"

I started out with great gusto, then I tripped and fell and my glasses went flying. I lay there in the dust feeling embarrassed. He had to come and help me up.

My Health Scare

That could have been the day that turned my life around. It wasn't, but it should have been.

Have you had some of these experiences? You suddenly find that your health isn't what it should be. But you see something like that doesn't normally have the motivation you need.

What does have the motivation is when suddenly you find that you're not feeling so good. Your blood pressure is going up and things are not the way they should be. You go and see the doctor and he says,

"Let me give you an ECG."

He runs it and says,

"There is something wrong with your heart. I am sending you to a specialist."

So you go and see the specialist and they run a whole pile of tests. Then they come with a checklist and say,

"This is wrong with you and that is wrong with you. You have an enlarged heart, you have diabetes and your cholesterol is too high. And according to what we see, one of the veins in your heart is blocked."

That is frightening! Suddenly you wake up and say,

"Hang on, I can't die. I'm still too young. I have a whole life ahead of me."

That was the day that turned my life around as far as my health was concerned. They wanted to load me with a whole lot of drugs, but I said,

"I'm not going to take all these drugs. I'm going to trust the Lord."

I spoke to the specialist and said,

"I believe God can heal me of the diabetes."

He said, "Yes sure. I will believe it when I see it."

For the first time I started to look at what I eat. I started to think about how immobile I was and how little exercise I did.

I started to test my sugar and my blood pressure every day to see where I was at. I started to become aware of my body. For a while I reached a point where I thought,

"It is over. I'm getting on in years now."

I think I was in my 50's. I had done a lot of work and set up a full ministry. I thought my time was starting to come to an end, so I handed everything over to my children and stepped back.

But that is not what God wanted. That is what Satan wanted. Don't think that God brought the day that turned your life around.

It wasn't God that brought it. But He stood back and let you run straight into the wall like an idiot. The question is what are you going to do about it now?

Well having been there, I want to say this to you. You don't have to wait until that happens before you wake up. You can do something about it now.

Salvation for Relationships

What about relationships? You might say to me,

"Well I'm happily married. I'm quite happy not having friends. I just have my family and my husband (or wife). Things are going great."

Or you say, "I have my boyfriend (or girlfriend). I have my fiancé. Things are going good."

But what happens when suddenly that relationship comes to an end? What happens if you get dumped unexpectedly? She found somebody else. Or he dumped you for somebody younger and more beautiful. What will happen then?

What about if it gets to the point of extreme separation and divorce? Now you are on your own and there is nobody in your life anymore. Is that spirit of complacency still going to continue? Or are you going to come to the place where you say,

"Hang on, I should be doing something more with myself and my life."

You are now a little older. And when you were younger it was easy to find people to date and go out with or to have relationships with.

But now you are a bit older and you don't have those curves anymore. If you are a guy you don't have the six packs and broad shoulders anymore. You might think to yourself,

"Who will look twice at me?"

I have been there. After I got divorced, for the first time I started washing my hair more regularly. I began to put creams on my face to get rid of some of the wrinkles and to make myself look a little bit better.

I checked what kind of clothes I wore and tried to get a bit fitter. Because if I was to meet someone new I had to impress them. I couldn't go on the way that I was.

What does it take to bring you to that place? Maybe when you have experienced the pain of loneliness.

You go out to eat at a restaurant. You are sitting at a table all by yourself, but you see couples all around you. They are laughing and joking, touching each other and holding hands. Sometimes they are even kissing.

That is a painful experience. You get invited to a wedding and it is one of your friends who was really not attractive. You had far more going than she did, but she has this awesome guy.

Now they are married, and you are sitting there as a guest at their wedding and wondering,

"Is this ever going to happen to me?"

Have you been there? Well was the situation serious enough for you to say,

"I'm not going to go on this way anymore."

Let me tell you it is not going to change until you change your habits. You will have to do something. You will have to change and be something different.

This is practical salvation, because God has provided these things for you. Jesus died on the cross to save you from every one of these things in life.