How to Prosper in Hard Times God’s Way: Seeing God’s Perspective

Hi, I’m Evangelist Mike Smalley. Welcome to this edition of Strengthen Your Walk™. I’m talking today and teaching out of my book, How to Prosper in Hard Times God’s Way. Every child of God wants to do things God’s way. You and I want to please the Father. We want to do what honors Him. And I want to shift our mindset today in the area of finances and divine provision and prosperity. What exactly does God want to happen in our life? How do we prosper in hard times and do it God’s way?

There’s many ways to prosper. Some of them are illegal. Some are immoral. There’s a neutral way, not illegal, not immoral, but it may not be God’s way. But there’s prosperity God’s way.

One of the ways that we begin to prosper is when we shift our mindset to believe how God believes. To agree with what God says about prosperity. You know, it’s one of the most disturbing attack topics, if you will, in Christendom. People are very offended if you talk about divine provision, but it’s in the scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Divine provision is all through the scripture. So, having a perspective from God is very, very important.

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 I want to give you three scriptures today. Write these down. And if you haven’t memorized a new scripture in recent days, I would encourage you to add these to your memory list, Psalm 35:27 says this in the King James, “Let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.” You see that? Let the Lord be magnified. Who’s the Lord? The one who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant. You know, if you found out that a man down the street was worth a hundred million dollars, but you knew for a fact that his children were starving, that had been days since they’d eaten and he was in the house, just didn’t care. You’d call the police on a person like that. You’d call child protective services. You’d do something to rescue those kids.

Now you can imagine God. When you’re born again, He’s your father. And He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, those scriptures says, he has all of it, and all of the silver and gold on the earth belong to the Lord. Can you imagine God having everything? If His children were starving, we had no provision on the earth, you’d think God was a child abuser if He didn’t bless His children. Well, obviously the scripture tells us He does and He’s made provision for us to be blessed. It requires our cooperation in many ways, but one of those ways is believing what God says about us.

So, we learn from Psalm 35, He’s pleasured. It didn’t say He was pleasured by our worship. It didn’t say He was pleasured by our gratitude. It didn’t say He was pleasured by our health and exercise routine, though that’s other scriptures for these things, okay? But this verse says He has pleasure when His servants prosper. He has pleasure in the prosperity of His servants.

Listen to Proverbs 8:21. How is this? “That I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth. That I may fill their treasuries” plural more than one. It’s a bank account He’s talking about. Your savings account. Your investments. This is a powerful scripture, “That I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth. That I may fill their treasuries.” One of the great ways to bring wealth and prosperity into your life is to start agreeing with what God’s word already says about the subject. And it’s not enough to believe it. “Even demons believe,” the Bible says “and they shake so hard that they tremble.” There’s an evangelist- I love pastors. I’m in a different church every weekend of my life helping pastors. And I go to churches of all sizes. And one of the things I say to people is you’ve got to see things from God’s perspective and it’s not enough to just believe it in your mind. You’ve got to say it, your faith is always voice-activated.

So, I would read this verse and then say, “Father, I thank You today that since I love You, You are causing me to inherit wealth that You may fill my treasuries.” That’s a beautiful thing to say in the first person. Let me give you one more verse. Deuteronomy 8:18. Ready for this one? “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He,” not a preacher, not a denomination, not a belief system. God said about Himself, it’s Me. “For it is He that gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers as it is this day.” This is how we begin to prosper God’s way. We agree with what God says in His word about the subject. God is not anti-prosperity, God is anti-poverty. I didn’t say God was anti-the poor, I said God is anti-poverty. I’ve been to 41 countries of the earth preaching the gospel since I was 14 years of age. I’ve never seen one benefit to being broke and God hasn’t talked about one in His word either.

You and I have a right to prosper in Jesus’ name. So, thank you so much for grabbing these scriptures, believing them, memorizing them, and confessing them. Thank you for joining me today for this edition of Strengthen Your Walk™.

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