Prosper and Be Happy

“Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).

Please notice that God has two desires for you. God wants you to prosper and be in good health. That’s awesome! Then, there’s a condition that governs prosperity and good health. You prosper and experience good health to the degree that your soul (mind) prospers.

The very first rule of Bible interpretation that you should know is… “The things that are important to God, He says many times.” That means don’t try to build a big doctrine out of one remote Scripture (let everything be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses, Deuteronomy 19:15). If something is important to God, He will talk about it repeatedly throughout the Bible.

The two things that God talks about more than any other subject in the Bible are the way we think and His desire for His people to prosper. The Bible clearly shows that God wants His people to prosper. Unfortunately, there is a huge controversy about that fact in the body of Christ today.

It’s interesting that the two most important subjects in the Bible—how our thinking affects our ability to receive from God and how God wants His people to prosper—are discussed the least in most churches.

God mentions redemption by blood, His willingness to answer our prayers, and His great grace and love for us many times from cover to cover in the Bible. Those subjects are certainly some of the things we should build our faith and doctrine on.

However, the two subjects talked about MOST throughout the Bible are our thinking and God’s desire for us to prosper.