Contributor: Esther Alajiki

INTRODUCTION

When we talk about prosperity and health, 2 things immediately come to mind, money and physical health.

Text: 

“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”

Definitions

Health: is defined as the state of being free from illness or injury, a person's mental or physical condition, there are different spheres of health, physical, emotional, spiritual, health is God’s will for his children.
Wealth: is the state of being rich, prosperous, having plentiful supplies of a particular resource, a plentiful supply of a particular desirable thing:

Prosperity: From our definitions we can deduce that there are different spheres or realms of prosperity, the prosperity of the soul is spiritual prosperity (as your soul prospers) and material prosperity (that you may prosper in all things and be in health) “All” connotes more than one instance.

Prosperity of the soul: Man is made up of the Body which is our flesh, the soul which is our conscience our reasoning that carries our character and personality to a degree. And the spirit which is the spirit “inner man, the invisible part of man.

The Soul is your decisive part – the deciding factor of our thought process, it is to be controlled by the “New Man” the regenerated spirit, your soul must be saved, sanctified, dominated, and influenced by the regenerated spirit of Man that is regenerated by the Holy Ghost and the Word of God. But our souls determine a lot of our influence. Your character is a reflection of how much influence our soul has.
Our soul can prosper, when we deliberately infuse the Word of God into our spirit man, the stronger our spirit, the more it influences the capacity of our souls to make godly decisions and vice versa. Our souls will begin to align with the truth of God’s Words and it will begin to prosper. We must receive the Word of God, submit under the authority of God’s Word, whatever it says we obey, we must believe that this Word of God has the power to perform what it says it would perform, and exercise our faith in the Word of God. The reason many don’t prosper is because many don’t believe. The word is activated by faith, and then your soul prospers.
We must proclaim the blessing of God over the facts of life. The truth of God’s word will always prevail over the fact of man’s word and situations.

Evidence of Spiritual Prosperity: You live in truth , you dwell in God and God in you. The Bible refers to this as good Success Joshua 1:8. You walk in truth Psalm 1:1-3. You are a doer of the Word and not a hearer only.
Evidence of Physical prosperity: relates to material possession, the Bible also recognises the prosperity of the wicked,
Psalm 73:3 - For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Proverbs 23:17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD.

It is God’s will to bless our physical bodies, our families, our homes, our jobs, our nation, His eyes are not dim, His hands are not short and He can never run out of resources.
When our pursuit is spiritual prosperity, physical prosperity will follow.
Matthew 6:33 says: seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
2 Chronicles 26: 5. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.

When the glory of the Lord is upon you:
Isaiah 60:5 “Then you will see and be radiant, And your heart will tremble [with joy] and rejoice Because the abundant wealth of the seas will be brought to you, The wealth of the nations will come to you.

It is the will of God for us to be healed and whole.
The Lord wants to make us whole in every area of our lives, spiritually, physically, emotionally/mentally/psychologically, maritally, relationally, vocationally, socially, nationally in every sphere you can think of. The Lord wants to make us whole . He wants to minister total healing to us.

The Lord wants to heal us spiritually

We must be prepared and willing to receive His healing. Jesus asked the man who was an invalid for 38 years whether he wanted to become well. We should not allow prolonged suffering to rob our hope, confidence, dream and desire. Once we are delivered by God we will have to take responsibility for our life. We will face drastic changes in our life. And once God delivers us, we must be careful to walk in obedience to God lest a worse tragedy occurs in our life. He wants to heal our backslidings. He wants us to live in close fellowship to Him.

The Lord wants to heal us physically.

The Lord is a healer. When we walk in obedience to Him, He promises to heal our sicknesses. we must claim the promises of God and experience His healing in our lives.

The Lord wants to heal us emotionally.

He wants to heal our broken hearts and wounded emotions and painful memories. We must not live all our lives with a broken heart because of a painful experience in the past. The Lord wants to reassure us that He will do a new thing in our lives and therefore we should be willing to forget the past and face the future with confidence.

The Lord wants to heal us relationally.

He wants to mend our broken relationships. The Lord wants us to be free from bitterness and anger and malice. He wants us to be kind and tender hearted towards each other and forgive one another. Just as God has been merciful to us and forgave our sins , we must be willing to forgive others . When we obey His commandments we will experience loving relationships in our life.

The Lord wants to heal us vocationally.

He wants to bless the work of our hands and cause us to prosper in our endeavours. The disciples had tried all night to catch fish and failed to catch any . But the Lord gave them instructions to fish and they caught more fish than they could handle and had to get help from others. The Lord wants to bless us in our vocation and bring healing in the areas where we have failed in the past.

The Lord wants to heal us socially.

He wants to use us to bring healing to our society and community. The prophet Elisha healed the waters of the city and brought healing to the community. The prophet Elijah prayed for rain and brought prosperity to the land. The Lord wants us to carry a burden for our society and community and use our spiritual authority to bring the blessings of God upon it.

The Lord wants to heal us nationally.

He wants to bring healing to the nation. When God’s people humble themselves and pray and seek the face the God and turn from their wicked ways , the Lord will hear their cry and heal their land. Our prayers for the nation can bring peace and prosperity to our land.

CONCLUSION
But 3 John 2 goes beyond money and health. 3 John 2 talks about God’s desire to make you a complete individual, if your soul does not prosper, you will not have a good testimony as a Christian - 1Timothy 6:18,19 -That they do good, that they be rich in good works. It is his will for us to be prosperous, spirit soul and body. Ps 35:27 Let the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.
When you prosper and you are in health you will be able to do more exploits in the kingdom. Never adjust yourself to a life of paralysis, spiritually, physically or emotionally.
Do you want to prosper and be in good health? God is right here in our midst. He's prepared to hear our requests and heal our afflictions if we are willing to receive and follow Him.

John 5:6 -Wilt thou be made whole?