Contributor: Isekhua Evborokhai
INTRODUCTION
Last week we learnt that aggressive faith and total immersion is what it will take to prosper in these times. Because poverty is an aggressive spirit (a curse as a result of disobedience); it will take faith – an aggressive force that aggressively takes what belongs to it to deal with the spirit of poverty.
In today’s study we shall be considering God’s Formula for Success.
Our Text in Joshua 1:8 says:
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
SUCCESS DEFINED
The dictionary defines success as the favourable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavours; the attainment of wealth, position, honours, or the like. Success is often associated with accomplishments or obtaining things such as lots of money, material possessions, or high positions of power. The more you have the more successful you are viewed by the people around you. This definition of success is based on tangible things and what other people think of you.
But that’s not what true success is! True success is how God views it. I believe that true (godly) success can include the above definition and also much more. Because godly success includes eternal blessings! However, the absence of the above does not mean one isn’t successful!
Genesis 39:2 says:
“The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. He worked in the house of his Egyptian master”
To attain success, we need to understand true success. Success for the believer is based on the Word of God and not only attempts at gaining worldly popularity or material gain.
From the above verse of scripture success is tied to God being with us!
God is a just God who operates by principles! He wants us to succeed in life and has provided the formula:
THE WORD
Interestingly there’s only one formula for success; the Word!
Joshua 1:8 (AMP) says:
“This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.”
So what is important is how we interact with the Word. How we believe in the Word; how we obey the Word and if we live by the Word!
APPLYING THE FORMULA
From Joshua 1:8 we see the following steps:
Step No. 1—Speak and Confess God's Word
Keep God's Word in your mouth at all times.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (NIV): “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
The same command is re-echoed in Deuteronomy 11:18-21 with verse 21 emphasizing the result of speaking the Word: “your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon earth.”
The Bible in Proverbs 18:21 says there’s power in the words we speak.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
• There is no lack in this earth so great and so powerful that it cannot be turned around with words of faith.
• The entire course of nature—your future and destiny, success and prosperity—are controlled by the words you speak.
That’s why Hebrews 10:23 admonishes us:
“Let us hold fast the profession [confession] of our faith without wavering….”
Step No. 2—Meditate on God's Word
“Meditation on the Word enlarges our capacity for faith; it transforms and expands our capacity to believe and receive.” —Kenneth Copeland
Meditation on God’s Word is fixing your mind and setting your heart on the desired result.
Psalm 1:1-3:
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
How to meditate God’s Word
a. Apply the Word personally in your life.
b. Allow the Holy Spirit to make the Word a reality in your heart.
c. Carefully ponder how this Word applies to your life.
d. Dwell on how the Word changes your situation.
e. Place yourself in agreement with what the Word says about you.
f. See yourself as God sees you
g. Realize the integrity in God's Word.
Step No. 3—Act on the Word
2. Luke 6:47-49:
“Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built an house and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”
The MSG version of verse 48 says:
“If you work the words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock.”
It was the same storm that hit both houses but they experienced different results.
Decide not just to be a hearer of the Word but a doer of the Word. See James 1:22
Acting on the Word:
Matt. 6:33, Luke 6:38, Galatians 6:9, 2 Corinthians 9:6, Malachi 3:10, Proverbs 3:9-10, 2 Peter 1:3
CONCLUSION
God wants us to be successful in life. But He doesn’t want us to clamour for it like the world does. Matt. 6:32. So He put in place principles that will guide us to achieving this. We have seen them in the application of the formula. So let us put the formula together.
First, we find out what God's Word says about our financial situations. Then, we speak that Word in faith, believing for the desired result. And then we meditate upon it until the Word becomes greater on the inside then the lack on the outside. And finally, we fearlessly act on what we see in the Word, knowing that no word from God is void or without power. It is easy to act on God's Word if you have been speaking the Word and meditating on the Word. The result is that you will make your way prosperous, deal wisely in the affairs of life and have good success.
