THE GOSPEL OF SUCCESS
THE Bible is the original success manual. God’s Word is the book of success and successful living. His Word contains the power to succeed and thrive on Planet Earth. Failure is not part of God’s plan for mankind. He Himself cannot fail. Therefore, the man or woman who builds his/her life on God’s Word has a sure foundation of success before they even begin.
Meditatingon God’s Word is the absolute guarantee of success in life (Joshua 1:8). Unfortunately, success has become a dirty word in certain religious circles. But success is God’s idea for man. If you doubt this, simply ask the question: if it isn’t, then what is? Failure? If God wanted man to fail, then why hold a man accountable when he does? Sin is missing the mark, falling short of God’s glory.Sin is failure. God sent Jesus to redeem and deliver us from sin. So God sent Jesus to eradicate failure in the human species. You cannot be a man or woman of God and settle for failure (sin). To do so is to dishonour YHWH. This is not to condemn those who have failed. All have failed in relation to God’s standard, no-one more than me.
But failure must be our enemy, if God’s Spirit indwells us. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Success in a man or woman. He is the Might of God to do right i.e. succeed. God never sent the Holy Ghost into anyone to make him fail. It is amazing that, in this Pentecostal/Charismatic age, so many do not understand the purpose of the Holy Spirit. He indwells us for one purpose – to cause us to succeed. Success is the very nature of God. It is impossible for Him to fail or fall short. In Judges 14 verses 6 and 19 we read that the Spirit of YHWH came mightily upon Samson. The result was superhuman feats, firstly the barehanded killing of a lion, then the defeat of thirty men in a brawl. It is interesting that the Hebrew reads that the Spirit of YHWH prospered through Samson. God’s Spirit in and upon a man will result in that man prospering supernaturally. Supernatural success is the purpose of the indwelling Holy Ghost in a man’s life. If you read the account in Judges 14, you will see that Samson was empowered to utter wise riddles which would have brought him a thirty-fold blessing. However, his own carnal weakness saw this being changed to a bad debt. Yet the success Spirit of YHWH worked through him again to cancel the debt by plundering the heathen.
You can walk in superhuman prosperity and wisdom when you are indwelt by God’s Spirit and meditate (speak, utter, mutter, ponder) His success Word. Jesus was a success preacher. He believed the Holy Ghost was the success power of God in man:
“Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and news about him spread through all the surrounding area. He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” – (Luke 4:14-19 WEB)
Jesus preached that the Spirit of YHWH was on Him to preach good news i.e. the gospel to the poor. There is only one kind of good news to poor people. And it isn’t that mess which religious people peddle i.e. God loves you anyway, you poor mutt. No, good news to poor people is “Poverty days are over. YOU CAN BE RICH!” That is the good news to broke folks. Jesus preached a prosperity gospel. The problem is, most people don’t understand the Gospel. The Gospel is not “Jesus saves”. That is part of the Gospel but it isn’t the Gospel. No, the Gospel is that our God reigns, or that Jesus is Lord (see Isaiah 52:7). The Gospel is that our God rules and that we have dominion through Him. Dominion over what? Well, what is there? Dominion over the whole deal. And dominion over sin i.e. failure.
The poor need to hear good news. What is that? That poverty days are over.That failure is no longer their portion. That they need no longer be helpless. That they can take dominion over their lives. How do you help a poor man? Give him the gospel of dominion (Matthew 11:5). The poor are blessed because theirs is the kingdom of heaven i.e. the dominion of heaven is available to them. They have access to unseen resources in the spirit realm To be poor is toqualify! Isn’t that good news? That’s why Jesus said to seek first the dominion of God and His righteousness. Because if you have dominion, you can have all the things you need and desire! Your Father knows you need these things. Jesus taught empowerment to poor people. He taught them they must repent i.e. change their failure-prone lives to success-saturated ones. How do you get saturated with success? The same way Jesus did – by being immersed in the Success Spirit of God. Righteousness is just a “holy” word for success. To be righteous in conduct is to always say, think and do the right thing. This will automatically lead to success. Success is not just about how much you have in the bank. Success in life is doing God’s will, both generally and specifically. God wants you to succeed (Joshua 1:8) because success is obedience.
Jesus understood something we need to learn. People are interested in success and successful living, not religion. Religion is death. He is Life. If it looks and sounds like religion, then it turns people off. That’s why they aren’t queuing round the block to get into our services. We want to get them “saved”. Jesus communicated good news. Yes, it is about the jargon. But if you want to reach and, more importantly, influence the people, you have to face facts. We turn the world off with our jargon. People beat a path to Deepak Chopra’s door because he speaks of “spiritual enlightenment” while we say “Ye must be born again.” Years of dead man’s religion have made us a no-go area to many because we sound religious. Even the world has enough sense to know that religion is death. I don’t want to sound religious and I certainly don’t want to be religious. But our jargon is off-putting. Some Christians might think the term “success” is too worldly, while unbelievers might think “righteousness” is too religious-sounding. But they both mean essentially the same thing. Being right with God is success.
The Christian message is designed to produce a race of superbeings on Planet Earth. Samson was the Incredible Hulk of his day. Elijah was the Human Torch in his generation. These were Old Covenant men with superhuman powers. In the New Covenant,God expects better things. Christians are to be a miracle race. The Gospel is the power (dunamis) of God. It is superhuman ability resident in the man or woman who carries it. People flock to movies about Spiderman, the Hulk and the X Men because the heart-cry of humanity is for super-heroes. All creation waits for God’s manifested sons to take their place in creation’s arena. It is appalling that the people of this planet seek out gurus who will teach them success while those entrusted with the real deal peddle religion, theology and dead bones.
Abraham was blessed in all things. He was the Covenant Partner of YHWH and the original recipient of what we call the birthright blessing. This blessing made Abraham a billionaire in his own lifetime. We who are in Christ are partakers of this blessing. It is a clear promise of material success. Christ had to become a curse in order for it to become real in our lives (see Galatians 3:13). Verse 14 tells us that this blessing has now come upon us. But look at what it says .It speaks of a material blessing but then calls it the “promise of the Spirit”. How can a financial economic blessing be linked to the giving of the Spirit? Because He is the Spirit of Success, Prosperity and Superabundant Wealth-Accumulation! God sent the Holy Spirit to empower believers to get rich. The smearing, or anointing, of the Spirit is to clothe us with success!
Now before anybody gets all bent out of shape about money being the root of all evil, the Bible says no such thing. It says the inordinate love of money is the root of evil. Anybody who takes the Gospel of Success and uses it to just focus on money is a fool. The Puritans understood this. They saw wealth accumulation as their God-ordained duty but not for selfish reasons. It was simply their duty to take dominion by prospering in God. Dominion is the issue, not money. Max Weber comments on this at length in his brilliant work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Dominion is at the heart of the Protestant work ethic and thus is the foundation of most of our management culture today.
The Spirit of God upon Samson empowered him to take dominion over godless Philistines twice in Judges 14. He plundered the heathen to get a new wardrobe! That’s why Jesus said not to worry about what to wear. There are always plenty of unbelievers for you to plunder! I want you to note something else too. Here is Samson lusting after a Philistine woman, in clear contravention of the command not to get involved with foreign wives.Then he eats honey out of a dead carcass, something else prohibited by the law. The carcass is a four-pawed animal, so it is ceremonially unclean. To top it all off, he goes and kills thirty men in a brawl. This man is a walking violation! He is a fleshout on legs! He is breaking all the rules. But it doesn’t stop God anointing him to succeed. Despite all his flesh weakness, God was trying to get the anointing on him to prosper him and lead the people to deliverance. That anointing worked to bail him out of his own fleshtraps.
Despite your weakness and failings, the Spiritof God in you and upon you will lead you to sure and certain success if you cooperate with Him. It is this glorious, wonderful Spirit that will empower God’s people to plunder Babylon’s rich hoardings on that great day (see Revelation 18). I have a question for you. Where do you think Babylon’s disappearing wealth disappears to … ?
With acknowledgements to ‘PREACHER’
