Success And Material Prosperity In Christ - The Grace Way

Poverty and lack is NOT the will of God for any man. He wants you to be successful and prosper abundantly in Christ. Same way He desires that you make massive progress in your spiritual life.

(3Jn 1:2)  Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Even more than our earthly fathers, God cares about our whole being. He doesn’t just want us to be sound spiritually, He wants us to have healthy bodies and prosper financially also.

I know there are lots of people out there who are trying to make it look like the only thing God cares about is your spiritual life as a Christian. The way it is put, you would think that having a desire for the good life (a life of prosperity and abundance) is a sin in God’s eyes. However, the Bible tells us a different thing altogether.

(Psa 35:27)  Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

God takes pleasure in the prosperity of His children. It gladdens His heart to see you prosper.

In a bid to warn the brethren against greed and the love of money, we most times cross the line and warn them against having money and make being rich appear the same as being unrighteous.

While it is true that some of the believers in the Bible were poor and may have even died that way, there is no denying that there were those who also prospered abundantly even after they have trusted in God for salvation.

(Gen 15:6)  And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

(Gen 15:7)  And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

(Gen 24:35)  And the LORD hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses.

I singled out the case of Abraham because of his significance to our faith. But there were others also who prospered before and after their salvation as believers.

Material prosperity does not always mean one would be stinkingly rich. But it surely means you would always have enough to meet your needs and that of those around you. Your name may or may not appear on Forbes list of richest people in the world but whenever there is a need, you wouldn’t have to sell a kidney to meet that need. That is the Bible’s description of material prosperity. Not a life that is constantly in lack, debts and penury.

One can be rich and still righteous. In the same way, he can be poor, wicked and very ungodly. Being rich or poor has nothing to do with righteousness or holiness. It’s just a matter of choice.

I have seen people genuinely serve God to the best of their abilities when they were poor and still maintained that in the midst of abundance. Never accept poverty as God’s ultimate method to keep you humble, holy and righteous.

So how do you achieve success in life as a believer, especially in this dispensation of Grace?

When it comes to achieving material prosperity or success in any endeavour as believers, the Bible’s laid down pattern or process for achieving that is works through grace. You can call that a grace empowered labour or labour working by grace.

It is not just by grace alone (without any form of your effort as in salvation) or purely by works (as in your personal labour alone). It is actually by Grace through labour. The two are so interwoven you can’t separate one from the other.

Before you get mad at me for even mentioning the words “works” and “labour” with regards to our achieving success in life, let me show you something real quick from the scriptures.

(1Co 15:10)  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

(2Co 11:23)  Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

Now if you paid real attention to those verses above, you’d discover Paul in talking about his success in ministry and how he achieved it, never ceased to mention how he by God’s grace laboured abundantly for it.

He never credited it to his efforts or labours alone, neither did he also credit it only to God’s grace (without any effort from him). He always put the two in their right perspectives.

You know the common misconception people have about grace and works (labour) is that they are complete opposites of each other. It is not always true.

The only time grace is completely devoid of works in the scriptures, is with regards to salvation. After salvation, grace empowers you to labour and achieve success in whatever field you want. That is what Paul meant in those verses above by saying that Grace was working in him causing him to labour more abundantly than the others. It empowers you to work diligently while you are on the earth.

That is also why in heaven, we will be rewarded not for the grace that we received freely from God but for the labour and work we personally did with it.

(2Co 5:8)  We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

(2Co 5:9)  Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

(2Co 5:10)  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Now when we talk about being successful in our ministries, businesses and careers, we don’t become passive claiming we are leaving everything to grace. Yes, God’s grace will take care of that but it is going to do it through you.

So if you are not actively involved in the work to bring the big picture God has placed within your heart to manifestation while trusting in His grace, you make the grace of God a vain thing. In the same way, you give too much credit to your works if you claim success and material prosperity is all by one’s efforts alone.

That means in aiming for success or material prosperity in life, one would need to work as though grace never exists, and as well trust in God’s grace as though there is no such a thing called labour.

God’s grace has empowered us to prosper materially and be successful in whatever field we may find ourselves in. In co-operation with that grace, we work hard and smart, bringing to materialization prosperity and all-round success.

I hope this blesses you.

Glory to God!