We Need Each Other

17 As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.
Proverbs 27:17 (NLT)

The message of the above verse is clear. Apart from God, we need each other. God expects us to be in contact to encourage each other and propel each other toward greater heights. The keyword here is “sharpen” implies efficiency and effectiveness. A sharpened knife can cut things faster and with lesser effort. We can do more with a sharper knife. Likewise for our personal lives. We need to be sharpened regularly and we do it through mutual encouragement.

Lately I have received quite a number of encouragements from the readers of this blog. I am grateful for them all. These encouragements have sharpened me to write more articles to encourage more people. This has become a virtuous cycle. Basically we need to sharpen one another.

However, I would like to point out some pitfalls in this business of sharpening.

First, sharpening refers to helping each other to move up, not down. Gossiping about other people and taking negative are not sharpening each other. This is something we should look out for. Many people, including carnal Christians like to get together to talk negative and sometimes they call it fellowship. If you join such fellowship you will not become sharper. Instead you will become blunt. Positive words encourage. Negative words discourage. We have to guard our minds at all times. Choose your fellowship carefully.

Secondly, we have to prepare to give as well as to receive. The above verse says a friend sharpens a friend. It does not mention which friend sharpens which. So, it has to be mutual. Sometimes you can be so discouraged that you can only receive. That is all right, but don’t make that permanent. Jesus himself said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. When you give you receive more. This is also known as the Law of Sowing and Reaping.

Take full advantage of what you have received and move to the next level of giving. Giving is important because as you encourage others, you will be encouraged yourself. This is one area that the Law of Sowing and Reaping works immediately. I have experienced that myself. The more I encourage others in this blog, the more encouraged I become. In fact, I learn more about the Bible by teaching it through this blog that listening to sermons.

Recently, I have started another blog of the science of getting rich. I find myself knowing more about it after I share my knowledge to others. So, if you want to expand your knowledge about anything, share what you have. That is your role. The Law of Sowing and Reaping will do its part.

Thirdly, you have to do some preparation work for the sharpening works to be effective. Get rid of negative thoughts as much as you can in order to help you to absorb the positive words from others. In the past, I allowed free access to this blog. The worshippers of doctrines took advantage of my liberal policy to propagate their doctrines and when they failed, they started to hurl their insults and vulgarities. I made a mistake of trying to show them the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, which had only resulted to more abuses. Finally I have decided to ex-communicate them by changing the settings for comments. Now that this blog is free from abuses and vulgarities, I receive more encouragements from fellow Christians.

Fourth, there is also follow up works. After listening to some positive words from other Christians, you have to put them to work. Positive words are useless if you don’t put them to work. It is like building a house on loose sand. The moment storm comes, your entire house will be washed away. Sharpening begins with words but it has to continue through actions.

In conclusion, we need to sharpen each other to achieve greater prosperity in life. Thank God for the internet.

The Joy Of Discovery

2 It is God’s privilege to conceal things and the king’s privilege to discover them.
Proverbs 25:2 (NLT)

The above verse deals with God’s policy on science. Once upon a time, science was seen as a heresy. It was a time when theologians were in control. Only theology was the complete truth. Those who had dared to disagree with theology were arrested by the Inquisitors and tortured until they confessed their crimes. Then they were burnt at the stakes. That was the Dark Ages. It was always dark when theologians were in power.

Thank God, those time was over. Now, we know the truth and the truth had set us free. The above verse mentions two kinds of privileges. God’s privilege to conceal things and the king’s privilege to discover them. Sounds like hide and seek, don’t you think so? What does it mean? The answer is, God wants us to enjoy our lives on earth and one of the joys he wants us to have is discovery.

This also explains why God did not give Adam some sort of encyclopedia in which Adam could read up and know about every thing that happens in the universe. God’s intention was for Adam to find out himself and rejoice in his discoveries. In other words, God expects human beings like us to study and discover the laws of nature like gravity, electricity, biology, geology, astronomy, mathematics and everything else that he has created. We can also say that science is one of God’s gifts to humanity to bring us joy. The term “king” in the above verse refers to us, humans. God wants human beings to place a high priority in science.

Science does not only bring us joy. It is a vital instrument for our prosperity. We can never have achieved our current state of civilization without it. Without science, we can never have buildings, cars, planes, ships, computers, washing machines, air conditionals and many other facilities which we used to take for granted. Science also sets us free from the lies of theology.

Even today, it is not uncommon for theologians or the worshippers of doctrines to proclaim the judgement of God each time a disaster happened. When some terrorists rams planes into the World Trade Centre buildings in New York, a theologian had declared it as a judgement of God to punish the United States of America for her sins of not allowing school prayers and being tolerant to homosexuals. Recently there is a huge bush fire in Australia. Some theologians capitalize on this disaster to proclaim that this is God’s judgement on Australia for her policy on abortion. Thank God, they are not getting much audience for their heresies because we are well grounded in science.

We know that are reasons for disasters to happen and the reasons are not because of God’s perversion. Plagues happen because of germs. Earthquakes happen because of the movement of tectonic plates. Floods, hurricanes and typhoons happen because of the rotation of the earth, which causes the change in weather patterns. The bush fire in Australia happens because it was a dry season and some idiot had started fire on the bushes. By the way, God is not that idiot. Based on the news I have read, the Australian police had arrested the man who started the fire. He is not God.

In conclusion, God is the one who gave us science. Science tells us a lot of things about God’s creation and sets us free from the lies of theology. In the process, it brings us joy. Christians should have proper respect on science.

Get Up From Your Fall

16 The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.
Proverbs 24:16 (NLT)

The above verse tells us that being godly does not protect us from making mistakes. We have our share of setbacks. We may have tripped and fell. In short, our lives are not bed of roses. There were and will be challenges from time to time. Does this mean that God does not care for us? Does this mean that all the promises of health and wealth in the Bible are no longer true. The answer is no. God still loves us. He still wants to prosper us in every area of our lives. However, the blessings of God are in the form of helping us in overcoming problems and not in avoiding problems.

This is why the above verse begins with, “The godly may trip seven times.” We can trip and fall repeatedly but our God has given us the guarantee that we will get up again. If you happen to have been through a series of failures you have to remind yourself that God has given you everything you need to overcome your problems. You will get up again. Our failures are never meant to be permanent. Our victories are.

This is a great encouragement for those of us who are unable to see any glimmer of hope in a distressing situation. You may feel like God has abandoned you and left you with the troubles that you are facing now. You may have tried many ways but failed. No matter how hard you tried, you had tripped and fell.

This is the time to put things into a greater perspective. Sure, you have fell many times, it was God who held you up each time you fell. You had been attacked from every direction but you are still alive. This means God had been protecting you. God did not leave you after all.

You may feel like you have reached the rock bottom and you cannot take it anymore. Let me tell you a secret. This means Satan must have launched his deadliest attacks on you and you are still standing. You have won! You have emerged victorious and you have made it. It is time to celebrate. You life will only move in one direction from now on: up, up and away! Activate this process with joy and thanksgiving in your heart. Your breakthrough will manifest in the most powerful way that you have never experienced before.

You may have tripped seven times but you will get up again. Each time you get up, you become stronger, wiser, richer and have greater faith. You are now in position to face greater storms and consequently reap greater rewards.

Doctrinally Incorrect Healing

27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.
28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”
29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
Mark 5:27-29 (NLT)

In this article we shall look into an important truth that can put all the theologians to shame. Please don’t get me wrong. It is not my priority to put anyone down even if they are theologians. My sole objective to reveal this truth is to help believers to put it to use for our prosperity. It so happens that the side effect of this truth will shame them for their worship of doctrines.

We should be quite familiar of the fact that those who are under the bondage of theology like to talk about the doctrines. In their mind, everything around them can be classified into doctrinally correct or doctrinally incorrect.

The above passage tells us that Jesus never bothered about doctrines. Let me start from the background of the story. Jesus was on his way to the house of a local big shot called Jairus to heal his daughter. During the journey, a huge crowd followed him. He was surrounded by a lot of people who wanted to get near him. Within the crowd, there was a woman who had been suffering bleeding for the past twelve years. She tried every way to seek healing but failed. I am sure the theologians would have told her that God wanted her to bleed for his glory or God is showing her his sufficient grace through her bleeding. Obviously, she did not believe in theology.

She had one mission in mind. She wanted to touch Jesus’ robe.

28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”
Mark 5:28 (NLT)

She thought touching the robe would heal her. Here is my question. Who told her that? There is nothing in the Old Testament that says anything close to touching somebody’s robe to get healing. It was not a common practice at that time either or Jesus would not be amazed. This also means that the theologian could not have taught that in the temple.

The only conclusion we can make is she made it up. The idea has no scriptural basis. It is a wrong doctrine. This woman was convinced of it and put it into practice. This is the result of her wrong doctrine.

29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
Mark 5:29 (NLT)

She got healed. Her wrong doctrine works. Let us look at Jesus’ response to this event.

30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
31 His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
32 But he kept on looking around to see who had done it.
Mark 5:30-32 (NLT)

The surprise here is Jesus himself was caught in surprise. Read Verse 30 again. Jesus realized that his healing power had left him. That woman had taken Jesus’ healing power without his expressed permission. Don’t you think this it a great feat by itself? How can anyone take anything directly from Jesus before he knew about it? This is totally impossible and yet this woman had achieved the impossible.

Jesus asked loudly “Who touched my robe?”. Many people were pressing against him but he knew there was one touch that has taken his powers. The woman knew she could not hide anymore. So, she confessed her sins of taking Jesus’ healing powers without his permission. This is what Jesus said.

34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
Mark 5:34 (NLT)

There are 3 points in this verse.
1. Jesus identified the woman’s faith as the cause of her healing.
2. He gave her the permission to take his powers.
3. He confirmed that her healing was permanent.

Do you notice something strange? Jesus never corrected her wrong doctrine. Even in this blog, I have people who tried to correct my doctrines. It is clear that Jesus is not a doctrine worshipper. He does not care about doctrines like the theologians do.

What caused the woman to be healed in the first place? According to Jesus, it was her faith. She may have wrong doctrines but she had faith that the doctrine works. As she had believed, she received. Her faith was so powerful that even her wrong doctrine cannot stop her from getting what she wanted. The modern term for this phenomenon is called the “placebo effect”.

A placebo is a pill that is made of sugar. It has no medicine and thus cannot heal any disease. However, if a patient who takes the placebo believes that it is an effective medicine that can heal his disease, he will get healed after taking the placebo. This is already a recognized fact in medical science. Faith works. We get what we believe. If you believe you are healed, you will be healed even if you are sick right now. If you believe you are rich, you will be rich even if you are physically poor right now. This is faith. Faith is more important than doctrines.

This tells us that every responsible church should preach faith first, and doctrines second. Churches that practise this will often be accused for preaching the Prosperity Gospel by the worshippers of doctrines. Therefore, the mark of a responsible church is, it must be accused for preaching the Prosperity Gospel by the worshippers of doctrines. I will not waste time going to churches that have not been accused of the above.

Does this means doctrines are not important? The answer is no. We need to put them in their proper place. We should not worship them like the theologians. What exactly is a doctrine? Its equivalent in science is “theory” or “law”. If you are to attend any science classes, you will definitely be introduced with certain theories or laws. These laws are discovered by the scientists in order to help us to understand certain natural processes and subsequently help us to use them for our prosperity. This is what scientific laws are all about.

We use the scientific laws for our prosperity. We don’t worship them. We do not start a crusade against people who refuse to obey the same laws of science as we do. Throughout history, you can never find a group of engineers declaring war on another group of engineers each time they disagree on any engineering laws or doctrines. The same can be said to any other professions like teachers, doctors, artists, musicians, plumbers, chef etc. We do not kill our counterparts in the same profession because they do not believe in our professional doctrines.

In this regard, the theologians are the exceptions. They will not hesitate to declare wars and kill each other if the other side does not agree with their doctrines. The theologians are a disgrace for humanity.

How shall we use doctrines? Bible doctrines are like scientific laws and theories. The doctrines help us to understand the Bible better in order for us to use for our prosperity. In other words, Bible doctrines are our servants and not our masters. What do you really want in your life? Use doctrines to get them. Do you want to have a lot of money in your bank account? Look for doctrines that can help you to do so and put them to use. Do you want to get healed? Do the same. If you find a doctrine that says God wants you to be poor and sick for his glory, throw it away. Remember the bottom line. We are the boss, doctrines are our servants. We have the right to fire any doctrine that cannot help to get what we want.

However, here is a final reminder. Doctrines are good servants but they are still secondary to faith. Get your faith in order. Then look for doctrines you can use. You will have anything you want.

Immediate Success

19 They had rowed three or four miles when suddenly they saw Jesus walking on the water toward the boat. They were terrified,
20 but he called out to them, “Don’t be afraid. I am here!”
21 Then they were eager to let him in the boat, and immediately they arrived at their destination!
John 6:19-21(NLT)

In the previous article, we read about Jesus feeding a huge crowd by multiplying a boy’s lunch. Everyone had a huge feast. They ate until they could not eat anymore. At the end, there were twelve baskets of leftover food. Then Jesus realized that the people were planning to force him to be their king in order to ensure the unending supply of food. He ran away.

15 When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.
John 6:15(NLT)

Meanwhile, his disciples were waiting for him at the appointed place and time by the shore of Galilee. After they waited pass the predetermined time, they got into the boat and sailed to the other side. The weather turned rough. They had to rowed hard to maintain their course. They were helpless, trapped in a boat and isolated from the rest of humanity. Suddenly they saw Jesus coming to them. Jesus was walking on the water. At first they were afraid but Jesus calmed them down. They were eager for Jesus to get into the boat. After Jesus was on their boat, they arrived to their destination immediately.

Let us stop the story here and review the lessons we can learn. After Jesus had successfully provided food for a huge crowd, he suffered a setback. Instead of being grateful and more receptive from what Jesus had to say, those who witnessed the miracle and ate the food plotted to force Jesus to stay with them. Jesus knew about it. How did he respond? He ran away.

You may have noticed that Jesus did not sulk, get bitter, complain or talk negative. He just ran away, rejoined his disciples and moved on. He did not allow his setback to hinder him from progressing in life. Think about this. If Jesus could have setbacks when he walked on earth, it should not be a surprise for us to experience some of them too. Setbacks are parts and parcels in life. So, the question here is not whether there is going to be any setbacks in our lives. The real question here is what are we going to do when we have them.

Jesus had shown us an example on what to do. Move on. He did his best to provide food for the crowd but they were not really grateful to him. Forcing someone to do what he does not like is not a reflection of gratitude. Most people would become bitter if they were in Jesus’ shoes at that time but not Jesus. Jesus’ response was to run away, rejoined his disciples and move on. He never even bothered to say anything bad about those people. His message to us when we face similar setbacks is, do likewise.

Let us move to the disciples’ side. When Jesus did not turn up at the appointed time and place, they packed up, got to the boat and sailed to Capernaum. Why Capernaum? I suspect they must have known Jesus’ itinerary and the itinerary named Capernaum as the next stop. Since Jesus did not turn up at the appointed time, his disciples must have figured that they could met him in Capernaum. So they sailed.

When they were in the middle of Galilee, which is a very big lake, a huge storm arose. Imagine a few man on a boat facing a storm. They were helpless. They could not call for help because mobile phones did not exist at that time. Even if they could, no one could do anything. There were no helicopters for the coast guards to rescue them at that time. These men were all by themselves. They were at the mercy of the storm. Their only hope was in their own effort to row as hard as they could in order to reach the shore before anything bad happened to them.

At the crucial moment, they saw a figure moving toward them. They were terrified. It turned out to be Jesus. Jesus was walking on the water to reach them. Jesus appeared before them, at the moment they needed him the most. He did not forsake them. Even when they were trapped on a boat in the middle of the sea, Jesus could still get to them. If Jesus could not find a boat to sail to them, he was even willing to walk on water.

The same can happens to you and me. You may be in a situation that looks hopeless right now. You feel isolated and no one can help you. You may have tried every solution but nothing works. You may be like the disciples who tried to row as hard as they could to reach the shore but the storm is too powerful for you. Your boat is about to capsize at any moment. If you are in this situation, the following are Jesus’ words to you: “Don’t be afraid. I am here!”.

He said those words to his disciples and he is saying them to you right now. Jesus is here with you. Even if you are trapped in the middle of an ocean, Jesus can still walk on it to reach you. He is on our side forever. He will never leave us nor forsake us. So, when you happen to be on a boat in the middle of a storm, get ready to invite Jesus on your boat. What will happen when Jesus got into your boat?

21 Then they were eager to let him in the boat, and immediately they arrived at their destination!
John 6: 21(NLT)

They arrived at their destination immediately. The storm became irrelevant. It could not harm them anymore. Before Jesus appeared, they were rowing as hard as they could but they could not achieve anything but the moment Jesus got into their boat, they arrived at their destination safely. This tells us that the presence of Jesus in our boat makes a great difference to the storms of challenges we are facing right now. So, if you are facing a huge problem right now, the only thing you need to do is to stay calm and get Jesus into your boat.

What does this mean? It means activating your faith. Instead of focusing on the problem, focus on Jesus instead. He is the solution to all our problems. He is both able and willing to help us. However, he will not force his help on us. We need to co-operate with him to receive his help. We do it through faith. Only when we are in faith, we will be in position to receive the blessings of God in our lives. When that happens we will find ourselves arrived at our destination without realizing it.

Feeding Five Thousand Men With Five Barley Loaves And Two Fishes

8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up.
9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.)
11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.
12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
John 6:8-13 (NLT)

Here is the famous story on how Jesus fed a huge crowd with just a boy’s lunch. I have heard this story being preached even in religious churches but none of them got the true message of this story, which is prosperity. Why do you think God put this story in the Bible? Obviously he wants to show us that he cares for our well-being. He wants to meet all our needs even if some of these needs are as “unspiritual” like food to eat. Unfortunately, those who are blinded by the lies of theology can never see that.

Let us begin with the background of the story. After Jesus had crossed over the other side of Galilee, he attracted a huge crowd. They kept following him. Why did they follow him? The Bible tells us that Jesus healed the sick. It was a miracle to them. It must be common at that time for the theologians to propagate the theology that God gives disease and make people sick to show them his sufficient grace, to reveal his glory or to teach them some lessons. Yet, Jesus did the exact opposite from the teachings of theology. He healed the sick. The people saw hope in him and kept following him.

After some time of travelling, Jesus looked at the crowd and cared for them. He wanted to feed them.

5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?”
John 6:5 (NLT)

This tells us Jesus’ character. He is totally anti-theology. He cares for the people more than he cares for doctrines. A theologian would not have bothered with the problem of getting enough bread to feed the people. His priority is always on making sure that everyone believes in the “right doctrines”. Theologians do not care if you are starved to death provided you are committed to the “right doctrines”.

Fortunately, we can rest in assurance that Jesus is not like them. He cared for the crowd even though they were not related to them. We can also read from the passage that Jesus’ priority was to meet their needs for food. He never bothered about the “right doctrines”. As far as he was concerned, his “right doctrines” is to meet the needs of the people. Are you glad that he is your shepherd?

So, Jesus asked Philip on where to buy bread to feed the crowd.

7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”
John 6:7 (NLT)

Philip had correctly pointed out that it was physically impossible to do so. Jesus was rich but not that rich.

In case somebody may ask me on how do I know Jesus was rich, the answer is clear. When Jesus was in his earthly ministry, he did not go around looking for jobs to stay alive. Neither did he behave like a religious preacher who goes around asking people for money. There is also no record of Jesus living like a beggar begging for alms. Not only that, Jesus was not alone. He had his disciples with him. The disciples like Peter had left their occupations to follow Jesus. Even if we assume that they were not paid for being disciples, they must eat to stay alive. In addition, Jesus did not even carry his own wallet. He had a specialist to do that for him. These tell us that Jesus was a very rich man when he walked on earth.

However, he was not infinitely rich at that time. He was physically constraint from providing food for that huge crowd. I suspect this applies to all of us. I believe none of us has infinite wealth to do what we want to do. The good news is though we are physically constraint, we are not spiritually constraint. Jesus knew this and used his spiritual wealth.

8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up.
9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.)
11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.
12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
John 6:8-13 (NLT)

Jesus took a boy’s lunch and multiplied it to feed a huge crowd. Everyone ate as much as they wanted. In the end there were twelve baskets of left. Let us stop here and find out what we can learn from this story.

The first lesson is what I have written earlier. All of us have some physical constraints because none of us is infinitely rich. However, there is no constrains in the spiritual realms. Whatever we lack physically, we can draw from it spiritually like what Jesus had done. You may be facing an impossible situation right now. You may have lost your job, burdened a huge debt and you are facing the prospect of losing everything you have. Or, you could have been told that you are diagnosed with a terminal disease in which there is no cure and you can die at any time. All these are supposed to be “impossible” situations where there is no hope in the natural for you to turn things around.

If you are to look only in the physical world, you will not find any hope. However, if you are a believer you have another source of hope, God. As Christians, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Whatever we lack physically, we have the option to rely on our spiritual source. We can turn our spiritual wealth into physical wealth. We can turn our spiritual health into physical health. This is what Jesus had done in the above passage. He turned to his spiritual supply to obtain more than enough food to throw a party for huge crowd. He was setting an example for us in converting our spiritual blessing into the physical equivalent.

How did he do it? First, he took five barley loaves and two fish from a boy. For some reasons, the boy decided to give his food to Jesus. It was a great act of faith. The Bible did not say how big were the loaves and fishes but since they comprised as a boy’s lunch, we can safely speculate that it must be very little compared to a huge crowd of hungry people. Why did Jesus need the five barley loaves and two fish? He intended to multiply them.

If you know some basic arithmetic, you are aware that if you multiply a small number with a big number, the small number will become bigger. The disclaimer here is the original small number must be a positive number. The above rule will not work if the small number is zero. This is why Jesus needed some food to multiply into a lot of food. If he had nothing, he will get nothing because any number multiplied with zero will still be zero. This is also called the Law Of Sowing And Reaping.

Let us get back to your situation. If you are poor, how complete is your poverty? None of us can be completely poor. There must be some seed we can sow. You could still have a few dollars in your wallet. These few dollars are insignificant compared to your debts but if you can sow it in faith, you can receive a harvest of many times more which will not only settle your debts but there will be a lot of left over that will make you very rich. So, whatever problem you may have, look for opportunities to sow seeds. Your situation will be turned around. Your poverty will turn into prosperity. Your sickness will turn into health and you failure will turn into success.

Next, Jesus wanted the crowd to sit down. Why is that so? Sitting down refers to being organized and calm. When you are any form of trouble, the worst thing you can do is to get worried and anxious. When you act with anxiousness in your heart, you are bound to make more mistakes and end up with bigger problems. So, when you are in trouble or in an emergency situation, your priority is to calm down. Get rid of all anxiousness. It is only when you are cool you are in position to listen to what God wants to tell you. Then you will get the solution that you want.

Imagine what will happen if Jesus did not tell the crowd to sit down. The moment the food was distributed, there could be a stampede for it. More people could have died of the stampede than starvation. So, the bottom line is, stay calm at all times.

Jesus gave thanks. I have written a separate article on the importance of gratitude. When we give thanks to God, we are effectively putting ourselves in the position of faith. It is only through faith that we can get everything we want. Please note that Jesus gave thanks before the miracle happened. We can say that the act of giving thanks activates our faith, which will get us what we want.

Just as there is no complete poverty, there can never be complete evil in any situation. There must be a least some microscopic good in it. Look for the microscopic good and give thanks for it. When you do that, you will certainly get what you want.

Your five barley loaves and two fish will become more than enough for a huge crowd of 5,000 men (not counting women and children) to eat to their hearts’ content and with leftovers enough to fill twelve baskets. Your prosperity will come if you obey the above principles.

The Power Of Simplicity

27 A truly wise person uses few words; a person with understanding is even-tempered.
Proverbs 17:27 (NLT)

In this article, we shall focus only on the first part of the above verse: A truly wise person uses few words. I like this part very much because I am a man of few words too. I don’t talk a lot. So this verse gives the impression that I must be very wise. However, this is not what it means. This verse is not reversible. In other words, just because a truly wise person uses few words, it does not mean that a person who uses few words must be wise. The context of this verse is not to encourage us to speak lesser. It means we should opt for simplicity. If we can convey a message with fewer words, do so. Everything else being equal, the simpler option will get us better results. Thus is the power of simplicity. God loves simplicity.

If we look at our world today, it is easy to understand why simplicity yields so much success. Let me give you some examples.

I am sure many of us who Sir Isaac Newton is. We learn about his work in school. His is famous for the 3 Newtonian Laws which many students have memorized whether they like it of not. His work had resulted in an explosion of science, which had caused science to triumph over theology for the first time. Science has become the forefront of human civilization. Humanity is free from the bondage of theology.

If you are to study deeper into history, Sir Isaac Newton was not the man who discovered the 3 Newtonian Laws. The basic ideas behind those laws were discovered long ago, even before his time by other pioneers like Galileo and Copernicus. What Newton did was he compiled all those discoveries into 3 simple laws. He was propelled to fame and fortune as the result of that. This was what he said with regards to his achievements:

“If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants”

The “Giants” here referred to the earlier scientists who made the scientific discoveries that formed the basis of the 3 Newtonian Laws. These laws are still being used in modern engineering. All the modern structures, vehicles and machines you can see around you were designed based on these 3 laws. They are so simple that even teenagers can understand them, yet so powerful that our entire civilization can depend on them.

At the same time, this has caused a widespread interest in scientific discoveries. Interest in science grew. People started to realize that science and not theology that has the answer to their problems. You get sick because of germs and not because God wants to show you his sufficient grace.

Through simplicity, science has triumph over theology.

Another example is my favorite literature, The Science Of Getting Rich. I like this book not because I can get it for free. I like it because it is very simple. It gets right to the point without indulging into any non-essential stuffs. Today, there are many books on how to get rich but none can ever reach the simplicity of The Science Of Getting Rich. Think about this, the book was first published in 1910 and it is still relevant today, thanks to its simplicity.

There is one more: Sun Tzu Art Of War. This is not the only war book every published. There are also other books on the art or war, written by people in the West. However, many of us has only heard of Sun Tzu and not others. Sun Tzu’s greatest achievement is his simplicity. The principles in the book are so simple that they can be used in other areas like business, management and trading. Despite the different technological state, the principles there are still applicable today. I have read somewhere that this book is a required reading for US generals.

The final example I want to present here is Jesus himself. When Jesus was on earth, the theologians were the recognized Bible teachers. However they complicated they scriptures in such a way that on one knew what the scriptures really said. They had to rely on those theologians and that gave the theologians immerse powers.

However, when Jesus started his ministry, his teachings were so simple that everyone can understand it. Those who listened to him were ordinary folks like farmers and fishermen. They could understand him. Jesus had also presented them with a God who is different from the one propagated by the theologians.

The theologians presented a “God” who is very strict and always on the lookout to find faults in his people. This “God” loves to do perverted things to people like causing accidents, making people sick and poor to show his “sufficient grace”. In contrast, Jesus presented God as a loving person. Through Jesus, we learn about a God who wants to bless us in all things. God wants us to be rich, healthy, long life and be successful in every area in our lives. Whatever you desire, all you need to do is to believe you receive when you pray and it will be yours.

Jesus’ teachings were so simple and yet so powerful. At last, the theologians could not take it anymore and they pressure the Romans into crucifying him. The rest is history.

The above examples show us that there is power in simplicity. Great power does not come from complicating simple things. Great power comes from simplifying things that seem complex.

In conclusion, go for simplicity. Your life will be less complex and you will achieve more.

Successful Plans

3 Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.
Proverbs 16:3 (NLT)

I suspect many of us have heard of the phase if you don’t plan, you plan for failure. Many of us are aware of the fact that planning is essential to many things in our lives, which range from our work to our recreation activities. The human race knows that it must plan in order to succeed. However, just because we plan, it does not guarantee that we must be successful. There are many people who planned but nevertheless failed. Does this mean we should give up planning in our lives? The answer is no. All we need to do is to find out how to make our plans successful. The above verse tells us how.

According to this verse, we need to commit our actions to the Lord and our plans will succeed. So, the key words are “Commit your actions to the Lord”. Let us analyze this verse in full in order to get the true meaning of it. The first word I would like to highlight is “actions”. Plans are useless we act on it. When we act on a plan, we can either be successful or fail. However if we don’t, our plans will never come to pass. So, action is essential to the success of our plans.

There are many people who have made great plans of prosperity in their lives but their lives remain poor because they had never acted on them. When asked why had they not acted on their plans, they will come up with all kinds of excuses like not enough money, not enough time, too busy, economy is too bad, cost is too high or any other justification to show that the time is not right. The truth is the time can never be “right”. Think about this. When is the right time to buy a new house? When the economy is booming, property process will be very high. You may not be able to afford it. When the economy is down like right now, the property prices are down and become more affordable to you. However you feel too insecure to make such a huge financial commitment in such times. If you continue to think this way, you will never be able to own a property. You got to decide when to buy a house and do it.

Plans are useless unless they are acted upon. When you plan for something, make sure that your plan contains things for you to act on. Plans that do not have actions in it are nothing more than wishful thinking. They will never come to pass. The first step towards successful plans is, you must act on it and the time to act is now. Let me give you a portion of The Science Of Getting Rich on the importance of acting now.

“This is the crucial point in The Science Of Getting Rich; right here, where thought and personal action must be combined. There are very many people who, consciously or unconsciously, set the creative forces in action by the strength and persistence of their desires, but who remain poor because they do not provide for the reception of the thing they want when it comes.

By thought, the thing you want is brought to you; by action you receive it.

Whatever your actions is to be, it is evident that you must act NOW. You cannot act in the past, and it is essential to the clearness of your mental vision that you dismiss the past from your mind. You cannot act in the future, for the future is not here yet. And you cannot tell how you will want to act in any future contingency until that contingency has arrived.”

If you act in the present with your mind on the future, your present action will be with a divided mind, and will not be effective. Put your whole mind into present action. Do not give your creative impulse to original substance, and then sit down and wait for results. If you do, you will never get them. Act now. There is never any time but now, and there never will be any time but now. If you are ever to begin to make ready
for the reception of what you want, you must begin NOW.”

The Science Of Getting Rich, Chapter 11: Acting In The Certain Way.

So the first step must be action. However, this alone does not guarantee success. In order to make our plans successful we must commit our actions to the Lord as stated in the above verse. What does this means? It refers to being open to God’s intervention in our actions. We need to understand that God is always on our side. His greatest desire is for us to prosper and be in health as our souls prosper. So, even when we find that our actions do not produce the results that we want, it does not mean that our God has switched sides. God is still on our side and his will is still on our success and prosperity. It simply means that we need to reevaluate our actions and commit them to the Lord with the unwavering faith that God knows what he is doing and he wants us to be successful.

God is always suggesting some corrections for our actions to help us achieve our goals. I said “suggesting” because God will never impose his ways on us even if it is for our own good. We have choices to make on whether to accept or reject God’s suggestions. If we are smart and wish to live successful lives, we should accept God’s suggestions to our actions because doing so will ensure the success of our plans.

So, commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.

Do You Have Deep Roots?

3 Wickedness never brings stability, but the godly have deep roots.
Proverbs 12:3 (NLT)

Today, we shall look at the topic of roots. The above verse consists of 2 parts. The first part tells us about the wicked and the second part is about the godly. Let us begin with the first.

The verse says wickedness never brings stability. What is wickedness? Wickedness is being wicked. What is wicked? Let us look into the dictionary to find out.

wicked [wik-id] Show IPA Pronunciation
adjective, -er, -est, adverb
–adjective
1. evil or morally bad in principle or practice; sinful; iniquitous: wicked people; wicked habits.
2. mischievous or playfully malicious: These wicked kittens upset everything.
3. distressingly severe, as a storm, wound, or cold: a wicked winter.
4. unjustifiable; dreadful; beastly: wicked prices; a wicked exam.
5. having a bad disposition; ill-natured; mean: a wicked horse.
6. spiteful; malevolent; vicious: a wicked tongue.
7. extremely troublesome or dangerous: wicked roads.
8. unpleasant; foul: a wicked odor.
9. Slang. wonderful; great; masterful; deeply satisfying: He blows a wicked trumpet.

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wicked

In short, it means completely bad. The Bible tells us that if we choose to rely on wickedness to achieve our goals, our goals will not be stable. They will not last long. If we choose to use wickedness to attain wealth, our wealth will not be stable.

We can see many similar examples in history. Almost every civilization has its own evil rulers who kill at will and did a lot of wicked acts. I believe most of them did not die natural death. Most of them were killed by their own followers. After all, who wants to serve a king who kills people for fun? Likewise, I believe no one will want to serve a God who does perverted things to his people in the name of showing them his “sufficient grace”.

Let us move to the second part. The godly have deep roots. The term “godly” refers to believers in Jesus Christ. The verse says we Christians have deep roots. Please note that it did not say the godly “must have” or “must grow” deep roots. It just said we have deep roots. So, it is not something that we must achieve. It is a statement of fact. The fact is we have deep roots. So, the question is, so what? What does it mean and how can we use this truth for our prosperity? This is the main theme of this article.

Roots are a part of a plant. All plants have roots. Roots have 2 basic functions. They are:
1. Pump minerals and water to the rest of the plant.
2. Support the weight of the plant.

Although the “roots” in the above verse is spiritual in nature, it has similar spiritual functions. It refers to the connection we have with God. It speaks of our faith. Through our “roots”, we receive our blessings from God. We will be continuously richer, healthier, wiser and improve in every area in our lives through our faith. When we face challenges in our lives and find that the burden is too heavy for us to bear, we can rely on our faith in God to support us. Our faith is like the roots of the plants. It brings prosperity to our lives and helps us to overcome all our problems.

The above verse also used the term “deep”. Our roots are deep. What does it mean? Not every plant we see have deep roots. Grass doesn’t have deep roots. Big and tall trees have deep roots. Why is that so? It is the law of physics. When a tree grows big and tall, it becomes very heavy and become subjected to the pressure of the wind. It needs deep roots to anchor it to the ground. Without deep roots, the tree will be crushed by its own weight. Even if it doesn’t, it will tumble when strong winds blow at it. Deep roots are a necessity for big and tall trees.

Why do you think God gave us deep roots? Obviously he wants us to grow big and reach greater heights. If we are just meant to be “grass”, our deep roots are redundant. It is a waste for grass to have deep roots. It is clear to us that our God expects us to achieve great things here on earth. Whatever you are doing and love to do right now, God wants you to improve on them and move up to the next level. His will is for you to always move up. He wants us to have more money, better health and achieve greater success in everything we do.

What are you doing right now? If you are a chef, God wants you to create better food. If you are a farmer, God wants you to produce more crops. If you are a teacher, God wants you to give better lessons. If you are a movie producer, God wants you to produce better movies. If you are a preacher, God wants you to preach better sermons. In short, whatever you are doing right now, God wants you to do better. He is not just saying it. He has given you the power to do it and this power is in your roots, which refers to your faith. Faith is meant to be used. Use it.

Deep roots also imply that there will be greater challenges. The higher we soar in our respective fields, the more challenges we will face. As we progress in life, we will inevitably face with greater challenges. I am sure you will realize by now that life is not a bed of roses. Welcome to the real world. There are troubles, obstacles, trials and challenges every where we go and every corner we turn to. So, don’t be surprised or shocked when you face a huge problem especially after you have achieved a great success. It is a part of life. When you face troubles, you must always remind yourself that God has already given you everything you need to overcome it. He has given you deep roots. Use it.

In other words, whenever you face troubles in life, God’s will for you is to overcome and triumph over them. You have deep roots.

In conclusion, our faith is the roots that join us to God who is our source of prosperity and the solution to all our problems. If you are a Christian, you have deep roots. The question is, are you going to use them?

Do Not Trust Money

28 Trust in your money and down you go! But the godly flourish like leaves in spring.
Proverbs 11:28 (NLT)

In this article, we shall explore the wisdom of God on money. In the past few articles, you can see for yourself that it is the will of God for all Christians to be rich. Being rich includes having a lot of money. However, our trust must always be with God and not in money.

The above verse tells us that the moment we put our trust in money, we will go down. Our godliness is the true power that creates prosperity in our lives. When we are godly, we flourish like leaves in spring. We will be prosperous, healthy and successful lives when we are godly and utilize our godliness.

It is not difficult to understand that money is only a tool. The purpose of a tool is to create other things. Just because you get tools, it does not mean that you must be able to duplicate the things others have done using those tools. Let me give you an example. An artist can use his brushes and paints on his drawing boards to create a artistic masterpiece. Who is the creator of this masterpiece? The artist or his brushes? The artist is the creator and the brushes are just his tools. If you want to create the same masterpiece, there is no use for you to just get the same brushes and paints. You need to go to the artist and learn. Tools are useless if you do not know how to use them.

Likewise, money is the tool for our prosperity. If you want to be rich, you need to learn how to use money. The entire expertise on using money can be summed up in one word : godliness. Having a lot of money alone does not make us rich. When I visualize myself being rich, I do not imagine myself in a place where a lot of dollar bills dropping from the sky or being in a huge warehouse where there are mountains of dollar bills. I imagine the lifestyle that I will have when I have a lot of money. I imagine living a carefree life, cruising in my private ship, flying in my private plane, staying in my mansion, teaching people how to be rich, producing food to feed millions, building spaceships and all other things that I desire. These are prosperity and money is the tool I use to achieve all these. It is very silly to trust in money. It is like trusting in the paint brushes to help you to create an art masterpiece.

What should we trust in to make us rich? The answer is in the second part of the above verse. “But the godly flourish like leaves in spring.” We can only have true and everlasting riches by being godly. In order to be godly, we must have godliness. Godliness is to be like God. How are we supposed to be like God? We must be born again. When we are born again, we are born of God. We become a new species, the species of God. As I have explained many times, we Christians are gods. So, godliness is our nature. We are godly by our new birth. We have the natural ability to flourish like leaves in spring.

So, we need to be aware of the truth that the secret toward great riches lies within us. God has given us everything we need to be exceedingly prosperous the moment we were born again. When we seek God and listen to his counsel, we are basically trying to learn how to use the gifts he has given to us. We learn how to use our faith, prayers, confession and other stuff from the Bible to help us to get rich. This should be our number one priority. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Then all other things will be added to us. Money is a part of the “all other things” which God will add to us.

In conclusion, trust God and use money. Money is only a tool like a hammer, pen, chisel, a map or a Bible. Tools are meant to be used. There is no use trusting in tools. Tools only know how to obey the instructions from their users. If the user gives good instructions, the tools will produce good results. If the user gives bad instructions, the tools will produce bad results. If you want to have good results in your life, trust God. Rely on your godliness. Always remember that as a Christian, you are god.