Prosper!

Prosper!

Beloved friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and that you continually enjoy good health, just as your soul is prospering. 3 John 1:2 TPT

This extract is written by John, the Beloved. He understood love from a different perspective, as is evident from his discourse in almost all of I John. It is also clear that he understood the impact of love in a life. Think about this for a moment: If I counsel you to love another person and show it, is the benefit of your obedience an immediate gain to me or you? If I store hatred in my heart for someone else, who may not even understand the reason for the hatred, who suffers the more from the storage: the one hating or the target of the hatred? 

Today's extract is just an extension of the thoughts in the letters of John. No one truly prospers until s/he lives in line with the express direction of God's will. You cannot live on your own terms and think that God will validate your views. It was clear that the target of this letter were enjoying the prosperity of the soul, which really wasn't visible, but John also prayed that they would enjoy in prosperity in other ways that would be visible and relational. If I am truly saved, walking with God, the fruits of my life must be so visible that people will see and know the reason for the fruits. 

My view: sound health is part of the package for walking with God. We don't read of any of the great men of God who nursed sicknesses all their lives. Moses' eyes didn't go dim at 120, Caleb could still fight a war at 80, Anna aged 84, a prophetess, didn't leave the temple till she saw the birth of the Messiah, Paul did exploits, even with a thorn in his flesh. Elisha fell sick at the end of his life and eventually died, but even his bones raised the dead to life.  It didn't matter what their physical realities were; none of them died without that clear truth that all they were and accomplished were as a result of their relationship with God. If it is the same God, we get the same benefits, only if we walk like the men of old did.

Let's get the balance right. Both are important: the physical and the spiritual. Both are God's ways of dealing with man and establishing His will in the lives of men. I must submit to His wisdom and power; then watch Him work wonders through the vessel of clay that I am. His time of favour is here.