“Beloved,” the Apostle John began, “I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2, NKJV). It is the perfect will of God—the COVENANT perfect will of God—for you to prosper. Even if you are you dealing with lack, realize that it’s not from God. There is no lack in Him! Are you suffering with an illness? It’s not from God, because there is no sickness in Him.
For whatever you need, you can call on the Name of Jesus to prosper, because it’s only in Jesus that we can find the abundant life God has for us. Jesus Himself said, “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)” (John 10:10, AMPC). God’s Word is full of COVENANT promises of abundance for us, but for God’s promises to work in our lives, we need to learn how to activate them. To get started, consider these 3 Ways You Can Live an Abundant Life.
1. Hide God’s Word In Your Heart.
David praised God saying, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11, NKJV). To hide God’s Word in our hearts is to read it, meditate it, study it, memorize it and speak it. We call this renewing our minds because that’s the phrase the Apostle Paul used in Romans 12:2 where he wrote: “Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]” (AMPC).
2. Release Your Faith In God’s Word.
The way we release faith and cause it to work on our behalf is by speaking it. Romans 10:8 says, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach)” (NKJV). Faith speaks, but it cannot say the Word of God if the Word does not first reside in our minds. Why? Because we speak what we think. We say what’s in our hearts. When we’re squeezed by pressure, what’s inside us automatically comes out of our mouths. If we have God’s Word inside us in abundance, faith words come out. If we don’t have His Word abiding in us, then fear and everything that goes with it comes out.
3. Take Corresponding Action.
James is the apostle who teaches us that faith without works is dead because faith is acting on the Word. “What does it profit, my brethren,” James writes, “if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? (James 2:14-22, NKJV).
The Greek word perfect in this verse is teleios. It means, “perfect, complete, full grown, of full age, developed into a consummating completion by fulfilling the necessary process.”
Adding actions to your faith is a part of the perfect law, created by a perfect God. It is the truth. And Jesus said that truth will make you free (John 8:32).
Start living your life of abundance today. Stand on God’s Word, release it and act on it. Then watch God move in your life and bring you not only what you need, but also His abundance.
Adapted from Kenneth Copeland’s and Greg Stephen’s new book, God, The Covenant and The Contradiction, available here.