John Bevere - Successful Living
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Here are three promises of God that you can contend for when you walk in holy fear. Number one: you just finished chapter 40, and we want to discuss this because there are three very powerful promises made in Proverbs 22:4. This is a scripture I used to teach my children; I would sit them around the table and say, «Guys, I want you to quote Proverbs 22:4,» and they would quote it to me: «True humility and the fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor, and a long life.» So, here are three promises of God that you can contend for when you walk in holy fear. Number one: riches. That word «riches» actually means wealth, cattle, lands. I looked this up in the Hebrew; I can’t deny it—it literally means physical resources, riches.
Now, you might say, «John, I know people who fear God but don’t have a lot of wealth.» Oh yes, they have a lot of wealth; you just don’t know it. True wealth is the ability to impact people’s lives. John the Baptist didn’t have a lot of physical possessions, but he had the ability to impact lives—that’s the greatest wealth of all. So, in the New Testament, we would interpret this as having the ability to make a difference in my world of influence. That is so important! True wealth is not how much you own; it is how much you are able to affect other people’s lives.
I look at the businessmen and businesswomen who have helped us give over 50 million physical resources to pastors and leaders all over the world. What if they didn’t have those resources to give? We wouldn’t have been able to donate those over 50 million physical resources. That is wealth, and true wealth is the ability to affect others' lives. But then you have John the Baptist; he wore a robe, had a belt, and ate honey as his diet, yet he affected an entire nation. It’s all about how effective we become in impacting other people’s lives. The other promise I love is that the fear of the Lord will lead to honor. I have met people all over the world who are successful but don’t carry dignity in their lives. There are others with an aura of dignity that is evident. I look at the Proverbs 31 woman; the Bible says she clothes herself with dignity.
Now, looking at my shirt, you can see it has squares and you can recognize the color of those squares; my clothing reflects what the Bible means when it says she is clothed with dignity—she is an honorable person. I have met people who wear dignity like clothing. I could name them; there are those with huge ministries and others not in ministry who have that dignity because they walk so closely with God, walking in the holy fear of the Lord. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s a wonderful promise from heaven that God says He will clothe us with dignity and honor if we walk in the fear of the Lord. So, the two promises I am covering here are: number one, you’ll have the ability to influence other people’s lives; that’s true wealth, whether you need resources, finances, or whatever it is; and number two, you are clothed with dignity. We’ll talk about long life in the next one.