Joseph Prince - There Is a God-Kind of Prosperity
This is an excerpt from: Prosper God's Way During Recession
"So is this what you're gonna preach, Pastor Prince, that's caused a bit of controversy?" No, no, no. Number one: it's gonna cause a lot of controversy, all right, and it is this. Whilst I agree that there are extreme teachings, okay, and erroneous teachings on prosperity, let me tell you this, it is a valid and right teaching that God is restoring in the last days. Just like God restored the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that wasn't in the time of Luther. Luther didn't talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit being restored. It wasn't for his day, but in church history there's a progressive restoration. A progressive restoration. Prosperity is something God is restoring in these last days, together with healing. And it's caused such controversy.
Now, I'm not for the extreme. Listen, the extreme is what the Bible draws the line, all right? Beware of covetousness. You know what's covetousness? Greed, selfishness, amen, making money just for yourself, amen. No, the Bible says from the start, "God told Abraham, 'I will bless you, and you shall be a blessing.'" In other words, God knows if he can get blessings through you to other people, he will get blessing to you, amen. He can trust you for that, amen. So because of this teaching, all right, because of this extreme teaching and extreme thing that people bring up, you know, and the social media, with the advent of social media, people are looking at all the extreme teachings and they are turned off. And I don't blame them. I don't blame them at all, amen, because they are not taught the Word of God, amen. So we have a whole new generation of people who now swing to the other side.
Now, they don't exactly say poverty is holy. Like in church history, once they did that. They believed poverty is holy. They even take vows of poverty. Now they swing the other side and we got a whole generation of people who do not know what to do in this recession. We got a lot of young people, just married, and housing is so expensive. They do not know what to do. And God began to speak to me recently and God said to me, "Son, all the things that have made you what you are down through the years, when you were young and when you heard those messages, amen, the right message, the right Word, amen". Of course, God has taught me down through the years, amen, the accurate and true interpretation of a lot of things which I'm gonna share with you, amen.
As we enter into this global recession in these last days, because that's one of the signs of the end times, not just pandemic, not just plague, but also famine. Remember Jesus mentioned that, famine? So we're entering into it. Now, in Singapore we are blessed, amen. Our financial governance is very good. We thank God for a good, honest government, amen. But that doesn't mean we won't feel it. We will feel it. Our young people are feeling it, especially the young people. And that's how God spoke to me about this. If you don't preach it, their spirits are now open to receive it. In fact, they have seen in the social media the negatives, all right? They have seen the other side and they are turned off. Many young people are turned off when they hear that, and now they are leaning and their spirits are closed. Whenever they hear someone preach on God wants to proper you, they close their spirits.
I remember when I was a young man, I didn't have much money to buy a Christian book. I was reading a book and I came across this verse. I think probably one of the first times I came across that verse. I was a very young man then. And it says, "And Joseph was sold into Egypt and Potiphar bought him". He was a slave. And then it says, "Joseph was a prosperous man and all that he did, God made him to prosper". Maybe I liked that verse when I read it because it's the same name, right? So I said that, "Wow". It began to occur to me, "Wait a minute, whatever that means for this Joseph in the Bible, I want it". You can say whatever you want: God is not for prosperity, health-wealth gospel, all that. You can say whatever you want, but when the Bible talks about that, I want that. Do you want that? He was a prosperous man and whatever he did, God made it to prosper.
Oh, Pastor, that means everything Joseph did, it prospered spiritually, in the spiritual world. All right, if it is, I take that. Can I? But you know, it doesn't stand to reason that it is spiritual prosperity because the Bible says, "Potiphar saw". Potiphar is a heathen, as heathen as heathen can be, and he saw that the Lord was with Joseph. He saw. I said saw the Lord was with Joseph, and what he did, God made it to prosper. So maybe as he plants the crops, his crops are all bumper crops. As he takes care of the, whatever new assignment, takes care of the servants, the servants are now highly motivated. Whatever he did, he prospered. And his boss then, Potiphar, noticed that, that finally he put him in charge of everything. I want that. I want that. It's okay? That I can be a blessing.
Now, was that a curse to Joseph? No, it was preparing him for the ministry that God has that he will save many people alive. But then a lot of young people, their spirits are...you say, "Well, does it matter, Pastor, I believe or I don't believe"? Yes, because everything works by faith. If you don't believe it, you shut your spirit to it, you experience all kinds of lack and you find that there's no breakthrough and you don't understand why. I'm a Christian. God, what is happening? You know, that kind of thing, because somewhere along the way, you imbibe into your spirit, you imbibe something that you read on social media or whatever and you start saying that, "Yeah, I won't get into all these things, you know? I just wanna be holy and that's my thing with God".
Friend, your relationship with God is number one, prosperity. Your relationship with God is number one, prosperity. To be right with God, would you say that's prosperous, a true prosperous man? And that's what we receive, amen? We are now the righteousness of God in Christ. "For God made Jesus to be sin for us at the cross, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him". It's a gift. I didn't do anything to be righteous. Jesus didn't do anything to become sin. He took my sin, now I take His righteousness. It's a divine exchange, amen. We receive by grace, amen?