Joseph Prince - The One Thing That Brings Success In Every Area
Today I want to share with you one thing, just one thing that you can do that will cause you to prosper in every area of your life. How many would like to know that? Just one thing. Just one thing that you'll do, and I learned this when I was about 14, 15 years old believe it or not. Many years ago, one of the first things God taught me was this truth that this is one thing that you do and you will prosper in every area of your life. First and foremost, look at the life of Joseph because there are some people who have joined us and they say that, "Pastor Prince, all this prosperity". And all they are thinking of is money, money, and more money. I'm not talking about prosperity in terms of money. Yes, it may involve money. Money is just a small part of it.
When God says you'll prosper... look at this man. He was a slave in an Egyptian house. His name is Joseph. "The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man," in the Old King James. This is New King James. "He was a successful man, and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian". Remember right now where you see him he just came into the house. He was sold at a slave market. I don't believe for one moment he has anything that he can call his own. So for us, even there's no bank account, there's no savings account, there is no stocks or whatever it is, all right? We have nothing, literally nothing. We're not even married. We have nothing. As long the Lord is with you, you will end up with everything. Amen?
And the Bible says this: "And the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand". The Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. And the word prosper here is the word tsaleach. Say it, "Tsaleach". Tsaleach. All right? And tsaleach means prosper in a way you burst forth, all right? You're like a water breaking through the dam. Tsaleach is forward advancement. The same word is used all over the place, and most of the words for prosper in the Old Testament, all right, in Hebrew is this word tsaleach. And even when the Spirit of God came on Samson, read carefully in the Hebrew, the Spirit of God tsaleach on Samson; came on him to prosper him and he tore the lion apart, all right? For whatever purpose, amen, I want to pray in Jesus's name that this anointing of tsaleach comes on you. It's a very interesting thing that this word tsaleach, prosper, is used here in another passage of the Bible and this time we see what I meant by saying everything you prosper.
Look at this verse. "Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper". Let's all read it. "Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper". Or she doeth. This is the Old King James. Whatever you do will prosper. Whatever means whatever. Nothing accepted. Amen? Even your mistakes can prosper. Amen? I said even your mistakes can prosper. So whatever he doeth shall prosper. God does not waste words. God is a God of his word. If God says whatsoever, God is glorified when his people honor him and say, "I agree whatsoever". Can I have a good amen? So this whatsoever here is the verse taken from this verse in Psalms 1, verse 3. "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water".
Now, allow this Word to paint an image of faith in your heart. In a world that are so many images of poverty, and terrorism, and darkness out there that the media is showing you and all that, let God's Word paint a faith picture that this is you, child of God. You shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Rivers is plural. One river runs weak or becomes weaker or in its flow another river is flowing. There are rivers of water sustaining you all the time. "That bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither". I think you need to know this, people. That even if the world is facing drought, where you are if there are rivers of water flowing around you you will prosper, your leaves will always be green; and we have seen that.
Not too long ago I was in Israel, and in 2010 I saw this happen in Tel Dan. When actually a lot of places were very hot and, you know, were dry, but in Tel Dan there were rivers of water flowing; so much so that I saw this picture of myself as that blessed man planted by the rivers of water. I asked one of our cameramen to take... I meant this my own personal picture, all right? And this is the picture. I think many of you have seen it, all right? This is in Israel at Tel Dan right in the north, and you see rivers of water just flowing and it's so green. Everywhere around this place is green. Amen? "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season. His leaves shall not wither. Whatever he does prospers". Amen?
Now, because of time let's go to Joshua 1:8 right now. It tells you, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night". Did I show you the key is not in Psalms 1? All right, go to the verse before that. The key is his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate. The one thing that you'll do that will cause you to prosper, whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Meditate. When you read your Bible, it's not possible to be reading your Bible or read a daily devo, all right, and then all day long you put your face in the Bible, not in the telephone poles and all that, all right, not in the other people. It's not possible. But what you do is that you take a bite-size of your daily devo. And there's a verse there. Memorize it. And all day long under your breath mutter it because the word meditate here is the word mutter. Mutter. Mutter. All right?
Mutter means you speak to yourself. Two times two is four. Three times two is six. Four times two is eight. Five times, you know, you mutter to yourself, like talking to yourself. Amen? Like I said, God taught me this when I was 14, 15 years old. It's been the making of my life by God's grace. And even before I learned about grace and, you know, I had to go through the valley of the shadow, you know, and came out through the other side learning grace, but even before that, one of the reasons why I got to understand grace is because I meditated on those verses that God had for me. But then we went through a little lull in our church and there's a challenge about finances in our church to build the star. And I was beset by all this demands that was being placed on me to try to raise the money and all that. And I know the inner of myself I don't have the capacity. I'm just a man. But I took that time.
Instead of worrying, I started meditating on the Word. And the verse I meditated on was Psalms 1 that I am the blessed man. And I saw that so much that that year we went to Israel, I took a picture of that that you saw just now. Not only that, we were on the highest mountains in Galilee near the Lake of Galilee, Mount Arbel. Many of you have been there. And somewhere down here on the right we pass by, we saw a huge cave. Most of you don't go by that because it's a hard way down. There was a huge cave. And guess who was in the cave. I'd been meditating. I'd been going over the importance of meditation and meditating on Psalms 1, all right? And in the cave was a cow, and the cow was sitting down looking at us. "Strangers". And he was chewing his cud. And all of a sudden when I saw that, my goodness, you know, it was like I remember all of a sudden.
Now, a ruminant, whether it's a sheep, or a cow, or a goat, a ruminant, one that has four compartments, we say four stomachs. Not four stomachs. People say a cow has four stomachs. No. They have four compartments in one stomach. So when they take the grass in, the first compartment, all right, the rumen, mixes with the bacteria and fermentation happens, okay? And then he brings it up again. Now he chews the cud. And it goes in in the ball of cud. It comes up again, and he would chew it. That's why you get a cud on your milk. And then after the second compartment, he brings it up and brings it into the third compartment, now this is very interesting, where all the water is extracted from the cud.
That tells me when I meditate on God's Word and I bring it up again and I chew on it again during the day, all right, here and there, I chew it again, there are always pockets of moment where you're lining up, for example, people are being bored, people are, you know, feeling frustrated. You can just meditate. Surely he shall deliver you. "Thousands shall fall at my site". You're having a personal revival. You're having church all by yourself. Amen? And you're bringing it up again. What you have fed, you're bringing it up again. And now the third compartment rather, extracts all the water out of the cud. Everything you meditate, God wants you to meditate until you suck all the juice and the nutrients out of God's Word. As if you can do it completely. God's Word is, you know, inexhaustible, but it's like you extract the Spirit, the water from the Word, the anointing.
And the fourth one is like a normal stomach. It goes into the extremene. So this was the cow we saw, all right? He's chewing the cud, all right? You see he'll stop for a while and regurgitate. Watch him. He brings it up again. There you go. He brings it up again, all right? All right, church, look up here. We went down, and there were cows everywhere. It's the first time ever. I've been to Israel so many times. I've never seen so many cows there. And they were all chewing, chewing. Looking at me chewing, chewing, chewing. It's like God is saying, "If you don't get it now, you will never get it". Bring meditation back to the church. Learn to meditate. Amen?
"Pastor Prince, do you have a New Testament verse for meditate"? Yes. Look at this. First Timothy 4:15, "Meditate upon these things; give yourself wholly to them; that thy profiting," how many want profiting, "may appear to all". Now there's a play on words here. The word to is en, E-N, in Greek, which means insight. In other words, your profiting may appear in all. In all means what? In your health, in your finances, in your family life. In every area, your profiting will appear. It will manifest. You will posses your possessions. It's about that manifesting what you have on the inside. How do you manifest it? "Meditate upon these things. Give yourself completely to it that thy profiting may appear to all".
Now, in all the versions I've read, all right, it says to all. The others may see, may appear to everybody. It's so obvious that everybody can see it, all right, but not only that, because the Greek it says in every area of your life and also to everybody. Isn't that amazing? I told you what. One key, every area blessed. One key. And this is meditating on teaching in doctrine. The next verse says, "Take heed to yourself, and unto the teaching, the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this you shall both save yourself and them that hear you". Stop. He's writing to Timothy who is a pastor. He's writing to Timothy who is truly saved. Why did he say, "If you continue in my teaching, meditate on it, you'll save both yourself and those that hear you"? Therefore this word save is not save from hell, because the word save is a very rich word. It's the word used also in the gospels for heal, preserve, protect.
If you're a meditator and you preach out of that meditation, all right, you take heed to the teaching that you have meditated on, you'll both save yourself, preacher, you will heal yourself, preacher, through God's Word, and you will heal others. You will prosper others. You will preserve others. And all the people said, "Amen". And you say.. now, by the way, I chose the Old King James because only the Old and New King James use the word meditate. Some new translations use the word take pains upon these things. Another one says be diligent in these things. It's very unfortunate. They change the word meditate. I'll tell you why the word here is meditate. I told you the Hebrew word for meditate is hagah, mutter, right? Guess what? In Psalms 2 it says, "Why do the Heathens hagah a vain thing"? And in the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament, it says, "Why do the Heathens milalai". It's the same word for meditate here.
Do you know the verse, "This book of the law", show them Joshua 1:8, "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth". Your mouth, not your mind. Your mouth mutter it all the time. "You shall meditate this hagah in it day and night". What's the result? "For then you will make your way prosperous," tsaleach, "and then you will have good success". Good success, not bad success. Success take you away from your family is bad success. Good success. Time to eat your success, eat your blessings. Time. Now watch this. Mutter. Hagah. Guess what? Guess what? There's a Septuagint Greek version of this verse. And I check it out. And the Greek version says exactly the same word where in Timothy it says meditate. Okay? Praise God. You should not be using for take pains or whatever. It's the word meditate. Meditate. And we are just showing you the New Testament counterpart.
And now I'm going to close with what I shared just now, something very close to your heart, your children. I'm going to give you a key to be blessed, all right? First and foremost, look at Deuteronomy 11. We'll drop down all the way to the last verse. Verse 21, "That your days may be multiplied", Father, take down notes. How many want that to happen to you? Okay, those who don't put up, you don't want that. Like I told you, you got to possess your possession. "Osmosis. If it happens, it happens. K, Sarah, Sarah. K, Abraham, Abraham". It doesn't happen that way. You want your days to be multiplied say, "Amen". "That your days may be multiplied, and the days your children"...
How about your children, you want their days to be multiplied? You want them to live long? "Yeah, Pastor Prince, live long is good, but it might be quality". Wait now. I haven't come to the finish yet, okay? Relax. Hold on, okay? "That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth". How about long life, days multiplied, but every day are like the days of heaven upon the earth. Now how many want this for you and your children? Take down notes, father. How many of you really want this? Amen?
Now I didn't say it, this is God's Word his infallible Word. God says, "Your days will be multiplied, the days of your children will be multiplied, long life, but days of heaven upon the earth". What's the secret? What's the secret? All right, I'll close with this. Go back. Go back. Go back. Go back. All right. "Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul". How do you lay up God's Word in your heart and soul? How do you do it? You meditate on it. You meditate on it, all right? "Pastor Prince, how do I bring gospel into my children's life, the younger children"? You shall teach them your children. You shall teach them your children. Teach them to your children.
Now we say that, "Pastor Prince, that's a problem. I tried to ask my son to sit down, my daughter to sit down. They're not very interested in God's Word". Now, that's not what Bible is saying. Keep on reading. "You shall teach them your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up". Do you get it? Do you get it now? It's your personal meditation that you are muttering in the presence of your children that really teaches them. I'll repeat again see whether you get now. It does not say teach your children by teaching them. It says teach your children by doing this: "You shall teach them your children", them is God's Word, "Your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up".
What is that saying? Let's say I'm meditating on Psalms 23. I don't have to make my son memorize Psalms 23. Now, if you can do that with your son, go ahead, but what is more important is this: when they are young, all right, speak of the Lord in their presence when you lie down, when you get up, when you sit down in the house, when you walk. Speak of God's Word. Let him hear you say, "The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need. I shall not want. Hey, you know something? The Lord is my shepherd. Shepherd lead the sheep. The Lord is my shepherd". I meditate openly in front of my children. I'm not teaching them. I'm meditating. When something good happen, I say, "Praise Jesus". Mention to them.
For those of you who want to do some deep study, the Hebrew here, you shall teach them your children. In the Hebrew it says from the right, "You shall teach them aleph-tav". That's the signature of Jesus. That's the signature of Jesus. aleph is the first letter. Tav is the last letter. And it's untranslated because it's a signature. It's a sign. Now, in the Book of Revelation, Jesus told John, "I am the Alpha and the Omega". Now Alpha Omega is the Greek of A and ze, Z. All right? But Jesus wouldn't have spoken Greek or English to his fellow Hebrew, fellow Jewish, all right, a disciple. He would have spoken what? Hebrew. He would have said, "I am aleph and I'm the tav". So the mystery is unveiled. What do you speak about; commandments to your son? No. You shall teach them Jesus. When good things happen, say, "Jesus did this for us". Amen? When he is crying and "Don't worry. Jesus will take care of you. Amen. Jesus has something better for you".
Use the name of Jesus when you sit down and when you rise up. It's not a matter of teaching them. It's a matter of them looking at you and seeing you meditate. And children are very, very sensitive. They can tell when mama is less worried. They can tell when daddy is more cool nowadays. They can tell when you speak in that tone. Amen? Go back to the verse. We'll close with this. "Teach them your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way," daily affair, "you lie down, when you rise up". Amen? "That surely goodness and mercy will follow me. Justin, goodness and mercy will follow us. You see like a dog following us, goodness and mercy will follow us, amen, wherever we go".
Abba is thinking of the Bible says goodness and mercy will follow us. Look out. It's following you. You know, these are daily things you can say to them. Amen? And then the Bible says because of that, verse 20, "You shall write down upon the door posts of your house," by the way, this is the witnesses mezuzah, door post, "and upon your gates". That's where the Jewish houses and all that, the hotels you stay in Israel, they have the mezuzah there. It's based on this verse, all right? Now, don't go to your flat and write down verses outside, okay? Meditation is more important. Look at the result once again. "Your days may be multiplied".
When you do these things, that your days may be multiplied. Do these things that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, and the days of your children. You feed them right. You clothe them right. You give them medicine when they're sick. You give them supplements and all that. The greatest thing you can do for them is to be a meditator yourself, then your days will be multiplied. The days of your children will be multiplied. Just before Josh Miller passed away at the age of 92 or 93, he was asked the question, "What's the secret of your long life"? He said, "Directive predictive power of God's Word. I read the Word every day," he said. And there are many, many centenarians on YouTube. I took my time to listen to their testimonies. Many of them are Christians and many of them say, "I read the Bible every day". They are 100 plus.
So I think there's a reviving, purifying, resuscitating, rejuvenating, prospering virtue in God's Word. And the devil wants to stop you from having God's Word. Let nothing stop it. Amen? I know you don't have time for a lot of things, but you cannot afford not to have time at least for your daily devo. Read it, memorize the daily meditation, and meditate on it the whole day. Then worrisome thoughts come. I tell you, it's the best sleeping pill. You can't sleep down there, the devil keeps you awake, say, "Good. Now I meditate". And there's also a relaxing effect in God's Word. Before you know it, you sleep on feathers. Amen? May that happen to you. Amen. You'll be as men and women planted by the rivers of water that bring forth your fruit in your season, your leaf always green, never withering. And may whatever you do, prosper. Amen? Give the Lord a praise. Hallelujah.