Readings: Jeremiah 7:23-28; Psalm 95; Luke 11:14-23.
We all love breakthrough and prosperity, don’t we? Whenever a minister prays for breakthrough or prosperity, don’t we respond with an intense Amen and try to receive with faith?
The first reading of today reveals to us another dimension of prosperity, He says; follow right to the end the way I mark out for you, and you will prosper.
Prosperity here is not to be understood materially. There is spiritual prosperity.
Today, let us look at what it means to prosper spiritually.
•To live a life of righteousness, obedience, and faithfulness to God is spiritual prosperity. Show me a person who is faithful in their walk with God and I will show you a spiritually prosperous person. True celebrities are those whose faithfulness can be attested to by God.
- We prosper in the Spirit to the extent that we are able to gain control over the flesh and our transient feelings and make them obey the ordinance of the Spirit and the principles of the word of God. It is impossible to prosper spiritually if we are under the dictatorship of the flesh.
- To have strong faith in God is spiritual prosperity because faith obtains anything and can endure anything, it is an invaluable spiritual currency. Those who have it have huge spiritual wealth.
- Anyone who involves God in His work, plans, visions, projects and ambition and walks each step with God prospers spiritually.
- To be intimate with the Holy Spirit, to be alive, awake, attentive and active in the Spirit is spiritual prosperity.
The Gospel of today ends with Jesus saying that whoever does not gather with Him scatters.
Hence, spiritual prosperity comes from being with the Lord, being where He has placed us, to be where He is, to be close to Him, to be and be happy with where He wants us to be.
No matter what we acquire in life, if we are not with God, in God or for God or if it is not through God, we are spiritually impoverished, our soul is poor and miserable.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on March 11, 2021.