“The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and He adds no trouble to it.”

Proverbs 10:22

We can all tend to equate success with goals we have met, dreams we have realized and obstacles we have overcome. Just about everyone, including young people, adults and even children, longs for success. Think about this list for a moment: rejection, adversity, opposition from family, social status, financial constraints. None of these things need become obstacles to achieving success. We must understand that happiness flows from the inside out because it has to do with our spiritual life. Once achieved inside, it reflects in the other areas of life such as: the physical area, family, ministry, business, financial, etc. This happiness is the outcome of allowing the Holy Spirit to be the One in control of our lives.

When someone tries to be happy without God they can only ever achieve earthly pleasure. Pleasure is like a glass of water compared to source of living water that is found in the eternal happiness given by the Lord. “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water” (James 4:10).

Only Jesus can give each of His children the living water of true happiness. For the Apostle Paul, true life was equated to knowing Jesus in a personal way. He said, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Although Paul was a man of great faith, after meeting Jesus in a personal way, everything else lost its charm for him because he no longer even thought about getting his happiness outside of Jesus Christ.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
“When I was without direction in my working life and just freelancing, I started working as a manager at a car dealership. It was during that time that I had the opportunity to meet the Lord. My first spiritual battle was with tithing. I had always believed that 10 percent was too much. I started to help daily in the church. On one particular Thursday, while Pastor Castellanos was preaching, God touched me and spoke to me. He told me to surrender the area of my finances to Him. I immediately made the decision. I started to give my tithes and offerings generously and faithfully. Since then, we have become a family of that makes financial pledges and covenants and we see how this has safeguarded our home. The biggest test was last year when they detected cancer in my wife. In the midst of this difficult decision I made a financial pact with her health in mind. On the day of her surgery, there was a complication in the operating room. It was then that I claimed my promise. I said, ‘God you are a God of covenant and my family is a family of covenant.’ He gave us the victory.” (Ricardo Leiva).

TODAY’S DECLARATION
“The power of the Spirit, the authority of the Word, and the power of faith flow in me like a fountain of life.”

Today’s post is an excerpt from Pastor Cesar Castellanos’ book, Declarations of Power for 365 Days of the Year: Volume Two.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING

• Old Testament: 2 Kings 16-17; Psalms 119:161-168
• New Testament: Luke 6:17-26; Philippians 3:10-14