A Devotional by Pastor Cesar Castellanos
Today’s Bible Verse
A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
Proverbs 11:25
How to Reach Prosperity
The desire of God the Father is always to bless us in everything. He desires to bless our spirit, our soul, and our body. It is His desire to provide for every one of our needs. Many people battle in their mind, because they do not believe God can supply their needs. They think that, in order to prosper, they have to work in constant difficulty. They are people who have not understood that prosperity has already been conquered on the Cross. Satan tries to stop them from seeing the blessings because he delights in seeing God’s children live in poverty. However, today, you have to open your spiritual eyes and realize that you have been deceived for a long time. You should renounce all of the arguments that the enemy has brought against your life and believe firmly in the promises of God.
Prosperity should come as a result of living an upright and righteous life. “The desire of the righteous ends only in good…” (Proverbs 11:23). The stronger our relationship with God, the greater the level of His blessings over our lives. For some, prosperity is synonymous with cheating and fraud because they think that is the way to get rich quick. However, they do not realize the severity of the catastrophic consequences that will follow. One of the characteristics of a prosperous person is that they have a generous heart. “One man gives freely, yet gains even more…” (Proverbs 11:24). Solomon’s generosity was such that it came to be compared with the vastness of the sea.
Many times God does not prosper some people because they are emotionally incapable of assuming a mentality of prosperity, they do not know how to administer the good things in their lives. They receive money and use it to participate in illicit acts. Ruin comes because of disorderly lives; curse comes because of the wrong use of money. “Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment” (Lamentations 5:7).
The prosperity of God is within your reach. Ruin was represented by the thorns and thistles that Jesus wore on His head at Calvary. When he wore the crown of thorns, He was removing the curse of ruin from us. The Word teaches that He made Himself poor so that we can be made rich. Prosperity is not something that was reserved for the few. No! God reserved prosperity for each one of His children.
Something to Think About
Wise Solomon said, “Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is Maker of them all” (Proverbs 22:2). If someone has lived in poverty and desires a life of prosperity, that person must die to that nature and be born to a new one, according to the image of Him who created us. Like the caterpillar that wants to become a butterfly it must undergo metamorphosis, the same must happen to a man who wants to go from one nature to the next.
There is a story about someone who found the cocoon of a butterfly and took it home to watch it emerge. One day he noticed a small opening in it and sat to watch for several hours while the butterfly struggled to come out. He watched as it struggled to force its body through the small opening, until there came a moment that it seemed as if it stopped. Apparently, it was not making any progress and it looked like it was stuck. Feeling sorry for it, the man decided to help it and with some small scissors cut the side of the opening to make it bigger, finally the butterfly was able to come out of its cocoon. However, its body was very swollen and its wings were small and folded. The man continued to watch expecting that any minute, the wings would straighten and grow enough to support the body that would shrink as the swelling reduced.
None of this happened and the butterfly could only drag itself in circles with its body swollen and its wings folded. It was never able to fly. What the man, in his goodness and haste, did not understand was that the restriction of the opening of the cocoon and the force the butterfly uses to come out of the small hole is part of the natural process. This forces the fluids of the butterfly’s body to go towards its wings so it can reach the size necessary and the strength needed to fly. By depriving the butterfly of its necessary struggle, the butterfly was also deprived of its normal development. If God allowed us to advance in every area of our lives without any obstacles, our souls would be paralyzed. We would not grow, nor would we be as strong as we could have been through the effort and consistency that we learn when we are being transformed.
Prayer
“Heavenly Father, today I want to enter into a covenant with You to be blessed along with my generations. The same way that You listened to both Solomon’s and Abraham’s heart and answered them, please would You listen to mine now. I long for Your presence to be real in all the areas of my life. I ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.”
Declaration
My life, my family and my finances line up with the Word of God and my prosperity is a result of this.
Today’s Bible Reading
Our Bible Reading Plan gives 25 daily readings per month. There is no scheduled reading for today. You can use this time to catch up on any readings you may have missed, or read through previous passages again.
