Did you know you have to hear a radio commercial 21 times before you act on it? Prosper just means successful. So in order for you to be successful on the outside, you must first be successful in the inside. You must choose (use your free will) to be successful. Then use your imagination (your mind) to play your commercials of what God promised. Next engage your passion (your emotions) when doing so. Emotions are useful tools. It helps to solidify what you believe. If you have to hear a radio commercial 21 times before you even begin to really hear about the product, how much more should you be meditating on what God promised you?
Meditation is your commercial for the future.
Faith is the noun. It's the evidence of things unseen. It's the thing. Believe is the verb. It's the thing you are doing. It's the action. It's what you think to be true; what you are persuaded of; what you have confidence in; what you are committed to. That's what believing is. Faith takes the form; belief is the action to make it a reality. Most of the action is right between your ears!
What makes our faith take form? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). Faith literally comes out as you hear the word of God. So what does God tell us next?
He has already given us all (all is a qualifier -- the entire amount) spiritual (the parent of the natural) blessings (empowerment, provision, success) in heavenly places in Christ. All of it. Not some of it.
All spiritual blessings, all empowerment, provision, and success are already laid up for us in the heavenly realm (Ephesians 1:3).
In Christ is a phrase that should not be just skimmed over. There are many things in the heavenly places, but not all of them are in Christ. If you want what God has for you, you have to find out what you have in Christ. Not in Buddha. Not in any spiritual guide. Not in Mohammad. Not in your own self interest. In Christ. If it's not found in Christ, you don't need it.
All this was a set up for the next verse in this chapter:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Why would God even bother to give us all things in Christ so freely? Why should He do anything for us at all?
The reason is as simple as it is profound: God gives you all things freely in Christ because He chose you.
You did not choose Him first.
God provides everything you need so that you may live before Him a holy life; and this holy life is based on love.
God doesn’t love. God is love. It’s Who He is. He can’t help Himself. That is why He freely shares. Isn’t that what you do with those you love? For those you are truly passionate about, don’t you freely empty yourself out to them without even thinking about it? It’s a non-issue with you to do that for someone just as it is a non-issue for God to do that for you. He has already chosen you to be His before the foundation of the world. Before anything ever existed, before the “And God said…and then it was…” from Genesis, God already chose you and chose methods for you to live a holy life before Him in love.
It’s because of love that God looks at us through the Blood of Jesus. We are not rejected, for we have chosen Jesus. Verses five through ten in the first Chapter of Ephesians tell us that God decided beforehand and predetermined (which is what the Greek word “proorizo” means and translated here as “predestined”) us to be His adopted children because of His own good pleasure. He accepts us and receives us gladly through the redemptive work of Jesus.
When we fully understand the magnitude of God’s love, it becomes easier to believe we have obtained an inheritance in Him. When we fully understand that He was the One that chose us first, we appreciate being sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13).
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Taken from the new Ebook:
Purpose: Living Life Dynamically
For more on this book, visit the site @ http://www.booksbyraquel.com where you can also learn how to get the popular Meditations for Success MP3's for free.
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Raquel Soto is the author of five e-books and released her first soft cover in December of 2007. She owns and operates an outreach called Lydia's Legacy Ministries, dedicated to help women (and men) live their life more abundantly, to the full, to it overflows.