THE PROSPEROUS INDIVIDUAL

I first heard of the word “prosperous” in the year 1990 (actually it was in the English Bible that I first found it).
Then I found out that there are many teachings about this topic. But what amazed me the most was that many
ministers despise and drive away this preaching. This is why I became interested in the teachings of financial
prosperity. Then once I came across John Avazini’s book: “30, 60, Hundredfold” Once I read the book, I
thought: “What an interesting person, he knows the about the things that I’ve had information on already a
long time ago.” How does he know this? It turns out that the word “successful” or “prosperous” used to meet
with hostility and still do.
I only found out about this when I was breaking down the first Psalm. I was getting ready for a preaching and
was reading: “Blessed is the man…, - and I thought, oh, this is for me”. When I reached the words: “…and
whatever he does shall prosper”, I began to study the word “prosper”. All the other translations, other than
Russian, would say: successful and prosperous. This means that success will come to such a person (described
in Psalm 1). The first time in my life I taught this topic was in Freemont, where the Slavic Pentecostal Church is.
Then I began to think and wonder how come I believed in success but many others just don’t accept this
teaching, and they say: “Success is not for everyone”. Automatically they begin to show you the sayings of the
biblical heroes: “Do not give me riches and don’t make me poor…” They do this to justify their belief that
success in not for every single person.
But God revealed this passage to me today:

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23).

This passage comes from the Word of God, so knowing that, answer me this: Is this the truth? Is it really true
that a person who does not repent and lives in sin will die? What happens if this person was born in Africa or
Russia? Does God’s Word change depending upon the person’s nationality, his country’s economy, or the
surrounding of this person? No, it doesn’t change; please agree with me on that.
The Word has two sides: the laws that guarantee death and the laws that guarantee life and blessing. Just like
the laws of warning work, so do the laws of promises in the Bible. This applies to every person. Many Christians
don’t doubt in the Word that talks about death but think that success – is not for everyone. Why can’t it be for
everyone?
The devil has succeeded in lying to people. There is a small amount of people who would say that leadership and
success is for them. So it turns out that people believe in the part of the Bible that talks about retribution. But
when they read about blessings they don’t believe it. This is self-deception. God doesn’t have partiality; all of His
promises belong to everyone.
If God wasn’t interested in our development, growth, progress, multiplication, and our development of
leadership skills, then why would He give us His promises? God doesn’t joke around. However, the responsibility
of whether we will be successful or not completely lays on us.
Truly God does what He wants; His ways are inscrutable, no matter what the opinion of people is. However, He
also looks upon the decisions and will of people. God doesn’t force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do.
We can either consciously accept of reject God’s calling in our lives. This is completely in our power.
Everything starts with the decision of a person.
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall
not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.(3rd Verse).
You see the “secret of the tree” is found in its roots, not in the leaves or the body…
The secret of success – is not found in our outer looks, our growth, or our age. The secret of our success if found
in our “roots”. What do we feed ourselves in order to be successful? Somebody can blame everything around:
his parents, his surrounding, and his circumstances. Another plants his “roots” by the water and therefore he is
successful, he has joy – his leaves are constantly green. These kinds of people always enjoy life.

Many people think that they can teach other people their principles of life but they themselves don’t practice
what they teach. This is not right. When we have success inside of us we don’t need to make somebody do
something.
In order for us to become prosperous, we need to start working with ourselves (our heart) – to look within
ourselves and the teachings… The “Living” water – is the reason for our prosperity. It’s necessary to be planted
by the stream of water.

Today we will look at 5 principles that will teach us to feed on the “living” water.
How do we know if we are being nourished by the “living” water? How are we guaranteed that we will bring
good fruit, or that we will have growth, anointing and multiplication, and not despair and disappointment?
There are five main “roots” that give us the living water and guarantee us a fully victorious destiny.

WHO IS OUR GUIDE, OUR TEACHER, OUR COUNSELOR, AND OUR AUTHORITY
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.
What does the counsel of the ungodly mean? It is the counsel that brings us into despair in the end. It doesn’t
raise us up, it crushes us. It can come from any person in your surrounding: your relatives, even your best friend.
You shouldn’t think that the only unclean people are homosexuals. Dishonesty – is the advice that brings
negative information, pressure, and low self-confidence into our lives. Why? The Bible says: “By their fruit, you
shall know them.” When we accept ungodly counsel and listen to ungodly people we cut our roots away from
the living water. Believe me, in a situation similar to this, you will find yourself spiritually drying up. And it’s all
because you didn’t determine who your counselor and instructor is.
Blessed is the man who has instructors of faith, who constantly encourage him. Successful people calmly name
who their counselors are. Those who are not successful, either call the Holy Spirit their counselor or themselves.
But this “root” is the root that brings the juices of life for the fruit. This “root” absolutely cannot be cut off.
A person who advices only bad things – is a dishonest person, he pulls you down from the position that you are
at. These kinds of people – are specialists in destruction; they will find a reason that will stop your plans from
being carried out. An honest counselor – is the one who encourages you and is constantly thinking about how
you can prosper and stay successful.
A negatively set person will never give you the right advice. To receive the right advice, you need to search for a
person who fears the Lord, who has an unselfish character, and only speaks the truth. In order to be able to give
an undefeated advice we need to become such an individual; so that whenever a person would come to us for
advice, they would hear the words of faith and encouragement. From only one word of our advice, the person
has to feel confident in himself. So pay attention to who you spend time with.

Remember Maria, who didn’t listen to the opinions of other people who could have said: “Who do you think you
are? What status do you have to give birth to the Messiah?” She chose the path of victory and went to her
relative Elizabeth, who was filled with faith and began to prophesy the right things into her life: “The mother of
My Lord has come to me…” They prophesy into each other’s lives, they encouraged each other and therefore
they were successful individuals.

CHECK ON WHAT PATH YOU ARE WALKING ON

Nor stands in the path of sinner…

What path that we are following? It is what we practice and what we live by everyday. Maybe somebody doesn’t
want to live in the Word, prayer, and intercessions everyday, but they want prosperity in their lives? That will
not happen. It is necessary to walk in the path of victory every single day.
What do we do everyday? Analyze your every day and you will understand that not all your ways are leading you
to good things. Maybe you need put more time into studying the Word, a personal fellowship with God, or be
persistent in some kind of job, to go from the level of a dilettante to the level of a professional. Because success
doesn’t fall down from the sky, it is our own everyday hard work, just like the working week; work for six days –
and on the seventh day, you will receive success.

HAVE THE RIGHT SURROUNDING

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

A gathering – is our surrounding. Constantly look around at your surrounding circle. We are often too loyal to
the negative surrounding, saying: “But I don’t want to hurt a brother.” But this kind of attitude just harms us. If a
person is saying negative words into your life, that means that he is “killing” you, he is destroying your
individuality. After such fellowship, we are in destruction. Examine who you are constantly meeting up with,
with who you eat, what kind of surrounding you have – the people who are constantly with you.
Each one of us has to have two types of surroundings: a surrounding that we look up to, and a surrounding
where the negative facts of life are talked about, they usually have everything bad. It is in your nature to be
opposed by this, it is especially like this to God.
Did you notice that your mood picks up when we are under the impression of something wonderful? For
example, when we enter into a room that is beautifully decorated, we want to stay there and not leave, but
when we are in a grey room all we want to do is run out of there. It is the same thing with our surrounding. The
right surrounding encourages us to move forward, and the wrong surrounding – deprives us of success.

SELF-DISCIPLINE
But his delight is in the law of the LORD.
Self-discipline means we freely will ourselves to the principles of God’s Word. One of the principles that we must
commit to – give our tithe. It is not easy to train ourselves to have order and cleanliness.
Jesus also disciplined Himself, he placed Himself under the Word of God. He didn’t for 40 days and then He
raised His voice. All of His feelings were screaming: “You’re dying!” Then the tempter came and began to speak
those words to Him. But Jesus did not live by feelings, He placed Himself under the principles of the Word of
God. Then the devil came up with a new temptation, for Jesus to throw Himself from a cliff and reject the
principles. But Jesus didn’t pick shortcuts to success. He didn’t walk around the Golgotha and avoid it. He was
ready to pay the full price. Then the devil suggested: “Where nobody sees You, worship me only once and I will
give You much glory.” But Jesus was strong in His decisions and resisted the temptations. Temptations come to
us at those moments when others don’t see. Eve sinned when nobody was watching. At those moments we
must place our feelings under of the Word of God and resist the temptations.

MEDITATING (THINKING)
And in His law he meditates day and nigh.
How updated is your thinking? What are your goals? If you have small goals for your life, your mindset is now
renewed. And if you have big goals in your life, then our mindset is still not renewed. A person who has small
goals doesn’t see God’s potential in their life. And he who hasn’t reached anything but has unreachable goals,
just looks like someone who fantasizes a lot and is afraid of the reality. A goal – is not something you can just
look and see in your spirit as clear as if you’re looking from binoculars. A goal – is not a fantasy and an empty
dream, it is very specific. No matter how much you would keep pouring water into a bottle that has a lid on it,
you will not get any water in there.
Pastor Lester Sumrall says: “Don’t ever ask God for cake, if you have never learned how to eat a patty.”
Our goals must grow naturally. Look at the stars but also feel the earth beneath your feet. If we will only be
looking at the stars then we will fall into a pit; if we keep looking at our feet, we will only see the swamp, and
there is the danger to meet with something hard.

So, if you see that you don’t have any fruit in your life, then check who is counseling you, what you are doing
daily, and who you fellowship with. The Word guarantees success to all who have the five “roots”, and receive
the right food and living water, not the poisoned water.
Listen to the correct advices, practice them, and don’t allow the wrong surrounding to steal your success. Place
your feelings under the Word of God and constantly renew your mindset. Only through this we can become
successful and fruitful, just like a tree that was planted by the river.

This article is on our internet page: melchizedekchurch.org

Email: editor@mcg12.org