PART 1O YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN. NOW WHAT?

What Is the Believers Guide to Spiritual Prosperity?

The Believers Guide to Spiritual Prosperity

The Spiritual Prosperity Checklist

What do you want out of your walk with God?

When you go to church, what should be happening there?

This guide should help you in answering both of these questions so that you’ll have the proper perspective in deciding whether the church you’ve decided to attend will cause you to realize in your life the prayer of the Apostle Paul that he expressed in the Book of Philippians.

 

Philippians 3:10

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

He desired to know Christ (personal knowledge gained by direct personal communion with the Lord), the power of His resurrection (to experience the same power that raised Christ from the dead working in us), the fellowship of his sufferings (becoming a joint participant in His sufferings for righteousness sake), and to be made conformable unto his death (striving to put his old self, his sinful nature to death and living a new life through Christ's resurrection power).

If this is what you desire to occur in your life while you’re on this spiritual journey, then ascribe to what’s being presented in the spiritual checklist which follows, and you’ll find that by doing so, you’ll decrease (less dependence on your sin nature) and God will increase (more reliance on His blessings--operating in divine perspective and power).

 

The Spiritual Prosperity Checklist

Below is a checklist that you can use when visiting any church. It will help you to determine if this is where God shows up, where the gospel is being preached, where His gifts are operational, where inspired traditions are being observed, where you’ll learn about the transforming doctrinal truths for the New Testament believer, where addressing areas of weakness so that the fruit of the Holy Spirit will be expressed in your life is commonplace, and where the collective purpose of church leadership is clearly stated. Are you ready to begin? Here we go.

 

Without these two things, God the Holy Spirit won’t have an opportunity to indwell the unbeliever.

□Is the gospel message being presented?

The gospel message is the good news that Christ, the God-man, paid for the sins of the whole world, thus canceling their debt (providing forgiveness). He died on a cross and descended into hell. While there, He preached unto the spirits (fallen angels) in prison (in a compartment of hell called Tartarus) (1 Peter 3:19).After three days, through the Holy Spirit, His spirit was raised from the dead and re-entered His fleshly body, which became transformed into a glorified one, never to die again. He ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, thus allowing humanity to enter this heavenly abode immediately at physical death. For any person in this dispensation, called the Church Age, to enter heaven upon physical death must satisfy two conditions.

These are:

1.  Repentance (having a change of mind; acknowledgment of being a sinner) of their sins to God the Father.

2.  Believing in His Son Jesus Christ.

Whosoever repents and believes will receive another member of the Trinity called the Holy Spirit, who will come to indwell their body, thus providing a new nature and a guarantee of eternal life along with many other spiritual benefits.

What the gospel is not

Suppose you don’t hear the gospel being presented at any time during the worship service. If the congregation is small and everyone is known to be born again, this wouldn’t be an issue. However, if the church attendance is considerable in number and new visitors arrive sporadically and this message isn’t proclaimed, in this case it’s safe to assume that many of the church members are void of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

If someone says this or that is the gospel, here’s some clues as to what the gospel is not.

�-�The gospel isn’t declaring that we need to repent of our sins to God the Father and then follows this up by saying that certain sins are to be condoned as being acceptable (e.g., gossip, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lying, stealing, slander, etc.) types of behavior, because of societal approval.

�-�The gospel isn’t declaring that an unbeliever must believe in Jesus Christ, who they’ll acknowledge as being a teacher, prophet, and the Son of God, but won’t recognize Him as being deity (having a divine nature), God incarnate (God come in the flesh).

�-�The gospel isn’t an announcement that God loves everyone, there’s no hell, and heaven is the final resting place for all mankind.

�-�The gospel isn’t saying that if you were brought up in a Christian family, this makes you a Christian.

�-�The gospel isn’t an announcement that says all roads (faiths) lead to heaven.

�-�The gospel isn’t the declaration that says if a person engages in some practice or ritual, this will cause them to receive the indwelling Spirit and become a child of God.

 

The next thing you should look for is the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

God the Holy Spirit gives each believer at least one of the non-leadership gifts at salvation to reveal His activity in their lives and to promote harmony in the church. If you’re unaware of these gifts being evidenced in the assembly of believers or expounded upon by the teachings from the pulpit, I wouldn’t be concerned. God will prompt them to be exercised in His time and manner as long as the other items in this checklist are in their proper place.

 

□Are the gifts of the Holy Spirit being evidenced?

Suppose the gospel is preached and responded to. In that case, the members of the assembly should have resided in each and everyone one of them the person of the Holy Spirit, who distributes His gifts individually as He wills (chooses). This gives each believer some proof of His presence. There could be as many as fifteen gifts of the Spirit.

In examining the operation of the first nine gifts, what becomes apparent is the direct involvement of the Holy Spirit, who provides supernatural prompting. This is a peculiar impulse that sometimes offers assurance that His power will assist in the performing of a supernatural event or healing, that truth will be unveiled in the mind concerning the past, present, or future, and that a conveyance of truth in a foreign language before those present will be interpreted for an understanding of such. To reiterate, the initial nine gifts are prophecy, divers kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues, faith, healing, the working of miracles, the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, and the discerning of spirits.

What the gifts of the Spirit are not

If there’s a declaration that the gifts of the Spirit include the gift of singing, the gift of painting, the gift of building houses, etc., this is evidence of a misunderstanding of the gifts of the Spirit. Someone who excels at singing, painting, building houses, etc., are examples of natural talents. The gifts of the Holy Spirit aren’t natural talents but spiritual endowments.

 

Another thing to recognize are the office leadership gifts.

□The names of the office gifts of the leadership of the church are apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers?

In some churches, it’s believed that the offices of apostles and prophets are no longer in effect, reducing the leadership positions to evangelists and pastor-teachers. A different study will discuss whether there are still apostles and prophets in the church today.

Sometimes a different title is ascribed to someone in authority, such as bishop, reverend, etc. I wouldn’t be overly concerned with this but rather whether collectively their mission for the church is expressed as stated in the Book of Ephesians:

For the perfecting (of equipping someone or something so that it might serve the purpose or do the work for which it was brought into being),⁸³ for the work (for the work of Christian service; servants, as Christ himself was;⁸⁴ to minister the Word to others so that they, [in turn,] are readied to get involved in ministering to others;⁸⁵ to help others as believers should⁸⁶)of the ministry, and for the edifying (its edification consists in its thorough instruction in divine things, and its being filled with faith and holiness)⁸⁷ of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12).

 

Here’s another thing you should look for, which pertains to the teachings presented, as to whether they’ll assist you in growing spiritually.

□The content of the teachings

They should be centered on the biblical topics of forgiveness, redemption, resurrection, salvation, financial giving, prayer, the Lord’s Supper, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Birth, the end times, etc. If these are in order, there are other things to look for, such as: Are there any discussions on personal sanctification? In other words, how do believers learn to rely on the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit and not on their sin nature?

Personal sanctification becomes effectual in our lives when we become aware of what sin is, the weaknesses we’ve been operating in, the need to confess these immediately after they occur, whether mentally, verbally, or overtly to God the Father, and appropriating God’s perspective for ourselves that would be attained by memorizing and meditating on pertinent verses so that the fruit (the elements of spiritual character) of the Holy Spirit can be operative in us and be evidenced to others.

What the content of the teachings shouldn’t be about

The content of the teachings shouldn’t mandate that the assembly observe certain aspects of the Mosaic Law, such as firstfruits, tithing, not eating certain foods, not wearing certain clothes, keeping the Seventh day, etc. Likewise, messages shouldn’t be such that the members are required to obey those in authority for this and such, and if they don’t, they’ll lose their salvation. This doesn’t mean that grace is a license to sin. Many Christian churches operate in one way or the other and sometimes blend both together, and it’s very difficult to find one that doesn’t.

Some Christians, myself included, might think what’s the harm in attending such a church? I’ve found out the hard way that if you transgress one of these mandates and are found out by others as having done so, you’ll probably be criticized and under suspicion for the duration you continue to remain in said church. And any aspiration that a believer has to be placed in a position of ascendency won’t be considered by the administration. 

Those that teach in this manner are called non-dispensationalists. This means they’ll take the protocol, or how God addressed believers who were living at different times (the Age of the Gentiles or the Age of Israel), and apply these procedures for the New Testament saints to follow.

How do you know whether the teachings of the leadership are man-centered or God-dependent? Simply listen to them, take notes, and ask God the Father in prayer to give you discernment as to such. If your spiritual walk is consumed with doing-doing-doing and not changing inwardly by the Word of God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, then you’re involved with religion--plain and simple. 

 

The last thing you should recognize is whether church traditions are inspired.

□Are the traditions that are being presented inspired?

A tradition is defined as the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or by practice: a story that has come down to us by popular tradition.⁸⁸ Inspired traditions are divine instructions delivered orally or in writing that are contained in the written Word of God.

Some of these are water baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the agape feast, the anointing with oil, the laying on of hands, the gospel, the allowance of those in leadership to marry, the believer’s immediate entrance to heaven upon physical death, Christ’s temptation by the devil in the wilderness for forty days and nights, the resurrection of Christ, Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem as the Messiah King of the Jews, Christ’s suffering and death on the cross paying the debt owed by mankind to satisfy God’s justice, prayer for personal direction, guidance, protection, spiritual growth, etc., the faith that once for all was delivered to the saints, teachings given by inspired men, and teachings that come from God to guide our lives.

    

How do we recognize those traditions that aren’t inspired?

Study the Word. Go to God the Father in prayer and ask for guidance.

So, there it is. I hope what I’ve presented here will assist you in finding an assembly of believers where you’ll be able to grow to spiritual adulthood and be all in your experience that God has already made you to be at salvation. I wish this checklist had been given to me to use following my conversion. Before we close, I’d like to leave you with these words regarding being aware of what attending church shouldn’t be.

�-�Attending church shouldn’t be that you mention God’s name without ever having a personal relationship with Him.

�-�Attending church shouldn’t be that you try to be a better person in your power instead of operating in a divine mindset in the power of the Holy Spirit.

�-�Attending church shouldn’t be that your sinful behavioral lifestyle is condoned, instead of learning how to address these areas of weakness using confession and recovery. 

�-�Attending church shouldn’t be that before you die, you only have a hope of eternal life, but not a certainty of eternal life.

After reading this book, I hope that I have provided you with some answers to the question, “You are a Christian. Now what?” May we put into practice what we’ve learned?

 

Endnotes

⁸³Weust.

⁸⁴The Pulpit.

⁸⁵Bible Knowledge Commentary/New Testament.

⁸⁶UBS.

⁸⁷Adam Clarke.

⁸⁸Dictionary.

 

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