A Prosperous Soul
Written By Brigitta Tedja
Watch Ps Paul’s preaching here
Pastor Paul Tan’s sermon focused on the area of the soul and how it can prosper. “A Prosperous Soul” sermon has 4 points:
1. Your Soul Can Prosper
3 John 1:2 (NASB) states, “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.”
The above verse was a very common greeting in John’s time but he added a profound addition with “. . . just as your soul prospers.” You can do whatever you want to do with your body but if your soul is disturbed, it will affect your body. You need to know what to do so that your soul can prosper. Your soul has to prosper in order for the rest of your life to also prosper.
The soul includes the mind, will, emotion, and heart. The mind includes your perceptions, cognitions, imaginations, reasonings, analytical approach, and at the core of soul is your heart. All these components need to be aligned so that your soul can prosper.
2. God Wants Your Soul to Prosper
In Psalms 37:3-5 (NIV) it states, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land. And feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”
The “Delight yourself in the Lord” verse is sandwiched between two others. In order to receive the desires of your heart, you need to trust, do good, and feed on His faithfulness. Then you need to commit your way and trust again in Him. The legalists would say that you must be disciplined but Pastor Paul learned that starting with discipline is a wrong stance. You cannot start with discipline, but first walk in delight to tap into your desire and passion, then the discipline part will not be a problem. When you have passion, energy rises up and everything becomes easier. Pastor Paul questions your passion if you always come to church late because if you truly have passion for God, he would not have to beg you to come early to church.
The definition of delight means: to please, it gives you pleasure, to be pleasing to, it is a feeling of extreme pleasure or satisfaction, great pleasure, joy, something that gives great pleasure or enjoyment, and source of happiness. We were created to glorify God and to enjoy Him. What is missing is that we lost the awesomeness to worship God. To delight means to enchant—God is awesome. God wants you to prosper, so you approach Him and worship with your heart.
Mark 12:29-31 (NKJV)
“Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
As you recall, the soul includes the mind, will, emotions, and heart. So why did Jesus say the mind twice? Heart in the Greek is cardia – a person’s deepest center thoughts and feelings. It is because our mind has two capacities. The first capacity is memory and the second is imagination. Many people are living their lives out of their memories or under condemnation. You keep remembering what you did and keep disqualifying yourself based on your memory. You keep identifying who you used to be and not who you are right now in Christ Jesus. You keep living out your present life out of what you did years ago. You keep living out your present opportunity based on the last opportunity you blew or failed or made a mistake on. Your memories keep pulling you back to the past and you go backwards, not forward. Most people have forgiveness in their heart but never got renewed in their mind. You go to heaven when you die, but you live in hell while you are on earth because you constantly relive the things that are just memories. They are not real because they are all in the past.
With the imagination part, there are many promises and there is a great calling in your life. You can do all things in Christ Jesus, so do not dwell too long in your soul because your soul will end up controlling your spirit and your body.
The journey is an inner journey to the prosperity of the soul.
Most of the time God answers the questions in an interrogative mood, he asks questions. If you expect God to answer all of your questions, you will not grow. The journey involves METANOIA, a renewal of the mind. It is not repentance FROM, it is repentance TO. Your focus is from the past, but God wants you to look forward. The renewal of the mind is not being told what to think. The renewal of the mind is to learn how to think. Paul the Apostle stated, “You have to WORK OUT what God is WORKING IN.”
3. But . . .
1 Thessalonians 5:23 states, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You cannot just focus on your body, mind, and soul, but you need to feed your spirit as well because it will not die. Some may have worry or fear and you might have heard, “Christians should not have anxiety” because Paul wrote, “Be anxious for nothing.” You cannot just say “don’t worry” when someone comes to you and say he/she is worried, but Pastor suggests to pray for them. Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 2:3, that he experienced fear, dread, great trembling, weakness, nervousness, and was shaking all over. In 2 Corinthians 1:8, Paul wrote, “For we do not want you to be uninformed brethren about the affliction and the oppressing distress, which befell us in Asia how we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life itself.”
Pastor Paul stated that he is preparing for us to be strong in the Lord given the times we are living in right now. What is happening with Russia and Ukraine is found in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 and Daniel 9. The city of Magog is where Russia is right now. Be informed that this war is on a different scale. The “Kill List” is causing many influential pastors and government officials to go into hiding. Matthew 24 is about the “Signs of the Times” and we see the signs with the current war and COVID—a modern-day global plague. The Word of God states for us to wake up and rise up, it is not the time to be afraid.
Romans 13:11-12 (NKJV)
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
The TPT translations states: “To live like this is all the more urgent, for time is running out and you know it is a strategic hour in human history. It is time for us to wake up! For our full salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”
The MEV translations states: “Furthermore, knowing the time, now is the moment to awake from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed.”
4. If You Want Your Soul to Prosper
If you want your soul to prosper, be careful on what you are feeding your mind. Proverbs 4:23 (EXB) states, “Be careful what you think (above all that, you guard, protect your heart), because your thoughts run your life (life flows from it)”
Philippians 4:6-7
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
If you want your soul to prosper, do not be anxious but pray, state your petitions, be thankful, and the peace of God will surpass your mind. Even Moses was afraid, Elijah wanted to die, Paul was in fear, and David who was a mighty warrior was also afraid.
Psalms 1:1-3 (EXB)
“Happy [Blessed] are those who don’t listen to [walk in the counsel of] the wicked,
who don’t go where sinners go [stand in the way of sinners],
who don’t do what evil people do [sit in the seat of mockers].
2 They love [delight in] the Lord’s teachings [laws; instructions],
and they think about [meditate on] those teachings [laws; instructions] day and night.
3 They are like a tree planted by a river [streams of water; full of life, strong, vibrant].
The tree produces fruit in season,
and its leaves don’t die [wither].
Everything they do will succeed [prosper].”
If you want your soul to prosper, you do not listen or walk, stand, or sit with the wicked.
If you want your soul to prosper, read, think, meditate, and memorize the Word of God.
If you want your soul to prosper, be led of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14).
Galatian 5:22-23
The fruit of the Holy Spirit is the work which His presence within accomplishes. The Holy Spirit will accomplish this in your life. Fear is a spirit that attacks your soul to cause you to be afraid, but God does not give you the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. We are living in the last days—it is not a time to be afraid, it is a time to be excited because the book of Revelation states that the Church will be victorious!
Prayer Points:
Pray for a breaking of mindsets
Pray for our soul to prosper
Pray to trust in the Lord, do good, commit our way to God
Pray to walk in delight to tap into our desire and passion
Pray to stop the past from dictating our lives
Pray for the renewal of our minds
Be careful on what you feed your mind
Learn how to think in order to grow
Pray to increase our love for God’s Word:
Read, study, meditate, memorize the Word of God
Pray to be led of the Holy Spirit
Galatians 5
Let us create an atmosphere of expectation and hunger for more of God by coming early to church
Pray for peace
Pray for God’s intervention in Ukraine
Pray for the safety of God’s people in both Ukraine and Russia
Pray for the war to end
May you prosper in good health just as your soul prospers!