BEST SUCCESS 3
(week 44/11)
Olubi Johnson
In our article last week, we saw that we should get the ‘best’ success in the ‘Promised Land’ of the salvation of our souls: when our souls are transformed from being a ‘desert’ or ‘wilderness’ into a fruitful land, having the fruit of the humility of the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5-8), a renewed mind with light (2 Cor. 4:6) and the ability of the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) and emotions totally controlled by the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).
This truth is beautifully typified in
Isaiah 35:1,2,6 KJV: The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. (2) It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God. (6)…for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
We enter this ‘Promised Land’ by possessing our souls (Lk. 21:19) with patience (consistent, diligent, habitual application of the blood, the Word and the Spirit by daily prayer, study of the Word and walking in the Spirit) and enduring hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 2:3).
Now the reason why you have to endure hardness in order to possess your soul by patience is that time for sleep, eating and other legitimate pleasures (weights: things that are lawful but not expedient (1 Cor. 6:12, Heb. 12:1)) have to be cut down in order to have the time to devote to prayer and the Word for the salvation of your soul; and time to be diligent in your natural vocation to excel intellectually, physically, materially and financially.
You should ‘tithe’ your time like you tithe your money: give the first early hours (Mk. 1:35) of the morning to God in prayer and the Word: say 5.00-6.30hrs; and then throughout the day in the course of your natural work still pray (briefly about 1-2mins to ‘wash feet’, draw life and pray in tongues) and at every opportunity (like when you have to go the toilet or take a break from what you are doing), in every temptation (Jam. 1:1-4; Phil. 4:6-7) and of course, once every six hours as demanded by the Word (Josh. 1:8, Dt. 6:7, 2 Sam. 6:13, Mk. 13:35).
In addition to this, at weekends and on days when you have extra time, you can spend more time in prayer in the early hours of the morning to make up for whatever things you have not been able to pray about during that week.
As a general rule, use the early hours of the morning for prayer and the Word and then work very hard at your vocation during the rest of the day.
Doing this requires enduring the hardness of discipline on your physical body and mind: it will be hard initially, but with time, you will get used to it and go from it being a duty, to becoming a discipline and ultimately, a delight. Furthermore, by the mercy and grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit, you will enter into a spiritual rest where you will find the yoke easy and the burden light (Mt. 11:29-30).
As you do this, you will gradually possess your ‘Promised Land’ and inherit the intellectual, physical and financial blessings found only the ‘Promised Land’ that will now give you what will be seen as the ‘best success’.
Some these blessings are mentioned in:
Deuteronomy 6:10-11 KJV: And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, (11) And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
Here the scripture tells us that in the ‘Promised Land’, we will inherit: ‘cities’, ‘vineyards’ and ‘houses’ that we did not build.
What do these things typify to us today?
Cities can be interpreted to mean the means of production or creation of goods: manufacturing companies. These companies would have been built by others, but they would not have the finances and the wisdom to make them profitable; but as we enter our ‘Promised Land’ of the salvation of our souls, we would inherit the ability of the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) and so have the wisdom and finances to acquire these companies and turn them into profitable ‘cities’: manufacturing concerns that will create top quality goods.
Vineyards can be interpreted to mean businesses that do not manufacture (cities are bigger than vineyards) but rather sell already manufactured goods and services.
Houses can be interpreted to mean real estate: which we will not build, but acquire by the finances, wisdom and favour we inherit in the ‘Promised Land’ of the salvation of our souls.
These three categories of wealth typified by ‘cities’, ‘vineyards’ and ‘houses’ will cause the church individually and collectively to become the most powerful financial institution in the world with the financial resources to lend to nations fulfilling:
Deuteronomy 28:11,13 KJV: (11) And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods… …and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. (13) And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:
Malachi 3:10,12 KJV: Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse… …(12) And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
So, we can see that the wealth promised us in the ‘Promised Land’ of the salvation of our souls far outstrips the blessings of the ‘wilderness’, where our needs are met but we do not enjoy the abundance of the ‘Promised Land’: it is obvious that the church, as a whole, has only enjoyed ‘wilderness’ blessings hitherto. That is why you find very few, if any, born-again, Spirit filled, publicly-confessing, committed Christians among the wealthiest men on earth, or their companies listed in Fortune 500; hence this prophetic message of ‘Best Success’.
Once again, it is necessary to emphasize that this level of prosperity is only available to the Christian who has entered into the ‘Promised Land’ of the salvation of the soul: Christians who attempt to get this level of prosperity without the corresponding salvation of the soul, will have very limited success in this regard and at the same time lose ‘ground’ (Mk.4:20) in their souls (1 Tim. 6:9-10)!
So, it is wise to first (Mt. 6:33; Rev. 2:4) seek the salvation of the soul and then this level of ‘best’ success will inevitably follow.
Finally, it is vital to understand that the purpose of this level of success is to give us financial independence (Ps. 105:44-45) to give more time to prayer, the Word, charity and missions to establish God’s covenant on the earth (Dt. 8:18), disciple the nations (Mt.24:14; 28:18-20) and so bring a God-glorifying end to this dispensation!
