PART 4
By
Pastor Roger Anghis
January 23, 2011
NewsWithViews.com
You may wonder is this is the only time that God has done this, paying double for one’s stand of faith. In Isaiah 61:7 God promises all who are afflicted for the sake of the Gospel double. For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. When a person takes a stand for God’s principles, more often than not they will be subjected to persecution. Sometimes it is great persecution. The word used for “shame” is boseth and it means ashamed, greatly put to shame. The Hebrew word for “confusion” is kelimmah and it means public disgrace, public reproach, public dishonor. Many times when you stand for the things of God it becomes public information. In today’s world it is becoming increasingly unpopular to be known as a Christian. In Brazil all religious TV programs are to have disclaimers shown, but the ultimate goal is to NOT have them air at all because they are ‘homophobic’. So any type of a stance for God’s principles will bring negative public attention whether it is warranted or not. If you hold your ground, the reward will be great. If you lose something standing for God’s principles, He will recompense you for it every time with more than what you lost.
The next verse we want to look at is Psalm 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living This verse is important because it speaks of prosperity. The Hebrew word used for “goodness” is the same word translated good things in Deuteronomy 6:11 and that is the word tuwb (toob) and means best, beauty, goodness of taste, prosperity. Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines prosperity as advance or gain in any thing good or desirable; successful progress in any business or enterprise; success; attainment of the object desired; as the prosperity of arts; agricultural or commercial prosperity; national prosperity. This verse is saying that God does intend for His followers to be prosperous.
The next verse is Psalm 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Again we see the word “goodness” which is the same word as in Psalm 27:13 and it carries the same meaning, prosperity. The prosperity that God has set up in reserve for the believer. The word used for “laid up” is tsaphan (tsaw-fan) and means reserve, protect, esteem. The lexicon states that this word also means to treasure up. The word used for “fear” is yare (yaw-ray) and means inspire reverence, godly fear and awe. God has rewards for those who reverentially fear Him. He has caused prosperity to come their way for those who seek refuge in Him. The word used for “wrought” is paal and means to do habitually, commit, ordain. This is telling us that God Himself will habitually set up prosperity for those of us who will make a stand for Him before men. Habitually means by habit; customarily; by frequent practice or use; habitually kind and benevolent. Again we see that God is willing and able to reward us for faithfulness.
The next verse we need to look at is Psalm 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance The word “Blessed” here si the Hebrew word esher (eh-sher) and means happiness, blessed happy. The word used for “inheritance” is nachalah (nakh-al-aw) and means something inherited, possession. Any nation that has God as its Lord will be blessed, content, happy, fulfilled. Websters defines blessed this way: Happy; prosperous in worldly affairs; enjoying spiritual happiness and the favor of God; enjoying heavenly felicity. Felicity gives even a deeper meaning of the blessing: Happiness, or rather great happiness; blessedness; blissfulness; appropriately, the joys of heaven. Prosperity; blessing; enjoyment of good. That is a very descriptive meaning of blessed. That is what this nation experienced when it was united as one nation by our Founding Fathers. We became the greatest nation this world has ever or will ever see because we depended on God, sought after God and lived and governed by His principles.
Our next verse is one that most of the church ignores for the most part. Psalm 35:27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. Here we see that God is pleased when we are prosperous. I have had many people tell me that this is a spiritual prosperity but again we have to remember that spiritual prosperity comes from Jesus after the cross. The word used for “shout” is ranan (raw-nan) and means to give a ringing cry of exhortation. The word used for “righteous” is tsedeq (tseh-dek) and it means that which is right, legal, a just cause. The word used for “magnified” is gadiysh (gaw-deesh) and means to stack high, heap up. The word used for “pleasure” is chaphets (khaw-fates) and it means to delight, be pleased, have pleasure. Webster’s defines pleasure as the gratification of the senses or of the mind; agreeable sensations or emotions; the excitement, relish or happiness produced by enjoyment or the expectation of good. This seems to contradict what the church has taught for centuries about how prosperous a believer is supposed to be.
For years we have been taught that we are to be humble and the only way you can be humble is to be poor. Here God is saying that He has pleasure, excitement, happiness, in the prosperity of His people. The word used for “prosperity” shalom and it means completeness, soundness, welfare, peace. Completeness means the state of having no deficiency; perfect. God has pleasure when we have no deficiency! That contradicts what the church has taught for centuries. I believe the Bible not the denominational doctrines. We, who follow God’s principles, are to be exceedingly joyful because God not only wants us to but has caused us to prosper.
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Our next scripture is Psalms 37:3-5. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. (4) Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (5) Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Here God is giving us direction for prosperity. Trust in the Lord. Trust is defined by Webster’s is confidence; a reliance or resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship or other sound principle of another person. We are to do good. The Hebrew word for “good ” is towb and means to do good, kindly, pleasant. The word used for “dwell” is shakan and means to inhabit, permanently stay. Here the literal translation is quite different from the KJV. The KJV says “thou shalt be fed”, but the literal translations says ‘and feed on faithfulness. The Hebrew word used here is emuwnah (em-oo-naw) and means stability, steady truth. This is a reference to God’s faithfulness meaning, when we keep His principles and values, we will see His faithfulness. The Hebrew word used for “Delight” is anag and means to take exquisite delight.
Webster’s defines it as being in the highest degree; extreme; as, to relish pleasure in an exquisite degree. We are instructed to relish the pleasure of the Lord and He will give us the desires of our heart. The word “desires” is the Hebrew word misgalah (mish-aw-law) and means petitions. Webster’s defines petitions as a request, supplication or prayer; but chiefly and appropriately, a solemn or formal supplication; a prayer addressed by a person to the Supreme Being, for something needed or desired, or a branch or particular article of prayer. The catch comes when we are told that we are to commit our ways unto Him. The Hebrew word for “commit” is galal and actually means roll. It carries the meaning of putting on to something. The word used for “way” is derek and means the course of life. The word used for “pass” is asah and means to act with effect. Together this means to roll, or establish your course of life to Him, trust Him and He will see to it that your faithfulness will not go unrewarded. So we are to trust in God, do good deeds, and we will forever live in the promise land experiencing His faithfulness not wanting for anything that we need or want. Then we are instructed to relish the pleasure of the Lord and He will give us what ever we ask for as long as we establish our course of life in His ways and then He will bring about all that He has promised us that He would do.
Our next scripture is one that most churches refrain from talking about because it flies in the face of their denominational doctrinal teaching. Pslams 49:16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; Here God is saying that it is not necessary to be afraid of wealth. The Hebrew word used for “rich” is ashar and means to grow or make rich, to accumulate wealth, wax rich. Webster’s dictionary defines wax as to increase in size; to grow; to become larger. His definition of rich is wealthy; opulent; possessing a large portion of land, goods or money, or a larger portion than is common to other men or to men of like rank. Splendid; costly; valuable; precious; sumptuous; Abundant in materials; yielding great quantities of any thing valuable; This is not a description of shopping at Wal-Mart. This is having the best and a lot of it. God goes on to speak of glory. The Hebrew word used is kabah which is defined by the lexicon as abundance, splendor of wealth, honor. Then God says that this glory will be increased. The word used for “increased” is rabah and means enlarge, excel exceedingly, be full, heap, make to multiply. God is telling us that we should not fear this massive amount of wealth. We have to remember that this is the kind of wealth that was spoken about in Deuteronomy 28.
The next scripture I want to look at is Psalms 66:12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place Again we see a misuse of words. The literal translation states; ‘You have let men ride. . .’ We have to understand that sometimes we do things that keep God’s hand of protection away from us. But when we call upon Him in repentance, He will deliver us from the mess we got ourselves into. We can also read this as You have allowed men. This verse speaks of the trials that men go through. Sometimes the trials are self caused because of disobedience and sometimes they are designed to rid us of something so that God can do more through us. Malachi speaks of a refiner’s fire.
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A person who deals with precious metals uses fire to burn out the impurities that are in the raw metal. The water reference is a reference to waters of distress. When we go through the times of difficulties we learn to let go of things that we used to depend on and learn to depend on God. I believe that God allows those trials for those that will come out of them victorious because He knows who will and who won’t be able to stand up to the trials. Those that make it through are rewarded for their troubles. This verse states that “thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place”. The word used there is revayah (rev-aw-yaw) and it means running over, wealthy. The literal translation used the word plenty. All of these words are speaking of material possessions, not some great spiritual blessing, but material wealth. Keep in mind that this verse states that God is the one who bring us into that place of wealth.
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Pastor Roger Anghis is the Founder of RestoreFreeSpeech.org, an organization designed to draw attention to the need of returning free speech rights to churches that was restricted in 1954.
President of The Damascus Project, TheDamascusProject.org, which has a stated purpose of teaching pastors and lay people the need of the churches involvement in the political arena and to teach the historical role of Christianity in the politics of the United States. Married-37 years, 3 children, three grandchildren.
Web site: RestoreFreeSpeech.org
E-Mail: editor@restorefreespeech.org
