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When Ken and I were first born again, we lived on the edge of disaster all the time. I'm not saying we weren't seeing God work in our lives. If He had not helped us, we would have never made it! In fact we needed His help just to make it through the week.
But as we matured in faith and began walking in the Word of God daily, an important change took place. We found that we needed fewer and fewer crisis miracles. Our needs started being met. Our family's health began improving. Within 11 months, we were out of debt.
To tell you the truth, as precious and important as those miracles were in our times of need, it was nice not to have to believe God for a miracle just to pay the power bill. It was nice not to need to pray we had enough money to pay the bill in the grocery line.
What made the difference? What was the secret?
There was no secret. We simply discovered how to live in the blessings of God. And we've been living in them ever since. We began to apply the principles of the kingdom of heaven and they worked!
Living a Heavenly Lifestyle
When I look back on how Ken and I lived more than 38 years ago, it's easy to see that it was a low level of living. Even though we were believers, we had no idea of what the future held for us. We didn't know what jobs to take or where to live. We didn't know how to pay our bills, own a car or house or live debt free. We didn't even know how to rebuke sickness and disease off our lives.
What we did know was how to live broke and sick. It was a low life.
But that kind of life is not what God wanted for us back then, and it certainly is not what He desires for any of His people today! God desires for His people to live well in every area of life. He desires us to live well in our spirits, our souls and our bodies. He desires us to live every day in the fullness of His blessings.
Just imagine what it would be like to never have to be healed again. Of course, it's nice to get healed when you've been sick or physically injured. But imagine what it would be like to live healthy and whole all the time. No colds, no flu, no allergies. No heart disease, no mental illness...no cancer.
Well according to the Word of God, that's exactly the way our lives should be. In fact heaven is a pattern of that kind of good life God has for us.
What's more, I'm certain that people in heaven never have to run to the throne of God and say, "Lord, I have this terrible sinus infection that just will not go away. Please heal me!"
Now I realize you might be thinking, That's a nice thought, Gloria, but that's heaven-I'm down here. I still need miracles!
I understand, but 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
In this verse, the word wholly means whole, complete, undamaged and intact. In other words, God wants us to live our lives separated unto Him, and He wants us well in every way. He wants us whole, complete, undamaged and intact in our spirits, minds, bodies, finances and so on.
We find this same principle in 3 John 2: "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."
The point is, while we as believers may need a miracle of God in our lives from time to time, we should endeavor to reach the point where we become so developed in our faith walk that we live each day in all the blessings of heaven-inall the blessings that have been provided for us in our covenant with God through Jesus Christ.
God's Way Is the High Way
If we truly want to reach that place of living in constant health and constant prosperity, then we will have to do what we just read in 3 John 2-"prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."
We will have to prosper in our souls,first. How do we prosper in our souls? Let's look at Isaiah 55:2-3, 7-9.
Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live.... Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
In order for our souls to prosper, we have to begin thinking the way God thinks. After all, God's way of thinking and doing things is always the right way. It's always the higher way, always the best way.
Once you and I come into God's kingdom, it's our responsibility to learn His ways and walk in them. We have to discard our old, low thoughts and our old, low ways of living, and receive His higher thoughts and higher ways.
How do we do that?
Through the Word.
God gave us His Word so we could see exactly how He thinks and how He does things. That's why for generations He has endeavored to get His people to agree with Him, to agree with His Word—to read it, speak it and put it to work.
All you and I have to do is find out what the Word says and then do it. As we do, the Word will keep us out of trouble and in the fullness of His blessings. We see this so clearly in the earthly life and ministry of Jesus.
In Matthew 4 we read that after Jesus had been baptized by John in the Jordan River and filled with the Holy Spirit, He was tempted by Satan while fasting in the desert. It was during this confrontation with the devil that Jesus gave us the key to living well. He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (verse 4).
You see bread—or natural substance—is not enough for us to live abundant lives. We need the Word of God. The Word is just as vital to our lives as the food we eat.
But notice that Jesus said we live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God, not some words.
Every word God gives us is to our advantage and our good. Living by every word from God is the only way we can live in every blessing of God. When Ken and I learned this principle, it changed our lives.
Once we began living daily on the Word of God, circumstances and situations in our lives began lining up with that Word—and they've never stopped changing for our good.
Three Steps to "The Good Life"
God's Word is full of promises and principles concerning our physical health. That's why, if we want to be healthy every day of our lives, we cannot be ignorant of the Word and all that it has to say—nor disobedient to it.
David asks the question in Psalm 34:12, "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?"
The answer he gives is in verses 11, 13-14: "Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it."
Hear and Do
First, to have long lives filled with good health, we must fear the Lord. And simply put, to fear God, or to reverence Him, is to listen to His Word and then do it. That's what the word hearken in verse 11 means. It means to "hear and do."
We find in Proverbs 9:10 that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Added to that, Proverbs 14:27 tells us that the fear of the Lord "is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death" (The Amplified Bible).
So every time we read about fearing the Lord in the Bible, it's referring to honoring God by listening to what He says and then doing it. By honoring God, by hearkening to His Word, we allow His life to flow through us. We become fountains of life, avoiding the snares of death.
Watch Your Mouth
A second step to living a long and healthy life that David gives us in Psalm 34 is to "keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile" (verse 13).
The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about our mouths. They are, after all, the key to life. But what comes out of our mouths is the result of what we have put in our hearts. And Proverbs 14:30 says that a "sound heart is the life of the flesh."
If we want to live free of sickness and disease, our hearts must be sound with the Word of God. The Word must be abiding within us (John 15:7). The more Word we put inside us, the more Word will come out of our mouths...and the more life will flow through our bodies.
So to live well, we must do something about our words. We cannot get healed and stay healed by going through life talking sickness and disease.
"Yeah, but, Gloria, it is allergy season, you know, and I always have a rough time of it with all the pollen...my father and my mother had the same trouble."
That may be so. But the truth is, by going through life and speaking that kind of unbelief you will always shut the door of blessing in your face. You'll never walk free of those allergies or their symptoms. You will be just like your father and mother and you will probably pass that unpleasant heritage to your children.
No, to get well and stay well our tongues must constantly speak what the Word says: "I thank You, Father, that Jesus has redeemed me from the curse of the law of sin and death. By His blood I have covenant rights to ALL the blessing of Abraham, and that includes my health..." (Galatians 3:13-14).
All God asks is that we believe and say what He has already said so we can prosper and be in health. Now that will take some time and effort on our part, but we can do it!
Turn From Evil
Finally, in Psalm 34:14, we find a third step toward a healthy life, which is to "Depart from evil, and do good."
Throughout the Bible we find that a wise man lives separated unto God. In other words, a wise man departs from evil.Proverbs 3:7 exhorts us to "fear the Lord, and depart from evil." Second Corinthians 6:14 asks, "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?"
Why is departing from evil so important?
Proverbs 3:8 goes on to say that departing from evil "shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones."
The word navel refers not to just a part of the body but to all of it. So departing from evil is health to the whole body.
But now, notice that the opposite of verse 8 is also true. Participating in evil brings sickness and disease to our whole flesh. Examples of evil would include envy, strife, immorality and so on. These all bring sickness to the body.
In Proverbs 1:19, we read, "So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof." Here, it's quite clear that greed can take away our life. It's a wicked force that can cut our lives short.
We find this same warning in Proverbs 14:30. We read earlier its declaration that a sound heart is life to our flesh. The rest of that scripture says, "...but envy, jealousy, and wrath are like rottenness of the bones" (The Amplified Bible).
Someone who is full of envy, strife, jealousy and wrath is a candidate for sickness and disease. It's that simple, and that serious.
Evil does not make for a sound heart or a healthy body. Participating in any amount of sin will only open the door for the devil to bring sickness into our lives. Do you see the real reason why God wants us to depart from evil? He wants us well!
Only One Road to Victory
Only one thing can separate us from all the results of having lived an evil life-God's Word.
Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Word of God is "quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
The Word is able to separate us from bad things. It will separate us from living a life of evil, and it will lead us into a godly life. The Word will separate us from sickness, disease and lack.
To get separated from our evil past, however, we have to give God's Word first place in our lives. It's not just going to jump into our hearts overnight.
James 1:21 talks about getting rid of "all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness" and receiving "the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls" (The Amplified Bible).
It's this implanted or engrafted Word that works in our lives, abiding in us, talking to us and delivering us.
When we come across a situation concerning our health, it is the Word of God that's alive inside us that rises up and brings light to whatever we're facing. But the Word cannot rise within us if it hasn't been deposited there to begin with. That's why Psalm 103:2-3 tells us to "forget not all [God's] benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases."
You and I have to be dedicated to God's Word. Have you noticed that evil people are dedicated and evangelistic? They live evil with all their heart and they want you to join them, too. It makes them feel better about themselves if you're in it with them.
In the same way, we have to be strong in the Word, not giving in to anything else. The slightest bit of carelessness toward it-not walking in fear and honor of it-will expose us to sickness and disease and the rest of the curse. "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee" (Deuteronomy 28:15).
So it depends on what we want. If we want to live long and well, we must pursue God's Word with our whole hearts. We must pursue the Word the way people in the world go after their evil lifestyle.
The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
Again the key to living well is hearing and doing...giving attention to God's Word, spending time in it, meditating on it and then doing it.
If you really believe the Bible holds the keys to health and prosperity-and you're as tired of low living as Ken and I were-then give the Word your undivided attention. Read it when you get up in the morning. Read it when you go to bed at night. Read it at every opportunity.
Yes, it's wonderful to get healed when you're sick. But it's more wonderful to live in divine health-and God's Word can take you to that place!
The Word can get you well and keep you well. So get on it. Stay on it. And honor God by doing what it tells you to do. It's your high way to living well!
Dr. James Dobson said: “Trying to analyze His [God’s] omnipotence is like an amoeba attempting to comprehend the behavior of man.” It’s simply not possible. But there is one thing we can be sure of. “All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful,” (Psalm 25:10) whether we understand them or not.
