In the Bible, when God gave his covenant to people, he would promise them things that were for their personal success, but it turned out God would also advance his own agenda when he fulfilled these promises. The individuals would receive the promises by faith for their own benefit, but in achieving the success that God promised, they would end up advancing God’s program as well.
For example, God promised Abraham that he would have a son by his wife Sarah. Since they were both old and barren, it would take a miracle to make this happen. The promise was a gospel of healing, a gospel of health, and a gospel of miracles. Abraham wanted someone in his own bloodline to inherit from him. There was no indication that he had an ambition for the global spread of the kingdom of God and the gospel of Christ. He indeed gained insight about this, but at first he only wanted a son for himself.
God’s promise was worded in such a way that it was for Abraham’s benefit. He said that he would give Abraham a son, and that he would become the father of nations. God said that he would make Abraham’s name great and famous.
This is a shock and a contradiction to how religious people imagine what God should say or what we should covet. They would expect God to say, “Abraham, I would hurt you and make you suffer for my glory.” But God did not say that. God did not even say, “Abraham, I would heal you and make you a father of nations for my own glory and purpose.” But God said, “Abraham, I will make you a father of nations and make your name great.” This is the kind of gospel of health and wealth that the Faithless declare to be anti-Christian; however, it is the very foundation of the Christian faith.
Abraham would gain more insight concerning God’s intention to make him the father of nations. Jesus said that Abraham foresaw the coming of Christ and rejoiced. However, at first Abraham was concerned only with his own barrenness, and God’s promise referred to only how he would bless and honor Abraham. By faith, Abraham received the promise for his own benefit, for his own personal success and ambition. But by doing this, he became a pivotal point in the history of redemption. He made possible the nation of Israel and the incarnation of Christ, and therefore the salvation of humanity. All of this happened because God made a promise for Abraham’s benefit and Abraham received it for his own benefit.
This same pattern is evident in the lives of others, including Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, and often neglected examples like Gideon and Samson. Also consider Rahab and Ruth. Rahab acted on her belief in God to save herself and her family. She did not have in mind the incarnation of Christ or the spread of the gospel. And Ruth only wanted to survive, marry a good husband, and care for her mother-in-law. Both of these women occupied vital roles in the history of redemption, even necessary roles to the incarnation and lineage of Christ. All of them pursued their own welfare and success, and God’s promises to them even made them think along these lines, but they ended up advancing God’s program at the same time.
The reason we mention this is to establish confidence to wholeheartedly receive good things from God for ourselves by faith. Pray for yourself. Receive things from God for your own benefit. If it stops there, God is honored because he has blessed one person. You can then consciously participate in the expansion of the kingdom of God. However, even if you do not concern yourself with the situation any further, you will naturally further God’s program. He will take this and increase the effect to benefit more people and to magnify himself with it. Just by receiving from God for yourself, more and more, again and again, you will do more for God than the counterfeit Christians who seem to suffer much for their religion, but who refuse to receive from God and forbid others to receive. They hinder the gospel and bring shame to the name of Jesus.
Faithless theology instills a sense of guilt for praying for ourselves, or wanting good things for ourselves, or deliverance from problems for ourselves. It portrays faith toward God for personal benefit as selfish. But it is not up to us to judge God’s word about healing and prosperity as morally repugnant, or the teachings of Jesus on faith and prayer as unspiritual. Judgment and contempt toward God is the true face of faithless religion. It is deception and foolishness. Your suffering often hinders God’s program from moving forward. Why? Because you are stuck in your problems!
By God’s design, if you do not make progress, then God’s program does not make progress. God’s will is for his plan to make progress by your progress. Humanity took one giant step closer to salvation when Abraham received the gospel of healing and prosperity for his own benefit. It was more progress than all the counterfeit Christians have ever made by their worthless and pretentious suffering, or by their sickness and poverty. It is utterly stupid to not receive from God. It is selfish to not receive healing and prosperity. When you suffer, you are not the only one who suffers. When you suffer, you cause many other people to suffer. When you do not receive healing and prosperity, when you refuse miracles and blessings, and answers to prayer, you inflict incalculable damage to multitudes.
God’s program and our prosperity intertwine. God’s program is about people in the first place, and we are the people. It is about us, and how we live in relation to him. It is never about him doing his own thing that has nothing to do with us. If it is by faith in God that we pursue our own welfare, and not by human greed and effort, then our success and happiness will never conflict with the plan of God. He will use our success, healing, and prosperity to advance his program, often in ways that we do not know or cannot anticipate.
Even when we seem to receive from God only for our own benefit, it could produce far-reaching effects that bless multitudes and generations long after we are gone. When God promises you something, he indeed wants you to receive it for your own benefit. It is for you even if it benefits nobody else. But if you receive it for yourself, it will indeed honor God and also benefit other people, even when that has not crossed your mind and even if you cannot imagine how it happens. God knows. And the more you receive from God, the more you will also advance his agenda. There is no conflict. There is a mutual and proportional benefit.
Nevertheless, do not think that he is just using you to help his own agenda. His agenda is about himself and about people. And so his agenda is him and you. When you pray to him and receive from him, that fits exactly into his agenda. This is it. It is exactly what life and faith ought to be about. He is not using you to help his agenda, because you are his agenda. He is not exploiting you to further his plan, because you are his plan. He is not giving you good things just because it will accomplish some other important thing, because you are that important thing. But when you receive from him by faith, you will also participate in proclaiming the goodness and faithfulness of God, and in spreading his benefits to other people who are also in his program to bless.
By faith, pray to God and receive from him whatever you need and whatever you want. Never let it bother you. Be shameless. This is the way God operates as he spreads his kingdom through the world and the generations. The gospel of blessing and success, healing and prosperity, signs and wonders, is the greatest force in the world to glorify God and to advance his program. God succeeds when his people succeed, because his program is achieved in his people and by his people.