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Issue link: http://magazine.kcm.org/i/1071539
Exceeding, Abundantly Above by Gloria Copeland A lot of Christians are going to be shocked when they get to heaven and find out what really belonged to them when they were on earth. They’re going to see the riches in glory God wanted to pour out on them while they were down here and realize they spent their time on this planet living far below their divine privileges. They’re going to realize they were cheated out of the supernatural abundance that belonged to them in Christ Jesus, because they let people talk them into thinking about prosperity like the world does instead of thinking like God’s Word says in the Bible. I’m telling you, when it comes to financial abundance, God thinks BIG! His thoughts about our prosperity and His ways of getting it to us are as far above the world’s thoughts and ways “as the heavens are higher than the earth” (Isaiah 55:9). Even under the Old Covenant, God was able to prosper the Israelites beyond what they could ask or think. He was able to deliver them from poverty and slavery in Egypt and bring them out with an abundance of silver and gold (Psalm 105:37). He was able to provide for them a Promised Land with no scarcity, where they lacked nothing, and bless them there with the “power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18). If God could do that under the Old Covenant, think what He can do for us, as believers, under the New Covenant! Unlike the Old Testament Israelites, who are referred to in the Bible as God’s servants, we’re His born-again sons and daughters. We’re joint heirs together with Christ of everything He has! As God’s obedient children, we’re in the same position financially that the elder brother was in the parable Jesus told in Luke 15. You remember that story. It’s about a rich father, his two sons, and their inheritance. In the beginning of the parable, the younger one asks the father to give him his inheritance early and then leaves home and squanders it on riotous living. After he goes broke and winds up living in a literal pigpen, he returns, repentant, and his father receives him with open arms, kills a fatted calf in his honor, and throws a party to celebrate. When the older son comes in from working in his father’s field and finds out about the party, he gets mad and says to his father: “You never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the finest calf we have” (verses 29-30, "New Living Translation"-96). “And the father said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31, "Amplified Bible, Classic Edition"). It’s clear that the older son didn’t understand his rights and privileges as his father’s son. He didn’t understand that, as his father’s son, he was already entitled to everything his father owned. All the cattle belonged to him just as much as they belonged to his father. BVOV : 25