BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

What a Future! by Kenneth Copeland All my life people told me the reason God saved us was so that when we got to glory, we could spend the rest of eternity loving Him and worshiping Him. But, you know, that’s just not so. It sounds pretty good, but it’s just something someone made up. God isn’t selfish. He’s just the opposite. He’s the ultimate giver. The ultimate lover. He doesn’t do anything just so He can get something in return. Why then did He save us? The WORD of God tells us He did it so that in the ages to come, He could show us the exceeding riches of His grace. Think about that! God is going to spend eternity showing the riches of His grace to you and me. That’s why He sent Jesus into the world. He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God gave Jesus so that He wouldn’t be His only son. He sent Jesus so He could have more sons to love and give to—and He plans to spend the eons of time doing just that. As a believer, you have the most glorious future ahead of you that anyone could ever ask. But don’t wait until you get to glory to enjoy it. You can start right now. You’ve already been seated! V “[God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6-7 *********************************** ****Curse-Free Life (cont.)**** The Hebrew word for peace means “nothing missing, nothing broken.” It refers to a life that’s good and satisfying in every way. That’s the kind of life we all want and it’s the kind we can have, if we’ll pay attention to and obey God’s Word. His Word is THE BLESSING book! It’s the long-life and healing book. It’s the prosperity book. It’s the ultimate wisdom and success book. But you won’t enjoy its benefits if you just leave it sitting unopened on the coffee table. It won’t do you any good if you just carry it to church on Sunday morning and let it gather dust the rest of the week. To tap into the wonderful life the Word makes available, you must find out what it says about everything and obey it. Reading your Bible every day is the best investment of your time you can make! So if you haven’t already made it a habit, start now. Dig in and study what God has to say. Let Him speak to you through the Scriptures and instruct and correct you. Find out what He wants you to do in every area of your life, and then do it. Study God’s Word—the Bible, and do what it says. Obeying God’s Word disarms the curse. Don’t Make This Mistake I will warn you that some of the things you read in the Bible may not make sense to you at first. Take tithing, for example. A lot of people initially have trouble wrapping their minds around giving 10 percent of their income to God, especially when they’re already running short of money as it is. Ken and I understand that. Back when we first started tithing we had the same problem. In those days we had to use our faith just to buy groceries so it looked to us like we needed the 10 percent much more than God did. What’s more, our income was so small the tithe on it didn’t amount to much. It was just a little dab. We couldn’t figure out how God could do anything with it. But we decided to obey and give it to Him anyway, because we saw in the Bible that tithing is what BLESSED people do! It’s what keeps us living free from the effects of the financial curse that is on this world. Actually, the more Ken and I read in God’s Word about tithing the more we realized we couldn’t afford not to tithe. “But tithing just doesn’t fit into my budget right now,” you might say. “I’ve looked at the numbers and I just can’t see how it will work.” It doesn’t matter what the numbers say, it matters what the Bible says! And the Bible makes it clear that if you’re not tithing, you’re making a mistake. You’re disconnecting from God’s BLESSING system and inviting the devil to come in and wreak economic havoc in your household. Don’t do that! Keep your finances curse free. GET GOD INVOLVED! Even if you don’t yet understand how God can open the windows of heaven for you and “pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in” (Malachi 3:10, NLT), start tithing anyway. Stop trying to figure out everything with your brain and follow the instructions in Proverbs 3:5-10: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." Ken and I have proven in our own lives that those verses are true. We’ve learned that if you’ll depart from evil and be a tither, you’ll pretty well have it made. You’ll have a happy, healthy, prosperous life! God Has Your Best Interest at Heart I don’t mean to imply, of course, that tithing is all there is to walking with the Lord. If we want to enjoy everything He has for us, we must trust Him in every area of life. We must act on what God says in verses like Psalm 34:8-10: “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” 30 : BVOV : JAN '14

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