BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

A supernatural plan, it’s designed according to the will of Almighty God to make you divinely, BLESSEDLY rich. That’s right. I said God’s plan is for you to be rich. Not to be poor. Not to just barely get by. But to be like Abraham who, according to Genesis 13:2, was “very rich.” God’s plan is for you to be like the believer Psalm 112 describes, with wealth and riches coming into your house and your righteousness enduring forever—to have such an abundance of God’s financial grace working in your life, that as 2 Corinthians 9:8 ('New King James Version') says, you “always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” Talk about a great financial plan! That’s as good as it gets, right there, and it’s God’s will for every one of us. He wants every believer on earth to have an abundance of material resources: He wants you to have enough not only for you and your family to enjoy, but to give into every good work and to help anyone who needs it. He wants you to prosper so richly and be such a financial BLESSING to others that you become a prosperity agent of the kingdom of God. “Brother Copeland, you don’t understand my situation,” someone might say. “I don’t have enough money to pay my own bills, much less someone else’s. I’m so far from being rich right now, I can’t see how I’d ever get there from here.” I understand. I’ve been there. When Gloria and I went into the ministry back in 1967, we didn’t have anything! I was a 30-year-old freshman at Oral Roberts University, making about $100 a month and dragging around $24,000 worth of debt. Equivalent to about $200,000 in today’s dollars, that debt had dogged me for years, and no matter how hard I’d worked to pay it off I hadn’t been able to put a dent in it. I’d done everything from selling insurance to flying airplanes for a living, but we just kept falling further behind. Going into the ministry looked like it would make things even worse. But we did it anyway. We obeyed God and, having learned a little about living by faith, we took Communion on our first day in ministry and promised Him three things: We’d never ask anyone for a place to preach; we’d never preach anywhere based on a financial arrangement; and we’d never ask anyone to meet our needs. Several months later, we saw in the Bible it wasn’t God’s will for us to go into any more debt so we made that No. 4 on the list. We stood by faith on Philippians 4:19, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” made a quality decision to look only to God as our Source, and we never again borrowed money to meet our needs. We also made another vital change in our lives. We started tithing and giving. We had learned from the Scriptures that’s part of God’s financial plan and we eagerly got with the program. Even though we were still financially broke, we believed and acted on 2 Corinthians 9: “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver” (verses 6-7). * * * * article continues on p. 8 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Points to Get You There: 1) As a believer, you’ve inherited THE BLESSING of Abraham, and that BLESSING brings with it material wealth. Genesis 13:2 2) It’s always been God’s plan for His righteous people to be wealthy. Psalm 112:2-3 3) A truly prosperous believer is a Christian who has all things richly to enjoy and who is always ready to give, not just at church but everywhere, all the time. 2 Corinthians 9:8 4) Tithing and sowing financial seed into God’s kingdom connects you with His financial plan for abundance. 2 Corinthians 9:6 5) Jesus bore the curse of poverty on the cross so that all of us, as believers, would be free to prosper. 2 Corinthians 8:9 BVOV : 7

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