Money Talks, Money Matters, Money & Mammon

Money Matters – Do you have Money or Money has you
It’s the heart of the matter & the matter of the heart Money – Useful Servant & Cruel Master

• Php 4:19  And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Not your greed

God’s Prosperity – As Your Soul Prospers

• Php 4:19  And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
• Not your greed
• 3Jn 1:2  Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
• Heb 11:26-27  considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward..

Love & Power

• 2Ti 1:7  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind.
• Power & love come from belonging & worth
• When we are unsure of belonging & worth – money talks – I have power, I love myself with what I acquire with my money
• Father & mother fractures are often covered by the acquisitive power of money
• Deprived young boy feels now he has matched up to all put down & acquired all his childhood fantasies – brands, clothes, gadgets, eminence, fame, “glory”
• Money Talks – Inward Conversation Changes
• Prosperity was a craving – What does that mean? It means that the chair you sit in should look like what you make. And my answer is, “No it shouldn’t. No it shouldn’t. It should look like Jesus is valuable, more valuable than chairs. That’s what it should look like.”
• If I had money I can outdo all of them
• Lack of basics when young, increases the money craving
• Core identity changes from – I am a child of God. “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased
• New identity – I am the moneyed powered, well to do, having all the money for all what I want to achieve

Crossing Over to Idolatry

• Mat 6:19-21  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  (20)  “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;  (21)  for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• Mat 6:24  “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth (mammon).

Three Commands

• Matt 6:20 “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” & Don’t lay up treasures on earth
• “Do not be anxious,” found three times. Verse 25:
• 1“Do not be anxious about your life.” V 31: 2 “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’” Verse 34: 3 “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.”
• “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”  verse 33.

Money Matters – Choose Your Master

• There is something about God and money that makes them tend to mastery. Either you are mastered by money and therefore ignore God or make him a bellhop for your business, or you are mastered by God and make money a servant of the kingdom. But if either tries to master you while you are mastered by the other you will hate and despise it. This is why Jesus said it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Much money makes a cruel master.

Why We Need Money

• To do all the good we can, to all the people we can, at all times
• John Wesley  – Earn all you can, save all you can, give away all you can
• Money is needed currency to execute godly duties
• More money we have more we can do God works, which only money can do
• There are many God works which do not need money
• So we don’t promote those who do monetary God works, above those who do non-monetary God works

Guard Against Spirit of Poverty

• Rejoice in another’s success & riches
• Gratitude & thanksgiving for what you have & what parents could do
• Keep out criticism of home people or others
• Appreciation: correction – 5:1
• Stop picking or thinking holes in others
• Going to the past is getting poor

Riches in Your Mouth

• Your mouth will feed you – bitter mouth brings infertility – Pro 12:14  A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, and the reward of a man’s hands shall be given to him.
• Confess best expectation
• Bless & diminish not – let blessing crown finances
• God’s loss recovery programme
• Psa 103:4-5  who redeems your life from ruin; who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies;  (5)  who satisfies your mouth with good; your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Rich in Heaven

• A person’s life does not consist in the possessions that he has. (Luke 12:15) Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33) 
• God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. (2 Cor 9:8)
• Seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness involves not trying to be rich on earth but trying to be rich in heaven, that is, rich in God. Seeking the kingdom means treasuring God and freeing yourself from the drag of earth.

Unfailing Money Bags from Giving

• Luke 12:32–33: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.”
• Here Jesus explains how you “provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old” and how you “provide yourselves with treasure in the heavens that does not fail,” namely, “Sell your possessions and give to the needy.” That’s how you do it.

God’s Economy Of Grace

• Now, in God’s economy of grace, like any economy, an investment is required in order to see wealth increase. What is this investment? Joyful generosity that meets the needs of others, overflowing from a heart transformed by God’s overwhelming grace. And as with any economy, the size of our return depends on the size of our investment.
• Paul makes this clear when he reminds the Corinthians, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6). This agricultural principle is also an economic principle: the size of one’s investment determines the size of one’s return.

God, who richly provides us  with everything to enjoy

• 1Ti 6:6  Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment,
• 1Ti 6:17-19  As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.  (18)  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,  (19)  thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Discrimination – Rich or Poor

• Jas 2:1-4  My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.  (2)  For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes,  (3)  and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,”  (4)  have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

Money is Only One Kind of Wealth

• Jas 2:5  Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
• Rich in faith, Rich in grace, Rich in hospitality
• 1Jn 3:17  But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

What is the right way to be rich? Rich in Good Deeds

• The right way to be rich is to be rich in good deeds.
• 1 Timothy 6:18. He says, “To the rich I say, do not trust in your riches, but be rich in good deeds.”
• But if a person is rich, what do you say to them? What you say is, “Don’t trust your money and be rich in good deeds.” Now being rich in good deeds is probably going to deplete their barns. I think it will. I think a person who comes to Christ as a very very rich person will start finding ways to divest himself of excesses.

Rich Like Jesus – Rich to Give

• 2Co 8:7-9  But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also (9)  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
• Luk 6:38  “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure–pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

When the Eye is Darkened by Riches

• Mat 6:22-23  “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.  (23)  “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
• Temptation – see the riches of the kingdoms

Affirming Tithes & More

• Mat 23:23  …For you pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and you have left undone the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
• . One time he refers to the Old Testament minimum of giving a tenth of your income, endorses it, and then calls for a way of looking at life and money way more radical than the mere tithe.

Tithes Open Windows of Heaven

• Mal 3:8-12  “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.  (9)  “You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!  (10)  “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows

Tithes Will Rebuke Devourer

• .  (11)  “Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the LORD of hosts.  (12)  “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts.

Share, Sow, Reap

• Gal 6:6  The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.
• Gal 6:7  Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
• Gal 6:8-10  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.  (9)  Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.  (10)  So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

Give Us Our Daily Bread

• Wealth in God’s Family
• Act 2:44-45  And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;  (45)  and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.

Show First, Jump Next

• Luk 4:5-13  And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  (6)  And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  (7)  “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”  (8)  Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY

Show First, Jump Next

.'”  (9)  And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here;  (10)  for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you,’  (11)  and, ‘on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'”  (12)  And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'”  (13)  When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Option for Riches

• Luk 18:22-25  When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”  (23)  But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.  (24)  And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!  (25)  “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

God & Wealth Dispensations

• You may have many possessions, but not have the power to enjoy those gifts — a great tragedy (Ecclesiastes 6:1–2).
• God may give you accumulated wealth, and give you the power to enjoy those gifts — a great blessing (Ecclesiastes 5:19, Proverbs 10:22).
• God may give you possessions, but through future persecution, you may lose possessions (Hebrews 10:34).
• God may call you to a life of sacrifice & unalleviated poverty (2 Corinthians 6:10; 8:9).

God & Wealth Dispensations

• God may give you a life of wealth (2 Chronicles 32:29).
• God may give you a life in the middle — neither poverty nor wealth (Proverbs 30:8).
• God may bless you with great wealth, then take it all away and reduce your portfolio to ash, and then restore you with doubled wealth (Job).
• God may make you wealthy and then call you to voluntary poverty in order to show the world that he is your greatest treasure (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22).

Money is temporary.
Money existed before us, and it will exist after us, too. The streams of commerce have been flowing for millennia, and one day we will be gone and the currents of economic stimulus will flow to the next generation. We exist in time with money and possessions, but everything of value we own will be passed on to others.

• Which means in a very real sense, money is temporary. It carries the face of a Caesar or a president to remind us its value is as temporary as world rulers and the rise and fall of nations. So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s.

Money Stewardship

• In other words, the Christian is called to possess all things as though we don’t possess anything (1 Corinthians 7:30). Hold the money, use the money, save the money, steward the money. But also recognize the cash in our wallets is the Monopoly money of this present age. The cash itself has no eternal face value.
• We entered this life with empty hands, we leave it with empty hands, and to live in the middle with a lust for cash is like holding a sharp dagger backwards and gutting our own souls (1 Timothy 6:6–10).

• 1. Money is temporary.
• 2. Enjoy your possessions now. 1 Timothy 6:8
• 3. Enjoy your possessions by sharing them. Acts 2:45; 4:32;
• 4. Enjoy what you do not own

Addictive Craving of Prosperity

• If I had money I can outdo all of them
• Lack of basics when young, increases the money craving – being an addiction, you talk money
• Core identity changes from – I am a child of God. “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased – to power of acquisition
• New identity – I am the moneyed powered, well to do, having all the money – for all what I want to achieve

How Rich was Dorcas

Medicine, Morals & Spirituality – Dr Lalith Mendis

Medicine, Morals & Spirituality

Dr Lalith Mendis

Blaise Pascal who said, Heart has reasons of which head knows nothing. A long historical tradition connects religion, medicine, and health care. Religious groups built the first hospitals in Western civilization during the fourth century for care of the sick unable to afford private medical care. For the next thousand years until the Reformation and to a lesser extent until the French Revolution, it was the religious establishment that built hospitals, provided medical training, and licensed physicians to practice medicine. Likewise, the profession of nursing emerged directly from religious orders that until the early 1900s staffed the majority of hospitals both in the United States and other Western countries. (1).

My consideration of Medicine and Religion will fall into two major categories.

Part 1 Clinical Health and Spiritual Solace

Part 2 Moral Decisions in Medicine

Part 1 Clinical Health and Spiritual Solace

US Department of Health and Human Services divisions have been given a presidential mandate to encourage research on and remove the barriers from faith-based community organizations delivering mental health and substance abuse services. (2). One study showed that people who have unresolved religious struggles have a worse mortality rate following discharge. Religious or existential turmoil, then, may impair recovery-underscoring the importance of physicians’ identifying such patients and making appropriate referrals. (3). This points to a need for spiritual solace, at least in some patients. The renewal of the call to align religion & health, was accelerated by metal health needs & services for handling substance abuse. In both these fields, medicine alone had poor success and furthermore, faith based services showed promise in some studies. (4).

In a review by Mueller and colleagues of research exploring the effects of religion on mental and physical health. In that review, religious beliefs and practices are thought to evoke health effects through psychosocial, behavioral, and physiological mechanisms that are known, understood, and accepted within the field of traditional science. The strength of this review is its comprehensive nature and its focus only on research studies that had findings explainable through scientifically rational pathways. (5) (6).

However, physicians are beginning to appreciate that the majority of their patients are religious and use religious beliefs to cope with sickness, that existential issues and spiritual struggles are common among patients, that religious beliefs influence the medical decisions that patients make, and, for all these reasons, that religion might ultimately affect both psychological health and medical outcomes. Patients who have an optimistic belief system that gives life meaning and purpose in the setting of pain and suffering, those who have a large group of supportive friends committed to their welfare, and those who live healthier lifestyles and abuse their bodies less often with drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, are bound to be healthier and recover more quickly from illness. Who could deny that such factors are relevant to the practice of medicine? (7)

Despite the many unknowns and the need for further research and greater understanding of these relationships, physicians can even now begin to address the spiritual needs of patients and yet avoid most of the dangers and pitfalls. The following recommendations are based on clinical experience and common sense, not systematic research. As Mueller and colleagues suggested, physicians can take a spiritual history-find out whether religious or spiritual beliefs are used to cope, are evoking religious struggles, are likely to influence medical decisions, or are responsible for other special needs that trained clergy may help with. A spiritual history should be taken in a way that does not endorse religion as either desirable or undesirable, but rather sends the message that religion and spirituality are an important area that may influence health for better or worse. (8). “Religious beliefs may have a powerful influence on the health of our patients, and we need to know about them”. (7).

As well as moral responsibilities at the individual level, there are collective responsibilities in medicine. The profession has, for example, a collective responsibility to ensure that the next generation of doctors is educated and that medical research occurs. (9).

Part 2 Moral Decisions in Medicine

We may now humbly consider other issues that are medical but need a holistic approach with moral, spiritual or religious insight. Man may not be the measure of all things. Science may need metaphysical input on life and death matters. SLMA made a commendable effort in bringing out the Health Charter in 1996 and the present author was a member of the committee that drafted the resolution.

THE SRI LANKA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION CALLS ON:

A. all health professionals, professional organisations and institutions involved in medical undergraduate and postgraduate training to improve professional and ethical standards and thereby give effect to the provisions of this DECLARATION;

B. the Government to provide the finance, human resources and infrastructure required for effecting such improvement, and to take appropriate action as called for in this DECLARATION;

C. the pharmaceutical industry to abide by the ethical standards as laid down in, Ethical Criteria for the Promotion of Medicinal Drugs and Devices in Sri Lanka (SLMA, 1996); (10)

Life & Death Issues

Human life has same value for all. Life has an Ultimate Author and an Owner. So, man cannot decide to terminate life based on exigencies.

Why should aged & weak people continue to live, when the resources they consume – esp. hospital care, will be needed for the young, more economically productive people?

Why should mentally retarded continue their miserable existence?

Why should others with debilitating illness live?

Why is suicide considered an indictable crime? Shouldn’t one be able to decide, “I live or die”?.

Why is infanticide wrong?

At which gestation age should abortion be legal?

Should abortion be wholly illegal, as is in Sri Lanka? (11). Does the unborn have right to life? Yes unborn has a right to live. Medical haards of abortions are a well kept secret. (12)

“and especially I will not aid a woman to procure abortion.” The International Code of Medical Ethics has the following~ “. …I will maintain the. utmost respect for human life from the time of conception;”

Medical risks of abortion must receive greater publicity. (14)

What about the preferential abortion of the girl child in some regions of the world? Some states of India had to bring in legislation to stop this deplorable state. (14)

Foetuses (abortuses) obtained by surrogate pregnancy and abortion are used for plastic surgery and for research. Is this cannibalism? (15)

PECUNIARY AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONCERNS

We should be in the forefront of a movement amongst doctors for a more socially concerned orientation towards our patients. This is an important ethical consideration that we ought to bring to bear on our guaranteed  private practice. If a poor patient who can ill-afford the money, is compelled to offer the D.M.O. his private practice fee (P.P.fee!), because he will be better treated, then we are indeed economic oppressors who use our priviledged profession-for which the country has paid-to fleece the sufferer. Even in consultation practice one needs to ask the question, “must I charge every patient I see? Is there anyway to ease the burden on the poorer patient?

Why should the poor have equal access to health, when they are not earning for their health? How rich should I get, out of the misery of illness of my patients?

Prescribers should mind – safe cost effective rational prescribing. All should condemn the polypharmacy and unethical promotion that entice medical practitioners. There are laws in some countries. Prescribe the least number of drugs at the cheapest price. Antibiotics are available at Rs 30 cents per capsule and at Rs 300 a cap. Prescribe thee least costly, appropriate antibiotic, at the minimum needed dosage, for the period required. Do not get taken in by the attractively designed documents with impressive clinical trials. Please remember that the Companies paid for the clinical. trial with all the fringe benefits available to the researchers who fiddle the trial to achieve the desired end. Know your Pharmacology better than the drug rep.

Organ Trade

Organ trade. The most extreme form of trafficking, forced organ harvesting, was found by the China Tribunal to be a crime against humanity. (9)

Transgenderism & Pharmaceuticals

Who decides that sex may not be strictly biological? But child can choose his/her sex?

Homicide rates for transwomen, and in particular for transwomen of color, who account for a percentage of homicides far out of proportion to their numbers in the transgender population [8]

Many in the LGBT community rely on arguments that we refer to collectively as “born that way” arguments, namely, arguments for LGBT rights based on the idea that sexual orientation and gender identity are innate, immutable, or unassociated with choice. Two of the authors (TP and ES) have previously addressed the difficulties of using “born that way” arguments in relation to sexual orientation [10, 11].

Is paedophilia genetically determined?

The absurd discussion to justify paedophilia on genetic and other premises, tell us how far wrong thinking can be without a moral and spiritual compass. (16)

Conclusion

If man is only brain, will AI take over all decision making & do much better than human? Is human cloning a scientific issue or a religious issue?

I have raised issue with what we need to discuss. I have tried to watch over a possible moral codex based on long cherished values. Future issues regarding AI in medical practice will need another time.

References

1. Koenig HG, McCullough ME, Larson DB Handbook of Religion and Health. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England 2001
2. Sloan RP, Bagiella E, Vande Creek L, et al. Should physicians prescribe religious activities?. N Engl J Med. 2000; 342: 1913-1916
3. Pargament KI , Koenig HG, Tarakeshwar N, Hahn J Religious struggle as a predictor of mortality among medically ill elderly patients: a 2-year longitudinal study.Arch Intern Med. 2001; 161: 1881-1885
4. Strawbridge WJ, Cohen RD,  Shema SJ,  Kaplan GA Frequent attendance at religious services and mortality over 28 years. Am J Public Health. 1997; 87: 957-961
5. Mueller PS, Plevak DJ , Rummans TA Religious involvement, spirituality, and medicine: implications for clinical practice. Mayo Clin Proc. 2001; 76: 1225-1235
6. Mechanisms and Therapeutic Effects of the Relaxation Process. A 3-year project (randomized controlled trial) to evaluate the effects of meditation on withdrawing hypertensive medications in elderly patients, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and awarded to the Mind/Body Medical Institute, Harvard University, October 2000.
7. Harold G. Koenig, MD, MHSc Religion, Spirituality, and Medicine: How Are They Related and What Does It Mean? Mayo Clinic Proceedings Vol76(2) 2001
8. Koenig HG. Spirituality in Patient Care. Radnor, Pa: Templeton Foundation Press.
9. Wendy Rogers, Moral responsibility in medicine: where are the boundaries? Lancet Volume 396, ISSUE 10248, P373-374, August 08, 2020
10. https://drlalithmendisblog.wordpress.com/2023/01/26/slma-declaration-of-health-1996/
11. https://drlalithmendisblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/09/medical-ethics-seminar-for-new-entrants-1994-faculty-of-medicine-kelaniya/
12. https://drlalithmendisblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/23/abortion-ups-suicide-risks-maternal-mortality-rate/
13. Patrick Carroll The Breast Cancer Epidemic: Modeling and Forecasts Based on Abortion and Other Risk Factors. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Volume 12, Number 3, Fall 2007
14. Med Ethics 2001;27:ii15-ii20 doi:10.1136/jme.27.suppl_2.ii15 Medical paternalism and the fetus – John Wyatt University College, London
15. AF Shorr Abortion and fetal tissue research: some ethical concerns – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8060515/

. https://amritsupdates.medium.com/why-pedophilia-is-evil-and-why-its-supporters-must-be-called-what-they-are-c60c38d29bda

Decisions Directions Destiny 2024

I bless you with fulfilling the call of God on your life and living out the fullness of His will. I bless you with being in your Father’s time, not running ahead and not lagging behind, but knowing His will and doing His will in the right time, the right place, and the right way, with the right people alongside you.

I bless you with knowing the things your Father has called you to know and doing the things that He has called you to do. I bless you with being able to carry out God’s work with honour, with peace, with joy, doing God’s work, God’s way. He has uniquely designed you as an instrument of a particular set of good deeds. You can do them better than anybody else can do them because your Father has uniquely positioned you.

I come into agreement with God and with His Word, and I bless His design of you. I bless the good works that have your name on them for you to do, and I bless the way your Father has designed you to do them. I invest in you, I care for you, I love you, I nurture you, for you are a treasure and a blessing to the world.

I BLESS YOU WITH BEING EVERYTHING THAT GOD HAS DESIGNED YOU TO BE, BECAUSE AS YOU EXPERIENCE THE FULFILLING JOY OF BEING WHO GOD HAS DESIGNED YOU TO BE, AS YOU FULFILL, YOUR PURPOSE, YOU WILL BENEFIT, OTHERS WILL BENEFIT, AND THE WORLD WILL BE BLESSED.

I bless you with being led by the Spirit to respond to problems with faith, not as a slave out of a victim mindset of avoidance, blame-shifting, or rationalization. I bless you with perseverance, not a spirit of fainting and giving up. I bless you with embracing problems, viewing them as challenges, and as opportunities for faith, as new ways to see the many facets of God and how He will work in them and through them to work things out in His plan.

I bless you with seeing the presence of God in those things that the world calls problematic and painful.

I bless you with such faith that you can rejoice in standing firm as danger gets closer and you see God intervene on your behalf in a supernatural way, setting you free and removing your enemies so they will not again intrude on your life. I bless you with having the faith to look beyond the immediate price and see the treasure that lies on the other side. I bless you with receiving the reward of those who earnestly seek him.

______, listen again with your spirit to the Word

of God. “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him” (Proverbs

16:7). Your Father intends for even your enemies to see that your ways are pleasing to Him. This is the highest level of God’s protection, where your enemies want to be at peace with you. I bless you with that degree of the favor of the Lord upon your life, so that it will be evident that you have an intimate relationship with God and that God is with you.

I bless you with people recognizing the favor of God upon your life without being jealous of His blessings on you.

I pray that as they recognize His favor, the fear of the Lord will come upon them, and there will be a holy awe that a person could walk with God on such a level of intimacy.

, you are under the protection of God who can do the impossible. I bless you with peace that comes from God who created light in great darkness, who brings light into the very shadow of death. I bless you with knowing that God makes peace regardless of your circumstances. You are living in troublesome days, when governments of the world are turning frequently to war, when terrorism is increasing and there is much uncertainty.

The earth is convulsed; there are judgments from God, and iniquity is increasing. Many circumstances that you will face in your life are not conducive to peace. Although you are living in a sober time in history, you can walk in the light because God decrees that the light of His presence shines in darkness.

I bless you, , with not being dependent on circumstances in your world, but receiving from your Father the peace that He offers in your life, no matter how dark it is around you. I bless you with peace that can only come because the Prince of Peace rules you. I bless you with understanding the kingship of the Prince of Peace and the willingness to bow your knee and submit to Him. I bless you with seeing the kingdom of peace established in your life, for the Prince of Peace is your ruler. Everything you touch is part of His dominion, and His exercise of the rule of peace in your life grows larger from day to day. I bless you with peace that He decrees in your life and around your life.

I bless you with experiencing the difference between living in the kingdom of light and peace and living in the kingdom of darkness.

I call your soul to attention, saying, “Come under God’s order; be healed, restored, and whole, submitted under your spirit. Be free from the spirit of fear that would paralyze you… fears for the future, fears of failure, fears of meaninglessness, fears of man, etc.” I speak to your soul to discern the voice of your Father and your Savior who will never leave you or let you go and receive their love that casts out fear. Father, cut through the assaults of lies, soulishness, performance, religious spirits, all contrary words spoken or contrary prayers prayed, and everything that keeps your child’s soul from being joyful, at peace, effective, and productive.

, let your soul hear the Spirit of the Lord as never before, knowing you are in a safe place in your Father’s house. He is pleased with the promises He has made to you, with your birthright, with your growth, with His work in progress in your life.

, I bless you with the joy of having favour in the eyes of others, both in the household of faith and with non-Christians. I bless you with people who will come alongside you, eager to help you in the work of the Lord that He has appointed for you. I bless you with knowing people who will help make you successful, who will believe in you, and who will be encouraging and life-giving to you, people who will propel you along in your life, taking the initiative to serve you and your vision.

I bless you, , with the same kind of restorative authority that Ezra had. I bless you with having favor in resources. Because you are called to God’s work in God’s way in God’s time, you will experience the favor of believers and unbelievers providing the resources necessary to accomplish the work that God has for you.

I bless you with people who will make the road smooth before you and find ways to serve you and invest in you and bless you with time, attention, talent, practical assistance, and treasure of all kinds. I bless you with having favor with people who were previously enemies of Christ and the cross, just as the king of Persia changed his mind, releasing the captives of Israel to go back to their homeland. He blessed them with freedom, all the temple treasures, a large offering from among the Gentile nobility, tax exemption, and a tremendous amount of resources. A king who did not care about their God was moved by God to give them tremendous favor. I bless you with favor with bureaucrats and authorities, favor in the marketplace, favor as you come in and go out, favor in unexpected places. I bless you with experiencing God turn toward you those who are indifferent to or opposed to the things of God.

I bless you with additional friendships with people who come alongside you in the desert times. May they walk with you, encourage you, war with you, seek God’s will with you, and wait with you. I bless you with friends who understand God’s ways, but who can walk with you even when they don’t understand His ways. I bless you with encouraging love that reminds you of the love that your Father has for you. I bless you with these things in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

, I bless you with faith that has been tested and proved genuine. I bless you with seeing the joy on the other side of all kinds of trials. I bless you with faith that is strong and pure like gold. I bless you with knowing how precious your faith is to God, more precious than gold. I bless you with the praise, glory, and honor that it reflects on Jesus for you to trust Him, and I bless you with glory that will be revealed to you when the

whole scope of God’s plans is made known when Jesus is revealed. I bless you with the faith that loving Him produces and the inexpressible joy that believing Him brings.

listen again with your spirit. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

, I bless you with confident trust in your Father with all that is in you. I bless you with not depending on your own insight or understanding, because it is skewed and incomplete at best. I bless you with the “yada factor.” Yada is the Hebrew word that is translated acknowledge.

It means to perceive, understand, distinguish, acquire knowledge, but also to be familiar with, to be aware of in the closest sense, to know at the most intimate level. I bless you with that kind of relation intimately ar ather. bless you with knowing your Father intimately and abiding by His will and living in step with His ways in everything. I bless you with knowing His intimate and deep direction of your life. I bless you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.