God wants you to live an abundant, prosperous life. Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He wants you to fulfill your God-given purpose, to walk out the dreams He’s placed in your heart.

Today, many Christians are focused only on what happens after they leave the earth. They say, “I became a Christian so my sins would be forgiven and so I can go to heaven when I die.” That’s true. If you are a Christian, you will go to heaven. But God also wants to affect your life right now, today.

Other Christians have a distorted view of success. Historically, that has been the case with much of the church. In the Dark Ages, poverty was glorified and many Christians believed that success and ambition were evil. However, the scriptures never glorify poverty. Instead, the Bible refers to poverty (whether spiritual, emotional, relational, or financial) as a curse and tells us: “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 10:22).

A Success Philosophy
To live this blessed, abundant life you must have the right attitude and beliefs – you could call it having a success philosophy.  God outlined the basics of this philosophy to Joshua when He said, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8).

Many people are waiting for God to make them prosper, but notice in this scripture that God wants you to “make your way prosperous.” If you have the philosophy that “whatever is going to be is going to be, and whatever God wants me to have is what I will have,” then you will not do anything to work toward success. If that is your attitude and those are your beliefs, you are going to end up with less than God’s best.
God’s heart for you is expressed in 3 John 2. It says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” You see, God wants you to succeed in life. He wants you to prosper in your family, in your mind, your relationships, your body, your health, and in your finances. He wants you to prosper in all things.

Know this: if your soul does not prosper, you will not have prosperity in the other areas of your life, either. Your soul needs to prosper, and that cannot happen apart from a rich connection to God and His Word.  Let’s take a closer look at what God said to Joshua.

Speak God’s Word 
God’s plan for Joshua’s success – and ours – begins with the words we speak. That’s why Joshua 1:8 starts out by saying “this Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth…”  Just like Joshua, we need to realize that success and abundance only come as we speak words that line up with God’s Word.

In Deuteronomy 6:6-7, God told Israel, “These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” God wanted them to speak His Word all the time!

Think about what you are putting into your heart. Does it come from television, movies, friends, what the doctor says – or does it come from God’s Word?  Matthew 12:34-35 says, “…For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”

To find out what is really in your heart, just listen to yourself talk. If you are speaking words of doubt, fear, lack, or sickness you need to fill yourself up with God’s Word! When you do, you will find yourself saying what God says, and as your spirit hears your voice speaking God’s Word, doubts will flee and faith will rise.

Meditate on God’s Word
Let’s take another look at Joshua 1:8. It says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night…”  To be successful, Joshua not only needed to speak God’s Word, he needed to meditate on it. This is just as important for us as it was for him.

Meditation is more than just reading. It involves filling your mind with God’s Word so that you think about it throughout the day. Sure, you think about other things as well, but all the while, you are applying the Word of God to yourself personally and to the things you do. Instead of dwelling on your problems or the latest media report, you dwell on what God’s Word says.

As you read Joshua 1:5-9, you can see that God created a picture for Joshua. He painted the picture that God was with him and that He was for him. It was a picture of strength, victory, a picture of success.

When you meditate on the Word, God paints a picture on the inside of you, too. It is a picture of you being the head, not the tail; of you being blessed, not cursed (from Deuteronomy 28). It is a picture of your soul prospering, of abundance and not lack.

Psalm 119:164-165 (NIV) says, “Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws.  Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.”  At distinctly different times of the day, the psalmist meditated on the words God had spoken.  He went on to proclaim the truth that loving God’s Word is both a source of peace and success.

The same is true today. When you meditate on God’s Word, it fills your heart and mind. As a result, you have peace and calmness even in the midst of difficulties.  Because God’s Word is in your heart and mind, nothing the devil does can make you stumble.

Act on God’s Word 
Joshua 1:8 says that, along with speaking the Word and meditating on it, we should also “do according to all that is written in it.” It is not enough to know what the Word of God says. We must also internalize it and act in faith.

Jesus said, “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.  Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell.  And great was its fall” (Matthew 7:24-27).

Did you notice that the same rain, the same floods, and the same winds came to both? Just because you are a Christian does not mean you will not have storms.  There will be storms that beat against your life, but as you read God’s Word each day and apply the truths revealed to you, you will become like the wise man. When adversity comes, you will be able to stand because you have built on an immovable foundation – the Word of God. Nothing will be able to keep you from success!

Finally…
In the process of sharing His philosophy for success with Joshua, God also taught him how to have a soul that prospers. That is what speaking the Word and meditating on it produces: a soul that prospers. In other words, success, prosperity, and the abundant life are by-products of a life built on the wisdom found in God’s Word.

What a great life you will have as you spend time developing your relationship with the Lord, letting His Word settle deep into your heart so that it influences every aspect of your life!

May you always know and be confident that God is for you and not against you (see Romans 8:31). That it is His plan that you fulfill your destiny and live the dreams He has placed in your heart. That is my prayer for you.

(All scriptures are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise stated.)