What a misconscrewed (my homespun word for misunderstood) subject this is.

To start with, let's understand that the greatest way God blesses us is with priceless blessings that cannot be measured in monetary value. Oh yes, He wants us to prosper financially and we will to a great extent if we give to the Lord and are good stewards over what He gives us.

God will multiply our finances like Jesus did the loaves and fishes if we let Him; if we live for Him, serve Him, and keep His commandments. But above all, and the Bible bears this out, God wants us to prosper spiritually. He wants us to seek Him for wisdom. What price tag can you put on that? He wants us to seek Him for the gifts of the spirit and the fruits of the spirit.

Let me ask you how much would real joy and peace cost you? There is not enough money on earth and peace and joy don't come from this earth. They come from God, the giver of all good and priceless gifts.

Folks, we are going to have to quit letting these modern soothsayers twist up our minds and lead us wrong. The prosperity preachers and positive thinkers and I believe in being positive. If you exercise your faith, then you are positive. I am not a pessimist, nor an optimist, but rather I am a realist. I believe in the power of prayer, but it doesn't always turn out like we thought, but God is in control and it will be all right. All things will work to the good for those who love, fear, and respect God. We can be as positive as we want to but the facts of life tell us that everything is not going to go our way. Amen.

Everywhere you turn someone is saying, "There's power in the tongue," and there is. The tongue has the power to speak blessings and curses. You can destroy someone or bless them with the tongue. And yes, from a psychological standpoint if you are always speaking negative things, then it will cause you to collapse into despair.

But the human tongue is limited to the point that you cannot speak anything into existence. Only God can do that. It's like I told this guy, "You can speak it until you are blue in the face that by age 25 you will be a billionaire and unless you are a business genius and have a large financial stake to invest, then when you are old you will still be speaking with the power of the tongue and with a positive mind to no avail." There is fact and there is fantasy and all these modern soothsayers are selling fantasy. Amen.

God wants us to prosper and be in good health. Prosper financially as long as it doesn't consume our lives and lead us away from God and lots of money, most of the time, does that. The greatest is to prosper spiritually. Be filled with the spirit. Be on firefor God. Win all your family to the Lord and have them preaching, teaching, and singing for God.

My dad has prospered in both of those ways. He's not a rich man but oh how he has prospered financially and most of all spiritually. I told this old fellow that was into this positive thinking power in the tongue prosperity religion that if he had a billion dollars and also had an incurable disease and he was dying, what good would the money do him? Oh, he could get medical treatment.

Well, Sam Walton was the richest man around, but all his money couldn't buy him another day on earth. Only God could have given him that priceless blessing. And if he died without God, then he was the poorest man on earth. But if you are poor and have good health, then you have a blessing worth all the world. Can you say amen?