The gospel is designed to give us a certainty our lives will prosper.  The gospel puts on display a life that is always flourishing, ever prospering, unceasing in its fruitfulness, and it offers this life as a gift to all people.  The promise of eternal life comes to captivate your imagination so the meditation of your heart is the glory of God’s life instead of the deadness in the world.

The world is filled with uncertainty.  The conversation of the world is the language of uncertainty.  It even has its little cliche’s like “in these uncertain times”.  But the word that comes forth from Jesus.  The conversation of heaven is the certainty our lives will prosper.  

Just as surely as Gods life prospers and bears much fruit.  The word of life gives us an assurance our lives are prospering and will bear much fruit.  

As Isaiah says sing ye that see barrenness for your Maker is your husband.  

Joy is the fruit of knowing your life is guaranteed to prosper. 

Example of Christmas

When I think of Christmas time as a child.  My parents always made Christmas very special for us.  In the weeks leading up to Christmas they would wrap gifts and start putting them under the tree.  We would find the gifts with our names on them and try and figure out what they were.  There was so much excitement because of the anticipation.  Even though we hadnt opened the gifts yet, there was so much joy because we knew the gifts were ours and nothing could keep them from us.  

In the very same way our joy is made full in having a confident expectation our lives will prosper in every situation.  

Psa 1:1  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Psa 1:2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Psa 1:3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

These scriptures compare people to trees whose leaves are always green and never withering away.  They prosper in all things. 

Jeremiah 17 says they cannot be scorched by the heat.  They do not cease in yielding fruit, even in the year of drought.  Trees of righteousness they are having been planted near an unquenchable river by God.  

tribulation in the world is the heat .....

The scorching heat, and the drought are references to the tribulation in the world.  Just as the scorching heat can cause green leaves to wilt away and the year of drought can cause a tree to cease in yielding fruit, the tribulation in the earth wants to cause our lives to wilt away and keep us from yielding fruit.  

The people who do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful.  But, instead delight themselves in the law of the Lord.  They are the ones whose lives always prosper and do not cease in their fruitfulness.  They are the ones whose lives do not wilt away under the scorching heat of tribulation.  

The ungodly are those who are working their dying bodies to try and produce the fruit of God’s life.  They look to the strength contained in their own hand to be decorated with God’s life.  

A sinner is someone who rejects the gift of life.  They reject the blessing God has conveyed on them in Jesus, the firstborn from the dead.  In the same way Esau sold the blessing of the firstborn for what he could get from one morsel of meat.  A sinner is someone who trades the blessing of eternal life for the life they can gain from the strength of the flesh.  

The scornful are those who mock God.  They do not delight themselves in His teaching about the way to inherit eternal life.  His instruction concerning eternal life is not a sweet honeycomb to them.  

The apostle Paul described mocking God in Galatians 5 as believing we will be justified with life through the strength of the flesh.  The scornful are those who hear God promise He will justify them with His life.  They hear God say they do not possess the ability to gather life to themselves.  But, they harden their hearts to what God has said.  

In the same way Cain rejected the sacrifice God brought to him, the scornful hear God say they dont possess the ability to justify themselves with life and they shake their fist at God and say watch me, and go about to try and gather life to themselves through their own works.  

Now, the law of the lord is Jesus.  Psalm 119 says the law of the Lord is a light unto our way and a lamp unto our feet.  In John 8 on the last day of the great feast when the jewish people were celebrating the law as a lamp unto their feet.  Jesus stood in their midst and declared himself to be the light of the world. 

The law of the lord is the word made flesh in Jesus.  It’s the testimony God has given to the world in Jesus.  It’s the word, that God has given us eternal life as a gift, and that life is found in His Son.  

Relationally speaking, the Law of the Lord says you are not an orphan left to bring forth life in yourself.  You have a Father in heaven whose good pleasure is to decorate you with His life.  

It says God is come to claim you as His own.  He will not allow the corruption in this world to overtake you.  He will not allow your life to be overcome by the death in the world.   His heart grieves at the thought of you perishing, so He is come to manifest His life in you free from your works.  He sees the death sin is serving you.  He sees that within Himself is a life that is full of power to overcome the death in the world.  And He is come to manifest His life in you by His doing free from your works.  He is not in need of what you can give to Him.  Your works arent needed for you to inherit eternal life.  All that is needed is for you to allow God to sir name you and rest in His work.  

To delight yourself in the law of the Lord simply means you hear God loves you and is come to Father His life in you free from your works and you feel happy.  You hear God is come to give you His life as a gift free from your works and your heart rejoices.  His words are a sweet honeycomb to your soul.  You hear of the work He has done to conquer death in the flesh and bring life and immortality to light and you cease from your laboring to gather life to yourself.  

The people who delight themselves in the law of the Lord.  Those who delight themselves in Jesus.  Those who hear the voice of the Father and rest in His ability to manifest life in them ..... they shall be as a tree planted by the rivers of waters .......  The blessing that is upon them is their lives will not wilt under the tribulation in the world.  Their lives will prosper in everything they do.  In everything they do, and in every situation they find themselves, they will not cease in yielding fruit.  Even should the calamity in the world surround them with dust and dry and waste places.  Their bones will not turn brittle or dry out.  They are saturated by the river that is God’s life.  They are continuously fed with the nutrients of life.  

Example of Joseph 

If you look at Joseph in the Old Testament.  His brothers tried to kill him.  They stripped him of his coat of many colors.  They threw him in a pit.  They sold him into slavery.  Yet his life prospered in the midst of it all.  

He became the head of Potiphar’s house.  Then Potiphar’s wife lied and said he attacked her because he wouldn’t sleep with her, and he was wrongly thrown into prison.  Yet Jospeh’s life still prospered and did not cease from its fruitfulness.  He became the head of the prison.  Joseph then gets out of prison and becomes the head of all of pharoah’s house and all of egypt.

In all those things Joseph saw no matter what happened to him or where he found himself he would have beauty for ashes; the oil of joy for mourning; the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.  The meditation of his heart was that his life was the planting of the Lord, and he would prosper in the midst of all things.  

Joseph is a testimony of the life we have in Christ.  It doesnt demand faith from us it supplies Faith to us.  It gives us eyes to see the life we have in Christ from the outside looking in so we can be persuaded our lives are prospering in all things.  That no matter where we find ourselves.  Even should we be surrounded by the dry and waste places, our lives are the planting of the Lord, and we will have beauty for ashes ...  so the meditation of our hearts becomes the beauty instead of the ashes ....

When we talk about the Old Testament Saints we shouldn’t be talking about their great ability to believe.  We should be talking about what it is they saw, so our lives can be transformed by the same faith that transformed their lives.  

Psalm 1 reads .... Blessed are the people whose flesh has been put to rest by Jesus.  As Deuteronomy says, they will be blessed going in and going out.  The blessing of life is upon them in all that they do.  The life of God will prosper in them in the midst of all things.  

It’s like the year of the sabbath.  During the sabbath year the land would be at rest for an entire year.  The people would neither sow nor reap their crops for the entire year.  There’s a lot I can say about this, but for this example the idea is that the ground would be exceedingly fruitful at the end of the sabbath year because it was at rest.  

The year of the sabbath is a picture of our flesh being at rest because of the life we have in Christ.  You know our bodies are made from the ground.  If you look at the makeup of the minerals in our bodies its the same as the minerals in the earth.  As our flesh is made still because of the life we see we have in Christ.  Just as their was a certainty of a great harvest after the sabbath year because the ground was put to rest.  We have a certainty of a great harvest coming forth in us.

Jesus gives us a certainty we will not cease in yielding fruit.  In Jesus their is no drought.  The life we have in him does not cease in its fruitfulness.  Even should we be as a root in dry ground, we shall not cease in yielding fruit. 

The way you abide in Jesus is by beholding your life in him.  As you see your life in Jesus, seated at the right hand of God, in glorified immortal flesh that has overcome death, your flesh is put to rest, and your life prospers with the fruit of the Spirit.  Just as the year of the Sabbath put the ground to rest, and gave a certainty of a mighty harvest Jesus puts our flesh to rest and gives us a certainty of a mighty harvest.  

Prayer: