What is written here is my desire, and the Lord’s desire, for you, dear reader: a blessed and happy and prosperous New Year. Here is my assurance, and His, as to how this may be, year in and year out all the days of our life:
It is wonderful comfort to me that seated at the right hand of the throne of God is a Man to whom God had committed the doing of all His will, and that this Man while on earth accomplished all that God had given Him to do. And now, seated higher than the heavens at God’s right hand, this Man continues to do His will, and prospers in all He does.
This Man is the Servant of whom ancient prophecy spoke:
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isa 53:10 KJV)
Even so it came to pass, and this is beyond precious, that in Calvary’s cross this Man, fully committed to His Father’s will at the cost of His own life, accomplished His Father’s will. The pleasure of the LORD prospered in His hand—in what He did, what He accomplished.
This Man is the great King of whom David the king was prophetic:
Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:
With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him. (Ps 89:19-21 KJV)
Note those words again—“with whom my hand shall be established…” What God wanted done would get done.
This next verse is also prophetic of Him:
The LORD has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as Commander-in-Chief over his people… (1 Sam 13:14 ISV)
Those two prophecies come together in a message the apostle Paul delivered in Antioch in Pisidia:
…He did raise up to them David for king, to whom also having testified, he said, I found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to My heart, who shall do all My will. (Acts 13:22 YLT)
Will here is the plural thelemata—wills—which the International Standard Version brings out:
Then God removed Saul and made David their king, about whom he testified, ‘I have found that David, the son of Jesse, is a man after my own heart, who will carry out all my wishes.’ (Acts 13:22 ISV)
Thus, in the fulfillment of ancient prophecy, the Son of God—this Man who ever delighted in the will His Father—went to the Cross in the will of His Father, accomplishing our redemption. For this, God raised Him up, and exalted Him to His right hand, where now seated He continues to do the One Thing that delights His Father’s heart—doing His will. Thus the Father’s “hand” is established, accomplished. For, with His holy enabling Oil He has anointed Him, and His arm has strengthened Him.
I am saying dear brothers and sisters who love the will of God, that the will of God is given primarily to the Son of God to do and fulfill, and the simplicity of our own walk is in doing the will of God as He who is seated on the throne of God does His will. Nothing this Anointed One did while on earth failed, the pleasure of the LORD prospered in His hand. And nothing He now does while seated at the right hand of Power can fail, because the power and authority of the Throne of God Himself is in what He does.
So then, how do you and I become participants in His unfailing doing of God’s will? By the Holy Spirit—His own anointing, which abides in us. “The same anointing” (1 Jn 2:27). He has given us His Holy Spirit to join us to Himself to this very intent—that, now one with Him, we may do the will of God as He does the will of God. This is our rest, our victory. Our prosperity. For, be assured that whatever He does prospers. Our own prosperity, then, our success, our victory, lies in the doing of His will. We are to do His will—that is our part—and leave all else to Him.
Unfailing fruitfulness
Notice what Paul writes to the Colossians. This is a church he had never personally visited, but he had heard the good report of their faith in Christ Jesus and their love toward all the saints. So he writes:
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God… (Col 1:9,10)
Fruitful in everything we do? How can this be? It begins with knowing His will. If we are to please God, if this is truly the one desire that motivates us, the knowledge and understanding of His will is essential. Without knowing His will, how can we walk worthily of the Lord, how can we please Him? God knows this, and so we may trust and anticipate that, for His part, He will cause us to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. We can count on that. Our part? To walk in His will. “That ye may walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing…” With what result? Being fruitful… occasionally? Hit and miss? No, “being fruitful in every good work,” in everything we do. Doing the will of God, abiding in the will of God—that is, in His rest—means abiding fruitfulness, unfailing fruitfulness, and growth unto the full knowledge of God.
Along this line I have been meditating on Psalm 1. Here are the first three verses:
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.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
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. (Ps 1:1-3 KJV)
Again, this is the result of delighting in the living law and will of God, meditating therein day and night, and discovering therein the “River of water of life,” which, because it is unceasing in its flow from the Throne of God, means vibrant life instead of wilting—regardless how hot it is—and unfailing fruit in its season. That is to say, spiritual prosperity. How much of what he does shall prosper? “And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
Prosperity, success
These words in Psalm 1 are so close to a passage in Joshua that one cannot help thinking that David (if it was David who wrote Psalm 1) had been reading Joshua when he wrote this. Here are those verses from Joshua:
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Josh 1:8 KJV)
This was God’s promise to Joshua concerning the commandment God had charged him with to see to it that the children of Israel possessed the inheritance He had given them.
Moses first had enjoined this upon all the people just prior to their entry into Canaan:
Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. (Deut 29:9 KJV)
We too are bound in covenant relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, who is the mediator of the covenant. Seated at the right hand of God, He will not fail to fulfill that covenant in the lives of His own. He is our Joshua, and He will see to it that we possess the lot of our inheritance in God. That is His part of the covenant. That is God’s will for Him. He will not fail to accomplish that will. Let us then, for our part, give ourselves to meditating in the Law of the Covenant. In the midst of every difficult situation we find ourselves in, we may rest in Him who is seated upon the Throne, and who without fail will fulfill all the will of God. Our part is simply to abide in that will, and do what He is doing.
What a wonderful recipe for success, isn’t it. But what if there has been failure? If there has been failure, it is not the failure of Him who sits in the throne of God doing the will of God. Neither is it the failure of those who have ceased from themselves and from their own works and strivings, putting their trust entirely in Him and simply doing His will—which cannot fail. That is the rest, the inheritance, of those who believe Him. “For we who have believed do enter that rest” (Heb 4:3 NKJV). Have we failed in that? It is for us, then, to believe Him afresh, and return to His rest. His rest is our rest. Our inheritance. “For he that is entered into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from his” (Heb 4:10 ASV).
Let us believe, beloved. Let us continue to believe. If we have entered into His rest, if we have ceased from our own works and entered His rest, ALL that we do shall prosper, because all that HE does prospers. You and I shall prosper and be fruitful in every good work. We shall abound in every good work, just as Jesus, who said He came to do the will of Him who sent Him. He did just that, He did the will of His Father, and He did not fail. He abode in His Father, and in His will, and He did not fail. Nor yet shall fail. Neither shall we fail who come to Him and abide in Him who cannot fail. We too shall prosper and have good success.
A Mending Feast 