Successful Christianity

AuthorHouse™

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Phone: 1-800-839-8640

© 2008 Dr. Roger Price. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 5/20/2008

ISBN: 978-1-4343-5906-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4678-6700-9 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

Dedication

Forward

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One —

Diligence

Chapter Two —

Thinking for Success

Chapter Three —

Changing Our Thinking

Chapter Four —

Escaping Moral Decay

Chapter Five —

Success is in Him

Chapter Six —

Reaching Out to Jesus

Chapter Seven —

God’s Infallible Word

Chapter Eight —

Speaking the Word

Chapter Nine —

Generosity

Chapter Ten —

No Other Gods

Chapter Eleven —

Submission

Chapter Twelve —

Wrestling with God

Chapter Thirteen —

Losing All in Worship

Chapter Fourteen —

Flowing in Your Gift

Chapter Fifteen —

Balanced Living

Chapter Sixteen —

Walking in Love

Chapter Seventeen —

Coming to Maturity

Chapter Eighteen —

Dying to Self

Chapter Nineteen —

Having Right Attitudes

Resource Materials and Bibliography of Works Cited

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all those I have watched struggle with things that came about in their lives that were designed to destroy them, and yet they overcame. In my time of ministry I have seen folks face the attack of the enemy; some with timidity, some with boldness, and a few who had no clue as to what to do in the face of that attack. Some who were attacked overcame without a scratch, while others fell, some heavily, under the attack. Even of those who fell, most got back up and went on with the Lord. Whether you fit the category of one of those who fell and got up, or was always successful in your walk, this book is dedicated to you that have that spirit and attitude that never says, I quit.

Forward

The Apostle John prayed in Third John, verse 2, that above all we would … prosper and be in health, even as our soul prospers.

God’s will and purpose for His creation is that we would succeed in our spirit, in our soul, and in our body. Today, in our world, there are millions of Christians. Many of these are just saved and struggling in their life, while some others are living their Christian life successfully.

Dr. Price addresses the subject of being successful in all areas of life through the written Word and by the precious anointing of the Holy Spirit. So, when we need more than salvation, which is just escaping hell, this is the book to read. Read and enjoy how to become all that God desires for you to be successful and fulfill your potential and purpose in His Kingdom.

This book, Successful Christianity, is timely. Dr. Price is a successful Christian who travels all over the world, teaching and preaching the Gospel. May the Lord open to you and may you grasp the truths in this much-needed book.

Dr. Leo Hall

Preface

Success has been sought by all people of all ages. No one, no matter what walk of life, desires failure in their life. They all want to succeed. Christians alike seek to be successful in their walk with the Lord. Since a successful Christian walk is not laid out all in one place in logical steps, like A, B, C in the Bible, we must study to find out what constitutes being truly successful. These keys to success are like diamonds amongst the coal deposits, which must be dug out by searching and prayer. There are no magic formulas for success that we apply for 10 minutes each morning before we go on our way doing our thing in Christianity. It is a continuous walk with the Lord, beginning (for us) at the point we meet Him and ending at the point we leave this life. In between there is this living it out as we come to understand what it is He wants. The following short-list contains keys for the Believer to be successful:

1.   Successful Christianity is never quitting.

2.   Successful Christianity is seeking for the excellent.

3.   Successful Christianity is having our thinking changed.

4.   Successful Christianity is adding to our faith.

5.   Successful Christianity is taking Him as our guide.

6.   Successful Christianity is having our wounds healed.

7.   Successful Christianity is to stand on His infallible Word.

8.   Successful Christianity is to speak His infallible Word.

9.   Successful Christianity is giving away what we cannot keep.

10.   Successful Christianity is to have no other gods before Him.

11.   Successful Christianity is to submit to Him in humility.

12.   Successful Christianity is to wrestle with God.

13.   Successful Christianity is to lose all in worship of Him.

14.   Successful Christianity is to flow in His gift to benefit others.

15.   Successful Christianity is to live a balanced life.

16.   Successful Christianity is to demonstrate His love to others.

17.   Successful Christianity is to come to maturity.

18.   Successful Christianity is to die to our own will.

19.   Successful Christianity is having right attitudes.

May each of us, writer and reader alike, find true success in Him.

Introduction

Success has been sought by all people of all ages. Failure is not a goal in any person’s life. All humans want to succeed. When we are truly born again, there comes a desire in the Christian to be successful in their walk with the Lord. But how do we do it? Is there some place in the Bible where all the jewels of successful living are in a row, like A, B, C? Not so you would notice it. But the truth of success in Christ is in the Scriptures. Like hidden treasure, it has to be dug out. The truths of the Word of God have guided seekers throughout the ages. These truths are not on the surface, nor are they as a magic formula. Simply pulling a Scripture out of a promise box does not guarantee we will succeed even though Believers often pay no more attention to truth than that. Successful Christianity is a continuous seeking after Him. It is a search of desperation, of the One who is the answer, and who has all the answers. It is a race, as Paul put it, from when we surrender to Him till we have run our race to its completion. In between there is this living it out as we come to understand how it is He wants us to live.

In the course of life, every person has some measure of desired success that they dream of. That dream may be measured by the individual as riches, fame, health and well-being, the number of people they help, a good family life, their perceived image, or some other area of life they believe is important. The idea of success for some is the things they accumulate. For others, to succeed is to go beyond the normal achievement of their peers. It is to rise above others of common heritage or lineage. It is to become more than others and bigger than life.

For some, success is simply to live a good life. For others there is a chase to satisfy some inner desire, which they believe will come about as they reach a particular goal. Success is chased by corporate America and individuals in pursuit of the good life. Yet true success is tied to the Person who was the most successful of all that ever walked this planet. He turned the world upside down in 3-1/2 years of ministry work that is still producing life-change in multiplied millions.

This same desire for success shows up in all people, no matter their situation or station in life. People want success in their marriage, vocation, education, church life, finances, business, relationships, and any other category of life that we could name or that people find important to them. Every human wants to be successful in that which they are doing. In every vocation and attempt at success, it does not come to the lucky, but to the diligent (Proverbs 10: 4, 12: 24). No matter what area we endeavor to succeed in, we all want the same thing- measurable success.

Why do some Christians seem to walk so easily and successfully in Christianity and others have an intense struggle, day after day, just to survive in their walk? What are the separating principles that put some into what Believers might call the good life? Just how accurate is the Western measurement of the good life? Many Believers in developing nations have an entirely different attitude of what is good and what is not. The Western Believer tends to think that a fine house, nice car, and a seven-figure stock portfolio is the good life, especially as they are able to take a cruise or extended vacation each year. But, the Believer in most of the developing nations, who has been suffering persecution, tends to think that the good life is winning as many to the Lord as is possible. How soft and comfortable in the United States we have become! How tainted by the world is the Western church that has basically lost its focus on what is important.

While we see some Believers have what the Westerners call the good life, how is it that others in the West, just as saved, just as sanctified, just as holy, seem to never find that success in life? What kind of success are we talking about? When we speak of the good life, we are not talking about the Western society or Western culture’s measurement of the same. The good life we speak of is not measured by fine cars, big houses, nor a large stock portfolio and savings account, though those can be appreciated and enjoyed by Christians, as well as used by them to accomplish God’s purpose for their lives. While God is not withholding those good things from His children, some of His children just seem to fall into success while others struggle and fight and war, never seeming to gain any ground. And, by the way, some of those good things can be very destructive when we have not learned how to handle them. Is there a reason for the difference or does God just not want all to have the good life?

I believe that there are reasons some struggle and others seem to always have it made. I believe that the Word of God is truthful in saying that we can all have the victory. In fact, the Word says that we already have the victory, if we believe 1 John 5: 4 in the tense it is written. It does not say that we are going to be victorious. It says that we are now victorious. This Scripture seems to say to us that the war is over and yet we see good people struggling and not apparently making any headway in gaining the victory, barely keeping their spiritual heads above water.

To succeed is to accomplish something planned or attempted. To be successful is to have a favorable or satisfactory outcome or result. It is to have an event turn out as we hoped for. It is closely allied with the word favor. To have favor is to have the approval, kind indulgence, help, assistance, or the friendly or generous act of another. Concerning favor in relation to Christianity, it is to have support and help from the Lord that assists us in our walk here. Because Christ desires us to be successful in this walk, it is His favor, the grace He bestows, which brings about our success when we do what He has shown us to do to gain it. It is not an accident, but a planned course of life that the Lord will guide us in (Proverbs 16: 9).

We can succeed in Christianity, or we can fail in it. He has already done what needed to be done for us as far as bringing freedom from sin; now we need to do what He is not going to do again for us. So how do we tap into His victory? How do we come to the place that we overcome no matter what we face?

The first place we have to come to is a change of our thinking. While salvation is not only that, it is required. The Lord is looking for us to have a change in the way we view Him, life, ourselves, and our fellow-man. We have to think differently. This is demonstrated in one explanation of repentance, which is a turning around and going 180 degrees in direction from the way we were previously traveling in life. That means that there is no magic in the prayer of salvation. It is a starting point in the race, not the destination.

The problem lies, for many, in the fact that they do not think they can be successful. This thinking I am talking about is not just as an idea, but as a practical application of the Word of God. It is to see what God is saying to us and then receiving and walking in it. The kind of success the Lord talks about as being ours comes because we are focused, creative, realistic, and strategic in our thinking. It is because we think/believe in the realm of what is possible through Him instead of only what appears to the natural man to be possible. As long as we continue to think like God thinks, we shall continue to become more and more successful in our Christian walk. After all, He is the God of the impossible (Luke 1: 37; Mark 10: 27, 9: 23; Genesis 18: 14; Jeremiah 32: 27).

True success in Christianity, I believe, is measured by the benefit to mankind and the fulfillment we sense inside, as we do it unto the Lord. It is to hear the Lord say Well done thou good and faithful servant. However, we will not hear that, as a public event, until it is too late to do anything more about it. So, we must search out the principles and diligently apply them to hear that commendation at the end of our individual lives.

Successful living, we could also say, is being conformed to the image of Christ and will come when the Believer allows the Holy Spirit to apply the principles of the Bible to their own character. The truths contained in Scripture should cause us to alter our thought life, change our habits, and bring His principles to bear on our lives. The truth of it will liberate us to a successful life if we will apply it (John 8: 32).

That is what this book is about. It is not a get rich quick scheme, though you will be rich when the truths of it are activated with regularity in your life. It is not the answer to the troubled marriage, though it will help find the answer if a person will seek the One it seeks to glorify. It may not be a panacea for all of life’s problems, but it just might contain the answer to yours.

Chapter One —

Diligence

A satisfactory outcome or result in our life-goals is seldom easy. The gaining of a favorable result takes hard work and some would even say a degree of luck, though the Word of God does not say that. In fact, the opportunity to succeed often comes disguised as hard work. There has to be an effort to succeed. It is opposite the actions of the proverbial dead fish. He may seem to be successful, for he is moving, though it is always down-stream. The live fish is the one that progresses against the current. So it is in life. There is always a current that tries to take us away from our goals in life, though God gives us strength and intelligence to accomplish those goals.

The price of success is within every person’s reach, embodied in our time, focus, and belief. Some may think that they cannot be successful because of being crippled. But being crippled does not have to be a determining factor in success. Being a success actually takes no start-up capital. We each are the one who will make our own way prosperous by use of the tools God gave us. If we fail in life we must look in the mirror to find the reason. The Bible is that mirror that points out to us why we failed.

Success in life does not come to the lucky, but the diligent. It is true that some will win the lottery, but they do so against extreme odds and most wind up broke and in trouble in a few short months after winning a large amount of money. Most fail the admonition of Solomon: Honor the LORD with thy substance and with the first-fruits of all thine increase (Proverbs 3:9). Seldom do the winners find any true success that comes because of their winnings.

On the other extreme, God has set us up on a work-fare system, not a welfare system. It does no good to beg, and the righteous are not to be begging anyway (Psalms 37: 25). No one was designed for failure. Begging indicates failure to trust God. God certainly does not want His children doing without. The standards to bring success in our walk with the Lord rule out no one.

Success is not a goal but a process. It has no termination point. We can move as far into success as we wish by the tools God gave us. Success comes because of an I will attitude that manifests in correct action. Those who see themselves as failures must correct their thinking and begin to utilize what God has given them to succeed. Success comes to those who refuse to give up. The man who is crippled in his body, mind, or attitudes will often give up and therefore he seldom succeeds.

To the person who refuses to give up on applying Scriptural principles, success will come, sooner or later. We could use the word diligent to describe the person who refuses to give up. In the King James Bible, when a Greek word was translated as diligence, it meant speed, eagerness, earnestness. To the word diligent in the King James Bible, the original word meant to use speed, make an effort, be prompt or in earnest. This describes an endeavor or working at it, a person who will give it all they have, not giving up though there are obstacles and hindrances.

Johnny Hart was and is just such a person. He fell in love with cartoons as a kid and never lost that love. He told his high school counselor that he wanted to draw, when asked what he wanted to do in life. While in the Air Force he honed his skills in drawing and after discharge, he worked night and day to sell the cartoons he drew. Though he experienced some success, he finally gave in to the need for a regular income that would take care of his family and went to work for General Electric in the art department. One night, very tired, he accidentally spilled ink on a nearly finished cartoon. Frustrated at the accident, he kicked over the card table he was working at and shouted, Before I am 27 years old, I will have a nationally syndicated comic strip. It is still a mystery why he shouted 27 years old.

That desire to draw cartoons never left him. At night he would draw cave man after cave man in his cartoons. Sending them to magazine editors, he would receive back polite notes rejecting his work. Yet he continued. One day Johnny surprised himself by saying, Tonight I am going home and create a nationally famous comic strip. His diligence at what he had been drawing and his determination to succeed at what he loved to do was about to come together for him. What he believed in his heart he began to say with his mouth. That night Johnny created the comic strip, B.C.

But still there was still rejection after rejection by syndications that presented writer’s and cartoonist’s work to newspapers and magazines. Yet diligence and perseverance was at work in him. Going to New York, he visited syndicate offices, attempting to raise awareness and agreement to buy his cartoon strip. He experienced rejection again. But then, Johnny mailed his cartoon to the New York Herald Tribune. They bought it. Amazingly, B.C. first appeared in the newspapers on February 17, 1958, the day before his 27th birthday. Coincidence? Absolutely not. Johnny had been diligent to continue to draw though it seemed he would not find a buyer. His perseverance and his shouting what he believed brought success. Do we have to shout what we believe to be successful? I believe so, though it does not necessarily require a shout, but a diligent and continuous speaking of what we want to occur in our lives.

According to some dictionaries, to be diligent is to be constant in effort to accomplish something. It is to be attentive and persistent in the effort of reaching a goal. The idea of painstaking is included in this attention and persistence. Diligence is characterized by care in carrying out tasks. It is an effort that is marked by perseverance. Beth Ann DeCiantis demonstrated this perseverance in the 1992 Olympic Trials marathon. She had grown so weary that when she reached the final straightaway, she had only two minutes left to qualify and she had to reach the finish line to do so. She fell with 200 yards left to go and for 20 seconds could not go on. Then, staggering to her feet, she continued on until she was five yards from the finish as she fell again. Only 10 seconds left to qualify. Crowds of people cheered her on as she crawled to the finish line, only three seconds short of failure. But she qualified. Perseverance, a refusal to give up brought, about her qualification. The whole idea is to never give up.

Sir Winston Churchill gave a famous, three word speech that typifies what I am saying. It was to a college graduating class. Expecting a long speech that would be full of wisdom and challenge, Churchill surprised all who were there with what was possibly the shortest speech ever given with the words, Never give up. Then he repeated it twice as only he could. Though this would seem to have short-changed these inspired young people who were just about to step into the world of work, it was exactly what they needed. This was and is profound wisdom from a man who faced one of the toughest challenges of the 20th Century, with Hitler attacking from the air and cutting his nation off by sea. It was only because of his refusal to give up and injecting that refusal into the people of Great Britain that they survived until help came from the U.S.A.

Too often we stop just short of success. We find ourselves worn out, discouraged, disheartened, and say, What’s the use? But the successful Christian does not stop when the hurdles and diversions and road blocks of life show up. They simply refuse to give up, even when it appears that all is lost and there is no reason to fight on.

The story is told of a frog that fell into a cream separator on an old farm years ago, where all that the farm family had they raised or produced themselves. There was some heavy cream in the separator, but it was not thick enough to support the frog so he could jump out. The frog had a choice to make. He could lay there until the farmer’s wife found him and would probably kill him, or he could make an effort to jump out. He decided to make the effort and began to jump. While he did not make much headway when he pumped those strong frog-legs God had given him, he was diligent to keep at it. All the time he was jumping, he kept saying. I believe I can. After several minutes of effort, he found that the heavy cream under him was gaining in consistency and he was jumping higher each time. Soon the cream had turned to butter and he jumped to freedom.

A quaint story you say, but what does it have to do with me? The frog had utilized what many fail to understand. He exerted diligent effort when the problems of life showed up. How many times is success snatched from us because we simply give up? Jesus spoke quite directly to us about not giving up.

So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened

(Luke 11: 9-10, Amplified Bible).

The verb form is correctly translated