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I always love the start of a new year. It’s like I have a clean slate to work from, and I will spend days and months filling it up with all the great things the Lord brings my way. I know everything in my life is for His purpose because I look to Him to guide me every day. And I know, because my heart is set on being where He wants me to be and doing what He wants me to do, every day will bring increase to my life. I am always open to receive all He has for me!

So, what are you expecting to receive this new year? Better health? Improved relationships? More effective ministry? A new job? Financial freedom?

Well, you can have exactly what you expect!

I know one thing we all desire is increase in our lives-every day in every area. And I have found that there is just no end to God’s increase. He is good to His children and His generosity toward us is everlasting. He loves us!

In our 47 years of living in the truth of God’s Word, Ken and I have discovered that increase becomes the standard of living for those who make the decision that receiving from their heavenly Father will be their way of life. When we are born again of God’s Spirit, He puts us on a path that leads us to the life we see Jesus living.

Jesus lived free of lack and worry. He was perfectly healthy. His close relationships were thriving. His every need was met and He met the need of every person who sought Him. His was a life of continual increase to the point that, even by His death and resurrection, He made the way for every person on earth to be filled with God’s glory and provision!

God’s plan has always been to bring increase to His people.

Key #1 – Make Increase Your Way of Life
As Ken and I have been on this path of increase, we have discovered keys to receiving all God has planned for us. His Word clearly tells us He has a plan for His children: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope'” (Jeremiah 29:11, New Living Translation).

Part of His plan for us is that we help you discover and live out God’s plan for you in fullness! We have learned from God’s Word that seven things in particular bring increase to our lives: walking in truth and obedience, faithfulness, diligence, tithing, sowing, believing and saying. By applying our lives to these seven things, we have opened ourselves to receiving all God has planned for us-all He needs us to have to fulfill His plan. You notice I didn’t say applying these seven things to our lives. That’s because this is not some kind of formula for receiving increase. Instead, these things have become our standard for living-they are our way of life.

Key #2 – Walk in Truth and Obedience
Many people wonder, Does God really want me to prosper? God answers that question in 3 John 2: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

In verses 3-4, the Apostle John writes, “For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”

If our way of life is going to be one of victory and prosperity, we must walk in the truth of God’s Word. Believers all over the world live defeated lives, far below God’s provision, because they don’t know the Word of God and have little faith.

The Word is our source for knowing God’s will and His ways. It expresses His love to us. As we obey His Word, His love is reflected in our daily living, causing us to walk through life just as Jesus walked. John made that clear when he wrote, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments…. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:3, 5-6, New King James Version).

The great commandments that Jesus walked in were love God, and love your neighbor (see Mark 12:30-31). There is a lack of love in the world today, and it leads to lack in every area of life. The Word of God and His Spirit living inside teach us how to be true lovers of God and one another. When we walk in those commandments, we discover the power to receive everything else in our lives by faith in His Word-faith fueled by love (Galatians 5:6). So, walking in truth and obedience-living in faith according to God’s Word-is essential to our receiving increase in this life.

Key #3 – Be Faithful and Diligent
We all know someone who, when they first heard the truth about all God has made available to His people, grabbed hold and wouldn’t let go of His Word. But somehow their lives seemed to have gone backward. Once filled with all the good things of God, their lives have slipped into distress and struggling relationships. What happened?

They laid aside the truth of God’s Word. Things got too tough or someone began to talk them out of their faith. Maybe they just gave up.

Faithfulness and diligence are also keys to keeping yourself open to receiving all the increase God desires to bring into your life.

“A faithful man shall abound with blessings,” Proverbs 28:20 tells us.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Faithfulness in us makes us go after what God has promised to us. It knows God will bless and increase our lives just as He says. Diligence makes us keep after it…never giving up! It knows there is no other source but God and won’t look anywhere else for provision.

As we practice faithfulness and diligence, we begin to receive what Peter said we should expect:
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
(2 Peter 1:2-4 NKJV)
When we know that, nothing in this world can attract us, or distract us. We know our source of life and godliness, and we don’t settle for anything less than God’s will and His way of fulfilling our lives. Whatever He calls us to do, whatever He tells us to do, whatever the Word says to us—that’s the way it’s going to be!

The Spirit of God in us—the divine nature Peter talks about—is how we walk in faithfulness and diligence and receive all the things that enable us to walk as Jesus walked. He lived to love and give to others. That was His purpose, and it should be ours as well.

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries


Author Biography

Gloria Copeland
Web site: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
 
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God's WORD to their lives.
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