If you're going to have any kind of success in life, you must learn how to get hold of the Word of God. The Word is your source. It will help supply everything you need for life.

The Book of Joshua tells us how we can have success in life. "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).

Joshua is admonishing us to not let the Word of God depart from our mouth. We are to meditate or think and talk about the Word day and night. The New International Version says it this way.

Another translation says, "And then you shall be able to deal wisely with the affairs of life." You cannot deal wisely in the affairs of life, in the affairs of your natural life, unless you know the Word of God.

You cannot be successful if you can't deal wisely. Wisdom is necessary in every area of life if you're going to have any success at all. Just because you have faith and you're living by faith does not mean that you don't need wisdom. You need both faith and wisdom.

For example, if a storeowner is barely making it with one store, he does not open three more. But there are those who launch out into a new venture without thinking. They say, "God will take care of us" or "God will supply."

God will take care of you, but He expects you to have some wisdom! God gave you a mind to know when to do something and when not to do something. If you meditate in the Word like Joshua 1:8 says to do, you will have wisdom. You will know what to do and when to do it.

Then there's the person who gets in his car and takes off down the road in a bad storm, saying, "God will take care of me." Well, sometimes you need to use a little wisdom and just wait a few minutes to let the storm pass. Unfortunately, people who take off down the road in the middle of a storm can get in accidents and all kinds of trouble. And then they want to blame God for not taking care of them.

We must learn how to combine the natural and the supernatural. It's not all natural, but it's not all supernatural either. We have to have enough wisdom to know how to combine the two!

There is something else we must understand about being successful: Success with God is not measured by the same yardstick that we use in the natural. Success is not measured by what someone else is doing (2 Cor. 10:12). Success is not measured by what your fellow church members are doing.

You see, success with God is determined by whether you're involved with Him as He is leading, guiding, and directing you.

For example, many people say that you have a successful church if you have large numbers in attendance. That's not necessarily so! Some people say that you're a successful pastor if you have a large church building. That's not necessarily so either! If you've got 30 people and you're where God told you to be, doing what He told you to do, then you're a success - as successful as the pastor who has 3,000 people in his church.

I want you to get your eyes off natural measuring sticks and begin to get your eyes on the way God looks at things. God looks at your obedience to Him, not what you have or don't have. You see, people look at you, and they measure you by what you have or don't have. But God doesn't do that; that's not His yardstick. That's not His measuring rod. God looks at what He told you to do and where He told you to be at a particular time. It may be working with children, working with youth, ushering, directing parking lot traffic, visiting those in nursing homes, ministering at prisons, or visiting hospital patients. Or it may be some other program or outreach that you have in your church.

Stay where God wants you to be, and, even if you're called to a fivefold ministry, don't let anyone force you into it before you're ready to go. There are those who might say, "Well, you better get out there; you ought to get out there and start doing something."

But maybe you're not supposed to be "out there" yet! Many people mess up their lives because they get ahead of God. God doesn't move because you listen to what someone else told you. God moves because you move in line with Him and His Word.

It's important that we learn to stay with God's Word no matter who is saying what! Don't let someone else interpret it for you. Learn to read the Word for yourself and know what the Word says in context, not pulling one scripture from one place and another scripture from another place in the Bible.

You can take a scripture out of context and make it say anything you want it to. That's why you need to meditate in the Scriptures day and night, so you will have the Word inside of you. Then you will know how to deal wisely with the affairs of life.

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly ..." (Ps. 1:1).

"The ungodly" in this verse can be looked at in two different ways. Many times, we will not listen to the counsel of the ungodly, those who aren't saved, but we will listen to the counsel of other Christians. But the counsel of some Christians could be ungodly. Not every Christian is living a godly lifestyle as he should.

We can thank God for all the Christians who are preaching and teaching, but our beliefs should not be based on what they say, but on what God's Word says. And God's Word must be looked at in complete context, not out of context. In other words, we need to look at a particular verse with the other scriptures around it. We need to be careful about scriptures that are taken out of context.

In the area of finances, we need to look at the context of the scriptures people are referring to for finances. We need to make sure that the context actually supports their doctrine.

For example, Romans 13:8 says, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Now this particular scripture is being used in the area of finances. But if you read the whole scripture in context, it's not talking about finances at all. It's talking about the fact that we owe it to our individual fellow man to love him.

Sometimes people take scriptures out of context in the area of demonology also. They believe that there's a demon in every bush and behind every tree. To them, everything's a demon. They believe there's a demon of gluttony, and that you can cast the demon of gluttony out of a person! And once you do, that person can eat everything he wants to and not gain weight. How silly!

Let's get into the Word of God and find out what it says so that we don't get into extremes on one side of the ditch or the other. Some people get in a ditch on one side and say, "God is against doctors." They refuse to go to a doctor or take their family members to a doctor. They don't get any medical attention, and they often blame God when a loved one dies.

Well, not going to doctors is not in line with God's Word. In fact, there are some things that medical doctors can do to keep a person alive until he can receive divine healing. And we need to take advantage of that.

As I said before, we need to line ourselves up with the Word of God. We need to find out what God's Word says. Let's look at Psalm 1:1 through 3; these verses are similar to Joshua 1:8. "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).

Notice that it says, "Bring forth fruit in his season"(v. 3). If you have any kind of fruit trees in your yard, you know that you don't go out there in the middle of January and pick fruit! There is a season when you will find fruit on the trees.

There is a season here in Oklahoma when we go out and get sweet corn, boil it, and have corn on the cob. There is a season when we can go out to produce stands or farms that sell to the public and get black-eyed peas, okra, and squash. And every year we have to wait for that season.

Everyone is always talking about sowing and reaping with God in their finances and in other areas. But no one wants to wait for the harvest season. Many people want to sow today and reap tomorrow. But it doesn't work that way.

If you're going to learn how to reap in season - if you're going to learn how to enjoy the harvest season - you will have to start practicing the Word.