"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth" (3 John 4).

If I told you about heaven, I couldn't give you any firsthand information because I haven't been there. But when I teach on prosperity, that is something I have experienced from minus zero to abundance. Kenneth and I have been walking by the laws of abundance for 33 years.

We weren't exactly walking in prosperity when we married. I wore a $2 veil with the white cotton dress my mother made for the wedding. Ken's friend married us at his home. His wife baked a cake. We even borrowed $100 for our honeymoon.

We had no money and no wisdom. You would be hard pressed to find a couple that was more pitifully ignorant than we were at that time.

But then something happened that totally changed our lives. We began to hear the truth of the Word of God. First we got born again. We were changed inside, but outwardly you couldn't tell much difference in us.

Once we were filled with the Holy Spirit, there was some outward change, but not a lot because we were still ignorant of the Word. The real changes in our outer lives came when we started walking on the Word and letting the wisdom of God become our way of life. Everything began to change!

We found that the first step to increase is walking in truth. That means walking in the light of God's Word, according to His ways, His wisdom, what He says is right. You can't do that and not be blessed.

Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31-32).

I'm not just talking about reading scriptures about prosperity. You prosper when you walk in all the words God says to you. That's the wisdom of God.

Walking in truth is living a godly lifestyle—living in obedience to what God says is right. The blessings God outlined in Deuteronomy 28:1-14 manifest as a result of obedience:

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee....
(vv. 1-2).

God has always blessed an obedient people. Isaiah 1:19 says, "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." God can do something with a person who has a willing heart.

In fact Psalm 25:12-13 promises that when you fear the Lord, "God will teach [you] how to choose the best. [You] shall live within God's circle of blessing...."

One of the first things God taught us was to stay out of debt—and we obeyed Him! That was big to us in those days. We started where we were and that meant believing God to pay the overdue bills.

But increase came as we were willing and obedient to walk in the truth of the Word.

And increase can come to you also. God desires for you to live within His circle of blessing. It is His will for you to increase!