The True Secrets of Prosperity

In Luke 6:38, the Holy Bible said "Give, and it will be given to you" . If you give good service, you will get back good service. If you give an honest, intelligent day's work, you should receive a promotion and better pay. If you give kindness and mercy to people, you will get kindness and mercy back.

The secrets of King Solomon’s wealth can be summarized in 9 key faculties, viz. obedience, worship, wisdom, knowledge, diligence, alliance, investment, administration, and giving. To think that obedience and religious worship alone lead to prosperity, without developing competencies in the other 7 faculties is merely a fallacy. 

Some prosperity teachings focus people’s attention on the first two and such imbalance is misleading. While some emphasize prayers, others overemphasize offering as the means to prosperity. The imbalance has rather impoverished most people than liberate them. Taking some clues from Solomon himself, there are, at least, 7 additional faculties that must be developed to experience prosperity.

Here, I’ll trace the 9 faculties that are required to prosper. 

King Solomon started out by obeying his father’s instructions (1 Kings 3: 3). This value is critical to prosperity and it cuts across races, beliefs, and religions. Many would likely make irreparable blunders in life without sound tutelages from parents or mentors. 

Prior to marrying strange women, Solomon was a devout worshiper of God. He offered a thousand burnt offering at Gibeon (1 Ki 3:4). During the dedication of God’s temple, he sacrificed 142,000 animals (1 Ki 8:63). Thrice per annum, he offered burnt sacrifices and fellowship offerings (1 Ki 9:25). He was wise and God was the source of his wisdom (1 Ki 3:9, 1 Ki 3: 12 – 15).

Like I mentioned earlier, many stops at the first 3 faculties in their journey towards prosperity. But Solomon’s wisdom aptly instructs that the voyage must sail much deeper into the oceans if one must arrive at the shores of prosperity. You must hone your skills! Develop your God-given brain! Acquire knowledge and do so broadly! 

Solomon was a zoologist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, botanist, musician, poet, author, lecturer, public speaker, and military commander, both for the navy and the army of Israel (1 Ki 9:27). In fact, the Bible says that nations sent their ambassadors to him to be thought about all kinds of knowledge (1 Ki 4: 33-34). 

The queen of Sheba was one of his students (1 Ki 10:1-3). He devoted 20 years to building God’s temple and his palace (1 Ki 6:38, 7:1; 2 Ch 8:1). He was multi-talented! 

Today, our generation would unarguably award someone with his building acumen, at least, an honorary doctorate degree in civil engineering (1 Ki 9:17-19).

In addition to knowledge, you must cultivate diligence. A lazy man can’t be an author! Solomon composed and published 3,000 proverbs. He wrote and released 1,005 hit tracks. (Ki 3: 32). I guess he had many hit songs that he probably strolled on red carpets to receive some “Grammy” awards.

He understood the importance of alliances with foreign nations. So, he married Pharaoh’s daughter (1 Kings 3: 1). Well, that was probably one of his undoings. Anyway, let’s save that for another day. He forged an alliance with David’s friend, the King of Hiram (1 Ki 5:1), and gave him 20 cities in Galilee in exchange for 9,000 pounds of gold which he used in building the temple (1 Ki 9:11-14).

Solomon’s investment acumen is unparalleled! He was a foreign investor; he collaborated with the descendants of Esau to build ships (1 Ki 9:26). He was a dealer in gold as well (1 Ki 9:27-28).

When it comes to politics, he was a strategist with very strong policies (1 Ki 5: 2-11). Moreover, he was a seasoned administrator with 30,000 graduates in his workforce. All the foreign degree holders were trained in Lebanon in 3 successive batches. He also had over 153,600 federal employees. 

He was a giver (1 Ki 10:13). He received freewill donations from many of his friends and admirers (1 Ki 10:10-11).

I hate to add that he was also a slave driver. His slaves built many of his structures (1 Ki 9:15), including the temple. Well, you would agree that this was inhuman! I have highlighted it to show that the path to prosperity and fame is not always clean and I don’t imply that we should follow this footstep.

The curriculum vitae of King Solomon is one that cast a deep insight into his wealth. His prosperity was not only a function of received wisdom but utilized wisdom! So, next time you pray to God for Solomon’s kind of wisdom or give his kind of offerings or sacrifices in return for prosperity, remember also that God has already endowed you with 7 other faculties you ought to harness like Solomon. 

Lastly, In 2 Chronicles 31:20, 21, Hezekiah kept the aim before him "in every work that he began." Mere occasional efforts after goodness will result in nothing but failure. 

Hezekiah sought it with all his heart. Half-hearted endeavours can only terminate in feeble achievements. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do," etc. (Ecclesiastes 9:10); "This one thing I do" (Philippians 3:13). 

Whatever works Hezekiah engaged in were done "before the Lord his God," as in his sight and for his glory. So should it be with Christians. "Whether therefore ye eat or drink," etc. (1 Corinthians 10:31); and "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord," etc. (Colossians 3:23).

Walk in those godly prosperity secrets this new year 2019! if you truly want TRUE PROSPERITY and FORTUNE for the propagation of the good news that Christ brought to the world.

Credit: J. O. Oguntuase (Jan 2019).