Pastor Alex Hall | November 8th, 2026
The Prosperous Journey: What It Really Means to Advance in God
There is a word that makes some Christians nervous. A word that has been so misused, so tangled up in controversy, that many believers have quietly decided it is safer to avoid it altogether. That word is prosper.
But what if the discomfort around that word has less to do with the Bible and more to do with the traditions and fears of men? What if God actually wants his people to prosper, and walking away from that truth has left countless believers stuck, stagnant, and spiritually malnourished?
It is worth taking a closer look.
What the Word Actually Says
In 3 John verse 2, the apostle John writes to believers expressing his deep desire that they would prosper in all things and be in health, just as their soul prospers. For anyone who grew up in a church environment that treated prosperity as a theological dirty word, that verse can feel like a small earthquake. Here is an apostle, one of the closest companions of Jesus himself, openly and earnestly praying for the flourishing of God's people in every area of life.
The Greek word behind the concept of prospering carries a beautiful image. It is rooted in the idea of traveling on a road, moving forward, advancing. To prosper is not simply to accumulate. It is to be on a journey that is going somewhere, to be moving forward rather than standing still.
That changes everything about how we understand what God wants for his people.
The Order Matters
Notice the order in John's prayer. He desires that believers would prosper in all things and be in health just as their soul prospers. The soul is the anchor point. The soul is the starting line. Above everything else, God is after the prospering of the inner life, the mind, the will, the emotions, the deep interior world that shapes everything else about how a person lives.
You are three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Your spirit is where the Holy Spirit takes up residence when you surrender your life to Christ. Your body is the physical shell you inhabit. And your soul is the landscape in between, the place where thoughts are formed, feelings rise and fall, and decisions are made.
God wants all three to flourish. But it begins with the soul.
This means that when life feels dry, when the finances are tight, when relationships are strained, when health is struggling, the first and most important question to bring before God is not, "Why aren't things working out?" The better question is, "Lord, what are you trying to do in my soul in this season?"
The Fruit That Signals True Advancement
Galatians 5, verses 22 through 26, describes the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is the harvest God is most interested in producing in the lives of his people.
It is entirely possible to go through a difficult season and come out the other side more loving, more patient, more gentle, and more faithful than you were before, and to miss it entirely because you were focused on what had not yet changed in the external circumstances of your life.
Take an honest account. Have you grown in love this year, even when people made it hard? Have you grown in patience, even when the waiting felt unbearable? Have you grown in faithfulness, even when trust was costly? If you have stayed rooted in God and his word, the answer is almost certainly yes. That is advancement. That is prospering. Do not let the enemy convince you otherwise.
Learning to Discern
First John 4, verse 1 carries a sobering and necessary instruction. Believers are told not to accept every spirit at face value, but to test the spirits, because many false voices have gone out into the world. This is not a call to suspicion or paranoia. It is a call to discernment.
The thief, as Jesus describes in John 10:10, does not announce himself. He does not knock at the front door and declare his intentions. He looks for a way in that goes unnoticed. He whispers thoughts that feel like your own. He offers ideas that sound almost right, almost scriptural, almost wise, but are just twisted enough to pull you off course. He wants you to bleed out spiritually, slowly and quietly, until you can no longer tell the difference between his voice and the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The antidote is knowing the word. Not just knowing about the word, but getting into it personally, regularly, and prayerfully. When you know what God actually says, you can measure every thought, every teaching, every cultural idea against it. You can ask, does this align with the character of God? Does this produce the fruit of the Spirit? Does this lead me closer to Jesus or further away?
He Can Change Things Overnight
There is a powerful account in 2 Kings 6 of a city under siege, reduced to desperate poverty, with no visible way forward. And yet, in a single night, God changed everything. He put the sound of an advancing army into the air, and the enemy fled, leaving behind all their provisions. By morning, abundance had replaced famine.
One man doubted the prophet's word that this turnaround was coming. He saw the miracle with his own eyes but never tasted it.
God is still the God of sudden reversals. He is still the God who can change the economy of your life overnight. The question is whether you will hold on in faith long enough to taste it, or whether doubt will cause you to miss the harvest even as it arrives.
The Invitation
This week, find a quiet place. Bring your questions, your fears, your confusion, and your longings before the Holy Spirit. Ask him what lesson he is trying to teach your soul. Ask him what test you may be refusing to pass. Ask him to reveal where you have been trusting in your own strength rather than in his provision.
He is not withholding from you. He is advancing you. And the road ahead, however long it may feel, is a prosperous one.