Stepping into a new season or period of life has far greater implications than the start as it represents the continuation of your walk of faith — which includes entering into all God has promised for you. That’s the theme covered in this book titled The Promise of Provision: Living and Giving from God’s Abundant Supply.
The book examines what abundance is from a biblical perspective – and no, it’s not the name-it-and claim-it-because-God-wants-you-rich variety that some teach. In the five-part book, Derek masterfully spells out how we can claim our inheritance in Christ Jesus.
Part One – Defining Abundance
Essentially abundance means you have all you need, plus you have something to spare. Abundance suggests that you are lifted above the level of your own needs and thus are able to reach out to the needs of others.
Derek Prince
This part looks at some of the reasons people do or don’t experience God’s abundance.
Part Two – Principles of God’s Provision
Here, Derek explores five principles of God’s provision. In this section Prince explains how God’s promises hold our provision, are our inheritance, are available through Christ, and are the expression of His will.
In this regard I appreciated his insights on prayer:
All successful praying revolves around the knowledge of God’s will. Once we know that we are asking for something according to the will of God, we know we have it.
Here, it was emphasized how we do not need to try to make things easy for God. God wants to work in such a way that the glory goes only to Him. We are to always remember that the purpose of God’s promises that pour forth His abundance is His glory. In a certain sense, the more impossible it is, the more the glory goes to God.
Part Three – Claiming God’s Promise
Part Three describes practical steps we can take to claim God’s promises and make them our own. In this section I found Chapter 13: “Is Your Desire Good?” especially useful. In it Prince illustrates how to apply scripture promises to life and demonstrates how something we consider good for us might, in God’s wisdom, not be good at all.
Part Four – Five Conditions for God’s Abundance
This chapter helps us understand that our motives are important, faith is essential, and we need to be givers ourselves, letting God determine when and how abundance will come to us. These chapters provide some good checks by which we can measure our own quest for God’s blessing, as shown by this bit from the beginning of the chapter titled “Admitting Your True Motive”.
Part Five – The Right Investment
The final section is, I believe, the book’s most powerful, making the case that we get abundance not to amass personal wealth but to bless others. Prince especially focuses on the importance of using our extra to help the poor, to bless Israel, and to spread the gospel.
Final Thoughts
I liked the way the author(s) titled the main sections, often naming the number of points that would be made. This makes the book easy to follow. In addition to its clear organization, the book has helpful word and scripture indices at the back.
You’d never know from the way the book is written that Prince is not its sole author. For anyone struggling with lack or unsure about where abundance fits into God’s scheme of things, this book provides much scripturally supported food for thought and action.
Aphorism CITY 