Throughout the Bible, there is one thing that has made the great heroes of the faith stand out, and that is the fact that no matter what the threat or pressure, they always—without exception—go FIRST to God for the answer to their problem.

It is a matter of priorities—of first things first. Some good examples are:

• JOSHUA when faced with the five Amorite kings (Josh. 10:5-42)
• DAVID when faced with the Philistines (2 Sam. 5:18-25)
• JEHOSHAPHAT when faced with the Moabites, Ammonites and the inhabitants of Mount Seir (2 Chron. 20:1-26)
• HEZEKIAH when faced with the Assyrians (Is. 36:1,2; 37:1-38)

All four kings were faced with overpowering, overwhelming odds. In the natural, there was no way out, but when they sought God first, God heard them and gave them victory!

These are all Old Testament kings—but we are told by Jesus Himself in the New Testament, in Matthew 6:3,

SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED TO YOU …

All what things? For a start, miraculous deliverance from overwhelming threats and enemies. And notice a very important point: we are to seek the Kingdom of God first, and then HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Righteousness is a key issue.

One of the great benefits of being born again is that we can take on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not through our own efforts, but through the Blood He shed on the Cross. Proverbs says that righteousness exalts a nation—all of these four kings sought first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness—they had INTEGRITY.

Righteousness and Integrity

There is a tremendously important lesson here for us today, facing a world that is full of secular, ungodly values. God set up commandments of right and wrong, but in our society today, we make up our own values, and we are surrounded by corruption and dishonesty. Whether it is in Singapore, Australia or wherever else God may have called you, ethics and morality in business, government, the media, arts and education are sadly undervalued and compromised.

We are to be the salt and the light to the world, whether we are in business, or government, or education, or the media—anywhere in the marketplace—worldly people should be able to see by the way we operate, by the standards of righteousness and honesty we set, that we are Christians; followers of Jesus Christ.

Integrity—who you are when no one is looking—is bound up in the Word of God with prosperity. God tells us in many Scriptures that He wants His people to be wealthy and prosperous, to be able to live well, pay our bills, look after our families, and have enough left over to give to good causes (2 Cor. 9:11). But He also tells us to be righteous and holy, because He, the Lord, is Holy (1 Pet. 1:15 and 16).

Integrity means putting God first in all parts of our lives, in our thinking, in our relationships, in our business dealings. The same God that “gives us the power to get wealth” (Deut 8:18), offers us a 1,000-fold increase (Deut 1:11), and even commands us to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 2:28), also tells us to walk in godliness and holiness, and the righteousness of God.

We are to balance the call to prosper with the call to walk worthy of our God in purity and holiness—we are heirs to the promises God made to Abraham, that he would bless him and make his name great, so that he would BE a blessing.

We are blessed to bless others. We must keep the blessings flowing, like the Jordan River flowing into the Sea of Galilee—it is full of life. But the Dead Sea is dead because water flows in but nothing flows out.

Integrity brings us many benefits. Proverbs tells us that the righteous are as bold as a lion; we don’t go around in fear and trembling, but like the mighty lion, the king of the beasts. God delights in those who have integrity (Prov. 11:20), while our integrity will even make the city we live in prosper (Prov. 11:11).

People with integrity have wisdom (Prov. 2:7) and guidance (Prov. 11:3), are protected (Ps. 25:21), are stable (Prov. 10:9) and are able to pass on their blessings to their children after them (Prov. 20:7).

Channels of God’s Blessing

In Proverbs 13:22 (and also in Job 27:16 and 17), we are introduced to a vital end-time concept: the “END-TIME WEALTH TRANSFER.” The Bible tells us that the wealth of the wicked—or the world—is stored up for the righteous, the godly people who walk in integrity.

God will use us, His people, as the conduits for this end-time flow of wealth, as His channels, or vessels. BUT, water can only flow freely through a channel or pipe that is clean and clear, and this is an important end-time message to us.

If we want to be channels for God’s end-time wealth transfer, we need to be clean and pure and holy. God will not use impure vessels who will restrict and clog the flow.

And one way to be sure we are open channels is to have a daily wash in the “water of the Word.” Ephesians 5:26 talks about the “washing of water by the Word.” That means that as we move around in the world, seeing things we don’t want to see, hearing things we don’t want to hear, moving in a dirty world, where some of the dirt sticks, we can wash it off by a daily “bath” in the water of the Word.

I strongly recommend that part of putting God first in our lives, is to put Him first in a very practical way each and every day, by getting up and committing the first part of our day to Him, to prayer, and to the reading of His Word.

Not only does the Word wash us and cleanse us, it also leads us and guides us. We need to get quiet before Him, so the “still small voice” (1 Kin. 19:12) can come through. The Bible tells us that He will instruct us and teach us in the way we should go (Ps. 32:8); He will teach us to profit (Is. 48:17), and that we will hear a voice behind us saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it” (Is. 30:21).

Meditating on the Word

Joshua was told by God to meditate day and night on the Word of God, and he would prosper and have “good success.” This promise to Joshua, as he waited to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, is also to us today. If we seek God first, put Him first in all parts of our lives, and pray and read His Word, we will be like Joshua and have prosperity and “good success” (Josh. 1:8).

In Proverbs 10:22, God tells us that He wants to give us wealth, and to add “no troubles” to it, but every promise of God is conditional, and that is if we walk in His ways of righteousness and integrity.

Personality and talent can get you to the top, but only character, which is the outworking of integrity in our lives, will keep you there!

God is planning a massive, unprecedented end-time harvest of salvation. You can see it starting in small ways in various parts of the world, and starting to gather momentum. C. Peter Wagner had this to say recently on the subject of the “end time wealth transfer”:

“God is poised to release enormous, unprecedented amounts of wealth for the advance of His Kingdom here on earth. I believe that the timing for this is NOW upon us, and that we must take steps to be prepared for this great transfer of wealth in every way possible … my sense is that we are not talking just seven or eight figures, but nine and 10 figures”.

10 figures? What is that? Seven figures is a million: 1,000,000. 10 figures is 1,000,000,000. I think that is called a billion, spent with a “B.” A thousand million!

And why not? God owns the entire world, everything in it and the “fullness thereof.” So why shouldn’t he release this kind of wealth to His people to carry out His work in building His Kingdom?

Why haven’t we seen this so far or at least not very widely? I believe it is because He knows that He cannot trust us with that sort of money—YET. He is starting to raise up a new breed of Christians in the marketplace, who can handle the billions, without letting it destroy them.

These are the people who understand that great wealth must be balanced by absolute integrity and righteousness, that God will not release unprecedented wealth to carnal, worldly Christians.