God’s Formula for Success and Prosperity

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Text originally published in 1956 under the same title.

© Muriwai Books 2018, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

GOD’S FORMULA FOR SUCCESS AND PROSPERITY

EDITED BY

ORAL ROBERTS AND G. H. MONTGOMERY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

1—Clifford Ford — GOD’S REAL ESTATE MAN 4

God’s Promise of Prosperity 4

Conditions of Prosperity 5

God Helped Me Advance 5

My Steps Toward Prosperity 6

God’s Laws of Success 7

The Two Customers 8

Arrangements for Success 8

Investments That Count 10

Testing My Motives 10

2—Henry Krause — GOD’S PLOWMAN 12

3—Demos Shakarian — GOD’S DAIRYMAN 20

Isaac Is Born 20

Russo-Armenian Pentecost 20

Here in Time for Pentecost 22

My Advent 22

My Baptism and Healing 23

My First Business Ventures 23

Conviction and Reconsecration 24

Great Miracle of Healing 24

The Miracle in Hollywood Bowl 25

Present Revival Predicted 26

Business and Spirituality 27

My God and My Family 27

4—Nick Timko — GOD’S TOOL AND DIE MAKER 29

Raised from the Dead 29

Other Miracles 30

My Turning Point 31

I Find a Personal Saviour 32

5—George Gardner — GOD’S AUTOMOBILE MAN 35

Little Girl in Blue Dress 36

Telling the Story 37

Three Days Later 38

6—Ralph Quest — GOD’S CONTRACTOR 42

7—Jack Linn — GOD’S POULTRYMAN 48

8—Albert Ott — GOD’S MINISTERING SERVANT 59

9—Lee Braxton — GOD’S BANKER 66

Religion That Can Be Felt 68

I Refused to Work on Sunday 70

How I Met Oral Roberts 72

My Plans for Healing Waters 74

The Only Enduring Happiness 75

10—Solomon John Mattar — GOD’S KEEPER OF THE TOMB 76

God Keeps His Promise 77

How I Became Warden of the Garden Tomb 78

Two Men from America and My Healing 79

Whom Seek Ye? 80

11—Oral Roberts — GOD’S MAN FOR THIS HOUR 81

Efficiency in Action 81

His Sermons 82

The Altar Call 83

The Healing Line 84

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 88

1—Clifford Ford — GOD’S REAL ESTATE MAN

Friends, here is the great faith story of a most amazing child of God. With only a few dollars, but with a heart full of God’s love and a childlike faith, he fought against defeat, poverty, failure, mistakes. He fought not as the average man fights but as a Christian should fight, by using his faith in God. In his fight he discovered a formula for success. It is because of this formula that I say this may be the most important article you have read in years. I have just finished reading it four times and plan to read it again. It has done something for me. You’ll be thinking back over this one for a long time to come.—Oral Roberts.

I bring you my story without any thought of personal glory. I tell it only for the glory of God with the hope that someone else may be blest by these experiences that I have had over the years. I tell the story because I sincerely believe that it is God’s will for all his children to prosper and to be in health even as their souls prosper.

Six years ago I stood at the crossroads of my life. I was face to face with the greatest decision of my life, so far as material things are concerned. I had a good job with the Gates Rubber Company, but for a long time I had had a great desire to go into business for myself. Since my job offered a measure of security for myself and my family, I felt a little fearful about turning it loose to make the venture into my own business. My wife, like any good wife, enjoyed the relative security of my established job and she, too, was in doubt as to whether I should make the change. I knew that if I made it, I would have to make it without capital of my own, for I did not have the money with which to launch the venture that I had in mind.

God’s Promise of Prosperity

Ever since I have been a Christian, I have been a believer in following the Word of God as closely as possible. So as I was considering the problem before me, I continued to read and search the Bible to try to find some guidance for the steps ahead.

One day as I sat reading, I came across the first Psalm. I had read this passage of Scripture before but it never had meant to me what it did as I read it that day. No doubt you yourself have read it many times, but as I sat in my home that day reading these wonderful words, it proved to be the turning point of my life. Here is what I read, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Those last words seemed to literally leap from the page and fasten themselves in my mind and in my heart: and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. There was my leading from God. There was the assurance for which I had been looking. I called to my wife.

Come here, I want you to hear this Scripture.

When she came I read it to her, and I said, Don’t you see what that means? Why, it means that if I’ll do the things that are recommended in these verses here, that I will prosper in anything I undertake.

Conditions of Prosperity

I could not then, nor can I now, conceive of God establishing so wonderful a standard on a system of negatives. Therefore, when I read, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, I believed that the reverse of that was being recommended by God; that is, a man should walk in the counsel of the godly. I saw then that this promise of prosperity was based upon a fivefold condition as follows:

First, we must live the right kind of life.

Second, we must stand for the right thing.

Third, we must keep the right attitude.

Fourth, we must think right.

Fifth, we must believe right.

Not only was I being led of God in a certain direction but I had specific instructions from God’s Word on how to get where I wanted to go.

I had given my heart to God twelve years before that time, and from the time of my conversion, I had discovered that no one can outgive God. For instance, nearly twelve years before my discovery of this principle of prosperity, I was living in Oklahoma and I felt that I should go to Colorado. I had my family, an automobile, and $6 in my pocket. There was a radio preacher in Tulsa in whose work I had great confidence. So before I left Tulsa, I gave this preacher $1. That left me $5 with which to get my family to Colorado.

My first job after reaching Colorado was selling extracts from door to door. I followed that work until a job with Gates Rubber Company opened up, and I took a job with that company as a common laborer. My work was menial, consisting of such tasks as sweeping the floor, cleaning up the place, etc. But I believed that God had something better for me, so I kept working and kept believing.

God Helped Me Advance

During this time, the Lord gave me a formula for making a self-sealing aircraft hose. This impressed my superiors, so they offered to let me go into the office and take a better position while working under the boys in the office. But I turned them down. I told them that I was not interested in any advancement that I could not take home to my family, that if I accepted a better position it would have to benefit my family as well as me. By taking a stand in this manner I gained my advancement and better pay, also. If I had accepted the position that had been offered me, I would have probably been confined in the office as an underling for the remainder of my life. But by including my family in my believing, I gained my objective of a better position with better pay. Within three weeks I had college graduates from the office working under me instead of my being in the office working under them.

When I discovered my formula for prosperity six years ago, I had been advanced to development engineer in the company, but I knew that I was as high as I would ever get in that company. My head was scraping the ceiling and there was no chance for further advancement on that job. I had that consuming desire to get out and go into business for myself. Now that God had given me the formula, why should I hire out to others?

The next question was: How shall I go about it? Just how would you have gone about it? You feel that God has shown you the way to prosperity and success. You have a home, a family, a job. You are giving up your job to launch out for yourself. What is the next step that you would take?

My Steps Toward Prosperity

Well, I will tell you what my next step was. Our church needed a Sunday school annex and I felt that it was God’s will for the church to have that annex. So I sat down and considered the property that I owned, what I owed on it, and the ultimate amount that I could borrow on this property. I decided that the maximum amount that I could get on the property was $5,000, considering what I owed on it. So I made out a note for $5,000 and took that note to my pastor and said to him, The church needs a Sunday school annex. I feel led of God to make a contribution to that. I will have to borrow money on my property in order to make the contribution that I want to make, but I am willing to do it providing you will assume the obligation for raising an equal amount of money from the congregation. Here is my note for $5,000. The money is yours for the Sunday school annex as soon as you can match it from the rest of the membership.

So my second step toward prosperity was taken. First, I had given up my job. I had given up everything that I owned, or at least had offered to do so. Incidentally, that offer was never taken up by my pastor. So far as I know, he has that note yet. Not long after that, I moved my membership to another church.

I believe that the Word of God gives us a formula for everything that we need in this world. The three things that every child of God should have are, in the order of their importance, personal knowledge of genuine salvation, health for the body, and prosperity. The Word of God gives us a formula for each. The most simple and easily followed of the three formulas is the first one, the formula for salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This is made the most simple because it is the most important. The formula for health is a little more complex and the formula for prosperity is the most complicated of all, for the simple reason that if a man has salvation and good health, he can make out without financial prosperity. But the formula is there if we want to look for it.

God’s Laws of Success

The Book of Proverbs is the greatest handbook of success that has ever been written. It deals far more with the matter of health and prosperity than it does with salvation.

I have been asked why some very godly people are extremely poor and why some very ungodly people prosper so greatly. My answer to that has already been given. A man may accept God’s formula for salvation without accepting his formula for prosperity. On the other hand, an ungodly person may discover the formula for success without accepting God’s formula for salvation. They work best together but the formulas are basic, and one can be used without the other. When I say this, I do not refer to the formula for health in the sense of God’s plan for healing sick bodies. There is a miraculous healing, and thousands of people are being healed miraculously, even though they have not discovered God’s formula for health. And thousands of people are saved without ever discovering God’s formula for financial prosperity. If we will recognize these basic facts, then we will never again be confused by the question, Why do good people suffer so much from poverty while some extremely wicked people prosper so very greatly?

I do not believe that genuine success can come to anyone until he is willing to give up everything to get it. That is why my