The simple definition for happiness, health, and wealth is God. There is no prosperity outside God, because God is the prosperity and the source of it – if God goes, the universe and its contents goes with Him.

Again, the foundation of all things is God. There is no other foundation any man can lay than that which is already laid (1 Corinthians 3:11). Education on prosperity must have God at the center and must begin with Him.

As the owner, preserver, and the source of all riches, God is free to do whatever He wills with what is exclusively His: 

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

In truth, God who created all things and gave us all things for our enjoyment at His pleasure can also take them away at His displeasure.

Consequentially, prosperity for all of us is not a permanent and an unchangeable blessing. Every man’s prosperity is conditioned upon his or her relationship to God: 

“The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts” (Haggai 2:8).  

“For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10). 

God Himself is man’s inheritance. He created the universe and purposely conditioned the earth for human habitation.

And having filled it with every good thing, He gave them all to man along with the ability to enjoy the fruits of His labor: 

 “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17). 

“And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 3:13). 

Now, let me begin with the greatest asset in the chest of prosperity, which is “life” (natural, spiritual or eternal life).

Life is the greatest asset any creature has and would ever have. Gratefully, life is never alone; it is inseparably intertwined with happiness.”

Life has no meaning without happiness and neither can there be happiness without life. When God created man, He intended that man male and female would live forever in a permanent state of happiness and abundance.

Life is the greatest gift that our Creator has given to us. It is for this reason life must not be destroyed. Life is not to be destroyed because of its overwhelming worth: 

“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:6; cf. verse 4; Leviticus 17:4).

 Ever since God created man and breathed the breath of lives into him, life has never ceased.

Life has passed on from one generation to another; from one man to another: 

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  

And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil . . . And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat” (Genesis 2:7). 

The unchangeable truth is that life precedes everything.  

God is our source of life and length of days (cf. Deuteronomy 30:20). The tragedy in life is that men die. Death is a cruel master and a destroyer. It does not only destroy the beauty and the dignity of the creature, but deprives man of every earthly possession.  Death makes a mockery of all human endeavors. 

Admittedly, if not for the promise and the hope of a future resurrection from the dead, and coupled with a future state of happiness or blessedness, some us would quickly admit that it would have been better if we had not been born.

Then our cry would have being like that of the prophet Jeremiah: 

“Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying a man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.

And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide; because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.

Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame? (Jeremiah 20:14-20).  

But, to God be the glory, for He has given us a promise of happiness and life without end in His Son Jesus Christ.

A man without God can be considered dead even though He or she continues to live. God is the Life and the source of life within every creature. We live to eat, work and create personal wealth.

In other words, the most valuable item in every man’s possession is life. Unfortunately, many of us value health, wealth, and self above the true knowledge of God.

Nevertheless, here is the truth: “All who hate God loves death” (cf. Proverbs 8:36). According to the Scriptures, only a fool would say in his or her heart that, there is no God (cf. Psalm 53:1).

Life is to be valued, cherished, and protected above all things, because if life is lost, everything goes with it. The happiest man today may not be the billionaire who has no material needs, but the wise man who reverences God and lives in an empty shack.

Sadly, many people who should have being alive are in their graves, because they placed other things above life. They forgot that how much is never enough, and that the more we have the more we want.

The human soul is never satisfied with riches, because riches allure. It never delivers the happiness it promises. Riches, without righteousness is vain: 

“Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death” (Proverbs 11:4). 

Life is priceless. If a man should give the entire world for life, it would be considered a matter of contempt.

To date, only one man Jesus Christ was born to die. All others including you and me are born to live and to live forever. And for this truth, God sent Him down to earth to die for every man that all may live: 

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). 

God demonstrated how much He loves and the values human life in the death of His Son.

Jesus Christ came that we may have life and that we may have it more abundantly in happiness, health and wealth forever. Jesus Christ is the very embodiment of Life.

He came to give life to all who earnestly desire to live forever: 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16; cf. Mark 10:45).  

The happiness of heaven is called life.

To have eternal life means to be saved, which is the real life, answering the purpose of living – to fear God and keep His commandment, which is the only guarantee for eternal happiness: 

“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11-12).

          “For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us” (1 John 1:2).         

Man is a tripartite being – we are body, soul, and spirit.

Therefore, to be prosperous, a man must be blessed in every areas of his being; body, soul, and spirit.

Man was originally created perfect as His Maker, but lost it to sin. Perfect, meaning man was finished, complete, pure, holy and having no part wanting.

Think of a piece of mechanism, as a machine that is complete in its parts. When applied to men, it refers to completeness of parts, or body, soul and spirit, where no part is defective, blameless, or wanting.

A happy, health and wealthy man is the man who has all three constitutions completely or wholly in place without any part lacking. If one part suffers all three suffers; hence true prosperity must cover the threefold constitution: 

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). 

But, mark, the three parts of man are not equal in weight.

Of the three, the least is the body and the highest, the soul and spirit. Life is more than food, and the body than raiment.

Further, a man can lose the entire body, or part, and still live, but no man dare lose the soul (the Bible often uses the words soul and spirit interchangeably or one may represent both).

The concerns of the soul and spirit precede the body: 

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26).

The Holy Spirit speaking through the apostle John, prayed for the church in this manner: 

“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 2).           

Man cannot do without God who is the Life and the source of all things, but God can do without man.

God would always be God with or without mankind and the universe, because God is self-existence. God never began to live; He has always lived and would forever live. God has neither beginning nor end.

To fear and obey God is life, because He is the Creator, preserver, and the prosperity of the human soul: 

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mathew 10:28). 

In fact, the coming of Jesus Christ was a great blessing and would continue to be, throughout eternity.

It was Jesus who showed us the way into life – how a man can gain eternal life. Again, He summarized the entire commandments of God in two simple, but majestic truths: 

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31).         

Without exception, the soul prospers when a man loves God with the entire spirit, soul, and body, or heart.

When a man truly loves God, it translates into a sincere love for the neighbor. To hate God is to deny oneself of prosperity and longevity, because every good and perfect gift comes from Him to all creatures (cf. James 1:17).

This order is irreversible and unchangeable – obedience to God and a desire to give Him all the glory must be the ultimate goal of all men.

A man cannot love self above God and neither can a man love God as self. God must be loved God above all things including self.

Again, the truth of the second commandment is succinctly brought to focus in Jesus famous statement which many have labeled the “Golden rule:” 

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Mathew 7:26). 

Happiness, the ultimate goal of all human endeavors is conditioned upon loving God above self, others, and things.

When you seek your neighbor’s welfare, you seek your own. When you learn to make others happy, you learn to make yourself happy.  You do unto others, what you would want to be done for you if you switch places. 

To love God with all thy heart (or spirit), soul, mind, and all thy strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is the highest form of prosperity. The man that is rich toward God is wiser than he that lays up treasure for himself (cf. Luke 12:21).

Life and happiness are not the products of a man’s labors and neither can they be earned. They are gifts every man male and female must graciously receive from God.

More money and abundance of material wealth without the love and the fear of God is a travesty and a tragedy.