On one particular occasion, I had missed God in something, so I repented. Afterwards, I began to study, and while studying, I had the sense to get on my knees. When I did, Jesus stood in front of me. I didn’t see Him, but by the word of knowledge, I knew He was there. Jesus said to me, “You have failed many, many times (thankfully, He didn’t end with that), but I NEVER have. So, I share My success with you.”

Although Jesus was born the Son of God, He still walked this Earth as a man, and His success came from doing the Word and from relying on the Holy Spirit.

Let’s look at Joshua at the time when Moses died. Joshua was facing the greatest responsibility of his life. He was the leader of a second generation of Hebrews who had been delivered out of Egypt. This generation had been raised by parents who had never arrived into God’s best – the Promised Land. Their parents were a disappointed, unfulfilled people. They had been disobedient and rebellious, and they carried a “slave” mentality. They wouldn’t walk by faith because they wouldn’t change their mentality – they carried a “slave” mentality. And that mentality was, no doubt, passed on to their children. God had brought them out of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders – but to get into the Promised Land required their faith. They had refused to enter in by faith – so they lived with what was barely enough in the wilderness – they never arrived at the abundance of the Promised Land.

This second generation had been trained by their parents – and Joshua was to lead them into a place where their parents had refused to go. How could 40 years of doubt, disobedience, and rebellion be turned into a generation of success?

God spoke to him and told him how. “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success” (Joshua 1:8, AMP). God gives to Joshua the prescription for success. Something that had been going the wrong direction for decades could be turned.

Moses had laid hands on Joshua and imparted the spirit of wisdom into him, but that wouldn’t take the place of the word that God prescribed for him in Joshua 1:8.

This prescription for success didn’t just work for Joshua and the Hebrews, but it will work for every person who will do it – no matter how long their life has been going the wrong direction – no matter what kind of upbringing they have had. God has planned success for us in every arena of life, and He gives a prescription for success in this verse.

Success isn’t automatic – we must DO the right things to experience success. God has a part toward our success, but man also has a part toward success, and this verse spells out our part. When we assume our responsibilities and our duties toward faith in the Word, success is the outcome.

God’s first instruction, “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth....” This means that we must SPEAK the Word all throughout the day – in the face of tests, oppositions, and difficulties that arise – and when everything is in place. As Dad Hagin taught us, no matter what you face, learn to ask yourself, “What does the Word say about this?” To put it in our mouths, we must feed on it. We have to take in the Word; we are to have a lifestyle of feeding on the Word, so that we live full of it.

Mark 11:23 says, “…He shall have whatsoever he SAITH.” We are to confess what the Word says about us and about our situations. It’s not enough to only BELIEVE it. For faith to work and to have success, we have to SAY the Word. The more we say it, the more we have it – the less we say it, the less we have it. Healing is fulfilled in our lives when we speak it. Prosperity is fulfilled in our lives when we speak it. All that God has blessed us with operates when we speak.

The second instruction God gave Joshua was, “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but YOU SHALL MEDITATE ON IT DAY AND NIGHT....” To meditate means to think deeply into and to mutter to ourselves. This is dealing with what we allow in our thought lives and what we have our attention on. We are to meditate on the Word day and night – when the sun is shining in our lives or when darkness comes. God is telling us that we are not to have our attention and our thoughts on circumstances, on things we feel, on things that are heard. If we are to have success, we must hold our thoughts and attention on the Word day and night, no matter what circumstances surround us. 

We can’t say one thing with our mouths and something different to ourselves in our thought lives. James 1:7-8 says that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways – don’t let that man think he will receive anything of the Lord. It’s double minded to say one thing with our mouths but something different to ourselves.

Meditation is how you get the Word in you and how you get you in the Word. The only part of the Word that will work for you is the part you get IN you – in your spirit – not just in your mind. Meditation drives the Word down into our spirits. It won’t work to just speak or confess the Word from our minds, but it has to be from our spirits, and meditation is how we get the Word in our spirits. We must spend time in the Word. This is vital to renewing our minds with the Word.

The third instruction God gave Joshua was, “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and DO according to all that is written in it.” God doesn’t just want the Word to be in our mouths and in our thought lives – the Word must be in our actions and our behaviors. Faith COMES by hearing, but it doesn’t OPERATE by hearing. For faith to operate, it must be released, and it’s released by SPEAKING and by ACTING.

There is a divine order in the prescription of success: speak the Word, meditate on the Word, THEN act on the Word. Don’t try to ACT on the Word until you’ve done the previous instructions – speak it and meditate on it. We don’t do faith acts to try to GET faith, but because we HAVE faith. Faith comes by the Word, not by actions. That’s why we put the Word first in our words and our thoughts – then faith-filled acts will be the result.

The Word must dominate in all 3 places for us to arrive at success – we are to speak faith WORDS, have faith THOUGHTS, and take faith ACTIONS! Prosperity and success are the byproducts of carrying out the instructions of faith lined out in Joshua 1:8. When the Word is in all three places, there will be success in every area of life. Our success is not up to God – it is up to what WE do with the Word.

When God told Joshua what to do, Joshua was in the most difficult circumstances. This was God’s instructions to turn a nation’s failures into successes. When people are faced with great difficulties, they search to know what to do. Here’s the prescription for success – no matter what your situation – SPEAK, THINK, ACT the Word. It will turn failure into success.