Episode Three - Is Your Soul Prospering? (3 John 1:2)

What if the greatest prosperity God wants for your life has nothing to do with money?

In this episode, we explore 3 John 1:2 and the often-overlooked connection between prosperity and the condition of the soul. Together, we'll discuss hidden wounds, unanswered questions, forgiveness, and why healing is essential to a prospering soul.

If you've ever struggled to understand why certain hurts still affect you, or why some questions remain unanswered, this episode will encourage you to stop running from the pain and start inviting God into it.

Because sometimes the greatest sign of prosperity isn't what you gain—it's what God heals.

Hear God's Voice. Find Healing. Build Intimacy and Trust.

Thank you for listening to Valetha's Greatest Moments with God.

If today's episode encouraged you, be sure to follow the podcast and share it with a friend.

Until next time,

Hear God's Voice.
Find Healing.
Build Intimacy and Trust.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Valetha's greatest moments with God. Come on in the room. As every week, I pray that during this episode you'll hear God's voice, find healing, and build intimacy and trust. So let's start off. When you hear the word prosperity, what comes to mind? We instantly think about increasing wealth, new homes, new jobs, new careers, right? That's growing in prosperity. But I want to talk about that same word, but a little different. So we're going to start off with 3 John chapter 1, verse 2. And many of you know this verse very well. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. So we know this book. Remember, I always step back when I'm reading a verse in the Bible. I want to know the context behind it. Um, because you can always get a little bit more revelation to what God is speaking when you know who wrote it and why. So this particular passage was written by one of the disciples named John. Now we know John was the most beloved disciple by God. Well, John wrote this letter to a man named Garius. We don't know too much about him, but from the letter itself, we can learn that Garius was faithful, he was walking in truth, he was known for his hostility, and he supported traveling ministers and believers. So naturally, John and him had a very close relationship. So when John wrote this letter, he didn't have in his mind, oh, I gotta encourage a struggling believer. No, he was writing this letter to a mature believer of God that he loved and he respected. So when we read that verse, I pray that you may, I pray that you may prosper in all things. Like I said, we instantly think of money. We instantly think God is saying, give me a promotion, a bigger house, a better opportunity. But wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There's so much more in that one little passage that we always seem to overlook. Because remember, when John wrote this, he wasn't really speaking to anyone obsessed with money. He was speaking to a believer that it was already walking with God. So he was encouraging him. And he was saying, I pray for your physical life and your outward circumstances, and becoming as healthy as your spiritual life already is. That's a completely different perspective that we're going to dive into today. So when you break that verse down, notice that John was praying for prosperity in all things. He was praying that he's in good health. And he also said something key. As your soul prosper. Today, I want to dive into the soul of a person. Amen. Because John was thinking, was saying, and this is this is Val Mitchell's interpretation, so I don't want any Bible scholars coming my way. But what I feel he was saying is, may every area of your life catch up to the condition of your soul. So John wasn't really praying for Garius to become prosperous. He was praying that his outward life to reflect the prosperity he already had going on in his soul. So what is soul? When we talk about our soul, what are we talking about? From a biblical perspective, or even a natural, it's pretty much the same thing. Your soul is your inner person, your inner being. It's a place where your thoughts live, your emotions and your memories live, your desires are wrapped up in your soul. Who you trust, what you trust, is also in your soul. Your soul is made up of the experiences that you have encountered throughout your life. And you can find on the outside where your soul may be struggling on the inside. So I gotta ask you the question. If your outward life matched the condition of your soul today, what would it look like? In your soul, if we separated the two, the outward life and the soul itself, understanding we just said it's made up of all your experiences, things you trust, what you're made up of. If I looked at your soul specifically, what would I find? Are there any wounds there that are hidden that have not yet been healed? Is there unforgiveness? Is there people that because of what they did to you? No judgment. You just find it very hard to forgive them. Do you have some unquestioned and unanswered questions from God? The biggest thing that even I asked sometimes, Lord, why did this happen to me? Why does this person treat me this way? Why did I have to go through what I went through? You have those types of unanswered questions. What about trust? You have trust issues. I know this was a hard one for me. That because of what I went through from others that damaged the trust I gave them when I moved on and moved away and thought I closed the door in that situation. When new people arised and came in my life, I couldn't trust. I couldn't freely trust them because of what this person back here did to me. Are you still struggling with that? Because of all those things affect whether your soul is truly prospering. A lot of those wounds, because they happened so, so, so long ago, over time they get hidden. It's like your heart. It's flesh, it's pure, it's beeping, beating, it's red, and it's vibrant. And then here comes a wound. Boom. And it hurts. Here's another wound. Boom. And that hurt. People hurt us. Life hurts us. Doubt hurts us. Unexpected things that we didn't even expect. Bitterness, all those things are wounds that hit that fleshly heart. To the point where you build a wall, a safety net, a defense mechanism is natural, that covers that heart. And those experiences are now still locked away because we never gave an opportunity to deal with rejection, deal with betrayal, deal with disappointment. We just said, oh, we're just gonna shut it, we're just gonna forget about it, and we'll lock it up, build a wall around it, and throw away the key. And then sometimes instead of facing it, we just buried it away. And we convinced ourselves, oh, I'm over that, I don't even think about it no more. And we go back to being doing life. But do you realize even though you have secured the fortress around your heart, and you probably even took that new package and put it in a case, locked the case and locked the key, you never dealt with the wound. You never dealt with that scar. And all it did is just get buried, and it never got healed. Many people think that those deep wounds because it didn't happen to me, um, it happened so long ago that I never have to worry about it again. I learned that, and I'll go back to my trust example. So I had some people from work that really destroyed my trust. They put me down, I got lied on, just all kinds of things would work. Moved into a different um area of work, so I didn't have to deal with that nonsense and them crazies no more. I got a new start, new fresh mindset, new job, new group of people. I'm ready to work. But what I didn't realize is that as soon as someone mentioned something that had a potential of attacking me, I instantly got in defense mode. Instantly locked down. Till one mentor came to me and said, because I said, I am tired of people doing this to me. I'm tired of defending myself, and I don't know why I keep getting in this situation. And he asked me one simple question that stopped me in my tracks. He said, Val, what's your trigger? If you're going with someone and something, and this it's a good start, and you're in the meeting, looks like you two are collaborating well. What are they saying that's triggering something that instantly forces you to lock down? You know, I stopped in my tracks because I didn't think I had any triggers. Because I like I told you, I buried those emotions, locked them up, doubled the lock on the chest, put it in the ground, put some dirt on top of it, and I was good. But something that someone was doing in my present was still digging in a wound that never got resolved or got healed. And I really had to catch myself with that. And I had a conversation with God. What's triggering me, God? Because I'm good, and God reminded me, we got some old wounds. Yeah, you did really good with locking it up and putting a wall around it and buried it in the ground. But the scars are still there. So when a new person comes around that instantly triggers a memory about what happened to you back in the day, the heart is still beating, buried deep down in the dirt. And you're instantly reminded of how you were hurt there, and you're you get in defense mode and say, I'm not gonna let that happen again. But the problem is when we do that, we don't even let God in to deal with those wounds that are there. So I'm gonna ask you, what do you have buried in that that box in there that no one can penetrate? Is it an unanswered prayer from God? Did life go in a different direction than what you really thought it should have gone based off of your plan? You just so get stuck just searching for answers because no one else, not even God, was giving you answers as to why I had to go through what I went through. I want to let you know that one thing I learned from God in this journey of a Christian walk, and sometimes some things that happen to us, we may never get the answer. And I I got personal reasons why I think that, but I don't, I'll just keep those to me. Because I too have had I've had a hard life even as a kid, and I've had situations that have occurred at work, with like I told you, um, I'm divorced. Why my husband didn't want me anymore? You know, all those questions. Why won't he apologize to leaving me like he did? And some I didn't get an answer to all those questions. But how did I get through that? One, I had to be honest, I had to slowly wipe off the dirt, dig back up the box, unlock it, pull out the fortressed heart, open up the wall, and be honest with what was hurting me. And I'm gonna let you know that was not an easy experience. Matter of fact, it was a pain, painful process. Because now that exposed heart was in front of God with nothing shielding it. And I have learned that God allows us to go through those healing moments when we're ready to handle it. Because some things are so deep and so personal and so painful that just the thought of pulling it out the ground will knock you out. But life brings maturity, life circumstances bring revelation to things that happened in the past, but it doesn't heal locked away wounds. Only God does that. So, in my experience, when I was ready, when God said I was ready, not when I said it, and we looked at, okay, this wound right here happened when you were a little girl and so-and-so did something. This wound right here was when you went to somebody and tried to really get a good answer, and they turned their back on you. This wound right here happened when you really trusted this person with your heart and they stabbed you in the back. This wound right, oh yeah, I had a lot of wounds. And God went through each wound, and that was a very crying, painful time. Just the the bee fluttered with those memories again. But what did he do? Each wound that he exposed, he poured his ointment on it, his love. We talked about it. I was honest about how I felt. And what God said is I can love you through even that. In that precious moment, his presence healed those wounds that I didn't need to hear the answers, my heart desperately seeked. Now I had to forgive. I had to forgive because forgiveness is a release. It means it takes that burden off of you and you give it to God. So I had a lot of forgiving to do that night. But that allowed God to seal those wounds in my heart where they never had to be exposed again. Forgiveness never excuses what happens. Forgiveness doesn't even say, hey, you hurt me. And so when I say I forgive you, I gotta forget you hurt me. It's not, it's nothing like that. Forgiveness just simply opens the door for God and allows him to heal what had happened. So when we go back to 3 John chapter 1, verse 2, when he talks about prosperity, it begins when your soul stops running from the wounds and starts inviting God into those places. So I want to ask you a day, being honest with just you and God, no one else, what hurt have you buried? What question that never went answered? That even if you thought of that person, or even God, and you never got that answer, be honest, what is it? How did it make you feel? What wounds have you hidden, buried into the ground? Maybe today God isn't asking you to understand it. He's asking you to bring it to him. Because healing doesn't begin with understanding, it begins with surrendering. So I want you to take a few minutes because I'm closing now. Spend some time with God today. Allow the two of you to unpack your heart and look specifically. At wounds that are there. Even ask God what wounds are still there. I don't even remember anymore because they're so old. I had to do that myself. Because you don't even realize old wounds that you may not even remember, they're still there. And they get triggered. When someone says or does the one thing that instantly brings that feeling back up. When you have this conversation with God, do it in a private place. Do it in a place that's uninterrupted. For me, I pray early in the morning before the house wakes up. So I don't have to worry about being distracted or disturbed. Allow God to peel back the layers. I'm going to caution you right now, it's not going to feel good. It's not going to be easy. But if you're honest and if you're willing to forgive, you're opening up the door for God to bring in the healing. Because prosperity of the soul is not measured by what you own. It's measured by what God is healing on the inside of you. And in closing, sometimes the greatest sign that your soul is prospering, prospering, isn't that you received every answer to everything that has happened. Instead, it's the discovery that God is with you, even in those unanswered places. I thank you for watching. My name is Phel Mitchell, and I'll see you soon.