Lean Times - Leaning Times: Trusting God for My Prosperity

By Rayol John Augustus Ph.D.

It is God’s will for us to be prosperous. Everyone has financial fears, and some of us have faith. Faith and fear cannot reside in the same body. God guarantees our prosperity and says in Philippians 4:19, “God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Yes, he will do his part as long as we do ours by following God’s laws of prosperity from faith to stewardship. Many of us make financial decisions based on fear of the future instead of trusting that God will provide for them. Although we are challenged daily with doubts and concerns for our financial future, we must never doubt that God is in complete control. The author has realized that learning God’s biblical prosperity principles and practicing them actually makes us better Christians. We are poor only because we do not ask God for our prosperity and we do not ask for it according to his way. Gratitude and prayer are inseparable, as well as our self-talk and prayer. As children of God, we have been promised his blessings. All we have to do is ask for them repeatedly, for they are ours.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973661788

Rayol John Augustus Ph.D.

Rayol John Augustus Ph.D. is the Founder and President of the Shreis Scalene Group of medical device companies, Renewable Energy Company and Social Marketing Company. He came to the United States in 1994 as Advisor for Defense Technology to the Ministry of Defense, Government of India. He has a diverse background as an engineer, a diplomat, a businessman and an author. His academic qualifications include a BSc. in Physics, Bachelor’s Degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Post Graduate degree in Business Administration, Diplome de Specialization in Aeronautics, MS in Aerospace, a Ph.D. in Technology Transfer, a Master’s degree in Divinity and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies. As a practicing Christian and as a businessman, Dr.Augustus believes that God wants us to prosper as long as we follow certain laws of success as laid down in the Scriptures. He believes that it is better to try and fail than to not try at all, for all things are possible with God. He is a proponent of seed faith, lives his life trusting God’s law of sowing and reaping and believing that if we do what it takes, we will succeed for we deserve. Dr. Augustus lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA with his wife Prof. Meena Augustus Ph.D., their daughter Nichelle and son Nichol and their families.

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Lean Times -

Leaning Times

Trusting God for My Prosperity

Rayol John Augustus, Ph.D.

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Copyright © 2019 Rayol John Augustus, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Author’s Photograph: with permission by photographer Nichol John Augustus.

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6177-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6178-8 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 5/1/2019

Contents

Chapter 1 How Big is My God?

Chapter 2 Is Prosperity Wrong?

Chapter 3 Financial Shallows

Chapter 4 Purpose of My Pain

Chapter 5 Seeking God in My Challenges

Chapter 6 How Quiet is My God!

Chapter 7 A God Centric Life

Chapter 8 What Makes Me Free?

Chapter 9 Faith Is Action

Chapter 10 As You Sow, So Shall You Reap

Chapter 11 Ask for God’s Blessings

Chapter 12 Come to Me Father

Chapter 13 You are My Hope

Chapter 14 Why Worry?

Chapter 15 Think Wealth

Chapter 16 Road Map - Poverty to Plenty

Chapter 17 Principles of Prosperity

Chapter 18 Investment in Christ

Chapter 19 God Is My Source

Chapter 20 Praying Change in My Situation

Chapter 21 Let us Pray

Chapter 22 Confessions of Faith

Chapter 23 When He Does Speak

Chapter 24 What is God’s Plan ?

Chapter 25 My Stewardship

Chapter 26 The Lord is My Shepherd

Chapter 27 Am I Content?

Chapter 28 I Believe

Chapter 29 I Understand

Chapter 30 My Brother’s Keeper

Chapter 31 I’ll Pray for You

Chapter 32 Reaching Out

Chapter 33 Waiting for my Harvest

Chapter 34 Thank You Father

Chapter 35 I Am A Fighter

Chapter 36 Prayer, Science and Wealth

Chapter 37 Am I Ready?

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my maternal grandparents William John Francis Jacques and Louisa Elizabeth Jacques.

It is dedicated to my paternal grandparents Joseph Bidewell Brandenburg Augustus and Maude Amschel Augustus.

All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace. (Isaiah 54:13)

Grand Dads and Grand Nans, thank you for teaching me. Your staunch faith makes me proud to be your grandson. I know I will find my peace.

Rayol John Augustus

Disclaimer

Is there something new in this book? No. It has been in the Scriptures for thousands of years. People have experienced their own pain and suffering and their victory over their challenges over these thousands of years. I am merely putting down what I as a person feel and how I learned to respond when I was challenged.

At times, life can be exhilarating, and it can take our breath away. At other times, our lives can be pretty difficult, and it can hem us in from all directions. It can be suffocating. It can knock us down and stomp us into the ground. Quite often, we are not prepared to handle life. When we suffer through repeated failures and setbacks, getting through the tough times in life can seem like an insurmountable task. How are we equipped to push on? I can only talk about my own challenges, as I am qualified to do so. I am not qualified to talk about another person’s challenges. If you are going through a challenging time right now in your life, then you have my sympathy. I sincerely feel for your pain because I have been there all too often. I know the heartache and pain that comes along with major failure. It can be challenges at home or financial or with your in-laws or your relatives or your business partners or your job or whatever you are going through. I know what it feels like to have one’s life turned topsy-turvy, not knowing who to turn to or where to turn or what to do next.

All I can say is that this is about my challenges and me and how I, with the Lord’s help, can take myself out of the pit I may find myself in. No matter what the challenge is, I just leave it to God. He gets me out. What I will convey to you is my own experiences and how I survive life’s challenges.

This book is all about hanging in there when things look tough. As Alonzo Mourning says, Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. And I’ve been through some tough times, and I know a lot of people can recall tough times, and maybe are going through some tough times right now, but they don’t last.

May God give you that courage and determination to overcome and grow through what you are going through.

Rayol John Augustus

Acknowledgements

I dedicated this book to my grandparents. I now acknowledge their contributions to my life and who I am today. To this, I must add the names of my own parents Anthony Bidewell Augustus and Aileen Matilda Elizabeth Augustus and those of my aunts Yvonne and Caroline Jacques.

As a family, we have been through some extremely rough times. I was young and did not understand the circumstances. As I grew up, the seriousness of these situations fully dawned on me and the respect I had for them grew. As I grew older and my own life went through its own storms, its twists and turns, I started to look at my parents and grandparents with reverence. I have learned what it is to honor one’s father and mother.

I thank them for sheltering me from the storms they went through. I thank them for protecting me and at the same time, I thank them for bringing me up to have the courage and the fortitude to weather my own storms.

I know why they spent those long hours on their knees. I know why there was a constant prayer on their lips. Prayers are contagious. They influenced me at an early age and I learned that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. They developed a personal relationship with God. This has been passed on to me and I am learning to develop and nurture my own relationship with my Maker. I thank my parents and bless them for all that they have done to teach me that my God is God.

Rayol John Augustus

Preface

I am a doer. I just cannot sit still and passively listen to someone or read quietly. Yes, I read, but I would rather put my thoughts into action. Doing something makes me involved in what I am doing. I like to listen, and I like to read, but then I like to seal my convictions by putting my own thoughts down on paper. Once this is done then it is close to being a book. Most of the time, my books are for myself. The act of writing a book is to build up my own faith and my belief and my confidence in whatever I am doing. So, you can imagine this book Lean times – Leaning Times being written when I was going through a very rough patch in my life.

All through my life, I believe with all my heart that I have been blessed. We were not wealthy or prosperous by worldly standards. We had just enough to see us through. We had our share of illnesses and misfortunes. As a child, I had almost every major illness twice. I had diphtheria twice. I had typhoid twice. I had chicken pox twice. Later on, in my life I had my heart attacks and I had my surgeries and I had my stents and so on. On the other hand, I had my share of blessings. As a family too, we had our share of blessings that are too innumerable to count. How can we forget what the Lord has done for us?

I am still working in all my businesses and I pray that my Father in heaven will make me prosper so that I can leave a legacy for my family and most important of all, He will guide me and bless me so that I may be a blessing to others. I have my dreams and goals and I know that all my dreams will be met in God’s perfect timing. Not all my dreams are about the material things in this life. Yes, I have some of the best cars that I ever wanted, I live in a good home; I have my son and daughter who are exemplary children. They have married good people and now my grandchildren are the apple of my eye. All these many things are my wealth and the Lord gives me more than enough for my needs. These are my showers of blessing. What more do I need?

I have travelled many roads and I have been stuck deep down in many valleys and each time the Lord has pulled and lifted me up and walked me out of the valley onto a mountain and another mountain and yet another. As the psalm says, my enemies, like lions, were all around me and I must lie down among them. Their teeth are like spears and arrows, their tongues as sharp as swords. They set a trap for me. I am very worried. They dug a pit in my path, but they fell into it themselves. All because God is supreme over the skies; his majesty covers the earth.

Through these many years of hard work and the trials and tribulations of dreams and praying and reaching my goals, I have learned one very important lesson and that is ‘lean times are leaning times.’ The lean times, when we are down and out and there seems no hope and no will to go on, it is then that we have to touch the hem of His garment and pray for strength to stand up and lean against His mighty frame that nothing can come near. It is here I feel safe, comforted, and calm. Something comes over me and I know that things will get better and I will survive for His help comes just in time. How many times has it happened to me? I do not know. I do not count the number of times. I just count on His generosity and His blessing each time.

I learned that there are certain ways the Lord wants me to live and these paths are intertwined and lead me to His feet, His protection, and His benevolence. There are certain principles that I found that could have saved me years and years of pain and sorrow if only I had found it then. I was blind and could not see. I was deaf and could not hear. I was dumb and could not sing His praises. I have learned to listen to Him, see His mighty works and to sing His praises and His glory. Many of us have accepted Jesus as Savior, but we never truly allowed Jesus to be Lord over every area of our lives. He wants us to surrender our lives totally to Him. Nothing in our lives should be ahead of Him.

Yes, God has given us certain laws of prosperity, but they will work only to the level at which we keep Him first in our lives. The laws and principles that we find in Scripture and talk about are frequently repeated throughout the book. These are not repetitive mistakes! I keep repeating them for a purpose as I have a point to make and more importantly, it is to constantly draw my attention and yours as well to these biblical laws. I want us to remember that God is our everything. He does not want us to be destroyed through self-desire and that is why He always reminds us to keep Him first in everything.

I pray that the Lord will give you great blessings that you too may listen, see His works, and sing His glory, as you understand the principles that He has taught us. It is the Lord’s principles of prosperity, followed by us and acted upon by us, that are the master key to His blessings.

Rayol John Augustus

How Great Thou Art

My life was great, the days so warm

All taken for granted, what was the harm?

Then the days grew cold and the storms came on

Peace was gone and another me was born.

I thought the Lord had left me alone

It was not the time to groan and moan.

I had to seek Him, to be by my side

To kneel and pray and kill my pride.

I begged the Lord His blessings to give

I’ll pledge my love, the days I’ll live.

The doubts are gone, my heart is free

For in His grace, I’ll always be.

Can I, for others, lead the way

Teach them to pray, teach them to stay?

Show them that God is good and true

What He’s done for others, He’ll do for you.

Visited by the Muse, Rayol J Augustus

Back in the Fold

T here have been times in my life when I was burdened with challenges and it appeared that there was no one to turn to. I even doubted that God could do something. How can challenges make one so blind? Is that part of being human, that you start to even doubt your Maker? Who am I to judge the Israelites in the desert when they had their challenges and doubted God? It was time to get my own house in order. In spite of the storms in my life, I needed to start praying and allowing the Lord to live in me.

The last time I was in Israel and we were on a boat on the Sea of Galilee, my pastor Paul Viswasam spoke to us about who was really in control of our lives. When the storm arose, and the apostles were petrified, Jesus took control of the storm and the situation. He was in control of nature. Why is it that we often fail to hand over the control of our lives to Him? It is only when we allow Christ to take control of our lives that the real power of God will be seen in us. This power will help us over life’s hurdles. All that we have to do is to trust in the Lord enough to let Christ have control, and He will do the rest.

There have been so many instances when my family and I have faced impossible situations and we were waiting for some kind of a breakthrough to happen. We keep just sitting and waiting and then wonder why nothing is happening. We do not realize that the breakthrough is us. We are the ones to make it happen by being obedient to the Lord. The breakthrough happens when we obey and ask God to hold our hand and put all our trust in Him. Once we lean on Him, He is our rock and He will do the impossible. After all it is His world and He can do anything. I have that faith, but I must make the first move to show my love and my trust.

God has given us all that it takes to overcome our challenges. He wants to use us, and we have to use our God given skills and experiences to tackle the situation. Like a parent watching a toddler take his or her first steps, God is watching over us as we get ready to face our challenges. His helping hand is always stretched out to us in case we falter. What more can we ask for? It is time to stop living in our own power and let God step in and take control of our lives.

All Things Must Pass

The most painful experiences and adversities in life may come with an opportunity, by instilling courage in us to overcome our circumstances and the ability to appreciate life’s little joys. It gives us a keener sense of the beauty around us and helps us to value everything that we have. I have learned to accept the fact that tough times happen to the best of us and maintaining a positive attitude under these trying circumstances is the key to overcoming our challenges. It takes courage to smile when you get up in the morning and carry that smile around in front of the family and friends while all the time a stuck record of the challenge is playing around constantly in your head.

I just sit back and accept it as a test by my Maker. I know that I cannot change what has happened, but I can surely do my best to improve the situation that I find myself in. I start with a prayer. I spend more time in prayer than just keep thinking about my challenges. I do not want to waste my precious time on my challenges. I rather talk to my God about them and get Him to see me through. During my worst situations, I always look at the people around me and imagine that they do not have my challenges. This drives me to a pity party. Of course, they do not have my challenges, because they have worse challenges of their own. So, I do not have to compare my misfortunes to their good times. We all have our good and low times.

To get my mind of my challenges, I put myself into action. After all faith is an action word. I do things that have been pending for a long time. It gives me time to think and form an action plan. It helps me to ask God to give me the strength where to look for help. Most often we are stuck because of a financial situation. All other situations can be managed by changing our own attitude through prayer and forgiveness. Financial problems need God’s help and it needs your nose to the grindstone to seek out ways to overcome the financial challenge. I look around to see the good things that I am blessed with. Even though I may be going through a rough patch, these rough patches do not define who I am. I am myself. I am a winner and there is nothing that can keep me down. With God’s help, I can overcome and bounce back onto my feet again. There is nothing that can keep me down for long. I am not alone. If God is for me, who can be against me? There are key members in my family who are my pillars. They have never let me down and they will take a bullet for me. They will even lay down their lives for me. I am proud of this confidence because God gives it to me. Christ has shown the way, by what He did for us, that no one else did. I am supported by love and courage. In going through the trenches and the minefield of challenges, I come out the richer because I learn from every adversity. I know that I will be better fortified for the future in case I am in a similar situation and I will know how to avoid it. More so, I will be able to help others avoid these challenges.

The good Lord always comes to our aid and at the right time. He has shown me that there is always a silver lining behind a cloud and the sun will eventually shine through. Yes, all things must pass.

Chapter 1

For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

- Isaiah 55:8–9

How Big is My God?

E very Sunday when we are in Church, we are told that God is our Father and we acknowledge it with heads bowed low and our hearts are full of hope. When we get back home and for the rest of the week we walk around like orphans. Every Christian should trust God’s Word when it comes to the great doctrines of the Bible. We do. There is no question about that. Therefore, it should automatically follow that we must also trust God’s Word when it comes to the question whether God is blessing us and wants us to be wealthy. If the Bible says so, then who are we to refute it or even doubt it? Why do we doubt God’s Word? Why do we doubt His promises even when we see that He has blessed others around us? What the Lord has done for others He will surely do for us if we know how to ask Him for His blessings.

God is not one to play favorites. Therefore, at the very outset, we must acknowledge the fact that when we place our trust in God, He is never going to let us down and there is no true prosperity apart from God. The Bible is replete with God’s teaching about wealth and prosperity according to His Divine Laws of Prosperity. God is at the source of all the prosperity and He wants every one of us to prosper according to His principles and guidelines as taught to us in the Bible. Therefore, if we want to partake of this promise of prosperity, we must follow certain spiritual laws so that we may receive the showers of blessings that the Lord has promised us. The acquisition of this wealth obtained by us following His laws is the wealth that will remain with us and pass on as a legacy to our children.

Everything belongs to the Lord. Let us remember the words in Haggai 2:8 that say, The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ declares the Lord of hosts. In Psalms 24:1 we have, The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. We read in Psalm 50:10-12 that for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Since everything on this earth belongs to Him, we can only depend on his generosity and love to pass on these blessings to us. Let us rely on Numbers 23:19 where we humbly learn God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? If we are still in doubt listen then to Hebrews 6:17-18, Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." So, let us close our case and take God at His word.

When I was growing up, there used to be a laundry list of things that I used to ask God. At times, I felt that there were too many requests and pleas to bring to God all at one shot. Was there some way I could stagger my requests so that God did not feel that this guy was trying to hog all His time? I felt guilty coming to the altar with all my pleas. So, I used to prioritize my