Spiritual Prosperity

But the prosperity Joseph enjoyed in the house of Potiphar and in the prison was of a different kind. It was prosperity of soul with Joseph. What do we desire as Christians, the prosperity of the world or spiritual prosperity? Twice we read in Gen. 39, "The Lord was with Joseph." It does not say that the Lord was with Abram in Egypt, although doubtless He was because Abram was a man of God. The Lord did not forsake Abram because he went down to Egypt, but the time Abram spent in Egypt was lost time as far as communion with God was concerned.
All the time we are out of communion with the Lord is wasted time. If you turn to Ex. 12:1, 2, you will find the same principle in regard to the sinner. The Israelites had been in Egypt about 430 years, yet the Lord says, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you." All the time we are in our sins, not saved and out of Christ, is lost time as far as God is concerned. Our history Godward begins from the time we are born again, from the time we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. It is so with the child of God if he is going on with the world, making his nest here, grasping after the things of this poor world. This is lost time as far as communion with God is concerned. A Christian cannot have the world in one hand and Christ in the other. It must be Christ or the world.