Date: Sunday 21st July, 2013
Speaker: Pastor Jooji
Key Passages: Job 29:17, Galatians 3:6-16, Hebrews 11:9-10
The principle of divine blessings is having faith in God. Nothing More Nothing Less.
Message summary:
A lot of us have been believing God for one thing or the other yet, nothing has happened. However Job 29:17 says “I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth”. I don’t know how the wicked has grabbed you, or what you are going through, or what cage the Devil has thrown u to, whether it be the cage of employment, marriage, finance etc. the name of Jesus can snatch you from the teeth of the enemy.
The application of knowledge is important to us as Christians, when you have knowledge; you have to apply it, because without applying it, it cannot be transformed to wisdom. However to get to this point, you as a Christian need to gather the right information and apply it the way it ought to be applied. Prayers that Activate Blessings by John Eckhardt is a book that talks about the foundation of blessings by asking, getting blessings by obedience, giving, the seven spiritual blessings of abundance in the bible, the blessing of Sharon and the blessings of never again. Try to read this book and apply the knowledge within it to your life.
In Galatians 3:6-16 Paul was talking to the Jews who strongly believed that Abraham was their father. These people claimed to be children of Abraham but the blessings of Abraham did not apply to them because they did not believe in Christ. If we say Abraham’s blessings are ours then we should be in the position to access these blessings that we claim. We need to have the knowledge and the wisdom to apply what Abraham applied for the blessings to have been his own.
Abraham enjoyed the blessings that came from the covenant that God made with him. It is important to note that there are 8 types of covenant in the bible which are:
- Edenic Covenant: This covenant governed the actions of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden
- Adamic Covenant: Governed the life of the sinful man on God’s earth
- Noahic Covenant: Governed the earth subsequent to the flood
- Abrahamic Covenant: Opened the new era of grace
- Mosaic Covenant: Opened the era of the law
- Palestinian Covenant: Governed the stay of the children of Israel in the promised land
- Davidic Covenant: Confirmed the promise under the Abrahamic blessing
- New Covenant: Rectified in the blood of Jesus
These covenants can be divided into two: The Old Testament and the New Testament Covenants however, the emphasis of the sermon would be on at the Abrahamic Covenant which is the same as the New Covenant. This covenant is simply a covenant of Grace. When God called Abraham, he did not merit the blessings which God had given to him. This is the same way that God called us to his fold when we were yet sinners and undeserving of Jesus’ death. The Abrahamic covenant is built on grace not on what Abraham did. Abraham would tell a lie but rather than a punishment, he rode on grace. His life was not based on what he did but rather on the grace of God. The only thing that Abraham did was to BELIEVE God and God counted that to him as righteousness. If you cannot believe God forget it! It is not based on what you do but on how much faith you have in God. Does this then mean that what we do does not matter? Does this mean that we can live anyhow because we have faith? No, because the goodness of God is supposed to lead us to repentance not further sin. This same grace followed Jacob and the children of Israel because they were under the covenant of grace. But the whole theory changed in Exodus 19:8 when the Children of Israel said they would do all that God had asked them to do. They changed the principle of grace into that of law. Because of this, they swore to do rather than to be under grace. God then gave commandments to govern the acts of people and there were sanctions for people that erred.
The divine blessing we are talking about is not based on what we are going to do but rather based on grace. A lot of us keep thinking that we get blessed because of our efforts or our might this is not so because for us to walk in these divine blessings, we have to have complete faith in God. The covenant is an everlasting covenant and if we are to explore it, we have to do it by faith alone and believing in God’s word. Expand your thinking! Do not be like Martha who had the knowledge but could not apply it to the specific situation that she was in when Jesus asked if she believed in Resurrection. Fasting is great but it is not the ticket to experiencing divine blessings. Hebrews 11:9-10 says that Abraham followed God by faith in the word of God. Which is why all the promises God gave Abraham were unconditional which is the same grace that we enjoy in Jesus Christ.
The principle of divine blessings is having faith in God. Nothing more or less. It is not based on the acts that we do, or how we do them but simply by faith. The just the bible says shall live by faith.
So what did Abraham do and how did he live his life to enjoy the divine blessings on earth?
- Worshiping: Abraham constantly worshiped God. He built altars everywhere he went to. He lived a life of worship every day. He was always in touch with God. If you are to activate the same grace in your life, you have to be a worshipper, you have to build alters for God everywhere you go be it your business, your work or your home.
- Complete Obedience: Abraham completely obeyed God when it was convenient or when it was not. By this, he built his faith
- Faith: His complete obedience led him to complete and absolute faith in God. He believed in God and is known as the father of faith.
- Forgiveness: Abraham lived a life of forgiveness. After Lot had picked the choicest land leaving Abraham with the desert, He still went on to rescue Lot when he had issues in the land he was in. Remember that it was in the place of interceding for Lot that he was blessed by God with a child.
- Love: Abraham walked in love. He showed love to all those around him including those undeserving
- Giving: Abraham gave ALL to God. He equally recognized authority and paid his tithe as due to Melchizedek. Abraham recognized that he was a steward and that all he had belonged to his master-God.
If we can equally do all these things, it is obvious that we would walk in divine blessings
Fasting is great but it is not the ticket to experiencing divine blessings… Divine blessings can only be gotten by grace
