Last week we've seen that God's
Spirit lives in His fullness within us. He gives us life and life
in abundance. And our 'job' is not to stifle His workings. Our main
aim in life is not to grieve the Holy Spirit, but to allow Him to
move mightily within us by being spiritually minded. We should
focus all our thoughts on Him and His Kingdom, we should read His
Word and become who His Word says we are. We should grow into the
fullness of Christ, then we have true Kingdom living. Then all the
blessings of Heaven are ours. In the light of this the following
text verses makes a lot more sense:
"Blessed is everyone who fears
the Lord, who walks in His ways." Psalm 128:1
"Blessed are those who dwell in
Your house; they will still be praising You. Blessed is the man
whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage." Psalm
84:4, 5
"Jesus said to him, "Thomas,
because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who
have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29
"Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." Ephesians 1:3
If we dwell with God and believe in
God, we are surely blessed. There is no other way to interpret
these Scriptures. We are blessed indeed. The word 'blessed' in
Ephesians 1:3 is the Greek word 'Eulogeo' which means 'to cause to
prosper, to make happy, to bestow blessings on, favoured by God'.
Isn't it wonderful to know that we are favoured by God? What a
promise!
God wants the best for us, just
like a loving earthly father wants the best for his children. I
don't know why it is so difficult for Christians to accept this
fact. I have met Christians who thinks that God is punishing them
and angry with them. My friend, God is not angry with you. All His
anger against sin came against His Son, so that it will never come
against you. God wants you close to Him, He wants to nurture you
and care for you. Don't be like a rebellious teenager resisting the
advice and embrace of his father. Do not be like that. Rather run
to Him and experience His love and everything that He wants to
bless you with.
Ephesians 1:3 also says that He
wants to bless us with 'spiritual' blessings. And I discovered an
exciting thing when I looked up the meaning of this word. In Greek
it is 'pneumatikos', which means 'emanating from the Divine
Spirit'. In other words all of His blessings emanates from His
Divine Spirit into our lives. This agrees with everything we have
learned thus far. His Spirit lives within us in all His fullness.
His Spirit gives us life and if we do not stifle Him or grieve Him,
He will flow in all glory through us and all His blessings will
manifest. The key therefore is not that God doesn't want to bless
us; the key is if you allow His blessings to flow through or not.
You will notice that Ephesians 1:3 is written in past tense. He
has blessed you, it is a done deal. The question
is whether you flow with His Spirit, whether you will allow Him to
work mightily in your life.
You see a lot of Christians never
really change when they are born again. They have everything at
their fingertips and yet they choose to rather stay as they are.
They continue on their sinful path, they don't read the Word, they
don't make an effort to grow, they don't spend time with God and
they don't renew their minds to think as God would prefer them to
think. And then they cry out to God and ask Him to bless them. My
friend, it doesn't work that way. God has blessed you; you
now need to grow in the spirit and in the fullness of all that you
are in Him. You need to imitate Christ and follow Him with your
whole heart. Your spirit needs to be so intertwined with His that
no one can tell where you stop and where He starts. You are one
with Him and therefore everything He has, you have too. Do you
believe that? That is the starting point. And the more you believe
it, the more it will become true for you. The more you will grow
and the more His abundance of blessings will manifest in your life.
Come, He is waiting for you. Grow towards Him in love, fellowship
with Him. Your life will never be the same.
Thank you Father for the
opportunity to grow close to You. Thank you for all the wonderful
blessings that You have bestowed upon us. We love You dearly and
want to walk in Your blessings and love. Amen