I have been drawn to today’s subject because I hear the term “blessed“ used so freely that I feel compelled to take a whack at clarifying what I believe it really means. Let me first turn to Merriam-Webster as a point of reference. Blessed or Blessing – 1. act or words of one who blesses: she said a blessing over the food. The Priest will bless the wine. 2. approval or encouragement: he asked for the parents blessing before he proposed. 3. a thing conducive to happiness or welfare: my wife has blessed me in so many ways. AA, while I first hated it, turned out to be a blessing in my life.
No doubt people like the idea of being blessed, and the Bible speaks of blessings quite frequently. But in my mind, there is a prevalence of misconception about achieving that end, as evidenced by such statements as, “I want to be blessed, so I‘m going to do this or that“ or “I‘m going to do this so I‘ll be blessed.“ Since we are under the New Covenant, that doesn‘t ring true with me. God, after all, isn‘t a vending machine who dispenses blessings because we ‚“do“. That conception was the crux of the Old Covenant, which was in place until Christ fulfilled His purpose. Now God wants us to “do“ not to earn His favor, but because we have already been blessed with His Gift of Grace. That is why He spoke through the Prophet Hosea in 6:6 stating: “I don‘t want your sacrifices, I want your love. I don‘t want your burnt offerings, I want you to know me (some translations say, “I want your heart.“) Clearly God wants us to respond to Him out of love and in a spirit of thanksgiving rather than from a sense of obligation.
I believe the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant can be summed up in this statement: It‘s not about doing to get; we‘ve already got so we do. In other words, if we are in Christ, we were instantaneously “justified“ (made right in God‘s sight), meaning our sins have been forgiven; we‘ve inherited eternal life; we have the indwelling Holy Spirit to empower us to make different choices; we are now worthy and acceptable in God‘ sight, not because of anything we did or didn‘t do, but because of what Christ did for us on the cross. We‘re no longer sinners, but “saints“ because we are covered with the blood of Jesus; we are grafted into His family, so we are now heir to ALL the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms and ALL the promises in the Bible. Wow! How‘s that for a super-duper blessing? No doubt we are a new creation, but the fact is…at this point we haven‘t taken the first step in the process of “sanctification.“ (growing in the likeness of Jesus.)
Neil Anderson makes this statement in his book, “Victory Over the Darkness“: “God‘s will for your life is two-fold. First He wants you to accept His Gift of Grace, and secondly He wants you to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ.“ 2 Peter 1:3-4 substantiates that statement: “The more we grow in our relationship with Jesus, His divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive His own glory and goodness…and we will share in His divine nature.“ Our growth and transformation takes place in this process of sanctification, and the more we meet and transcend our trials and tribulations, the more we grow spiritually; the stronger our faith becomes because we are witnessing the truth of God‘s Word transforming us, and the more we are blessed.
Matthew 6:33 tells us,“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well .“ And what are the things that will be given? In the previous Scriptures Jesus is pointing out that God knows our wants and our needs, so He is telling His audience not to burden themselves by worrying about these things, but to seek first the Kingdom of God, and these things will be added as blessings. 1John 5:14 reinforces this truth: “And we can be confident that He will listen to us whenever we ask Him for anything in line with His will. And if we know He is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that He will give us what we ask for. (to repeat: if it is in line with His will.)
T.D. Jakes, a well-known Gospel preacher, has made this statement one of his hallmarks: “God wants to bless ya… God loves to bless ya! But He ain‘t goinna give ya those blessins‘ until you‘re ready to receive ‘em!“ In other words, the more we grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ, the more blessings come our way. And they are given to us, not because we are doing anything to earn them, but because we are putting His Kingdom first. Now we choose to do things that bring honor and glory to Him as a way of saying “Thank You for what You have done for me.“
Ephesians, chapter 1, tells us about God‘s secret plan that was in place even before the world was created. That plan included finding us worthy and acceptable in His eyes because we are in Christ; adopting us into His own family through Jesus Christ; and at just the right time, bringing everything together under the authority of Christ, everything in heaven and on earth. This, we are told, gave Him great pleasure.
So when was “just the right time“ for God to implement His secret plan? Romans 5:6 provides that answer. “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time to die for us sinners.“ When we proved ourselves utterly helpless to overcome the dilemma of Sin through our own effort, God‘s plan was always to provide a Savior to do for us what we proved we could not do for ourselves. Because we are in Christ, we are covered with the blood of Jesus. That is the only way we can qualify to enter the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, because as God revealed through Apostle Peter, “You must be Holy (sin-free; set aside for a sacred purpose) because I am Holy.“ In other words, if we are stained with sin, we do not even qualify to come into His presence.
The coming of Jesus Christ fulfilled the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament and the Law. In fact, Jesus said, “Don‘t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No. I came to fulfill them. I assure you, until heaven and earth pass away, even the smallest detail of God‘s law will remain until its purpose is achieved. Today we fulfill God‘s Law not by doing, working, or trying harder, but by “Loving the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, and by loving our neighbor as ourself.“ (Mathew 22: 37,39) Jesus told the Pharisees that if we focused on only those two things, we would indeed fulfill the other eight commandments.
The secret weapon of all Christ-followers is the indwelling Holy Spirit. We are told in Ephesians 1:14, “The Holy Spirit is God‘s guarantee that He will give us everything He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people.“ Our role is to get out of the way so the Holy Spirit can work through us so we can become the person God created us to be. John MacArthur makes this statement in his book,“Why Believe the Bible?“ “I find that the longer, the more intensely, and the more devotedly I look into the glory of Jesus Christ through the pages of Scripture, the more the Spirit of God changes my life into the image of Christ. There are no shortcuts. If I am to grow, to mature, and to finally be transformed, I must feed on the word of God!“ John’s statement is validated by the truth found in Colossians 2:3: “In Christ lay hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.“
Since this is such a weighty subject, I would like to highlight these key points. If we seek first the Kingdom of God and consciously try to stay in line with His will by continuing to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ, God promises to bless us abundantly. The Old Testament bears witness to that. When people and nations were in line with His will, they were blessed. When they were out of line with His will, there was fire and brimstone, wars, famines, plagues, etc. To reflect once again on T.D. Jakes‘ statement: “God loves to bless you, but He isn‘t going to give you those blessings until you‘re ready to receive them.“ Being in Christ and growing in Christ is the pathway to receiving His abundant blessings.
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May God Bless You…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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