We have talked previously about valuing the blessing and how
to access it. We are going to start
talking about the tools and resources needed to utilize the blessing. The
blessing of God is the empowerment to attract the resources needed to fulfill
the race God has given you. Genesis 12
contains God’s blessing of Abraham. The
blessing came first, before the covenant (Genesis 17:4 and forward). Now we’ll look at the covenant piece of
this. God changes Abram’s name (Abram
means father) to Abraham (this name means father of many nations). Blessing always has a purpose. The project is to be fruitful and multiply,
and the blessing is the tools needed to complete the project. This covenant is a blood covenant, a picture
of marriage. The covenant is not to be
broken, and there is responsibility for both parties involved in the
covenant. The covenant is only broken
when there is a breakdown in the trust in the relationship. However, in a marriage, the blood comes from
the bride, but in our covenant with God, the blood comes from the groom, Jesus.
People should know we are the bride of Christ by seeing the
blessing in our lives. Matthew 26:28
shows that Jesus’ death was to bring forgiveness of sins by sealing the
covenant. Isaiah 54:9 puts us into
perspective of life on the other side of the cross, even before Jesus. God promises He will not punish us or be
angry with us for our sin. That was all
put on Christ. God always gives the
right tool for the need. Where there is
a need for fruitful multiplication, God prescribes blessing. Jesus never blessed someone needing healing—that
wasn’t the right tool. Deuteronomy 28:4-10
defines the blessing and what it does. God’s
prescription for Abraham’s barren wife was blessing. Mark 6:30 and on shows the
multiplication of the fish and loaves.
Jesus blessed what they had before the multiplication occurred (notice
also that the disciples didn’t say they did not have enough money to buy the
food but just asked if they should go buy it).
The result was that they all ate and were satisfied and had 12 baskets
left over. This did not just serve the
disciples, but instead was more than enough for all the others. The blessing is not for us but for others. Let’s go back to Abraham. It took 25 years from when he was blessed to
seeing Isaac, the fruit of the blessing.
Just like him, the area of his life that was hardest to conquer was the
one that was the key to his purpose.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on
online media. To learn more about Living
Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
