Continued
from the last episode:
Preamble: Knowing and understanding what the
blessing is will definitely enhance our Christian life. Over the years there
has been a misconception or misnomer about what the blessing of God is, and as a
result many who are blessed are thinking they are not and many who are not are
basking in great fallacious delusion thinking they have arrived. In this topic,
we are going to painstakingly unfold the meaning of the blessing of God.
Text
Of Interest:
“The
blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”
Provb
10:22 (KJV)
However, there is something we have to
ascertain in a nutshell as regards to faith. And that is, the message of the
blessing wouldn’t settle in the heart of the receiver if faith is not induced
in it. This implies that the message comes with faith and it is important to
state that one can only receive faith by hearing the message of the blessing. In
the case of Abraham the content of the message of the blessing helps to ignite
the fire of faith in him. Let’s take a look at what God said to Abraham again,
“And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto
him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of
thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and
said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number
them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”
This message is a message of hope,
restoration and liberty to Abraham; this is good news and it revives a sagging
spirit. It shows again that the righteousness obtained by Abraham from God was
the righteousness of faith and not the righteousness of doing; so by faith
Abraham became justified. Which faith now? Faith in the words spoken to him and
by this faith he grasp on the blessing in the message. This implies that for
one to obtain any blessing from God it must be obtained by faith if not it is
not the blessing of God. Now watch this, if it is not obtained by doing, it means
that the act of the blessing from God is an act of God’s grace because Abraham
did nothing to obtain the blessing but his believe in the words spoken to him.
So the blessing is a product of God’s
grace which is received by faith by the recipient (Rom 5:2). This is an
indication that Abraham and many of his likes in the beginning and Old
Testament operated under the atmosphere of grace and received everything they
had by grace, because one can only be blessed of God by grace not by
conditions. And one can only receive what grace has offered or done by faith. In
the atmosphere of conditions or laws one cannot be blessed or cannot receive
the blessing of God; whatever one obtains in that atmosphere becomes a product
of his or her works, because he or she did something in other to obtain it.
Therefore, the blessing of God doesn’t come by works but comes by spoken words
and is received by faith in the words spoken. This becomes important because
without faith in the words or what God has done one cannot please God and if
you cannot please God there is no way you can obtain the blessing of God. Let
me clarify something here, one’s faith doesn’t move or please God but by one’s
faith grace of God is being explore, God is moved by Grace which is His nature.
Therefore it is apt to say that God
cannot do something because of what someone has done, but He has done something
before someone by an act of faith explore the grace that was available and
things begin to manifest. Hear this, if God does something based on what
someone has done, it means that God can react and can be emotional. The fact is
that God is pro-act and on the other hand, if God can react He is not God (Isa
46:10). It is therefore fitting to say that God cannot and would not have reacted
because God is not erratic in His nature. I said that to say this, that if God
is erratic or can react it means that God’s nature of foreknowledge is tainted
and we know for sure that God cannot change (Jere 1:5). This therefore by
implication means whatever God has done He has done it before hand, it is left
for one through the act of faith receive what has been completed by God even
before the foundation of the earth (Eph 1:4,11).
So God saying such words like “And I
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;
and thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen12:2), it means God knew Abraham beforehand
and knew that He is going to be blessed by Him. There is something we have to
take note of and that is, when the blessing comes upon anyone, he or she became
the symbol of the blessing. I mean he or she becomes the blessing and everyone
or anyone looking at him or her will see nothing but the blessing. Remember,
the blessing is of God, I mean God’s blessing, which makes it part of God or
God’s character. Therefore, if one becomes a blessing, it means he or she
exhibits the character of God and in that case he or she represents God, people
see God through him or her.
However, the blessing of God therefore
is the gift of righteousness which is obtainable by faith in the promises of
God. The promises of God here as regard to the people of old is pivoted around
what God will do in Christ and not what God has done in Christ (2Cor 1:19 - 21).
This suggests that the blessing of God here is revealed in the shadows and not
in the object. Therefore, the faith to obtain the blessing is rooted around the
shadows or figure that represents the object and as a result righteousness is
given to them.
To be continued…..
Till I come your way again, keep on
basking in the Arena of Indubitable Truth!
Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu
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