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)
Notice that I stated earlier that the
blessing of God is an empowerment and here again I have defined the blessing
as the gift of righteousness. Therefore, if the blessing is the gift of
righteousness, it means that righteousness is empowerment, the empowerment to
have the right standing before God. So the blessing Abraham received was
actually the empowerment to have the right standing before God to speak and
declare things without any sense of guilt. And I want to declare to you that
such a man is the most blessed of all men on this planet earth.
It has been the nature of God to
always bless; there is nothing else that comes from God except blessing. Before
the foundation of the earth, He has mapped out the earth and blessed it. And
before bringing man into existence in this earth He has chosen to bless man and
truly He gave man all that man needed for existence in this earth. “So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed
them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Gen
1:27 – 28). This is the character of God and God cannot change, therefore
this character is consistence and cannot because of anything change. If there
is any way this blessing is not noticed in the life of an individual it is not
God’s making but that individual’s inability to understand and make use of what
God has made available.
The blessing Abraham received has been
there even before the earth, is not like God saw Abraham and decided to bless
him. Abraham did not move God to bless him; that would mean that God reacted to
certain things that he did. No, God has been moved before eternity. And because
of that He knew Abraham and has predestinated him for the blessing. But there
is one thing God cannot do for Abraham, and that is to decide for him in receiving
the blessing. Therefore, this implies that God cannot impose blessing on any
individual or group of people, the receiving of the blessing is depended on the
receiver. This shows that the blessing is constant but the receiving is
inconstant because it depends on the receiver and God cannot invade the will of
the receiver.
One thing containing in the statement
of the Abraham’s blessing from God is that “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” (Gen 12:2). The statement says Abraham will be a blessing, this
suggests that since Abraham has agreed to receive the blessing, he will be the
carrier of the blessing and others will benefit from it and as well become
blessed. Remember the blessing of Abraham here is not physical things but the
righteousness of God that he received. This is to say that Abraham becomes the
carrier of God’s righteousness and through him people are seeing the righteous
nature of God and believing in God. In other words, before the foundation of
the earth, God saw all that He created and made them righteous even before they
knew about it, so the limitation is in the ability of man to recognize what God
has already done and accept it.
For instance, it is insightful to say
that God before the foundation of the earth has also declared the Gentiles
righteous and that the Gentiles do not know about it because of lack of
knowledge. And as a result they were alienated from the righteous nature of
God. Let’s see what happened with Peter in a trance “And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made
ready, he fell into a trance, And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel
descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and
let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of four footed beasts of the
earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there
came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord;
for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake
unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou
common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.
Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should
mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for
Simon's house, and stood before the gate, And called, and asked whether Simon,
which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there. While Peter thought on the vision,
the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.” (Acts 10:10-19).
When did God cleanse the Gentile? Well
before the foundation of the earth; He sees the Gentile as His own people and
in His sight they are righteous because He that created them is righteous. But
because of lack of knowledge of who God is, the Gentile couldn’t grasp the
nature of God’s righteousness in them. Remember in that trance Peter was told
this “Do not call what God has cleansed common.” This implies that God has
cleansed them before the gospel could even come 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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