John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another, and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth came through Jesus Christ."
Having never really gotten a Revelation of Spiritual Blessing, we've overlooked this part of what Jesus came to redeem us from. We've lost sight of the covenant God made with and through Adam, with its Spiritual Blessings. Adam had Spiritual Life, as well as physical life. He was alive in his spirit and had been given dominion and authority over all the physical creation. Adam and the Father walked together in the spirit, as well as in the flesh.
When Adam transgressed in the Garden, he lost the Spiritual Blessing and could only operate in the natural man. The Blessing of Abraham, found in Galatians 3:13-14 (Amplified), didn't only include the material Blessing of his family and earthly goods, but it also brought Life back to his spirit and his Sees, which is Christ Jesus. Thus, Verse 14 says, "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit."
This Promise was realized on the Day of Pentecost, with the outpouring of God's Spirit upon all flesh. The covenant made with Adam and the Promise made to Abraham, have both been realized in those who accept Jesus Christ. We are Blessed in this material earth and we're Blessed in the Spiritual Kingdom too, by our being in Christ Jesus. Genesis 6:8-9 (Amplified) says, "But Noah found Grace (favor), in the eyes of the Lord. This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a just and righteous man, blameless in his evil generation. Noah walked in habitual fellowship with God."
God says in Genesis 9:11-17 (Amplified), "I will establish My covenant (or pledge) with you; never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood; neither shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth and make it corrupt. And God said, This is the token of the covenant (solemn pledge) which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. I set My bow (rainbow) in the cloud, and it shall be a token or sign of a covenant (or solemn pledge) between Me and the earth. And it shall be that when I bring clouds over the earth and the bow (rainbow), is seen in the clouds I will earnestly remember My covenant (or solemn pledge) which is between Me and you and ever living creature of all flesh; and the waters will no more be a flood to destroy and make all flesh corrupt. When the bow (rainbow) is in the clouds and I look upon it, I will earnestly remember the Everlasting covenant (or pledge) between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said to Noah, This rainbow is the token or sign of the covenant (or solemn pledge) which I have established between Me and all flesh upon the earth."
God directed Noah to build an Ark, in order to save His Righteousness and Grace from destruction. The Ark protected God's covenant, which He made with Adam at the creation. God needed to preserve His Promise and His Grace and the favor or His covenant, otherwise His Word to Adam would be void forever. God looked upon Noah as being "righteous, just, and blameless in his generation." Only Noah and his household were to be spared from the destruction of the flood. The Ark was God's way of preserving the covenant He made with mankind.
Through Noah God's material Blessing could be continued once again, into the earth. Noah and his family were the only ones who could carry on the Truth of Adam's Blessing and covenant with God. Mankind once again disobeyed God and disregarded His leading in their lives, but God preserved His pledge and covenant with Adam, unto Noah's children. Through Noah, God's righteous and just one, God had entry back into man's lives in the earth.
Genesis 11:24-27,29 (Amplified) continues, "When Nahor had lived 29 years he became the father of Terah. And Nahor lived after Terah was born 119 years and had other sons and daughter. After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of (at different times) Abram and Nahor and Haran his firstborn. Now this is the history of the descendants of Terah (Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran), and Haran was the father of Lot." Verse 29 tells us, "Abram and Nahor took wives, the name of Abram's wife was Sara."
We find in Genesis 12:1-3, 16-19 (Amplified), that the same blessing that had been preserved by the Ark that held Noah and his family, had produced a man who God could use to transmit this Blessing and covenant through, once again. Thus it says, "Now in Haran, the Lord said to Abram, Go for yourself (for your own advantage), away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will Bless you with abundant increase of favors and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a Blessing, dispensing Good to others. And I will Bless those who bless you (who confer prosperity or happiness upon you), and curse him who curses or uses insolent language toward you. In you will all the families and kindred of the earth be Blessed, and by you will they bless themselves."
The Blessing on Abraham was at this time, only a material Blessing, but God now had a man who would hold His covenant and His Promise. God Promised that He would Bless Abraham with all material Blessing and in Verses 16-19 we see the Promise of the Spiritual Blessing that he would produce through his union with Sara. Thus God says, "And I will Bless her and give you a son also by her, Yes, I will Bless her, and she shall be the mother of nations, kings of peoples shall come from her. But God said, Sarah, your wife shall bear you a son indeed, and you shall call his name Isaac (Laughter), and I will establish My covenant (or solemn pledge) with him for an Everlasting covenant and with his posterity after him."
When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his first and only son, by Promise, Abraham (for the sake of his covenant with God), was willing to give his son rather than break his covenant. Genesis 22:16-18 (Amplified) says, "I have sworn by Myself, says the Lord, that since you have done this and have not withheld from Me your Son, your only son. In Blessing you and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore. And your Seed (Heir) will possess the gate of His enemies. And your Seed (Christ) shall all the nations of the earth be Blessed, and by Him bless themselves, because you have heard and obeyed My Voice."
Now we see the Promise of the Spiritual Blessing being pronounced upon Abraham, that was to continue as an Everlasting covenant. We find that God's Blessing continued down for many generations and into Egypt with Joseph in Exodus 1:6-8 (Amplified) which tells us, "Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But all the descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, and the land was full of them. Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph."
Once again, we see the covenant of God being threatened, by man's attempts to destroy the Seed of the Promise to Abraham of his Blessing to all mankind in Exodus 1:22 (Amplified) which says, "Then Pharaoh charged all his people saying, Every son born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the river Nile, but every daughter you shall allow to live." Satan again, tried to cut off the Seed of Promise, by destroying all male children.
Exodus 2:1-3 (Amplified) goes on, "Now Amran, a man of the house of Levi, the priestly tribe, went and took as his wife Jochebed, a daughter of Levi. And the woman became pregnant and bore a son, and when she saw that he was exceedingly beautiful, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an Ark (or basket made of bulrushes or papyrus), making it water right, by daubing it with bitumen and pitch, then she put the child in it and laid it among the rushes by the bank of the river Nile."
Once again, we see God using an Ark to protect and preserve the covenant and Promise for and to His people. The people were still dead in their spirit and could only function in the physical, so the covenant was threatened more and more. We see how twice, God has prepared an Ark of protection for His covenant and His Promise. He used these Arks to preserve His Truth, until Jesus was to come.
God offered this covenant to all those of Abraham in Exodus 19:5-6 (Amplified) saying, "Now therefore, in you will obey My Voice in Truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My Own peculiar possession and treasure from among and above all peoples, for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation consecrated, set apart to the worship of God. These are the Words you (Moses) shall speak to the Israelites."
The people turned away from the covenant of Promise and once again, we see the Lord make an Ark as a place of protection and a place of Promise for His Word. In Exodus 25:10-22 (Amplified) God directs, "They shall make an Ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. You shall overlay the Ark with pure gold inside and out and make a golden crown, a rim or border about its top. And you shall put inside the Ark the Testimony (the ten commandments which I will give you). You shall put the Mercy Seat on the top of the Ark, and in the Ark you shall put the Testimony (the ten commandments that I will give you). There will I meet with you, from above the Mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the Ark of the Testimony, I will speak intimately with you of all which I will give you in commandment to the Israelites."
The Lord again preserves and protects His Promise and His Own covenant, by placing it in an Ark, in Deuteronomy 10:1-5 (Amplified) which tells us, "At that time the Lord said to me (Moses), Hew two tablets of stone like the first and come up to Me on the mountain and make an Ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the Words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the Ark. So I, Moses, made an Ark of acacia wood and hewed two tables of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tables of stone in my one hand. And the Lord wrote on the tables as at the first writing, the Ten Commandments which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them to me And I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tables in the Ark which I had made, and there they are, as the Lord commanded me."
God gave His Word to Adam and it was an Everlasting covenant for all time. Man has repeatedly broken his part of the covenant and relationship. God is faithful to His Word and has made an Ark to protect and preserve His Word from Adam to Jesus. Jesus has now become the Ark of the Covenant, in Whom Grace and Truth has come to rest. Those of us who have trusted in Him, are safely in Christ Jesus (the Ark) and are protected from all things outside the covenant.
Many never realize the protection and preservation of our Ark, but He is the Word, the Way, the Truth and the Life! He is the Door, by which we enter into the Ark, just as surely as the door God closed on Noah and his family that kept them safe and sound during the flood. Now, through Jesus, we have the material Blessing that kept Abraham and we have the Spiritual Blessing that was the Promise to Abraham. While the Door to the Ark is still open, let us enter into the Promises and the Truth of this covenant, that God has protected for us.
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