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."
In the previous blog, we learned that these Spiritual Blessings were Promises that Abraham couldn't received at the time. They were reserved for this generation of the Church or God's Own children by the new birth and the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit. Abraham was Promised these things that were to come through his Seed, Who was Jesus Christ. This is no longer a Promise, but a Truth.
So long as it was a Promise, it was something for the future and now that Jesus has come, it's no longer a Promise, but has become Truth in the believer's lives. Many are still waiting for the fulfillment of God's Promise, not realizing the Promise was and is fulfilled in Jesus. This is why John 1:16-17 says, "Out of His fullness we have all received."
Abraham was Blessed by God, but the fullness of the Promise couldn't be fulfilled as far as the Spiritual Blessing was concerned. Abraham wasn't born-again, so the Spiritual Blessing was a future even that God's Promise laid before him. We're recipients of the Grace that came through Jesus and we're not only Blessed with the natural things of the Promise, but we've obtained the Spiritual aspect as well.
God prospered Abraham with the earthly Blessing in all that he did. This is also part of our Blessing of Abraham, but now it goes further into the Spiritual Blessing. Through Jesus, we've been raised with Him and have becomes sons and daughters of God, instead of just servants. God's Grace that delivered Noah and those who heeded His direction, has come to rest upon us as a cloak or mantle upon our lives, not counting our trespasses against us, but putting them under the Blood of Jesus.
These Spiritual Blessings and Gifts, far surpass anything man has ever received from God before. Romans 5:17 (Amplified) says, "For if because of one man's offense (trespass, lapse), death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive God's overflowing Grace (unmerited favor) and the free Gift of righteousness, putting them in in right standing with Himself, reign as kings in life through the One Mane, Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
This free Gift of righteousness is one of the many Spiritual Blessings that came through the fulfillment of the Promise. Romans 5:5 (Amplified) says, "For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be one with Him in sharing His Resurrection by a new life lived for God." When do we share this new life lived for God and reign as kings in life through Jesus? Not when we die and leave this earth, but when we (by faith) accept the fact that we NOW live through Him in this earth; a new life for God.
Satan has deceived the family of God, causing us to think these Spiritual Blessings are for the hereafter. We're now made alive to God through the result of His Promise and we're to reign as kings in this life on earth. Romans 8:11 (Amplified) says, "But if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal, short lived bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you."
Even though sin killed us and God likened our bodies dead and buried with Jesus, God (by His Holy Spirit) has granted life back into our mortal bodies, in order to carry out the things we're to do in this earth for and through Him. We're not only made alive in our spirit, but now that same spirit has given God's Life back to our mortal body.
God and we both, need this earthly body to fulfill the mandate that was given to the new creation family of God. God's family is to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel, lay hands on the sick, cast out devils and preach Christ Jesus to the lost. We need these earthly bodies, in order to do what God's called us to do on this earth. The body has no life once the spirit leave it and this is why the Holy Spirit has restored life back into this mortal body. We're to function in two realms simultaneously, but now this mortal body is to be sustained and led by the Spirit of Promise. Romans 8:16 (Amplified) says, "The Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are children of God."
Romans 8:30 (Amplified) tells us, "And those whom He foreordained, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified, acquitted, made righteous, putting them in right standing with Himself, and those whom He justified He also gloried, raising them to a Heavenly dignity and condition or state of being." This is something He has already done in Jesus and not something He is going to do in the future.
Have you ever seen yourself as "glorified and raised to a Heavenly dignity, condition or state of being?" Have you ever thought of yourself as "being righteous before God?" How do you become justified in the eyes of a Holy God? By faith, you receive "the fullness we have all received, all had a part, 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," according to John 1:16-17.
This is the Truth of the Promise that has come to reality in Christ Jesus. This is the Promise of the Spirit made to Abraham and as Abraham was, so now we, by faith, walk in the Truth of that Promise. Romans 1:17 (Amplified) says, "For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes IS REVEALED, both springing from faith and leading to faith, disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith, as it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."
Let's combine the last part of the above scripture about living by faith, with Romans 6:4-5 (Amplified) which says, "We were buried therefore with Him by the Baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glorious Power of the Father, so that we too might habitually live and behave in newness of life For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we also shall be one with Him in sharing His Resurrection by a new life lived for God."
If we were crucified with Christ and buried with Him, then in order to "live this life in newness for God," we must also have been raised together with Him, even in this mortal body that has newness of life by His Holy Spirit. In Romans 1:17 (Amplified) Paul says this about us, "That through faith are just and upright shall live and live by faith." Paul went on in Galatians 2:20 (Amplified), "I have been crucified with Christ, in Him I have shared His crucifixion; it is no longer I who live, but Christ the Messiah lives in me: and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
Now we have a revelation of what Paul wrote in Romans 1:17, saying, "The just and upright shall live and shall live by faith." Your life in the spirit and body are sustained by your faith in the Truth of the Promise of the Spirit that God made to Abraham for and through Jesus.
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