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."
Do we truly understand the full impact of what the Father is saying to us in the above scripture, about the Spiritual Blessings we've received through Jesus? How many think that these things are for when we die and go to Heaven? This is a truth, but it's not the Truth. The fullness of these Blessings won't be received until we arrive in Heaven, but most of them are already available to us here, now. We see the Blessings working through Jesus' earthly ministry and life.
We understand our Heavenly Father through Jesus. Jesus was our Example and we're to appropreate this same Blessing in our lives, through Him. The Blessing that Jesus, Who was the Last Adam, walked in, was the same Blessing that was supposed to have been for the first Adam. This was and still is, God's will for His family. We've somehow overlooked the place God intended to have in our lives. Hebrews 10:35-36 (Amplified) says, "Do not therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away and enjoy to the full what is Promised."
Hebrews 7:22 (Amplified) says, "In keeping with the oaths greater strength and force, Jesus has become the Guarantee of a better, stronger agreement, a more excellent and more advantageous covenant." Paul also writes in Hebrews 8:6 (Amplified), "But as it now is, He (Christ) has acquired a Priestly ministry which is as much superior and more excellent than the old as the covenant (agreement) of which He is the Mediator (the Arbiter, Agent) is superior and more excellent, because it is enacted and rests upon more important (sublimer, higher and nobler) Promises."
2Corinthians 1:19-20 (Amplified) says, "For the Son of God, Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who has been preached among you by us (by myself, Silvanus, and Timothy), was not Yes and no, but in Him it is always the Divine Yes. For as many as are the Promises of God, they all find their Yes Answer in Him (Christ). For this reason we also utter the Amen (So be it), to God through Him (in His Person, and by His Agency) to the Glory of God."
These Spiritual Blessings don't refer only to when we die and go to Heaven. The Truth is that we've now become citizens of Heaven and God's Kingdom, through our union with Jesus Christ. All of Heaven has been made ours and is available to us, as joint heirs with Jesus. The Spiritual Blessings came to us and in us, by the Holy Spirit, at our new creation birth into God's family.
These Blessings aren't for us to simply enjoy, but are to set free all who are still in captivity. Jesus walked in the Blessing and those Spiritual Blessings set a liberty those around Him. Without the Blessing, we're no more than just forgiven people. The Blessing is the Power of God, through Love, that sets others free. We have been Blessed, to be a Blessing. Jesus used the Blessing to break the bondage of those who were still under the Law and the Curse. He used the Blessing to preach deliverance to the captives.
We must first believe in who Jesus has made us to be and not what the world and carnal men tell us we still are, in order to walk in the Promise and the Blessing. Ephesians 6:12 (Amplified) tells us that, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against Spiritual forces." We must use the Spiritual Blessing and Spiritual Gifts, to break down the Spiritual forces around us. All these things have been placed in our new creation spirit man, in order to bring deliverance and salvation to those around us.
We continue to struggle with the old man and the life we had before Jesus. We continue focusing on our house of flesh and it's imperfections, which leaves us feeling unworthy in God's sight. This is what Paul calls "the sin that so readily and deftly and cleverly clings to and entangles us," in Hebrews 12:1. We can only receive the Truth of who we really are now in Christ Jesus, BY FAITH. Thus, Hebrews 1:2 (Amplified) says, "Looking away from all that will distract TO JESUS."
We're afraid to see ourselves the way God's Word tell us we are now, because of carnal teachings. We are still unrighteous and unworthy in ourselves, but we are no longer in ourselves-we are IN HIM. The only way the Promises work in our lives, is by faith in Him, according to Romans 4:16 (Amplified) which says, "Therefore, inheiriting the Promise is the outcome of faith and depends entirely on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of Grace (unmerited favor)."
The more we "try to be good, so we might feel like we might deserve God's Grace by our works," the further we move away from faith in God providing His Grace. This sounds contrary to everything we've learned and been taught for centuries. I don't mean to imply that you don't need to clean up your live, but don't depend on yourself to become righteous. You were Blessed, because of Jesus and you must accept it and put faith in Him, for His Promises.
We've been reluctant to accept what God has given us through Jesus, for fear of looking deserving and greedy. God gave us what His will had always wanted us to have from the beginning, when He created mankind. We've been taught that God still deals with us, like He did with those under the old covenant. We're afraid that when we fail, then God will send lightning from Heaven or strike us with sickness or deal with us like He did under the Law. We forget who Jesus has made us to be.
When the Father of Spirits, deals with the children of spirits, He deals in a Spiritual manner. God couldn't deal with the spirits of old covenant people, because they were still dead in their spirits. God was forced to deal with their fleshly man, but that's not how He deals with us. God's Word is Spirit, we are spirit, the Teacher is Spirit and God's Kingdom is Spirit. Hebrews 4:12 (Amplified) says, "For the Word that God speaks is Alive and full of Power, making it activer (operative, enrgizing and effective); it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of Life, soul, and the immportance Spirit, and the joints and marrow of the deepest parts of our nature, exposign and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart." The Father disciples His children by His Word and His Spirit. 2Timothy 3:16 (Amplified) says, "Every scripture is God-breathed, given by His Inspirtation and is profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin (for correction of error and discipline in obedience), for training in Righteousness, in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose and action."
This is what Hebrews 12 speaks about, when it says that God' disciplines and cleanses every sin. We are to learn by God's Word and His Spirit. Believing that "God uses hard times, sickness, and other such things to teach us," leaves you open to the destroyer's destruction. Listen to the Holy Spirit and God's Word, for instruction and Promises.
The enemy doesn't want you to enter into God's Rest or know about that Rest. God's Word will lead you away from the pitfalls the enemy lays before you and "will lead you in paths of Righteousness for His Sake." God's leadership will take you "beside still waters and lush grass" and not sickness and calamity. We're going to have to learn to trust the Good Shepherd and follow Him.
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