The Blessing, Part 1
As we continue our teaching on The Blessing, let’s take it from the top, from the beginning.
In Genesis 1:26-28 we read of the creation of Adam, the creation of man. God formed man in His own image, His very likeness, just like papa. As God’s children, we are just like our Father. When we are born again, we have His very nature planted inside us, His DNA. In verse 28 we know that the very first words that Adam heard were to be the foundation of mankind’s walk through all eternity. God spoke exactly what He wanted man to hear, exactly what would form his life forever.
Fruitful, be; multiply, fill up the earth, subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the seas, the fowl of the air, every living thing that moves upon the earth. This was God’s declaration, pronunciation of The Blessing over us. This was God’s Blessing over his children. These words were to form our life and destiny. It is what I call the Garden of Eden mentality. And I dare say that the majority of Christians today have anything but the Garden of Eden mentality. I hear more of the “woe is me” mentality.
The Garden of Eden mentality is this: God has placed me here on this earth to duplicate His Blessing, His life, His love, His light everywhere I go. I am to impact the world around me with the fullness of the power of God, which is in His Blessing declaration. I am to be fruitful, producing the fruit of the spirit all around me. I am to be multiplying the fullness of God within my sphere of influence. I am to be filling up the earth with the nature and power of God. I am to be one who has dominion, not one who is dominated. If this is not a description of you as God’s child, you can change that by making a decision that you will be like your daddy God, you will do what His command is to you, initiated in the Garden of Eden before your brother and sister Adam and Eve sinned and gave control over to satan.
As I said yesterday, satan thought that he had finally found a way to get God’s glory, but was he in for a surprise when the very blessing that God had given Adam turned to the curse the minute that satan took ownership of it. And ever since that moment in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve gave their dominion over earth to satan, he has been furiously trying to exterminate the man that God loves. He has not only done it by physical death but also by spiritual death, by attempting in every way to shut down the union between God and man. He knows the power of that union, and his one constant theme is to stop that union. The union between God and man is a union of great power on this earth and satan knows that.
The minute that Adam bowed his knee to satan, God’s plan, formulated since the foundation of the earth, went into operation. There was a way to get The Blessing back but it had to be done legally. God no longer was in charge of the earth, so He had to find a man that would pave the way for God’s Son Jesus to come in a flesh and blood body.
After the flood on the earth, God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Fruitful, be, multiply and fill up the earth. At the same time that we are talking about The Blessing, we must talk about covenant. God made a covenant with man that He would be His God. That covenant is always sealed with blood. The blood of the animals was shed in the Garden when God provided animal coats for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness. There is a whole sermon there in that. They were no longer under the covering of the Lord. He provided a temporary covering for them. God once again spoke that covenant with Noah and his family. But Noah was not the man who would make the way for God to send His Son. Ah, but there was another man named Abram who got up from his home country and followed the Lord.
In Genesis 12:1-3 the Lord spoke The Blessing to Abram. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless them that bless you and I will curse them who curse you. God was telling Abram that The Blessing was upon him. God was enduing Abram with His power; He was empowering Abram to be successful, to walk under the covering of God and prosper in every area of His life. The key was in Abram’s obedience, and God found a man that would be obedient to Him in every way, even to the point of offering his own son to God. This man Abram, whose name was changed to Abraham, when covenant was cut with him later, trusted God to the point that he was willing to lay down the life of his only son who had been miraculously conceived in Sarah’s womb by the spirit of Almighty God. He had so much confidence in God that He believed that God would raise that child up. Do you see the preamble to God’s giving His only son to be raised up later? God had to find a man, and He found that man in Abram. And the way was paved for Jesus to come to this earth.
In Genesis 15 the Lord gave Abram very specific instructions regarding making covenant with Him. I find verse 17 especially significant in this chapter. When the sun went down, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces of animal laid out on the ground. We all believe that was God the Father and Jesus walking in that blood of animals. They made covenant with one another on behalf of Abram, a covenant that could, therefore, not be broken. We see more discussion of this covenant ceremony in Hebrews 6:13-20. In verse 17 we read that God confirmed His promise to Abram by an oath. That oath was sealed on that day in Genesis 15 in the blood of covenant. And because Abram understood the significance of blood covenant, from that point on, everything he had was God’s and everything God has was his. That was the promise of covenant. That is why he could offer up Isaac, his only son, to God. That son belonged to God because of covenant. And, that my friend, paved the way for God to offer up His only Son, because his covenant partner had been willing to do the same. What a God! What a plan! If satan had only known the plan, he would not have had the Son of Glory crucified.
In Genesis 1:26-28 we read of the creation of Adam, the creation of man. God formed man in His own image, His very likeness, just like papa. As God’s children, we are just like our Father. When we are born again, we have His very nature planted inside us, His DNA. In verse 28 we know that the very first words that Adam heard were to be the foundation of mankind’s walk through all eternity. God spoke exactly what He wanted man to hear, exactly what would form his life forever.
Fruitful, be; multiply, fill up the earth, subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the seas, the fowl of the air, every living thing that moves upon the earth. This was God’s declaration, pronunciation of The Blessing over us. This was God’s Blessing over his children. These words were to form our life and destiny. It is what I call the Garden of Eden mentality. And I dare say that the majority of Christians today have anything but the Garden of Eden mentality. I hear more of the “woe is me” mentality.
The Garden of Eden mentality is this: God has placed me here on this earth to duplicate His Blessing, His life, His love, His light everywhere I go. I am to impact the world around me with the fullness of the power of God, which is in His Blessing declaration. I am to be fruitful, producing the fruit of the spirit all around me. I am to be multiplying the fullness of God within my sphere of influence. I am to be filling up the earth with the nature and power of God. I am to be one who has dominion, not one who is dominated. If this is not a description of you as God’s child, you can change that by making a decision that you will be like your daddy God, you will do what His command is to you, initiated in the Garden of Eden before your brother and sister Adam and Eve sinned and gave control over to satan.
As I said yesterday, satan thought that he had finally found a way to get God’s glory, but was he in for a surprise when the very blessing that God had given Adam turned to the curse the minute that satan took ownership of it. And ever since that moment in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve gave their dominion over earth to satan, he has been furiously trying to exterminate the man that God loves. He has not only done it by physical death but also by spiritual death, by attempting in every way to shut down the union between God and man. He knows the power of that union, and his one constant theme is to stop that union. The union between God and man is a union of great power on this earth and satan knows that.
The minute that Adam bowed his knee to satan, God’s plan, formulated since the foundation of the earth, went into operation. There was a way to get The Blessing back but it had to be done legally. God no longer was in charge of the earth, so He had to find a man that would pave the way for God’s Son Jesus to come in a flesh and blood body.
After the flood on the earth, God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Fruitful, be, multiply and fill up the earth. At the same time that we are talking about The Blessing, we must talk about covenant. God made a covenant with man that He would be His God. That covenant is always sealed with blood. The blood of the animals was shed in the Garden when God provided animal coats for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness. There is a whole sermon there in that. They were no longer under the covering of the Lord. He provided a temporary covering for them. God once again spoke that covenant with Noah and his family. But Noah was not the man who would make the way for God to send His Son. Ah, but there was another man named Abram who got up from his home country and followed the Lord.
In Genesis 12:1-3 the Lord spoke The Blessing to Abram. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless them that bless you and I will curse them who curse you. God was telling Abram that The Blessing was upon him. God was enduing Abram with His power; He was empowering Abram to be successful, to walk under the covering of God and prosper in every area of His life. The key was in Abram’s obedience, and God found a man that would be obedient to Him in every way, even to the point of offering his own son to God. This man Abram, whose name was changed to Abraham, when covenant was cut with him later, trusted God to the point that he was willing to lay down the life of his only son who had been miraculously conceived in Sarah’s womb by the spirit of Almighty God. He had so much confidence in God that He believed that God would raise that child up. Do you see the preamble to God’s giving His only son to be raised up later? God had to find a man, and He found that man in Abram. And the way was paved for Jesus to come to this earth.
In Genesis 15 the Lord gave Abram very specific instructions regarding making covenant with Him. I find verse 17 especially significant in this chapter. When the sun went down, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces of animal laid out on the ground. We all believe that was God the Father and Jesus walking in that blood of animals. They made covenant with one another on behalf of Abram, a covenant that could, therefore, not be broken. We see more discussion of this covenant ceremony in Hebrews 6:13-20. In verse 17 we read that God confirmed His promise to Abram by an oath. That oath was sealed on that day in Genesis 15 in the blood of covenant. And because Abram understood the significance of blood covenant, from that point on, everything he had was God’s and everything God has was his. That was the promise of covenant. That is why he could offer up Isaac, his only son, to God. That son belonged to God because of covenant. And, that my friend, paved the way for God to offer up His only Son, because his covenant partner had been willing to do the same. What a God! What a plan! If satan had only known the plan, he would not have had the Son of Glory crucified.
posted by Rev. Kialeen Potterton @ 10:11 AM
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