Blessings.

We read and sing about God's blessings but I've never tried to put down in one place a representative list for myself, with notes, so that I could encourage myself by reading of the goodness that God has in his heart towards me.

This is not a definitive list, just my list, and I'll add to it as time goes on but it may strike a chord in you so that you start your own list of the blessings God has and will shower on you if you ask in faith.

God has many blessing stored up in heaven for us (spiritual and physical) but if we don't know what's available we won't ask for them in faith! And, all of them are waiting for us stored in our mansions which Jesus has prepared for us. We just have to ask our God, for God is Good. Jesus' brother James knew this, which is why he said...

Jam 4:2 You do not have because you do not ask.

While actually all the time the things that we need and want are available to us from God if we would only turn to him realising that as a loving parent He wants to give the best to his children. God is Good!

2Co 1:20 For all the promises of God in Him (Jesus) are yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God by us.

So what are some of the things that are available to God's children who live under grace and allow grace to be their guide?

REDEMPTION

Well the first blessing that most of us will think about is that of Eternal Life. God sent his son Jesus to die for us on a cross so that our sins could be forgiven in him. He bore the punishment for our sins.

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

What's more the writer of Hebrews confirms that Jesus paid for our sins with a perfect sacrifice which bought us Eternal Redemption.

Heb 9:12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

So all our sins have been forgiven, not just the past ones, but past, present and future. Eternal redemption. And this eternal redemption includes not just sin but diseases both mental and physical and all opression of the Devil.

Psa 103:1-14 Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—
Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear (worship) him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

What love and concern for us this shows. God's love just overflows in mercy and graciousness towards us.

Under the old covenant it was impossible to deserve these benefits because no-one is good of themselves and no-one kept it or can keep it now. So it should elicit fear even dread in those who knew they were sinners and relied on themselves rather that throw themselves upon the mercy of God.

If anyone rejected God's mercy, before Jesus came, or rejects his grace now by despising Jesus, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God as an unrepentant sinner. But for those who have accepted God's mercy and grace and have turned to him for guidance in life, then God only has blessings for us.

This doesn't mean that Satan won't come against us or that we don't have our own bad habits and wrong attitudes and sin nature to overcome but living by the Holy Spirit in us and following his prompting we grow each day to be more like our elder brother, Jesus.

GOD'S FAVOUR

Because we have been redeemed from the curse of the Law, we, now being righteous through faith in Jesus (the blessing of Abraham), can live under all the blessings God wants to give his people and which are available only through grace.

Deu 28:3-13 You shall be blessed in the city, and be blessed in the field.

The fruit of your body shall be blessed, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your cows, and the flocks of your sheep.

Your basket and your store shall be blessed.

You shall be blessed when you come in, and blessed when you go out.

Jehovah shall cause your enemies that rise up against you to be stricken before your face. They shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways.

Jehovah shall command the blessing on you in your storehouses, and all that you set your hand to. And He shall bless you in the land which Jehovah your God gives you.

Jehovah shall establish you a holy people to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of Jehovah your God and walk in His ways.

And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of Jehovah, and they shall be afraid of you.

And Jehovah shall prosper you in goods, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Jehovah swore to your fathers to give you.

Jehovah shall open to you His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. And you shall loan to many nations, and you shall not borrow.

And Jehovah shall make you the head, and not the tail. And you shall be always above, and you shall not be beneath,

These verses in Deut 28:3-13 act as a good shorthand listing of many of the blessings that God will give his people because they are righteous, not through commandment keeping, but because of the finished redemptive work of Jesus.

If you think commandment keeping is the way to righteousness then Deut 28:14-68 is a good wake-up call showing what you will really have as your right, since you will not be able to keep the Law. Actually for someone looking to 'Law keeping' for righteousness even verses 3-13 are a sad part of the curse that you're under, since to you they are an unattainable dream! But for us in the NC they are Yes and Amen in Jesus.

RIGHT LIVING

Through His grace God enables us, in fact empowers us, to live lives pleasing to him.

You see 'the just shall live by faith' and 'the Law is not of faith'.

But under grace and living by faith in Him we have all blessings in the heavenlies through Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

One of these blessings is that we are clothed in Jesus' righteousness so are acceptable to God with the same standing as His son.

Not letting Jesus live His life through us though will limit what God can do for and through us. But, the Holy Spirit in us will guide us into all truth so that we learn to live right. Grace teaches us to say 'NO' to unrighteousness and live according to our internal guide where we could not live by an external law on tablets of stone.

Titus 2:11-13 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope -- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,...

Holy spirit convicts us of only one sin - the sin of not believing in Jesus. Jesus himself told us this in John 16:8-11

Joh 16:8-11 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

But on believing in Jesus and following in His footsteps our hearts will not condemn us because all our sins have been forgiven and so when we ask in Jesus' name we know that we will receive what we have requested.

1 Joh 3:21-23 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

And so we live right because we are led by Holy Spirit in us. Our guide is a person. The guide that Jesus said would be better for us even than having Him here on earth walking alongside us!

John 16:7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

MIRACLE WORKING POWER

Having Holy Spirit in us, the Spirit of Power, means that we have miracle working power inside of us. Jesus even told us the details of how we can use this blessings that he has for us by putting faith in him. Have a look at Mar 11:23-24.

Mar 11:23-24 I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Here Jesus told his disciples how they personally could access the miracle working power of God as they advanced the kingdom. Actually if you look back at verse 22 you'll find that the original greek says "Have the faith of God", not "Have faith in God". We are to have God's kind of faith which, "speaks and it is done!" Now with God's kind of faith in us (we have the Holy Spirit) verses 23-24 make perfect sense.

Now some who want an excuse for not having this power in their lives will say that this was just for the Apostles, but to counter that, Jesus said in Mar 16:17-18....

Mar 16:17-18 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Notice that miracle working signs and wonders will accompany those who "Believe". Using a mountain as an example may have been for emphasis but there were real mountains all around Him and the physical examples that Jesus modelled for us like the fig tree dying and the storm being rebuked and told to 'shut up' and the sea being calmed are not small things by any means!

So ask in Jesus' name; Ask in Faith; Ask according to God's will (according to His word); Do not doubt; Believe that you have already received it (it's in your storeroom in your heavenly mansion so to speak); and it will manifest into the physical realm and be yours now. See It's In The Spirit.

Attlee.


Speak The Oracles Of God. Click Here.
God's Sovereignty and Our Healing. Click Here.
Healing Scriptures. Click Here.
The Love Of God. Click Here.
Confessions of who we are in Christ. Click Here.

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