The Authority of the Believer,
Experiencing the Earthly Blessings
Roy Blizzard III © 2014
In the last few weeks’ messages I’ve spoken about the Four Steps to Faith that are necessary to come into the Kingdom of God. I’ve spoken about the Authority of the believer and how you must intersect with God where He is working in order to experience His miracles. Last week I spoke about the Authority of the Believer, Inheriting from God, how you must do some things to become someone that God wants to leave an inheritance to. Today I want to speak about what the Authority is all about, and that is Blessings from God, specifically this week primarily Earthly blessings.
You know we are about at that season called Thanksgiving where we give thanks for the blessings of the food we eat and good things we have had or experienced in the last year and maybe even for the blessings our forefathers experienced. However, as someone who is a believer, you should know that there is a far greater thing that we should be grateful for every day and that is the Blessings of God in our lives within the Kingdom of God.
Text: Deuteronomy 28:1-15 King James Version (KJV)
28 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: 2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. 3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. 5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. 6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
7 The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. 8 The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 9 The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. 10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee. 11 And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
12 The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. 13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: 14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
These are the Blessings of God, laid out for us if we CHOOSE to join ourselves into Jesus’ Kingdom. However, there is a flip side to this choice and it seems that the world really likes to not choose to follow God.
15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
Now I have to tell you, the word command here or commandment doesn’t mean something like a legal decree meant for us to break it so we can go straight to hell, without passing go. The word in Hebrew is Mitzvah with the simple meaning of the word being command and it appears in various forms with that meaning about 300 times in the Five Books of Moses. Examples include such diverse acts as having children, declaring that there is only One God, resting on the seventh day, and not eating pork.
However, in common usage, a mitzvah often means a good deed such as walking a little old lady across the street. “Good” can be defined as that which God wants done in His universe; and by doing that which the Creator wants done, we are bound up with Him in body, mind and soul.
Mitzvot have a practical benefit for the person who does them as well as for the entire world because attitudes are molded more by what people do than by what they think about with God knowing exactly what attitudes are affected in what way by what mitzvah. This is reflected in the statement, “You only do what you believe.”
In performing a mitzvah, you and your world are one with God Himself.
A mitzvah-based society is a society of educated, active participants—because you can’t do mitzvot without learning about them first. In this way, there is a constant flow of knowledge within society.
Additionally, it’s hard to keep up the performance of mitzvot without a renewable source of inspiration. Mitzvot done with joy and enthusiasm lift a person a step above the world and have an enormously greater impact on the person’s environment. Again, the key is study and communal participation. The Mitzvah creates a bond between God who commands and man who performs.
Now that we know what a command is, what one are we supposed to do that triggers all these blessings? Wouldn’t you think you would know them by heart? Let’s take a look in Deuteronomy 29:9-13, “Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. 10 Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: 12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day: 13 That he may establish thee today for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
It spells it out right here for us. If we want to experience the blessings of God then we must keep the words of the covenant which is we have to stand with God and enter into His oath, which He swore to uphold for our benefit. We have to let God be our God and his people our people. We have to graft ourselves into the very tree of God so that we can be allowed to bear fruit. We have to learn about God and learn about what God wants us to do to our fellow man so that we can experience the bond between God and man that can only be experienced when we are doing the will of God.
I don’t like to dwell or even give face time to the evil which is being experienced by those who are not in covenant with God. You know why? Because it takes the focus away from God and onto evil and the more we focus on the evil the less we focus on God and His Blessings!
There is a great song by Daniel Whittle penned in 1883 called “There Shall Be Showers Of Blessings”, and this man really seemed to know what they are and how we get them.
1) There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.
Refrain:
Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need:
Mercy-drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.
2) There shall be showers of blessing,
Precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys,
Sound of abundance of rain.
3) There shall be showers of blessing;
Send them upon us, O Lord;
Grant to us now a refreshing,
Come, and now honor Thy Word.
4) There shall be showers of blessing:
Oh, that today they might fall,
Now as to God we’re confessing,
Now as on Jesus we call!
5) There shall be showers of blessing,
If we but trust and obey;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
If we let God have His way.
This is it folks, we can only experience the blessings of God is we allow him to have His way and if we choose to go and search Him out and find out where He is working and what is His purpose for us as we trust and obey. WE stand upon the promises of God and His covenant struck over 3,000 years ago and the renewed blood covenant struck by Jesus. Authority within the Kingdom of Jesus will be ours to enjoy when we accept it and begin to exist within it.
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