BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING
Genesis 1:27-28 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Blessing means to release favor and benefit – Fruitful to bear fruit to be abundant – Multiply to enlarge excel increase.
The principle of first mention – God blessed man and spoke good over them – the first time man heard the voice of God was in God blessing him. This sums up the heart of God to us all. He wants to bless us all.
If Cod wants to bless us it leads to a question -What does it take to activate blessing in our lives and become more fruitful?
FAITH
The first thing we need to grasp is that in order to receive we need to believe:
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Do we believe that God has in His will our good? If God spoke into man blessing He certainly wants to carry His word out. That leads to the next area:
OBEDIENCE
God doesn’t bless us until we respond to His word: Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”
As soon as Abram acted in obedience to God’s word he was blessed by God. To often we have bought into a lie that cursing is a spiritual phenomena that is directed against us through some other power than God. But the truth is cursing and blessing is no more than the spiritual law of reaping and sowing and both find their origin in God. Meditate on these scriptures.
Genesis 3:14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You are cursed ….
Deut. 28:1-2 "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
Deut. 28:15,20 "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 20"The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.
Balaam could not curse Israel because God forbade him!
This leads us to the last area:
PATIENCE
Hebrews 10:36-38 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: "For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him."
Hebrews 10:36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. (NLT)
Hebrews 10:36 But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion. (Msg)
Hebrews 10:36 You need to keep on patiently doing God’s will if you want him to do for you all that he has promised. (Liv)
God tests our faith and our obedience through our patient endurance – consider Abraham:
Romans 4:16-22 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17(as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed--God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be." 19And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness."
CONCLUSION
Let us believe in God and His word and let us respond in obedience and with patient endurance inherit the promises of God for our lives. Until we are blessed we cannot be a blessing to others!
