16 November 2008 To walk in the Blessing
Intro & recap
1. Blessing is the empowerment to prosper
2. Abraham was blessed by God – to be a blessing
Genesis 12:2 (New King James Version) 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
3. Galatians 3:9 (New King James Version)9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
4. Are you of faith – are you a believer? If you are you, are blessed too.
5. As a believer you believe that Jesus died for you, that he took your sin and gave you his righteousness. He also took your curse by becoming a curse for you so that you might receive his blessing.
Gal 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
6. This is part of the great exchange. We are blessed- It is a done deal!
7. Proverbs 10:22 (New King James Version) 22 The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.
In the Message – it says :v 22 God's blessing makes life rich;
Let’s confess, "I'm rich. I have a rich life.

8. The first step in walking in the blessing is to have knowledge of what is ours.
This comes from hearing the word of God
9. Secondly we need faith This comes from hearing and believing the word of God. Faith is trusting God – who he is, what he has done
10. and personalising it -> What he did he did for me. we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith
Today
There are blockages in on our path of Walking in the Blessing (which belongs to us).
1. unbelief – doubts, Natural because our experience is filled with negative circumstances which we suggest that we are quite the opposite to BLESSED
2. We receive or perceive negative things through our “gates to the natural world
a. Ears,
b. Eyes
c. and mouth.
Proverbs 4 20 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;
22 For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth, And put perverse lips far from you.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you.

We see here these three gates here dedicated to the word of God. This way your heart is fed by the word of God. The result is LIFE, and HEALTH.
The alternative is that ears, eyes and mouth are feeding your soul with things of the world, flesh and the devil.
We are told to v23 “Guard your heart.” Your inner man
Seek to have the God’s will in your life. That way you walk in the BLESSING. – The blessed life, health to your flesh , All the issues of life are blessed

These gates are gates to our mind will and emotions; the soul. What comes in and stays affects how we think, how we decide and how we feel. These affect our physical body too; the health of our flesh. v22

For the born again forgiven, righteous child of God, the soul is not supposed to be the driving force of our life. We should live out of the spirit not the soul. Otherwise we are “soulish” led by the natural man, (i.e., the carnal man, the flesh). We are living just like the unredeemed unsaved worldly man.
For the born-again believer our spirit has become alive by the power of the Holy Spirit that we may have a heart which longs after God’s desires, God’s will, and is a gateway to the wisdom of God. Our heart should know as a fact that we are BLESSED. [= enabled to prosper.]
Our spirit is supposed to rule – not our soul. With the born-again believer, who is spirit led, then what is in the soul will be changed, cleansed and ruled by his spirit.

However, if the soul is in charge and not our spirit man then we will not walk in the fullness of the blessing that belongs to us. So let’s feed our heart – the inner man with the word of God. Then the inner man, the heart of the believer agrees with God and can rule over our natural man.

There are other blockages.

Where is our love centred? What are the desires of our hearts, what is their source?
Gen 3: 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
This was sin coming from what she saw with her eyes and desired.

1Jn2: 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

The things of the world – worldly attitudes, desires, are the things that choke the word in the parable of the sower. These affect the harvest of the seed sown, [the word of God.]

Mark 4: 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful

What occupies our thinking and feelings?
• The worries of life?
• Cares?
• Our money, jobs, relationships, where we live, what we shall eat or drink?
• What is our value base?
• Is it our desire to have things; our view of riches?
Look at the kinds of programmes on the telly:
o game shows, auction shows – money;
o buying and selling and makeovers of property – what we have and where we live;
o Food programmes - what we eat. Do we feed our belly from the telly?

Keep watch and protect your inner man; your heart, by discerning what is in the things you hear, things you see and things you say.

Avoid the blockages along the way as you try to walk in the blessing?
Better still build a bypass to the blockages, by applying Proverbs 4: 20-25 to your way of life.
We aim to be good soil, ready for the seed of the word of God.
The word is the seed.
The seed produces after its kind.
There can be good seed or bad seed. What are you planting?
The harvest depends on the seed you choose. Do you have a vision of what you want in your life.
Like a packet of seeds - there is a picture of the harvest on the packet. So let’s examine the seed we plant in our lives.

WE can fall for the bad seed by not having a look at the packet. Just following the crowd, or following our own desires.
Pro4: 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. Both being good soil and sowing the good seed.

Have a vision. See your self as blessed – living the rich life. This is how God sees you.
Choose what you see, hear and how you speak. So that what you plant in your life fulfils that vision.
• Hear the word which says that you are blessed.
• See yourself as blessed of God.
• Make sure that the words of your mouth agree with what God has said about you.
• Your own words will plant your vision for your life

Proverbs 4 20 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;
22 For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth, And put perverse lips far from you.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you.

These are the principles of walking in the blessing and avoiding the blockages
• of doubt [ faith is from the Word] ------- ears
• of worldly thinking and desires [set your love on things of God that won’t pass away] -------- eyes
• of negative words from your own lips [speak the vision of a blessed life] ---------- mouth