January 29, 2014 - Wednesday

Start Time: 5:18 A.M.

End Time: 5:55 A.M.

Title: Blessings for Obedience

Scripture: Deuteronomy 28:1 – 14

God’s Message / God’s Promise / God’s Commands:

→If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:  You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.  The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.  Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.  You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

NOTES:

Ø God is a God of Incentives!  God takes care of His people and provide them all their needs but on top of that, when His people obey Him, He also provides incentives or rewards.  Obedience to God has rewards: one of which is to set you high above all the nations on earth and all God’s blessings will accompany us wherever we are, in the city or in the country.  We will be a fertile land where everything planted will grow.  The blessings God mentioned here is not only applicable in what we do or our work, but it includes our productivity as humans (being able to produce internally).  The blessings of God are both internal and external.  What are hands do and what our bodies can produce.  And wherever we are, even if we are in the country (where no progress is seen) or in the city where competition is fierce, we will truly be blessed and become productive because of our obedience to God.

→The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.  The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

NOTES:

Ø God is a God who rewards abundant prosperity and ensures your rewards are protected!  God desires to rewards us for He desires our obedience to Him.  He wants us to be blessed and He is excited to do so and when He rewards, His rewards are never cheap!  He grants us abundant prosperity!  Isn’t this a little too much?  Prosperity is already success, riches, wealth, affluence, luxury, etc.  And He is giving us abundance of it!  He doesn’t just want us to be prosperous; He wants us to be abundantly prosperous – meaning we will not be lacking of prosperity wherever we are and whatever we do!  Praise God!  Plus, not only does He rewards us abundant prosperity, He ensures that our prosperity is protected from our enemies!  They come to rob us in one direction but will flee from many because they will fear us as God is with us!  Hallelujah!  So no robbers, no thieves, no burglar, or mugger, or shoplifter can ever steal away the prosperity God has for us!

→The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.

NOTES:

Ø God is a God who delights in setting us on top and making us the first!  God clearly promises to open the heavens, the storehouse of His bounty, and pour it out on our hands and our lands.  Note that God specified that He will send rain on our lands in season and bless all the work of our hands – He did not say that wealth will just appear to us or we will be successful at a blink of an eye.  God specifically said that He will send rain on our land in season, which means 1) there’s a waiting time for there is a season 2) there’s work to be done for the blessing is just the rain but the land still needs to be toiled for.  God also said that He will bless the works of our hands – which again clearly shows that work must be done.  But the great thing about God is that, everything our hands do will be blessed and He did not even emphasized the effort of the works of our hands because no matter what, our efforts will never amount to become worthy of the blessings He pours out.  Everything is thru His Grace and Love, yet we still need to do our part and that is to work so that He can bless us. God also specifies that He will set up on top and make us the 1^st as part of our reward for being obedient to Him and we will become lenders and never borrowers because His prosperity will be more than enough for us that we will not need anything more from others!  Again, Hallelujah to God!

Application / Realization:

Ø God is a God of incentives.  He delights in giving us incentives and makes everything easy for us to achieve our targets so we get to enjoy our incentives.  Why do I say this?  Because God said, all we need to do is obey to get the rewards (but note, even before our obedience, God is already pouring out His blessings to us but if we want more of it, then obey and we will be rewarded!).  He set up an incentive plan and gives us the strength, power, heart and mind to obey Him.  It is He who also provides us what we need to ensure that we obey.  The target is still the same, “complete obedience to God”.  Yet in our own will, we cannot do this.  So we ask Him to give us the strength to obey and He gives it.  He gives us more than enough strength, power, mind, and heart to obey what He commanded us to do so He can blessed us!  What a great God is HE!  Look at the length that God has to go thru just to bless us?  Isn’t He amazing?  What a great God we serve!  All this so that He can bless us!  And not just with any blessing… His blessing is abundant prosperity!  Limitless wealth!  Overflowing success! Unstoppable riches! Outpouring of Luxury!  Everything is boundless and it just keeps on pouring and pouring!  Wow!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, great and awesome You are!  Amazing Father and Omnipotent!  I am truly moved and touched by Your desire to bless me – that You have to do all these just to bless me.  The lengths of things that You have to go thru just so I will experience Your abundant prosperity!  You are truly a God like no other!  No one would even thought of this yet You did!  Lord, I will never be deserving of Your Love, Your Grace, Your Favor and Your blessings.  Yet You made me thru Jesus Christ!  So thank You Lord, thank You Father, thank You my friend!  I cannot believe that You have orchestrated everything just to ensure that I get to experience Your amazing blessings and You also make sure that no one or nothing can take it away from me.  Thank You God.  Holy Spirit, help to obey at all times.  Help me to see that You have made everything possible for me to obey.  Help me every day as I face my daily struggles to obey, Help me to overcome and let me see everything You did just so I can win and obey Your word and all these, just so I get to have Your abundant prosperity!  Again Lord, I am speechless of Your Love, Your Favor, and Your Grace!  Thank You!  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!