Securing the Blessing of God
“Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.” (Deuteronomy 33:16 NIV)
Before he died, Moses was directed by God to pray a blessing over the
descendants of Joseph //who would go into the Promised Land. Do you know
that many of us are living /off a blessing //that someone else secured by
prayer and by seeking after God with all of their heart? That’s because
the blessing of God isn’t just something vertical, where there’s an
overflow of grace and power and effectiveness /coming down from God /on
the life and ministry of a Christian man or woman or body of believers.
The blessing of God impacts our horizontal relationships as well,
affecting our children and their children after them. So how do we
secure the blessing of God /over our lives and the lives of our loved
ones? We do so by believing, by humbling ourselves, and by treasuring
the favor of God on our lives.
[Believing that there’s such a thing as the favor of God on a person or church] is paramount to securing God’s favor on our lives. There must
be such a thing /as the blessing of God, or Moses would not have prayed
it over the descendants of Joseph. If it happened automatically /when
someone formed part of God’s people, why would he have prayed for it?
No one secures the blessing of God that doesn’t believe () it exists in the
first place; who doesn’t believe that without the blessing and fullness
of God’s favor, life will never be what God intended it to be for every
believer.
One obstacle to securing God’s favor is pride. God says in his Word,
“You will seek me and find me /when you seek me with all your heart”
(Jeremiah 29:13). We could believe this and even pray about it /once or
twice, yet have a fallback plan /in case God doesn’t bestow his favor. A
person’s thinking could be the following: “I can make it in life /even
without God’s favor, because I have my degree or my bank account or my
connections.”
Do you see why this way of thinking will never secure the
blessing of God? Instead, we have to humble ourselves and
say, “God, I want your blessing /more than life itself! I don’t want to
live without it!” And when the Lord hears our cries go up to him
wanting his favor on our lives, he will respond!
Once we have secured the blessing of God and he begins to work in our lives, we have to then treasure God’s favor.
It’s invisible yet so real that no demon in hell can come against it;
but the blessing of God can be lost, because the Spirit of God that
lives in us can be grieved. If we start to get involved in things //that
go against God, such as gossip and cutting corners and lying and
unforgiveness, that will hurt the Holy Spirit in us.
And if we don’t
confess our sins /when God’s warning comes, we can end up like Samson,
who was chosen and anointed, but ended up with his eyes gouged out
/because he played around and didn’t treasure the blessing of God on his
life. How sad it is that we can start out with the blessing of God, but
lose our first love /as the Church in Ephesus did and live off past
laurels, believing our own hype and no longer being effective or
fruitful in our respective ministries or personal lives.
So we have to believe in the favor of God—though it’s invisible and we
can’t prove it to a soul—because God’s Word is true. Not only do we
have to believe it, but we must also want it, if we desire to walk
closely with the Lord and to have an impact on our world. And we have
to treasure that blessing, walking humbly before God, and keeping short
accounts with him, because there’s forgiveness with the Lord.
* keeping short
accounts means to not let pain and misunderstanding fester. Instead, humble yourself and find harmony again.
If that’s
how we feel today, let’s pray: “We want to live under your smile, oh
Lord. We plead the blessing of Joseph, that everything () we touch – every
endeavor that you lead us to make – may prosper and be anointed by you.
We don’t deserve it and can’t do it on our own, but we’re not looking
at that. We’re looking to you!”
Read Deuteronomy 33:13-17.