Silas
Beloved of All
Your desire for God to remove what hinders His work in your life and to know His favor is a good desire, and Scripture speaks clearly about how His blessing comes.
God made a covenant of blessing with Abraham, saying in blessing I will bless you, and He promised that through Abraham all nations would be blessed. That promise looks forward to Jesus. Through faith in Jesus Christ you become a child of Abraham by faith and enter into that covenant. The blessing does not come through the law or through our own works or righteousness or through religious ritual and outward forms. The law pronounces a curse, twelve times over, but through Jesus we relate to God on the basis of promise and grace. In Christ we have already been given every spiritual blessing, redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, an inheritance as adopted children, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of what is to come.
It helps to remember that God is not limited to a formula or a repeated phrase or a special night for miracles. He is not moved by saying favor or miracles or blessings over and over as if repetition will compel Him. His purposes stand. When Isaac sought to give the blessing to Esau because of savory food, and when Rebekah and Jacob used deceit to obtain it, God showed that His declared purpose would stand despite human scheming. Esau afterward sought the blessing with tears but found no place for repentance, because he wanted the blessing without a changed heart. God looks for faith and repentance and trust in His way, not an attempt to manipulate His favor.
There is indeed a real spiritual warfare. Scripture teaches that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and spiritual forces of wickedness in high places, fallen angels who rebelled with Satan against God, while holy angels remain obedient to Him. That warfare goes on daily around our lives, and often we feel its aftereffects as unsettled emotions or heaviness without understanding why. The weapons for this battle are not carnal. We cannot fight a spiritual battle with carnal methods or worldly ideas or advertising techniques. God has given spiritual weapons for spiritual warfare, the Word of God, faith, and prayer. The battle is largely for the mind, and by those weapons we stand against the enemy.
Scripture also sets before us a blessing and a curse, a blessing if we walk in obedience to His Word and a curse if we turn away. Moses told the people that when they entered the promise they were to be careful to keep His commandments with all their heart, and that blessing would overtake them, blessed in the city and blessed in the country. This is not a rule to earn salvation, for salvation is through Jesus alone, but it is the path of fellowship where we experience His blessing rather than bringing judgment upon ourselves.
So I will pray with you that you will rest more deeply in what you already have in Christ, and that you will walk in faith, obedience, and prayer.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that You help this dear one to know the fullness of Your blessing that is already theirs in Christ, forgiveness, redemption, adoption, and the presence of Your Holy Spirit. Give a heart to perceive Your Word and to trust Your promises made to Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus. Guard the mind and heart by faith and by Your Word against every attack of the enemy, and teach to use the spiritual weapons You have provided. Lead into obedience and a repentant heart that seeks You above any outward favor or miracle, and let Your purposes stand in this life for Your glory. Amen.
God made a covenant of blessing with Abraham, saying in blessing I will bless you, and He promised that through Abraham all nations would be blessed. That promise looks forward to Jesus. Through faith in Jesus Christ you become a child of Abraham by faith and enter into that covenant. The blessing does not come through the law or through our own works or righteousness or through religious ritual and outward forms. The law pronounces a curse, twelve times over, but through Jesus we relate to God on the basis of promise and grace. In Christ we have already been given every spiritual blessing, redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, an inheritance as adopted children, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of what is to come.
It helps to remember that God is not limited to a formula or a repeated phrase or a special night for miracles. He is not moved by saying favor or miracles or blessings over and over as if repetition will compel Him. His purposes stand. When Isaac sought to give the blessing to Esau because of savory food, and when Rebekah and Jacob used deceit to obtain it, God showed that His declared purpose would stand despite human scheming. Esau afterward sought the blessing with tears but found no place for repentance, because he wanted the blessing without a changed heart. God looks for faith and repentance and trust in His way, not an attempt to manipulate His favor.
There is indeed a real spiritual warfare. Scripture teaches that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and spiritual forces of wickedness in high places, fallen angels who rebelled with Satan against God, while holy angels remain obedient to Him. That warfare goes on daily around our lives, and often we feel its aftereffects as unsettled emotions or heaviness without understanding why. The weapons for this battle are not carnal. We cannot fight a spiritual battle with carnal methods or worldly ideas or advertising techniques. God has given spiritual weapons for spiritual warfare, the Word of God, faith, and prayer. The battle is largely for the mind, and by those weapons we stand against the enemy.
Scripture also sets before us a blessing and a curse, a blessing if we walk in obedience to His Word and a curse if we turn away. Moses told the people that when they entered the promise they were to be careful to keep His commandments with all their heart, and that blessing would overtake them, blessed in the city and blessed in the country. This is not a rule to earn salvation, for salvation is through Jesus alone, but it is the path of fellowship where we experience His blessing rather than bringing judgment upon ourselves.
So I will pray with you that you will rest more deeply in what you already have in Christ, and that you will walk in faith, obedience, and prayer.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that You help this dear one to know the fullness of Your blessing that is already theirs in Christ, forgiveness, redemption, adoption, and the presence of Your Holy Spirit. Give a heart to perceive Your Word and to trust Your promises made to Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus. Guard the mind and heart by faith and by Your Word against every attack of the enemy, and teach to use the spiritual weapons You have provided. Lead into obedience and a repentant heart that seeks You above any outward favor or miracle, and let Your purposes stand in this life for Your glory. Amen.
