Living Life Beyond Miracles – Part 1

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Living Life Beyond Miracles – Part 1

Ephesians 1:3 NKJV (3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

In the Greek, verses 3 – 14 are all one sentence.

Every blessing that we have started out as a spiritual blessing.

We can look around us and think that everything that we see is eternal but it is not. Only those things that are spiritual are eternal. Spiritual things will be here forever.

Everything that we see in the natural world around us are products of the spiritual world.

Example: Healing starts out as a spiritual thing before it becomes a physical thing to us.

Example: Our natural, material prosperity starts out as a spiritual thing before it becomes a physical thing, manifested in the natural realm.

Jesus illustrated this when He cursed the fig tree because it dried up from the root.

Mark 11:12-14 NKJV (12) Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. (13) And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. (14) In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.

Mark 11:20-24 NKJV (20) Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. (21) And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” (22) So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. (23) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. (24) Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. The things that we desire to see happen in our lives are not going to start out in the natural realm, they are going to start in the spiritual realm.

This is why it is so important to pay attention to the Lord when we are praying about certain things as there might be something in us that needs to be changed spiritually before the change can take place naturally.

The Holy Spirit is aware of what needs to happen both spiritually and naturally in order for the answer to come into our lives. This could be the reason that some things are taking so long in our lives is because we need to change before the situation can change.

We need to remember that for us as believers, that even though we live in a natural world, our way of life is a supernatural, spiritual way of life.

We are spirit first before we are natural.

Sometimes we get so used to moving in the natural that we forget that are spiritual beings.

New Point:

Some Christians find themselves saying, “I just don’t see miracles in my life any more. They used to happen when I first got saved but I just am not seeing them in my life anymore. I don’t understand why this has happened.”

There is something greater that God has for us than living by miracles.

I think that most Christians if faced with the choice between miracles and blessings would choose the miracles, but we are going to see that blessings are the better choice.

A lot of times we would rather hear the testimony of a miracle rather than the testimony of someone receiving a blessing because in our minds the miracle is more special, dramatic or impressive. But according to the Word of God it is not.

It is God’s desire that we walk in His continuous blessing all the time.

Blessings are just as supernatural as miracles. Will we ever get to a place that we don’t need miracles? No.

There is something better than having to live day to day and depending on God to sustain us by miracles.

Exodus 16:11-18 NKJV (11) And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (12) “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’ ” (13) So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. (14) And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. (15) So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat. (16) This is the thing which the LORD has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.’ ” (17) Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. (18) So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need.

Psalms 78:24-25 NKJV (24) Had rained down manna on them to eat, And given them of the bread of heaven. (25) Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full. Apparently for 40 years, God let man eat what angels eat when they choose to eat.

Remember, the angels that came to rescue Lot and his family ate with Lot after much insisting by Lot.

This was a miracle, but it was not God’s best for the Children of Israel. If you will recall, it was not God’s original plan for them to stay in the wilderness for 40 years. At the most it should have taken them a year.

Remember when they came up to the border of the Promised Land and sent the spies in to spy out the land and they came back with the clusters of grapes so large it took two men to carry them.

But the 10 also came back talking about how they were grasshoppers in the eyes of the giants and then the two came back talking about how little the giants were in light of God and His promises. The 10 convinced the people and so they stayed in the wilderness for another 39 years.

They continued to live in the wilderness eating manna (“what is it?”) and quail for another 39 years.

In the morning they would have manna and in the evening they would have quail.

The quail were miraculous because quail do not fly over the wilderness. They fly where there are bushes and trees.

Scholars have stated that there were approximately 3,000,000 Hebrew people. In order to feed them manna every day it required 4,500 tons of manna every morning. To feed them manna over 40 years required 65,700,000 tons of manna. If every person ate one quail per day it would take 3,000,000 quail per day or 90,000,000 quail per month. To provide water for all of the people would have required 15,000,000 gallons of water every day.

As awesome as all of this was, it was not God’s best for them.

Joshua 5:10-12 NKJV (10) Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. (11) And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. (12) Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

God’s best was not to live on the manna every day but was to get to the promised land and live off of the provision and blessings that were there in the promised land.

We have the understanding that if someone sees a miracle it will cause them to want to believe in God.

This can happen, but it is not always the case.

Remember, the Egyptians saw at least two miracles every single day and did not believe.

The Children of Israel saw the same miracles, yet they still wandered around in doubt and unbelief.

We need to always remember that it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. The goodness of God can be seen in many different ways.

Definition of a Miracle:

Miracle – a divine intervention in the ordinary course of nature.

The Blessing – a supernatural empowerment.

Galatians 3:13-14 NKJV 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.

Deuteronomy 28:8 NKJV “The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

Let’s look at some comparisons between miracles and blessing:

Miracles come in crisis situations.
The Blessing can keep us out of crisis.

Does that mean we will never face a crisis situation? The answer is no. The children of Israel encountered a crisis even after they entered into the Promised Land at Jericho. The Lord still showed up and performed and miracle and caused the walls to fall flat.

Miracles only come in small amounts – just enough to get you through.

If you try and hoard up a miracle it will rot and not be any good for anyone.

The Blessing always comes in abundance.

A Miracle is just enough for you.

Remember the manna was just enough for those in your tent.

The Blessing is always enough so you can start giving to other people.

God is ready for your abundance to become some else’s miracles.

Miracles can come even when you are in unbelief.

Remember the reason that God began to the manna and the quail was not because He had heard all of their faith confessions.

Exodus 16:12 NKJV (12) “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’ “

The Blessing is manifest as we believe God and His Word.

Miracles are mainly designed for sinners and immature Christians.

The Children of Israel had come out of Egypt but Egypt had not yet come out of them.

Even though they complained and murmured, God still provided the manna and the quail.

The Blessing demands responsibility and obedience to the Word of God.

Isaiah 1:19 NKJV (19) If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land;

Miracles are temporary. They last as long as the crisis situation is present but once the need is met or the crisis is over, the miracle ends.

Peter walked on the water ONE time. He would have sunk if he had tried it again. The feeding of the 5000 by Jesus did not continue on and on nor did it spread to everyone all around. It was for those that were present and just at that moment.

The Blessing is eternal.

Miracles counteract, contradict, and override natural laws.
The Blessing can work with natural laws.

Notice God wanted to feed them with the fruit of the earth when they were in their place of blessing. But they had to grow it, mine it.

In miracles, God works FOR you.
In the Blessing, God works WITH you.

God’s ultimate desire is to bless you according to seedtime and harvest. Meaning that whatever you sow (put your hands to) God will bless and multiply that back to you. God has said in His Word that He will bless the WORK OF YOUR HANDS.

Deuteronomy 16:15 NKJV Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.

Miracles are a jump start, designed to get you to the life of blessings.
The Blessing is so that you can be a jump start for someone else to get them into a life of God’s blessings.

We are not supposed to live off of jump starts.

Miracles are just enough.
The Blessing will always keep growing. It can grow and increase as you grow and increase. Seeds sown will always reap more than what was sown.

The Blessing will always work in spite of circumstances.

Isaac sowed in the time of famine and God blessed it and He multiplied in spite of the circumstances (famine) that was in the land. This was not a miracle because Isaac did his part in obedience to the Lord and God worked with him.

Notice God’s plan is not that we live in the miracles of Abraham but the blessing of Abraham which is what was working in Isaac’s life to cause the harvest to come in the time of famine.