Living Life Beyond Miracles – Part 2
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,
God has already blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm.
We said last week that everything starts in the spiritual realm before it manifests in the natural realm. These blessings are spiritual but they are designed to affect our lives in every realm in which we walk.
There is something better than needing a miracle and that is being in the position to be a miracle for someone else.
Which is better: to need money in your bank account or to have money in your bank account?
Definition of a Miracle:
Miracle – a Divine intervention in the ordinary course of nature.
Let’s look at some comparisons between miracles and blessing:
- Miracles come in crisis situations.
- Blessings keep us out of crisis.
- Miracles only come in small amounts – just enough to get you through.
- Blessings always come in abundance.
- A Miracle is just enough for you.
- Blessings are enough so you can start giving to other people.
- Miracles can come even when you are in unbelief.
- Blessings must be received by faith.
- Miracles are mainly designed for sinners and young Christians.
- Blessings demand responsibility and obedience to the Word of God.
- 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. Elijah outran the chariot ONE time. He split the Jordan River ONE time. God split the Red Sea ONE time.
- Blessings are eternal.
- Miracles counteract, contradict, and override natural laws.
- Blessings work with natural laws.
- In miracles, God works FOR you.
- In the blessings, God works WITH you.
- Miracles are a jump start, designed to get you to the life of blessings.
- The blessings are 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.
- Blessings will always keep growing. They can grow and increase as you grow and increase. Seeds sown will always reap more than what was sown.
- Blessings will always work in spite of circumstances.
Even during Jesus’ ministry, the people did not have to rely on miracles, but they did.
Luke 13:10-17 NKJV Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. (11) And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. (12) But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” (13) And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. (14) But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” (15) The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? (16) So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound–think of it–for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” (17) And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.
Apparently, this woman had a right to have been healed because she was a Jew, but because of ignorance did not know to receive it and this is what upset Jesus so much.
There were some Gentiles that Jesus healed who did not have that right, but Jesus performed a miracle for them.
Matthew 15:21-28 NKJV Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. (22) And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” (23) But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” (24) But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (25) Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” (26) But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” (27) And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” (28) Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
God has a better plan for His people!
Galatians 3:13-14 NKJV (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.
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.
What is a blessing?
- In the Hebrew it means favor being bestowed from one to another, prosperity
- In the Greek (eulogia) favor conferred, gift, benefit, bounty
Blessings can be from man to God (praise)
Revelation 5:12 NKJV …saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
Blessings can be from man to man.
Isaac blessed Jacob instead of Esau (Genesis 27:27-29)
Blessings can be from God to man.
Genesis 1:22,28 – God blessed Adam and Eve in the Garden
- Blessings are not tangible.
- Things are not blessings.
- Things are the result of blessings or being blessed.
It is favor poured out on your life which releases God’s power to work on your behalf.
If we are already blessed then what activates the blessing in our lives?
Deuteronomy 28:1-2 NKJV (1) “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. (2) And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
The blessing of God is designed to work with you and not for you. But it is only activated when we give our attention to OBEY what the Lord has told us to do.
Obedience it what causes the blessing to become active in our lives.
What is the blessing of God for? Is it about me and you?
No, it is to be a testimony to the goodness of God.
Genesis 1:11-12 NKJV (11) Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. (12) And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Why doesn’t the scripture just say that God made the grass, and God made the trees, etc.
God does not just make something and then go off and leave it. If He did, He would have to keep making more trees.
Genesis 1:20-22 NKJV (20) Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” (21) So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (22) And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
After he created them He blessed them.
Genesis 1:26-28 NKJV (26) Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (27) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (28) Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
When God formed man of the dust of the ground and then breathed into him and he became a living being, was that a miracle or a blessing? It was a miracle.
After God made man He blessed them.
Once the blessing comes upon something, it gains the ability to keep on producing.
What is better than having a little money to meet your needs because of the miraculous? Having money in your account and then that money comes into contact with God’s blessing and keeps on producing.
Miracles are wonderful, but they don’t have any seeds in themselves to keep on producing.
The Blessing contain the seeds to keep it going on perpetually.
Once God’s favor comes on something, then it gains the ability to have seeds and keep producing after its own kind.
A miracle is a great big watermelon with no seeds in it. A blessing is a watermelon loaded with seeds that are able to keep on producing more watermelons.
Blessings are so big, you can pass them on to your children after you. This was a common practice in the Old Testament.
Notice that in the Old Testament, the fathers would not just pass on their possessions, they something else because they knew they needed the blessing on them for it to be able to continue.
Blessings are passed on with words.
Notice God spoke to Adam, and blessed him.
Once a blessing goes out it cannot be rescinded.
(Genesis 27:27-29)
Curses can be removed by a blessing. (Galatians 3:13-14)
When we pass on the blessing by blessing our children, God will honor that blessing that is in line with His Word and see to it that it comes to pass.
We see where Balaam, a backslidden prophet was paid to curse the Children of Israel.
Numbers 22:18 NKJV (18) Then Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more.
Balaam said he could not go beyond what God has said.
Numbers 23:8 NKJV (8) “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?
Numbers 23:16-20 NKJV (16) Then the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” (17) So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?” (18) Then he took up his oracle and said: “Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, son of Zippor! (19) “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (20) Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
The Children of Israel did not even know that this was going on. They just kept going on in the blessing.
The blessing is not reversible!
The only one that can stop the blessing of God in your life IS YOU!
Galatians 3:8-9 NKJV And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” (9) So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.