Living Life Beyond Miracles – Part 3

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Living Life Beyond Miracles – Part 3

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 have said 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.

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)

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 12:1-3 NKJV Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. (2) I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The difference between being created and being blessed:

After he created them He blessed them.

Genesis 1:26-27 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.

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.

Remember, a miracle is enough to meet the need.

After God made man He blessed them.

Genesis 1:28 NKJV (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.”

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.

Mark 6:41 NKJV And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all.

Miracles are wonderful, but they don’t have any seeds in themselves to keep on producing.

The Blessing contains the seeds to keep it going on perpetually.

Once God’s blessing comes on something, then it gains the ability to have seeds and keep producing after its own kind.

A miracle is like a great big seedless 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 pronounced with words.

Notice God spoke to Adam, and blessed him.

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.

Once a blessing goes out it cannot be rescinded.

(Genesis 27:27-29)

The blessing is not reversible!

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 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 23:19-20 NKJV (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 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.

Curses can be removed by the blessing. (Galatians 3:13-14)

How do we get blessings to come into our lives?

We are going to make this so simple tonight, that you will be able to apply and have the blessings flowing in your life.

God has given miracles for a purpose and He has given blessings for a purpose.

The purpose of miracles is to get people to believe in God.

Many times, miracles do not require faith because we can see here that the Children of Israel were not using any and yet God still helped them.

Elijah and prophets of Baal

1 Kings 18:36-39 NKJV And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. (37) Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.” (38) Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. (39) Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!”

Baal was the fire God and producing fire would have been a miracle that he could have done and that is why Elijah called down fire to consume the sacrifices.

John 2:11 KJV (11) This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.

John 2:23 KJV (23) Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.

John 4:47-48 NLT When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die. (48) Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in Me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”

Exodus 7:5 NKJV And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”

Luke 5:4-11 – Jesus tells Peter to cast out his nets and he caught a huge catch of fish. This was a miracle in order to get Peter to believe.

John 7:31 NKJV And many of the people believed in Him, and said, “When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?”

John 20:30-31 NKJV And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; (31) but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

Romans 15:18-19 NLT Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them. (19) They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God’s Spirit. In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum.

Mark 16:20 NLT And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.

God does some miracles in the lives of believers to get us out of crisis situations but ultimately the purpose of miracles is to get sinners into the Kingdom of God so that God can move from a life of miracles to a life of blessing.

Oftentimes, when a believer’s heart becomes hard to the things of God, God will perform miracles to try and get them back on track. It is a kick-start to get them back where they need to be.

What is the purpose of blessings?

Remember we said one of the differences between miracles and the blessings is that blessings require responsibility and obedience.

Deuteronomy 8:6-10 NKJV (6) “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. (7) For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; (8) a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; (9) a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. (10) When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.

The Blessing will provide for your physical healing:

Exodus 23:25 NKJV “So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

These things are not just for the Children of Israel. We can receive these things too.

The Blessing to you and your children:

Exodus 20:6 NLT But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love Me and obey My commands.

Deuteronomy 12:28 NKJV Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

1 Chronicles 28:8 NLT “So now, with God as our witness, and in the sight of all Israel–the LORD’s assembly–I give you this charge. Be careful to obey all the commands of the LORD your God, so that you may continue to possess this good land and leave it to your children as a permanent inheritance.

Isaiah 44:3-4 NLT For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields. And I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your children. (4) They will thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank.

The Blessing is purposed to prosper you:

Deuteronomy 8:18 NKJV “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Joshua 1:7-8 NKJV Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. (8) This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Job 36:11 NKJV If they obey and serve Him, They shall spend their days in prosperity, And their years in pleasures.

Isaiah 33:15-16 NLT (15) Those who are honest and fair, who refuse to profit by fraud, who stay far away from bribes, who refuse to listen to those who plot murder, who shut their eyes to all enticement to do wrong– (16) these are the ones who will dwell on high. The rocks of the mountains will be their fortress. Food will be supplied to them, and they will have water in abundance.

Again the purpose of the blessing is so that we can be a miracle for other people. God wants us to have such an abundance that we are always in a position to be used to meet the needs of others.

2 Chronicles 31:10 NKJV (10) And Azariah the chief priest, from the house of Zadok, answered him and said, “Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat and have plenty left, for the LORD has blessed His people; and what is left is this great abundance.”

2 Corinthians 9:8-11 AMP (8) And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation]. (9) As it is written, He [the benevolent person] scatters abroad; He gives to the poor; His deeds of justice and goodness and kindness and benevolence will go on and endure forever! [Ps. 112:9.] (10) And [God] Who provides seed for the sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your [resources for] sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness [which manifests itself in active goodness, kindness, and charity]. [Isa. 55:10; Hos. 10:12.] (11) Thus you will be enriched in all things and in every way, so that you can be generous, and [your generosity as it is] administered by us will bring forth thanksgiving to God.

God’s Economy

Matthew 6:25-26 NKJV (25) “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? (26) Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Why did Jesus talk about the birds? It is because birds are oblivious to the economic conditions around them. They simply know that there will be food for them. They do not live by man’s economy.

Jesus wants us to get to a place in life that we are simply living, loving, trusting, obeying, and believing God and He said all of these things will be added to us. Our lives will be provided for and then we are in a position to meet others needs.

Matthew 6:28-32 NKJV (28) “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; (29) and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (30) Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (31) “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ (32) For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

When you are focused on your needs and how are they going to be taken care of, you are no different than the heathen.

Did God save us so that we can just live exactly like the heathen live? NO!!!

When you need a miracle all you are focused on is the need. When you are living in the blessing of the Lord, all you are focused on is Him and doing what He wants you to do.

This brings us to the last purpose of the blessings: So that the world will look at our lives and want what we have in our lives because it sets us apart.

Bottom line: God wants to hear the word and do it. That is what activates the blessing in our lives.