We have been considering keys to obtaining our promises in Jesus by looking at the Book of Joshua as they finally entered Canaan to obtain the promises for them that were first spoken to Abraham.  In my last blog we looked at the fall of Jericho and keys for obtaining promises related to that conquest.  I want to consider one more element of obtaining and maintaining promises as we end this little series.

After the great victory at Jericho, Israel was full of confidence for the battles ahead.  Jericho had been the first, the greatest, and the most significant city in Joshua’s campaign  to take the Promised Land from the foreign tribes that were living there.  As a kind of “first fruits” of battle and the promises to come, God had instructed them to dedicate Jericho to him.  They were to take no plunder and no slaves but to destroy and burn every part of the city.  They would be allowed to take plunder from the remaining battles, but this first one was to be given to God as an acknowledgement that he was the one who gave them victory and as judgment on the false god’s the inhabitants of Jericho had worshipped for hundreds of years. They indeed destroyed the city, except for Rahab and her family, and prepared for their next conquest – the city of Ai.

Ai was a much smaller city with inferior defenses. Joshua sent men to scout out the city that was to be eliminated next and they came back suggesting that Joshua send only two to three thousand men to Ai.  After the way God had given Jericho into their hands they thought Ai would be a picnic.  The text says that Joshua sent three thousand men, but they were routed by the smaller forces in Ai and thirty-six were killed. The people of Israel were devastated by the defeat.

“ Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord…And Joshua said, ‘Ah sovereign Lord, why did you even bring the people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?’ … The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Stand up. What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant.’”  In the ensuing verses, Joshua discovers that a man named Achan had taken gold, silver, and clothing from Jericho and had hidden the plunder in his tent.  Because of his sin, God had removed his hand of protection from Israel so that they were defeated in battle.  In addition to that, Joshua had not first inquired of the Lord to see if they should attack Ai.  The Lord would have told him then that the covenant had been broken and they would be defeated.

There are several lessons in this for us. First of all, many promises of God are conditional.  Under the new covenant, faith and faithfulness are required to receive most of the promises.  In the New Testament, we see in the Parable of the Talents that financial success and favor are given when we have been good stewards of what God has already given us. Healing comes to those who have faith to receive it and the gift is given to those who believe God for it.  Peter could walk on water as long as he did not take his eyes off of Jesus and his faith did not waiver.   James tells us that we have not because we ask not or because we ask with selfish motives. We do not have to have perfect faith but we have to continue to pursue our relationship with God or the manifestation of the promise may be withdrawn.

Sometimes we are faithful until we receive what we wanted and then begin to act independently of the Lord as Joshua did when he attacked Ai without inquiring. When we begin to “maintain” the promise in our own strength, then the blessing of God may be withdrawn.  However, we also see in Joshua 7-8, that once the sin was discovered and dealt with, the promise still stood and God once again began to give them victories.

The principle is that sin can hinder the promises of God being fulfilled – our own sin or the sin of others we are associated with. The sins of leaders in nations, businesses, churches, or families can limit blessings that could have otherwise come to those they lead.   The sin of a spouse can hinder the fulfillment of God’s promises in the lives of family members. There is a way back to the promise through repentance but only if the sin is dealt with and repentance is genuine.  Paul tells us that we must not be yoked together with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6) in marriage, treaties, and business covenants. Our salvation may not be affected by those relationships but our blessings, answers to prayers, and fulfillment of promises may well be hindered.

I am convinced that many of our prayers go unanswered and the power of God is not displayed because our churches have little regard for holiness. We live in the age of compromise and tolerance.  Many of us have begun to tolerate in our own lives, our own churches,  and society things that God’s word calls sin. When there is “sin in the camp,” everyone is affected.  As individualistic Americans, we tend to view that principle as unfair.  Why should the sin of others cost us?   We need to remember that God makes the rules, not us.  When we tolerate sin in our own lives or in our church, it may well cost us. There is wisdom in that dynamic, however, because if I know someone else’s sin will cost me or my family, I will encourage them to live for the Lord and seek holiness…for their benefit as well as my own.  Of course, we have to guard against legalism and self-righteousness but Jesus was perfectly holy without being either of those. He accepted people where they were but did not leave them there. He was very gracious with the woman caught in adultery, but in the end instructed her to go and sin no more.

God has made many promises to his people and Paul tells us that in Jesus Christ every promise is “Yes” and “Amen.”  He wants to fulfill those promises for us. When there is a problem in the fulfillment of a promise, the problem is not on his end.  Of course, some promises are simply put on hold because of timing but we do need to examine ourselves to see if we are failing in one of the conditions of that promise.  Ask the Holy Spirit to show you if there is something lacking or if sin is blocking the way. If there is, then repent and deal with the sin. If not, then keep seeking, asking, and knocking. Our God is a generous God who loves to give to his children and who loves to fulfill his promises. It is to his glory to do so.

When you read early Christian writings there is always a great deal of emphasis on Christ’s admonition to take up our cross daily in order to follow him. The theology of the cross is that God uses hardship to conform us to Jesus and to teach us to make him our source of strength and supply.  In America, where comfort and plenty have defined many lives, the idea of taking up our cross is rarely proclaimed and is even a bit offensive if we are honest. In some corners of the kingdom, a prosperity gospel has been preached which suggests that material abundance and ease are God’s will for his people on earth and proof of his favor. Preachers of that gospel tend to live on lavish estates and raise money for twenty-six passenger jets to fly around the globe preaching to the poor.

I’m not opposed to believers making a great living. It is believers with means whom God can use to fund the kingdom here on earth and actually care for the poor. What I question, even in my own life, is how much I have bought into the notion that sacrificial living is no longer an essential element in pleasing God and drawing close to him.  In fact, American believers tend to see hardship in our lives as proof that somehow God is displeased with us.  If that were the case, then Jesus and those who first followed him must have been very displeasing to God. I am reminded of David’s words when he said, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offering that cost me nothing” (2 Sam.24:24).

Taking up our cross daily is not necessarily a call to poverty or persecution.  It is, however, a call to setting our personal agenda aside each day while we genuinely seek God’s agenda for us.  It is saying “No” to the natural man who demands to have his way, demands to be treated with respect, demands his rights, demands to be first, demands to be given the seat of honor, refuses to submit to anyone, and who is always self-focused and concerned about his comfort, his success, and his well-being.

The truth is that most of our pain and discomfort in life comes from our self-focus. It is that focus that measures every interaction to see if we were given due deference.  It notices every ache and pain in our body and keeps score in every relationship.  It takes offense, issues judgments, justifies our own shortcomings and rings the “victim” alarm every time we feel that life hasn’t been fair. Our self-focus keeps pulling the scab off of our own wounds as we constantly rehearse the scenes where those wounds were inflicted and keeps Jesus at bay because we feel such a need to protect ourselves by being in control.

Taking up our cross daily puts the focus on Jesus and others, rather than ourselves.  It actually reduces our pain even though we believe our pain would increase. It is something, I believe, that only the Holy Spirit can do in us, but won’t due without our constant permission. We all want to be filled with the Spirit but if we are filled with self, there is little room for the Spirit to move and work.

In a culture that promotes self-love, attending to our needs first, and entitlement it is difficult to take up our cross.  We would rather pay someone else to carry our cross for us. Unfortunately, that task cannot be outsourced.  The paradox, of course, is that the key to abundant living is dying to our own demands. The key to freedom is surrendering to Jesus…not just the parts we don’t care about but everything. I believe it is also a key to greater anointing and power because when we carry our cross, we will steward those things as Jesus would, rather than for our own affirmation. I need to consider this reality in my own life today.  You might need to as well.

The goodness of God is an essential theological truth that affects everything we do and everything for which we pray. When we consider the goodness of God, however, it is hard not to keep shifting between the fearful God of the Old Testament and the God of grace revealed in the New Testament. When hardship comes and stays for a while, most of us immediately think that the judgment of God has landed on us because that is what we see in the Old Testament – you know…global flood, fire consuming Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt, Miriam being struck with leprosy, and so on. If we are not careful, we see God as a God of vengeance and wrath rather than a loving father, and when we see him that way, it is almost impossible to reconcile that view with the Heavenly Father that Jesus talks about who knows and cares if even one sparrow falls to the ground. When we see God that way we are uncertain that he always wants to bless us or we redefine blessing so that it can contain hardship, persecution, loss, death, and illness. If we believe that God may visit those kinds of things on us because they are good for us in the long run, we will not be able to pray against those things with much faith. If we are not clear on what constitutes the works of God and the works of the devil, we will not know how to pray. John defined the works of the devil as everything Jesus attacked in his ministry – sickness, premature death, demonic affliction, condemnation, hunger, shame, etc.

What we need to recognize is that the cross has made all the difference and that the cross was in the heart of God from the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8). God’s revelation of himself and kingdom truths has always been a progressive revelation revealing some things now and some things later. Even Jesus told his disciples, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (Jn.16:12-13).

In our own lives, we hear and understand the truths of the scriptures bit by bit rather than getting a full download the moment we come to faith in Jesus. Even to the apostles, the New Covenant was unlocked bit by bit. On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on the church, the leaders were totally unaware that God was going to open the door to Gentile believers. According to scholars, it was nearly seven to ten years after Pentecost when Peter received a vision that God had accepted Gentiles into the church without the need to become proselyted Jews before they were saved (Acts 10). It was such a hidden part of the gospel that it took a major conference in Jerusalem to affirm that Gentiles were welcome in the church (Acts 15). That truth was embedded in scripture all along but no one read the texts with that understanding until the Holy Spirit granted them that understanding.

Since God works through progressive revelation, we need to understand that certain things were emphasized in the Old Testament in order to prepare God’s people for a the Messiah. It has been said that the Old Testament revealed the power of sin, while the New Testament reveals the power of righteousness. In the Old Testament, if a man touched a leper he became unclean. In the New Testament, when Jesus touched a leper, the leper was made clean.

Another way to view the progressive revelation of scripture is to see that the holiness of God was emphasized before the cross while the mercy and grace of God has been emphasized since the cross. God’s mercy, grace, and goodness were always there but holiness was center stage. His holiness and judgment is still there, but in Jesus his mercy and grace took center stage. As parents, we love our children from day one and go to great lengths to protect and provide for them. However, we also begin to discipline our children at an early age to teach them right from wrong and to instill in them a healthy respect for their parents. As children, we all learned to obey our parents first through fear of punishment and only later through love and trust. Children function best by rules (law), while adults live by principles (spiritual wisdom). In a sense, parents emphasize their holiness first before they begin to emphasize love and trust. Perhaps, that is what God had to do for the whole human race.

You might say that God went to unreasonable extremes to demonstrate his holiness before the cross – a global flood, entire cities or tribes being wiped out, etc. However, we forget that the thread of salvation that runs through the entire Bible includes the preservation of the bloodline what would finally bring the Savior into the world. We have no awareness of the level of spiritual warfare that went on through the cultures that God removed in an effort to insure the arrival of our Savior. All you need to do is to look at the efforts of Hitler and the Nazi’s to totally remove the Jewish nation from the face of the earth to know the extent that Satan would go through to prevent Messiah from being born. The allies had to “carpet bomb” Germany to overcome the demonic evil that drove Hitler. Tens of thousands of civilians, including women and children, died in those raids. It was the cost of overcoming evil and the consequences of Germany’s refusal to surrender. God faced the same evils in the past and was forced to pour out judgment himself on cities and tribes even though he would have preferred peace.

Another reality exists in the Old Testament as well as we consider the goodness of God. We often forget the lengths that God went to in order to avoid bringing judgment on those nations. Noah preached for 120 years before the flood came trying to get the world around him to repent. God agreed to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if he could find just ten righteous men in the city. He sent his prophets time and again to turn not just Israel but other nations (Jonah and Nineveh, for instance) from evil before sending judgment. If you read the Old Testament carefully you will discover that pain and destruction has never been the heart of God for anyone. “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live (Ezek.18:23)?

However, the unrelenting wickedness of some men and nations requires judgment. Is a good that does not resist evil really good? Good must resist evil and if evil will not relent then good must destroy it. No one criticized the allies for standing up against Nazi Germany in World War II because evil, like cancer, has to be opposed. But men have sometimes been quick to judge God for the same opposition to unrelenting evil through the centuries.

Having said all that, the cross has changed the landscape of heaven’s dealing with men. Whereas in the Old Testament, the holiness of God was emphasized, the cross now allows God to highlight his mercy and grace. Jesus came not only to save us but also to point out and demonstrate the goodness of God. Jesus was very clear that he was the revelation of the Father among us. Remember that Jesus is Emmanuel or God with us. Secondly, Jesus said that if we have seen him, we have seen the Father (Jn.14). Whenever we ask God to empower us to do what Jesus did, we don’t have to question whether it is God’s will or not. Whatever Jesus did, the Father wants to do all the time. In order for the church to be the church that God envisions, we must define good and evil as Jesus defined it. Bill Johnson says that our skewed definition of good when we say God is good, keeps us from pushing back against the devil. “Instead of creating doctrines that explain away our weakness and anemic faith, we’ll actually have to find out why ‘the greater works than these’ (Jn.14:12) have not been happening in and around us.”

His point is that our faith for doing the works that Jesus did has been so watered down that we have incorporated unhealed sickness, premature death, birth defects, gender confusion, natural disasters, etc. as part of God’s will that we accept and live with rather than seeing those things as works of the devil that we should triumph over by faith. Jesus said that whoever believed in him would not only do what he did but would do even greater things than he had done. The goodness of God was expressed through the works of Jesus and should still be expressed through those who follow Jesus. The goodness of God and our definition of that goodness guides our prayers and our actions. It is essential that we are clear that God wants to do good to his people and even to the lost and that the good he wants to do is not some strange theological definition that visits suffering on his children to purify the soul.

His love and goodness for us is like that of a loving father who always wants to bless and provide. A loving father never enjoys or is indifferent to the injuries or illnesses of his children. He would never give his child cancer to grow his or her faith. He would never inflict his child with a birth defect to make that child more dependent on him. The heart of a loving and wise parent comes from God. We can know what God wants for us by the things we want for our children. As redeemed people, we know our deepest longings for our children and we can have confidence that those longings reflect the Father’s will for all of his children. So…know today that God is good and he wants to bless you and meet every need in a way that blesses as well. Pray for good things (healing, provision, salvation, reconciled relationships, protection, success, etc.) with confidence because God wants to express his goodness through you and for you today.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Have nothing to do with them.  (2 Ti.3:1-5)

Although these descriptors perfectly match our culture, the apostle Paul penned these words to his young protégé Timothy nearly 2000 years ago. The phrase ”last days” does not necessarily mean the end of times since biblically we have been in the last days or the last age since the day of Pentecost when the church was launched. In Peter’s sermon on Pentecost he quoted Joel who said, “In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all men…” The “last days” began with that pouring out.  More likely Paul was warning that their would be times and seasons during this last age before the return of Messiah when cultures and men would be corrupt and that such corruption would seep into the church.

When I read those descriptors my first thought was that Paul was describing  unbelievers in a fallen world.  But in context he seems to be warning Timothy that there would be individuals in the church who also fit that description and it was those whom Timothy was to avoid.  The final quality of these men reveals that they will have a “form of godliness but will deny its power.”  What exactly does that mean and is it a warning for us today as it was for Timothy in the early years of the church?

The word “form” here seems to mean “an outward appearance.”   These individuals would have an outward appearance of godliness or religion but would secretly deny its substance.  These could be church leaders who simply lead portions of the church for the financial gain, status, or the praise of men that leadership role offered. Behind closed doors they would treat their role as a job, an opportunity or a “gig.”  There faith would be in themselves and they would use and discard people to accomplish their own ends and to build their personal empire.   Ultimately they would view God, judgment, and the Holy Spirit as a kind of myth that they would espouse publically but not take seriously.  Behind closed doors they would love money, comfort, and hidden immoralities.  Ultimately these men are always exposed but the exposure brings reproach on the church and sends hundreds or thousands of disillusioned believers into the streets wondering if any Christian leader  can be trusted.

This paragraph could also point to leaders of culture: education, business, politics, etc. who might publically claim to be followers of Christ and, therefore, moral  – but behind closed doors in backroom meetings are as worldly and cynical as those who make no such claims. These men use God as a prop but deny the power of the kingdom of God.

Each of these groups may believe in a God in some vague way but do not believe that God will ultimately judge the wicked or judge nations. They believe they can act without consequence and that true believers are really just suckers living in world of delusion.  Neither do they believe that there is a God in heaven who orchestrates lives and nations and that watches over the truly godly with his power and even entrusts his power – real power – to those who love him.  I believe we live in a season where both groups are profoundly represented in our society.   Not only that, but many believers who are moral believe that we are to serve God in our own strength and expect no miraculous interventions from heaven. The power of godliness for them resides only in the past.  Unfortunately, many unbelievers define Christianity by these people who carry the banner but not the reality or substance of the kingdom.

It is times like these that the power of godliness operating in the church is more critical than ever.  This power begins, of course, with faith but is also sustained by holiness. In Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira treat the Holy Spirit as inconsequential and bring deceit into the church. As a result God judges them and they die  -in church – in front of everyone.  We are told that great fear seized the church following that episode but also that great signs and wonders abounded and the church exploded with growth.  We also see the church being very countercultural and when political leaders told them that they could not teach or preach in the name of Jesus they simply prayed for boldness because they were committed to please God rather than men. We are told that after times of prayer and fasting when the church prayed for boldness to stand against the culture, God shook the earth and displayed his power through the church.

We live in a world where homosexual athletes and celebrities who have “come out of the closet” are celebrated and treated as heroes while sincerely committed Christians who play on the same fields and stand on the same stages are ridiculed and discriminated against.   We cannot slip into a form of godliness but deny the power of godliness ourselves by simply rolling over and giving in to the culture.  Holiness, faith, and a total commitment to please God and speak up for him must become the descriptors of this generation of believers or this nation will continue to slide into the abyss and at an accelerated rate.  So today be bold, be holy, count on the power of God and be blessed  in His name.

Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it.” One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.” Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. (Lk.11:44-46)

In this chapter of the gospel of Luke Jesus continues to pronounce warnings and a call to repentance to the religious leaders of Israel. Jesus offers up a pointed description of these leaders by comparing them to unmarked graves that men step on without knowing what they have done.  The Jewish law pronounced anyone unclean who had come into contact with a dead animal or a dead human.  Death was connected with sin because that was the primary consequence of Adam’s sin.  After contact with the dead, an Israelite had to go though a period of separation and cleansing rituals to enter the community again or before coming into the temple area.  A Jew who stepped on an unmarked grave was suddenly unclean or defiled without knowing it.

In this section of Luke 11 Jesus pronounces a warning over these spiritual leaders because their hypocrisy not only was the antithesis of true spirituality but it also spiritually defiled those with whom they had contact.   In Matthew 16, Jesus warned his disciples to “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” which was their teachings. Once again, these men looked spiritual and holy on the outside but on the inside they were full of greed, deceit, envy, and pride.  They were spiritually dead on the inside while having an appearance of godliness on the outside.  If that duplicity had affected only them it would have been enough for a warning but it also influenced others.

Those who came into contact with these Pharisees and these other experts in the law were defiled by their teachings.  These leaders had missed the whole point of the Law.  The function of the Law had never been to save a man through works but to convince a man that he could never do enough on his own to merit salvation. Paul tells in Galatians that the Law was a schoolmaster that was designed to point us to Christ. Every sacrifice for sin at the temple pictured the death of an innocent for the sins of another.  The Law, if understood correctly, underlined the need for a Savior because there was no end to the blood of bulls and goats.  Those sacrifices had to be offered perpetually. It was like a cancer treatment that could hold the cancer in check but never really cure it so that drugs have to be administered perpetually. When a person has been cured, treatments are no longer required. The blood of Christ was the cure – one sacrifice for all time.

The trouble with the teachings of the Pharisees was that it missed the point.  They kept the emphasis on what man could do rather than what God could do. Not only did they preach a meticulous keeping of the Law but they also added many of their own laws which made the burden even greater.  On top of that, Law keeping for salvation’s sake becomes a test.  Who does enough or who keeps the Law well enough to win salvation? If only the top 10% get into heaven, then you better make sure you are part of the top ten.  Because man, in his fallen state, cannot change the heart, the religious leaders of Israel disregarded the heart and emphasized what could be done in the flesh.  So they did mountains of religious things and in doing so developed a deep sense of self-righteousness and arrogance along with a profound disdain of the “unreligious.”  If your salvation depends on your personal righteousness, then you better see yourself as righteous or you won’t be able to live with the condemnation you feel. Many Christians are still burdened with condemnation because they too have a sense that their salvation is based on their worthiness rather than Christ’s.

The ordinary man who encountered these Pharisees would not only leave that encounter with the impression that God approved of pride and arrogance and a hunger for the praise of men but would also with a sense of condemnation about his own condition. Both of those responses imparted death rather than life. Right or wrong, most people look at believers and, especially, leaders in the church as an accurate representation of both God and his standards through our actions, attitudes and teaching.

Those who have no experience with the Father will assume that we represent Jesus and all that he stands for because we are their only experience with God.  They will not only assume that we represent the Lord accurately but if they are drawn to the Father they will begin to emulate our attitudes and behaviors because they will assume that we are what God wants us to be.  If we are, in fact, what the Father wants us to be then we will impart life to those who encounter us.  If we are far from what the Father wants us to be then we will impart death…as if they had stepped on a grave.

Here is what the Pharisees missed:

• God looks at the heart of a man not his appearance and certainly not the “appearance of godliness.”
• Salvation comes through no righteousness of our own but only through the grace of God.
• We don’t need a judge who keeps score of our “righteous acts” but a Savior who saves us from our sinful acts.
• God is not interested in ritual but in relationship. Religion in the sense of law keeping and rituals actually turns us away from the heart of God because it places the emphasis on us and what we can do rather than on him.

Jesus said to watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees.  Here is the thing. We all have a little Pharisee in us because our flesh or natural man leans in that direction.  At Passover the Jews had to purge their houses of all leaven and we need to do the same from time to time by scanning our own hearts for religious pretense, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, and any disdain we find for the “unreligious.”  If you think about it, Jesus apparently felt more at home with the “unreligious” than with the “religious” of his day.  I’m sure he still feels the same way. That’s something to think about. Be blessed today.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Eph.1:3-6)

The apostle Paul began his letter to the believers in Ephesus by immediately praising God for the things he has done for every believer.  He says first that, as a follower of Jesus, you have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  As you read through Paul’s letter you will find the phrase “in Christ” in numerous verses.  Paul always reminds us that what we have is found only in our relationship with Christ. He quickly points out that because we are in Christ we have numerous spiritual blessings that rest in heavenly realms.  Paul isn’t saying that one day when we get to heaven we will receive these blessings that have been waiting for us there.  Although we will have blessing stored up and waiting for us, many of those blessings are available to us now.

The fact that these blessings are in heavenly realms doesn’t mean they are out of reach because the Kingdom of Heaven is within your reach (See Mt.3:2).  You are a citizen of heaven now (Phil.3:20).  The emphasis on the heavenly is that you have blessings and promises that no man can take away.  Not only that, the nature of your blessings are eternal – there is no expiration date like an old gift card or coupon. Your heavenly blessings are good whenever you need them.

Think of these spiritual blessings as heavenly resources that are accessible to you through faith in Jesus.  Of course, eternal life is huge but then so is the very presence of God living in you by his Spirit. The Spirit himself is willing to deposit in you power, health, wisdom, peace, joy, love, encouragement, intimacy with the Father, revelation, truth, and all kinds of amazing spiritual gifts such as mercy, leadership, administration, creativity, prophecy, tongues (your language for the spirit realm), knowledge, healings, and more.  Each of these blessings is available to you through faith and desire.  These spiritual treasures are for you now not just for after the funeral.  Because they are spiritual in nature they surpass all gifts and blessings available in the natural realm and you have access to the spiritual realm because you are spiritual.

Paul is also quick to point out that you were chosen.  If you ever participated in team sports you understand the power of being chosen.  You were chosen because the coach or the team captain saw value in you. He saw potential and greatness in you or you would not have been chosen.  He also saw desire and he knew that your desire to be on the team and to play well would drive you to do more and be more. God saw something in you and you were chosen. Not only were you chosen but you stepped up and accepted the invitation. The text goes on to say that you were chosen to be “holy and blameless in his sight.”  In many ways this is a mystery.  But Paul also tells us that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”(2 Cor.5:21).

Many of us feel our weakness and our tendency to sin.  We feel unworthy of the blessings of God.  By faith you must accept that God, in his foreknowledge, saw something in you that prompted him to choose you, make you righteous and wholly acceptable by the blood of his Son, give you standing in heaven and make the blessings of his kingdom available to you on earth.  When you feel unworthy, you are feeling your flesh but God relates to you through your spirit.  You see yourself through your flesh but God sees you through your spirit and your spirit loves the things of God even when you are unaware of it (see Rom.7:21-22).  In his sight you are holy and blameless.

That doesn’t mean we can live anyway we choose. We are also told, “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb.10:14).  By the sacrifice of Jesus you have been given the standing in heaven of being perfect (sinless, righteous, pure) while he is making you holy.  God is committed to making you like Jesus.  He wants you to not only have a position of holiness but a condition of holiness as well. However, while he is doing that you can still come before him as a perfect son or daughter of God expecting his help and access to your spiritual blessings in time of need. (See Heb.4:16).

Paul then goes on to tell you that you were predestined before the foundation of the world to be adopted.  What in the world does that mean?  We’ll talk about that in the next blog. But in the meantime remember who you are in Christ. Think about it.  Chew on it. Start to speak it by faith and be blessed.