“Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me.” Psalm 66:20
In the book of Isaiah, when God desired and willed to awaken the people of Israel to a new beginning in communion with Him, He would speak concerning “comfort,” or the very present help of God applied, and revealed in many ways. That which must be seen on this subject is that it is the will of God to meet man in the depths of his soul, and this on a daily basis, to renew, refresh, restore, and revive. In this age of the church, the concepts of the blessing of God upon and in the believer, because of the indwelling Christ by the Spirit, are enormous. But who will seek “those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God?” We have not because we do not ask. We do not find because we do not seek. The great issue, and beginning point, where true spiritual blessing, and also blessing that will have results in the physical world will be manifested, is Christ Himself, the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the Last. It is God alone who intervenes in the life by the word of God to the heart.
When God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel concerning the spiritual condition of the people with regard to the captivity, and beyond, as they would be scattered over all the earth, He addressed them in by a vision of a multitude of dry bones…in a very dry and deserted place. There was no life in those bones, and NO hope that there would ever be, except if God spoke to them. Much like the Apostle Paul’s words to the Ephesian church, he likewise would speak of their condition before coming to Christ. “And you He made alive, who were DEAD in trespasses and sins…” (2:1) Without the Spirit of God, and the living word of God being spoken, by which the power of God is communicated to that which is dead, there is no life. The Lord Jesus even affirmed this when He said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (Jn. 6:63) So, what is the blessing of God, but the intervention of God in the life, communicating to men the blessed Life of Christ by the Spirit, made real and manifested, by the living word of God spoken to the heart? What then is the path to blessing, and how is one to know this path?
The first thing God deals with in the life of any person in whom He is working, is sin. Christ told Peter that if he did not allow him to wash his feet, Peter would have no part with Him. He was speaking of the necessity of being humble enough, and receptive enough, for Christ to deal with his specific sins. Those sins, which represented only a part of the number of them, must be dealt with, forgiven, and removed, if Peter was to be accepted before God, and have communion with God. The Psalmist put it like this: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” (Ps. 66:18) In another Psalm, we find written: “Blessed is he whose transgression IS forgiven, whose sin IS covered.” (32:1) There is forgiveness of sins for the one who is willing to be honest, open, and fully receptive to Christ coming to cleanse and forgive.
Secondly, to know God’s blessing, one must have a right, and exalted vision of God, as He IS. He is the Creator, Redeemer, the Everlasting God, the Lord, who does not become weary, but who, night and day remains the same, the Giver of power to the weak, those who “have no might.” To these who know their need and look to Christ alone to meet that need, He gives strength for them to run, and to walk, to live for the glory of God by the very faith of Christ.
Dear Father, Strengthen us to live. In Jesus’ name, Amen.