Shortcutting a Blessing

And make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein. (Genesis 34: 9, 10)

What happens when an offer comes that seems to accelerate a promise? What does one do in such an instance?

This is what appears to be happening to Israel here. God had promised his fathers the land he was in though it was already inhabited. The condition gave for their habitation was that the iniquity of those inhabitants will have to reach its peak before they are given that land.

It is possible for some of those details to have been forgotten and only one fact to remain, that God had promised them that land. And this is what we see with Esau as he dealt with issues. His memory retained the key details as he sought to make a living.

Israel is being presented with an offer to settle down and own the land he was promised. He was being invited to make covenants and develop partnerships in that land. Incidentally that is what we see Solomon doing with the nations God had forbidden.

Israel is in a dilemma like all of us would be in. Agreeing would compromise the promise and refusing would be to abuse the hospitality offered him. It is his sons’ craftiness that maintains the focus of the promise by rejecting the shortcut.

What could have happened if he had acceded to the offer being extended to him? The first thing is that he would have started being part of the problem instead of the solution. Remember what Abraham was told?

But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (Genesis 15:16)

Joining with them stood directly against the promise though on the surface it appeared as if it was being actualized.

Does that happen to us? You may ask.

Do you know God’s promise to you? And here I am talking about customized and not wholesale promises. What is the source from where you get those promises? How specific is it? How clear is it?

The fact that your preacher of choice can psych you about this promise or the other does not make it yours. Like rain a blessing does not fall only on its intended address. It blesses many around the blessed. Again look at Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and wherever they went. Everybody not only could see but also confessed that they were being blessed because of their relationship with the blessed. We see the same with Joseph where even the prison was blessed because of him.  It is therefore probable that the blessing you boast about as you give testimony after another is an overflow of somebody else walking in his.

Could you be cursed yet think you are blessed because you are in close proximity with someone with the blessing?

That the Bible is full of promises is not in doubt. That they are meant for God’s people is also very clear. The problem with most is who God’s people are and what the qualifications are for those blessings to fall.

You might be around someone like Joseph or Daniel. You might be friends with the likes of Elijah and Elisha and so are swimming in the miracles they attract. But like the baker you might be headed to your death because the blessings you were enjoying were overflows from the blessed. Like Gehazi you might experience a negative miracle because you personalized what was not yours. Like Judas you might even have performed miracles yet kill yourself when you realize who you are relative to the promise.

Do you know what your blessing is? Can you pinpoint it when you are not with the crowd? Does it come from God to you or is it a compilation of your favorite sermons or books?

What is a blessing anyway? Does the Bible have conditions for them?

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. (Deuteronomy 28: 1, 2)

That is the source of Biblical blessings. Any other source is not God, however much we might try to justify it.

Obedience and blessing are inseparable. Sanctification and the blessing are synonymous. Speaking about a blessing without dealing with that is actually playing the devil’s game of deception. That is why generalizing the blessing is actually teaching rebellion instead of faith as it appears (Jeremiah 28 and 29). A blessing thrives in obedience and sanctification and shrivels away from that soil.

Anyway, it is possible to appear to be amidst a blessing only because you are in close proximity to someone walking in it as I have just said. And that is why we need to establish the boundaries of the blessing before talking about its shortcut. You see the people swimming in the blessings of the blessed can never short cut because it really is not theirs. I will compare it to having a neighbor with a very tall and shady tree next to your compound. Your neighbor holds the key to that shade. Though he might never charge you for that shade you are enjoying and you might assume it really is yours, he just needs to trim or cut it for his own purposes for you to realize how empty you were.

Lot may have thought that it was his righteousness that caused him to be snatched out of blazing Sodom but we know he was as qualified as the other person in Sodom but for his affinity to Abraham. His rescue had everything to do with his uncle. The 276 people in the ship Paul was using to get to Rome may have thought it was their miracle that none of them drowned but the truth was that Paul was the ONLY reason. The nation of Judah continued existing ONLY because of David’s relationship to God.

Again I ask whether the miracle and blessing you are testifying about is customized to you or is it as a result of another who is covering you.

You may have a mother as I have constantly interceding for you and you remain content to remain in that shadow. You may have a father who is sold out to the ministry that his commitment provides ample cover that you remain content swimming in the shade. You may have a church that covers you in prayer as you play around with your pastoral responsibilities. That blessing or cover you enjoy is legally not yours.

It is essential that you establish your own centre of favor and blessing instead of basking in others’. This is because it is possible for that cover to wear thin as it is not dependent on you. Like with Lot you might have to part ways with that cover. Like with Paul he will complete his journey yet the sea is your business. Like with a pastor the congregation may get fed up with your dramatics and move on.

But even if nothing changes, establishing your own centre of blessing magnifies the one you were enjoying earlier. You increase in potency as God starts dealing with your address, an address that already has previous connection. It can be compared to boosting the reception.

Again we go to the scriptures. Ishmael was as blessed as Isaac, yet his mother through pride and self seeking required them to be removed from the centre of the blessing. Esau was had greater justification for the blessing but his short sighted view of life left him at the periphery of the blessing. Reuben was the target of the double portion but he lost it because his sensual nature overtook his responsibility.

Joseph connected to the double portion not only because his father loved him. His life consistently shows a commitment to God that went beyond the blessing of his forefathers. That he could maintain his faith amidst paganism and ungodliness even in slavery and prison puts him on the path of a customized blessing.

David, though overlooked even by his own father is able to establish his address as a centre of blessing. So much so that he is the one even his parents look upon when they need security. Caleb made himself a centre of blessing when he broke through the collective conclusion of the spying team. And we know Paul established his own centre of blessing on that Damascus road. We know Abraham became a centre when he left all his security to follow God to the unknown.

There MUST be an encounter before one starts dealing with a customized blessing. And the Bible is awash with those encounters. I am repeating about the need for a customized blessing again and again because it is extremely essential that we might continue enjoying someone else’s overflow yet thinking that it belongs to us.

And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. (Ezekiel 22:30)

Had there been one man in that gap, people may never have known that God was angry enough with them.

And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. (Genesis 18:32)

Again we see the same principle. God is willing to waive the judgment of a couple of cities due to the prayer of one if only ten righteous are found there. Had there been ten righteous I doubt nobody but Abraham would have known that disaster had been abated.

You might be enjoying security and peace because there are effective spiritual watchmen (maybe even one) covering your area. You may be enjoying abundance because there are spiritual ‘farmers’ around you. You might be enjoying job security and promotion because there is a giant slayer who is consistently putting down the spirit of mammon in your area.

Your nation might be reaping the harvest of the spiritual investment of your forebears when you are thinking it is your selfish leaning prayers that are being answered. Your family might be enjoying astounding success in a particular area because someone in the lineage invested heavily in the spiritual realm. You might be experiencing enough spiritual success due to the ungrudging sacrifices someone close to you gave.

Before you shout answered prayer I think a story will do the explaining.

Two men were swept ashore a remote island as the sole survivors of a terrible shipwreck. As happens with people one dared that they separated to prove whose prayer saved them. And the proof was this; the one whose prayers were answered would be the one.

Of course the one who originated the idea started to pray and things were happening. He got food and ate without caring for his friend. He got shelter and became looked down on his friend more. He prayed for a wife and finally thought that he needed to get out of that island since it had become evident his prayers were the ones being answered. So after prayer a ship arrived.

As he was boarding God asked him why he was leaving his friend.

None of his prayers are getting answered. Why should he ride on my prayers?

Do you know what he prayed? God asked.

Why should I ask and I have seen nothing happening on his side of the island. Is that not evidence enough?

He prayed for only one thing. God told him.

And what could it be? The man asked.

His only prayer was that I answer all your prayers. God replied.

… what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? (1Corinthians 4:7b)

I am repeating again and again the need of you being the address for a blessing and receiving a customized blessing for one main reason. It is impossible to short cut someone else’s blessing. It is impossible to mess the overflow of someone’s blessing when it is falling on you. It is impossible to block rain destined for your neighbor falling on your land.

Let me explain. Jacob did not mess Esau’s blessing; it was Esau who despised the vehicle of accessing it. When he demeaned his double portion, the birthright, by exchanging it with a meal, he showed that he was in no position to customize himself for the blessing. Though his father sought to favor him through granting him the blessing, I doubt that it could have done him any good even if he had been successful in doing it.

Saul and Jeroboam were offered kingdoms. They were therefore in a position to enjoy them forever had they chosen and so it is no surprise that they short cut their kingdoms. Jonathan was a recipient of the overflow of that blessing. That is the reason he died when his father was dying for his sin though he was not part of his father’s sin. But look at this.

And thou shalt not only while yet I live shew me the kindness of the LORD, that I die not: But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the LORD hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth. (1Samuel 20: 14, 15)

He realizes that his family is destined for destruction due to Saul’s sin and positions himself for a blessing through connecting with and protecting David, the blessed. But he does even better. Knowing that Saul’s judgment might mean the wiping out of his whole posterity he positions his seed for that blessing. Incidentally that was the only one who remained of Saul’s posterity.

I have mentioned a few things we must need to make ourselves the address for a blessing, what will make us start receiving customized blessings instead of some overflow from someone who is the address. This is because though it may appear most generous, it is not really meant for me and will stay as long as I enjoy that proximity and the recipient does not mess his blessing or move on.

Israel enjoyed Moses’ cover. He fought for them, interceded for them, lost sleep for them. He prevented their extermination more than once. But he died. I find it interesting that God starts commissioning Joshua by stating the obvious, Moses My servant is dead. In other words Moses’ chapter is now closed. You will not be able to count on Moses for intercession or leadership. He is not there to cover your disobedience any more.

That is the reality of life. That overflow will at one time move on and chances are that you may not be prepared for it especially if you were in deception thinking that the blessing was yours. And I will restate the blessing verses from Deuteronomy 28 once again.

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. (Deuteronomy 28: 1, 2)

We must listen very carefully to what God is saying to us and do everything that He tells us to do to be able to access His blessings.

That is the reason we must have an encounter with God at a personal level. A wholesale encounter does not count because some words could get lost in the way. For me to hear diligently I must be in close proximity to the speaker of those words so that I do not lose any.

As a father I understand this through experience. Send a child to the shop when they are playing or doing some fun activities, especially if he will leave them playing. His desire to obey you will cause him to rush to respond to your command but his heart and mind will be in the game or activity he has left the others doing. He of course hears what you want and rushes out and his mind is still focused on the game. By the time he gets to the shop he can remember the game but not what you were sending him to buy. It might be worse if he decides to buy what he thinks you wanted because it will most likely related to the game his mind was on.

This is the reason I am emphasizing an encounter with God as opposed to a series of sermons or teachings. This because a secondary message has a very high possibility of leaving out one or the other of the totality of God’s commands to you yet God says ALL His commandments. And even 99.9% is not all. This means that you MUST hear from God himself to know the ALL He requires you to obey as opposed to the all He has told somebody else.

But the encounter is not an end. It is the beginning of an experience; an experience of consistently being able to hear ALL He has for you to do on a daily basis. This is what results in sanctification, our holiness as God will never lead us outside His holy nature. And that is the problem I have with those wholesale blessings because they do not seem to have an issue with sin and disobedience. Though they may generously use Deuteronomy 28, they are mainly focused on what God will do as opposed to what I ought to do for God to do what He has promised.

And this is where worship comes in.

Worship not like we many times think it is, a series of songs that supposedly bring down God’s presence. Worship is what a man does when he encounters God as opposed to what he does to appease God. And that is what the Bible consistently demonstrates.

But that is also not an end but a beginning. It is the enrichment of the relationship.

I trust that God will enable me to focus on shortcutting of the blessing next week. I just felt the need to draw our attention to the need for each of us to establish ourselves as the centre of our blessing instead of boasting about blessings we access that are the overflow of someone else’s blessing.