Dear One,
Happy Resurrection Day! From our families, our staff, our school directors, students and teachers, intern students and house church folks, prayer warriors and friends, we say HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY, CHURCH!
Love you! KRP
THE BLESSING PRINCIPLE
“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. Deut 28:3-6 NKJV
True Christianity is the most extraordinary reality ever presented to the heart and soul of man. There is nothing more wonderful in all the world than the claims of the Word of God as they crescendo in the words of Jesus Christ. And then…to experience them is just the most marvelous reality! We are the most blessed, the most enviable people in all the world. Just this week among other testimonies of God’s goodness I got the testimony of a man from Kenya who experienced the living God bringing His blessing. Rejoice with me as we read this testimony!
Here is what I wrote to the intercessors and what he said:
“David’s wife was released from the hospital in Nairobi yesterday, thankfully on the road to complete recovery. But as I talked with David, he didn’t mention it, but I knew he would have a very high bill to clear with the hospital. So, I encouraged him to apply the problem-solving anointing instruction and went over it with him again. Here is what he wrote me back:
Hi Apostle Kevin,
I did as you instructed me. After speaking in tongues for 2 hours, I had a voice telling me to be peaceful and tomorrow at 10:00 am I will clear your Bill. Today at exactly 10:00 am, somebody that I helped 2 years ago with kshs.325,000 called me just to tell me he was sorry for keeping quiet with my money for that long but and he sent right away. The Bill was reading Kshs.325,000. ($2452!) I’m really thankful to God and for your guidance.” Hallelujah!
“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.” Deut.28:7
I expect to win all the time. Winning implies the successful conclusion of a challenge, and challenges are always present. I go from victory to victory, which means I go from challenge to challenge with successful outcomes. Every man of God I have known or even studied always thought the same way. Losing is not a paradigm we embrace. If it appears we are losing, we simply press in more. The Word promises us that as we love God and pray in the Spirit all things – good, bad or just mediocre – will turn out for the very best possible result. He promises that we will have enemies – no problem with that – and that they will be defeated before our faces.
“The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
Success in all to which you set your hand! Psalm One says, “…and whatsoever he does shall prosper.” I took the Dale Carnegie public speaking course while in Bible college, and one of the things they taught us to do was make a ‘big, fat claim.’ You say that your product or service is going to produce your big, fat claim. Listen, dear one, these are the biggest, fattest claims in all history made here in the word of God!
Before we delve into how to access these claims, because I am SURE you want to know, let’s finish this section in Deuteronomy and see all He made available under the OC, knowing that under the NC we have even greater blessings! Read this slowly and carefully and think how it translates into your life.
“The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. 14 So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Now, how do we get there, to the place of blessing?
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently (Heb. SHAMA:hearken) obey (Heb. SHAMA: hearken) the voice (Heb. QOL) of the Lord your God, Deut 28:1 NKJV
SHAMA SHAMA – hearkeningly hearken: an emphatic emphasis of listening to and obeying the Lord, with the implication of turning away from all other voices. The first usage of the QOL of the Lord is in Genesis and it is set in contrast to listening to, hearkening to (SHAMA) and obeying the voice of one who has your most intimate trust. You cannot allow the voice of the Lord to be annulled by any other voice, even your most intimate companion. That voice will bring a curse. This led to Adam’s fall…
And they heard the voice (Heb. QOL) of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. Gen 3:8 KJV
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened (Heb. SHAMA) unto the voice (Heb. QOL) of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Gen 3:17KJV
What is the voice of the Lord?
I once had a very emphatic experience of being taught to listen to the voice of the Lord. In March of 1995 I attended a pastors conference hosted by my friend Dale Sides in Bedford VA which was invaded by the Holy Spirit. Without going into that experience too deeply, let it suffice to say that we sought to pray much in the Spirit. Coming home from that event, I continued to pray fervently in the Spirit. I found a place on a hill outside of town where I went to pray for hours daily. I would go up the hill, pray fervently, and come down the hill. One time, as I was coming down, I was stopped in my tracks by the voice of the Lord. I heard, clearly and emphatically in my spirit these words. “Stop! You go up the hill, you pray and pray and pray, and you come down the hill. You never stop to listen to Me!” Ohh…I stopped to listen and, of course, He didn’t say anything after that. I realized that I did not yet know the Lord intimately as my Master.
Samuel had need of the same training. Ask the Lord to train you to hear His voice!
…and while Samuel was lying down, that the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, “Here I am!” So he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” And he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” And he went and lay down. Then the Lord called yet again, “Samuel!” So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” He answered, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” (Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him.) And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. So he arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you did call me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord had called the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.'” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” 1 Sam 3:3-10 NKJV
The voice of the Lord is a sound heard with the ears of your spirit man in a language you understand. It can come so loud and emphatic that in Samuel’s case, he thought it was the voice of Eli. It can come so softly that it seems like an inward witness, what brother Hagin described as a velvety feeling. It always imparts faith. In the above testimony David says that he heard a voice assure him and give him specific instructions, which were then fulfilled. Carl described it like picking up your cell phone and answering a call, in this case a call from Heaven. Can you call Heaven? And can Heaven call you? Yes.
The ability to hear and obey the voice of the Lord is critical to walking in the blessings of the Lord.
“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…Deut 28:1 NKJV
Now the second great truth is to observe carefully all His commandments.
Let me show you the first great command in the Pauline epistles, the Church Epistles. The imperative mood in the Greek is mood of commands. Our word LOGIZOMAI here is in the imperative mood.
Likewise you also, reckon (Grk. LOGIZOMAI) yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Rom 6:11-14 NKJV
LOGIZOMAI means to audit the books, carefully compiling in a ledger all the facts and details and arriving at a final conclusion. Do you see in LOGIZOMAI the implied reality of ‘observing carefully’ the commands of the Lord? This is the command. What is the conclusion here in Romans 6? Christ died for us, in our place, and we died with Him. As He arose to newness of life we arose with Him, so that we are dead to sin but alive unto God. Therefore we present ourselves – spirit, soul and body – to Him and live that out daily.
This command synthesizes for us all we must observe to be in the place of blessings that Deuteronomy describes. Within this command is the great command to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Within this command is the whole NT walk in love, power, authority and blessing. Within this command is the life in the Spirit as we present ourselves, make available ourselves to Him daily.
So, you hearkeningly hearken and obey His voice and you reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God, presenting yourself daily to Him to walk with Him in glory, love, power and blessing. As you do this, you will be blessed in the city and be blessed in the country, blessed in your going out and your coming in, blessed in your children and blessed in your work, blessed in all you do. I’ve lived it and I can testify, and so can you. Amen? Happy Resurrection Day! Love you!
Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…