Last year, I had a dream. In that dream myself and a friend where somewhere and then two Angels approached us and began to hover over both our heads with packages from God. I patiently waited for my package to drop, but the Angel kept hovering. Before I knew it, my friend jumped up and grabbed her package. I was still waiting for mine to drop and then a few seconds later the Angel flew away with my package. I was extremely upset because I did not understand what had happened. I woke up and pleaded with God to explain the dream to me and He graciously did.
The thing is I am am person who detests the Idea of claiming to love God in order to get what he can give. It deeply hurts me when people only care about what they can receive from God and not about actually desiring to know Him more. So...I would always tell Him things like "if You never do anything else for me...I'll still love you". He told me He was absolutely pleased with me on that because I had discovered that He is THE TRUE TREASURE (Deut18:2), but then He told me that when He decides to bless me as an expression of His love or as a benevolent reward, or when I legitimately ask Him for something, I should NOT dishonor Him by refusing to or being ill prepared to receive what He decides to bless me with.
By blessings I do not mean material alone, but also blessings of spiritual significance. For example Elisha had served Elijah faithfully and He desired a double portion of the anointing upon Elijah. If he had been the way I was in my dream, He would have felt that him seeing alone would assure the passing of the Baton. Elisha took it personal and inasmuch as he believed in his heart that he had received it, he vocally and loudly confessed it to properly take hold of it "My Father! My Father! The chariots and the horsemen of Israel" it was after this that the mantle actually dropped.
Even with Gods greatest gift ever, Jesus, observing Jesus' death and resurrection is far from enough. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John3:16). Romans10:9-10 says:
"That if you confess with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved".
Here again believing and confessing are emphasized as being significant for receiving what God has freely given. "I believed; therefore I spoke. With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak." Here again it is vividly evident that belief and confession go hand in hand.
God also led me to James1:6&7 "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from God;"
Obviously, I was having a faith problem. As I was writing this God opened up Heb11:6b to me in an entirely new way. "...because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."
I had been of the opinion that earnestly seeking Him meant I should not expect anything from Him. I did not want to be greedy. He showed me that to please him I must believe that He is, and also, my diligent search of him should be combined with the absolute belief that He will reward me...with more of Him (Jer29:13), with every spiritual blessing (Eph1:3) and with every material thing I need (Matt6:33).
Always seek Him above all else, He will forever be THE PRIORITY, but always be prepared to graciously receive what He freely gives in honor of Him.
In summary...
* Receive what God gives you in honor of Him and to His glory. Celebrate His love and benevolence.
* Without faith nothing can be received from God
* Your faith and your confession go hand in hand
This week do not let anything stand in your way of being Spekky...Be Spetacular!!!
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