Walking In The Spirit

Eternity Daily Bible Study
(A ministry of Eternity Christian Fellowship)

Walking In The Spirit - 21

Studies in this series can also be found online at www.globalchristians.org/walkspirit/

Topic: How To Receive Spiritual Blessings By Faith

Date: 13th August 2009

All spiritual blessings come though Christ (Ephesians 1:3) and are received by faith, as a result of God's grace (Ephesians 2:8,9) and they are in turn conveyed to us though the ministry of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-16, Galatians 3:1-5).

Spiritual blessings are not earned (Romans 4:1-5), nor do they come through works (Ephesians 2:8,9) or through obedience to any religious law (Galatians 2:16) and they do not come via our own power or godliness (Acts 3:12). In fact there is nothing you can 'do' in the normal (unregenerate) human nature that will please God:

Galatians 2:16 HCSB yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

Micah 6:6-8 HCSB What should I bring before the LORD when I come to bow before God on high? Should I come before Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? (7) Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand streams of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the child of my body for my own sin? (8) He has told you men what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you: Only to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.

It is the internal state of our heart, our love, faith and humility, that pleases God. Some people go to church and receive a great spiritual blessing, others go to the same identical service and receive absolutely nothing from God. Both have done the same external action yet for one person it has great profit and for the other person it profits nothing. If the externals are the same, then the difference must be internal factors – that is in the heart of the Christian.

Spiritual blessings such as love, joy, peace, wisdom, revelation, spiritual gifts, and the ability to have patience with others; these things come from the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives (1 Corinthians 2:9-16). And these blessings can come through believing prayer and intercession:

James 1:5-7 HCSB Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. (6) But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. (7) That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Colossians 1:9 ISV For this reason, since the day we heard about this, we have not stopped praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the full knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Paul's prayer in Ephesians chapter 3 is an excellent example of praying for spiritual blessings:

Ephesians 3:14-19 MKJV For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, (15) of whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named, (16) that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; (17) that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, (18) may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, (19) and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Some may ask: How can I be blessed - I do not deserve to be blessed?

Lets' look at what Paul says with great boldness in the book of Romans:

Romans 4:5 HCSB But to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who declares righteous the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.

The thief on the cross did no religious works, and was not of good character, in fact he admitted that he was deserving of death and yet he asked for mercy and was given salvation. He called upon God who justifies the ungodly.

It is not your respectability that gets you blessed – but your faith. Many people who were not respectable, tax-gatherers like Matthew, the Samaritan woman, prostitutes and others were welcomed into the Kingdom of God while the respectable religious leaders did not enter in.

Matthew 21:31 MKJV Which of the two did the will of his father? They said to Him, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that the tax-collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

Yesterday we saw that the Holy Spirit was received by hearing with faith (Galatians 3;1-5) and today we have seen that wisdom is received by faith (James 1:5-8) and right standing with God (justification) is received, even by those who do no good deeds, simply by hearing with faith (Romans 4:1-25). So then nothing depends on works, and everything depends on faith. But faith in what? There are four passages I want to bring to light:

Ephesians 1:3 MKJV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ;

Ephesians 2:4-7 MKJV But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us (5) (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), (6) and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, (7) so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:7-9,29 MKJV Therefore know that those of faith, these are the sons of Abraham. (8) And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations through faith, preached the gospel before to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all nations be blessed." (9) So then those of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham..... And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

Hebrews 6:11-15 MKJV And we desire that each one of you show the same eagerness to the full assurance of hope to the end, (12) that you be not slothful, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (13) For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself, (14) saying, "Surely in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply you." (15) And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

These verses show us in turn that:

a) God has already blessed us with all the blessings in the heavenly realms
b) That God has seated us in these heavenly realms, simply by His grace and kindness.
c) That part of this is that we inherit the blessings of Abraham
d) That we will inherit these blessings the same way that Abraham did – by faith and patience in the promises of God