THE BLESSING OF THE LORD !

THE BLESSING OF THE LORD ! (Hebrews 11:6). "But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him for whosoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]." The amplified Bible. If you've read the story for yourself, you know how it ends. God sent a young preacher to help straighten things out. I've always enjoyed reading about that young man. He'd being sitting there listening to Job and his friends and when he'd heard all the unbelief he could take it any more, he rose up and ripped into the situation with THE WORD of God. He preached some faith into Job and in the process, God Himself got stirred up. He appeared in a whirlwind, finished correcting Job's thinking, then turned to Job's friends and said, "You've spoken wrongly about Me ! You'd better hope My servant Job will pray for you or you'll be in deep trouble." When Job heard that, he stepped right back in to the place of faith and compassion. He believed God, loved his friends and prayed for their healing. The next thing you know, the hedge went back up and THE BLESSING roared back into operation. It destroyed the disease and destruction and reversed the effects of the curse Satan had brought on Job. And, Yes it will do the same for you if you would just repeat and turned back to your Father, the great " I AM" from your unbelieving disobedience ! It went back to work creating the conditions of the Garden of Eden around him, restoring everything he'd lost, and then doubling it. Job ended up twice as strong in every way as he had been before. NOT JUST PROTECTION---DOMINION ! Job learned his lesson about THE BLESSING and the curse the hard way. The Israelites didn't have to do that. God spelled out the way things worked in meticulous detail, so they could do what He said and keep their BLESSING hedged high and intact. Actually, had they listened with the ear of faith, they would have been as thrilled with God's description of the curse as they were with His declaration of THE BLESSING, realizing that the curse was a list of things they were protected from. When they heard that "every sickness, and every plague" is part of the curse, they could have shouted, "Glory ! If we'll just live by faith and obey THE WORD of God, we won't have to put up with the flu anymore !" Or Covic 19 and any parts of the curse. When they heard that under the curse they would experience fear of heart, they could have said, "Hey, we'll never be afraid of any thing or anyone again !" That's the kind of response God wanted them to have. He also wanted the difference between THE BLESSING and the curse to be sold indelible engraved on their hearts, He made a major production out of it. He instructed half of the Israelite leadership to stand on Mount Gerizim and declare THE BLESSING and the other half to stand on Mount Ebal and declare the curse. He never wanted them to get the two confused, so He presented them in a dramatic way. With millions of Israelites watching and listening, He said: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, BLESSING and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live (Deuteronomy 30:19). If you think just because those verses are in the Old Testament, they don't apply to us today, think again. The promises included in THE BLESSING work now just like they did back in Moses day. If we'll take hold of them by faith, they'll have the same effect on us they had on the Israelites who believed them, and walk upright before men and God. Remember, Faith in God only comes, by hearing, and by hearing THE WORD of God. They'll cause us to excel and prosper wherever we live (in the city, in the country, or both). They'll even give us dominion over our livestock, so we can see to it that they're BLESSED. "But, Brother Lewis, most of us don't have livestock." Don't you have pets ? Sometimes your dog or cat or fish or parakeet may need you to minister THE BLESSING to them. You can pray the prayer of faith for your animals, as well as for people we're suppose to have dominion and BLESS the animal kingdom, and every other area of creation under our influence. As for the curse, it's still out there... But it's under our feet, that is those who believe and walk upright before God and men, and obeyed God's written Words ! If we choose to lie down and submit to the curse, we can. God will let us do it. But we don't have to because Jesus has delivered us from the curse once and for all. That's the marvelous difference between us and God's Old Covenant saints.