THE BLESSING OF THE LORD !

THE BLESSING OF THE LORD ! Some things you read will shake up your thinking. They may even bother you at first. The revelation often do that. They're uncomfortable at first. Sometimes they even make us mad for a wad because they upset our religious traditions. Just the fact that I'm writing an entire lesson about being BLESSED may ruffle some people's feathers. Well, I think there's being too much preaching about Christians being BLESSED," they'll say. "We've all gotten too self-centered. Christianity is all about Jesus, it's not all about us." Those people do have one thing right. From our perspective as believers, life is all about Jesus. It's all about loving Him, pleasing Him, advancing His Kingdom and giving Him glory. But, from Jesus perspective, it's all about us. He didn't die on the cross to save Himself. He didn't come to earth to fulfill the plan of redemption so he That could have abundant life. He came so that we could have it. He became Abraham's Seed, not so He could inherit God's promise, but that we could. He did it so THE BLESSING could come on us and, through us, all the nations of the earth could be BLESSED. You know, ask people how are they doing, and for the most part many will say I am BLESSED. When in fact, they are sick and struggling to make ends meet ! Let me say this to you, God doesn't do any little thing in our lives; God desires to do abundantly above all that you can think according to the power that is within you ! And His Word the apostle Paul said is the power of God unto salvation ! Now with that statement, I realize such statements irritate people who think it's pious to be poor and beaten down, but that doesn't bother me. I'm used to it. My preaching has irritated a lot of people through the years. Believe it or not, it's part of my God-given calling. Many years ago, when I first went into the ministry, The Lord spoke to me about the Holy Spirit baptized Church and said: "I have a sleeping giant in the earth and I am going to wake him up. . . Boy I thought that was great ! I was all for it until He finished the sentence. . . And you're the needle. "Lord, why me ?" I asked. Why not ? He answered "Okay, let's go ! I said. Since then, it's happening more times than I can count. I'll be preaching along just enjoying myself, when suddenly, the needle anointing will come on me and I'll say something that wakes people up. Sometimes they get so mad they want to punch me and other times thery're glad. On occasions, preachers will come to me later and say, "you made me so angry I decided to go home and study my Bible until I could prove you wrong. But the more I read, the more I realize you were right. It is not the matter that I'm right. What I said was in the Bible all along ! It's right. It wasn't me that was right. It was THE WORD. All those preachers were good, God loving people. Most of them had more formal Bible training than I did, but they'd been so blinded by their religious mindsets, they couldn't see the clear truths of THE WORD. Their traditions or their denominational creed had made "THE WORD of God of none effect" in their lives and the lives of the people they are preaching to. The Lord just use me to provoke them into looking at the Bible with a fresh perspective. When they did, they saw the truth, and the truth made them free. Keep that in mind as you read this lesson: if some of the things I said needle you, don't just dismiss them, and don't take my word for it. Search THE WORD OF GOD for yourself to see if they're true. If THE WORD doesn't confirm them, discard them. If it does, let them make you free. Let the reality of THE BLESSING revolutionize your thinking, fuel your faith: not fight against faith and it will send you soaring into new heights of God's will for your life. Now. . . Let's fire up the engines and grow !