May God's Blessing be upon you

Blessings and curses are old testament matters that have no real relevance in today's times - WRONG!  Blessings and curses have as much power over your life today as they did in the old testament times.

If I had to stand before a packed church on a Sunday morning and ask the congregation if they are blessed, I am sure that at least 99% or more would put up their hands and say that they are blessed.

If I again ask the same congregation if curses exist in todays times, I would estimate from past experience that the huge majority would deny that curses even exist anymore and the rest would say that they have no power in todays times.

However, many Christians do not even understand the word "Blessed" and when asked exactly what it means to be blessed, you are likely to be met with blank stares and very confused faces. If you use the simple standards, as set out in Deuteronomy 28, to determine if you are blessed or cursed, you will find that at least 90% or more of the congregation that said that they were blessed, suddenly finds that they may not be walking in as many blessings as they thought that they were, and that it is indeed possible that they may in fact have a curse or two hanging over their life that they were totally unaware of.

Blessings.

The word "Blessed" is best defined as "To be Envied."  If you are not envied by all around you, then the chances are that you are not walking in God's full blessings. Let me say right now that blessings have nothing to do with being rich. I know many rich people with whom I would never ever trade places with and whom I do not envy at all.

Riches have never brought happines into anyones life. Mostly, new riches starts to breed greed and the desire for even more riches. Money becomes an obsession in life instead of  it being a means to obtain what you need in life. Money in itself is not evil, but the love of money is the root of all evil. When your love for money overtakes your love of God, you are in the clutches of the devil.

 The first section of Deuteronomy 28 gives us clear instruction on how to walk in the blessings of God and what they are :-

" 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, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.

And these blessings will come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God."  Verses 3 to 14 continue to list the blessings. Take these verses, modify them to todays terms ( ie cattle increases refers to increases in your investments etc), and see if you have the full blessings of God in your life.

Although these are Old Testament scriptures, they stand true to today and unless you are walking in the commandments of God and in full and total obedience to Him, you can not receive the full blessings of God.

Curses.

There are many curses that exist in the Old Testament. These are curses that are directly from God and do not even involve satan or witchcraft or black magic.

Briefly, Malachi describes that you are cursed if you do not tithe. Zaccariah describes the curse that rests upon the liar and the thief. However, all of these sub - curses can be summarised by the main curse found in Deuteronomy 28:15

"But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:"  Verses 16 to 68 continue to describe the curses that can come upon you if you are disobedient to God's word.

When reading these verses it is important to understand that times have changed dramatically and so you do need to modernise the scriptures slightly to adjust for modern times. There were no bank accounts and investments in those days so where it talks about your increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks, in modern times it would refer to the performance of your investments, etc.

Jesus came and set us free from the curse.

I have had many argue with me that curses have no relevance in todays world because Jesus took all curses upon himself when He hung on the tree. Jesus also took all sickness upon himself as well and yet many christians are dying daily from sickness.

Curses still have the ability to affect you today as much as they affected the Old Testament people in the past. If you are disobedient to God and do not obey His commandments, then you nullify the works of Jesus and the curses are able to rest on your life and affect you. As much as Jesus loves you and wants you to walk in total freedom from curses, the curses will remain in your life until you identify the curse and the cause of the curse, repent and turn back to obedience to God.

Are there other curses that can affect us?

Sure - there are many powerful curses that can affect your life today. Possibly the most powerful is the word curse.  A word curse is a something that is spoken into your life usually by someone who is in position of authority over you. This can be a parent, a teacher etc, who says something like " You are stupid". You then accept these words as factual in your life and go through life being controlled by these words and believing that you are stupid.

Parents and teachers, as well as bosses, have to be extremely careful with their words that they speak over those whom they have authority over. Take care to confess only positive things over those whom you have authority over, knowing that your words can impact into their lives in a good way, or a negative way that can virtually make or ruin the rest of their life.

My brother was highly intelligent and very good with figures, but right the way through his life he was told that he was  stupid with his hands. As a result, even though he was fully capable and able to tackle odd jobs around the house, he always believed that his efforts were useless and that he was never able to do anything good with his hands.

"What you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth shall come to pass." 

Is it possible to break free from a curse?

Absolutely. In order to break free from a curse, you do need to first identify the cause of the curse in your life. If your problems are as a result of a word that has been spoken over your life, you must begin to reject that word and cast it out.

"Lord, I do not accept that word that was spoken into my life. I cast it out of my life in the name of Jesus and it shall have no power over me or my family."

If you have been disobedient to the word of God :-

" Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. Forgive me for my transgressions. I turn away from them today and choose to follow your commandments carefully from this day forward. I break the curse that has resulted in my life in the name of Jesus."

Should you not know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then simply say "God help me please".

You have possibly been an active christian for some years and it seems that even though you love Jesus with all your mind and all your soul, things do not always go right and somehow you are on the short end of the receiving stick when it comes to the blessings that are promised in the bible.

Sure, you know that Jesus wants you to be blessed and there is no real reasons why you should not be blessed, I mean you are a good person who does what is right and you keep all the commandments, but yet those blessings seem to avoid you but yet they tend to find others that you know.

Walking in the Blessings of Jesus.

Sometimes, especially when you have been walking the christian road for a longer time, it is not what you know that is important, but rather what you have forgotten and have neglected to do.  You may be familiar with the term, "I have already forgotten what you still need to learn." Unfortunately this is often the case with some of us older christians and can sadly be the reason why we are no longer receiving the blessings that we used to.

One of the most important things that we often forget is the very real power that is in the Name of Jesus. Can you remember how when you first got on fire for Jesus and everything that you did or confessed was in the Name of Jesus.

Are you still confessing and claiming everything by using the most powerful tool that you have ever been given, or are you like me and have "forgotten" that the name of Jesus is the real key to claiming and walking in the full power and blessings of Jesus.

Without the name of Jesus, you have no power or authority and whatever you say or confess is meaningless and carries no authority. The minute that you add "In The Name Of Jesus" to your statement or confession, whatever you confess suddenly carries all the power and might as though Jesus himself was saying it.

Bring the mighty Name of Jesus back into your life and start to use the power that is in His name so that you may return back to the blessings that are rightfully yours.

Oh That you may Prosper.

3 John verse 2, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers."

It is God's will for you that you prosper financially, in health, and in all walks of life. It is not God's will for you to walk in lack. God wants His people to stand out head and shoulders above the rest. God says that you are the head and not the tail. Why then are so many christians battling and why are so many clearly the tail? Why are you unable to walk in the full blessings that are promised by God the Father?

Isaiah 48:17,
Thus says the Lord your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel.
"I am the Lord your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you by the way to go."

God is clearly the Lord who teaches us to profit and who teaches us the path to follow in order to profit. However the key to why some prosper, but most fail to prosper lies in the first sentence of verse 18.

"Oh that you had heeded my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river.
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea."

Disobedience to the word of God will prevent you from reaching the blessings that God has placed before you. God has placed many commandments before you, and unless you obey His commandments, you can not receive His full blessing.

The commandments that God places before us are nothing new, but are mostly contained in the bible. There are many commandments that we are to obey in order to obtain the blessings of God.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart.
Love your neighbour as you love yourself.
Obey the Ten Commandments.
Do not commit yourself into the deadly sins.
Obey the Financial Laws of God.
And many Others.

Deuteronomy 28 is a listing of the blessings and curses of God. Verse 1 opens the blessings and says, "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, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth." It is very clear from this that unless you obey the commandments that God has given to you, you will not walk in the blessings that he promises.

Deauteronomy 28:15, "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you." Disobedience to God's word comes with a high price.

In order to fully benefit from the blessings that God has already laid out for you, it is clear that you have to walk in obedience to God and in the love of Jesus. If God is first and foremost in your heart, then you will have no problem in obeying His commandments and keeping His statutes and the blessings of God will abound in your life.

Walk in obedience and love, so that you may be full of the blessings of God and that all may see that you prosper.

Malachi 3:10

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My House, and prove me now in this , says the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such blessing  that there will not be room enough to receive it."

Father, I pray that you would open the spiritual eyes of all those who read this message today, that your glory may be fullfilled through them.

The world is in a major recession and people the whole world over are suffering, christian and non believer alike. Estimates are that over 50 million people will lose their jobs due to the recession. That is an additional 50 million people added to all those who did not have work before. People who were stable in their jobs for years, are being retrenched. Everyday, we hear of new retrenchments from previously large and stable companies. There are no new jobs to go to and people are starting to suffer and experience total lack, even of the major essential items like food. Many hunger and have no food in their houses.

I believe that God has spoken very clearly to me this morning, to motivate not only church members, but entire communities, to start to band together, to feed those that have not.

The  scripture in Malachi 3:10 is what God gave me to share on this morning. Not the tithing, although that has an important role to play, but the "That there may be food in my house". Pastors, look around you. There are those who are hungry, and I am not talking about a hunger for the word of God, I am talking about people starving and not having any food to eat. They are dying from hunger. Again I am not talking about in the deep rural area's of Africa, but I am talking about right there on your door step.

What are you going to do about it. God says clearly in this scripture, that there may be food in My house. Is God not using this scripture right now to direct you, that you may start to feed those around you, and that their stomachs may be made full. Remember also that where a man's stomach is, there a man's heart is too. Start to feed those who have not, and they will start to come to you not only for the physical food, but also for their spiritual food. Start a soup kitchen to feed the poor. Let them come to the soup kitchen for their food, and yes it is possible that some that come may not really need the food, but do not use this as an excuse to not feed those that really need the food. Do not reach out only to your church members, but touch the entire community, that they may see the glory of  Jesus shining through you.

I urge all those who have not yet, to read this touching story about the young Boy's prayer to the Father.

For those of you who are working and are still recieving an income, God's instruction to you, is that you pay your tithe to the church. You need to play your part, that the tithe may go into the church, in order for the church in turn, to reach out and supply to the community. The church can not function and supply to the needy, if they do not have the resources to do so. God has kept you employed in a troubled time, and has kept sufficient food on your table, not to make you fat and happy, but that you could assist in supplying to those who do not have. I believe with all my heart that God wants to bless you and prosper you, not only that you could have for yourself, but that you could have in excess in order to reach out to others that do not have.

Bring your tithes in, that there may be food in my house. Reach out and help to feed those that have not. Matthew 25:37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying 'Lord when did we see you hungry, and feed you'," verse 40 "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me." 

If you will only hear the word that God is speaking to you today, and will act on it to help to feed those that are hungry, then know that the second part of Malachi 3:10 will spring forth and become a reality in your life, "And prove (test) me now in this, If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing, that there will not be room enough to receive it."

Even if you are not an active christian and do not belong to a church, the law of God stands for everyone and if you are true and faithfull to play your part in giving towards the feeding of the poor, God will in turn pour out His blessings upon you. Show the true love of Jesus from within of you.

Thank you for doing your part to feed those that are hungry.

God Bless.