Declare the Word - Blessing #1 Blessing #1 We were chosen by God to be holy and blameless before Him
Blessing #1 promises believers in Christ that we were chosen before the foundation of the world.
Declaring the Word of God
Blessing #1
I just finished interviewing a mom on my Impactors for Christ podcast whose son was thrown 39 feet from a third-story balcony onto a concrete floor at the Mall of America. First of all, this little boy should have died, but God miraculously saved him. During the four months of recovery in the hospital, this mom and her family continually declared the promises of God’s Word, refusing to accept the symptoms as the final diagnosis for their son. The promises of God’s healing encouraged them to keep speaking out the manifestation of their son’s healing, no matter what the doctors’ reports stated.
Today, the child is completely healed and running around like any other boy his age—full of vitality and free from any symptoms related to what happened. What this mom spoke over her son was such an encouraging testimony about declaring who God says we are and the authority we have in Him.
I am also teaching a class of 18 women on finding our identity in Christ and the importance of speaking and declaring what God says about us in His Word—to ourselves and to others. You see, if we each don't see ourselves as God sees us, we will always find ourselves short of believing God's promises for us because we will see ourselves flawed and not worthy of receiving them as God's blessings for us.
This message is so strong on my heart, so I wanted to share some of what God says about who we are in Christ in this episode or video and in the next few to come.
The first three chapters in the Book of Ephesians gives us 18 wonderful blessings that we have - all because of Christ and what He has done for us.
Ephesians 1:3 tells us "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
Blessing #1
Chosen by God
There is a reservoir of blessings in heaven for believers in Christ to utilize right now. But we need to believe, understand and declare them in order to receive them. Looking at the next verse, we see God's first blessings to believers in Christ - one that if we properly understand it, it would change the course of our life.
Ephesians 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love...
God is telling us that because of Christ - His love and sacrifice for the sins of mankind, you and I were already on the heart of God before the foundation of the world with a specific plan and purpose designed for our lives. God also tells us in Psm 139 that He formed our inner parts, and covered us in our mother's womb. We are fearfully and wonderfully made and marvelous are His works in us.
- God chose you - He chose me to be here in this world today, in this time in history.
- He has worked with us all of our lives despite all the wrong choices we have made in life. He never forces us to do anything, allowing us free will on all our choices, yet He has preserved you and me for this time NOW in history to do His will in the earth.
How awesome is that - God foresaw down the corridors of time and pre-planned you and me even before He created the heavens and the earth, yet preserved us through every situation in life - just waiting for the time when you and I would say "yes" to Jesus so that God could you - use me for His plans and purposes He has designed for us individually in our life.
I often in the past have asked God why He chose me for this or that,
and His reply back to me always was "I knew you would say "yes."
We are all given a free-will of choice and God will never violate our free will. God has called every believer in Christ with a plan and purpose, but in order to be effectively used by Him, God asks us to be holy and without blame before Him. In other words, yielded to Him so that we can allow God to use us for His plans and purposes in life. Saying "yes" to Jesus is living life at its best!
Once we grasp that, we begin to see our lives from God's perspective - not our own. God looks at us as His created being - each so unique and special. We are unlike anyone else in the world. And that is such a good thing. God sees His plans and purposes in us for Him to accomplish...how we are going to be used for others in this world. Even when we mess up in our humanness, God turns things around for His glory and purpose because our hearts are to please Him even we make foolish mistakes. As such, we have learned to live a repentant lifestyle before God.
Remember, we belong to the Kingdom of God - we are a king's kid - royalty - destined for the purpose of the Creator of the universe.
- God's promise to us in Romans 8:28 that all things work out for good to those who love Him and called according to His purpose. We may not always understand it at the time, but God's wonderful purpose is always working out for good.
- God's goodness always follows believers because we are yielded to God while He uses us to accomplish His purposes in ours and others lives day in and day out.
Because of our yieldedness to Christ daily, we can then take the promises of God as written down in His Word as His promise to us. Our yieldedness to His will and purpose then gives us the authority and we can legally speak them out over our lives, because they are God's promise to us.
Oh, there is so much more I want to share with you - so stay tuned, I've got a lot more in future episodes.
Written by Pastor Joyce A. Erickson
Believers Bible School, Founder https://believersbibleschool.com/