“The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.” Dt 28:12 NKJV
God has given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises (2 Peter 1:4) and among those promises is the decree that if we live in obedience, He will set before us an “open heaven!”
This year God has set before us an Open Heaven – is there anything hindering you from receiving the downpour of His blessings? We all have seen or heard the news of the economic crisis our country is facing – we know personally people that have already been affected by the tremendous loss of jobs and decrease in income. We can be governed by what we see, or we can be governed by God’s promises.
“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” 2 Corinthians 1:20 (KJV)
I don’t often use the KJ version of the Bible, because space won’t always permit me to clarify meaning – however, this is the version that I “came up on” and it speaks to me. If we look at this text it says, “all the promises of God in him” – which says to me that if God has made that promsie, it is one I can claim – for the next part says, “are yea and in him Amen” (so be it) – meaning that the promise must not only be in him, but as we pray those promises, that the yes and the action is done in HIM. And when those promies are fulfilled, they are done unto to the glory of God.” Here is the catch, those promises are done “by us!”
This has always been the tricky part for me – when I was a young Christian I didn’t understand why God wouldn’t just “zap” the things He wanted for us into our lives. As the saying goes, “He’s got the power!” And if we love Him and ask Him – why doesn’t He just DO IT!
Well the saints began to explain to me that faith is an action word – it takes us moving in faith for it to come to pass. So what does that mean, how much movement do I have to do? And to make it more complicated, there were times when things did just come – miraculously – not only an open heaven, but an open door that I didn’t even have to even open!
O.K., if you’re confused, join the club! Living the Christian life and trying to figure out how to maneuver through the obstacles we face is not an easy task. It is for this reason that this week, we are not only going to quote the “book,” we are going to take a look at the “book” – line by line in some cases – to review for the tests ahead. For as sure as there is a promise, there is a test to pass before receiving it. So get your bibles, get your notebook and, as a popular worship song cries out: “Open the windows of heaven, let it rain, let it rain!”
God Bless You,
Maria
Thank you for this word. I am sensing the same thing when it comes to an open Heaven. God has given me a midweek series to start in May called “The Sign Says OPEN!” We will talk about a season that I believe is fastly approaching and could already be here where we will walk under an open Heaven, experience the blessing poured out of the open windows of Heaven, and walk through open doors here on Earth that God has opened and no one can close. We will talk about the keys to the kingdom that allow us access to these particular openings and we will delve into what each one of them represent.
Please continue to pray for us as we continue on our mission in South Bend, for we know that the enemy does not want us to experience any of these “openings”. In 1 Corinthians 16:9, Paul says, “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” There are enemies to fight but thanks be unto God who has already given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. As we continue to war in the heavenlies we believe that the enemy is defeated, the people of God are blessed and victorious and God is glorified in all the Earth. Blessings
Hey Maria, This was a great message and it seemed it was sent just for me. I have a question/comment, Why is it so difficult to be obedient to GOD? I know I love GOD so why do I/we (as I suspect I’m not the only one) struggle with simple obedience? And in that disobedience does GOD question our love for him? Does disobedience mean we don’t really love HIM.. we just think we do? Don’t want to take up too much of your time as I know putting together these daily messages keeps you busy but I thought I’d ask you for your thoughts on this and any scriptures you can point me to for meditation would be greatly appreciated.
Tony