“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua Messiah, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings among the celestials in Mashiach” (Ephesians 1.3).

We disciples have been blessed among the celestials. We have been blessed in the Messiah. Well then, who are the celestials among whom we have been blessed and with whom we share this blessing in Yeshua? Do we dare consider that God has done all this before? Recall that our God is not only eternal in character and nature but eternally cyclical as well. All nature, which came forth out of God (Romans 11.36), reflects the Creative Intelligence that birthed it forth. Nature is cyclical as God Him/Her/Itself is cyclical (even Solomon understood this — read the book of Ecclesiastes to establish this to be the case). God is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last letter in the Greek alphabet — in other words, the womb and tomb of the universe. Appreciating God’s eternality, Paul builds on this and tells us in Romans that the proof of God’s existence is clearly and self-evidently seen in the things of nature that surround us. So if God is eternal and cyclic by nature God is eternally cyclic. What is now has been before and so forth. One universe is brought into being, exists, then perishes. Another universe is brought into being, exists, and then perishes. This is the fundamental nature of star systems, entire galaxies, and of course the universe.

The Midrash on Genesis 1.1 — the Genesis Rabbah — agrees with this assessment and therefore says, “In the beginning God created numerous worlds destroying one after the other as they failed to satisfy him. All were inhabited by Man a thousand of whom [or, which] he cut off involving no record of Man.”

This Midrash applies as much to Earth as to other worlds in Space-time.

And God’s role in this present, natural, material universe is to reproduce Himself in that which He incessantly creates. In humankind, God is reproducing Himself in sons and daughters (1 John 3.1-3). If we believe in Yeshua Messiah and own Him as Lord and Saviour, we become the literal children of God. We become the King’s Kids. He can be called with confidence, “Father.” But more importantly, the Scripture makes it very clear that we should share an intimate relationship with God wherein we may have the privilege of referring to Him as our “Daddy” — in Aramaic that’s Ab’ba (Mark 14.36;  Romans 8.15; Galatians 4.6). Ab’ba means “my dearest darling Daddy”. If we as human beings are truly made in the image of God then we cannot help but reflect the character(istics) of our Father. Yeshua was not in the least circumspect when He told certain Jewish religious leaders that they had the characteristics of their “father” — the cruel and heartless Dark Lord (John 8.44).

We must become like little children in innocent sincerity of life. Our Lord Yeshua said, “Yes! Absolutely! I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of God. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as a little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of God… Let the children come to me, don’t stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

Therese, the “Little Flower of Jesus,” and a Roman Catholic nun, grasped what most believers have failed to understand about this vital principle. She wrote, “Thine arms, Jesus, shall be a lift that will raise me to heaven. For this I have no need to become greater. On the contrary I must become smaller… It is my weakness which makes all my strength. Jesus did every-thing in me. I did nothing but remain little and weak… We can be too big for God but we can never be too small for Him.” Needless to say, with such an attitude toward God, Therese hoped for, and believed in, an ultimate universal salvation.

 

• Life, remember, is the experience you bring to it.

Children just are. They do not have to learn to be. They do not try to be something they are not, although they do like to lose themselves in play and in their creative imagination. God is a “child” as well as a loving “Father” and “Mother.”

We must be like God. We are told that fact so many times in Scripture we cannot count the number. Have we talked with the “Child” within ourselves lately? Have we communed recently with the “Child”? Intimately?

The game of salvation is to be played according to God’s rules. Salvation is all about “hide and seek” and “lost and found.” It is not the Dark Lord who is hiding around every corner, or scrambling out from under a bush, and lurking under your bed ready to surprise you. It is God.

DISCIPLESHIP IS ABOUT PURITY

As Mashiach’s disciples it is not a matter of whether we should drink or not drink alcohol. It would be very wrong to drink alcohol in front of an alcoholic. It might be very right to drink alcohol in front of a teetotaller. It depends on all the given facts of a situation. It depends on how much you personally know and understand about the holy Scriptures, and how much you know and understand about yourself. True spirituality is the attitude with which we do physical things.

Recall the highly dangerous Gospel words of life, liberty and freedom: “Spiritually prosperous [blessed] is he who does not condemn himself in that which he allows” (Romans 14.22). Again, “To the pure all things are pure” (Titus 1.15). It is also stated, “All things are lawful unto me” (1 Corinthians 6.12). But keep in mind that the holy Spirit added an important qualification. “But not all things are expedient.” Paul said that all things were lawful to him but also stated in the same breath, “However, I decidedly will not be brought under the power and control of anything” (Gk). In another place, while he was in agreement with the sentiment that “All things are indeed pure” (Romans 14.20) nevertheless “it is evil for the man who goes against his conscience.” The same principle was imparted to the Roman believers. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14.23). The message is loud and clear. Liberty — yes. But be careful of self-deception!

Taking Messiah’s yoke is to say “Yes” to all that life offers. There are two “yokes” in discipleship. One is the wooden framed “yoke” joining draught oxen. The other is the central beam of the scales used for weighing. Whichever “yoke” Messiah referred to is here not an issue. The issue involves taking that “yoke” upon us in decision-making. But at the same time taking His yoke is not a single act done once and for all time. It is rather being (present tense) a disciple, and this is a daily experience.

This principle is expounded further by Peter. He wrote, “As newborn babies, crave the sincere [pure] milk of the word that you may grow thereby; if so be you have tasted experientially that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming [continuous present tense: coming again and again…]” (1 Peter 2.2-4).

When Yeshua talked about purity, the promise of SEEING God is made to those who are pure in heart (Matthew 5.8). Purity in heart leads to purity in business dealings, purity in your marital life, purity in the raising of your children, purity in your responses to them, purity in your standing firm in decisions made for their own good, purity in supporting this Work and in your honouring of God. Purity begins in the heart (Proverbs 4.23).

But we may say to ourselves, “Well, I’ve been a good person all of my life. I’ve never done anything wrong. Not only that by I’ve been saved by Yeshua and I don’t have to do anything anymore, just sit it out until He comes again to receive me to Himself. I’m OK.”

Now that’s delusion! Do we really grasp just how dependent we are on God, our heavenly Father — on His Spirit? Please consider:         

 

•  “I am the vine. You are the branches. He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit. For severed from me you can do nothing” (John 15.5). The believer has no power of his own to bring forth any fruit to the glory of God.
•  “For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For, to will [Gk. to be constantly desirous] is present with me, but to perform that which is good is not present” (Romans 7.18). Such an acknowledgment from the most eminent of the apostles makes it plain that no saint has strength of his own to meet the divine requirements. 
•  “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves [Gk. to even think a good thought of ourselves]; but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Corinthians3.5). If insufficient of ourselves to even think a good thought, how much less can we perform a good deed?
• “For the flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would” (Galatians 5.17). Paul’s “cannot” clearly authorise us to speak of the inability of
  the Messianic believer to accomplish such matters in the flesh. Not only so, but every prayer for divine help, health and strength is a tacit admission and confirmation of this same truth.
• Of course, some of us have strong genetic tendencies which grant us a “natural” integrity. But even our natural  
  integrity cannot save us. But God can. God does. For our personal despair often opens the door of hope. “You have 
  destroyed yourself. But in me is your help” (Hosea 13.9).

   

Abimelech, a heathen king, took Sarah the wife of Abraham for himself, but when God warned him that she was another man’s wife, he did not touch her. God affirmed that His power restrained him. “And God said unto him [Abimelech] in a dream, ‘Yes. I know that you did this in the integrity [sincerity] of your heart. FOR I ALSO WITHHELD YOU FROM SINNING AGAINST ME. Therefore I ALLOWED YOU NOT to have intercourse with her” (Genesis 20.6).

Can God stop you from sinning? Yes, but it is according to your own integrity and sincerity, which the Lord wants to strengthen. Look at Yeshua. As He submitted to the revelation of God, the LORD supplied help for Him in miraculous ways. Indeed, it is mentioned in one instance at least that the holy Spirit actually drove the Messiah from within His heart. Compare the following two texts. “Then was Yeshua LED up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil”  (Matthew 4.1) “And immediately the Spirit DROVE him into the wilderness” (Mark 1.12).

The Spirit DROVE Our Lord Yeshua! But Matthew Levi speaks of the Messiah as being “LED”! There may seem to be a contra-diction. Brethren, “led” shows Our Lord’s freedom of action; “drove” indicates a forcible action and powerful motion. The human nature of Yeshua and the God nature of Yeshua worked together in a union of perfect harmony and balance especially when facing the militant might and evil power of the Dark Lord. What we sometimes fail to remember, brethren, is that the only power the Dark Lord possesses is that which he got from God in the first place. The only power that exists is God’s power. Messiah, above all men, realised this. Only in the true God can any of us find an ecologically, psychologically and spiritually unpolluted environment. That is why in the wilderness skirmish with the Slanderer the Dove met the Serpent head-on and conquered it.

The first Adam met the Evil One, through Eve, in the Garden of Paradise and fell on his face. Yeshua conquered Satan in the wilderness. Adam was certainly not in need of food in the Garden of Paradise for it was all there in astonishing abundance. Yet he fell flat on his face. Yeshua, famished and weakened from a 40-day fast, successfully withstood the Devil’s temptation to feed Him. Adam, as the federal head of the human race and the emperor of the animal kingdom, yielded his strength and vigour to the Serpent. Yeshua, on the other hand, though surrounded by wild animals, refused to accept what rightfully belonged to Him because it was offered by soiled hands.

Paul goes on to write, “Let us CLEANSE OURSELVES from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, PERFECTING HOLINESS in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7.1). After our initial personal experience of the holy Spirit (like that described by Matthew and Luke in the above account of Yeshua) we have a major job to accomplish, apart from fulfilling Mashiach’s last command which, we recall, was “As you live make disciples.”       

That job is to purify ourselves from everything that contaminates our spirit, soul and body. Do not let anyone try to convince you that your spirit is already pure, clean, and uncontaminated. For, it is the spirit which is to be saved at the Messiah’s return — for the very reason it needs saving (1 Corinthians 5.5).

Let us put it this way. If we believe in man’s innate mortality (and many of us do) then the conscience — the blueprint of man’s nature — must be undefiled to enter the holy presence of the Lord. Yet we are told, quite bluntly, that man’s normal conscience is defiled and needs saving (1 Corinthians 8.7; Titus 1.15). Most sins of impurity originate from inside us (Mark 7.20-23). 

If man’s spirit needs saving it is OBVIOUSLY subject to death. Not only so, but

 

• death in the Jewish thoughtform signifies separation and never annihilation.

This fact never sits well with people caught up in cults. But it is the truth nevertheless. After all, the spiritual death of Adam was not the extinction of his being, but the severance of his relationship with a holy God. In consequence of his defiled spirit his descendants are born into this world bearing — not some “Original Sin” — but the EFFECTS of the original sin: DEATH. Death working in us brings forth trespasses and sins against God’s law. Paul writes that we were “dead IN trespasses and sins” (Eph 2.1) when we were called (divinely summoned by God to be disciples) which is later defined as “being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart”  (Ephesians 4.18).

You don’t believe that death is separation and not annihilation? Does your pastor, or church, or “Bible college” speak for you? 

Or, is God’s opinion the one that ought to count? Listen to the WORD of God!

In Yeshua’s famous parable of the “Prodigal Son” when the prodigal’s father said, “This my son was DEAD, and is alive again” (Luke 15.4) he most certainly did not mean that the son had ceased to exist but that he had been “in a far country” — cut off from the expressed love and blessing of the father and he had now returned. So it is in regards the “death” of the wicked in hellfire. Paul agrees with John as he records they are punished “with everlasting [Gk. age-lasting] destruction  [that’s death] FROM THE PRESENCE of the Lord and from the glory of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1.9 cf  Revelation  20.14-15). As Messiah’s disciples we are commanded to become pure in spirit (2 Corinthians 7.1), pure in body (1 Thessalonians 4.3-5), pure in thought (Job 31.1), pure in speech (Ephesians 4.29; 5.4), pure in all of our dealings (Matthew 5.16; 7.12; Ephesians 4.21,25-28,31) and pure in our personal relationships (Proverbs 18.24).

All of this implies that as disciples (students of Yeshua) there are things we will need to cast off from us in our daily walk with the Lord. There are things, attitudes, motives, actions, habits of which we must be deprived. But there are MANY things we surrender to God which He gives us back again. It’s a matter of release of yourself into the UNITY and ONENESS of God, a matter of joyous self-surrender. The Lord Yeshua put it succinctly when He said, “He who seeks to save his life will lose it; he who seeks to lose his life will find it.”

In the parable of the sheep and the goats we have principles we should note closely because while nations are under discussion, they are made up of so many individuals (Matthew 25.31ff). Some find themselves condemned. Yeshua calls them ‘SELF-CURSED’ (Gk).

Being SELF-CURSED is not The Way of the Warrior. It is not The Way of the Disciple. It was not The Way of the ancient patri-archs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For, they realised they were made in the Divine Image of God. They realised they possessed GIFTS from God. They knew that if they were to SUCCEED in life, that they were to direct their energies  toward God and their fellow man. We all need to be SELF-BLESSED, not “self-cursed.” Such an imperative change as this begins in the mind — the choice to bless ourselves, rather than curse ourselves, is entirely our own.

 

• They had the KEY to personal power, personal wealth, personal health and personal well-being. We can and should learn from them.
• They knew how to redirect these blessings outward to others. We can and should learn from them.
• They knew the secret of restoration — that nothing is ever lost forever. We can and should learn from them.
• They knew the secret of magnetic prayer. We can and should learn from them.
• They knew the secret of using the Divine Power of God in combating enemies. We can and should learn from them.
• They SAW themselves creatively as channels and reservoirs of God’s spiritual, emotional and material wealth. They were not lacking courage to exercise KINGDOM AUTHORITY. We can and should learn from them.
• They blessed themselves, and others. Again, we can and should learn from them.

THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR — BLESSING SELF, BLESSING OTHERS

It is human nature to grasp, to control, to dominate others. It’s our nature to fail to see that our success or failure is deter-mined by the decisions we make and the actions we take daily. Our decisions, and our acts, start as THOUGHTS. Human nature shows itself in raw, rough, calculated, inconsiderate selfishness and self-will. Human nature is the polluted source of destructive tensions. It is arrogant self-gratification which condescends with immense and bloated self-importance to show charity to those needy beneath them of less social status. Human nature is summed up in the dangerous and unyielding attitude, “I want what I want, when I want it, and I don’t give a damn who I hurt in order to get it.”

Certainly it is contrary to human nature to bless either self or others. Human nature is essentially insecure, non-self-loving. The Torah tells us that we must “love our neighbour as our self.” True self-love embodies respect for one’s self. The ancient Greeks referred to authentic self-love as “reverence for the self.” Reverence indeed. Only a reverend attitude can bless. When we seek to bless, we immediately enter the battle zone, for the last thing Satan wants is for us to realise of what our “armour of God” consists. For with the believing act of blessing comes our release into the realm of Kingdom Authority.

According to the dictionary, to bless means:

“To make holy or whole by spoken words, by pronouncements.

To ask divine favour for some situation or condition, to glorify it.

To wish a person or situation well, to evoke divine favour.

To make joyous, happy or prosperous.

To extol and will to gladden, glorify, praise.”

In other words, to bless means to bring forth — or, will forth — only GOOD in a situation, condition or personality whether there seems to be any good to be brought forth or not. God can do these things. Can we do such things? Should we do such things? The answer is straightforward, according to the Bible — which is our passport to the Kingdom of God, and our instruction manual pertaining to the principles of discipleship and the art of spiritual warfare.

Paul tells us simply, “Bless… bless and do not curse” (Romans 12.14). Yeshua tells us forthrightly, “Yes! Absolutely! I tell you: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you, that you may be the children of your Father in heaven. [The character of a child should reflect the character of the Father because] He causes His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”  (Matthew 5.39-42; Luke 6.27-28).

Right at the very beginning of his dealings with Abram, before he became Abraham “the father of the faithful,” God said: “I will bless thee… and be thou a blessing” (Genesis 12.2). That man is quite capable of being a blessing to his fellow man, as well as to himself, and to the creation around him, should not be too difficult a concept with which to come to terms. Man was made in the divine image of God, after His likeness. As disciples we are to maintain the mind of Mashiach within. As God brought forth our good, rich and lavishly abundant universe out of Himself so Man, too, has the capacity (especially and even more so as a disciple) to give birth to blessing in an outward display of love, concern and under-standing toward life and life’s living creatures. Blessings, of necessity, involve decisions — decisions about what things (situations, circumstances, personal-ities) mean and what to constructively do about them to initiate a chain of specific positive, wholesome consequences.

If you have read this far, then so far so good. But most Christians, schooled and indoctrinated into church dogma (which is alien to Jewish thoughtform) will balk when I say that….

 

• We are talking about karma.

When we scan the pages of the Hebrew Bible we find instances FULL of blessings. The ancient patriarchs were particularly fond of blessing others — it was, in actual fact, their favourite form or method of prayer. When we read these texts con-cerned with the act of blessing we find people such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (and others) voicing blessings and predict-ing the good that would — as a direct consequence — come upon the recipients.

In the beginning God created Man and then instructed him to bring into subjection the entire created order. Man was expected to control his environment — to subdue his world, to conquer, vanquish or change his world for the better (if the need so arose). If this was Humanity’s appointed earthly destiny (Genesis 1.26-28) should we, then, who have the very Mind of the Cosmic Mashiach, be willing to settle for anything less? To settle for failure, limitation, and mediocrity is to insult the Infinite Intelligence and Divine Love which not only brought us forth for a special purpose, but which also made us in His own special divine image and likeness.

The fact is, by utterance, by using words sincerely from the intent of the heart, we can create our world just like God. We can literally be “co-Creators” with God. Indeed, look at how God is described as bringing the living creatures of the earth to the first Man for him to “voice” their names. What Man called them, that they became (Genesis 2.19-20 Hebrew)! God brought forth the entire universe by His WORD and He “upholds it by the WORD of His power” (Hebrews 1.3). The universe is FULL of NOISE, of SOUNDS, of UTTERANCES, of WORDS. We are God’s THOUGHT (and as such are full of WORDS, because you cannot have thoughts without word-images) and thoughts reside within us as well as outside. We are a UNITY with God. Like God, our words can flow from us into form. So, what we call or name our experiences — that’s what they become. They become that by our DECREE. Our thoughts and words are filled with God’s same creative power, and that for our success or our failure.

 

• This is why it’s so important for disciples to be disciplined.

Our words can bless, or they can curse (James 3.9-10). Our thoughts can bless, or they can curse. If we dwell on evil it will double. Dwell on evil and you give more power to evil. You will intensify it. It will increase in strength and potency, as any-one knows who has dabbled in the depths of Satan. But, karmically, the reverse is equally true. Attention to good doubles good. This is the field wherein karma works in either a retributive sense or a blessing sense. For, when we bless someone with GOOD, PROSPERITY abounds. But when we “run down” someone with criticism and a sense of condem-nation you are opening the door to your mind, body or affairs to become similarly “run down” in the FORM of ill health, general confusion, unhap-piness, or lack. This is primarily why the apostle Paul, who next to John and James, perhaps understood the principles of reincarnation and karma more fully than any of the other apostles of Mashiach, exhorts us to think only on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is  admirable, whatever is excellent or praiseworthy” (Philippians 4.8).

Every person in the world is following in the karmic footsteps of Adam and Eve. Some of us — through Messiah — are still dwelling in the Garden of Eden, as far as our daily experiences of life are concerned. Why do we find such inner peace walk-ing in a garden, surrounded by shady trees, the gentle breeze causing the rhythmic swaying of the upper rustling leaves and branches, our eyes catching the clouds sliding silently through the soundless sea of space above, our ears snatching at the sounds of birds and bees busily attending to the lavish abundance of colourful flowers? We were created to enjoy gardens. Man was originally created and then placed in one. He was not intended to be stuck in the concrete jungle of some naked city desperately cowered by alien surroundings in the form of tall threatening buildings, honking cars, roaring buses, gasping into his lungs polluted air, and feeling the foreign soil of tar, concrete and cement under his feet.

Some of us have been hurled out of the Garden as our natural habitat. We have lost the tranquillity generously provided by the garden setting. As such, our natural proclivity to hear the “still, small voice of God” is precluded. The old hymn, written by C. Austin Miles (1912) summed it up, “I Come To The Garden Alone.” Many of us choose to live through negative exper-iences because we are by-passing the “Tree of Life” (the Messiah). Therefore, while some of us may be gaining in “life” we are (by eating of the fruit of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”) merely contrasting an appreciation of the good. Must we so unnecessarily strain and struggle through life? God gave us our life to LIVE. When we reverse the good and emphasise the evil, we have literally inverted or reversed LIVE to EVIL. “Live” is “evil” spelled backwards. Most of us can readily testify that evil has been far too prominent in our thinking. It is time to live without evil. It is high time to get back to the Garden! To get back to God! We can only do so effectually when we come to the crucified Lord who died on the “Tree” in an “orchard” or “garden.”

The Hebrew word for the negative is aven, which literally means — “nothing.” The ancient Hebrews knew that in one sense evil is sheer illusion. It is nothing at all! Therefore it could have no power over them. (Please reflect on the absolute absence of conflict with Satan as a personality in the lives of the patriarchs!) Evil should have no power over Yeshua’s disciples either. “Be of good cheer,” said Yeshua to the original disciples, “I have overcome the world.”

What am I saying? That there is no Dark Lord, no principle of atrophy, no demonic realm, no sin, and no evil consequen-ces from stupid behaviour? Am I saying that we are not in conflict with the archons of evil? No, not by any means. What I am saying is that by the use of the utilisation of blessing by thinking only on the positive, only on the fruitful, only on the lavish and rich abundance of God’s GRACE and gracious providence can we successfully treat the negative sphere as “under our feet” — conquered, vanquished, subdued. We need to all throw off the evil in our life by eating of the Tree of Life. We need to start dwelling only on the good, or the potential for good, in human beings, including ourselves. We need to see that evil is not essential to our life IN Messiah. We need to know the GOOD, affirm the GOOD, and  experience  the GOOD. And grant no place to our own evil, our own Opponent. He needs to be starved into annulment.

“I often meet people who live in pain because they constantly focus on the injustices of life. After all, how could a child be born blind, without the chance to ever experience the wonder of a rainbow? How can a man who has never hurt anyone his entire life become a victim of a drive-by shooting? The meaning and the purpose behind some events are unknowable. This is the ultimate test of our faith. We must trust that everyone in life is here to learn different lessons at different times, that good and bad experiences are only the perceptions of man. After all, some of your worst experiences have truly been your best. They’ve sculpted you, trained you, developed within you a sensitivity and set you in a direction that reaches out to impact your ultimate destiny” (Tony Robbins).

 

• “When the student is ready the Teacher comes” — Ancient Asian Adage.

While none of us should be naive, our lives in Mashiach should reflect the lavish abundance of the garden “palace” in which He is pictured as residing. Indeed in Him, and not just His garden “palace,” are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and unsearch-able riches of feverish delight. That’s what Paul wrote in his epistles. He didn’t think twice about comparing Mashiach to “treasures” and “riches” and “lavish abundance.”

Consider the tabernacle in the wilderness. It was lavishly furnished, with rich curtains made from the finest silks and artist-ically, exquisitely embroidered with gold and silver. The holy utensils were made of the most expensive metals including gold. The priests were dressed in fine garments made from costly cloth. The tabernacle was covered with dolphin skins, the most intelligent and affectionate beings with whom we share our planet. Only the very best was acceptable to God. The dolphin skins covered the tabernacle to remind the Israelites of the extreme care they should take when entering the realm of God. God is Infinite Intelligence and holy (whole) affection. God created the dolphin as the most intelligent of creatures next to man. It is also the happiest, most playful creature next to man. On the positive side, the realm of “dolphin energy” is still being explored by scientists, who never cease to be amazed at the wonder and magic of this beautiful creature of the ocean depths. On the negative side, over six million dolphins have been exterminated in the past 10 years in unregulated tuna fish-ing expeditions.

The point I am making is this: so many of us, who by virtue of our divine summons from God to be disciples of the Messiah and Warriors of The Way dare to call ourselves “priests and kings,” but approach God as paupers at best and cringing, yelping dogs at worst. WHY is this? WHY are so many of us gripped with a poverty, or scarcity-consciousness when our Father in heaven is a multi-zillionaire — many times over? It is due to the fact that we feel in ourselves completely unworthy of our divine calling and divine election. But isn’t this entirely the issue? We are unworthy of ourselves. But our loving Yeshua has changed all that forever!

“What shall we say then to these things? If God be FOR us, who can be AGAINST us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us ALL THINGS” (Romans 8.31-32).

God has richly supplied us, in Mashiach and with Mashiach, with all spiritual blessings. And God has freely given man this
present wonderful world filled to overflowing with abundance. We have been given ALL THINGS — it’s all ours. Can we believe it? Can we? We must if we are to be effective disciples and skilful Warriors of The Way. Unless we do believe, we will never creatively exercise Kingdom Authority.

Why do we insist on a poverty, or scarcity-consciousness? Look for a moment at what Moses wrote in Genesis 2.11. Notice the wording: “The gold of that land is good.” But Satan undermines our framework of positive reference with the entirely negative refrain, “You are spiritually poor. God loves the poor, and he expects you to remain impoverished.” “You must not appreciate wealth — it’s evil.” “You were born to learn to fail in life.” “You were not born to win — that’s selfish.” But God included over 409 references to gold in the Bible. We need to resist the Dark Lord on our own ground by releasing ourselves into the blessing of our own personal success in the Messiah. That blessing already exists in the Mind of our Creator. If we are ONE with the Creator, we are ONE with the blessing of God. By releasing ourselves fully INTO that blessing, other forces automatically come into play and work for us. We call these forces “God’s angels.”

The Bible teaches that they minister to those who shall be inheritors of the Kingdom of God. When these forces help some-times chaos may initially seem to be the result. But in entering the blessing of God recall that you are no longer in control. You are flying free in the blessing. Have faith. Maintain your focus. Be infectiously enthusiastic. The seeming chaos that exists will work as a blessing in the long run. For, as the Scripture says, “ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose [of blessing]” (Romans 8.28).

John Wesley, although incurably Arminian in his theology, comprehended the truth of blessing as the force of Kingdom Authority. And look at what he achieved! He has been called “the most successful reject since Jesus Christ.” The Religious Establishment treated Wesley with utter contempt, yet in his lifetime he travelled an astonishing quarter of a million miles on horseback across Britain, armed only with his Bible, a handful of books, and a few songs. He single-handedly converted hundreds of thousands and changed the entire course of a nation. Concerning blessing, he exhorted fellow believers,

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

Wesley wrote a great deal about the blessing of service to others. He well knew that when we bless we make contact with, and tap directly into, the greatest power on earth — the living power of GOD. That power will unleash from around you, and from within you. It is power directed toward the formation and materialisation of blessing that is uttered by your mouth.

But it is blessing in service to others. Ironically, as used today, the word “service” seems to indicate a freely given exchange between equals. But the roots of the word betray its significance: it is found in serf, servile, servitude and slave. One might say its roots are to be found in discipleship.

But this service as a slave is ALL of God, and nothing of the Adversary. As slaves of Mashiach God pays us wages (1 Cor 9).

Satan does not pay wages, he “secretes rations” (Romans 6.23 Original Greek).

Indeed, in true service, the one serving and the one served are ONE. As Emerson so aptly put it, “It is one of the beautiful compensations of this life, that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” By drawing the sword of the Spirit, and blessing everything, our personalities take on an inner glow and assurance. The holy Spirit is giving us a new lease on life itself. We are being radically “transformed by the renewing of the mind” (Romans 12.2). This is another way of saying “Let this mind be in you which was also in Messiah Yeshua” (Philippians 2.5).

Releasing ourselves into the spiritual blessing of God, which is awaiting each of us who are Messiah’s disciples, is a sure and certain way of “letting” or “allowing” Yeshua’s mind to indwell our own spirits. It leads to effective inward change. It leads to the creative exercise of rooting out of our carnal human minds all negative thinking. It leads to the development of a trans-formational vocabulary. By so jettisoning alien thoughtforms from our mental frame of reference, a vacuum is automatically created, and we know nature hates a vacuum. This is WHY Our Lord Yeshua said, “Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness [by activating the blessing of Mashiach’s Mind indwelling us fully] and all these things [desired material acquis-itions] will be [automatically] added unto you” (Matthew 6.33).

They will be added because as we seek first the kingdom of God, and His character, we will be changing our mental frames of reference and blessing into existence the things that will creatively enhance our Messianic (Christian) lifestyles. By maintain-ing the attitude of blessing we will be much better equipped to deal with the legions of the Dark Lord. Remember,

 

•  A lost spirit is a spirit that has lost sight of its own divinity and Unity with God. But God created us in the image of His own perfection. God endowed us with the power to make our life whatever we wish it to be.
•  It is just as easy to bless and praise as it is to condemn and complain. By doing the latter we intensify the negative conditions of which we wish to be rid. By blessing we take the sting out of unhappy situations.
• Start your work day by blessing — by reprogramming your thoughts to the positive and expectant. Bless your mail, your work, your family, business associates, and friends. Bless your enemies and those tiresome and troublesome people who bug you.
• If you are facing a monumental decision, sleep on the blessing of expecting an answer when you awake. In the morning let the rising sun greet you with the answers to your problems. It works. God works. The blessing works.
• Bless your children when they are ill. Apart from appropriate medical assistance, bless light into their bodies. We are made of dust. We are animated star-dust. Cosmic dust (the stuff of life) has light at its centre. Every cell, every atom, has light at its centre. Our children are our heritage. Bless them with light.

Rav Shaul said it was entirely possible to lock into, and actually possess, the very Mind of the Cosmic Christ. We know this to certainly be the case because some in his day and age had done it. They had achieved complete gnosis. “We have the mind of Messiah,” he wrote (1 Corinthians 2.16). Such a truth staggers the imagination! Our reaction should not be, ‘How much we have lost.’ Rather, our focus should be on the positive. How much we are restoring!

By the proper and consistent, practical use of the principles of discipleship, as we mentally wear the full armour of God, by blessing we can become a step closer to possessing completely the awesome Mind of Messiah, and bringing a profound truth (and wish for each of us) from the lips of the apostle Paul to personal fruition.

“Bless and curse not… You can have everything! Success is your divine heritage! All things are yours!” (Romans 12.14; 1 Corinthians 3.21-22).

May these words of encouragement and blessing from the apostle Paul bring you as much joyful advantage in their material realisation in your own life’s pursuits, as they have already accomplished in my own life’s Dream, when the Ruach HaKodesh (the Spirit of Holiness) imparted them to me for my own enriched personal blessing.