Heavenly Father is a God who blesses with increase and abundance. We see this right from the beginning, in Genesis 1:20-24. God created whales and other sea creatures, and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water. He created the birds as well, everything producing after its own kind. So, no monkeys having baby seals, or cows giving birth to giraffes. Everything produced according to our Most Holy God’s divine order and perfection. After He created them, Genesis 1:22 tells us that He blessed them. He spoke the blessing over their existence and said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Notice the simplicity, directness, and abundant nature of this blessing. It wasn’t to reduce but to increase; to be productive, profitable, and perpetual. We can see from this and many other records in His Word that when it comes to blessings, our Heavenly Father has abundance, growth, and longevity in mind.
In verse 26, He had a conversation with Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit and said, “Let us make humans in our image, to be like us.” Then He pronounced another blessing of increase, this time over human beings, and in Genesis 1:28 declared, “They are going to reign.” This word ‘reign’ connotes an element of royalty and rule. We think of it in terms of having some degree of power and authority. It is perfectly understandable that our magnificent and brilliant God would weave the component of dominion and authority to reign within the creation of humans, because dominion and authority are such huge parts of His very own nature. Reigning is a characteristic of His being, and since He’s created us after His Kind, in His image, it stands to reason that He would create us to reign in the earth.
God did not give us the ability to reign over other individuals. We can’t get this part twisted, because when we overstep or intrude upon an individual’s ability to reign in their own lives, we disconnect ourselves from God’s blessing. When we slander, gossip, lie, and mistreat other people, we are leaving a lasting imprint of death upon them, because we kill something that could have been vital to their journeys. We must be ever so careful about what we do, think, and say; so that we’re not injuring others. We are to reign in our own lives through the love of God in Christ Jesus, and this requires the full and continual brunt of our energy and focus.
God has given us free-will agency, because this too is apart of who He is. No one tells God what to do. He’s God all by Himself. He’s sovereign. This is a piece of knowledge that builds our confidence in His love towards us, because He makes the free-will choice to love us overwhelmingly, unconditionally, and without limit. He chooses ‘love’ every time because His love is true, and His power comes from the truth; for He IS the truth!!! He restricts Himself to love because His Word is love, His Word is true; and therefore, He will never violate His Word. He chooses love because He IS love. 1John 4:8 tells us this.
When we understand the sovereignty of God, and that He can do anything He chooses but always chooses love, we then see what heaven risked by sending Jesus to the earth. He could have chosen not to finish the work he was sent by God to do, for it was agonizing suffering, but he put himself through it because of his love for us.
The nature of God is to always and forever, unwaveringly and most assuredly choose love. Therefore, this must become our nature as well. The blessing of God, as He demonstrated from the very beginning, is that His love will flow in, with, by, and through all things, so that they are fruitful and will increase. Again, He is supremely interested in His creation being productive, profitable, and perpetual; for these speak to His nature. This is why Jesus Christ said in Mark 12:27 that Heavenly Father is the God of the living, and not the dead, because He is the God of life and not death. He causes increase and not decrease.
So, any time we have in our motives, behaviors, attitudes, and agendas an element that isn’t representative of God’s nature, we are hindered by our own selves. To the extent that any of these elements puts us on a trajectory of NOT fulfilling our purposes within God’s plan, we must take desperately necessary actions to seek Him until the impediment or blocker is removed. The Lord Jesus Christ will help us to do this. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we must have faith in order to please God; we must believe that He exists and that He is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. We need faith to please God. We need faith to continue going higher in His blessings.
Galatians 5:6 tells us that what’s important to God is that our faith is expressed in His love. Junk in our trunks will keep our faith from hitting the targets God intends it to hit. It’s not about faith for a new car, house, job, or relationship. It’s about doing the very things God created us to do. It’s about building the faith that activates us in our calling. This is the real key to God’s blessing of fruitfulness, abundance, and success.
Adam and Eve didn’t know how to reign in the earth when they were created, any more than you and I know how to reign when we’re born. God taught them through the Holy Spirit how to reign with authority and dominion in the earth. We must allow the Holy Spirit to teach us as well; for 1John 2:27 declares that the Spirit will teach us everything we need to know, and what he teaches is true! We can’t be consumed with our own agendas. We must seek to remove from our lives anything that keeps God’s love from flowing through us, so that our faith can be expressed according to His plan, and we’ll receive His reward.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“God Wants to Bless You!”, written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2019. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.