Living in the Fullness of the Blessing
Page 7
“Well, how do I do that, Jerry?”
Habakkuk 2:2 says, Write the vision and make it plain . . . The Message translation says . . . Write what you see . . .
Every motivational book I have ever read has said somewhere in it, write your vision, write your goals, write your dream, write your objectives, write your plan.
Why is so important to write your vision down? Because writing it down and keeping it in front of you helps you to stay focused. And if you don’t write it down, you are going to become easily distracted. But, you can always go back to what you wrote down, what you saw and what was revealed to you.
The Message translation goes on to say in Habakkuk 2 that the vision message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. That’s another reason it is so important to stay focused. Your vision is future events that God wants manifesting in your life.
So let me ask you this: What is your testimony going to be? Is it going to be that you kept the faith, you didn’t quit, you stayed focused and lived in the fullness of the blessing, or is your testimony going to be that you got distracted, gave up, and quit on your vision? Once again, vision enables you to stay focused. It enables you to see that there is something bigger on the inside of you than all of the negative circumstances that are going on around you.
VISION PRODUCES THE PERSEVERANCE THAT YOU NEED WHILE YOU ARE WAITING FOR YOUR VISION TO COME TO PASS
Visions generally don’t come to pass overnight. That’s why the Bible tells us in Habakkuk 2:3, for the vision is yet for an appointed time . . . Though it tarry, wait for it . . . .
Notice that God has already told us in advance not to get disappointed if it doesn’t come to pass before dark. Though the vision tarries wait for it.
The dictionary defines perseverance as the act of continuing a course in spite of difficulty, opposition, or adversity. So that’s what perseverance is. I like to call perseverance - outlasting the devil.
Now, Paul, he’s my hero in the faith. I love this guy. Look at what he said:
And now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. Save that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me, but none of these things move me . . .
– Acts 20:22
How can he say that? He just said that the Holy Spirit had already told him that when he gets to this next city, imprisonment, suffering, and affliction will be waiting on him. How do you face that and have the attitude that none of these things move me?
It was vision. What was on the inside of him was greater than what was happening on the outside. He went on to say, I do not count my life dear to myself, that I might finish my course with joy. Paul had a vision, and it was God-given. He had made up his mind that nothing he might go through was going to keep him from accomplishing what God told him to do nor keep him from having what God told him he could have.
That has to become your attitude about living in the fullness of the blessing. No matter how many bills you are faced with, no matter what shape your present car may be in, no matter the condition of the house you are living in right now, you have to be able to say: none of these things move me. Get a vision for living in the fullness of the
blessing, and finish the course.
Paul’s vision gave him the spiritual fortitude to “keep on keeping on” even in the midst of difficulty, opposition, and adversity. His vision propelled him. His vision motivated him. It inspired him and kept him going when everybody else would have given up. And your vision has to do the same for you.
If you will get a vision for living in the fullness of the blessing like God has always intended, and if you are willing to stay focused and persevere in the midst of opposition, I can tell you that it won’t be long before your days of barely getting by will be over.
LET GOD BE GOD
Don’t ask God how He is going to do it. That isn’t any of your business and it is a waste of your time to try to figure it all out. Let God be God. He is the Most High God. He has ways that you could never dream up in a thousand years. You just do your part. Catch the vision and then let it ignite intense desire in your life, let it keep you focused, and keep you persevering. You do your part, and I promise that God will do His part.
CHAPTER 10
It's Your Inheritance
When my first grandchild was born, shortly after his birth, I took him in my arms. I looked down at him and said, “Grandson, I just want you to know, you picked the right family to be born into. Your grandmother and your grandfather are extremely blessed of the Lord, and as soon as I leave this hospital I’m going to go see my accountant, and I’m going to establish for you a trust fund and I will faithfully contribute to that trust fund every month, and by the time you’re eighteen years old, it will provide for you a good life.”
He was only 20 minutes old when I told him that. He couldn’t even focus good yet. He did not know who I was and he certainly didn’t understand what a trust fund was. But I did exactly what I told him I was going to do. I got in touch with my accountant, and we established the trust fund. I have contributed to it faithfully all these years.
Now, even though he didn’t know what a trust fund was, it existed for him. He didn’t have a clue what it was, but I had already arranged it for him.
For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us[ taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].
– Ephesians 2:10 (Amplified version)
Paul is telling us that God has established something for us. He has established a trust fund for us so to speak, and He did it before the foundation of the earth.
God’s trust fund for you is a good life, or you could say, living in the fullness of the blessing. Whether you understand what it is and what it involves or not, it exists.
Wouldn’t you hate to think that you lived your whole life on this earth and somebody, like an uncle or somebody, had established a trust fund for you and you never knew about it and you never tapped into it?
Wouldn’t you agree with me that you would have lived beneath your privileges?
What if I never told my grandson about his trust fund? What if I just went ahead and established it, contributed to it, and it continued to grow, and I never told him about it? What if I had died and he was never aware that his grandfather had established a trust fund for him? Then obviously he’s going to live beneath his privileges. Right?
And that is the way most Christians live – beneath their privileges.
You have a trust fund. It has been established by God before you were ever conceived, and it’s your inheritance. It’s your right as a child of God.
Often when I would see my grandson, as he began to grow, I would talk to him about his trust fund. He still didn’t understand what it meant. But by the time that he got to be five years old, he was calling me wanting to know how much interest it had earned. He was beginning to understand what this trust fund meant for his life. And by the time he was 18, he was “bugging” me about it all the time. He knew that he had a trust fund waiting for him, and he knew what it was going to mean for his life. It’s the same with all my grandchildren now.
Their trust fund is waiting for them, and so is yours. The good life, living in the fullness of the blessing, has been waiting for you since the foundation of the earth. It exists. It is already there. You may not be able to see it in the natural realm, but it’s there. You may not have experienced it yet, but it’s there. He prearranged it.
LIVE THE GOOD LIFE
What is God’s definition of the good life? It’s found in Deuteronomy 28:1-13.
Now this is an exciting lifestyle that He is talking about.
And the Lord shall make you have a surplus of prosperity . . .
– Deuteronomy 28: 11 (Amplified vers
ion)
The definition for the word surplus is over and above what is needed.
That’s the kind of life that God wants you to live. He does not want you living a life of barely getting by, just existing, living from paycheck to paycheck. That is not a blessed life in the mind of God. The blessed life in the mind of God is having a surplus of prosperity, and that is actually a characteristic of a blessed life.
As a child of God, it is your inheritance and your covenant right to be blessed coming in and going out. It is your right to be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. Living in the fullness of the blessing is your right.
Because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.
– Deuteronomy 16:15
As a matter of fact, if you are not increasing, it is a violation of your covenant rights, and I would strongly suggest that you get fightin’ mad at the devil today. Not at God, and not at anybody else. Get mad at the devil and declare a state of war on him.
HIS MOST PRIZED POSSESSION
What is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visited him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels (a better rendering would be: a little lower than God) and hast crowned him with glory and honor.
– Psalm 8:4-5
Notice that God says man is His most prized possession, His most valuable creation. He said, “I’ve made him a little lower than myself.” (author’s paraphrase)
Creation will never be greater than the Creator, but you were made in His image, in His likeness. And He said there is something on your head. You may not be able to feel it. You may not be able to see it. No one else may be able to see, but it’s there. It’s His glory and honor.
When you get up in the morning, you should be acting like a king. You ought to live like a king. You have been crowned with glory and honor. There’s something on you – the blessing of God. It has marked your life, and it will bring increase in every area of your life.
Not only that, you are marked for the rest of your life. So don’t sit around and let some devil talk you out of what belongs to you. God has pronounced His blessing on you and living in the fullness of that blessing rightfully belongs to you.
You have every right to say, “I’m blessed. I’m highly favored. Increase is on my life.” The Bible says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so . . . (Psalm 107:2).
If you will get up every day decreeing that you live in the fullness of the blessing of the Lord, then you will. The Bible says in Job 22:28, Thou shalt decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee . . . So decree everyday, several times a day, that you live in the fullness of the blessing. Do it especially when the devil’s trying to convince you that it isn’t so.
WHY YOU NEED TO LIVE IN THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING
Why is it so important that you live in the fullness of the blessing? Why is it important that you should be increasing in every area of your life? For three reasons:
1) He wants you to increase so that you make Him look
attractive to others.
2) He wants you to increase so that you can be a blessing
and so that you can further the kingdom of God.
3) He wants you to increase so that you can finish the
work of Jesus in the earth.
God said in Deuteronomy 8:18, But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth . . . He has placed the blessing on you and all He is asking from you is to remember where it came from and what its real purpose is.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness, (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be give you besides.
– Matthew 6:33 (Amplified)
So notice that you are to seek first, put as your priority and your number one pursuit, God’s way of doing and being right. If you are ever going to live in the fullness of the blessing, then you have to make your number one priority seeking first God’s way of doing things. He wants you to put Him first. Put His Word first. Put His way first place in your life.
What Jesus is actually saying is that if you will seek Him and His way first, then you won’t have to pursue things, they will actually pursue you. They will chase you down. They will overtake you. If you will walk with God, the way He tells you to walk, then you are going to increase. Why? Because He has pronounced His blessing on your life. It’s part of your covenant with Him. It’s your trust fund that He has laid up for you.
To the person who has their priorities right, increase is going to come into their life. No devil will be able to stop it. Why? Because you have been blessed. And, as a result of being blessed, increase will come and God will bless that increase.
Do you know what happens when your increase is blessed? It becomes more and more. In other words, there is no end to it. God says that He will not only make you a blessing and bring increase into your life, but He will even bless your increase and He will cause living in the fullness of His blessing to be the story of your life.
Doesn’t that sound like a good life? It is a good life. And God has it planned for you. God has placed the blessing on you. It has come to an explosive place. He is ready for you to live in the fullness of it, are you?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jerry Savelle was an average, blue-collar man who was struggling and needed God’s help. He considered himself a “nobody,” but when he became a believer, God told him not to worry about it because He was a master at making champions out of nobodies. God has since taken Jerry from being a constant quitter to a man who knows how to stand on the Word of God until the victory has been won.
Since 1969, Jerry has been traveling the world teaching people how to win in life. He has ministered in more than 3,000 churches in 26 nations, and has overseas offices in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Tanzania, Africa.
God has used Jerry to impact people who are burned out on religion and who have backslidden in their walk with God as well as Christians who have a need to hear the Word of God presented in terms applicable to their lives, dreams and destinies. He is the host of the Jerry Savelle Ministries television broadcast, which airs in 200 countries worldwide.
Jerry is the author of more than 40 books, including his bestsellers, If Satan Can’t Steal Your Joy, He Can’t Keep Your Goods; Called to Battle, Destined to Win; and Prayer of Petition. He and his wife, Carolyn, also serve as founding pastors of Heritage of Faith Christian Center in Crowley, Texas.
Other Books by Jerry Savelle
Prayer of Petition
No Boundaries
Called To Battle, Destined To Win
Living In The Fullness Of The Blessing
Increase God’s Way
Receive God’s Best
Free to be Yourself
The God of the Breakthrough Will Visit Your House
In the Footsteps of a Prophet
From Devastation to Restoration
The Force of Joy
If Satan Can’t Steal Your Joy, He Can’t
Keep Your Goods
Sharing Jesus Effectively
You’re Somebody Special to God
www.jerrysavelle.org
Prayer of Salvation
For those who don’t know Jesus, would you like to know Him? If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity? If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you can be assured that when you die, you will go directly into the presence of God in Heaven. If you have not accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, is there any reason why you can’t make Jesus the Lord of your life right now? Please pray this prayer out loud, and as you do, pray with a sincere and trusting heart, and you will be born again.
Dear God in Heaven,
I come to You in the Name of Jesus to receive salvation and eternal life. I believe that Jesus is Your Son
. I believe that He died on the cross for my sins, and that You raised Him from the dead. I receive Jesus now into my heart and make Him the Lord of my life. Jesus, come into my heart. I welcome You as my Lord and Savior. Father, I believe Your Word that says I am now saved. I confess with my mouth that I am saved and born again. I am now a child of God.