Deuteronomy 15:4 “For in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.” This is how it is supposed to be as God wants to richly bless us but we must fully obey God. Romans 10:11 “As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Prior to this Paul said, 9 “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” In order for this to happen we must declare the true Jesus, not the counterfeit. Many have no idea who Jesus Christ is. The true Jesus speaks the truth of His word of which they do not know. For many they only know what they have been told. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. John 16:13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” What has happened is we have been seduced into believing someone other than Jesus so how can you be saved if you have confessed to a false gospel? Corinthians 11:4 “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” If we want to be blessed, we must confess the true Jesus as Lord. We do this by turning back to His word, but not to the word from man about God based on their own particular perspective.
Now it is pretty obvious that the church is not being richly blessed. Don’t forget a worldly blessing is not a spiritual blessing. Some churches look like they have been richly blessed yet they teach a false gospel so it is not a blessing from God. Luke 4:5 “The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Sadly many have taken satan’s deal. So it is not God who is doing the blessing. If we want God to bless, then the key to being richly blessed is to obey. “He will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.” It seems pretty obvious that because we have not obeyed, we have not been richly blessed. We look more like what we see in Judges. Judges 2:10 “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.” Judges 21:25 “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Ruth 1:1 “In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.” This is what we have today. Amos 8:11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.” Why, because we have not followed wholeheartedly.
Since we have not followed wholeheartedly we have not been richly blessed. That means God has turned his face from shining on us. That also means he has withdrawn his power from us. The only way for change is to return to the Lord. 2 Chronicles 30:6 “People of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. 7 Do not be like your parents and your fellow Israelites, who were unfaithful to the Lord, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them an object of horror, as you see. 8 Do not be stiff-necked, as your ancestors were; submit to the Lord. Come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. 9 If you return to the Lord, then your fellow Israelites and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.”
We desperately need God to bless us once again with His presence. If we want to be richly blessed as He said we would and have Him pour out his Spirit on us, we must turn away from our wicked ways. Repentance is the only way. We need to have this same commitment Ruth had even in dire circumstances. Ruth 1:16 “Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” We once again need this zeal for God. Nothing will separate us from Him. He then will richly bless us.
