I feel that as believers, we all know that the Lord has promises for us. (No, they aren’t just for other people.) But the question is how do we grab them? How do we live in that hope, assured that His goodness is following us everywhere we go? It’s a big question, I know. And I don’t have all the answers, but I do have one. And I would love it if you would comment and share your thoughts about it as well.
For me, I know that God’s Word is good and Jeremiah 29:11 lets us know that the thoughts He thinks toward us are good. He has no nefarious plan in mind for His children and He doesn’t enjoy seeing us suffer. The Father is not a cruel or wicked God. He is a righteous King. But as I was thinking, I got a revelation. Revelation 3:20 says that Jesus is standing at the door, knocking. He doesn’t just barge His way into your life, He is a gentleman, He knocks and waits for you to let Him in. The Lord doesn’t go anywhere He isn’t invited so until you invite Him in, He won’t come. He’s not going to force Himself on you. Likewise, He isn’t going to force His blessings upon you.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
~Revelation 3:20
I think that is why so many people are still wandering about lost, they haven’t chosen to open the door of their hearts. And what gets me is that some people’s hearts are so noisy, bogged down with distractions and life’s cares, that perhaps they don’t even here the steady knock at the door! They’re so focused on other things that they are missing out on all the goodness God has waiting for them! I know that at one point, this was me. When I was younger I was so focused on grades, having the right people like me, having a large group of friends, having a long list of extracurriculars…I didn’t make time for God. Not really. And meeting with Him just on Sunday and a weekly Bible study aren’t enough to go as in depth in Him as He wants.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
~Psalm 23:6
A while back, I was listening weekly to a prophet named Alph Lukau and every time he spoke, someone in the congregation would shout out, “I receive it!” And for a while it got on my nerves because sometimes it would drown out the speaker until I realized what they were doing. The congregation felt that they were under an open Heaven, they could see the blessings going forth, the wisdom to be gleaned, and they were taking it for themselves. This idea of blessings just waiting on us in the spirit to receive them here in the natural floored me. Just think of it! How many blessings have we missed out on because we didn’t have the heart to receive? Because we thought it was for someone else? Because our hearts and minds weren’t postured correctly?! Wow!
Then I realized that I didn’t want that to be me. I no longer wanted to miss out on what God had for me, on His wonderful and precious promises (2 Peter 1:4). But then the question remained, “is it that simple just to claim you receive it?” I think that life has made it so we always assume there is no easy way, that good things only come through trial and tribulation and a lot of (unnecessary) hard work. But that is when Holy Spirit had to correct me and let me know that I was overcomplicating it, overthinking, and causing my own self to miss out. It doesn’t require a lot. All it takes is having the faith to believe what God has for you is yours. It takes your heart becoming an open door.
I’m not going to say that I heard this and everything became peachy-keen. It didn’t. I struggled believing it was that easy, wondered if I could really claim all those blessings, wondered if I was being selfish or greedy for wanting to be blessed. Flesh had me on a mental rollercoaster! But, by the grace of God, those negative thoughts that breed doubt slowly started to sound quieter. And I think it is because I was more focused on the Word of God and what He had to say. I knew now that I had to receive it, that I had to open my heart to it, but then I had to learn how to open my heart.
Before I continue, I just want to say that this isn’t a catch-all, everyone’s walk with the Lord is different and He uses different methods to reach and teach everyone. What worked for me may not work for you, He may be calling you to something different. So please do not assume that if it doesn’t happen for you the way it did for me that something is wrong. God meets us all right at the point of our need.
I had to open my heart and leave the door open for God to move, work, and have His way. I thought that my door was open, but it wasn’t. I would go to God in prayer asking Him to fix a situation and then I would pick it up from the altar and carry it away with me by worrying about it, coming up with contingency plans, and expecting things to go the way I wanted them to. I wasn’t giving God free rein in my life. My heart was created to be His home and I was dictating how and what He should do with the decorations (1 Corinthians 3:16–17). I can laugh about it now but it really frustrated me for a while that God wasn’t moving the way I wanted Him to.
Moreover, people all around me were getting blessed and it felt like I wasn’t. Friends were getting married, having children, getting promotions, starting new jobs, being elevated in the church. Folks were getting new cars and new clothes and debts paid off. Yet, I felt like I was stuck on a hamster wheel grinding and grinding for absolutely zero payoff. Have you ever felt like that?
I felt stuck.
So, I did what that father did in Mark 9:24, I had to ask God to help my unbelief. I had to ask Him to reveal to me what in me was causing me to not get blessed. I had to ask myself if there was something blocking me from receiving the blessing, if I was dealing with a sin that was unconfessed or unforgiveness. That’s about the time that I realized it had been a while since I asked the Lord to have His will done in my life. It’s something I used to pray all the time, but somewhere along the way I stopped. I stopped asking Him to transform my will into His, I stopped asking to live in His perfect will instead of just His permissive will. As I mentioned earlier, God’s will for us is that we should prosper in our soul and in the natural. Yet I had shut the door to God’s will by trying to have my own will be done.
I was blocking my blessing. Me. Not the enemy. Me. It felt like a gut punch.
You can probably guess what I did next. I prayed. I asked God to continue revealing in me the things I needed to change, the things I needed to turn over to Him. I asked God to forgive me for closing the door to my heart, for trying to take control instead of allowing Him to have His way. And while I was making prayer and supplication to Him, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders, a weight my shoulders weren’t meant to carry. If this is something you’re struggling with right now, please take time to prayer God’s will be done in your life.
One last thing before I go, I asked the Lord to help me through the power of His Holy Spirit to keep me attuned to Him, to keep my spiritual ears and eyes open so I could see when He was moving and what He was doing, so I could hear what He was speaking to me. And not just to hear, but to apply it to my life. I started claiming those blessings I heard during messages, saying to myself “I receive it!” And sometimes I would even reach out and grab the air, because it made it feel all the more real that the things I were saying would come to pass. Now I pray daily that He has His will done in my life. I have opened the door to my home and set the table so that me and my Father can have a wonderful time together.
And I am being blessed in all sorts of ways, from my health to seeing family want to know the Lord.
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