Being positioned for God’s blessings

GREETINGS beloved nation in the name of Jesus Christ. As we are coming to the end of 2022, some of us have been believing God for breakthroughs, blessings or maybe a prophetic word has been spoken over your life. But this is yet to come to pass, nothing has materialised and God has not answered your prayers.

Some of us have given up or are at the point of giving up and have concluded that God does not answer prayers. I want to encourage you not to give up. God’s timing is always on time. God is a God of the 11th hour blessings and breakthroughs. The bible tells us in Jeremiah 6:16 that, “This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” The bible gives us a pattern of doing things, we have to study how the people of old in the bible were successful. God is a God of patterns and gives us examples in the bible to follow so that we can navigate our way through life and be successful. When God wants to bless us there is a part that we have to play as believers. We have to position ourselves as believers for God’s blessings and there are a number of ways for us to position ourselves and I will look at three of them.

Position of prayer. In Luke 1:26-38 the bible tells us the story of Mary the mother of Jesus Christ. The heavens saluted her and says, “And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” Why was Mary favoured among the virgins because the bible tells us in Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” So why was it Mary who found favour among the virgins at that time? We discover that Mary was humble in character, she feared God and was obedient, she did not argue with the angel when she was told that she would conceive a child through the Holy Spirit, remember she was engaged to Joseph. She quickly says ‘let it be unto me according to thy word’.

She was also a prayerful woman because the bible tells us that in Acts 2 she was among those who were there in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. So Mary unknowingly positioned herself to be favoured by God and to be the mother of Jesus. Prayer is a position that we take and we stay in that position until things are birthed. Some of us have moved from the position of prayer before the birthing process is over. Breakthroughs don’t come to people who give up and move away from their position of prayer.

Even though the year is almost over and you have not seen the answers to your prayers, remain in that position of humility, obedience and of prayer. In Luke 1:5-80 Elizabeth found favour with God and was blessed with a child in her old age, she received a 11th hour blessing because she continued to believe in God for a child and remained ‘upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments”. She also unknowingly positions herself for a blessing because she was a woman of faith, she continued to believe God despite her situation.

Serving in the kingdom of God with a right attitude We can serve in the kingdom of God with a right attitude or even with a wrong attitude. When we serve with a wrong attitude we will be busy grumbling and murmuring. Remember God is a God of the heart, so he sees our hearts when we are working in the house of God. In the book of Ruth we read about Ruth and how she found favour before God and before Boaz. In Ruth 1:16, Ruth refuses to separate with Naomi after the death of her husband and says, “But 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.” When she purposes in her heart to align herself with the God of Naomi, the God of Israel, she positions herself unknowingly for a blessing of (i) being the wife of Boaz, (ii) for her womb to be opened and (iii) to be in the lineage of Jesus Christ. She catches the attention of Boaz as she was working and gleaning in his field. Service in the kingdom of God is costly, it will cost you your time, your finances, your resources, and it’s a sacrifice.

But it also catches the attention of God and it positions you for a blessing. On the other hand if we are serving with the wrong attitude God sees that. In Numbers 12 we read about Miriam and Aaron how they spoke against Moses. They were both serving before God, but had the wrong attitude, “Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2 So they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it.”

The Lord’s anger burned against them and Miriam is hit by leprosy. So serving with the wrong attitude can be dangerous and can cause the judgement of God to come down on you. 3. Honour When you practice honour you are positioning yourself for blessings and breakthroughs. Honour starts from the heart, honour has to be practiced with the right attitude. When you honour someone you are attracting a blessing. The bible tells us to honour God (1 Samuel 2:30), to honour parents (Deuteronomy 5:16), to honour leaders (1 Peter 3:5-7) and to honour pastors (1 Timothy 5:17). You can choose to honour or dishonour someone. In 2 Kings 4:8-10, the Shunammite woman perceived that Elijah was a man of God and honoured him. Through that act of honour she positioned herself for her womb to be opened for she had been without a child since she got married and a year later she had a son. On the other hand, dishonour shut the womb of Michal, David’s wife permanently. In 2 Samuel 6:16 Michal despised David when she saw him dancing and worshipping as the ark was being brought. In her heart she dishonoured him, because what you do not honour you automatically dishonour.

In 2 Samuel 6:18-20 after David had finished blessing the crowd, he goes home to bless his household. Michal instead of receiving the blessing, rejects it and the bible tells us she never had children till she died. So dishonour can shut the door to blessings and breakthroughs. How many opportunities have we lost because we have despised people in our hearts, remember God uses people to bless us. As we honour people we position ourselves to receive blessings of God. I would like to invite you to receive Jesus as your personal Lord and saviour, by believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth that he is your Lord and saviour, and you shall be saved. God bless you all.
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