Introduction

This series is the fruit of several things I began to sense in the second part of 2010. I was feeling like my heart had lost its elasticity, that ministry and Christianity (never to be confused with Jesus) had become very predictable. As well as this, there never seemed to be a let up in the crises facing both individuals and churches – these seemed to roll on and on. In a week marked by suicide, despair and lies amongst professing believers, I was sensing very clearly the resident power of evil and its ability to deaden and depress the human consciousness of the goodness of God. Amidst this, I could clearly hear the Spirit witnessing that the “real world” was not the obvious visible realm, but Christ’s resurrected presence[1]. In this awareness I sensed that 2011 would mean a measurable and visible advance in the kingdom of God – just as in Jesus’ ministry healings, miracles, teaching, deliverance, repentance and so on would come. The joy that God restores to his people when the kingdom of God arrives with power[2] is a share in Jesus’ own indestructible resurrection joy (Heb 12:2; John 16:21), this involves before anything else a restoration of the “word/gospel of the kingdom” (Matt 4:23; 9:35; 13:19; 24:14). This led me to believe that my trip to the Middle East would see the impartation of a message.

It was plain to me before I left that there was a desperate need to hear from heaven and that the Lord would speak to me about his Fathering in a new TONE of voice, one which would make it clear that his judgement[3]/discipline comes upon his children with perfect gentleness[4]. Genuine prophetic speech is not a matter of words about God (1 Thess 2:13); in the Word/gospel of the kingdom Jesus makes himself present, he is experienced not as thoughts and ideas but as a fully alive person whose mind, will, emotions, and intentions press in upon us. It is not some disembodied or weakened Word to which we must become conformed (Rom 8:29) but the Word in his fullness.

The Word of the Kingdom is always a now Word, it brings a sense of the kingdom now, of a treasure for which anything must be sacrificed (Matt 13:44) because it is so holy, holy and blessed. This is what the Lord began to share with me soon after I arrived in Egypt, that his kingdom is a kingdom of blessing, and that he is “The Father of Every Blessing”. God communicates to me commonly through people and events; our 20 days in the Middle East were an exposition on what the Lord understands by blessing. Even more intentionally, once we reached the region of the Promised Land[5] we deliberately followed a circuit of sites associated with blessing in the Gospels. This took us from Jerusalem to, Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Caesarea Philippi, Mount Hermon and the baptismal site of Jesus in Jordan. Experiences at these sites form the substance of these teachings on the blessings of God.

The Father of Every Blessing

Strangely, the first key that the Lord gave me to understanding the nature of his blessings was something I saw at the base of a bridge on the Nile. It depicted a range of scenes showing the pursuits of everyday life in the time of the pharaohs’, things like trade, agriculture, etc. and how these were woven into the practice of worship. I was left with a distinct sense that “We (Western Christians) have lost devotion as a way of life”. A little later this sense was reinforced by observing a soldier on a main road singing at the Muslim time of prayer. “We”, and by “we” I mean mainstream Western Christianity, have split God off into a separate compartment away from our daily activities – this is why I am no longer surprised to find husbands and wives who go to church together but who never pray together, whose marriages are anything but intimate, including sexually, or to come across Christians who never pray for their work, for politicians, or who cannot see God at work in the world of arts, science and so on. I want to speak to this problem in two ways. The second way will be to go to the foundational texts of the Bible. The first way will draw on the difference non-Western cultures have to us in seeking the blessings of God. It is freedom in seeking the Father’s blessing that is the key to the integration of all life under the hand of God.

To illustrate this attitude I want to use two examples from the Coptic Church in Egypt. The first has to do with the ministry of the Coptic Orthodox priest Father Saaman in Cairo. Saaman ministers to the largest church in the Middle East[6] and dresses and acts in every way you would expect of an Orthodox priest. However, he also forcefully preaches repentance from his pulpit as well as on the streets where he lives, prays for the sick and casts out demons. What astounded me the most however was the response to his ministry. Dozens of people literally thronged to touch him, be prayed over, have holy water thrown over them, kiss his hand… Even Moslems come to these meetings seeking prayer for illness and other crisis situations; all these people have one thing in common – they are seeking the blessing of God in an unashamed way. This attempt to get in touch with the holy presence of God seemed a direct connection with the crowds that threatened at times to crush Jesus, so that he lacked even space to eat (Mark 3:20).

The other incident occurred outside Luxor in central Egypt at the festival of St George (Mar Girgis) where thousands of Copts, and some Moslems, all gather for a week with the same purpose. Both our Christian guides in Egypt explained such mass gatherings in identical words, “the people are seeking a blessing.” From university professors to illiterate peasants, these folk have retained the ancient sense[7] of living under the canopy of God where the outcome of life depends in every way upon the divine blessing. In many ways the integrating theme of the scriptures, especially the Old Testament, is that the blessing of a fatherly Creator claims the whole of existence for God and integrates all the spheres of social life – work, worship, recreation- into one coherent whole. As a contemporary Western culture- we have completely lost this genuine spiritual awareness.

For all its mouthing about God’s blessings this is something that the church in Australia needs to recover, there is no way that we as a group look like those who have God’s approval (1 Cor 11:19). This is exactly what the Lord is seeking to change in our generation.

In the Beginning

In the order of the Biblical story the first place to start thinking about God’s blessing is the creation story in Genesis. After stating proudly to the divine assembly[8], ““Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”” (Gen 1:26), the LORD goes on to speak a highly personal word over his new born creatures. “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”” (Genesis 1:28).

This statement is extremely powerful. In the context of the Ancient Near East it can only be understood as a father acknowledging his son and heir. Whilst the animals are also blessed in receiving the power to multiply according to their kinds (Gen 1:22), for human beings to be blessed means that they will reproduce the image and likeness of God across the earth and will do so by exercising dominion. This is the supreme calling and destiny of humanity[9]; to know that when God looks at you and the acts which rule your life, he sees himself as the eternal divine King. From the very beginning human beings were destined for the realm of a kingdom of blessing. The transmission of the power of blessing does not however come to pass by a property that is self-contained; it is intimately related to the exact manner in which God created. Blessing is communicated by enacting the Word of God.

The Blessing of the Word

In this sense two sorts of Word appear in Genesis, the first is what we may call God’s external Word. This is found in the case of “God said…and it was”, the light, water, plants, animals and people simply came forth through the created power of God that was outside of them (Gen 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26) in a way that did not involve any personal response. What we call the “internal Word” is however vastly different in a way that is a key to the realm of blessedness. This is the Word that enters the human heart (Deut 30:14; Ps 119:11; Matt 13:19; Rom 10:8; Heb 4:12) and is received with joy. In this respect there are two vital words that God spoke to Adam. The first is the word of blessing already mentioned, ““Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion…” (Gen 1:28). Generally speaking, human beings have received this Word. Virtually all cultures have accepted that marriage, family and ruling over the earth are good things to pass down the generations, part of the “very good” (Gen 1:31) that the LORD pronounced from the beginning (Gen 1:31). Few people however have received the full revelation of what sharing God’s reign on earth truly means. This is because the key to understanding all blessedness from the creation onwards is not found in the past or in the present but involves seeing the future.

Eden, which means “delight”, was never designed as humanity’s permanent home; Adam was not someone whose mind was to be continually occupied with present bliss, he was called to be a man whose heart was thrilled by the prospect of future blessings. Adam, to use a phrase the Lord gave me in Jordan, was to be a “future man”; he was, as part of being created in the divine image, to be a “seer”. To see future things in his spirit was a part of his humanity in the prophetic vocation just as much as ruling the earth was his kingly vocation. But what was he to see?

God’s plan from beginning to end has never changed, it was always to fill everything with his glorious presence through human life, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab 2:14). This teaching about prophetic seeing from creation on might sound rather speculative, but some words of Jesus will illustrate that it is not. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 25, ““When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (31-34). From the beginning of creation God had prepared for humanity the blessing of reigning with him forever. Adam was called to believe that the blessing the LORD had anointed him for in Eden was a preparation for sharing God’s own kingly rule forever.

Adam was (like all of us) created to be a prophet. His life and the words were to prepare the human race after him to possess the world for their Creator. This is what prophets always do, they prepare the people of God to enter into the land he has prepared for them – this is true whether we are thinking about Eden, Canaan, the transformation of our city, the eternal city of God or the heavenly state. This preparation is not some mystical thing – you cannot prepare yourself by works of the law, by tithing, praying, ministry, suffering; the Bible from beginning to end[10] only knows one method of preparation for entering the kingdom of God, it is hearing God’s Word by faith (Rom 10:17; Gal 3:2, 5)[11]. To trust God’s Word by faith is to receive the glory of his kingdom by being united with his own power[12]. Adam the seer was to enter into a vision proclaimed by a prophet centuries later, “Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar.” (Isa 33:17).

Everything that Adam saw, touched and tasted, no matter how good it was[13], and it was “very good” (Gen 1:31), was not yet finally good. All the excellencies of Eden pointed beyond themselves to a much greater world, “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven” (1 Pet 1:4). This promise, of an immortal inheritance to be entered into by the obedience of faith, was the point of challenge for Adam’s trust in God, for it seemed to be contradicted by the second internal Word spoken to him in the garden, ““You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” (Gen 2:16-17).

The Temptation

Eden means delight, and the wisest person’s supreme delight is not in the enjoyable things of this world but in God’s Word which brought them all into being[14]. One of the most important features of the spiritual landscape of the Middle East is that it is the concentration point for the three great monotheistic religions of the world, Judaism, Christianity, Islam. The vast majority of folk there simply assume the existence of the Creator God in a way we find difficult to comprehend. There is no doubt that Adam unquestionably believed in the power of the Creator who had made him[15], but unlike either easterners or westerners today he had no reason to deny the gracious availability of the blessing of God. In what way then was the prohibition of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil a blessing?

God’s creation of the tree of knowledge as a forbidden tree challenged Adam’s faith is several ways. Adam was to believe that all the fullness of God’s power to honour him as his created son (Luke 3:38) was contained in the Word spoken to him. Everything he needed to make him son and heir of all things (cf. Heb 1:2) was contained in the divine command. If what God had spoken was really his own Word that created all things, then to share in this Word by faith must mean coming to share in the “power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing” of the divine life forever (Rev 5:12-13; 22:5). Adam simply had to trust God’s Word, and so do we. As I reflected on these things I felt the Spirit say to me, “There is no blessedness outside the Word.”

As the first prophet, priest and king Adam was also called to be the first missionary of the kingdom of God. If he had obeyed God’s commands and subsequently left the Garden to fill the earth with God’s glory, he would have discovered that the divine blessing is never something to keep for yourself, it is always something to distribute and that no matter how much you give of what is given to you, you will be blessed all the more[16]. Adam would have discovered what it really meant to be made in the image of God; the Holy Spirit would have revealed to him that God is an eternal Father who has always been infinitely blessed in having a Son who is more precious and wonderful than any earthly reality we can imagine.

Conclusion

I began this teaching by describing the state of my heart last year as “inelastic”, this inner state is the emotional equivalent of the old wine skin that Jesus spoke of- something that has lost the capacity to stretch and grow with the vital and dynamic indwelling presence of the kingdom of God. The prophet Isaiah speaks of a future time when “your heart shall thrill and exult” (Isa 60:5), this is surely the time which Jesus initiated, a favourable time, a day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). There are no boundaries to the blessing that the Father wills to give us in his Son; this is the message of the gospel. We are God’s children, and it is the essential nature of the Father to bless us.

We live in a nation that is powerfully blessed by the external Word of God- I lost track of the folk overseas that said they would migrate to Australia if they had the opportunity, our affluence, order and peace is the envy of the world. However we are a nation that fails to acknowledge the generosity of God, we do “not honour him as God or give thanks to him” (Rom 1:21). Thus the LORD declares, “those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Sam 2:30). A nation that fails to honour God in appreciating the blessing of his external creative Word will not be honoured by the impartation of his internal intimate Word of revelation. Such a people, a people “lightly esteemed” by God, will be deprived of the presence of “eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:17). Such a nation, whilst it abounds in material riches, also abounds, even in the church, of men and women who fail to fulfil the vocation to which Adam was called – to be men and women of the future, to be seers, and in seeing the things of God’s kingdom obey him by faith so that the fullness of his blessings are poured out into their lives. Powerful supernatural forces control the spiritual climate of our land, what they are and why we have succumbed to them will be my topic next week.

In the meantime I exhort you to seek God for yourself through the Word and prayer – what is he saying to you and to our nation about his will to bless? What is embarrassing you so that you are not whole heartedly pursuing the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Do you really believe Australia can change?