03/10/23 NOT NAME IT CLAIM IT

03/10/23 NOT NAME IT CLAIM IT

THIS IS NOT, "NAME IT CLAIM IT"
(however, to their own detriment, it is a vitally important principle that most "Christians" fail to grasp)

As a mere mortal (who believes God's word and has observed and experienced the miraculous intervention and provision of God), I often see what God will do in the life of the eagerly obedient.

James 1:16-17 NKJV
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 

2 Peter 1:2-4 NKJV
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Obedience for the purpose of gaining temporal, earthly, fleshly benefits from God is counter productive to a right relationship with God and is therefore spiritually self destructive. However, God often has blessings and provisions in store for those who seek Him rather than for those who seek His blessings and provisions. It is also true that God sometimes leads His children through the fire and flood as well as into the land of milk and honey. 

Matthew 6:33 NKJV
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 

Romans 8:32 NKJV
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

God is able, willing and eager to give blessings to those who seek Him first, but seeking blessings can lead to failure, emptiness, loss. 

James 4:3-10 NKJV
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"?
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. 

Living for the present rather than living for the eternal, robs a person of Divine intervention, provision, protection. Living with a focus on the temporal often shortchanges people of the very things that they pursue, though God would provide those things for the person who is seeking to do God's will first.

Even without the physical, temporal blessings, advantages, the fully dedicated believer will still be blessed over abundantly in eternity. 

Mark 10:28-31 NKJV
28 Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.”
29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s,
30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Don't seek the blessings of God, seek God, and His blessings will follow.
This passage is full of hope, challenge, victory, mystery and it tells us that God, "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us." This is one of the most sublime thoughts ever written. But read the entire passage. 

Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.