Spiritual and Natural Blessings

This morning we continue our series, “Grace that is Simply Amazing” by continuing with our mini-series entitled, “Grace Based Success (Prosperity)”.  Joseph was in position, he was favored of God, and he got to work.  The Bible says, “Joseph gathered up the food of the seven good years in Egypt and stored the food in cities.  In each city he stockpiled surplus from the surrounding fields” (Gen 41:48 MSG).

So what does this mean to you today?  A few things.

1.  God can give you supernatural wisdom and insight by His grace.  For the first seven years of Joseph’s tenure as Prime Minister it was just as God revealed to Joseph — a time of abundance.  The land produced bumper crops and God graced Joseph to devise a plan to store a portion of the crops in strategically positioned sites across the country.  Instead of building the national reserve in one location, which would later require and elaborate distribution system, Joseph targeted specific cities throughout the nation that he could later use as regional distribution centers during the years of famine.  Every city collected a portion of the surplus and the nation prepared itself for the impending famine.  The grace and wisdom of God upon Joseph would make Pharaoh and Egypt abundantly prosperous during the time when other nations were unprepared.  What God did for Joseph, He can do for you in your line of work.
2.  The Blessing of Abraham is available to you.  Some believers today think of God, His blessing, and His favor to be for things like church, Bible study, charitable projects, and the like.  They think God’s wisdom is only released for preachers or teachers that need to interpret Bible scriptures for sermons or classes.  Or they think of God’s favor upon them for things like being an usher, singing in the choir, or helping out in the church.  God is much bigger than that.  Don’t limit God to what happens on Sunday mornings.  You should go to church to learn how to LIVE BY FAITH every day.  God blessed Abraham with material wealth and a physical child at the point where he and his wife were past the childbearing stage.  God blessed Isaac to reap a hundred fold harvest on his seed sown, in one year, in the midst of a famine.  God blessed Jacob to make more money in one year, once he started operating by faith, than he had made in the previous 20 years working for Laban.  God blessed Joseph to prosper as a slave and as a prisoner.  As a slave Joseph was living better than most free men.  God then gave Joseph favor with Pharaoh and he was promoted from prisoner to Prime Minister in a moment.  By God’s grace Joseph made Pharaoh and Egypt exceedingly wealthy.  None of what I just mentioned has anything to do with singing hymns or wearing choir robes.  This was a real God dealing with real people, who had real issues, in the real world, and God released His real blessing.  The Blessing I just described is also known as The Blessing of Abraham.  This is not a spiritual blessing.  Abraham never healed anyone, nor did he speak with new tongues or any spiritual in this way.  God blessed Abraham with natural blessings (earthly blessings).  Guess what?  Once you are IN CHRIST, not only do you have The Blessing of Jesus (which is spiritual), but you also have the Blessing of Abraham (which is natural).  Both are made available to you through Christ Jesus (see Gal 3:29).
3.  God is interested in blessing the work of your hands.  Don’t limit your faith to Sunday mornings.  God can bless the work of your hands in every area of your life.  If you are an engineer God can give you wisdom to design the most complex systems in your field.  If you are a doctor God can give you wisdom to diagnose something that book knowledge never taught you.  If you are a military commander God can give you wisdom to lead and the grace for the supernatural protection of the led.  If you are a homemaker God can give you the wisdom to nurture, train and develop your children in the way of righteousness.  Whatever you do, with God, you can do it better! Joseph provided the willingness to work with the right attitude, and God provided the grace for the work of his hands to be successful.  Everything Joseph did was blessed, because God blessed it.  But Joseph still had to have the willingness to work and attitude to do what he did with humility and grace.  So my message to you this morning is simple: keep the right attitude, get to work, and expect God to bless the work of your hands.

Closing Confession:   Father, I thank You for teaching me about Your grace and my requirement to live by faith.  You are a Spirit and You want to communicate with me Spirit-to-Spirit.  That is why You put Your Spirit IN me when I was Born-Again.  The Holy Spirit leads, guides and directs me.  But this direction is not limited to Sunday mornings.  What I do in church is great, but what You called me to do outside of the church is even greater.  You want me to become a conduit of Your love and light in the world.  You want people to SEE JESUS when they look at me, and I declare that they will.  People can see Your hand all over my life.  Everything I do is blessed.  Not only do I have The Blessing of Jesus in operation in my life, where I operate in supernatural power over the kingdom of darkness, but I also have The Blessing of Abraham in operation in my life.  The Blessing of Abraham is a natural blessing.  I put my hands to work and You bless the work of my hands.  I enter every day with the proper attitude and You bless me to experience divine success in everything I do.  You give me insight by revelation that I could have never received through education.  You give me downloads from heaven — that fill my mind with supernatural wisdom, insight, revelation, knowledge and understanding — that gives me an advantage at work.  People don’t know where I get all my answers from, but they can surely see that there is something special about me.  I am Your child, I work for Your glory, and You bless me to operate in both spiritual and natural blessings daily.  I declare this by faith.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

This is Today’s Word!  Apply it and Prosper.