But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Deut. 8:18 [KJV]
Thanksgiving is a great time to reflect back
on all the blessings God has bestowed upon us. We thank Him
for food, shelter, clothing, being able to pay our bills,
and for meeting all our needs. In general, we tend to define
His blessings in terms of things we can see. If we have them,
we say we are blessed.
We define a blessing in the same way
we define the wind. We base it on how we perceive it. For
instance, we've all heard the sound of wind chimes. And
we've seen the tree leaves rustle. We've even heard the wind
howl.
But what we're hearing and seeing is not the
wind at all. They are the effects we perceive of the
wind. Do you see what I mean? They only represent the manifestation
of the wind’s presence and not its nature.
The actual definition of wind is "moving
air ... the natural movement of air parallel to the ground
that we can perceive." The natural movement of air is the thing that causes what we see, hear, feel, and even smell. It is the root to the fruit of what we experience.
The Blessing is the same way. We define it
based on its effects and results; things we can see, hear,
feel, smell or taste. But the root causes these things. Now
if you’re like me you want to understand the root cause of
things. By understanding The Blessing perhaps
we can flow with it, co-operate with it, capitalize on it, and
employ it to produce greater results.
My people perish (the actual word is "destroyed"
or "face ruin”) for a lack of knowledge (Hos 4:6). We
don't want to be like them. "But God has revealed this
to us by his Spirit" (1 Cor 2:10). So, let's get
some understanding.
Our scripture for today, Deuteronomy 8:18,
gives us some insight into the definition of The
Blessing.
God declares that he has provided for His people the "power
to get wealth" (KJV; Amplified). The NIV calls it "the
ability to produce wealth". The NASB calls it "the
power to make wealth".
The Message Bible calls it "the strength to produce
wealth".
I call it an anointing ... a spiritual power to affect a
change! All these represent a power that result in something
that you can see.
So, at this stage of our juncture let's
develop a working definition for The
Blessing. Let's call
it, for the time being, "an endowment (or anointing) of power,
resulting in prosperity and success." Just as the wind is
a moving force of air, resulting in the chimes we hear and
the breeze we feel, The Blessing is an
anointing of power that results in the houses, cars, clothes
and money we obtain.
And we haven't even begun to talk about
the other areas of our lives that The
Blessing affects;
because money can't buy happiness or good health. We'll
find out later if The Blessing affects these
and other areas of our lives. However, for the time being
we have something we can work with.
Meditate on this several
times today, "I have The
Blessing,
an anointing for prosperity and success."
