How to Walk in the Blessings of God
Many people want to be blessed by God, myself included; we spend much time in prayer and fasting preparing ourselves to be blessed. We walk in constant faith, waiting on our healing, our spouse, our promotion, our miracle child to be born. But what happens when those blessings arrive?
What will you focus your faith on once those blessings are here?
How differently will you live your life when you are finally healed?
What will you do once you’ve finally found your spouse and have gotten married?
What will happen to your faith after the Lord blesses you with a promotion in your job?
What will you believe for after your miracle child is born?
Many of us are so caught up in getting the blessing, we have absolutely no idea what’s supposed to happen next, once we’ve gotten it.
I don’t mean for anyone reading this to take offense; my hope is to bring awareness to a situation we may not know we are in. Let’s take marriage into account, for example.
For someone who has never been married and is currently praying for a spouse, it is important that you don’t just send up desperate prayers to finally meet the person of your dreams. There is more to marriage than simply living happily ever after; once you get married, your prayer life will change—are you prepared for that? Are you prepared to be a good husband to your wife? One who loves her just as Christ loved the church [Ephesians 5:25]? Are you prepared to be a prudent wife who loves and supports her husband [Proverbs 19:14]? Are the two of you ready to live your life in harmony and unity as one, or are you still in the mindset of singlehood?
These are things to keep in mind when submitting your request to God. There is always more to your prayer than what meets the eye, this is why some requests may take longer to manifest than others. Sometimes we pray for a blessing that we simply are not prepared to handle in our current spiritual state, so God works on you and works with you to prepare you for the blessing and the changes that come with it.
Think of it this way; if a child tells their mom and dad they want to become an astronaut and asks their parents for a spaceship for Christmas, of course the loving parents will want their child to become an astronaut and have a spaceship, but is this young child really ready to explore the galaxy? Is this child prepared to work for NASA? Is this child physically capable of handling the rigorous training to become an astronaut? While the parents may want to say yes, in reality, they must say no because the child is simply not ready for the gift they request. Any loving parent would understand that saying no—for now—is what’s best for the child. In time, as the youngster waits to become an astronaut, they may find other interests and change their mind, and if they don’t then they will continue to train and grow stronger for the day they can inherit their very own spaceship.
God sees us the same way.
Sometimes we ask for things from God that we are not ready to handle—or things that God knows will not be good for us later on—or even things that God knows we will lose interest in later on. It isn’t that God does not hear our prayers that hinders our blessings—its our own spiritual growth! That doesn’t mean we should ask for smaller blessings, it means while we pray for big things from our big God, we must continue to grow and constantly rejuvenate our faith and prepare ourselves to take hold of these blessings [Romans 12:2, I Thessalonians 5:17].
My friend, this is what it means to grow in your faith—to hold on and prepare the way ahead for the blessings we know are coming.
So, the next time you get down on your knees to pray for healing, don’t just ask to be healed, thank God for the healing you know is here and ask the Lord to prepare you for your new, healthy, life. When you pray for your promotion, ask God to guide you in your new flourishing finances—to remind you to continue paying your tithes and offering. When you pray for your miracle child, ask God to prepare you to be a good Christian parent who loves and fairly disciplines their child, not forsaking the teaching of the Gospel [Proverbs 22:6].
Seeing into the future is part of having faith [Hebrews 11:1]. When you pray for something now, always ask yourself what can you pray for later? You need a new job now, but how can you use this job to help the Kingdom of God later, once you’ve gotten it? You want a spouse now, but ask God how you—as a married couple—can display the light of Christ together, later once you’re married?
This is part of walking in the blessings of God. By expanding your prayer request, you are demonstrating your faith in the fact that you know you are getting your blessing—you already have it! Asking God for a miracle child and then praying for preparation of parenthood, before you even have the child, is like saying to the Lord; I know I’ve already got my miracle baby, Father, now let’s start talking about how to raise her/him.
Do you know what kind of faith that is? Do you know how that makes God feel? Praying for the future is showing God that you trust Him enough to move on to other prayer requests—In essence, you are saying: In faith, I know I’ve already got this, so let’s pray that I am able to walk righteously with this blessing.
Walk in your blessings today. Don’t just ask God for something, thank Him that you’ve already got it—thank Him for giving you your healing over two-thousand years ago when Christ defeated sickness and disease on the Cross at Calvary [Isaiah 53]. Start living your life as if you’re already healed, already married, already blessed beyond belief—and watch God fill in all the rest.
Have faith.