The Lord Bless You- Experiencing God’s Extravagant Blessings

“Regardless of your present circumstances, God wants to bless you.”~ Terry A. Smith

God often uses books to teach, refine and grow us. “The Lord Bless You” by Terry A. Smith was one of these books for me. It’s a short read, but a powerful one. One chapter, titled “Align Yourself,” has opened up my heart to better understand God’s character, specifically His goodness and desire to bless His children, and to bless them extravagantly.

Terry A. Smith says, “Regardless of your present circumstances, God wants to bless you.” How well do you receive that? I’ll be honest, I don’t fully grasp this…yet. I’m working on it though and Mr. Smith’s book is helping.

Although I’ve been a Christ follower for over two decades, I still struggle and often see God as a disciplinarian (I wrote about this in my last blog post. You can click here to read about it). Since I tend to see God as a stern Father, I wrestle with believing that He desires to bless me. I know logically that God is a loving God, and wants to lavish His love on His beloved children (Ephesians 3:18-19), that He is a God that does not withhold any good thing from us (Psalm 84:11), and that He is a good good Father that adores us. These truths, however, are stuck in my intellect when they need to be planted deep in my heart.

Faith comes from the heart, not from the mind.

In a chapter called “Align Yourself,” Terry A. Smith says “Jesus taught us that when things are in proper order in the depths of our soul, then everything else concerning us will be right as well.” This comes from Matthew 6:33, which says “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.” The author is basically highlighting the fact that if we live for Christ and make Him number one in our lives (following His commandments in every area of our lives), then He will bless us.

Smith then says, “There are three fundamentally important things we must do to take hold of the blessings God has for us and bring them into our lives.”

1. We must believe in God and in His good intentions for you.
This may seem easy to accept, but this is actually where many of us get stuck. If I’m completely transparent, I have a hard time believing that God has good intentions, for me. Mr. Smith then wrote something that powerfully impacted my thinking. He said, “We must believe that just as God blessed Abraham in every way, He wants to bless us in every way.” This is God’s truth as it’s written in Galatians 3:9: “So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.” I have never had it explained this way before. I have been meditating on this for weeks now. It’s actually shifting something deep within me.

We can receive the same blessings Abraham received because of our faith in Christ!

Just as Abraham believed the Lord when God chose him and promised to bless him, we too need to believe the Lord. God has chosen you and I, and we, therefore, can learn to receive His blessings for us uniquely. He wants to bless us in every way! He cannot bless us, however, if we don’t first believe in Him and in His good intentions for us.

2. We must pray according to what we believe
Smith says, “Part of praying is asking God for things we want that are in agreement with what He wants. This includes His desire to bless us in every way.” James tells us, “You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it” (James 4:2). John teaches us that “And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for” (1 John 5:14-15).

It’s helpful to find scriptures to back up what you are asking God for, and then pray them back to Him.

For example, if you are desiring a family, a good promise to pray is Genesis 1:28, which says, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Or if you are single and would like to be married, you could pray Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

3. We must act in ways that convey an expectation that good things will happen in our lives.
Smith says, “We must act in ways that line up with what we believe and have asked for. Expect to be blessed and act like it!” He supports this statement with 2 Thessalonians 1:11, where Paul says, “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”

I call this living in “holy expectation,” or with a “joyful anticipation.”

The author concludes this chapter with these words of wisdom; “So God wants to bless you, but you must cooperate with Him to actualize His good intentions. Come to Him in faith. Ask Him for what you want and need. Act as if you expect to receive it. When you do these things, you align yourself with what God wants to do, and you move spiritual possibility into the realm of lived reality.”

I am still processing Pastor Smith’s teaching, and am allowing them to marinade within me. I know in my spirit that God is using his words to help me to align my thinking with God’s desire to bless me. It’s not been easy for me to believe that God desires to bless me. Although He has blessed me in so many ways, there are some things I’ve been seeking Him for a breakthrough for that have not happened, despite my fervent prayers. This book is helping me open my heart to the possibility that perhaps I’ve not seen these breakthroughs because of the doubt and disbelief that I carry deep inside. We cannot hide from the Lord. He sees our hearts.

“I’ve seen your faithfulness Tweeny. Now I need to see your faith.”

The truth is the things I am seeking God on do align with His will. I, however, have not aligned my heart with God’s heart. The other day in my quiet time during listening prayer, I sensed the Lord say to me, “I’ve seen your faithfulness Tweeny. Now I need to see your faith. It is your faith that wavers. You question my good intentions, but I need you to believe with your whole heart, without any doubt, that I desire to give you your heart’s desires. Believe-Pray-Expect. These are your ‘orders’ for this season.“

I want to be obedient to what I feel the Lord telling me. So I’m walking by faith like never before, applying the three points Terry A. Smith has written about. I’m reminded of Jesus’s words in Matthew 17:20, “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

We don’t have to have a lot of faith, we just have to believe.

Meaning, it’s our lack of faith that prevents us from receiving all that God has for us. The Message Translation says this same verse like this, “Because you’re not yet taking God seriously,” said Jesus...” Let’s start taking God seriously and align our hearts with His good intentions for us. He wants to bless us.

How about you? How well do you receive all that the Lord wants to give you? What are you believing, praying and expecting from your heavenly Father for today? The Lord bless you! May you experience God’s extravagant blessings.

“Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him  with all our hearts!“~ Ephesians 1:3 (TPT)

Photo credit (Holy Bible): Sixteen Miles Out from https://unsplash.com/@sixteenmilesout

Photo credit (mustard seed): Jaspreet Kalsi from https://unsplash.com/@j_kalsi