Start out being Blessed!

I have noticed a general pattern in our society of how things are set up.  First you must perform and work hard to get ahead, then a reward may be given to you like a carrot at the end of a stick.  You basically are on your own to work hard and be good enough to meet the standard, then hope you did well enough to receive the reward.  Obviously this is the world's way but I believe this kind of mindset has infiltrated the Body of Christ.  Yet I see something very different when I see how God works through Christ in the New Covenant.  In Ephesians 1:3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,"  As I look at this verse I see no condition based on performance for the reward or blessing (it has already been given "in Christ").  God gives the blessing and it from a place of blessing that we are empowered to live.  For example, so many of us as parents hope we are loving, raising, and disciplining our kids right but we wait to judge until the results come.  It is amazing to discover that God wants to reveal how great a parent He sees me as "in Christ" before I am done being a parent.  The blessing actually works in us and in our future to bring about the words of the blessing, rather than waiting to judge the end result and then reward.  Another example is that the Father blesses Jesus after He is baptized in the Jordan river before He has ever done any ministry.  If God waited to bless Jesus until He had obeyed, the blessing would have been for His obedience but grace is to bless to live out.  I believe that God thinks very differently than we have been taught to think, I believe His ways are better and higher.  Another example is that in Genesis 1:26-28 God creates Adam and Eve with the design of them ruling and taking dominion over the earth, then He blesses them to be fruitful and multiply.  I sensed the Holy Spirit revealing to me that fruitfulness and multiplication follow blessing.  This is 180 degrees from the world's ways but also much of our ways in the Body of Christ.  In blessing Adam and Eve with fruitfulness and multiplication, God knew that they would be because He blessed them.  God's design came in Genesis 1:26, the creation came in verse 27, and the blessing came in verse 28.  There is a specific order here and fruitfulness and multiplication did not come after their creation but after God blessed them.  I believe the blessing of the Lord is vital to us living in fruitfulness and prosperity for the purpose of blessing others.  God accomplishes what He wants on earth through His Word (mainly Jesus- the Word became flesh), but also as we agree with His Word and release it on the earth.  It seems to me that there are a lot of blessings in heavenly realms that God wants to be released over people and on the earth, yet we agree with so much curse or performance-based blessings that very little of the resources of heaven are finding their way to earth.  I pray the Holy Spirit would reveal blessings "in Christ" that He directs you to release over your family, friends, co-workers, and even over yourself.

Blessings,
Bret