The Spiritual Blessings are Yours

Today we will begin with Ephesians verse 3, which states the following:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

 

Now I would like to teach you something about the nature of true faith. True faith believes God. I know that sounds simple but let me explain to you what I mean. When you look at the verse above, you will note that it says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Do you believe that? Think about it for a moment. Is it possible that you have every spiritual blessing that God has to offer?

 

Most of us don’t think about our Christian lives this way. We don’t see the blessings Paul is speaking of, and our lives seem to be no different than the lives of the average person out there in the world. Even when we do realize some of the blessings we have received, it certainly does not feel like we have every spiritual blessing God has to offer. It seems as though we could surely receive more blessings, and be spiritually richer than we are. And some of us would dare to say that there are people out there in the world who do not have faith, who do not believe in Jesus Christ, and whose lives seem to be more blessed than our own, or of some of the Christians we know.

 

But this is the very point I am making. In spite of what you see and feel on any given day, if you have true faith, your faith wants you to know the truth. Your faith already knows that Ephesians verse 3 is true. It already knows that you have received every spiritual blessing God offers. Faith is God’s gift that allows us to know the unknowable. It teaches us spiritual truths that do not make sense in this world. Isn’t that how faith is defined in the book of Hebrews?

 

            “Now faith is being certain of what we hope for, and sure of what we do not see.”

            (Heb 11:1)

 

So when I said that faith believes God, I am contrasting that with the typical thing we Christians usually say, and that is that we believe in God. Not that there is anything wrong with the later, but there are many who say they believe in God but do not believe what He says in Scripture. They usually begin their protest to what He is saying with the word, “But…” And the “but” arises invariably from what they see going on in their lives. They contrast that with what they read in the Bible and then they say, “But…”

 

In truth, even if you don’t understand something, faith will teach you to say, “OK Lord, I see what You are saying. And though I don’t understand it, I can still believe it and just wait until you clarify this.” Remember, Paul told us that the “wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight” 1Cor 3:19. So don’t expect everything you read in the Bible to make worldly sense. In fact, it probably won’t. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world”.

 

These spiritual blessings, by the way, have everything to do with knowledge, and nothing to do with worldly wealth and prosperity. They don’t have anything to do with healing either. We are not talking about the things of this world that make us happy. Paul is referring to salvation knowledge.

 

This knowledge is not only what saves you, but also what sustains you in the Christian life. The knowledge that saves is the understanding that Jesus Christ is Lord. If you believe this, consider yourself blessed—really. That is not something you can truthfully say without faith. I am not saying that people don’t do so, but I am saying that only faith will allow someone to say that and know it is true. It is called revelation knowledge. If you believe Jesus Christ is Lord, with no conditions attached, consider yourself blessed.

 

The second kind of knowledge is the revelation of how Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross sustains you. He is your life. In fact, did you know that spiritually speaking, you died, you no longer live, but Christ lives in you? Did you know that you are a slave to righteousness? Did you know that you are holy, pure, and blameless? Did you know God calls you “free from accusation”? Did you know that your salvation is guaranteed? These are all things that sustain us in this life and allow us to rest in the knowledge that Jesus is in charge.

 

When Paul stated in verse three that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing, he means that when you received God’s gift of faith, along with it came all these truths. You got the whole package, as they say. God held nothing back from you. Everything that He intended to accomplish through His Son on the cross was completed. And when He saved you, that completeness became attributed to you through faith in Jesus Christ. His perfection became yours!

 

Now, whether you know these things yet or not does not change the fact that they are true of you. The purpose of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and my letter to you is that we both hope that the Spirit will take our words and turn them into revelation knowledge. Paul hoped that the Ephesian church could believe that they really do have every spiritual blessing, even if they can’t see them. This is my hope too. In the weeks and months to come, through Paul’s letter I will  show you many of these blessings. That is why I told you this is a love letter from God.                                            -Pastor Scott

 

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