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#5 from Nurture Spiritual Desires
“Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
God made a promise to Abraham. The promise is found in Genesis 12.
1 Now the LORD said to Abram,“Go forth from your country, And from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; 2 and I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The blessings and cursings are found in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, read through those when you have time.
Who Is Abraham’s Seed?
Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.
Christ is the seed. He is the fulfillment of the promise that through Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Christ offers deliverance from sin and death as well as eternal life for all who trust in his finished work.
It’s pretty simple to understand that Christ is the seed that blesses all nations, but you are actually included in part of that fulfillment as well. The Body of Christ in the earth, blessing all nations, is the residual effect of Christ being planted in the earth.
Christ continues to bless the nations of the world through his spirit AND his body. YOU!!!
Not only do you enjoy the blessings -
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
But you also are part of the fulfillment to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.
Join-Heirs with Christ
How are you part of the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham? Christ received the promise of the New Covenant, and you are in Him. You are in Christ. Indeed, you are a joint-heir with Christ.
ROMANS 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Side Note: The suffering Paul refers to is not walking away from the faith under any persecution you may face. The only kind of tribulation and suffering God endorses is persecution fo proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus. He’s not referring to everyday troubles in the world.
You inherited God. Specifically, you inherited God’s spirit, and He gave you the right to be His child. He gave you His spirit once you decided to come to Him through Christ. From then on, you have the same spirit in you that raised Jesus from the dead.
His spirit has a plan and a purpose for the world. That plan is to spread the news of the Kingdom of God and advance the Kingdom of God. We participate in that plan as we spread the good news of His kingdom.
How Can I Bless All the Families of the Earth?
How can you spread that good news? How can you let people know that God loves them? How can you be the hands and feet of Jesus and participate in the advancement of His kingdom? In general, you can walk in love with people and take advantage of opportunities to tell people about Jesus. But I want to challenge you to dig a bit deeper.
I recently heard about Sean Feucht. Sean is a worship leader out of California. He is holding public worship gatherings in places like Portland, Seattle, and parts of California where worship gatherings have been shutdown.
I love what he said. What caught my attention is that he wants to change the narrative. It’s simple yet profound. People scroll their news feeds, read their news apps, and watch tv, only to see the same stories of protest, unrest, and division. He wanted to inject something else into people’s news feeds, something hopeful.
What he chose to do is hold worship gatherings that have experiences the most unrest in our nation. And it’s working. I am personally inspired, I talk about in the sermon above. Watch this clip of Sean.
Well done, Sean!! I will act on this inspiration and do something to change the narrative in my community. I pray you will as well. No matter how large or small, if every believer stood up like the protestors, we’d make a loud noise for Jesus that people couldn’t deny. That’s where true racial reconciliation will come from. That’s how we’ll plant healthy seeds of economic reform. That’s how we’ll affect legislators. The Body of Christ can stand up to release hope and healing. What will you do?
