Throughout history, mankind has sought the blessings of whatever gods they served. Many ancient religions not only sought to receive the blessings of their gods, but also to prevent those gods from bringing calamity upon them. Sacrifices were given both to garner blessings and to avoid disaster.
With that kind of human history, it should not surprise us that Christians look upon Jehovah God in much the same light; seeking to receive material blessings from Him. We are material beings, living in a material world; therefore, it is perfectly natural for us to see blessings in a material light. But that doesn’t mean that God sees them the same way.
Jesus Christ was born into this world as a fulfillment of many prophecies, written by the prophets, in the Old Testament. Yet the Jewish expectation of who their Messiah would be, is considerably different from the Messiah that we know. They were looking for a political Messiah who would throw off the yoke of Roman rule and reestablish the throne of David. Even Jesus’ closest followers believed that, so much so that they asked Him if He was going to do that after His resurrection:
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” – Acts 1:6
His response to this wasn’t a rebuke, although it could very well have been. Rather, He told them what to expect, specifically that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit, so that they could serve as His witnesses here on the earth (Acts 1:8). Their focus was in the natural, while the focus of the Lord was on the spiritual and only on the spiritual.
Why is this important? Because it illustrates where our focus is. The word “bless” doesn’t necessarily refer to physical, material blessings, even though we expect it to. Likewise, the word “prosper” doesn’t necessarily refer to financial prosperity, although that’s where our minds naturally go. Prosperity literally means to “have a good road.” That might include financial prosperity, even though it doesn’t necessarily mean it. Having good health can be that good road, so can a peaceful loving home life, good relationships with people, and non-financial success in just about any area of life.
The Bible doesn’t speak in a material, natural language; but rather in a spiritual one. So, to understand what the Bible is saying to us, we must learn to look at things spiritually, rather than through the lens of the physical world we live in. Yes, there are things in the Bible which refer to this physical world; but first and foremost, it refers to the spiritual realm.
Does God Bless Us in the Natural?
Before we talk about how God blesses and the seeming inequality in how He does so, we need to ask the question: whether or not God blesses us in nature. This is so obvious that some might skip right over it; but if God does not bless us in nature, then we are blaming God for not doing something that He doesn’t do anyway.
There are actually quite a few verses in the Bible which indicate that our God is a God of blessing. While most of these seem to focus on the non-material blessings that God provides, there are also some which clearly focus on how He blesses us in physical, natural ways.
And my God will supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:19
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. – James 1:7
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. – Malachi 3:10
That third verse there, the one from Malachi, is normally used to encourage believers to give their tithes to God. Even so, it clearly refers to God providing material blessing to those who are faithful in fulfilling that obligation. That He will provide such “blessing that three will not be room enough to receive it” definitely sounds like something physical, rather than something spiritual. Even so, the provision itself is something spiritual.
There are many other ways in which God provides for us materially. If we accept the fact that God created the heavens and the earth, as described in the first chapter of Genesis, we can see a story of God’s provision. He created water, one of our most basic needs, as well as all the plants and animals that we eat, commanding them to reproduce after their own kind. This started the process which provides our food, even today.
While the creation account establishes this process, God didn’t just start it and has ignored it ever since. We find Him talking about providing rain to the people, so that the land will produce fruit for people to eat.
If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. – Leviticus 26:3-4
We must keep in mind that God was speaking to a mostly agricultural society throughout the Bible. Not only that, but it was a society that had to depend on the rain, as they didn’t have pumps to bring up water from the deep aquifers or reservoirs to store the rainwater. Rain falling at the right time was critical to their ability to grow food to eat, without which, they couldn’t have survived.
It is interesting to note in this verse, that God is creating a connection between their obedience and Him sending them rain. If we expect God to bless us, there is an element of obedience in the equation as well. We’ll talk more about this later.
How does God Bless?
There is an idea that God rains down blessings from heaven, just as rain falls. Yet if there were cases of gold or money falling from the sky, I’m sure that it would become headline news. God doesn’t do things in that way, even though the verse we just looked at in Malachi can be read that way. Clearly, God was speaking figuratively when He said that through the prophet.
It’s clear that whatever God does, it must be supernatural. But just what does that mean?
There’s an idea that anything supernatural has also got to be eerier or even spooky. Anything supernatural would be obvious, because we would never have seen it before. Looking at it in that light, apples wouldn’t be red, they’d be gold, so that we would know that they came from God. This idea probably comes from campfire stories and horror movies. In reality, something supernatural is just something natural, working in a non-natural way.
In the 22nd chapter of the book of Numbers, Balak, the king of Moab, hired a prophet named Balaam to curse Israel. This happened during the 40 years that Israel was wandering in the wilderness. That didn’t go so well for Balak, as Balaam spoke blessings over Israel, rather than cursing them, as God told him to.
But an interesting thing happened as Balaam was on his way to Balak; an angel of the Lord stood in the path, blocking his way. Balaam didn’t see it, but his donkey did and turned aside. Angered, Balaam struck his donkey, who in turn, spoke to him:
And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam’s anger was aroused, and he struck the donkey with his staff. 28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” 29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!” 30 So the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?” And he said, “No.” 31 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. – Numbers 22:27-31
Reading this story, we are likely to recognize the appearance of the angel as something supernatural. We might even recognize God opening Balaam’s eyes to see the angel as supernatural. After all, anything having to do with angels has to be supernatural, right? But we’d be missing the big supernatural act in that story; that of the donkey speaking. Donkey’s don’t speak; but Balaam’s donkey did; and if there was any doubt that it was a natural donkey doing the talking, the donkey said “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours to this day?” In other words, “Hey, I’m a normal donkey. I’m your donkey. You know me.”
When we’re talking about supernatural blessing, we’re talking about natural things, working in unnatural ways, which end up bringing us blessings.
There was a story about a village in Africa which was experiencing severe drought. God told the believers in that village to prepare and build a dam, because rain was coming. So, they did. Once the dam was completed, the rain came, creating a reservoir for the village.
Since this was the first rainfall they had received in quite some time, the villagers decided that instead of planting in their normal plots, they would divide up the land around the reservoir, by lots, allowing everyone easy access to their water. They did so and everyone planted their land, as had been chosen by lots, tending that land.
When harvest time came, it turned out that the land which belonged to each of the believers had grown a much more abundant harvest than that belonging to the pagans within the village. Not only that, but the land belonging to the believers grew a second “volunteer” crop, without reseeding. This was God blessing those believers in an obvious way, doing something “supernatural” for them; providing them with abundance. There were no angels present, no lights (or anything else) falling from heaven and no obvious difference between what the believers and the unbelievers did; but God blessed the believers.
Not all cases of God’s provision and blessing are this obvious though. It can be something as simple as your children’s shoes not wearing out, so that you don’t have to buy replacements so soon. It can be your food seeming to last a little bit longer. It can be your children not getting sick, when all of their friends come down with a mysterious “bug.” All of those are blessings which we can and should attribute to God.
Needs Versus Desires
One of the big mistakes that people make is expecting God to meet their desires, rather than their needs. Sometimes, we have trouble understanding the difference between the two. Yet we read above in Philippians that “God will supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” That’s not the same as God saying that He will provide our desires.
I spent several years traveling and ministering on the road in a motorhome, with my family. For me and the ministry I was doing at that time, that motorhome was a necessity. I didn’t believe that God wanted me to leave my family behind, ignoring their needs, while I went off to minister and take care of everyone else’s needs. So, I asked God for a motorhome to travel in. He provided it, through a family that I only met once.
During the time I was traveling in that motorhome, I had a number of Christian couples approach me, asking me to pray that God would give them a motorhome too. When I asked why they wanted one, they all responded with saying that they wanted it for vacation; in other words, it was a desire, not a need. I had to tell them that I didn’t have the faith to pray for that, because it wasn’t a need. Needless to say, they weren’t happy with my response.
Some try and take the verse which says “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalms 37:4) to say that God will give you all your desires; whatever they are, regardless of your reason. But if we read the whole verse, it’s clear that there is a prerequisite to God giving us the desires of our heart; that is, we delight ourselves in Him. If we’re truly doing that, then the desires we have in our hearts are going to be the ones that will please Him; not just the ones that please our fleshly desire.
There are many things which fall into the category of our desires, which God holds back from giving us, because He recognizes that they will not be to our benefit. The person praying that God gives them a Cadillac or Mercedes Benz, just so that they will look good before men, is trying to stroke their own ego and asking God to help. Yet God knows just how destructive pride is and would therefore never do anything that would serve to boost our pride. From His viewpoint, that would be counterproductive.
So, Why Does God Give?
God wants us to be wholly dependent upon Him, regardless of our own ability or lack thereof. Yes, we work to earn a living, so that we have money to meet our needs, and we are supposed to. But if all we do is depend on our own ability to make a living, we are no better off than those in the world around us. It is as if we don’t serve God at all.
I have been the beneficiary of many blessings from God throughout the years. Some, like that motorhome, were given to me so that I might accomplish God’s will. Others, like the house I used to own, are God’s blessings, which He ahs given to me to reward me and show me His faithfulness. Still others, like the home I have now, are God restoring what the enemy has stolen from me. In all of those cases I have given glory to God for what He has done for me.
I work. I work hard. But at the same time, I can clearly state that I live above my means. Part of that can be attributed to wise use of money. Part is because I make things I need, when I can, rather than buying them. But another large part is God providing me with opportunities to buy things that I normally wouldn’t be able to afford, at prices that I can afford. The house I own falls into that final category. Some would call that “luck,” but I call it God’s blessing.
Recognizing the Blessing
It is easy to overlook blessings that we’ve received from God, attributing those blessings to something natural or even to something we’ve done ourselves. Most of God’s blessings are done in such a way as to not scream out “THIS IS GOD.” We are likely to miss what God is doing, if we aren’t looking for it and looking to give Him credit for the good things that happen in our lives.
But if we truly believe that “every good gift is from above” as we read earlier, then it is easy to attribute those blessings to God, because that is our focus. Personally, I’d rather give God credit for something good that just happened, than to miss giving God credit for something that He did for me.
I’m not saying that God is like this; but don’t we prefer doing things for people who recognize what we’ve already done for them? Aren’t we more likely to do more things for them? While God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:28), He does recognize our devotion to Him, whether that takes the form of our giving thanks or our worshiping Him.
Why Don’t Some People Receive?
There’s a lot to receiving from God, especially to receiving His blessings. We tend to think that all we have to do is ask, and God, like some celestial vending machine in the sky, has to give us what we ask for. The “word of faith” and “prosperity” movements haven’t helped this, as they have preached a message that’s more about having faith in our faith, than faith in God. Somehow, according to them, if we have enough faith, God has to do what we say. That sounds more like we’re God and He is our servant.
Speaking as someone who God has blessed, I have found it has not been as much about my asking, as it has been about Him wanting to bless me. The big thing I have always had to do is put myself into a place where I can receive. That has more to do with the condition of my heart, than anything else.
Faith is a necessary ingredient here, as we must have faith that God will bless us. As it says in the great “hall of faith” in the book of Hebrews:
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. – Hebrews 11:6
But faith alone isn’t enough. Faith must be coupled with obedience. While it is part of the Old Testament Law, the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy tells us clearly that God blesses those who obey Him and allows curses to come upon those who disobey Him. The chapter starts out listing the blessings of those who obey, taking 12 verses to delineate them. After that, it talks about the curses that will come upon those who disobey, taking 53 verses to explain those curses in detail.
Some would say that this chapter doesn’t apply to those of us who believe in Christ, because they come from the Old Testament. Yet we must take into account that this is God, speaking to His people. We have been grafted in as part of his people, making this apply to us too. There isn’t a single verse in the New Testament that says that God has erased what He said in the Old Testament.
If someone who calls themselves a believer in Christ isn’t receiving God’s blessings, I have to ask the question of whether they are truly obeying God or are they going their own way and expecting God to bless them in their sin? I would hope that they would ask that question too. I know in my own life, when I have fallen into hard times, where I didn’t see the blessings of God, I have had to face this question, asking the Holy Spirit to show me where I have been wrong. When He did, I worked diligently to eliminate that error or sin from my life.
Does this mean that anytime someone is not receiving a blessing from God that they are in sin? No. But it is something we should look at. There may be other reasons as well.
God takes each of us on a unique pathway through life. There isn’t just one path that we all take. Some need to be taught certain lessons, which come naturally to others. Still others may really struggle with those lessons. There are cases where God will start teaching one believer something as soon as they get saved, while He will wait till much later in life for another. I can’t say why God does this, other than He is working His will out in each of us, so that we might be transformed into the image of His Son.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among may brethren. – Romans 8:29
Sometimes, a certain blessing might help a particular person to become more like Christ and other times it might cause someone else to have a harder time becoming like Christ. Only God has the ability to see what the results of a particular blessing are going to be. In each and every case, we can count on Him making the decision which will ultimately be most able to help that person become more like Christ.