Focus: Blessed to Bless

Text: Gen.12:2,3

"I will bless thee… and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

In Gen.12, when God came into the life of Abraham, He blessed him and made him a blessing to others. God says to him, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." In chapter 18, He repeated it, "And all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?"

No one can be a blessing to the world without being blessed by God. It is the blessed that has a blessing to share with others. A man must first be blessed before he can become a blessing to others. It is a fact of human experience that no one can give what he does not have, and Jesus Christ says, "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven" (Jh.3:27). He says to Pilate, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above" (Jh.19:11). James declares, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (Jam.1:17).

God is the giver of all blessings. A man is not really blessed if he is not blessed by God. On top of that, blessings are meant to be shared. A man is blessed by God to bless others.

God has a blessing for every person, but if you see who doesn't look blessed, then share yours with him. Other people's blessings are inside the blessing that God has given you. Not every blessing of God in your life is for personal consumption.

God's blessing. Most of God's blessings pass from hand to hand. The reason why God gets His blessing to you, is because He wants it to get to others through you. You are a channel of divine blessings.

God blessed Abraham and blessed others through him. Abraham enjoyed a twofold blessing from God: the spiritual and the material. The Word says, "And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things" (Gen.24:1). God blessed Abraham in everything. He lacked nothing that God could give. He lacked nothing that made life beautiful and wonderful. Paul writes, "For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their SPIRITUAL THINGS, their duty is also to minister unto them in CARNAL THINGS" (Rom.15:27). He says, "If we have sown unto you SPIRITUAL THINGS, is it a great thing if we shall reap your CARNAL THINGS?" (1Cor.9:11). 

God's blessings are both material and spiritual, and they are meant to be shared. Someone needs what you have, and you need what others have.

God's blessings are also generational. The Word says, "And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac…" (Gen.25:11). God blessed Abraham, and after his death, he blessed his son, Isaac. God passed on to Isaac Abraham's blessing. He says to Isaac, "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen.26:4). Again the Word says, "Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him" (26:12). The people of the land said to him, "Thou art now the blessed of the LORD" (Gen.26:19). 

I declare to you that you are now the blessed of the Lord. After Isaac came Jacob, and God said to him, "And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Gen.28:14). His uncle Laban says, "For I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake" (Gen.30:27). Jacob also says to Laban, "The LORD hath blessed thee since my coming" (Gen.30:30). Jacob was a blessing to Laban.

Don't let God's blessing begin and end with you. Let it flow through you. Be a channel of God's blessing, not a dam or an obstruction to it. Don't be a withholder of other people's blessings. God has made you a dispenser of God's blessings, not a depositary of them.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter