Mensa Otabil - God's Blessing

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Welcome to day number 25 of our 40 days of power. Genesis 12:2 and 3. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you. I’ll curse him who curses you, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

This is one of the most profound blessings that God declared to a human being. The person that God is speaking to is Abraham. This is after God had taken Abraham from his homeland to form a new family with him, which would lead eventually to the redemption of mankind. And God speaks to Abraham, who is a stranger working among strangers, and guarantees him all these promises. So Abraham’s calling necessitated these promises of God. But these promises are not only to Abraham but also to those whose faith in God has made them, according to the Bible, children of Abraham. So if a person is born again, and Christ is in their heart, they are a child of Abraham by faith and partakers of these blessings.

So what did God say to Abraham? First, he says, «I will bless you.» That means that I will treat you favorably. In our modern terms, you would say I’ll be nice to you. So God says, «I’m going to bless you. I’m going to empower you. I’m going to treat you well.» So that’s the first thing God says to Abraham: the promise of treating us well, of favoring us. Then the second thing God says to Abraham is, «I will make you a great nation.»

Now, this is to a man who is married but has no child. And God is speaking this marvelous promise to him: «I will make you; you won’t make yourself. I will make you a great nation.» I don’t know where you are in your life, but you can appropriate this blessing for yourself. Although there’s no sign to show that you can become something great, God says, «I will make you a great nation.» And Abraham eventually became the father of many nations. So many nations came out of Abraham, both natural descendants and spiritual descendants. God honored his promise.

Then he says, «I will make your name great.» Each one of us desires that our name will be associated with something good, something positive, that people remember our name and think of us nicely. And God says, «That’s what I’m going to do to you, Abraham. I’ll make your name great.» Isn’t it amazing? Thousands of years after Abraham has come and gone, we’re still talking about Abraham. Why? God fulfilled his promise and made his name great. May God make your name great also.

And then God says, «I will make you a blessing.» I will make you a blessing. In other words, out of what I poured into you, you are also going to pour out to other people. And Abraham became a blessing to people materially, but he has been a blessing to the entire world spiritually. He has become a blessing. When God favors us, he makes us an addition, a positive, a benefit to the world, and not a negative. God promises that he will make you a blessing. I pray that your life and your activities on earth will be a blessing to humanity. And then God gives him two very powerful assurances for his safety. He says, «I’ll bless those who bless you.» In other words, if people treat you well, it’s for their good.

And then he says, «I’ll curse those who curse you.» In other words, if people treat you badly, it’s for their bad. So people better treat you well. People better smile at you. People better handle you with care because God’s blessing comes upon them if they treat you well. God’s anger comes if they don’t treat you well. This is a promise to Abraham directly, but it is the heritage of those who have come to faith in Christ Jesus. Finally, he says, «In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.»

There’s something that God starts with Abraham that is going to touch every nation of the world. If you look at it, God fulfilled all these blessings in the lifetime of Abraham. But the good thing is that even after Abraham had died, God continues to fulfill his promises because he is a faithful God. May he fulfill his promise towards you.

Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, you are my provider. I receive your blessing of favor and increase in every area of my life in Jesus' name. Amen. And amen.»