Already Blessed

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 1:3

Notice the terminology used in this Scripture: “who has (past tense) blessed us.” It’s already done. God has already blessed you. By grace, He has already provided everything that you will ever need.

If you need to be healed, you don’t need God to heal you. The Lord knew you would need healing, and He has already provided it. You don’t have to pray and ask God to heal you. What you need to do is learn how to receive the healing that has already been provided. That’s huge!

You might be wondering, “what’s the difference?” There’s a big difference. To think that you need to go and get God to do something that he hasn’t yet done has an element of doubt in it, because you don’t know whether He will act on your behalf or not. But how can you doubt that God will do what He’s already done? If He’s already provided it by grace (and in Christ, He has), then you just need to believe and receive it by faith.

Some people will say, “Oh, I believe God’s going to heal me.” That sounds good, but actually it’s unbelief. The Bible says, “By whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). According to that Scripture, it’s not in the future that you’re going to be healed; it’s in the past that you WERE healed. Jesus Christ bore our stripes on his body on the cross. God provided for your healing 2000 years ago. It was then that He healed you. That’s why this verse says you were healed. You don’t need God to heal you. You just need to learn how to receive what has already been provided.

Can Do vs. Has Done
It’s much easier to release something that you’ve already got than it is to go get something that you don’t yet have. This is a major shift of mindset! In Christ, God has already done it!

We’re looking at how to receive God’s best – not how to convince God to give you His best.

Consider how the Apostle Paul prayed: “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,  do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.  (Ephesians 1:15 – 17)

Notice that he didn’t pray, “oh God, please move!”  I’ve been traveling and ministering for almost 50 years and throughout that time, I’ve been to hundreds, possibly thousands, of churches. I’ve heard people pray and beg God for things over and over again. A typical prayer would be, “Oh God, please move. Oh Lord, pour out Your power!”

If you were to write a prayer today for believers 2000 years in the future, how would you pray? What kind of prayer would you record? Let me guess: It would be something along the lines of, “Oh God, send revival. Touch these people. Pour out Your Spirit and move!” It would be, “Oh Lord, do something new. Stretch forth Your hand and do a new thing!”

Here we are now, 2000 years later, reading Paul’s prayer. Let’s look at how the Holy Spirit inspired him to pray. “God, open up their eyes to what You’ve already done.” Wow! This is totally different than the way most Christians function today. Most Christians believe God can do anything but that he has done nothing. Seeing God work is all dependent upon our praying, asking, and begging. We think that if we do everything just right, God might move.

God Anticipated
God anticipated every problem that you or anybody else in the entire human race would ever have. Through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, He dealt with every problem that could ever happen – past, present, and future. It’s taken care of. The Lord is now seated at the Father’s right hand. Jesus is not healing, saving, and delivering people; He’s already done it. His power has already been released.

Now it’s up to you to receive what He’s done by putting faith in what is already provided, not in what God “can” do. Normally when I share this truth in a meeting, half or more of the audience just stares back at me with that “deer– in–the-headlights” look. Perhaps you need to read that over again, more slowly and prayerfully. Holy Spirit, please grant my beloved reader revelation knowledge concerning this truth.

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that
you may know what is the hope of his calling. (Ephesians 1:18)

It’s not about your calling; it’s His calling. Jesus has already been called and He’s already provided everything. He paid the price for everything on the cross, and He has the favor of God now. We are just riding on His coattails. As born–again believers, we have favor with God because of what Jesus did, not because of what we do. It’s about His calling, His anointing, His power, and His blessing that’s on our lives.

Paul was praying that your eyes would be opened to understand and see “what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). God’s glory isn’t out there in heaven. We often sing songs with words like, “when we all get to heaven, what a day that will be!” But did you know that it will bankrupt heaven to have to replace what we already have on the inside of us right now? The riches of the glory of His inheritance is in us. The glory of God is in us!

Like a Yo–Yo
Some people want to see a “glory cloud.” Look on the inside! If you can’t see it, it’s because you’re walking by sight and not by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7). The truth is, you’ve got the glory of God.

You have been called “to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 2:14). That’s not something that’s going to happen in heaven. In heaven, you’ll get a body that will reflect His glory, but right now you have the glory of God on the inside of you. Paul prayed that your eyes would be open to what you’ve already got (Ephesians 1:18)!

“And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the
working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead
and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power
and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that
which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things
to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Paul prayed that you would see the exceeding greatness of His power “to usward who believe” – the same power God used when He raised Christ from the dead. The power that it took to raise Jesus from the dead is greater than your hangnail, greater than your cold, greater than your flu, and greater than your financial, marital, and emotional problems. He is greater! Yet again, most Christians believe that God has power, but they don’t believe that he’s done anything with it. They think they have to beg Him and somehow get Him to release His power. Ephesians 1:19–20 makes it clear that you already have the same power on the inside of you that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

The only reason we accept this substandard living is because we don’t believe that God has already done it. We believe that, somehow or another, all of the glory and blessings of God are reserved for heaven, and in this life we just have to hang on and struggle through. We have to be sick, poor, and up and down like a yo-yo. Religion teaches that although God may send us up on a mountain top, it’s in the valleys where we’ll grow. They think we’re supposed to be up and down continually.

Consistent
John the Baptist, referring to Isaiah’s prophecy, declared that “every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth” (Luke 3:5, see also Isaiah 40:4). This means that there should be increasingly smooth sailing. We ought to be consistent.

We shouldn’t be so up and down. There ought to be consistency. We should be the same all the time, because if we’re walking with Jesus, He’s “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). If we’re up sometimes and down other times, it’s because sometimes we’re trusting in Jesus and other times were walking in our own flesh. We ought to be supernaturally natural. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is in us at all times (Ephesians 1:19 – 20). It never fluctuates.

You Don’t Know
You need to find out who you are and what you have in Christ. Most Christians don’t live as if they have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead on the inside of them because they can’t feel it. Looking in the mirror, it doesn’t appear like they have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. There aren’t goosebumps going up and down their spines. They don’t feel anything. And since they can’t feel anything, they just don’t believe that God has done anything.

But the truth is, Paul prayed that our eyes would be open to see that we already have the same power that raised Christ from the dead. We aren’t praying to get it. We’ve already got it (Ephesians 1:19 – 20)!

God wants to bless us with His best. In Christ, He’s provided everything we could ever need. It’s not up to God whether or not we walk in it; it’s up to us. But we’ve settled for less than God’s best. We don’t know who we are in the spirit and we don’t understand our identity in Christ. I’m not only human. I’m not just a man. One third of me is wall–to–wall Holy Ghost. I should expect to see something different than a person who doesn’t know God.

You could stand the average Christian up next to an unbeliever and find that they have the same fears, the same financial problems, the same struggles as one another. Even before the full impact of the current recession, before any visible effects were seen, many Christians started planning on failure. They began expecting and anticipating problems. They acted just like people who don’t know God, who don’t have a covenant that says, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). This should not be.

I’m not saying this to condemn you. I’m trying to open your eyes and help you start believing for more. Do you have the same fears as someone who doesn’t know God? When they say, “the flu season is hitting,” are you afraid? If so, something is wrong with this picture. You’re alive, they are dead (spiritually). You’ve got the same power inside you that raised Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19 – 20). Yet in many ways, you’re living just like a person who doesn’t know the Lord. That’s wrong. It’s not because God hasn’t given. It’s because you don’t know what you have.

Start Praising Him!
We’re sitting here begging God to do what He’s already done. How does he respond to that? Let’s say that I gave you my Bible, and it’s sitting on your lap right now. How do you think I’d respond if you asked me, “Andrew, please pass me your Bible? Would you please hand it to me so I can look at it?” How do you respond to someone who’s asking you to do something you’ve already done? I already gave you my Bible. It is right there on your lap. I’d probably just look at you like your elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor. I’d wonder, what’s wrong with you? Why are you asking me to give you something that you’ve already got? This is probably similar to the reaction you’re getting when you pray.

Your praying, “Oh God, please heal me.” If God could be confused, I think He would be. I can just imagine Him looking over at Jesus and saying, “Didn’t You tell them that by Your stripes they were healed (1 Peter 2:24)? Why are they asking Me to heal them? Didn’t you tell them that they are blessed with all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3), that You became poor so that through Your poverty they could be made rich (2 Corinthians 8:9)? Didn’t you tell them that I would supply all of their needs according to My riches in glory – not according to the economy of their country (Philippians 4:19)? Didn’t You tell them that?  Why are they panicking because there’s a recession? Why are they anxious, fearful, and worried?” It’s because we don’t believe that God has already done it. We are thinking that it’s up to God to give and not up to us to receive.

It’s our receivers that are messed up, not God’s transmitter!

Great Analogy!
If you were watching television and all of the sudden the set turned off, the first thing you probably do was look to see if someone unplugged it. Then you’d troubleshoot and see if something was wrong with your set. You wouldn’t just get up and call the television station, asking, “Why did you quit broadcasting?” But that’s how we treat God. If we pray and don’t receive something immediately, we think, Lord, why didn’t you give it? It’s never God who doesn’t give; it’s us who quit receiving. Something’s wrong with our receivers – not God’s giver. He has already blessed us with all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). He has already broadcasted them to us, we just need to tune in our receivers and pray, “Oh Lord, help me to see and understand what You’ve already done!”

Believing that God has already done His part is 90% of the battle; then there are certain things that we must do. We need to quit doubting God and just believe, praying, “I know You’ve done it. If I’m not seeing the answer manifest, it’s not Your fault. You’ve already supplied. Thank You, Lord!”

Then we need to start praising God in faith, saying, “I don’t know why I can’t see it, but I know you’re not the problem. I just want to praise You for being so faithful. Even though I’m sick and the doctor says I’m going to die, it’s not Your fault. You didn’t do this to me. Thank You for being a good God!”

Just praise and thank Him and you’ll get out of that fear and worry and griping and complaining. Just stop murmuring and doubting God and start praising Him. I’ve seen many people receive healing through aggressively acknowledging by their thanks and praise, what the Lord has already done. You can too!