There are many spiritual principles at work all around us that are on full display week in and week out. Yet the world is completely blind to them because they do not understand things of a spiritual nature. Take for instance the fact that the rich seem to find it fairly easy to get richer, and the poor find it very difficult to pull themselves out of their state. The world looks at this situation and says, “You need to have money to make money.” People hear that statement and innately know it has a measure of truth to it. Not of course that you can’t make money if you have none; That is what labor is all about – the selling of a service in exchange for something of value (money). You can make money without having it first, and people do it all the time. Yet everyone knows that if you already have money, it is much easier to make more money. Money begets money, so to speak. That is not a spiritual principle of itself. It is the twisted reality of a sin-soaked world that fails to understand we are blessed only that we might be a blessing. But there is a spiritual principle behind it: Those who have the blessing of God find they can walk ever deeper in God’s blessing. Conversely, those who do not have the blessing of God find only ever deeper misery and emptiness, no matter how much money they have. As Jesus said, “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”
This proves to be true in the life of every Christ-follower. The seed of the Gospel sprouts, the shoot appears and eventually a great harvest is had. Every true Christ-follower can testify that their walk with the Lord gets sweeter and sweeter as they go on. Not that there aren’t rough patches or dry seasons, but that over time they learn to live more and more in the presence of God – the very presence they’ve been in all along. As brother Lawrence encouraged his readers so long ago, we just need to practice His presence!
C. S. Lewis wrote, “If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry.”
The more we do that, the more we realize His presence and practice His presence, the more the peace of God, the joy of believing and the righteousness of the Holy Spirit fill every nook and cranny of our lives.
This is such a reality that Paul writes, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Paul is saying that if you know Christ, greater blessing is so assured you can legitimately say you already have EVERY worthwhile blessing! For is only a matter of time before you appropriate that which God has already reserved in heaven for you. You might not have it right now, but you will have it all, because Jesus is so committed to seeing you who have chosen Him brought into His blessing that the Scripture confidently proclaims, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
This is the destiny of the wise. They seek Him because He is the fount of every blessing!
You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me fresh oil.
King David (from Psalm 92:10)
APPLICATION: Worship
Glory to God, He is here with you, even in this moment. Recognize His presence, and worship Him!