Financial Blessing 2

Young's Literal Genesis 1:28, “And God blesseth them, and God saith to them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that is creeping upon the earth.”
(Contemporary Version, “God gave them his blessing and said: Have a lot of children! Fill the earth with people and bring it under your control. Rule over the fish in the ocean, the birds in the sky, and every animal on the earth.”

MLB Genesis 9:1, “GOD BLESSED Noah and his sons and told them: Be fruitful, multiply and populate the earth”.

MLB Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly spheres through Christ,”

1.What Does It Mean To Be Blessed?
3106. makariÂzw~.
From G3107 = makaÉrioj~. To beatify, i.e. pronounce (or esteem) fortunate. Call blessed, count happy.
1293. HKÆRFbé~. From H1288 = ‚éRAbÆ~. Benediction; by implication
prosperity. Blessing, liberal, pool, present.

•But where man is in mind, to be blessed it is used in the sense of “happy” or “favored,”
•MLB Genesis 24:35, “and the LORD has richly blessed my master; he has become great. He has given him flocks, and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, camels and donkeys.”
•In the above scripture, blessings meant riches
•So, to be blessed among other things means: to be happy, prosperous, successful, healthy, rich, have enough or more than enough.
•To be blessed does not mean to be poor, sick, miserable, troubled, etc

2.How To Be A Blessing?
•KJV-R (Webster) Genesis 12:2, “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: KJV-R (Webster) Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
•Contemporary Version Genesis 12v1-3, “The LORD said to Abram: Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others. I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. Everyone on earth will be blessed because of you.”
•Genesis 39v 1“The Ishmaelites took Joseph to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, the king's [a] official in charge of the palace guard. 2-3So Joseph lived in the home of Potiphar, his Egyptian owner. Soon Potiphar realized that the LORD was helping Joseph to be successful in whatever he did. 4Potiphar liked Joseph and made him his personal assistant, putting him in charge of his house and all of his property. 5Because of Joseph, the LORD began to bless Potiphar's family and fields. 6Potiphar left everything up to Joseph, and with Joseph there, the only decision he had to make was what he wanted to eat.”
•Genesis 30 25After Joseph was born, Jacob said to Laban, "Release me from our agreement [i] and let me return to my own country. 26You know how hard I've worked for you, so let me take my wives and children and leave." 27-28But Laban told him, "If you really are my friend, stay on, and I'll pay whatever you ask. I'm sure [j] the LORD has blessed me because of you." 29Jacob answered: You've seen how hard I've worked for you, and you know how your flocks and herds have grown under my care. 30You didn't have much before I came, but the LORD has blessed everything I have ever done for you. Now it's time for me to start looking out for my own family.
•Your employer should be blessed because of your working for them
•Your family should be blessed for having you part of them
•Your friends should be blessed for having you
•Are you a blessing to others? Do you add value to others or do you always drain others?
•Acts 20v35, “By everything I did, I showed how you should work to help everyone who is weak. Remember that our Lord Jesus said, "More blessings come from giving than from receiving."
•Exercise giving, start from where you are. Serve other people. Give from the little you have. It means a great deal to somebody when you give to them and meet their need.
•Give your time
•Help others even by serving at their occasions e.g. weddings, funeral, etc
•Be resourceful as a person, contribute to the success or benefit of others, be concerned about your being of help to others more what you get from them.
•Giving somebody money for bus fare may be a great blessing to them if they are in need
•I have purposed in my heart that I will be helpful to others as long as it is my power to.
•Prov 22:9 He who has a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.
•Prov 19:6 Many will entreat the favor of a liberal man, and every man is a friend to him who gives gifts.
•I have been wakened up in the night, 1000, 1100, 0000 to help people with transport. Though at times it would be painful, I have done it with satisfaction knowing that I have been a blessing to somebody.
•I have given people free transport, even sinners have said to me “God bless you.”
•It is good for people to praise God because of your service to them.
•I always get satisfaction when I help and or give than when I receive from others
•I have employed or facilitated employment for a number of people, and that gives me joy.
•What is it that you have done for others? Have you been of any value to other people?
•At the same time, it has pained to see a need and fail to do something about it, see somebody in need and not have resources to help!
•My prayer and goal in life is to be resourceful enough that any need I see in people, I be able to meet.
•As an example, I desire to have different type of cars, sedans, trucks, buses, etc so that when somebody is getting married I be able to help, when somebody wants to carry something, I be able to help, when people need transport to somewhere, I be able to help.


4.Changing Your Attitude

•There is need to walk in or exercise excellency in all you do to walk in financial blessing.
•Also to walk in financial blessing, you need to have the right attitude.
•For Abraham, God asked him to live his relatives to another land
•For Israelites, it took time (40 years) for the Egyptian attitude to depart out of them
•Sometimes you might need to change your company to develop a right attitude.
•The people that you hang around with, are they helping you to develop a right attitude towards life?
•1Corinthinas 15v33, company you keep will affect your attitude and in the long run your destiny. “Do not be so deceived {and} misled! Evil companionships (communion, associations) corrupt {and} deprave good manners {and} morals {and} character”
•I am not saying do not associate with people but do not associate with people to the extent that they negatively influence your attitude.
•I have seen and listened to negative people, to them nothing is good, they are always complaining!
•I normally keep quite when in the presence of such!
•Proverbs 13v20, those that you keep company with will influence your thinking and attitude whether for bad or for good.
•Some people have a negative attitude towards success, prosperity, excellence and achievement. They believe that you need not be outstanding. Just be moderate and not go too far. Be like the rest.
•So, at times you need to drop your friends or people you associate with if you are to succeed.
•Abraham had to separate with Lot.
•Some believe that being mediocre is being humble and cool.
•I believe in success, prosperity, excellence and achieving in life whether spiritually or naturally.
•I believe in doing things with the best of my ability, I do not like being associated with failure and things that are not orderly.
•In your finances, work, education, etc have the right attitude.
•Many people who are poor or who lack in life are so because of their attitude.
•Many people who do not have much have a wrong attitude towards those who are successful, they say they are proud, “bayazenzisa”. That attitude will keep you poor.
•If somebody is successful, do not hate them, ask how they are doing it. Do not be covetous; you have the chance of you succeeding just like them.
•Have the right attitude towards money, do not worship riches but riches are good if you have a right attitudes towards them.
•Have the right attitude towards giving to the church, if you think giving to the church is making pastors rich, you will not give and you will remain poor.
•Normally, the natural disabilities and impairments cannot be able to deter you from being successful than wrong attitude. There a lot of people with disabilities that are achieving great things that able bodied people.

5. SEIZE EVERY OPORTUNITY

•If we are to progress in life and achieve, we must seize or utilize every opportunity that we get
•Some opportunities that we miss or neglect may not come anymore
•In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, Abraham told the rich man that he (the rich man) lost his opportunity for salvation when he was on earth and could not get another. The rich man begged for Lazarus to go back to earth and preach to his brothers, Abraham said the brothers should use the opportunity presented by Moses and the prophets, if they fail to use it, they too will die.
•So, we need to be careful and not miss or the opportunities that God gives us, they may not come again
•Esau missed his opportunity and sold his birth right, he tried in vain to regain it again, but could not, he had lost his chance!
•Utilize every opportunity and not live to regret tomorrow

Examples Of Opportunities

1)Salvation Opportunity
•Some miss the opportunity for salvation and end up in eternal death
•You get the chance of accepting Christ, you hear the gospel but you keep procrastinating until you die in sin!
•Some accept Christ but later get caught in other silly things and lose their salvation and lose opportunity for eternal life
2)Education / Academic Opportunity
•Some lose opportunity for excelling in their education
•You have somebody taking care of you, paying for all your school needs and you play with that chance.
•When you are / were at school, did you put enough effort to study and being serious? Are you not regretting today that you lost opportunity to excel when you were at school?
•Some realize when it is late that they missed a good opportunity to excel at school but now they have no resources to correct the mistake
•Some dropped out of school when they were pregnant and could not write exams, later when things are bitter in life, they regret
3)Employment Opportunity
•Have you lost opportunity for employment?
•Some lose opportunity by being late, not adequately preparing for interviews, etc
4)Business Opportunity
•Have you lost opportunity for making money or business deal?
5)Giving Opportunity
•Some lose opportunity for giving
•Sometimes God can instruct you to give something having earmarked you for a blessing or reward, if you do not obey, you lose the blessing
6)Ministry / Service Opportunity
•Some miss the call of God for service for simple small things, you miss your destiny in serving God by disobedience
•Saul lost the opportunity to be a king by simple disobeying God’s instruction in war
•You may lose your opportunity by arrogance, some run to ministry prematurely and lose their opportunity
7)Marriage Opportunity
•Some lose the opportunity of keeping themselves virgins till marriage
•You cannot afford to lose your virginity and a testimony in marriage for sleeping for 5 minutes with a man/ woman! You can lose the opportunity for a happy good marriage just for failing to control yourself. Some lose their virginity just months, weeks or days before their marriage!
•Some miss opportunity for a good marriage life by being promiscuous!
•Some disobey God, get married to a wrong partner and die prematurely


6.CONCLUSION

•Ecclesiastes 9v10 talks of doing everything with excellence, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol (the place of the dead), where you are going”
•In the creating, God did everything good, so, whatever you do, do it good!
•Jesus said being faithful in little things opens room for promotion or greater things, Luke 16v10-12, “He who is faithful in a very little [thing] is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest {and} unjust in a very little [thing] is dishonest {and} unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the [case of] unrighteous mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions), who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not proved faithful in that which belongs to another [whether God or man], who will give you that which is your own [that is, the true riches]?”
•God promised to bless everything we do or the work of our hands
•Let us learn to start where we are. Do not despise the days of small beginnings, (give my own testimony/example of promotion from where I started.)
•You have a God ordained destiny / purpose, it is up to you to discover & purpose that.
•Do not pursue somebody’s purpose, seek yours
•To get to your financial blessing and or destiny, you may have to go through some situations, many fail the test and never live to enjoy the life that God has for them!
•Will you pass the test? Will you life the life God has for you? Will you utilize the potential and capacity that God gave you?