A GREAT BLESSING

Eltham Baptist Church 16th Sept 2012

No. 389

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 5:23

Have you ever wanted to invoke a blessing upon someone, but you're not quite sure what to say? So often we glibly proclaim something like, 'be blessed' or 'blessings upon you,' but maybe it's only to impress them or just sound religious, but do we really mean it? The truth is we aren't sure what to say and don't mix any faith with our words, which can cause them to end up powerless. The writer to the Hebrews said that mixing faith with words causes them to have greater power.
"For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." Hebrews 4:2

If the gospel didn't work for those who heard the word because they didn't mix faith with them, then it would also apply for those who spoke the word without any faith. Our faith will not stretch beyond where the will of God is known, so it's important to read the word and know what we are talking about when we speak. In ancient times the Patriarchs used to speak a blessing upon their children and nothing could stop the blessing once it was given. It says in the Book of Numbers that the word of God when spoken in faith can't even be reversed by the giver, because God is backing it up. Barak couldn't get Balim to reverse what he'd prophesied over Israel.
"I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it." Numbers 23:20

We also have the account of Esau and Jacob. Isaac pronounced the first born blessing upon Jacob who had obtained it by deceit and when Esau wanted his father to reverse it and give it to him instead, Isaac said that he couldn't change it as it had already been given to Jacob. It's a very intriguing story.
"When Esau heard his fathers words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, Bless me me too, my father! But he said, Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing. Esau said, Isnt he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now hes taken my blessing! Then he asked, Havent you reserved any blessing for me? Isaac answered Esau, I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son? Esau said to his father, Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father! Then Esau wept aloud. Genesis 27:34-38

I have found a blessing in the Book of Thessalonians that covers all three areas of our lives, Spirit Soul and Body. Notice how it puts Spirit first and Body last. Even today I still find myself saying Body, Soul and Spirit. The trouble is we are more aware of our Bodies than our Spirit, but God has it the other way around and we need to reverse this too. We need to be more Spirit conscious if we want to walk in victory. Paul told the Corinthian Church.
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

The Spirit realm is where all the action and power is and can over write the physical realm. Paul knew this and called unseen things into being over the seen. Romans 4:17
"As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were."

When the Angel met Gideon hiding in the Wine Press he said to him, "You mighty man of Valour," even though Gideon he was afraid and cringing away from the enemy. The Angel saw what this man was in the Spirit and called it forth. He called it into being. Let's look at this blessing in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 in more detail. It is very clear in this passage that the blessing is for wholeness, wellness, and health - the complete make-up of man, spiritual, mental, and physical. Paul starts by saying:
"And the God of Peace sanctify you wholly."

The God of Peace is the God of Shalom. "Peace" is the word Shalom in Hebrew, which speaks of total Well being, healing, wholeness: and yes prosperity and it carries the implication of nothing missing, nothing broken. Shalom is a word that is so far, beyond our modern understanding of

what real peace is. We are asking the God of health and prosperity to bless a person in this verse. To sanctify them means to set them apart, so we see that the God of prosperity and health wants to set them apart for a blessing. Not just a 'part' blessing but wholly, completely. This word peace or 'shalom' is also used in,
Jeremiah 29:11 "For, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."

In this verse the word perfect peace reads 'shalom - shalom'. The peace that comes is realised by the wholeness that is achieved. Let's look at the rest of this verse in 1 Thessalonians.
"and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Paul asks that we be blessed in all of our Spirit, Soul and Body. He wants all that we are spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically to be blessed. In other words he wants us to be operating on all cylinders and yes this includes the healing of our bodies. The word 'blameless' means 'sound, intact and whole'. Paul wants us to be kept healed and whole right up until the time Jesus' returns. Jesus hasn't come back yet so he still wants us to experience this soundness and wholeness. We need to realise that in Paul's day they were expecting Jesus to come back in their lifetime. Christians through the ages have also expected the same, but especially in our day with so much now fulfilled. God has not given any specifics as to His Son's Return, for He wants us always to be watchful and ready. If He gave a specific date then our fallen human natures would sin right up until the 11th hour and then change. There have been those through the ages who have thought they had the hour of His return sorted, but were wrong.
1000: on Jan 1st: Many Christians in Europe had predicted the end of the world on this date. Christian armies waged war against some of the Pagan countries in Northern Europe to convert them all to Christianity, by force if necessary, before Christ returned in the year 1000. 1346: and later: The black plague spread across Europe, killing one third of the population. This was seen as the prelude to an immediate end of the world. 1524: Many astrologers predicted the imminent end of the world due to a worldwide flood. They obviously had not read the Genesis story of the rainbow. 1669: The Old Believers in Russia believed that the end of the world would occur in this year. 20 thousand burned themselves to death between 1669 and 1690 to protect themselves from the Antichrist. 1835: Joseph Smith the founder of the Mormon Church said: " the Son of Man will come in the clouds of heaven when I am eighty-five years old." Smith would have reached the age of 85 during 1890. Unfortunately, by that year, Smith had been dead for almost a half century. 1850: Ellen White, founder of the Seven Day Adventists movement, made many predictions of the timing of the end of the world and they all failed. 1914: was one of the more important estimates of the start of the war of Armageddon by the Jehovah's Witnesses. When 1914 passed, they changed their prediction and this year then became the year that Jesus invisibly began His rule. 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975 and 1994, etc. were other dates that the Watchtower Society (WTS) or its members predicted as to the return of Christ. 1967: During the six day war, the Israeli army captured all of Jerusalem, suggesting to many fundamentalist Christians that the rapture was at hand. That didn't happen, but the event is still considered a major element of date setting by premillennialists to this day. 1987 to 2000: Lester Sumrall, in his 1987 book "I Predict 2000 AD" predicted that Jerusalem would be the richest city on Earth, that the Common Market would rule Europe, and that there would be a nuclear war involving Russia and perhaps the U.S. Also, he prophesized that the greatest Christian revival in the history of the church would happen: all during the last 13 years of the 20th century. 1988: Hal Lindsey had predicted in his book "The Late, Great Planet Earth" that the Rapture was coming in 1988 - one generation or 40 years after the creation of the state of Israel. This failed prophecy did not appear to damage his reputation and he went on to write over a dozen more books, most of them on prophecy, that continue to enrich him to this day. 1988-OCT-11: NASA scientist Edgar Wisenant self published his book "88 Reasons why the Rapture will Occur in 1988," which sold millions of copies world-wide. If you can't believe a NASA scientist, who can you believe? 1993: Benny Hinn, predicted that the rapture would come in 1993. 2000: Jan 1: Thomas Chase predicted that the Y2K bug would cause a worldwide electrical failure, trigger a world economic depression, and bring on the Antichrist. Nothing a little software patch won't take care of, however.

This blessing in 1 Thessalonians 5 will apply right up until Christ's return and no one knows the hour when that will be. Mark 13:32 http://hottersermons1.blogspot.com