It is always good to remember that attention always precedes desire. When we delight ourselves in God's Word, giving it the attention it deserves, our desire for the things of God begins to increase. Feeding our spirits with the Word, and delighting in its truth and hope, increases our understanding of Who God is to us, His marvellous ways and His promises concerning us.
Kenneth Copeland writes, "God's WORD will take you from living outside that BLESSING - where storms, disasters and hard times tear up and destroy things, to living inside it, appropriating THE BLESSING in your own life and replenishing the earth around you with it" (The Blessing of the Lord Makes Rich and Adds No Sorrow with It).
Here is how the BLESSING goes to work! While we are filling our hearts and minds with the truth of God's Word, by His Spirit that indwells us, at the very same time, His presence encamps around us! Psalm 34:7, says, "The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him [who revere and worship Him with awe] and each of them He delivers. O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him."
I recently read a friend's blog on this very scripture. That word encamp is a military term meaning to settle. So, because we choose to settle into the Word of God, with a heart of love and respect for Him, He surrounds us, with His fortress of protection and peace! This, my dear friend, is part of the BLESSING! We are placed in the centre of His settlement, the safest place there is! You see, while we are centred on the Word of God, the enemy cannot infiltrate our minds with thoughts or fear or discouragement or failure! Psalms 32:7 says that He becomes our hiding place and surrounds us with songs of deliverance! That's what happens when we are completely surrounded by the Lord!
Now, watch how this works: Through the day, while we are going about our areas of responsibility, because we have invested our time in God's Word, it is first and foremost on our minds and in our hearts. So we find ourselves constantly meditating on its wisdom and perspective, which begins to influence the way we think, the words we speak, our attitudes and our actions. Do you want to know what the BLESSING is doing while this takes place? The Word of God says in Psalm 5:12, that the Lord surrounds us as a shield! But this shield isn't just a form of protection. The word says, "... as with a shield, the Lord surrounds us with goodwill - which is pleasure and favour!" (Amplified version).
The blessing of God goes to work as our minds are filled with the thoughts and purposes of Him, and from our time spent delighting in His Word, we begin to respond to circumstances from that state of mind. Our first response becomes God's response and when we stick to that response, the BLESSING 'works' to bring supernatural pleasure and favour every time.
What about the times we miss it, when our emotions and frustrations get the better of us and we don't respond from the wisdom of God's Word? Like Adam, do we forfeit the BLESSING too? Absolutely not! Jesus secured the BLESSING for us with His blood. It's ours to appropriate and enjoy. However, when we choose to not walk in it, it doesn't remove itself from us, we simply walk away from it. But there is nothing stopping us from realising our error, turning around, and walking straight back into it again! That's called repentance - it simply means to deliberately change our minds and go in a different direction from where we were heading. God's mercy has secured that freedom for us! And Psalm 32:10 says that God's mercy surrounds us too! So all we need to do is repent and direct our thoughts and attitudes right back to the Word of God again. That's the BLESSING!
So far we've learnt that in The BLESSING, the Lord Himself protectively encamps around us, His favour and goodness and mercy surround us, but that's not all! when we choose to make spending time in God's word a priority, and allow His wisdom to influence and transform our lives, Psalms 125:2 says that as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people! Just like those mountains, God Himself is an ever present, immovable strength and fortress around our lives. He is our protector, our provider, our comfort and our strength!
Renewing our minds to the Word of God is not a retreat from our problems or an escape from reality! It's choosing to place ourselves in a state of mind where we perceive our circumstance as God does, and respond to them from a perspective of faith and victory, rather than hopelessness and defeat. It's being aware of the supernatural BLESSING we have received from being in Him, more than being aware of the limited, natural circumstances that surround us.
Once we have decided to receive God's gift of love and have chosen to make spending time in His Word a priority, so that our hearts and minds are in tune with His ways - He is completely and intricately involved in our journey through life. His BLESSING empowers us in all we do and enables us to influence the world around us with His power. That's the greatest gift we could ever dream of, a life filled and overflowing in the grace of His BLESSING!
