Loaded With Blessings

How do you expect to receive the prayers you pray? When God measures out blessings, He will use your measuring stick; not His own.

Mark 4:23-24 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. (NKJ) Measure = Greek = the basis for determining what is enough (or not enough).

Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. (NKJ)

Two people can sit and listen to the same Scriptures being taught. For example: Both will hear 1 Peter 2:24 “… by whose stripes you are healed.” One will say with faith, “I believe that with all my heart and I don’t care how I feel or what anyone else says I’ll keep on believing that until I see it.” The other will say with skepticism, “I’ll give it a try, but doubt anything will happen. I won’t believe it until I see it.” One will be healed and the other will not. They both get exactly what they expect.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. (NKJ)

It is up to you and you alone to decide how much you will receive. There is a place of total rest for anyone who will choose the Word over the circumstances. But the Word will not profit you if it is not mixed with faith. Believe and receive or doubt and do without.

Hebrews 3:12-4:3 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice (His Word is His voice*), Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. 4:1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear (withdraw, flee from, avoid*) lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the Word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. (NKJ) (*emphases mine)

The question is often asked, “How are you doing?” The reply may be, “Pretty good under the circumstances!” What are you doing under there? You are an overcomer not an under-comer.

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. (NKJ)

Mark 5:34 (To the woman with the issue of blood*) And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” (NKJ) (*emphases mine)

Mark 10:52 (To blind Bartimaeus*) Then Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. (NKJ) (*emphases mine)

Matthew 15:28 (To a mother with a demon-possessed daughter*) Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (NKJ) (*emphases mine)

Matthew 8:13 (To a Roman soldier with a sick servant*) And Jesus said to the centurion, Go your way; and as you have believed, so be it done to you. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. (NKJ) (*emphases mine)

John 4:49-51 The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!” (NKJ)

None of these people would have received anything if they had not put faith in what they heard. What would cause us to think it will happen any other way for us today?

Luke 8:15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the Word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. (NKJ)

James 1:22-25 But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty (the Word*) and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (NKJ)

Hebrews 4:11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. (KJV)

Don’t allow the devil, the world, the circumstances, or anyone else decide the measure of blessing you will receive.