Blessed For A Purpose IV: The Purpose of Blessing
Exodus 36:4-7
4 So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work 5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.” 6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.
NIV
God’s ultimate purpose in blessing us with blessings is so that we will be equipped with what we need to do His will while we are here and while there is still time.
This is a big ministry – and big ministries require big resources and support! God understands this and therefore, He provides for His people in big ways.
He gives us enough to have abundance flowing in our lives. The reason abundance is not flowing in most of our lives is because we have mismanaged the blessings God has given.
First, we find that God’s purpose all along for blessing the people with the Egyptian gold and silver was to give them what they needed in preparation for the building of His sanctuary.
This is what we need to understand about what God did here:
He did not bless them with what they wanted, but with what He needed in order to establish a sanctuary of worship to His glory. God requires the best of everything; therefore, when He equips us with what we need to do His work, He always gives us His best – and plenty of it!
God always give us His best so that we have everything we need to produce acceptable offerings and service to glorify His name. But we take what God gives us and use it primarily for ourselves – then when God needs us to demonstrate His nature of blessing by being a blessing to someone else, we don’t have anything to give because we have wasted fulfilling the desires of our own flesh.
This is why God does not allow many of us to prosper, because we do not manage properly, the blessings that He has given us in the past. As a result, He does not give us anything else in abundance because He knows we will blow it on the desires of our own flesh, rather than being a blessing to bring honor to His name!
Now, when God starts holding back, then we feel like life is dealing us a bad hand, and then we will do just about anything to get what we want – even at the expense of others – including God!
James 4:1-3
4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
KJV
God does not want to hold back on you, He want to pour out His best into your life; but you must be willing to pour back into God’s ministry and into the lives of His people!
You cannot be blessed if you are not willing to be a blessing!
God asked Israel to bring a free-will offering to help build His sanctuary:
Ex 35:4-6
4 And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD commanded, saying, 5 Take ye from among you an offering unto the LORD: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the LORD; gold, and silver, and brass, 6 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen,
KJV
They gave so much, that they had to be told to stop giving because they were bringing in too much! The is the heart of a blesser. The more they had, the more they wanted to give – and they did just that!
Today, Christians, who are supposed to be in the image of Jesus Christ, look nothing like God because God is a blesser of others and we just want to bless ourselves!
If you really want to be blessed you will become a blesser. If you really want to receive from God, then you will become a giver to His work. If you really want to live blessed you will start being a blessing.
God gave us His best when He gave us Jesus – what are we willing to give in return?
