“…that the blessing of Abraham”. I thought the blessing of Abraham was some land. No, no, no - that's just a prophetic picture. The land was a gift to be possessed.
Now there's another gift to be possessed. He is called the Holy Spirit, and we are to take hold of this gift that God has given us, that we might receive the blessing of Abraham, even the promise of the Spirit.
So what did Abraham get? He got the power of the Holy Ghost on him - that's why he got all the other stuff. You look at all the land, and the silver, and the gold, and the riches and everything else - that's the outworking of something else.
That's just the tangibles in his life showing up, because he had blessing on his life. He was blessed! Are you a blessed person? Some are not sure - because we're living out of the old life before Christ, which was a life of struggle, and lack, and scarcity, and pain, and setbacks.
But the Bible says that when you come to Christ, and identify with Christ - one way you do it is you get baptised into Him, and when you're baptised, now I've got a new life, and it says: now I am blessed! I am blessed.
It doesn't say: I'm blessed if I pray. Yeah, that'll happen as well, but blessing is about what Jesus has positioned me for. I don't, and you don't, have to fight to be blessed. You are a blessed person. It’s time you started to say it: I am blessed - blessed in the morning, blessed in the evening, I am blessed! When I fall over, I'm blessed, because God will pick me up. Make a mistake - I'm blessed, because I'm already forgiven!
You see you've got to think like that. It's a way of seeing your new life. If you don't see it that way, you live out of the old: I'm still a mess. Pray for me, deliver me, do something to me. But when I declare: I AM BLESSED! I'm repositioned for something great.
Now I want you to have a look with me in Ephesians 1. Let's get excited about the Holy Ghost. I am excited about the Spirit of God! Living years in religion, condemned, ashamed, beaten up - oh! Then the Holy Ghost oh-ho-ho! I wouldn't go back to that other stuff. Dear me!
Ephesians 1:13-14 – “In Him you trusted (Jesus Christ), after you heard the word of truth, and that was the gospel of your salvation”. He's saying: you heard the gospel, and then you trusted in Jesus.
He said – “…in whom, after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”
After you responded to Christ, something was put on you. In Acts 19, Paul come to the church and said: “I know you believe, and you've been baptised - did you get the Holy Ghost”? And they said: “no, we didn't even know about the Holy Ghost”. He said: “well watch this, and he laid hands on them, prayed, they were filled with the Holy Ghost, began to speak in tongues”.
They were sealed with the Spirit of promise. That word ‘seal’ - he said: you are sealed. When you come to Christ, you are sealed. In those days they used a signet ring, or they had an engraving, and it was the seal of ownership. Tey would get some wax, put it on it, and then stamp the seal on it; then everyone who saw that stamp would know who owns it.
You are sealed, or stamped, with a mark - that's why the demonic world knows exactly who you are. You can't hide it, because there's a mark on you - you are marked! People all get wound up about being marked with the Beast, but I'm mostly preoccupied with being marked with the mark of God - on my life, in my mind, and in my works.