“You did not choose Me but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” John 15:16.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
In the prior Life Lesson we did not complete the sentence that we began to explore. We considered the revelation in the choosing, appointing, and the responding but we did not look at the result and benefit. Never forget that when you are willing and obey you live in the place of divine provision.
“If you willing (abah (אָבָה): to be willing, to consent, to yield, to desire, to breathe after) and obey (shama (שָׁמַע): hear, listen with attention, obey) you will eat the best (tuv (טוּב): goodness, good things, prosperity, welfare, beauty, gladness) of the land.” Isaiah 1:19.
Jesus told you that you are chosen and appointed to go and bear fruit that remains (endures to all generations), if you respond and willingly (I love a cheerful giver) are doing this, whatever you ask Me in His Name I will give you. All is supplied because it is My project you are working with Me on.
If instead you fight against this and spend your time in idle pursuits that are not fruitful in goodness to the benefit of all, your life will be one of toil, sorrow, thorns, thistles, and sweat.
Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:17-19.
Adam changed from walking with Me to striving against Me and when he did this he stopped thriving. He never admitted he had done wrong but continually justified himself. I am only seeking to do good to you, for you, and with you, why do you push goodness away and choose evil? I am seeking to prosper you in fruitfulness so that you can be blessed and bless others by the work of your hands. I delight in the prosperity of My servants!
“I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” Isaiah 48:17-18.
Your shalom will be like a river overflowing its banks when you are following My lead and paying attention to My Words. It is the Kingdom flow through the portal of Heaven to earth which activates those who are living under an open Heaven.
Ezekiel listened to Me and obeyed all I said to him for his heart was totally turned to Me and not to the world. And though he lived in the world, he was not subject to the same troubles as those in the world. Yes, he lived among them at the exile to Babylon but he was not taken captive or oppressed, he freely traveled, primarily by angelic transport to and from those in captivity back to Jerusalem to the remnant. I opened the windows of Heaven for him as I do not for you.
Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. Ezekiel 1:1.
I told Abram of the blessing, and he received it and became Abraham, a father of many nations.
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3.
A life of toil is not My Will, the Blessing is My Will.
It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it. Proverbs 10:22.
And Abram obeyed.
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. Hebrews 11:8-12.
When you are doing My Will, you can ask whatever you will because you are in the center of the assignment for your life and that is all prepared in advance for the work that I have planned and ordained. That is your place of overflow.
“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the LORD of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts.
I taught Abraham the gospel ahead of time, Galatians 3:8, and I did it by showing him in a virtual way the sacrifice of My beloved Son. And when he walked that hill with his beloved son of the promise carrying the wood on his shoulders on which Abraham was to slay him as the sacrifice up that hill of Moriah, he walked the way of the Cross that My Son would walk with Me carrying the wood on which I would slay that sacrifice just as I foretold to Abraham. And Abraham told Isaac that I Myself would provide the Lamb for the sacrifice and I did. Genesis 22:8; John 1:29.
When Abraham and Isaac got to the top of the hill, Abraham laid out the wood and bound his son and laid him on that wood, but then I stopped him and provided a ram to sacrifice instead of Isaac. Isaac did not have an eternal life in the flesh to offer to pay the judgment against you and redeem you from the dust of death. But this act of Abraham in which he shared My heart for My beloved and only Son of the promise won him the reward of his line birthing the seed of the woman that would crush the serpent’s head, the Messiah, Savior and Lord. Abraham’s descendant would take down the gates of the enemy. The gates of hell shall not prevail against His body the church. And the reward? A double portion blessing of increase by which he would bless those who believed in Me.
“By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of His enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Genesis 22:16-18.
And that blessing and multiplication of increase did not stop with Abraham. It continues in the blessing of Abraham which Jesus won for you His family of faith:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on the wood of a cross,” in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:13-14.
And listen to My witness to you who are members of the Body of Christ and thus descendants of Abraham according to the promise:
For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.” And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:13-20.
I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply all you need and more when you too are walking with Me in joyful fruitful obedience knowing all I will do to you, for you, and with you is good.
How great is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who fear You, which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You before the sons of men! Psalm 31:19.
Twice now in this chapter of the gospel according to John I have told you that when you are attached to Me I will give you all you ask for so that you will bear much fruit and so show yourself My disciples.
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. John 15:7-8.
And then the words we are on in this Life Lesson:
“You did not choose Me but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” John 15:16.
You will notice it comes through the Name of Jesus. He is always about My business and you are His body, the Church.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9.
Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; as it is written, “He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.” Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. 2 Corinthians 9:6-11.
I am El Shaddai. Abraham understood that.
“I am God Almighty (El Shaddai); walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” Genesis 17:1-2.
I made Abraham rich in every way and he died at 175, fully satisfied and full of good days. Genesis 25:7-9, Genesis 13:2.
I love you. When you are on Kingdom business everything is paid for in advance. Just withdraw as needed. Ask and you shall receive.