[Scripture]
Deuteronomy 28:1-7
“Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways.”
[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters,
Through Verses 1 and 2, we have looked into the three conditions for receiving blessing. They are as follows: first, God’s words and commandments; second, true obedience; and third, unchanging belief in the word. When you have these three conditions, you have prepared the vessel for blessing. Into your prepared vessel Father God will pour down blessing at the full measure.
The first blessing is written in Verse 3, which reads, “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.”It means blessing comes upon the land where you stay and the area in which you live.No matter how poor your area is in a fleshly sense, blessing will follow you wherever you are.Because God walks with you, your dwelling area will turn into the land of blessing regardless of physical surrounding and environment.
When I flew to India to hold a crusade, the most essential thing in the land was rain and it rained enough. During the Israeli Crusade, rain came down when I prayed for it. In the same way, if you arrive at this kind of dimension of spirit, blessing will come upon those who are with you too.
The following Verse 4 says, “Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.”This means blessing comes upon your children, your working place and business, and also upon all your possessions.
These same blessings came upon Abraham who God had said would become the fountain of blessing. His son Isaac who he got at the age of 100 received blessing and his descendants have received blessing generation after generation. In Genesis 26:4 God said to Abraham, “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” God promised to multiply Abraham’s descendants.
The reason for those blessings is written in the following Verse 5, which reads, “because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.” This is also recorded in Exodus 20:6 which reads, “but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” God keeps His promise.
I also received the same blessing from God. From the moment when I was called as servant of God, I cut off all fleshly passions and dedicated everything I had to the kingdom of God. I committed everything to God, including not only my time and money but also my children. What then has become of my three children?
They all grew up beautifully in the truth and now they are serving the Lord as pastors. They have never been forced to live the life. Because they had their own faith and earnest hope for Heaven, they came to dedicate themselves to God’s kingdom and souls and are faithfully performing their God-given duties as a pastor. They have been entrusted with grave duties in the church and paid a great contribution to God’s kingdom. They have also given great glory to God conducting crusades in many countries.
This is a real joy and title of thanksgiving to me who am aware of eternal Heaven and heavenly rewards. This does not apply only to me. Any of you who love God, keep His commandments and are faithful in His kingdom is able to see the same blessing coming upon your children.
Next, Verse 4 says that blessed is the produce of your ground. If you obey the word of God blessing will come upon your working place and business. In the world the things are said to be going worse. So many people say it’s too difficult to live rather than to say it is getting well.
But you brothers and sisters of this church have faith so that you do not either worry or grumble against the reality but believe and rely on the almighty God. Many of you say when you obeyed in a difficult situation your tithe increased and you came to have more conditions of thanksgiving and receive this and that blessings. Many give such testimonies.
Now as a pastor I don’t have any other job or business. But prior to being called as servant of God I had experienced almost forcible blessing from God. From the moment that I entered into spirit outstandingly different blessings came and in a few months I could pay off all the debts I had got into during my seven-yearsickness.
Since then I have been faithful only for the works of God as a pastor; therefore, God has taken care of myself and my family and given me as many overflowing blessings as were needed for relief and missionary works. God has been giving me so much blessing as to boldly say I am the one who received the most blessing from among a multitude of pastors all over the world. Of course, I offered most of the blessings for the kingdom of God and souls.
Next, Verse 4 says, “Blessed shall be the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.”The case of Jacob explains about it. Jacob went to his uncle Laban’s house empty-handed, and even after 20 years of service to his uncle he was still empty-handed. But when he left there according to God’s providence, he became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.
It was because Jacob gained wisdom by the work of God and made possession of good livestock from among all the livestock he was taking care of. God also stopped his possessions from decreasing. When God gives you blessing, there will be no loss from your possession and you gain abundant harvest.
Among you those who are farming or doing a dairy farming may have experienced the same thing. When the contagious animal epidemic swept across the whole nation, God protected you and there was no loss from your possession. You relied on God and farmed by faith in Him, so that God blessed you to bear much better fruits.
This kind of blessing has been given to you simply because you are in the flock of Manmin and in the space of the shepherd. How much more amazing blessing will be given to you when you have a proper vessel for blessing! I pray in the name of the Lord that God’s blessing may abound in your children, working place, business, and all your possessions.
Verse 5 says, “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl,” and this means your possessions will overflow and you will also abound in food. In Genesis 14:15 we can find that when Abram heard that his relative Lot had been taken captive, he led out his 318 trained men, born in his house, to rescue him and his household.
When he saved his nephew Lot, he could gain many goods. The king of Sodom was thankful for the return of his people from captivity and said to Abram, “Give the people to me and take the goods for yourself.”But Abram flatly refused, saying, “I will not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours, for fear you would say, ‘I have made Abram rich.'” It was because he hoped for only the blessing given by God.
The same thing occurred to me when I accepted the Lord. I was preparing to open a bookstore and my brothers and sisters sternly dissuaded me from doing it. Instead, they told me they would help me run a bar. But I rejected all their proposals. The reason was that I thought God would surely give me blessing so if I received help from my brothers and sisters how I would be able to glorify God and how I could dare to say I became wealthy with the blessing given by God.
On the contrary, would they say, “You could become rich because we helped you. You’ve become wealthy today because I allowed you to run this bar.” That’s why I sternly rejected their proposal of support. At last I opened a bookstore only with tens of thousands won, and with the God-given blessing I could pay off all debts and give glory to God.
Dear brothers and sisters, I have seldom bought my garments or gone to a restaurant to eat my favorite food. But God always knew my need and wish and provided me with them through people. In fact, this kind of blessing belongs to the promise God made to me when He called me as His servant.
When I was running a bookstore, God told me to leave the store to my wife and serve Him, saying to me, “If you obey, your rice container will never be empty and your cash box will always be full.”That was a really unexpected word, but I obeyed with the reliance on His Word. From that time on, by the hands of God I have never met with a financial difficulty at all.
I wish for all of you to have the experience of the same hands of God. Just as God provided His people with manna and quails and let water gush out from a rock in the wilderness, He will also give you food and clothes and provide you with everything necessary so that you may lack in nothing.
Verse 6 says, “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.” It means wherever you are blessing comes and you are prosperous in everything. The Bible talks about people who received blessing and prospered wherever they were because God was with them.
Abraham was one of them. God walked with Abraham and also blessed the people who followed Abraham. In Genesis 12:3 God promised Abraham, saying, “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.”This Abraham was considered so noble that the king of a kingdom honored him and could not treat him rashly, no matter where he went.
Thus, blessing comes upon you wherever you are, and your blessing comes to those who walk with you, to those who bless you, and to those whom you bless. All these refers to the meaning of the Verse 6, which reads, “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.”
During my past pastoral ministry, I have continually heard such testimonies. The blessing of God that is given to me has been given to so many people too. Through my prayer, their problems were resolved, their diseases were healed, blessing came upon their business and works, they came to have the faith worthy for salvation, and they turned away from sins. With such experiences they gave glory to God.
