[Passage]
[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. [2] “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God: [3] “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. [4] “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. [5] “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. [6] “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. [7] “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.”
Dear brothers and sisters,
This is the seventh session of ‘Blessing’ series. God’s promise will be fulfilled as said. If you diligently listen to the word of God and do all His commandments, the promised blessing will certainly come to you. You will receive blessings wherever you are. Blessing will come anything that is related with you. You will be blessed whether you come in or go out.
Dear brothers and sisters,
If you receive blessings whether you come in or go out, you will not only be wealthy, but also have social power and fame. It’s because God’s blessing and guarantee will follow you. We can see this from Joseph’s example in Genesis chapter 39 onward. Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt, but blessings came upon wherever he was.
Genesis 39:2-6 says, “The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. [3] Now his master saw that the LORD was with him and how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. [4] So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge. [5] It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph; thus the LORD’s blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field. [6] So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate.”
We can see how respected he was in the blessing and guarantee of God although he was a slave. Such a blessing continued even when he was wrongfully accused and put into a jail where king’s prisoners were held. In physical sense, it seemed he was put into a pit of despair, but he still prospered in the jail, too.
Genesis 39:20-23 says, “…and he was there in the jail. [21] But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. [22] The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. [23] The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made to prosper.”
After that, in God’s providence Joseph became the prime minister, the second powerful man in Egypt. In Egypt, he was just a foreign slave, but he went as high as next to the king in that great nation.
And after he became the prime minister of Egypt, he prepared very well for the seven years of severe famine that followed seven years of good harvest, thereby making the Pharaoh very wealthy. He saved people of other countries as well as Egyptians. Blessings came down wherever Joseph was. We can see he became the head and not the tail everywhere. Obviously, he would not borrow from anybody but only lend.
He received the blessings mentioned in Deuteronomy 28:12-13, “The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. [13] “The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath,”
Anybody who prepares the vessel of blessing can receive the above blessings in his life. I hear this kind of testimony from a large number of believers. Those who used to receive charitable help now help others, and many of them receive amazing blessings in their businesses and work. They not only get promoted, but also they receive awards from the president, prime minister, or ministers, meaning they are recognized in the society and become the leaders. If you obey the original voice, you will receive more and greater blessings through the works of re-creation.
Now, in Deuteronomy 28:7, it says, “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.” This applies in many places of the Bible.
When God was with His people, they defeated enemies even in a situation where it was absolutely impossible. Sometimes angels or God fought for them to destroy their enemies.
Such things can happen in today’s world, too. Our church and I have been experiencing such works for the last 32 years. I know very well what kinds of miserable ends came upon those who persecuted the church and tried to destroy me. Of course, every time I hear such news, I feel very sorry and heartbroken for them. I just want them to repent and turn back and be well. But I seldom mention such cases on the pulpit. I mention such cases only when absolutely necessary so that you’d never go such a way, but I only tell some parts about them.
In my autobiography is mentioned some incidents. One of them is a trial of blessing for the church in 1988. Some residents and merchants at the market near the church spread false rumors in an attempt to get the church out of the area. They were holding disruptive ceremonies in front of the church on Sunday, playing drums and cymbals. When the church called the police, they would arrive only after everyone had left.
It was because the government was involved in it, too. It means there was political scheming involved. Because we did not know it at that time, the church leaders went to the local govt. office to protest, and we thought about legal actions, too. But I just persuaded the leaders with the word of God, saying we must not pay back evil with evil but only with goodness.
But as time went, the magnitude of disturbance became stronger. People from local govt. offices and even senior citizens were disturbing the worship service in front of the church, and the fire station came out for facility investigation to harass us. And yet, I just left everything to God through prayer.
One day, some of those who were trying to get the church out of the area asked us to meet them. When I went, there were about a dozen representatives of local government bodies. They were telling me, “Pastor, please save us. It’s so painful. We feel like we are falling into Hell.” They said many of those who were at the front of such movement to drive away the church became suddenly sick and even got diseases, and this news spread among them. Many of them felt afraid after hearing the news, and those who were in the lead felt like they were falling down to Hell. That is why they asked me to meet them.
In fact, we wanted to move to a bigger place, too, but we couldn’t find a good location, and we didn’t have the money to do it either. As we explained our situation, they asked us how much money we needed, and they just gave it to us. After that we were able to move to a much bigger sanctuary, and since then the number of members kept on increasing. Most of the local governing bodies tried to drive away our church, but as God was with us and working for us, the result was great blessing for us.
God drove away those who tried to drive us away. Romans 12:19 says, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.” This is the method of God.
God walked with us and guaranteed us in the overseas crusades, too. Mostly I had crusades in countries where evangelism is prohibited or where there were threats of terrorism. So, as the news about our crusade was spread, the enemy devil tried many methods to disrupt the crusades.
But once I set my foot in that country, we witnessed that all those who were disturbing us so much hid themselves. And we successfully finished the crusades, greatly giving glory to God. And after the crusades were over, many of those who had disturbed us came to me to apologize and repent.
There were some who were interfering with us before we had the crusade in the Philippines, and after it was over, they came to the hotel where I was staying. All of them apologized and repented on their knees. They repented that they stood against my ministry because of false rumors and deceptions, without understanding what kind of person I was. Seeing the works of God that took place in the crusade, they realized that I am a man of God. Likewise, even though we did not react to all those things, God Himself drove away disturbing forces and received glory by working for the best of everything.
Today’s reading passage says the enemy will come out one way and will flee before you seven ways. Seven is number of perfection, and it represents their complete defeat. I pray in the name of the Lord that such a work of God will abundantly come upon you in your lives. Wherever you are, the disturbing forces will go away from your business, workplace, and family, entangled problems will be resolved, and God’s blessing will come down.
Dear brothers and sisters,
2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “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.” Because Jesus redeemed us from poverty, we children of God should no longer be poor.
But why is it that some believers are still poor? The answer is found in today’s reading passage. They can just diligently obey the LORD God, being careful to keep all His commandments and obey His words, but they don’t.
Brothers and sisters, God’s promise is consistent. Deuteronomy 30:15 says, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;”
It’s not that God sets the way of blessing and prosperity before only certain people, but for some others, He sets the way of disasters and curses at His own discretion. Anyone can choose his own way. Until now, you have considered yourself believers who know the word of God. But you did not obey the word and thus you could not receive blessings or prosperity. But now, you can just turn around and go the way of blessing.
Because the original voice has sounded forth, your freewill is broken, and you can do the things that you could not do by yourself. Many of you are testifying that now you can cast away what you couldn’t cast away even though you tried so much and so hard. You can now do the things that you couldn’t do at all and you now have the willingness to obey whereas in the past you couldn’t obey even though you tried. I pray in the name of the Lord that all of you will be one of these witnesses, and you will receive the answers of the Father God that He has prepared for you in this year of blessing, 2014.
