DIG for Wednesday the 6th of December…..we already have it all…..Ephesians 1 v 3

Ephesians 1 v 3 was a verse I touched on in my DIG the other day.

This is one of the most encouraging verses we have as a born again believer.

If we truly understood this verse it would alter our relationship with the Lord, and it would alter our prayer life.

Most of us spend our prayer time asking the Lord for things that this verse tells us we already have!

The key words in this verse are “hath” and “all”.

“Hath” tells us that this is a past tense verse, we already have these spiritual blessings.

And the word “all” tells us we are missing nothing!

We already have all the spiritual blessings that we will ever need as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus.

There is nothing in terms of blessings that we need to ask the Lord for anymore.

We already have all the joy, peace, healing and prosperity that we can ever need as a gift of grace thorough faith in Jesus.

We have all we need in Christ!

And we have it all right now.

I hope this verse encourage you today as much as it always encourages me.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for all the spiritual blessings that I have as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus”.

Ephesians 1 v 3…..Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ

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DIG for Sunday the 3rd of December…..we ‘win’ because of Jesus…..Ephesians 1 v 3

In church today I had a picture telling us that we are to rest in the finished work of Jesus, instead of striving through our own works and effort.

I saw a podium with my granddaughter on the gold medal position, after having won more medals at a recent swimming gala.

Lydia is a great swimmer and has trained very hard in order to swim so well; in this area she has used her own effort and hard work.

Behind her podium was a larger one, with Jesus in the gold medal position.

This podium was slightly out of focus, and I think was indicating the spiritual where the original podium was a picture of the physical.

In the spiritual we ‘win’ through the finished work of Jesus; we do not have to use our own works and efforts.

We ‘win’, that is, we are prosperous, healed, accepted and adopted through the finished work of Jesus.

Works are not required by the Lord in order for us to be blessed.

We are blessed as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus.

We have all the spiritual blessings we will ever need because of what Jesus has already done; God does not need or want our works in order to bless us.

We have already been blessed; we are already ‘winners’ and ‘gold medallists’ because of our faith in Jesus.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I already have all spiritual blessings as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus and his finished work”.

Ephesians 1 v 3…..Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ

DIG for Wednesday the 25th of October…..we don’t need to shake that tree…..Ephesians 1 v 3

As I was driving down the road today I was listening to some music, and heard the following lyric –

“I’m gonna shake that tree until all the fruit comes down”.

I really love the sentiment of this song; it speaks of us having good things in life, and more than enough to live on.

The song I was listening to implied that we had to work and strive, shaking the tree, until we received all that we needed.

This for me describes what is known as an abundant life, but working and striving in our own strength is not how it works for the born again believer.

We have an abundant life because this is what Jesus wants for us (John 10 v 10).

The Lord wants us to live an abundant life of health and prosperity (3 John 2).

We already have all the blessings we need through Jesus (Ephesians 1 v 3).

We are not required to work to be blessed by God, to be provided with the abundance that Jesus died for.

Indeed, Jesus was once asked what work people had to do, and He told them simply to believe on Him (John 6 v 28 and 29).

Work is not required to be blessed, as we already are blessed through faith.

We are blessed, we just need to believe this and live as if we are blessed!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I already am blessed as a gift of grace through faith”.

Ephesians 1 v 3…..Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ

DIG for Sunday the 22nd of October…..you don’t ask for a sandwich, so why ask for healing…..Ephesians 1 v 3

After our church service on a Sunday we always have lunch together as a fellowship.

People take along various items of food and leave them on the table at the back of the church, and then once the service is over we help ourselves.

Nunsy and myself normally take some rye bread sandwiches as our contribution.

Now after the service I don’t get people coming up to me begging and pleading for a rye bread sandwich; they know I have provided them as a gift to be used so they just take one.

It should be like this with what the Lord has freely provided for us.

Yet how many of us are still asking for healing, asking for acceptance, asking for forgiveness and asking for abundance?

God, through the finished work of Jesus, has freely provided all these things as a gift for us to take and use.

He does not require us to ask for them.

Take healing for example; Jesus told His disciples to go heal the sick, He did not tell them to pray for the sick or ask God the Father for healing for them.

As New Covenant believers healing has already been provided for us, we are required to believe and take that healing for ourselves.

The same is true for acceptance, wholeness and prosperity, among other things.

We have ALL spiritual blessings already, our task is to believe this and use them.

We should be thanking God for His bountiful provision instead of asking for what we already have!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for all that you have already provided through the finished work of Jesus Christ”.

Ephesians 1 v 3…..Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ

DIG for Monday the 16th of October…..nothing multiplied by anything is always nothing…..3 John 2

As you will probably know (if you have read my DIGs for a while) I have a degree in mathematics.

One of the axioms of mathematics is that zero multiplied by anything is always zero.

God, in His Word, promised to bless our storehouse.

Now I don’t want to get into the whole tithe debate, however the Word is clear that God will bless, or multiply, what we have in our storehouse.

In our modern day words this means our resources or our savings.

What I want to focus on today is that we need a storehouse, or we need some savings.

This God can bless, however small, but if we have nothing in our storehouse then God cannot bless that.

If we have a savings account but nothing in it, then we will receive no interest from the bank.

It is like that with the ‘economics’ of the Kingdom, so my advice to you today, if you have not done already, is to start a storehouse.

No matter how small we can all start somewhere, we can all place something in a storehouse to be blessed by God.

Zero cannot be blessed; we need to place something in our storehouse in order to ‘help’ God bless us.

My advice to you today is to develop your storehouse.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that you want above all things that I live in prosperity and healing”.

3 John v 2…..Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth

DIG for Sunday the 15th of October…..stop asking for what we already have…..Ephesians 1 v 3

If I had my Bible in my hand you would think I was quite silly if I went around asking people for my Bible.

Of course this is daft, I would not ask you for something I already have.

Yet we seem to do this often with God.

We ask for His blessings, we ask to be healed, we ask to be prospered and we ask for Him to love us.

Yet He has already provided all of this for us through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

We need to believe and receive rather than ask for this.

We have been blessed with all we will ever need as a gift of grace through faith (Ephesians 1 v 3).

God has not taken away these blessings and He never will.

The only things that can stop His blessings flowing to us are the thoughts and words of you and me.

Unbelief on our part is the main blockage that stops the flow of the blessings that we already have.

This is good news; as if we know this truth we can remove the blockages!

And how do we remove the blockages?

Well, we read, meditate upon, feast on, understand and believe the Word of God.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that you have already blessed me with all spiritual blessings as a gift of grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus”.

Ephesians 1 v 3…..Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ

DIG for Saturday the 14th of October…..He does not give and take away, He has given and He has taken away…..Psalm 103 v 2

I’ve often written about our words, telling you that what we say is very important.

With this in mind there are many lyrics to worship sings that I will not sing, I try not to deliberately sing (or speak out) words of doubt and unbelief.

There is one song that has the line, “He gives and takes away, He gives and takes away” and I will not sing this.

In my view this is an inappropriate statement for a New Covenant believer to make.

God does not give and then take away, contrary to ‘popular belief’.

He will not give you health for example and then take it away, He will not do this with prosperity and abundance, and He will not do it with His other blessings.

My understanding of New Covenant scripture is that God has already given and God has already taken away.

He has given us reconciliation and forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus and then has given us healing, prosperity, adoption, acceptance and peace (for example) as a gift of grace through faith.

Also as a gift of grace through faith He has taken away the eternal consequences of sin, poverty, sickness, pain, disease and rejection; He took away the curses that could be placed upon us (Galatians 3 v 13).

He has given and He has taken away; this was accomplished through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Please don’t think that God will ever take your healing, your prosperity or your blessings; this is just not true, He will not take away what He has freely given you!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that you have blessed me through the finished work of Jesus and you will never take this away from me”.

Psalm 103 v 2…..Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits

DIG for Tuesday the 26th of September…..internal not external, that is what counts…..Ephesians 1 v 3

I had a very interesting conversation at the supermarket checkout this morning.

I realised I had been whistling while doing my shopping, and was still doing this as I stood waiting my turn.

A lady turned round and said, “You are happy today”, to which I replied, “Oh, I’m always happy”.

She said, “Even with all this rain?” and then she left.

The trouble with most people today is that their happiness, joy and peace are based upon external circumstances.

If only the weather was better, if only I had more money, if only people liked me more, and it goes on and on.

The unfortunate truth is that many Christians are the same!

It is external circumstances that appear to be important to some believers.

What a Christian needs to realise is that it is what is inside of us that should be used to “develop” happiness, joy and peace.

If we understand and believe that inside we are righteous, holy and perfect we will manifest joy.

If we understand and believe that we are truly forgiven we will manifest joy.

If we know that in our born again spirits we have all we every need, for health and prosperity (among other things) we will manifest joy.

Our joy, peace and happiness comes from inside, and should never be dependent upon the weather, other people or even football results!!

Our joy, peace and happiness should be dependent upon who we are through Christ and what we have in Christ, i.e. what we have inside us in our spirit.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for everything that I have in Christ and through Christ, thank you for all I have inside of me”

Ephesians 1 v 3…..Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ

DIG for Monday the 3rd of July…..sin covered, transgressions forgiven; that time is now…..Psalm 32 v 1

Much of what we read in the Psalms is prophetic, a time coming when things would come to pass.

One such verse is Psalm 32 v 1.

David is writing about a time when men would be blessed due to what the Lord would do with their sin.

There was a time coming when the transgressions of men would be forgiven.

There was a time coming when the sin of men would be covered, meaning hidden or concealed.

This is of course a blessing; we now live in a time where we are truly blessed.

Through the blood of Jesus we have been forgiven and reconciled to God.

Through the blood of Jesus (and because of forgiveness and reconciliation) all men are truly blessed, as this gives them the opportunity to be saved and made righteous.

All we need to do is make the choice for Jesus, to trust in Him and His finished work and we can truly benefit from the free forgiveness and free reconciliation.

I don’t know about you but this makes me feel truly blessed.

No matter what is going on in my life I can know at all times that I am forgiven and reconciled to God, and that I have been saved and made righteous.

We really do live a blessed life in a blessed time!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that all my sin has been forgiven and all my transgression are hidden”.

Psalm 32 v 1…..Blessed is he whose transgressions is forgiven, whose sin is covered

DIG for Monday the 7th of March…..overtaken by His waves of blessings…..Ephesians 1 v 3

At our men’s group Bible study last night we were talking about how blessed we were.

There were five of us there and it was a wonderful time of sharing; but it was extra nice to see how God had blessed every single one of us.

We had different stories and different experiences, yet we all could say the same thing; God had blessed us.

Even through difficult periods when we may have not recognised His hand, we knew, looking back, that we were being blessed.

God is no respecter of persons (He has no favourites) so if God did that for the five of us He will do it for you.

Indeed, to be theologically correct, He has already done it for you; He has already blessed you with all spiritual blessings.

There is a wonderful picture of God’s blessings given in Deuteronomy where the imagery is that of a wave crashing over us.

God’s blessings are like waves and you know that you cannot stop the waves crashing onto the shore.

If you get yourself into the will of God and believe what He says in His Word you cannot fail to be blessed, as the waves of His blessings crash onto you and shower you with abundance.

You can run but the waves will follow you so that when you get revelation the waves will be there.

Are you prepared to be soaked with God’s blessings today?

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that you have already blessed me with all spiritual blessings trough the finished work of Jesus”.

Ephesians 1 v 3…..Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ