Blessed and Highly Favored

In blessing people I like to say, “I call you the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, and highly favored of the Lord.”

It takes hard work to be blessed and to stay blessed.

Deuteronomy 28 gives us six “the LORD will/shall” statements which describe what the LORD was going to do to ensure these blessings. Israel’s part was to obey the commands of the covenant.

Two things His covenant people have to do.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14 – “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.”

There’s a difference between obeying the voice and observing the commandments.

Obedience to the voice: devotion to your personal relationship and intimacy with Him.

Observing His commandments means compliance and loyalty to the culture of His Kingdom.

2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:

This kind of blessing is a particular kind of Presence of God.

The blessing of His presence that comes upon you and overtakes you is habitation not visitation. Where you live in the life-giving, life-preserving life-producing presence of God.

3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.”

In the places you know how to live and the places you don’t.

4 “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.”

The blessing of reproduction, multiplication and next generation in all things. (next level)

5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.”

The women of that day used kneading bowls to knead dough for making bread. If they used poor-quality bowls which broke easily, they would not be able to make bread. So baskets and kneading bowls in those days represented the means by which one got his tangible blessings. (Income streams)

    The basket is what you store for long term and the kneading bowl is what you use daily. 

6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.”

When you are home and when you are abroad you are blessed in where ever place you go because you host the presence of the Lord.

Numbers 27:17 – who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord will not be like sheep which have no shepherd.”

Psalms 121:8 – The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever.

7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.”

The enemy goes in uniform order and leaves in utter chaos.

8 “The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”

9 “The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.”

This is when you are truly His family.

To walk in His ways is to obey his voice.

10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.

Jeremiah 33:9 – “And they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity, that I procure unto it.”

Unlimited resources behind you and there is nothing God wouldn’t do for you.

11 And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.

12 The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

His heaven will invade your earth.

13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.

14 So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Luke 1:26-28 (NKJV) – Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!

Luke 1:29 (NKJV) – But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.

You have to get sick and tired of being sick and tired

we must have a blessed life

Never devalue the blessing of God.

The term for God’s favor and presence in your life being clearly seen by other people to where they can not deny God is with you is His face shines upon you.

Psalms 67:1  – God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah