The blessing of the Lord : makes rich and he adds no sorrow with it

267 Pages·2011·1.49 MB·English

by  Kenneth Copeland

Preface
When The LORD first revealed to me the magnitude of THE BLESSING,
He instructed me to mark my thinking by writing it in capital letters whenever I
referred to it in print. I am following that instruction throughout this book. I
believe it will have the effect on you that it has had on me, and will help renew
your mind to the full power and scope of THE BLESSING.
Table of Contents
Preface
Prologue
Chapter 1 THE BLESSING: Love’s Ultimate Gift
Chapter 2 The One Thing Sin Couldn’t Change
Chapter 3 Project Eden: Filling the Earth With the Glory of God
Chapter 4 The Day the Light Went Out
Chapter 5 Activating Plan B: The Restoration Begins
Chapter 6 Tracking the Bloodline of THE BLESSING
Chapter 7 Ten Commandments of Love: Teaching the Israelites to Live in
THE BLESSING
Chapter 8 The Day All Heaven Broke Loose
Chapter 9 From the Cross to the Throne
Chapter 10 A Reborn Race
Chapter 11 The LORD and High Priest of THE BLESSING
Chapter 12 Following the Faith of Abraham
Chapter 13 Breaking the Fear Connection
Chapter 14 The Royal Law of the Kingdom
Chapter 15 Come Sit With Me
Prologue
Someone asked me, “Why did you title this book, THE BLESSING of The
LORD Makes Rich”?
Well, the whole book is about THE BLESSING that began in Genesis 1-2.
God’s last work of Creation was to bless man. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the
beginning God.....”
You can’t get any closer to the beginning than that.
THE BLESSING is the very creative force of God. It created all we see.
We’ve lost the power of the word blessing, which means “to empower.” It’s
God’s empowerment, His power that established the universe. He put the same
creative power and anointing on Adam and his wife—mankind—who were
created in His image, and told them to replenish the earth, be fruitful and
dominate it in love.
God rested the seventh day after He finished His work of Creation. His last
work was not the creation of man—it was THE BLESSING of man. Then, He
sat down. After man sinned, however, God had to go back to work, and that’s
what this book is about: God’s restoration of THE BLESSING on mankind,
where it belonged, through His blood covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
passing it down the line, until Jesus was born out of that covenant.
Even when sin erupted and the earth was destroyed in the Flood, God
continued THE BLESSING through covenant with Noah: “And God BLESSED
Noah and his sons” (Genesis 9:1). God started it all again. How did He do it?
The first thing He said was, “Be fruitful and multiply,” which is exactly what He
said to Adam.
Centuries later, when Jesus was crucified and made a curse for us (Galatians
3:13), God made the way for THE BLESSING of Abraham to come, not only on
the natural descendants of Abraham, but also on the gentiles. Because of Jesus’
redemptive work on the cross, we also can walk in THE BLESSING. It is now
back on the sons of Noah—Ham, Japheth and Shem. Ham and Japheth followed
Adam’s lead, which resulted in the creation of the Babylonian system—men
trying to meet their own needs without THE BLESSING of God. But, Abraham
came out of Shem, and Jesus out of Abraham. Now, through Christ Jesus, we
who were once known as gentiles—which means “outside the covenant of
God”—are grafted in (Romans 11:17). He has, once again, provided for us a
Source!
If you want to see THE BLESSING at work, look at Job. Take a look at what
had Satan so upset. He said to God: “Does he [Job] serve You for nothing? You
have BLESSED him and all that he has, and You’ve built a wall around him.
And look how rich he is!” (Job 1:9-10, paraphrase, King James Version, New
Living Translation)
Well, doesn’t Proverbs 10:22 say, “THE BLESSING of The LORD, it
maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it”? The word sorrow is translated
“toil.” THE BLESSING cancels out toiling for a living. You don’t have to toil in
exchange for THE BLESSING of God. He didn’t put a price on it. Whether
you’re working for minimum wage or God has called you to manage a bank,
you’re a citizen of the kingdom of God, and the Bible, the constitution of His
kingdom, says THE BLESSING will work in your behalf.
Notice that the important part of Proverbs 10:22 is, “THE BLESSING of The
LORD, it makes.....” The world tries to meet its own needs without THE
BLESSING. They say, “We’ve got to make a living,” “I make deals,” “We make
appointments.” But God’s constitution, The WORD of God, says, “THE
BLESSING makes...”
When we seek and live in THE BLESSING by faith in God’s WORD, then it
makes all these things to be added to us.
If God assigns you to be a janitor in a church, for example, or an apostle, or a
car dealer, or whatever it is, He needs you there.
And every workman is worthy of his hire (Luke 10:7)—but you’re not
limited to that hire, because of THE BLESSING. The employer may be a
channel God uses, but he’s not your source. Only God, through THE BLESSING
of Abraham that came on us through Christ Jesus, is our Source.
When you look to that Source, you become a joint-owner of the kingdom of
God. When God says, “I want you to go over there,” don’t expect those people
to pay you anything. God’s going to pay you. Do you remember what He told
His disciples? “Don’t bring any money. Don’t bring any clothes.” He wasn’t
telling them to be poor. He was telling them, “Quit bringing your stuff. You’re
working for Me. I’ll take care of you.”
This is a timely message to a hurting world. THE BLESSING is the answer.
I want to share something The LORD said to me in October 2008. All this
economy mess was just at the beginning of its crash. The Babylonian system has
been attacking, particularly, the United States for the last 110-115 years,
although it attacked the whole world within that time frame in some respects,
erupting into the Bolshevik Revolution in Eastern Europe in 1917. Though the
Babylonian system has been operating since the tower of Babel, this was the
time it began to be called “socialism,” “communism,” “Nazism,” and all the
“isms” that government, attempting to meet man’s needs without God, were
coined. Those systems have always failed because only God gives increase. But
men continually want to create systems with rules to keep God out because they
want to be in control. Their lord, the devil, is the one who’s behind their
attempts. He’s after that BLESSING any way he can get it. Jesus said of him,
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10).
The WORD of God is the source of THE BLESSING because The WORD is
the source of faith (Romans 10:17). And, “They which be of faith are blessed
with faithful Abraham” (Galatians 3:9). It is still the connection for THE
BLESSING in our lives today, and brings into manifestation from the spiritual
world, material goods, healing—whatever needs to be changed in the natural
world, and it destroys the curse. The anointing is part of THE BLESSING, and
the power of the anointing is what strips out the curse. It removes burdens and
destroys yokes (Isaiah 10:27).
The LORD said to me that day in October 2008:
Don’t pay attention to or make any plans based on what the media says or
what [politicians] say. Stand on My WORD in John 16. Pay attention to Me. I
[the Holy Spirit] will obey verses 13-15. I will show you things to come. I will
lead you through troubled times. I already have THE plan for you, and it’s very
good. Follow it. It will not only get you through, it will place you in a very high
place—a rich place—a strong place of victory.
See what God is saying? We’re in this world but we’re not of it. We’re
citizens of the kingdom of God. Jesus said if you will seek this kingdom first,
inquiring of God and His kingdom about every word, deed and plan, all the
things you need will be added to you. They come out of the Kingdom, not the
government, not your job.
God has a plan. He’ll place you, and when you obey and follow Him, you
don’t need to pay attention to what it looks like. Just go on and do what He said
to do because He has a plan, and your provision is part of it. Don’t pay any
attention to what the world has or doesn’t have for you. Let God take care of
that.
The LORD said:
You will have to discipline yourself and be diligent to listen to Me. All the
other voices will have a plan...
My goodness! I’ve never heard so many political plans in all my life,
particularly during elections, when all the politicians have their plans. And
almost all of it has a cap that limits its success because the Babylonian system is
limited, and no one has the guts to say what God has already said in His plan.
So listen to this:
[They all have] a word, an idea for your future and security. Don’t listen to
Babylon’s system. It has fallen apart.
Notice that America isn’t falling apart. The Babylonian system we’ve
allowed to come in and bungle things up for the past hundred-plus years is
falling apart.
My system is stronger than ever. My kingdom is flourishing, and THE
BLESSING is the place to be.
That’s what this book is about—to teach you how to get into that place of
THE BLESSING. How do you get there from where you are now? How do you
get out of that dark kingdom and over into the kingdom of God? You were born
into it! Colossians 1:13 says very plainly that He has already delivered you from
the authority of darkness—that’s the Babylonian system—and translated you
into the kingdom of His dear Son. So you don’t need to be living as a natural-
born citizen of God’s kingdom and trying to live by the rules of the kingdom of
darkness. Those rules produce fear, and fear is a serious, damaging, polluting
agent to faith, which is the power of THE BLESSING kingdom. THE
BLESSING is the place to be!
Keep your eyes on My WORD. Listen to it. It will guide you and I will
perform it. Love Me. Love My people as I have loved you. Walk in it. Love
never fails, and neither does My plan.
This word has changed Gloria’s and my life personally. We’ve been walking
this out and learning about THE BLESSING since I was a student at Oral
Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, many years ago. While there, I heard
Kenneth E. Hagin say we’ve been redeemed from the curse, and THE
BLESSING of Abraham is ours. At that time, “blessing” didn’t mean much more
to me except something one said after a sneeze.
So when Kenneth E. Hagin said that, I thought, Well, it would probably be
good to find out what THE BLESSING of Abraham is. So, I began reading how
God blessed Abraham, saying, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will
bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will
bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all
families of the earth be BLESSED... And Abram was very rich.” (Genesis 12:2-
3, 13:2).
I was stunned. I already knew that God wanted us to prosper, but I never
heard of very rich “.in cattle, silver, and in gold.” I kept going back and seeing,
“That THE BLESSING of Abraham might come on the Gentiles.” (Galatians
3:14). And it was talking about the seed of Abraham.
I continued reading in Galatians 3:29, which says, “And if ye be Christ’s,
then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” I began
digging into that promise and seeing it was all the way through the New
Testament!
As I studied the promise year after year, it kept growing bigger inside me. I
began to see that THE BLESSING was at the very beginning, too, when the
BLESSED One BLESSED Adam.
I found that THE BLESSING spans the whole Bible!
Much of why the Spirit of God had me write this book, and why I had such a
desire to get this information on paper and into people’s hands, is found in Isaiah
51:1. But it needs to be understood from Galatians 3:7-9:
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all
nations be BLESSED. So then they which be of faith are BLESSED with faithful
Abraham.
THE BLESSING, then, is the gospel—the good news!
Now read verses 13-14:
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:
for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that THE BLESSING
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Look at verses 26, 29:
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus... And if ye be
Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Now, come back over to Isaiah 51:1-2:
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek The LORD:
look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are
digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you [Or,
Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Jesus who gave you the new
birth.]: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
We’re the seed of that BLESSING! The promise is on us. Verse 3 goes on to
say, “For The LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places;
and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of The
LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of
melody.” Hebrews 12:18-24 calls the Body of Christ “Mount Zion,” but that is
not a proof text for “replacement theology.” The Body of Christ doesn’t replace
Israel as Zion. We are in Christ Jesus. We don’t take anything away from Israel.
We are the continuation of God’s promise to Abraham.
Isaiah 51:3 is the Eden Covenant! It was the covenant between God and
Adam before he sinned. God wants His Garden back. He intended for that