The Blessing of Abraham – Genesis 12:1-3

Contrary to popular belief, when God spoke those words of BLESSING, He wasn’t just commanding Adam and his wife to produce babies to populate the earth. He was saying much more than that. In Hebrew the phrase be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28) means to increase and have abundance in every way. The word replenish means to fill up, to perpetually renew, supply and keep full. When God spoke those words, He endowed mankind with the divine power to increase and excel in everything good. He empowered them to fill the earth with that goodness.

Through the empowerment of THE BLESSING, God was saying to mankind: Prosper and fill this planet with My glory! Finish what I’ve started here. Fill this place up with Me, fill it up with compassion. Fill it up with love and life, faith and holiness, and everything good!

A blessing is defined as “not only saying something good about someone, but also as a declaration that empowers him or her to prosper.” Because God’s words carry creative power (as seen throughout Genesis 1), His BLESSING does more than express a positive sentiment.  It releases the power to bring that BLESSING to pass.  That’s the reason THE BLESSING God spoke over mankind in Genesis 1:28 is so significant.  God’s declaration actually empowered man to prosper.  It released the divine resources that would make THE BLESSING not only a spiritual reality but a material reality as well.  It endued God’s family on earth with all the power they would ever need to fulfill the command to, “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it.  Rule (have dominion) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth. “God didn’t create Adam to e a servant of the earth, but lord over it.  So when Adam bowed his knee to God’s enemy, all his lordship and dominion over the earth went to his new, illegitimate stepfather, satan (Luke 4:6; John 8:34-36; Romans 6:16).

  • Luke 4:6 – And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this power and their glory, for it has been delivered to me. And I give it to whomever I will.”
  • John 8:34-36 – Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. Now a slave does not remain in the house forever, but a son remains forever. Therefore if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.”
  • Romans 6:16 – Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as slaves to obey, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

The idea of man’s lordship in the earth makes religious people nervous, and it upset people in Jesus’ day too. The religious people wanted to kill Him for speaking and acting as if He had dominion on the earth – for operating in THE BLESSING and authority of the first Adam. But Jesus didn’t back down. He went to the Cross to fulfill the plan of redemption, becoming the curse for us (Galatians 3:13) so mankind could be free to walk in THE BLESSING once again. When He came to earth, Jesus immediately began heading toward the cross, as the final sacrifice of the Abrahamic covenant, paying the price for Adam’s treason. He didn’t just take the curse on Himself; He became the curse for us. God never released the curse that has resulted in all the evil in the earth (Genesis 3:17). Adam did by putting THE BLESSING God gave him into the hands of satan, under whose influence and control THE BLESSING was twisted into the curse – the exact opposite of what God created it to be.

  • Galatians 3:13 – Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us – as it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”

Jesus came as the second and last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) to win man back to his original place of sonship (2 Corinthians 6:18; Hebrews 2:11), fellowship (1 John 1:3) and dominion (Luke 10:19) as God’s under-ruler in the earth. After His death and resurrection, THE BLESSING was secured forever in Him. It can never be taken from an immortal man. His death and resurrection produced another race of man that never existed before the Cross of Calvary – born again into the image of the Son, Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are now eternally BLESSED by heaven with authority in His Name and by His blood. He left no doubt about the authority He restored to man in the earth, transferring His own authority to His disciples and through their word, to us. He gave the Great Commission to them and to us, saying: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (You) go therefore …. And …. I am with you always” (Matthew 28:18-20; see also John 17:18). And He said, “These signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will …. lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18). He commissioned and authorized the disciples to preach the gospel worldwide, but they needed empowerment and equipping to walk in that authority. So He commanded them to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5).

  • 1 Corinthians 15:45 – And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
  • 2 Corinthians 6:18 – I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.
  • Hebrews 2:11 – For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
  • 1 John 1:3 – ..that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
  • Luke 10:19 – “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
  • 2 Corinthians 3:18 – But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
  • Matthew 28:18-20 – Then Jesus came and spoke to them saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
  • Mark 16:17-18 – “And these signs will follow those who believe; In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will aly hands on the sick and they will recover.”

The fiery power that came on the disciples at Pentecost, the outpouring of power we call the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, equipped them to fulfill the mission Jesus gave them. It empowered them to go into all the world, operating in His dominion over all the works of the devil and advancing the kingdom of God. It gave them the same kind of power Adam received when God declared over him the words of Genesis 1:28. It released to them THE BLESSING.

When you make Jesus your Savior and Lord and receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking with other tongues (Acts 2), that same power comes on you to fulfill the assignment Jesus has for your life. Notice, Mark 16:17 says these signs shall follow “those who believe.” The Baptism in the Holy Spirit was not solely for Jesus’ disciples, or merely to get the Church started, and then it all passed away. No, when Jesus said, “Go into all THE WORLD and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15), He was directing the body of Christ – those to whom THE BLESSING had been imparted when they were born again – to go into the world with the outstanding news that Jesus is the way into THE BLESSING. They were to share that the curse which came on the earth with Adam’s sin has no more power. Jesus was made a curse for us so that THE BLESSING of Abraham might come unto the gentiles – those in darkness with no hope (Galatians 3:13-14). He said the signs of His presence would follow those who believe.

  • Galatians 3:13-14 – Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

He is our source. His Kingdom is ours in which every possible need is supplied. That has always been God’s perfect will for all men, for all time, from before the foundation of the world And He never changes (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus came praying and preaching, “Your kingdom come.” (Matthew 6:10). He is that kingdom, and the King over that domain. We are His joint heirs (Roman 8:17). He is King of kings, and we are the kings over whom He is King. Rejoice in His goodness and declare out loud, by faith: “I have a blood covenant with Almighty God. I have a heavenly Father, and He’s rich and powerful, and He is backing me as surely as He backed Abraham – as surely as He backed Jesus Himself! I am no longer under a financial or physical curse. Jesus became the curse for me. I am BLESSED with every spiritual BLESSING in heavenly places. Because I’m the righteousness of God in Christ, THE BLESSING of Abraham is mine!”

  • Hebrews 13:8 – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
  • Roman 8:17 – ..and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

 

 

Note:  This article was taken from the Kenneth Copeland Word of Faith Study Bible.

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