Blessed Indeed by Pastor Sam Adeyemi: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Blessed in Christ — But Not in Reality

Whatever God has not given me in Christ, I don't want it. Whatever does not look like my destiny in Christ, I don't want it.

Ephesians 1:3 — God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

Our major preoccupation is: we know that we've been blessed in Christ. But how do we translate our spiritual blessings into physical realities? Sometimes we sense a wide gap between where we are and where we ought to be — between who we are and who we ought to be — between what we have and what we ought to have.

Jabez was a man who had the burden of a wrong naming by his mother. Because when he was born, he had been named Jabez, which means son of sorrow. When you are called that and those words are spoken over you over and over, it becomes your reality. This man wanted to turn it around. What he did was go to God — the one who has the power to bless.

The Prayer of Jabez

1 Chronicles 4:9-10 — Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers and his mother called his name Jabez, saying because I bore him in pain. And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, oh that you will bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. So God granted him what he requested.

We're going to title this discussion: Blessed Indeed.

The Gap Between Destiny and Reality

Our major preoccupation is: we know that we've been blessed in Christ. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. How do we translate our spiritual blessings into physical realities? Sometimes we sense a wide gap between our destiny and our reality.

When Jabez sensed that gap between his destiny and his reality, he chose to go for his destiny. He rejected his current reality. He exercised his power of choice. We must not underestimate the place of the human will and the power God gave us to choose — it plays a significant role in the manifestation of God's blessings in our lives.

A number of people that Jesus healed, he would say to them, "According to your faith, so be it to you," or, "Your faith has made you whole." It took not only God but also the people concerned to get the miracle activated. You need a combination of divinity and humanity for the fulfillment of destiny. God has his part, we have our part.

God created man as a free moral agent and gave him the power of choice — that power that even God does not override.

The Power of a Made-Up Mind

Jabez got to the point where he had had enough. The day he called on God and said, I am done with living a life of pain — bless me indeed. God honored his choice.

Also, his mother had named him based on her pain — and in naming him Jabez, she was transmitting that pain from one generation to another. A new cycle of pain was created by her words. Just like Rachel, when she was giving birth to Benjamin and she knew she wasn't going to survive — she named him Benoni, son of my sorrow. But Jacob, Benjamin's father, renamed him Benjamin, son of my right hand. A father's declaration overrode a mother's cry of pain.

Jabez rejected the name, rejected the destiny of pain, and chose to go to God.

The Termination Point

The termination point is when you can't take it anymore. Termination point for mediocrity. Termination point for low-quality living, inferior standards — when you can't take it anymore.

Remember the prodigal son in Luke 15. He took his share of his father's inheritance, went partying, spent the money on prostitutes, became broke, and his life was going down and down until he found himself wishing he could eat the food they gave pigs.

But one day the light turned on in his head.

This principle applies to individuals, to families, to organizations, even to nations. That's why many nations are not changing for the better — because of an awesome quality God gave man: the power to adapt. Man can adjust. But I heard about the frog in the kettle. You put the frog in cold water, it will stay there. You put the kettle of cold water on fire and it begins to warm up gradually — the frog stays there adapting until it dies. The frog has wisdom to react to sudden change in its environment, but it does not have the wisdom to respond to gradual change.

So we keep adjusting and adapting — but then there's the moment when you can't take it anymore.

When you get to the point where you can't take it anymore, heaven responds.

The day I got to the point where I wasn't going to take poverty anymore — I was a Christian, things were working fine. I woke up from a dream one day and I didn't like it. I knew what God had provided for me, I had been confessing it, but in the dream I was wretched. Then I woke up and said to myself: come on. I agree things are still changing gradually for the better for me physically, but even in my dream — I won't take this.

I took a notebook and began to write all the scriptures that have to do with the provisions God has made for our prosperity. I would go through them in the morning and in the evening, confess them as my reality. I was taking communion every day. I wanted to get to the point where I knew that I knew that I knew that poverty was finished forever for me — not just spiritually, but as my physical reality. And I did it for several weeks until I got to that point where I was absolutely certain.

When you can't take it anymore, the light came on in the mind of the prodigal son. He said, wait a minute — even a servant in my father's house would do better than this. I will arise, I will go to my father. That was the starting point. And the moment he made up his mind, heaven sanctioned it.

When he showed up in his father's house, the father threw a party, killed the fattest cow, put a robe around him, put a ring on his finger. Things worked even better than he thought.

A lot of the time, what God is waiting for is for you to make up your mind. What is provided for you is beyond anything you could imagine.

The Bible as a Mirror

The Bible says when I look into the word like a mirror, I see the glory of God and I am changed into the same image from one level of glory to the other.

Romans 8:28-30 — We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he predestinated, those whom he called, those whom he justified — those he glorified. The end of my destiny is glory. It's beauty, it's shining. I will not take anything less than that.

I prophesy in the name of Jesus Christ that as you watch and engage with this message, the power of the Holy Spirit will come on you and give you the grace to turn your dreams into reality. Heaven is open over you. The powers of hell are broken on your behalf. Receive a new level of spiritual authority. In the name of Jesus, speak those faith-filled words — heaven will move at the sound of your voice, angels will move at the sound of your voice, the material world will obey your voice. Things are changing on your behalf in the name of Jesus Christ.