How To Preserve The Blessing

Many times, we walk right back into the very same situations God brought us out of by a great and mighty hand, not because God became weak all of a sudden, or lost His dominion and authority, but because we forgot how we got out of it in the first place.

When God institutes a process, He is meticulous enough to factor in the entire start-to-finish plan in the blueprint.  He doesn't need to repeat Himself over any particular matter.  In His laws are embedded a dimension of His power that brings those realities to pass, once the force of obedience is engaged.  This goes to say that within everything created is the ability to re-create itself.  That is why God never asked the man to be seedful but to be fruitful.  The seeds will produce fruits which will produce more seeds that will produce fruits with seeds in them, and so the circle continues.  The same circle continues across various sectors of human life.  Every human endeavor is supposed to be self-sustaining.  Every human endeavor is supposed to be re-inventing.  When a tree stops bearing fruits, it is not because the seed was bad, the existence of the tree is proof enough that the seed is alive, rather, a tree void of fruits is an indication that somewhere along the line, something went wrong, a particular process in the chain of events was tempered with.

When God designed the salvation system, for instance, He did it by ensuring the lamb was sacrificed once, but the effect of that sacrifice was perpetually in force.  When a sinner needed to be saved, the lamb did not have to die again, rather the provision of Romans 10:9-10 was brought into force "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation".  This, put an end to the yearly sacrifice of goats and doves, for the validity and duration of the atonement was determined by the age of the sacrifice.  The lamb for the sacrifice in the old testament was supposed to be one year of age, and that is why the sacrifice was valid for one year.  But by the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the ageless lamb paid the ultimate sacrifice, and that makes the validity ageless.

The prosperity template was designed intentionally, to the end that all we needed was a seed, and we would make fruits out of it, then we go on to multiply those seeds and replenish their supply, to ensure that the fruits never ran out of stock.  This was the pattern for dominion, as designed by God.  God didn't need to open a printing and minting facility, to meet the prosperity demands of His children, all He needed to do was sow the right seeds of creative ideas into the productive minds of His children.  This explains the drought of fruits on some trees.  The seed has been provided, but the quality of the ground in which it was sown is what determined the quality of the harvest seen on the tree eventually.  So, when next you see a tree not bearing much fruit, kindly remember that the problem was never with the seed, but the ground in which it was planted.  Every seed has; locked up within it; great potentials for great manifestation, but it all depends on the ground.

The health policy was built around the structure of service and transformation.  God's Son was whipped and by those stripes, our healing was purchased, but to come into that economy of divine health, we need to engage the dual forces of service and mind development.  While God blesses our bread and water and takes sicknesses from our midst; there are also dimensions to this health benefit that comes on the wings of the prosperity of your soul, "...and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth".  This suggests that our health insurance policy is only enjoyed when the premium of service and soul transformation are paid.  So, rather than cry over sickness and disease, engage in kingdom service, and have a developed and transformed mindset, and your health will prosper.  There is a dimension of health that only service can bring you into. Just as there is a dimension of health that can only be accessed through a developed mind.  You can imagine your health potentials if you combine the duality of service and mental prosperity.

These are just a few pointers to the fact that when God designs a system, He does it with such precision and thoroughness that He need not meddle with the process anymore.  

In Hosea 12:13, we see something peculiar about another of God's self-sustaining designs.  "And by a prophet, the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved".  I had earlier told us how God builds a system and embeds in it a dimension of His power to keep that system in motion perpetually.  In this scripture, we see that God built the systems of deliverance and preservation in His prophet.  

Let's take a sweep across some translations and see how they render this scripture for us.

"I sent the prophet Moses to lead Israel from Egypt and to keep them safe". CEV

"The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet he cared for him". NIV

"Your real identity is formed through God-sent prophets, who led you out of Egypt and served as faithful pastors". MSG

"But the Lord used a prophet and brought Israel out of Egypt. He used a prophet and kept Israel safe".  ERV

From these few translations, we can deduce the following;

1.    God designed a system for deliverance.

2.    That system of deliverance was institutionalized in an office known as the prophetic.

3.    That office is administered by the person of the prophet.

4.    That prophet becomes God's strategy for sustaining the blessing.

5.    The Prophet is an all-inclusive package that has all you need to survive.

This is indicative of the fact that God's system of deliverance and preservation is "the prophet".  However, it is pertinent for us to note and strictly adhere to the following if we are to profit from the prophet.

The prophet that can profit you must first and foremost be sent to you:  Just as there were many widows in Israel during the famine, but it was only to the widow of Zarephath that Elijah was sent.  She received him, his office, and his ministry, and she lived through the famine.  That a prophet is in your land, does not mean that the prophet is sent to you.  Moses was born and bred in the land of Egypt, but until God sent him to advocate the exodus of the Israelites, they never knew he was sent to them.  Never assume that a man of God in your vicinity is sent to you, it may be a costly assumption with dire consequences.

Secondly, the prophet must be sent by God: We live in a world of proves, where every claim is backed up by undeniable evidence.  This is why a prophet sent by God must be validated by God.  Our society is filled with many acclaimed prophets sent by God with no proof of them being sent by God.  Mark 16:20 "And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen".  This goes to say that every move initiated by God must be authenticated by God Himself.

Thirdly, the prophet must have a definite assignment for you, that you can benefit from: No man, truly sent to you, comes without a word from God to you.  When Moses left the burning bush, he had a clear-cut assignment.  When Samson was born, he had a definite agenda.  When Jesus was born, He had a job description.  Everybody with a specific task, all through scripture, had the benefit of the larger society as the result of that task.  The assignment culminated in the ultimate satisfaction of the target audience.  1 John 3:8b "...For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil".

Fourthly, the prophet must be able to ensure your survival: The assignment of the prophet doesn't just stop at bringing you out of bondage, the job function is an inseparable duality.  On one hand, is your exodus from Egypt, on the other hand, is ensuring you get through the wilderness, to the promised land, and into your inheritance. Captured in the offer of his engagement for your life and destiny is that he keeps you safe, cares for you, be a faithful pastor, meets your spiritual needs (Check my post on needs vs wants), and ensures you live a life that profits the Father. 

Finally, the prophet must sustain the capacity to execute that mandate: It is to this end that Jesus asked the disciples to tarry in the upper room till they are endued with power from on high.  Not until Jesus was certified and approved for ministry, He stayed in the secret place.  Many prophets have been called and sent to you, they even brought you a word from the Lord and they were not lying about it. Some of them could keep you safe from the ravenous wolves of false teachers, they could care, nurture and admonish you. They were faithful pastors who met your spiritual needs and ensured you lived lives that were pleasing to God.  They were able to carry out their mandates because they could do so.  This is what Paul the apostle meant when He told his son to make full proof of his ministry. Study to show yourself approved.  Work to show yourself approved.  Serve to show yourself approved.  Meet the needs of others to show yourself approved.

Assuming you receive a word of prophecy from your pastor and through the discipline of doctrine and conformity to spiritual standards, you position yourself in the place where God brings His sent word to pass.  Now the blessing has arrived, and just like Abraham, you now have the Isaac you waited twenty-five (25) years for,  the question then becomes, how do you keep it?  The preservation of the blessing begins with remembering how the blessing came to you in the first place.

Could this be the reason why that blessing didn't last? Many of us are quick to receive our healings and runoff, but very few have returned to the same prophet that healed you to say "Thank you". It was the one leaper that returned that was made whole. The little limited results you loudly boast of, are proof that you are still healed and not made whole. When you are made whole, it's proof that you went back to return the glory to its rightful owner. That you didn't come back to appreciate the prophet through whom you were delivered, I can accurately predict that that deliverance may not be preserved.

There is something your appreciation to the prophet does to the deliverance he brought your way, it preserves the blessing for you.  It is the blessing that is preserved that can now multiply and replenish.  Dominion is only possible in this realm.  So, our journey to dominion begins with recognizing that the seed was given through a prophet, and it is in appreciating that vessel or channel that the seed is preserved.  The preserved seed then bears fruits that multiply.  This multiplication becomes the strategy for replenishing, which makes you stay relevant through seasons.  A plant that flourishes both in season and out of season is a go-to destination for all and sundry.

In conclusion:

If that blessing can be traced back to its source, it can be sustained.  By a prophet, their deliverance came, in the same vein, by the same prophet will the preservation come.  If your business breakthrough came by a prophet, it can only be preserved by a prophet.  If your job came by a prophet, it can only be kept by a prophet.  That your promotion that came by a prophet can only be sustained by the prophet. 

The secret to preserving any and every blessing is encoded in how the blessing came about in the first place.

Grace and Mercy!!!

Amb. Emmanuel Etukudo

Kingdom Wealth Ambassador