Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Eph. 1:3
Wow, this sounds absolutely wonderful, but what does it really mean? What is ‘every spiritual blessing’? What is it that I’ve been blessed with now that I am ‘in Christ‘, having been joined to Jesus as ‘one spirit‘? (1 Cor. 6:17)
Isaiah 11:2-3 says about Christ: The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord…
Wait a second! That says I now have, with Christ, the very Spirit of God resting upon me, imparting to me wisdom, power, knowledge, and understanding, and a holy reverence for my Father?
Is it really possible to overestimate what that should mean for my confidence in going through life and navigating the trials and tribulations that await me?
1 Tim. 2:7 further supports this: For He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. Rom. 8:15 adds to this: For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again (note: now that our old life as a slave to Satan in the domain of darkness has been killed and we have been resurrected with Christ to a brand new life, eternal life, God’s very life – Col. 1:12), but a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out ‘Abba, Father’!
This means that my identity as a son of the Most High God is sourced in the most fundamental part of me – my spirit. It is my essence…
And having been established at my spiritual re-birth, and not by conduct, this truth about my new identity, who I now am and with what I’ve been blessed in Christ, can never, ever change!
In light of what ‘every spiritual blessing’ apparently means, can there be any room left for fear, anxiety, stress, or timidity? The answer is quite obvious -NO!
Let this sink in, and let us now resolve to live out from this awesome truth of the scope of the Father’s ‘spiritual blessings‘ now upon us in Christ Jesus!