The Salvation of God and His Promises and Blessings

Romans 10:9. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Anyone who has ever declare this with his mouth knows in his heart that he has received God’s gift of salvation. And that it is by grace we have been saved, through faith—and this is not from ourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8). Our salvation, our eternal life is a gift, God’s gracious gift, that we received through faith. As soon as we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord and God raise Him from the dead, there was never any doubt in our hearts and minds about our salvation.

When it comes to the salvation of our spirit and soul –– there was never any doubt on our part about the grace of God. Why then do we doubt when it comes to healing, finances, joy, peace, love etc.?

Don’t you think that God, when providing a roadmap for the redemption of our souls and spirit, also provided for healing and finances and joy and peace and love? Do you think that God only care and love us just enough to only provide a way to redeem our souls? And then after we’re saved, we have to plead and beg Him for all His other blessings? What happen to our faith after we got saved? Are we now trying to earn God’s blessings?

Paul had these questions to the church of Galatia in chapter 3 of his letter.

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

Think about it… would God freely (purely by His merciful grace) redeem our soul and spirit from death and hell but would not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it (Malachi 3:10). Did God suddenly change His mind about us? Is He using a different yardstick to judge us now that we’re saved? Is God thinking that, “Now that I’ve saved him from hell, I think I’ll make him work and beg and plead with me if he wants anything more. There’s only so much I can freely do for him.”

Jesus said in Matthew 7:11, If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

If the floodgates of heaven have not open for us then who or what do you think is the reason? You or God? We don’t have a book written about you so we don’t know about you but God has a book about Him. Let’s see a few things God says about Himself in his book.

• Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. (Ps 147:5)
• Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? (Ps 139:7ff)
• Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” (Jer 32:27)
• … God, who cannot lie, … (Tit 1:2)
• God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. (Num 23:19)
• … God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. (James 1:13)
• If we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself (2 Tim 2:13)
• For I am the Lord, I do not change. (Mal 3:6)
• All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16)
• … no prophecy of Scripture (i.e. the writings of the holy bible) came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. (2 Pet 1:20)
• prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Pet 1:21)

If you’re not seeing the blessings of the promises of God, the problem is never with Him. Jesus said in Matthew 7:7,8 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

There are other similar promises from Jesus.

• “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, … … if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matt 21:21,22)
• I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (John 14:13,14)
• Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:24)
• If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you (John 15:7)

 If it’s only a matter of asking then every Christian would be walking in the fullness of God (Eph 3:19) every day of their lives. But this is not the case. Most Christians are not much different from their unbelieving neighbors – they’re just as poor, miserable, sick, fearful, depress. Why do you think that is?

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures (James 4:3).

James 1:6-8. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

Psalms 66:18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.

Have you ever considered that perhaps you are the problem when your prayers are unanswered? Are you praying with selfish motives? Are you doubting God and his promises? Are you still cherishing sin in your heart? Is the Word abiding in you?

Jesus himself did not do many mighty works [in his own hometown] because of [the people’s] unbelief (Matt 15:58).

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you (John 15:7). I believe that this is a very crucial direction that Jesus gave us about prayer… the words of Jesus abiding in us.

The word abide here is from the Greek word menō and it means to remain; not to depart; to continue to be present. What Jesus is saying here is that His word, all of the holy scriptures, must never depart from us.

How are you doing in this aspect? You might reason that you have a job and a family to care for – you can’t possibly spend hours every day in the Word. That’s very true… Paul even says that if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim. 5:8).

Paul again says in 2 Thess 3:7,8. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.

So how do we balance between working, providing for our family and abiding in the Word? We can follow Joshua’s example in 1:8. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night…

How often do you worry? Do you set aside some special time where you’re doing nothing but worry about your life? Definitely not! We can very easily worry about things as we go about our daily lives and work.

Now think of meditating on the Word to be the exact opposite of worrying. If worrying is pushing you down and turning your hair grey then meditating on the Word will build you up. Instead of worrying, you can instead meditate on the Word – pick a verse or two and meditate on them as you go about your daily work.

For example: 1 Peter 5:6. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God… As you meditate on these verses you can think about all the different ways you can humble yourself not only before the Lord but also before your friends and family. Maybe you’re someone who’s struggling with pride. As you meditate on verses like these God will work your heart. Would you rather meditate on verses like these and humble yourself before God or would you rather think about ways to get even with someone? What do you think the will of God is in this aspect?

Meditate on the Word – this would be a good starting place to let the Word abide in you.

So why is knowing the Word important? Let’s look at what the Word itself says about it.

• I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Ps. 119:11)
• All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16,17)
• Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105)
• … The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life (John 6:63)
• For the word of God is alive and active. (Hebrews 4:12a NIV)
• Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (Romans 10:17)

Knowing the word is essential for receiving the blessings and promises of God. God has already done His part by the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s our responsibility to received, by faith, what God’s grace has already provided for.

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24). Note that the healing here is already done; it’s in the past tense. Along with the forgiveness of our sins, Jesus also provided for our healing. We no longer have to pray for God to heal us – healing has already been provided. Rather whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Deut 31:6, Heb 13:5, Josh 1:5 promises that “God will never leave you nor forsake you”. Why then do we pray and ask God to be with us? I imagine God confused why we would even ask him this when he’s already promised that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

These are just 2 examples of how knowing the word and the promises of God would cause us to pray differently.

Like developing our muscles, developing a relationship with God and faith in his word will take time too. We must meditate on it day and night. If you don’t have enough faith to believe that God will heal your headache, do you think you’ll be cured of more serious illnesses? And when your prayers go unanswered, you say, “it must not be God’s will to heal”. I think this really saddens God; it saddens him that not only are we believing all these lies but we have somehow put the blame on him – all in our effort to deflect responsibility from ourselves and soothe our guilty consciences. For we can now say that I’ve done my part and prayed, God is the one who did not heal; His ways are mysterious.

When you don’t know the Word how are you going to release all of the promises into your life? How are you going to stand in faith in the promises of God when you don’t even know what his promises are? No wonder you’re no different from your unbelieving neighbor.

Would God love you any less if you don’t know His Word? Never! For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

… neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38,39).

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!... (1 John 3:1).

I believe that it is God’s will for us to experience the fullness of his promises in this life on Earth. Everything that we have ever needed or will ever need has been provided for through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb. 10:10).

Every one of us would like to experience the fullness of the promises. The grace of God has already provided for everything that we will ever need. Do you have the faith for these promises? Do you remember how you can build up your faith? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.