It’s time to enter into our giving part of worship today, our offering, where we bring and give to the Lord. I want to share a little devotional with you titled, “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.” All blessings flow from Him. So we’re going to go back to the beginning. Genesis 1:28, from the Amplified Classic: “And God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.’” He wants us to bring heaven to earth, right here on earth. God is not just a God of addition. He is the God of increase.
From the very beginning, He blessed man and empowered him to increase. That word translated “blessed” in Genesis 1:28 means they were prospered by God. And being prospered by God has four key things when you study it here. We have been empowered to advance, to make progress, to succeed, and be profitable. And that word profitable is also translated, to bring value. So we are empowered to advance, make progress, succeed, and bring value and receive value. As we give, we receive. God spoke that over all mankind as He was speaking over Adam and Eve. When we are blessed and prospered by God, you have within you everything you need to advance, to move forward, to be who He wants you to be. He’s given you everything you need to make progress. Even if it’s just baby steps, you’re still making progress. As Zig Ziglar used to say, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a step, and we just get up every day and we keep stepping. As we advance and make progress, we’re going to succeed. God has put the power within you to succeed, to overcome, to be victorious. And He wants us to be profitable, to bring value. We bring value to Him as we come and worship Him, and partner with Him, and sow into His kingdom. And in return, He brings value back to us. He gives us an abundant harvest.
We were just talking with our oldest daughter, and she was telling us that our grandkids were going, “When’s Nani and Papa going to come back? We miss them.” That thrilled my heart, because they were desiring to see us, and we’re desiring to see them. That’s how love flows back and forth. All blessings flow from God’s heart to you and then through you. Let me say that again. All blessings flow from God’s heart to you and then through you. There’s somebody today that needs to hear an encouraging word from you, needs a smile from you, needs a hug from you, just to be loved and encouraged. What God blesses you with, share with someone else.
James 1:17, from the Passion Translation: “Every gift God freely gives us is good and perfect, streaming down from the Father of lights, who shines from the heavens with no hidden shadow or darkness and is never subject to change.” He’s not going to change His mind and go, well, I know I said I’d do this for you, but now I don’t think I’m going to do it. That’s not God. God is faithful to His word, to His promises. As I meditated on these verses, I was reminded of the doxology: praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Four things flow from God to us as we recognize His blessing coming upon us. First, increase is the natural outflow of God’s blessings upon a life. When God blesses you, you increase in some way, every day. Second, it’s in His nature to multiply what we commit to His hands. When we give to God, when we surrender to God, He takes what we give Him and multiplies it. Every seed sown today will be multiplied in some way. It’s not about the amount we give Him. It is God’s ability to multiply it. The power of our giving is not in the amount; it’s in God’s ability to multiply it for His purpose and plan. And fourth, ongoing fruitfulness. You have the power, the capacity within you, to be fruitful for all eternity. That’s an eternal blessing. You can be fruitful all the days of your life here on the earth and then throughout eternity. God created you that way, because you’re created in His image and His likeness. John 15:5 in the Passion Translation: “I am the sprouting vine, and you are my branches. As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you. But when you live separated from me, you’re powerless.” All of our power to be all that God created us to be is resident within us, but we have to stay connected to Him every day — acknowledging Him, knowing Him, recognizing Him in all of our life.
Giving and planting seed originates in the heart and streams outwardly from within you. Then God brings the increase. And He always does. Second Corinthians 9:10, from the New King James Version: “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruit of your righteousness.” Every time you give, every time you sow seed into God’s kingdom — an offering, your tithes — God is going to increase that by working through it to reach others, and the fruits of your righteousness are going to increase. You have a harvest, an ongoing harvest we can’t even imagine. You’re going to get to heaven and go, whoa, look what God did.
So I want us to do a declaration together. Say this with me. I am a cheerful giver. I give with joy, not hesitation. I give with faith, not fear. My heart delights in giving. I trust You as my source and supply. I will always have more than enough to give to every good work, because from You all blessings flow. Thank You for multiplying the seed I sow and increasing the fruits of my righteousness. Amen. There are several ways you can give today. If you’re here with us live, there’s a QR code you can scan, or we have an offering basket here. Online, go to EmergeInternationalChurch.org, and there’s a Give button in the top right-hand corner. We thank you for partnering with us to reach the world with this good news of God’s love and grace. Father, we thank You today, and we trust You, Lord, for the increase we know is coming. You’ve promised us that as we sow, as we bring our tithes and offerings, the windows of heaven are open over us, and a blessing is pouring out on us. Because from You, all blessings flow, and we praise You for it, Father. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Father, we open our hearts to You today. We ask that You speak to us as we look into Your Word. I thank You for life, light, and love that flows from Your Word, Father. Your Word is alive and full of Your presence and Your power. So we come before You today and receive all that You have for us, that we may go out and represent You well here on the earth every day. In Jesus’ name, amen.
You know, over the last seven weeks we have been exploring the powerful presence of the Lord. It’s one of the great promises given to believers. Jesus not only saves us, but He also promises to be with us always. We saw that in Deuteronomy 31:8: I will be with you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I’ll go ahead of you. So don’t be afraid or dismayed. We looked at all six of those principles there. And Matthew 28:20 in the New Testament echoes that. Jesus said, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” So today we’re going to talk about the faithful presence of God. He never leaves us. He never forsakes us.
Deuteronomy 31:8 — Moses is speaking to Joshua and the children of Israel, and this word from the Lord was preparing them for the new season they were stepping into. It was a time of transition. Moses knew they must keep their focus on God. God had given him His word to ensure them, to empower them, to give them confidence in Him, and to keep their focus on His faithful presence so they could possess the land He had promised them. So today I want us to look at ten blessings of the faithful presence of God. Ten blessings, from God, from whom all blessings flow.
The first one: in Christ, we have strength for all things. Philippians 4:13 in the Amplified: “I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me. I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me. I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.” We are in Him. Jesus told the disciples in John 14 that we are in Him, and He is in us, and He is in the Father, so we’re in the Father with Him. We are seated with Him right now in that place where His strength and life can flow to us. We receive it, and it flows to us, so we’re prepared for whatever we’re facing. I love this part: I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him. In Christ, we have strength for all things. Whatever the challenge, He gives you strength to overcome. You are empowered by His strength, not your own. You don’t have to depend on your strength; we depend on His. By His strength, you are ready for anything and equal to anything. He infuses you with inner strength for today. Scripture says, don’t worry about tomorrow — tomorrow’s got its own stuff going on. Today, I’m infusing you with strength and life. You are self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency. He is your source of strength and your supply, and His strength never runs out. He is the all-powerful God.
Second: His presence brings peace. John 16:33 in the Passion Translation: “And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this unbelieving world, you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world.” He reminds us that we are in Him and He is within us, and His peace is ours. His peace gives us great confidence. No matter what we are facing, we know we are overcomers.
I want to share a little story with you. I’ve been the healthy one in my family since I was born. When I was a child, my brothers would get the measles or mumps or whatever was going around, and Mom would put me in bed with them, thinking, well, let’s just get this done with, because the doctors had told her if he doesn’t ever have it, he’s susceptible, and it’s better as a child than as an adult. And I never got it. Never had the measles, never had the mumps. As I grew up, the only times I saw a doctor were emergencies because I’d done something boyish and needed stitches in my foot or my head. We’re boys; it’s okay. Never been in the hospital. I worked in ministry, so I would go to the hospital to visit people and pray for them, but never been in one myself.
So we get to the end of 2020, and something had come on me. I didn’t know what it was, because I’m so tough — ah, I’ll be all right. We were laying in bed one night, and my lovely wife, Conia, reaches over and touches me and goes, “You’ve got a fever.” And I went, “I’ll be all right. It’ll pass. I’ll be good in the morning.” She goes, “No. Get up out of bed now. There’s something going on.” So we go down to the little emergency clinic not far from our house, and they tested me and said, “Yeah, you’ve got a urinary tract infection. Here, take these pills and go home and you’ll be fine.” Well, I did what they told me to, and then I woke up one morning with a fever again. And again I was saying, I’ll be fine, honey. And Conia said, “No, get in the car,” and took me back to the clinic, and they said, “Okay, what we gave you didn’t work, and the only other thing that will work is an IV. You need to go to the hospital now.” So we go to the hospital, and they test me and put me in a room. Now remember, this is during COVID, the end of 2020, beginning of 2021 — not 1920, I’m not that old.
They put me in a room, and because neither one of us had COVID, they allowed Conia to stay in the room with me, in a little recliner chair by my bed, and they had me propped up in the bed. And I will never forget — the urologist comes in to see me and says, “So I hear you’ve never been in the hospital.” I said, “Yeah.” He goes, “Have you had checkups?” And I went, eh, I hadn’t done a whole lot of that. He goes, “Yeah, that’s why you’re here now. Bad news is you’re septic. It’s gotten outside your urinary tract and it’s throughout your body. Good news is I know how to fix it. So we’re going to fix it so you don’t ever have to come back in here again, right?” And I went, “Yes, sir.” And thank God he was a believer also.
We were there in the night, and Conia and I had prayed, and I was just laying there in bed, and Conia was holding my hand. She had dozed off to sleep, and as she was holding my hand, I heard the Lord say, “You’re healed. Just trust Me. You’re healed.” And I went, okay. And the peace — literally, guys, the peace that passes understanding just saturated my whole being. And I’m laying there holding her hand going, oh Lord, I’ve had peace, but I don’t want to lose this. I don’t want this to ever go away. God’s peace came and surrounded me, and I knew I was healed. They kept me in the hospital a few days, did the IVs, and sent me home with an IV hookup I had to do every day. And as we came into 2021, I had done all the meds, and we were going for a checkup. The urologist had the scope and was scanning me, looking inside at my bladder. And all of a sudden I hear this: “Whoa. What is this? I’ve never seen this before in all my years of practice.” And I went, what is it? And he goes, “You have a brand new bladder. It’s like the bladder of a baby. With all I’ve done to you and all you told me you’ve been through, your bladder should be all scarred up. It’s brand new.” And I said, “That’s what we were praying and believing for.” He goes, “Well, that’s all I can say it is, because there’s no way this could happen any other way.” Praise God. No matter what we are facing, know that you’re an overcomer. When God spoke to me that first night and said, it’s okay, you’re healed, I took His word, I took it by faith, and the path He had for us to walk was just to complete the treatment. But in the end, His great blessing was: I gave you a brand new bladder. God is so good. So be courageous, because He has conquered the world. He’s conquered every infection out there. His victory makes you more than a conqueror.
Third: His presence provides comfort. Second Corinthians 1:3-4, New King James: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” The God of all comfort comforts us. There is nothing you can experience, nothing you can go through, that He can’t comfort you in. His comfort then empowers us to comfort those around us who are troubled. We share what God has given us with others. Not only does He work in our lives, He also works through us to touch those around us. Jesus said, love others as you love yourself, and this is one way we love others — by sharing God’s comfort and peace with them. I’m thinking right now of a close friend of ours, a member of our group. Her sister’s daughter had some kind of infection, and she was about seven months pregnant, and they had to deliver the baby. Guess what? The baby’s okay. And now mama’s okay too. We all prayed together, we stood together, we brought comfort, we believed together, shared our faith together, and God worked and brought comfort to that family. Praise God.
Fourth: His presence gives guidance. Proverbs 3:5-6 in the Amplified: “Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind, and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.” The key is at the beginning: lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord. Conia and I laugh about this — how many times God shows us something we need to do, and that toddler rises up in us and goes, me do it myself. And God’s going, I’m right here. I already have the way, if you’ll just trust Me. Don’t rely on your own insight or understanding. God will give you insight and understanding, and as you seek Him, He will give you wisdom. When David became king of Israel, the Philistines came against him, and he prayed and sought the Lord, and the Lord said, go out and meet them face to face in the valley. I’m with you. So they did, and they conquered them and the Philistines ran away. Then the Philistines decided, we’re going to come back and show David who we are. And David said, “Lord, they’re coming back again. Do I do what I did last time? Do we go out and meet them head on?” And He said, “No. This time go hide in the trees and flank them. Surprise them. Come behind them.” And they defeated them again. God’s always got a strategy for every situation, and we just need to get His insight, His input, and then we can move forward confidently. Sometimes He’ll tell you, yeah, you’re on the path, do it the way you’re thinking. Sometimes He’ll say, no, let’s do it this way. But the point is to be leaning on, trusting in, and being confident in Him, knowing Him, recognizing Him, acknowledging Him in all of your life. And He will direct and make straight and plain your paths. God is a master trailblazer. He can create paths and take you places you never thought you could go.
Fifth: His presence gives courage. Hebrews 13:5-6, New King James: “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” Don’t be driven by covetousness. Covetousness is greediness — loving money more than you love others or God. But the reality is God’s our source. Don’t depend on your resources. Always look to Him because He is more and better. That’s Pastor Conia’s quote: He is more and better. Be content with the Lord’s goodness — and that word goodness means all of who He is, all His glory. Be content with all of His glory, His goodness, His supply, and you’ll always have more than enough for whatever you’re facing. Come boldly declaring: the Lord is my helper; I will not fear. As we saw a few weeks ago, fear is not reality. It’s something the enemy uses to make you believe this is the way it’s going to be and you are powerless, and he’s using it to steal from you what God has for you. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Conia and I have a dear friend, part of our board for Emerge International, who works in the area of finance. Somebody he was in partnership with came against him and accused him of all these things. So we just joined with him in faith and started praying: no weapon that comes against me shall prosper. Every tongue that comes against me in judgment shall be shown to be in the wrong, for this is my heritage as a child of the living God. And over time — it looked like they were going to sue him and take him to court — all of a sudden the investigation showed that the other people were the ones doing the wrong thing, not him. And God redeemed him and delivered him from that situation. If he’d tried to do it on his own — and this is his testimony — he could have been fighting that for years. But God delivered him. Do not fear. What can man do to you? Stay in His presence.
Sixth: His presence produces joy. Pastor Conia was working on a tech situation this morning, and she’s in the other room, and she just went, woo-hoo! Yay! And Sister Corrie here started laughing and said, your joy is contagious. Conia is always very outgoing with her joy. John 15:9-11, New King James: “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” Commandments there is instruction, but it’s a command too, because this is the way you need to live life. This is the way it works. That’s what God’s saying. He calls it a commandment because He says, don’t step outside this. Here’s the way I designed it to work. As a young boy, I learned that when I step off the roof of the house, I’m going to fall and probably twist something or break something. But as boys, we always think, if I’d have jumped this way and landed different. God’s going, no, it’s the law of gravity. But He says, live in My love and keep My commandments. Walk in the way I tell you to walk. True joy is found in fellowship with Christ every day. Sometimes I get in the car and go for a drive, and I’m walking out of the car and I go, hey, Lord, Jesus, Holy Spirit, You guys want to go for a drive with me? Come on, let’s go explore. And I get in the car and just talk to the Lord like I’d talk to anybody else about what I’m thinking, or did you hear about this, or what do You think? We just have this great time fellowshipping together. God is saying, come hang out with Me. I love hanging out. True joy is found in fellowship with Christ. Follow His way of living, and joy to the full, till it overflows, will be yours. That is what Jesus said in John 10:10: the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I came to give you life, abundant life, to the full till it overflows. God wants you to have life overflowing right here, today, now. But to do it, we just stay in His presence. We fellowship with Him.
Seventh: His presence gives victory over temptation. Hebrews 4:14-16: “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Jesus is the High Priest of our life. We can bring it all to Him. Hold fast to this confession: Lord, You are my God. You are my High Priest. Knowing this — He was tempted as we are. He came as a man to the earth and was tempted, yet without sin. He didn’t give in to the temptation of the enemy. And because we’ve been redeemed, set free from our past and our sin, sanctified and cleansed, a child of God through Jesus Christ, we can come boldly to the throne of grace. Every minute, every second of every day, you have free access to the throne of God. Come before Him. Lay out your request. Seek wisdom. He says, I’m here, I’ll freely give it to you. In His presence, you will obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. His grace, His favor, is yours every day.
Eighth: His presence bears spiritual fruit. John 15:4-5, New King James: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing.” Abiding in Christ transforms our character. Paul talked about that in Romans 12:2 — we’re renewed, we’re transformed. Spending time in His presence, in His Word, worshiping, meditating, praying, studying, transforms who we are so that we become more and more like Christ. Every day you should get up knowing this: He is in you and you are in Him. You may not feel like you’re all in that day, you may be concerned about what you’re facing, but know this: He is in you and you are in Him. You are not walking alone. As we lean into Him, He is able to bear much fruit through us. Without Him, without plugging in to that source of power, His grace, His ability, we can’t do anything eternal. And sometimes we think about doing something with an eternal impact — it kind of bends your brain, it’s hard to imagine. But if you help one person, bring comfort to them, minister to them, and they find Christ, you’ve had an eternal impact right there. And not only have you impacted them, you’ve impacted everyone they’re going to interface with now and influence. Every day, as we go forth, we can have an eternal influence and impact on those around us.
Ninth: His presence gives hope. Romans 15:13, New King James: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” God wants you to abound in hope. One of the things we find as we go out — there’s a lot of hopelessness. People are wishing and waiting, but they have no real hope. This verse says He is the God of hope. He is in you and fills you with hope and peace. Hope in the Greek is translated active expectation. It’s not sitting around wishing and waiting. It’s getting up every day, going out and expecting it, looking for it, knowing God’s going to provide it. It also means confident expectation — I know who I’m trusting in, and I am confident it’s coming. It is mine. It is done. And it means unshakable expectation — hope so strong in you, it doesn’t matter what anybody else says, what the situation looks like, or what people are telling you. I know that my God is more than enough, and I am more than victorious. I am an overcomer. I am more than a conqueror. Get up every day expecting it. Hope fuels faith. Hope brings confidence to your faith. And that word confidence, if you break it down: con, C-O-N, means with — chili con carne, chili with meat. That’s a big Texas thing. Forget them beans, bring me some steak. But con, with. F-I, faith. D-E, today. With faith for today. That’s what confidence means. I come with faith for today. I know my God is with me.
Tenth: His presence assures us of His faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23, New King James: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” That’s the verse the old hymn is based on, Great Is Your Faithfulness. The faithful love of God sustains us. His love and mercy for us is new every morning. When you got up today, God’s love for you was new. His faithfulness is great. It’s forever and always.
The faithful presence of Christ means we are never alone. Because He is with us, we have strength for every challenge. Peace in the storm. Comfort in every sorrow. Wisdom for every decision. Courage in every battle. Joy in every circumstance. Victory over temptation. Spiritual growth and fruitfulness. Hope for today and eternity. And confidence in His unfailing faithfulness and love for us. Matthew 28:20 — we started with this, and I want to end with this: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Remember, on days when you feel alone, He’s right there with you. He never leaves you. He never forsakes you. Don’t step into fear. Don’t be dismayed. Trust in the Lord God, who is always with you. His presence is constant. His presence is not based on our feelings or our circumstances. His unchanging faithfulness is new every day, and He is here with us.
Father, thank You for this time in Your Word, and thank You, Lord God, for Your presence. You are here right now. Thank You for being with us. Thank You for anointing us and using us and loving us and partnering with us to see Your kingdom come and Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. We give You praise and glory for it all, in Jesus’ name. Pastor Conia is coming now with a closing word and prayer.
We’ve been spending a great deal of time this week just sitting with God and going, okay, Lord, what do You have for me? And things we think we’ve heard, that we know, we’ve heard a hundred times, sometimes still haven’t settled in our hearts. We adore taking time with God, and He adores taking time with us. And what we need to understand is, it’s just like craving the presence of that little child, or that crush you had, or that lovely spouse you love, that you want to get back to. One of our friends has been on a really long trip, and he’s like, I’ve got to get back to my dog and my wife. Just like he’s craving his dog and his wife, God craves us, and He wants us to crave Him. And the closer we get to Him, the easier the blessings flow. Father, thank You for this time today. Thank You for Your time every day. Thank You that we just have to draw close to You and You are there, and the blessings will flow. Father, I bless everybody in the sound of our voice, whether here or over the wavelengths You’ve set up to spread Your word worldwide, that we are Emerge International, Lord. Thank You for every member, virtual or in person. We love You, Lord. We praise You and we thank You. In Jesus’ name, amen. Y’all have a great week.
