In Deuteronomy 28, God told the Israelites if they would hearken diligently to His voice and do what He said, He would set them high above all nations. He told them to be diligent about His Word. That's because the curse, also listed in Deuteronomy 28, is out there working twenty-four hours a day. The devil is diligent in his destructive work, so they had to be diligent about the things of God.
If they obeyed God, He promised to bless them - not just a little here and there, but in every area of their natural lives. He said they'd be blessed in the city and in the field. Their children would be blessed. Their crops and livestock would be blessed. Their baskets and storehouses would be blessed.
He said they'd be blessed when they came in and when they went out. Their enemies would flee before them in all directions. Their finances and everything they put their hand to would be blessed.
God didn't leave anything out of that blessing! In spite of Satan's authority over the world at that time, God made a way through His Word for His people to have the most wonderful life that anyone could imagine - the life of a king! He desired for His people to be so blessed that the whole world would know, just by looking at them, they belonged to God.
Think about that. When God's people are blessed, He receives the respect He deserves from the rest of the world. Even the ungodly are forced to say, "Hey, those people serve a living, powerful God. They might start out at the bottom of the barrel, but their God always makes them rise to the top!"
Romans 5:17 clearly says He wants us to live and reign like kings. And now, because of the covenant of the blood of Jesus and the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we can do it - not just physically, but spiritually too. He has done everything He can to get us to raise our expectations higher.
He wants us to know that He is willing and able to do for us "superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think - infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams" (Eph. 3:20).
He wants us to believe His Word and act on it. He wants us to walk upright before Him. He wants us to fully take advantage of His covenant of blessing that we astonish the world. He wants us to be so assured of His blessings that we will stop being concerned about ourselves and start being a blessing to all the families of the earth. He wants us to live like kings!
Daily Scripture Reading: I have received God's overflowing grace and the free gift of righteousness. Therefore, I reign in life as a king through Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5:17)
For Further Study: Psalm 67
Daily Scripture Reading: Leviticus 21-22; Luke 16
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers