Philip Dampier's Blog

Chapter 1, Verse 3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,”

There are those in our world today who preach a material prosperity gospel. For millions of believers who live in poverty, this is a very questionable doctrine. Jesus himself said we would always have poor people with us and He wasn’t just referring to unbelievers.

The most substantial percent of well-off people, Christian or not, had advantages that others did not have. They or their ancestors spent time working for their prosperity. There are too many materially prospered non-believers to accept the idea that following Jesus will necessarily bless you with earthly goods. God does bless the faithful saints spiritually.

Not just some but all spiritual blessings; every single one. Think about it. All Christians who follow Jesus get all His blessings. No one gets more or less. We get them all. Tell me that’s not awesome! God knows how to give His children good gifts. He holds nothing back. First, He gave Christ to die for us and then all the spiritual gifts of heaven.

Now notice where these blessings are. They are in the heavenly places. In the spiritual world, no less. They are given to the inner man. These gifts do not show up in my garage or your marina. They don’t come as houses by the sea or cabins on the lake. None of them are for earthly consumption. They aren’t given to us to spend them on ourselves. They are not this-worldly.

Every Christian has these heavenly blessings. We are children of God, heirs of our father and joint heirs with Christ. All that God has is ours. We have God, Christ and the Holy Spirit living in us, transforming us to be like God. Preparing our spirit to live in heaven in the presence of God for all eternity.

What God gives is superior to mansions on a hill, houses on the beach, and cabins by the lake or boats in the marinas. (These are examples only, substitute as you please.) I personally have way more material blessings than I need, but they are nothing compared to the spiritual blessings I have in Christ.

One more thing, material blessings are to share with others, but the spiritual blessings are my personal gift from my heavenly father to bring me closer to Him. They may well encourage me to share him with others in order that others may have the blessings also.

We spend a lot of time thanking God for our material blessings because we have them. What if we didn’t? Why don’t we spend equal time thanking God for our spiritual blessings? I hope it isn’t because we love one more than the other. The entire total of material blessings has much less value than one spiritual blessing. I believe God wants us to focus on His spiritual gifts so that whether we are materially well off, or in most profound poverty, we will see that we are wealthy beyond words.

Task for Today: Count your blessings! No kidding. Only don’t count your earthly blessings. Forget the family, house, car, and clothes and so forth this time around and think about what you have that the world does not have. They have all those things, but they don’t have spiritual blessings from God because they are not His children. You are. Start counting.