The scandal of particularity is that the Source, the Author, the Creator of all things visible and invisible chooses to bless you. Everyone whom God blesses still lives their stories; they still have their challenges. However, they were chosen, blessed, and sent. Thus there are two simultaneous realities, which do not contradict each other, although they appear paradoxical. For example, Jesus Christ, the Beloved Son of the Father, full of grace and truth grew in favour with God and man (Luke 2:52). That is a paradox: two different realities that are simultaneously true. Now are we the sons of God but “it doth not yet appear what we shall be” (1 John 3:2). Your sonship identity is immutable, however, to simply affirm that you are a son of God does not mean you are everything you are to be. That is not what the Apostles teach. We have all but there is more in God. You are still awakening to all that you have. We bear the Divine Image but we are being changed into His likeness; we are partakers of His Divine Nature, but we are being raised into the fullness of His stature. We mutually indwell each other, but Christ is to be at home in you.
God has freely and fully given grace in Christ. However, as multidimensional and powerful as grace is, it can only be experienced one moment at a time. Grace must be received because Christ is beyond belief. Union with Him is not necessarily communion. Christ can dwell in you as a stranger. In other words, your pursuits, life choices, and the things to which you commit yourself have nothing to do with Him. With all of His immensity, God has chosen intimacy with us. We should not just think of union, but commune with His Being because there are thoughts He wants to implant in our minds.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” – Ephesians 1:3
The term “Blessedness” is God’s title. Only the Blessed One can bless and when He blesses, He is sharing His Life, calling you to participate in what He is doing. The Blessed One blesses us with His blessedness. For God to bless, He must stoop. Prior to creation, He resolved to stoop to this creature called man, to exalt him and appoint him as His own son. Until you have the portrait of God as your Father, you cannot know what it means to be blessed by the God who blesses. The Apostle Paul gives us a panoramic view of God’s blessing. He was blessing before He created the cosmos, and His sense of blessedness reached a certain point of intensity that could not be contained any longer within the Trinity. Thus, He included us in the celebration of His own love; He called us into happiness and joy. He conferred blessings that are not to be sought out but to be acknowledged and appreciated. You are endowed with blessing.
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” – Ephesians 1:4-5
We were chosen, pre-selected in Christ. We are in Him and to be in Him is to be blameless, and unimpeachable. God is your righteousness. You are kept holy because He is Holy. Elevate your mind and recognize who you are. You are the son of God; be the son that you are! You are loved of God; you are embraced by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The predestination of the Gospel is that God chose you to be His son. This is your supernatural vocation. Before the horizons of time and space, God already appointed you. You are now on a journey of unveiling and of transformation where what you are on the inside is emerging and pushing itself forward. God chose to have you; you are the child He has always wanted. Before you came, He was already enjoying the relationship. He claimed you long before creation. It will therefore be unwise to think that He has not cared for you because, in Christ Jesus, He chose in absolute freedom to have you as His son. The reference to the term “son” has no implication of any gender. In Christ Jesus, God gave the charter of sonship. He created the species that would have the same relationship that Christ had with Him from the eternal ages; the species that would share in all that Jesus Christ is to Him. He brought forth creation to extend the party that was in the Trinity before the eternal ages. The cross of Christ revealed your identity (it did not bestow your identity to you). His blood reveals the extent to which God was willing to go to reclaim what He intended for humanity.
This article is an excerpt from Dr. Shawn Smith’s message titled “Blessed with all Blessings”. Order the complete message on gcmonlinestore.com.