Ephesians 1:3,4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord the Messiah (Yashua) who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Yashua. According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
The Messiah has blessed with every spiritual blessing (given by the Holy Spirit) in heavenly realms…heavenly places. What did we have on earth that symbolized heavenly places? The sanctuary’s holy and most holy places. It involves the principle of “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Genesis 1 says that God made everything and it was good. His original intent “good” was our beginning. That pronouncement is what we need to keep our eyes on and our hearts remember who we are in God—what He created.
There is a story of an Indian tribe that has a practice when someone does something wrong, they surround that person and for a long time their comments to him/her are reminders of all their goodness. This is really finding a way for the light to dispel the darkness.
Ephesians 1:3 does something similar for us. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord the Messiah. The Messiah, through the Holy Spirit, has blessed us with all of Heaven’s spiritual blessings.
What God did at creation—pronouncing “good” over us, the Messiah has done through the Holy Spirit in giving us Heaven's spiritual blessings—the fruit of the Spirit as well as an understanding through the Beatitudes of how these blessings find application in our redeemed lives.
In the Garden of Eden, we were made stewards (caretakers) of the garden. Now, we are caretakers of a heavenly garden (our heart/God’s throne) that grows the fruit of the Spirit. Not only can we have an appreciation of these fruit, we tend that garden as if we are cultivating Eden in our hearts. These fruit are Heaven’s character and this privilege of stewardship of the fruit is a process of being changed by beholding…sanctification.
If you look at Ephesians 1:4, there is another gift from the garden that Messiah is giving us. “According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
Again, His original intent “before the foundation of the world” was that we be holy (in agreement with God) and without blame before Him in love. This is so amazing. In Colossians, we are told that in Christ is the fullness of the Godhead and that we are complete in Him. We are also told that in Christ, we have the mind of Christ. Blame is not something that fits our original creation parameters. It is not our stuff. It is the devil's. If you are living your life from this place of blame (self or others or God), remember that it is the lie of who you are. Let this beautiful truth shine its light in that darkness.
Let us each bask in the Sonlight that we are without blame before Him. I heard a pastor say one time that God is faith sensitive not sin sensitive. He has made a way for us to live in this beautiful light of God’s original intent for us. Praise God.
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