Bless Me Indeed #3 (Four Part Teaching)
(Meaning of Bless in Hebrew)
Please read parts 1-2 as a foundation for this part of Bless Me Indeed.
In order to receive the Lord's blessings we need to be able to RECEIVE from Him. When the Lord wants to bless us He wants to give us something of His heart. He always gives, but we do not always know how to receive from Him. This is why He wants to renew our minds. Through the renewal of our minds He shows us who He really is, He gives of Himself, and we can receive. We cannot give back to the Lord if we do not know how to receive from Him. It is only after we receive and experience His unconditional love, that we can bear such fruits.
We tend to think that the Lord wants our "stuff". He wants our hearts. He wants to be a Lover for His Bride. Can He marry a Bride who does not even long for Him? Can He marry a woman who doesn't know Him, or just likes Him? He is coming for a Bride who is madly and passionately in love with Him. She loves Him with the love that He showers on her. She can only love Him like that because He reveals to her His passionate love for her. In other words, if you want to be passionately in love with the Lord, let Him reveal to you how passionate He is for YOU. As He blesses you, you can bless Him back with what He put inside of you.
This is why the Lord said commit to Me the works of My hands. (Give Me what I put in you and is Mine).
Isaiah 45:10-11 NASB "Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' Or to a woman, 'To what are you giving birth?'" 11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: "Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons, And you shall commit to Me the work of My hands.
I am always amazed when I read the Psalms and the depth of David's love for the Lord. David was in love with the Lord. I understand now that David could only do it because he personally knew the love of God for him. David experienced the love of the Lord. He lived in the Lord's presence and allowed the Lord to show him His love. David gave back to the Lord the love he received.
Psalms 18:1-3 NASB For the choir director. A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD, who spoke to the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said, "I love You, O LORD, my strength." 2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.
Oh, my Lord, I want to receive Your love for me so I can love You back with Your love.
Song of Solomon 1:2-4 NIV 2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine. 3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you! 4 Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!
God's Kingdom increases as He "produces" more of who He is by becoming for YOU who He wants you to be.
In other words, if the Lord wants you to become a lover, He will reveal His love towards you. He will allow you to go through a mess, show you His love and be your Lover. He will keep feeding you with fruits of love until you become a lover as He is.
When the Lord started speaking to me "Elana, BE in Me". I did not understand what He meant. "What does it mean to Be in You, Lord? What do I need to do?".
The Lord wanted to bend His knee to me and take me to a journey in His heart so He can reveal to me who He is. He wanted to pour out His love for me and show me His nature. He wanted to reveal Himself to me in ways I have never experienced or known before. He wanted to feed me with His fruits and let me taste and eat of His goodness and kindness, so I can become as He is and bear His fruits. The Lord wanted me to find who He is so I can find my identity in Him and know who I am. I kept focusing on DOING and He kept speaking to me about BEING in Him. He taught me that I will be able to DO after I learn to BE in Him. The doing part has to do with the fruits I will bear, with who I become. This is the blessing of multiplication and increase. As we increase in bearing His fruits and become as He is.
It is when we seek the Lord that He blesses (bows the knee) and He is the One who comes down to our darkness and mess.
2 Chronicles 26:5 MKJV And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. As long as he sought Jehovah, God blessed him.
To seek the Lord means to respond to Him. He puts a hunger in you, and you desire what He put in you. It is always a desire for Him because He intends to fulfill that desire. As long as you ask, seek and knock, the Lord will reveal Himself to you and let you find Him in new ways.
My Testimony
I remember I asked the Lord once, "How can I hug You, Lord? I can't hug the air. I don't know what it means to hug You at all". The Lord spoke to me and said, "I will come to you and I will hug you". I had no idea what that meant but I wanted to hug Him. A week later, the Lord visited me at night while I was sleeping. I felt His presence in the room and He was then holding my right hand. I knew it was the Lord. Then His Spirit came upon me, but unlike all the other times it was not the infilling of His Spirit. When He fills me with His Spirit is always feels like I am being scanned in a scanning machine. This time it was different, there was no scanning. It was a wonderful feeling of an amazing love and warmth. I asked the Lord "What are You doing?" and He said "I am hugging you". I was amazed. I have no words to describe what I felt. I had never felt such love in my life. I felt so safe and secured. It was exactly what I needed. I will never forget Him hugging me and I have no idea what more is in His heart that He wants to show me. I want to know Him as the Lover of my life, but I have no idea what this means yet.
I could not come to the Lord, He came to me. We just seek Him and He makes a way for us to find Him. He will bend the knee and come to bless us.
Being a blessing to others works in two ways. He bends His knee to us, and helps us bend the knee to others. But at the same time, He keeps comforting us, giving us His favor, making His goodness pass over us, fighting for us, defeating our enemies and enlarging our territory.
In other words, the territory of your heart is being enlarged as you experience the Lord's bent knee and then you bend your knee to others.
How?
It will be YOU who would seek reconciliation first in the midst of an argument. It will be YOU who would ask for forgiveness first. It will be YOU who would be kind first, be gracious first, be gentle, show self control, give, and reach out to someone's darkness. This is what it means to be a blessing. This is how your heart grows in love and you increase and multiply. In blessing (bowing the knee) you reap more of the Lord's blessings.
Bending the knee (being a blessing) unto the Lord is a weapon of submission and obedience. This is where our authority comes from. We lose our natural authority to control and manipulate in order to gain our spiritual authority to release and bend the knee. Bending the knee (blessing) is a mighty weapon against all authorities.
The one who blesses and becomes a servant gives it all to the lesser, the weaker vessel. In blessing someone, who is bound in darkness as a captive, with love, grace, patience, and feeding him with the fruits of the Lord, we allow him to grow and then be the same with others.
Jacob sought the Lord in his darkness and found Him. He was blessed beyond what he could think or imagine in the midst of his distress.The Lord fed Jacob with His fruits of love before He blessed him. Let's see how.
Jacob's life and the life of his family was in great danger from the brother who vowed to kill him. Jacob needed the Lord badly and humbled himself before Him.
What was the Lord's response?
The Lord showed up as a man, but Jacob wrestled with Him all night. The Lord realized that Jacob is not going to give up so He touched the socket of his thigh and dislocated it.
What did the Lord do to Jacob?
The Lord allowed Jacob to taste of His great patience (being slow to anger) and His tenderness. The Lord who is Love revealed to Jacob who He is and persuaded him that He loves him. He spoke softly to Jacob when He touched his bone (his strong self) and dislocated it, in the midst of his great trouble.
How do we know that?
Proverbs 25:15 NASB By forbearance (being slow to anger) a ruler may be persuaded, And a soft tongue breaks the bone.
As a result of the Lord's touch with His soft words and persuading Jacob of who He is, Jacob He held tight and refused to let go of the Lord until He blesses him. It was after the touch that Jacob realizes who he is wrestling with. He realizes it's the Lord and He is greater than him. Now he had experienced the Lord and he wants His blessings. He knew that the greater blesses the lesser. He had a revelation that it is the Lord and not just any man. He knew the Lord was not after him to hurt him. Jacob (the crooked) had an experience with the love of the Lord for him. The Lord knew Jacob needed His softness.
When Jacob asked the Lord to bless him he actually asked the Lord to bend His knee to him, to serve him, to minister to him, to come down to where he is. After Jacob was touched by the Lord and tasted and saw that the Lord was good, he became hungry for more of God so he held tight and said "I am not going to let You go until You bless me". What Jacob tasted was not enough for him, he wanted more.
The Lord asked him for his identity, and Jacob who could only see who he was in the flesh answered "Jacob" ("I am crooked"). However, the Lord changed his identity and called him Israel (God Straightened - Yeshar-El).
The new revelation of who the Lord is personally for Jacob had brought him to find out who he really was. He received his true identity in the Lord. Finding who God is for him lead him to find who he is.
This is when Jacob was able to bear fruit of trust and friendship with the Lord and he now asks the Lord for His name. This comes after the Lord asks him for his name. Jacob gives back to the Lord what He sowed in him. Once this fruit of friendship is established the Lord then blesses Jacob. The blessing did not come when Jacob's new identity was revealed to him, but when he gives the Lord back the fruit of friendship that was sown in his heart – it is the desire to know Him by name - personally and intimately. Jacob realized he does not know who the Lord is and knowing the Lord by name he wanted to know His identity and His nature. The Lord reveals His face (nature, heart, thoughts) to, and this is why Jacob calls the place "The Face of God"- Peniel.
Jacob's blessing came after having a revelation of who God was for him. Jacob's revelation was the Lord's long suffering and soft heart. In the Hebrew, God touched the "palm of his thigh" meaning the power of his strength. God touched it in the tendon of the hip, which in Hebrew it is an area in his thigh (power) which was a failure.
In the natural the Lord dislocated Jacob's thigh, but in the spirit the Lord touched an area of failure and fixed it with His tender love. Then He gave him a new identity (name) and blessed him.
- Jacob is touched by God and his own strength is dislocated by the Lord's tender love.
- He holds tight and refuses to let go of the Lord – he is hungry for more.
- Realizing it is the Lord, he keeps holding on until he receives a blessing.
- He receives a new identity - name.
- He wants more of the Lord and extends friendship as he wants to know the Lord's name (His nature).
- He receives his blessings.
What blessings did Jacob receive?
When the Lord blessed Jacob, He knew Jacob's heart was open to receive more of His love. The Lord could serve him and be for him what he needed. The Lord could be Israel's Father and Lord. Israel could now bear the fruits of the Lord in him and share that revelation with his children - this revelation is shared with YOU. Jacob's testimony of who the Lord was for him was written for you for a reason. The Lord wants to bless His children and show them who they are in the midst of their distress.
God is always in the business of giving Himself - this is how He blesses. This is why He revealed Himself to Moses as "I will be whom I will be". Meaning, I will be for My people whomever they need Me to be.
Do you need deliverance? I am the One - Deliverer,
Do you need healing? It's Me - Healer,
Do you need wisdom? It's Me again - Wisdom,
Do you need peace? Yes, it's also Me - Prince of Peace,
Do you need to see? I am Jehovah who shows (Jireh).
What is it that you need, that I cannot be for you? All that I am is what I want to reveal to you and sow in your heart, so you can be as I am. I am Love and I want you to become love as you learn to receive My love. "As He is so we are".
1 John 4:16-19 NASB We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love (the one who bears the furuits of love) abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us.
Next part of Bless Me Indeed will come soon …
I pray the Lord will bless you abundantly and His love will be your foundation.
Love,
Elana Polinger
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