God cannot force anyone to be on His side; it’s an individual choice.
Remaining on God’s side requires a lot of discipline.
Don’t just invest in a business; find out God’s opinion on it first.
Remaining on God’s side begins with a choice and it is sustained by grace.
Choose to be on God’s side and pray for grace to remain there.
When you are on God’s side, you come under His blessing and you cannot be cursed.
- Num. 23:8,20
8 “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
20 Behold, I have received a command to bless;
He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
Who Does God Bless?
- The righteous. – Ps. 5:12, 37:19
Ps. 5:12
12 For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;
With favor You will surround him as with a shield.
- Whatever defiles you, disqualifies you from blessings.
- The obedient.
- Deut. 28:1-2
28 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
- God’s blessings do not follow the disobedient.
- Those who love God in truth and with proofs.
- Rom. 8:28
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.
- The love of God is not theoretical; it has validation from the scriptures.
- Those who serve God in truth and verity.
- Job 36:11
11 If they obey and serve him,
they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity
and their years in contentment.
Ex. 23:25-26
- Serving God in truth and verity brings you under God’s blessing that makes you immune to curses.
- Eph. 6:6
Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
- The faithful. – Pro. 28:20, Luke 19:17-19,
Matt. 23:13-16
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. [14] [a]15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’
- God does not bless hypocrisy; He blesses faithfulness.
- The tithers.
- Mal. 3:10
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. - Tithers bring themselves under heaven’s blessing, beyond what they can contain.
- The liberal soul.
- Pro. 11:24
One person gives freely, yet gains even more;
another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.
Fortune answer to liberality; be a part of the joy of others!
There are two sides to our adventure in the Kingdom:
- The side of blessings and the side of curses.
- Deut. 30:19
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
- The side of flourishing and the side of famine.
- Ps. 33:18
But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
- The side of enlightenment and the side of diminishing. – Mal. 3:18,
Mal. 4:1-2
4 [a]“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them.
2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.
- The side of meekness and the side of pride.
- Matt. 5:5
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
- The side of glory and the side of shame.
- Mal. 2:1-3
2 “And now, you priests, this warning is for you. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.
3 “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants[a]; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.
- The side of everlasting life and the side of eternal death.
How to Remain on God’s Side
- Stay in love and keep your love growing.
- Eph. 3:18-19
18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
- Beware of the plague of disobedience. – 1 Sam. 15:22-23
Acts.13:21
Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.
- Beware of sexual perversion. – Judg. 15:20, 1 Kings 11:3
Prov. 6:26
For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread,
but another man’s wife preys on your very life.
Being conscious of righteous living and a crave for godliness are requirements for living a sanctified life.
Dangers of Not Being on the Lord’s Side
- Blocked access to wisdom that enthrones.
- John 5:14
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
- It causes faith to fail.
- 1 Tim. 1:19
holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.
- It inflicts diseases.
- 2 Cor. 7:10
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.