God Will Not Bless Who You Pretend to Be

God is the Alpha and Omega, The Beginning and The End, and He decrees the end from the beginning. God does not only know us, He knows us in and out, before we were formed, and before we were born. To this end, no man has a hiding place in the plans of God for his life. God has nothing to bless in man, other than the work of his hands, “you have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruits and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16). Don’t forget also, that the blessings of God which are without sorrows, essentially, are from the spiritual to the physical, hence, the scriptural passage that says, “beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers” (3 John 1:2). Man can hide from man, but no man can hide from his creator, not even Adam and Eve, after they sinned in the Garden of Eden.

God daily loads us with benefits of all kinds and His mercies are new every morning. We are expected to be holy and be prefect in the sight of God, if God knew that we cannot attain a state of holiness, He would not have commanded it. Our role is to strive to attain the mark, but His role, God’s role, is to perfect our efforts, and that is why the truth remains that no man is perfect, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me: thy mercy, O LORD, endures forever: forsake not the works of your own hands” (Psalms 138:8). Holiness begins with righteousness, an attribute that cannot be achieved by works, for by grace we are saved. The promise of God is that any tongue that rises against us in judgement, we shall condemn, however, until our own obedience is complete, we cannot punish all disobedience. We have the privilege of availing ourselves of the provision of His righteousness, and it is written that, “this is the heritage of all my saints and their righteousness is of me, says the Lord” (Isaiah 54 verse 17). We operate in the righteousness of God by grace by but we cannot remain in sin and expect grace to abound or multiply.

Recall how Jacob played on the intelligence of his father, Isaac, when he disguised and pretended to be Esau and stole the blessing of the first born, his brother Esau. Jacob deceived his father and pretended to be Esau. He succeeded in getting from his father a sworn blessing that came with sorrows. After that happened, he became a fugitive, ran away from the house and was with Laban, his uncle, where he lived for 14 years. What is important about the story of Jacob’s life, is that until the question of identity was resolved, he continued as a fugitive,living with the burden of guilt and sorrows. It was on his way back that he had another opportunity to settle his identity problem. He met with an angel and the first question that he was asked was about his name, and this time, he had no choice than to open up by being sincere. He said to the angel “my name is Jacob”. Until we are ready to open up, our destinies, no matter how colorful, are bound to remain closed.

As soon as he settled his identity crisis, he received a new name, for the angel said “your name shall no longer be Jacob but Israel, for you have wrestled with God and have prevailed”. Isaiah 9 verse 8 says “The Lord sent a word into Jacob and it lighted upon Israel”. That was how an ordinary man became a nation, through the instrumentality of coming to terms with the reality of his name, and removing from his path, the evil of misrepresented identity.

It is important to note that, it is not who you are but who He is, and knowing Him, that makes all the difference. Hebrews 11: 6 says without faith, no one can please God, and he who comes to God must know that He is, and He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. How much of God you know, determines how much of yourself you are able to know, for no man can maximize the blessings of God beyond his knowledge about God. The reason is because strength is a function of knowledge and exploit is a function of strength. “Those who do know their God shall be strong and do great exploits” (Revelation 11:32).

We are enjoined to come boldly to the throne of grace and should not cast away our confidence which has a great recompense. Only a bastard child runs away from his father. Recall how the prodigal son, who took his inheritance and squandered it, still dimed it fit to return to his father. Jesus says “All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). It is time to remove the veil of pretense from our faces, for until that is done, we will continue to live with self-pity and guilt, and self-pity is like living in hell while on earth.

Whenever you have excuses on why you think God cannot use you, consider these important facts that Noah was a drunkard, Abraham was too old, Isaac was a day-dreamer, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused, Moses was a murderer, Gideon was afraid, Samson had long hair, Rahab was a prostitute, Timothy was too young, David had an illicit affair, Elijah was suicidal, Isaiah preached naked, Job was bankrupt, John the Baptist ran around in a loin clothes and ate locust, Peter was hot-tempted, John was self-righteous, the Disciples fell asleep while praying (they were weak), Martha fretted about everything, Mary Magdalene was demon possessed, the Boy with the fish and 5 loaves of bread was too obscure, the Samaritan Woman was divorced more than once, Zacchaeus was too small, Paul was too religious, and Lazarus was dead. No more excuses. Rather than getting immersed in or entangled with complaints, murmurings and grumblings, let the weak say I am strong (Joel 3:10). As long as you will not allow yourself to be tempted by blaming God for any situation that you find yourself in, no matter how painful, or undeserving, rest assured that God will make you a wonder, make your situations the occasion for a testimony and you shall end up declaring his praise, “blessed is he who is not offended in me” (Matthew 11:6). NO MORE EXCUSES!