THE SUPERNATURAL HABITS, PAUL & NUALA O'HIGGINS [red novels .txt] 📗

this sense the scriptures are rather like a catalog, which lets us know what a retailer has available for ordering!
God does not force His spiritual gifts and blessings on us because He respects our free will. However, He reveals through the Bible what He wants to give us so that we can freely receive them.
The most effective believers are effective receivers because they constantly welcome, embrace, hunger and yearn for all God has to offer them. They want:
• to be all that God wants them to be
• to do all that he wants them to do, and
• to have all that He wants them to have.
To “receive” means “to welcome, accept and take”. God’s blessings are not automatic. They must be actively received and humbly taken from Him. There is a cliché (not from the Bible but from Aesop’s Fables) that says: “God helps those who help themselves.” The truth is that God cannot help those who refuse His help. The supernaturally empowered believer lives in a continuous flow of blessing and provision that flows to him moment by moment from God. We are swimming in a sea of His blessing and provision. No matter how many difficulties and problems we face we have access to an infinite supply of resources and provision from God. “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19) This is the condition of every believer.
As we continue on with Jesus and keep His word before us we maintain our vital connection with God. In this relationship we continually draw from His life and receive from His goodness and generosity one blessing after another. “And from His fullness we have all received one blessing after another.” (John 1:16 LB)

Receive What?
The New Testament is a treasure trove revealing what God has made available to us through the work of Jesus. This is why it is called “a testament.” A testament is a written declaration of what is bequeathed to a beneficiary at the death of the Testator. The New Testament reveals what Jesus has bequeathed to those who come to Him and follow Him. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 1:3) These benefits of redemption are made available by the saving work of Jesus and are to be received with faith and thanksgiving.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Psalm 103:2) The thought here is that if we don’t actively remember and appropriate these benefits they lie like unopened gifts.
These benefits include the following:
• Forgiveness (Romans 4 & 5; 2 Cor. 5:17-21)
• Adoption (Romans 8:15)
• Sonship (Romans 8:15)
• Authority (Luke 9:1)
• The Holy Spirit (John 20:22)
• Spiritual power (Acts 1:8)
• The fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22)
• The gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 14:1)
• The word of God (James 1:21)
• Healing (Luke 6:18; Acts 8:7; Acts 28:9)
• Instruction in good works (2 Tim. 3:16)
• Promises to live by (Hebrews 11:33)
• Guidance & direction (James 1:5)
• Every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3)
• Practical provision (Phil. 4:19)
• The blessings of Abraham (Gal. 3:14; Gen. 24:1)
• Ministry (John 20:21)
• God’s maintaining mercies on our spirit soul and body (1 Thess. 5:23)
• ETC. ETC. ETC. ETC. ETC.

We maintain God’s benefits in our lives by continuing to receive them through an attitude of receptivity and continual thankfulness.
Jesus tells us to receive our provision from God on a day-by-day basis. “Give us this day our daily bread’ is the daily request to God for all we need, by those who know that they are completely dependent on Him for everything.
Many, growing accustomed to God’s goodness, become presumptuous and develop the attitude: “I have received this and that from God and now I am complete.” They neglect to ask and to acknowledge the source of every blessing. They take everything for granted and attribute their blessings and successes to their own cleverness or to mere natural law. They become presumptuous.
Presumption is the opposite of receiving - it is taking things for granted. By receiving consciously we reverse presumption and continue the flow of receptivity from God. He wants us to receive from Him on a daily basis all the spiritual, mental, physical and material benefits we need to conduct our lives on the earth. In addition, He has new mercies to give us each day: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.” (Lam. 3:22-23) He who created the galaxies has fresh things for us each day. As we continue to receive His new mercies, life with Him is never boring. It becomes an adventure in discovery of the dimensions of His love.

Our Amazing Inheritance
Have you ever been tempted to envy those who have inherited vast wealth from their family? Perhaps your grandfather or father was not able to leave you an inheritance. But God has left an amazing inheritance to every human being. The great tragedy is that the majority of people on the planet have no idea of this inheritance. They are like paupers, starving in a tenement slum that are heirs to a vast inheritance they know nothing about. “But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14)
For someone to become an heir, four things must happen:
1. they must be left something in a will or testament
2. the person who made the will must die
3. they must learn about their inheritance, and
4. they must receive their inheritance.

The New Testament is called a “testament” because it represents the last will and testament of Jesus. He died to bring us into an inheritance with God. Our sin had blocked us from this inheritance but His atonement restores us to our inheritance. The heritage that Adam lost, Jesus restores and more.
“Therefore he (Jesus) is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.” (Hebrews 9:15-17)
Jesus’ death not only atones for our sins, and cancels the curse, but it also brings us into an amazing inheritance. It will take us all eternity to discover the full treasures that are involved in this inheritance. However, we can begin the journey of discovery now.
“The Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him”. (Romans 8:16-17) As Peter puts it, we have been “born again and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:4)
The Bible says that we are blessed with the blessings of Abraham through the death of Jesus. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, ‘Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree’- that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13)
But what are the blessings of Abraham? Genesis 24:1 tells us that Abraham was blessed ‘in all things’. So the blessings of Abraham are to be blessed in all things! That’s comprehensive! He was blessed in his relationship with God in his health, in his finances and with the blessing of being a blessing to others.
Now because of the atoning work of Jesus, through faith the blessings that came on Abraham can come on every believer.
If this were not enough for us Paul also tells us that we have been blessed “with every spiritual blessing.” (Ephesians 1:3) In addition to the blessings of Abraham, God wants to bless us with every spiritual blessing. These are first, fellowship and friendship with God, then revelation and experience of His love, the fruit of the Spirit, wisdom, love, anointing, fellowship with God, humility, prayerfulness, godliness, favor, fruitfulness and more.
It is the responsibility of the heir to search out his inheritance and then to claim it and walk in it. We cannot claim what is not ours, nor inherit what has not been bequeathed, but we can inherit all that God has left for us.
The student of the bible searches out his inheritance and progressively enters the fullness of it. This requires study, discovery, obedience and constant asking and receiving.

Don't Forget to Ask
God’s benefits do not come automatically. We must use our wills and ask. Some are too proud to ask. Jesus tells us to ask. “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.” (Mt. 7:7) We are to ask the Father in His name and so become good receivers.
James says: “You have not because you ask not.” (James 4:2) Supernaturally empowered believers learn to embrace, accept and receive all that God has made available to them. Today much of the church is in spiritual poverty because we have not asked and have not received our full inheritance. Others have become spiritually poor through presumption. They are relying on past experiences of blessings to sustain them and fail to receive fresh infillings of God’s life, love and Spirit.

Receive Through Other People
All of us owe our existence and life not only to God but also to other people. We are held in existence by a vast network of people. We often take these people for granted but we owe so much to them. We owe our quality of life to a huge range of people - from food growers, truck drivers, shopkeepers, politicians, government officials, electricians, health care givers, educators, mechanics, plumbers, electricians, builders, road workers - without whom our lives could not function. Above all, we owe our existence to our parents to whom we owe special honor.
We receive endless help from an almost infinite chain of other people. The best believers recognize that God’s help comes not only directly but also through this great network of other people who help, encourage, educate, and serve us. Life in the kingdom of God is a vast web of people being helped by God, and giving and receiving help.
Some, through an exaggerated sense of independence, find it difficult to receive from others. Peter had this problem when Jesus went to wash his feet. He was embarrassed to receive such menial service from the King of the Universe.
Ruth changed history by accepting help from Boaz. Jesus, our greatest example, allowed the Samaritan woman to give Him something before He brought a blessing to her, and He was sustained and helped by many others.
“And it came to pass soon afterwards, that he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good tidings of the kingdom of God, and with him the twelve, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary that was called