Lord Jesus first identified Himself as the door so that all those who believe in Him and receive Him as their Saviour may enter into and have permanent access into His protection and provisioning. David fully understood the role of a shepherd and declared himself as greatly blessed for God was his Shepherd. Once we surrender to the Lord, our life gets transformed into a highly blessed state for we become the children of God.
Effects of our New Life in Lord Jesus – All the works of the LORD God are fully planned and then executed perfectly and nothing is a misfit, though to us it may seem so. God created all plants, fruit bearing trees, animals and birds and sea creatures before creating Adam. God formed man from the dust of the ground and through His own breath, made him a living being (Genesis 2:7-8). God, then, planted a garden in Eden and ‘there He put the man whom He had formed’. The Garden of Eden had all types of fruit bearing trees, animals and birds to obey him and also provided all material resources for his comfort. In the Garden of Eden, God visited them every day in the evening to teach, learn about them and to bless them (Genesis 3:8). That was the life of living abundantly in the Garden of Eden in both material and spiritual realms.
The curse that came on man due to his sin, was about hard labour to earn his living and also thorns and thistles creating hindrances in receiving the same. They lost their free material blessings and also their close relationship with God and resultant loss of spiritual blessings of closeness to God. Even in this, God did not entirely forsake them and in this state also they could enhance their skills to improve their fallen state. Before they were banished from the Garden, due to their sin, God clothed them with ‘coats of skin’ (Genesis 3:21). This barred them from connecting with the spiritual realm due to their changed nature of enjoying sin, but still they could come to God. Then Cain and his brother brought their offerings to God, to show their love for Him whereas, in the Garden, God came to them in His love (Genesis 4:3-4).
As per legend, inside the Garden the Spirit of God was life inside man, while before being sent out, they were changed into ‘flesh and blood’ human beings. God breathed life into that form made of ‘dust of the ground’, putting a part of Himself in him (Genesis 2:7). After His crucifixion, death and resurrection, Lord Jesus visited the disciples in their hiding place, for they feared the Jewish leaders. Then, ‘He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20:22). With this, He reversed the whole process that happened in the Garden of Eden and the final act was on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:3-4). The Holy Spirit descended on the disciples as ‘divided tongues, as of fire’ and after this ‘they were filled with the Holy Spirit’. Every believer is now equipped to live in the spiritual as well as the material realm. In His authority, Lord Jesus chose seventy elders and sent them by the two into the places that He would visit later (Luke 10:1 & 17). They returned ‘with joy’, for during their visit, they found that even ‘the demons are subject to us in Your name’. He was Himself filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit and could thus designate authority to others.
Answering the Pharisees’ questions, Lord Jesus declared, ‘for indeed, the kingdom of God is within you’ (Luke 17:21). Since the Pharisees were always trying to implicate Him in some way, the interpretation of this could be in three different ways. First, the kingdom of God is essentially inward at present, till the Second Coming of the Lord, when it will be manifested openly. Second, the kingdom is within your reach if you try and receive it by turning to Lord Saviour as Saviour. Third, the kingdom of God is in your midst in the form of King Jesus. With the coming of the Holy Spirit in us, the kingdom of God is in us and we live in the presence of the indwelling God. This is about the spiritual life we live abundantly.
All those who receive and believe in Lord Jesus as their Redeemer, are blessed to be ‘the children of God’ (John 1:12). Apostle Paul further clarifies about this state, ‘If children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ’ (Romans 8:17). Through faith we are made joint heirs with Lord Jesus, who is God and also the Son of God. He is the owner of everything in creation, for He is the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists in the universe. A child of God thus, receives a right to appropriate the material and spiritual things for his life but as a means to be a blessing to others.
Prophet Elijah fled for fear of queen Jezebel towards Horeb, the Mountain of God but enroute an angel provided food for him (1 Kings 19:5-7). In the wilderness, Lord Jesus was alone and ‘fasted forty days and forty nights’ and was tempted by the devil in this state of physical hunger to use His power to transform stones to bread and eat (Matthew 4:3-4). He did not and waited for provision from God. The power and authority we receive from God is not for personal benefit but for blessing others and for the glory of God and His heavenly Kingdom. When we start doing this, we start to live our life of abundance.
Living life abundantly – A believer in his own capacity may be able to live a mediocre life with barely meeting his and the family’s needs. The abundant life from Lord Jesus is of freedom and fruitfulness, with love, joy and peace overflowing. This is not about being rich, much material possessions and social status, nor about painless and disease-free life. Lord Jesus has taught us, ‘in the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33). He has overcome the world and we cannot be broken by the world and its problems. Job remained strong in faith despite all the efforts of the devil, and even after having lost his sons, daughters and his wealth, remained committed to the Lord. He declared in faith, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth’ (Job 19:25).
David suffered greatly due to King Saul’s jealousy and he could sing about the Good Shepherd, ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over’ (Psalm 23:5). After teaching the disciples about the Heavenly Father being fully aware of their material needs, our Lord told them, ‘But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you’ (Matthew 6:33). From the Burning Bush, God answered Moses’ question about His name by telling him, ‘I AM WHO I AM’. God does not evolve according to our prayers or our needs but is Sovereign, Complete and Perfect in Himself. He does not change and His Words are also firm and established forever
After the fall the body, soul and the earth also received the curse of producing ‘thorns and thistles’. But the chosen of God are protected from the effects of the fall and Isaac, the son of Abraham was one of them. Isaac sowed in Gerar ‘and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him’ (Genesis 26:12-13). Despite everything, he ‘began to prosper, and continued to prosper until he became very prosperous’. Since God is love (1 John 4:8), He cares for all of His creation, and more so the believers. His presence in us in the Holy Spirit ensures great blessings in the spiritual and the earthly realm both. During the temptation of Lord Jesus in the wilderness, Satan showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and offered to give all that to the Lord for His submission to him. Lord Jesus did not dispute the devil’s right over all the earth but refused to look unto him but rather continued to honour God alone.
The devil can and does interfere in the outcome of the labour of a believer. But in all this our Saviour defined life and eternal life as ‘this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only True God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent’ (John 17:3). This life is in nothing else but in spending time in studying His Word and being in a close relationship with Him, for then we have access to God, peace of God and peace with God. Since Lord Jesus is the source of abundant life, abiding in Him is the answer to receive it.
After identifying Himself as ‘The True Vine’, Lord Jesus warned, ‘Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me’ (John 15:4-5). He further warns us, ‘without Me you can do nothing’. Once we are in this close fellowship with the Lord, His promise to Joshua about following His ways is fulfilled in our lives also, ‘then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success (Joshua 1:8). Joshua was a good commander of the Israelites and divided the territory to all tribes as per the will of God. He was aware of the weakness of his people to turn away from God and could say, ‘choose for yourselves whom you will serve….as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD’ (Joshua 24:15).
It does not mean that the life of a believer is about suffering and lack only. King Solomon sought knowledge and wisdom from God ‘to discern between good and evil’ (1 Kings 3:9 -13). However, God in answering his prayer gave him even what he had not asked, ‘both riches and honour; so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days’. After having experienced the blessings of the Lord all his life, Solomon could teach, ‘The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrows with it’ (Proverbs 10:22). Once one has a close relationship with the Lord, material wealth does not matter that much. King David was blessed tremendously by God and from his abundance, he gave, ‘three thousand talents of gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of silver’ for construction of the Temple of God by his son Solomon (1 Chronicles 29:3-4). That is equal to more than 110 tons of gold and 230 tons of silver and various other materials that he had got ready for the Temple of God that his son Solomon would build after him. Living abundantly is not about receiving and hoarding but about freely giving and helping others. It is such people who collect treasures in heaven, which cannot be stolen.
Why are the signs of this life not seen in a believer’s life? To the Pharisees in Lord Jesus’ time and even today for many, life is maintaining a ledger account with God. I have read the Holy Bible, prayed regularly and helped the poor, so now God You also do Your part for me. In that state we form categories of people as blessed, those who are successful, but the Saviour met the sinners, the sick and the oppressed to free them. With such thinking many boundaries are created and faith itself becomes a chain, worn to tie you down to a post. Abundant life is exactly opposite to that, for the Lord ‘did not come to be served, but to serve’ (Matthew 20:28). when we try to be like Him, others doubt our concept of life itself and we also start doubting.
Apostle James has provided some answers to this. He has taught, ‘be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was’ (James 1:22-24). The Word of God is like a mirror that shows our true state and in what areas we need to change. We take the first step and God helps in the process. We are further told, ‘But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, this one will be blessed in what he does’. Lord Jesus saw a hunchbacked woman who ‘had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up’ (Luke 13:10-13). Our Lord called her and set her free and ‘immediately she was made straight and glorified God’. She filled herself with the Word through her praise to prevent the return of the evil spirit.
The four living creatures around the throne of God in heaven have eyes all around and within their four wings. Eyes represent great wisdom but ‘they do not rest day or night, saying, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come’. They receive a new insight about the glory of God every moment and do not tire of proclaiming it. We are here on the earth to ‘sing to the LORD, bless His holy name… Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all the peoples’ (Psalm 96:2-3). When we surrender our lives to the Lord in this manner, our lives become superior to what we were before that. Refuse to settle for anything less than God’s best for you, for His plan includes to give you a wonderful ‘future and great hope’ (Jeremiah 29:11). We must rest in His love, rely on and live in the strength and power of His Holy Spirit and remember and claim His promises through prayer and worship. A believer may or may not have a great amount of wealth, a very big house but he will have more of Lord Jesus, more of life in Him here on earth and eternally thereafter. That is abundant life!
A believer’s past, present and future sins are forgiven and the blessing of the presence of the Holy Spirit in him ensures abundant life for him. By giving him all authority over the forces of darkness and evil – the demonic forces – God makes him a blessing for others to help and bring them into freedom in the Lord. We are supposed to be grateful for all the blessings and live abundantly in the Lord, who then gives success in all areas of life. This is abundant life on earth and in heaven with the Lord thereafter!
