I was reading Ephesians chapter 1 in my devotions the other day. I wanted to share it with you today because it was such a life-giving passage for me. Paul begins his epistle to the Ephesus church by declaring, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 1:3, NKJV). The expressions “As I read it, the phrase “every spiritual blessing” leapt off the page at me.
Before You Continue...
Do you know what is your soul number? Take this quick quiz to find out! Get a personalized numerology report, and discover how you can unlock your fullest spiritual potential. Start the quiz now!
The Greek word eulogia, which meaning “benefit,” is the word for “blessing.” Paul wasn't only talking about lovely concepts when he mentioned spiritual blessings. When he lived in and through them, they were realities that came with actual rewards. In the end, we live in and through them as we do in Christ, but it's helpful to unpack what that entails. In verses 4-19, Paul goes on to discuss 15 different spiritual blessings that we receive when we live in Christ. I invite you to read the entire scripture passage in its entirety. Let's have a look at the 15 Spiritual Blessings that Paul bestows on you…
1. Selected Prior to the Creation of the World (v.4)
Knowing that you were chosen before the earth was created means that your life counts. Your existence isn't a result of natural selection or an accident. Before He ever said, “I'm thinking about your future,” God was already thinking about it “Let the light shine.”
2. Blameless and Holy (v.4)
You are holy and blameless in Christ. This indicates that, despite your flaws, you are qualified to serve and worship Him. When you approach God, He delights you and cheerfully moves through your life to impact others, not because of your own righteousness, but because of Christ's righteousness that has been imputed or attributed to you.
3. He Loves You (v.4)
You are standing in agape, or unconditional love, in Christ. It's not something you can earn. In Christ, you are loved unconditionally today. Have you gotten it yet? Today, make the following confession: “Jesus, I accept your unfailing love.”
4. Adoption is predestined (v.5)
In Christ, God has predetermined to call you His own. You have been chosen to be His son or daughter. You are a member of His household. He is your biological father. When parents decide to adopt a child, they often go through a selection process to choose who they will adopt and who they will not. God decided to adopt you as one of His offspring a long time ago after going through His decision-making process.
5. Belonging to the Beloved (v.6)
You have not been turned down. You are not a misfit. You are not undeserving of praise. In Christ, the Creator of the Universe accepts you. In Christ, you have been reconciled in your relationship with God and are agreeable to Him. You may not be in good health in all of your relationships right now, but there is nothing standing between you and God today if you are in Christ.
6. His Blood as a Means of Redemption (v.7)
You were a slave to sin and eternal death before Christ. You couldn't get out of it by buying or working your way out of it. The precious blood of Jesus paid the price for your freedom. Jesus was not enslaved in any way. Jesus had already been set free. In either case, Jesus paid for your freedom.
7. Sins Forgiveness (v.7)
You have morally turned your back on God in your life. In your heart, you have willfully rebelled against His law. You have often disregarded His wisdom, believing yourself to be the wiser. You are pardoned today in Christ.
8. The Gifts of His Grace Abundantly Abundantly Abundantly Abundantly Abundantly Abund (v.7-8)
Grace entails “An undeserved favor.” The term “abound” refers to a situation in “to possess in large quantities.” In Christ, an abundance of undeserved favor is flowing into your life like a river that will last from here to eternity's deepest depths.
9. He has revealed the mystery of His will to you (v.9)
God has revealed His answer to us in a fallen world of conflict, misery, and disease; a sinful world where horrible things happen to good people. In Christ, He encapsulated every answer to every aspect of the human situation and delivered it to us.
Obtaining an Eternal Inheritance is number ten (v.11)
Heaven is described in Revelation 21:4 as follows: And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, sorrow, or crying. There will be no more suffering because the old things have passed away.
11. Heard the Holy Spirit's Word (v.13)
God's truth shines brightly in the dark. We don't have to go it alone. We aren't in the dark about anything. We've heard His wonderful news and figured out how to live.
12. Promise-sealed by the Holy Spirit (v.13)
The Holy Spirit's Promise, which was promised by Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Joel, John the Baptist, and Jesus, has been fulfilled in Christ today!
13. You're aware of His Calling's Optimism (v.18)
His call on your life is the basket into which you can place all of your eggs. It's a mooring. It's made of stone. It will never be for naught.
14. You are His Inheritance's Riches (v.18)
Jesus sees you as extremely valuable. God gives you back to Jesus as His heritage, just as Christ brought you back to God. In Christ, you are valued; in Christ, you are the righteousness of God. You are His everlasting recompense, which He treasures.
15. His Power's Unparalleled Magnificence (v.19-20)
According to Paul, the exceeding grandeur of His power is directed toward those who believe. What kind of clout does this have? It's the same force that brought Christ back to life! The same power that overcame sin, death, and hell is at work here. This same power is available to you now in Christ!
What are the blessings of the Holy Spirit?
Four of these gifts (wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and counsel), according to Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae I.II, q. 68, a1, lead the intellect, while the other three gifts (fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord) direct the will toward God.
The virtues function under the impetus of human reason (prompted by grace), whereas the gifts operate under the impetus of the Holy Spirit; the former can be employed whenever one desires, while the latter, according to Aquinas, can only be used when the Holy Spirit wishes. In the case of Fortitude, the gift shares the same Latin and English name as the virtue with which it is associated, but must be identified.
Thomas Aquinas argues the following correspondences between the seven Heavenly Virtues and the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit in his Summa Theologiae II.II:
No Gift is specifically attributed to the virtue of temperance; nevertheless, the gift of fear can be considered as such, because fear motivates people to abstain from forbidden pleasures.
“What the gifts do over and above the theological virtues (which they presuppose) is dispose the agent to special promptings of the Holy Spirit in actively exercising the life of the virtues; the gifts are necessary for the perfect operations of the virtues, especially in the face of our human weakness and in difficult situations,” says the Rev. Brian Shanley.
Where are all spiritual blessings?
Every human who lives on this planet, according to the Bible, is a receiver of God's bodily blessings. “For He raises His sun on the evil and on the good, and showers rain on the just and on the unjust,” Jesus stated (Matthew 5:45b). We should be grateful that God has provided us with everything we require for physical survival through His material creation and natural law. God's blessings, however, are not restricted to the physical realm. God want to shower immense spiritual blessings on those who are willing to accept them.
The food that maintains our physical bodies is one of God's tangible favors. Consider the case of someone who has an abundance of food but refuses to consume it. Refusing to accept God's blessing of food for an extended period of time will result in famine and death. To get the physical gift of eating, one must first choose to eat and then act on that decision.
In the same way, receiving God's spiritual rewards is conditional. God makes His spiritual blessings available to everyone (Titus 2:11), yet just as someone who refuses to consume food will refuse to receive God's spiritual blessings, so too can someone refuse to receive God's spiritual blessings. All spiritual blessings are only available “in Christ,” according to the Bible (Ephesians 1:3). Consider “in Christ” to be a spiritual location. To receive God's spiritual blessings, one must be spiritually located in Christ. “In Christ Jesus” is where salvation is found (2 Timothy 2:10). Before receiving all spiritual rewards, one must first choose to follow Christ and then act on that decision. How does one become a Christian? A penitent believer who declares faith in Jesus as the Son of God can alter their spiritual location by being baptized, according to the Bible. “For everyone who was baptized into Christ has put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Because one is baptized into Christ, one is outside of Christ and hence outside of the spiritual place where all spiritual rewards, including salvation, are obtained prior to baptism.
What does the Bible says about spiritual blessings?
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly realms in Christ,” the apostle Paul said in his introduction to the epistle to the church at Ephesus (Eph. 1:3). We would have adequate motivation to move in that path even if we had no other passage of scripture that linked any desirable end consequence to entering into Christ than this one verse. Although this phrase states that “all” spiritual blessings are “in Christ,” there are several verses that list one or more specific blessings that can be found there. We'll take notice of a handful of them.
What are the 9 spiritual gifts?
A spiritual gift or charism (plural: charisms or charismata; in Greek singular: charisma, plural: charismata) is an idea in which the Holy Spirit bestows remarkable power. Followers think that these are supernatural graces that individual Christians require (and that were required in the days of the Apostles) in order to fulfill the Church's mission. In the strictest sense, it is a theological word for the special graces bestowed on individual Christians for the benefit of others, as opposed to personal sanctification graces such as the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The word of knowledge, enhanced faith, healing gifts, miraculous gifts, prophecy, spirit discernment, various kinds of tongues, and tongue interpretation are examples of these skills, which are often referred to as “charismatic gifts.” The gifts of apostles, prophets, teachers, aids (associated with service to the destitute and sick), and governments (or leadership abilities) are also associated with various Church ministries. Individuals are given these gifts by the Holy Spirit, but their mission is to build up the entire Church. They're mentioned in the New Testament, namely in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4. Spiritual gifts are also mentioned in 1 Peter 4.
The gifts are tied to both “natural” and “miraculous” abilities, both of which are empowered by the Holy Spirit. The two primary theological viewpoints on their nature are that they have long since ceased or that they continue (Cessationism versus Continuationism).
What are physical blessings?
Physical blessings are easy to comprehend when you think about it. They are God's blessings that have to do with our physical well-being. They include the provisions God provides in the shape of food, water, and shelter so that we might live a safe and secure existence.
“Come to the waters, all you who are thirsty; and come, buy and eat, all you who have no money! Come and buy wine and milk with no money and no expense ” (Isaiah 55:1).
Type 2 diabetes affects approximately 25.8 million people in the United States, or 8.3 percent of the population.
1 Non-Hispanic Blacks aged 20 and up account for 4.9 million (18.7%) of the total. 1 Complications of type 2 diabetes, such as cerebrovascular illness, renal failure, and amputations, are substantially more common among African Americans than in non-Hispanic Whites.1
With proper diabetic self-care, these problems can be decreased or avoided. Diabetes therapy relies heavily on self-care knowledge, skills, and activities. The intricacy of sustaining and managing daily self-care activities, such as exercise, food change, and medication adherence, makes diabetic self-care difficult. The American Association of Diabetes Educators2 lists seven diabetes self-care behaviors: being active (physical activity and exercise); eating healthy (diet composition and caloric content); taking medications; monitoring (e.g., blood glucose, weight, blood pressure); problem solving, particularly for blood glucose (high and low levels, sick days); reducing risks (to reduce diabetes complications; smoking cessation); and healthy coping (psychosocial adaptation). These behaviors have been recognized as measurable results of effective diabetes education and should be practiced at both the individual and population level to accomplish the targeted outcomes of diabetes complications prevention and physical and psychological well-being.
Spiritual and religious beliefs and activities can either help people cope with a chronic illness by providing support, confidence, and hope, or they might obstruct successful coping by causing them to ignore self-care activities in favor of prayer and/or meditation.
3 While there is evidence of a link between spirituality and hypertension self-management4, few research have looked at the impact of spirituality on diabetes self-management.
5 As a result, less is known about how spiritual beliefs and practices, as well as social support, influence diabetic self-care among African American adults. 6 Spirituality is an important source of emotional support; God is perceived as central in providing strength to deal with daily challenges; God is frequently called upon for help in controlling diabetes; and a strong belief in God, prayer, meditation, and support from church members were all sources of support in previous studies concerning spirituality, religion, and diabetes in African Americans. 3, 5, and 8 Religion and spirituality were linked to better glycemic control in Black women with type 2 diabetes in one study,9 while religion and spirituality were linked to a lower likelihood of lifelong smoking among African Americans in another. 10
Because of the foregoing findings and a gap in the literature, we decided to look into the possibilities of incorporating spiritual and religious views into diabetic self-management. Spiritual views encompass a connection to a higher being as well as an existential outlook on life, death, and the nature of reality. 11 Religious practices/rituals such as prayer or meditation, as well as interaction with religious community members, are examples of religious beliefs. While spiritual and religious views have a lot in common, the authors decided to look into both of them because they are commonly brought up when dealing with disease. It's also necessary to look into both of these concepts because some people consider themselves spiritual but don't necessarily believe in religion. While religious beliefs and practices are more easily measured, the authors intended to look at the larger context of people's belief systems, specifically their perspectives on life's meaning, disease, and existential concerns. 13 The Systems of Belief Inventory (SBI) was chosen to measure these constructs due to the requirement to examine both spiritual and religious beliefs and practices in the process of coping with an illness.
The researchers wanted to see if there was a link between (a) spiritual and religious beliefs and practices and social support, and (b) diabetic self-care activities in African Americans with type 2 diabetes. Because African Americans have numerous diabetes inequities, this is an essential topic (i.e., highest rates of diabetes, diabetes complications, and diabetes-related mortality rates). 14
Because little is known about how spiritual and religious beliefs and practices affect diabetes self-care in African American adults, this study looked at the relationship between spirituality, religion, and diabetes self-care activities in this population, such as diet, physical activity, blood glucose self-testing, and foot care behaviors. Because some evidence suggests a link between spirituality and religion and lifetime smoking in African Americans10, a negative link between spirituality and religion and smoking was hypothesized. It was expected, in particular, that those who scored higher on spiritual and religious beliefs and practices, as well as social support, would engage in more diabetes self-care activities and smoke less.
What are some good blessings?
“A walk first thing in the morning is a blessing for the entire day.” “Those who perceive lovely things in lowly locations where others see nothing are blessed.” “What we perceive to be bitter trials are frequently blessings disguised.” “A man who can laugh at himself is actually fortunate, since he will never be bored.”