Don't Block the Flow!

¹⁷Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle (James 1:17, MSG).

³His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness (2 Peter 1:3, NIV).

The Apostles James and Peter tell us that God continually gives us every good and beneficial gift we need to live a godly life. Many people however do not receive the blessings of God because they have blocked off the flow. Here are four common things that block the flow of blessings in a church and in the lives of individuals.

1.     Sin

¹ Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. ² But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear (Isaiah 59:1-2, NIV).

2.     Unbelief

⁵⁸And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith (Matthew 13:58).

3.     Wrong Priorities

¹ In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: ⁷ This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. ⁸ Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD . ⁹ "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. ¹¹ I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands" (Haggai 1:1 & 7-11).

1.     Giving God the leftovers

⁹ Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; ¹⁰ then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine (Proverbs 3:9).

Sin, unbelief, and failure to make God the top priority in our schedule and in our giving block the abundant flow of the blessings of God our lives. God's wants us to remove the blockages so that we can receive all that He has given us.

Pastor Earl