| December 2006 Rhema
Word... COVENANT PRAYER
LESSON - PAGE 5
1.
So much blessing pouring out from heaven that you
won't be able to contain it. Do you like those
terms? The "word windows" of heaven
means "sluice gates." Sluice gates
allow water to be released from a dam in order to
control it. When the sluice gates are open, it
isn't a trickle, folks, that comes through. It's
a torrent! God wants to open the sluice gates of
heaven for you in response to your faith in His
covenant terms. He asks that you demonstrate your
loyalty and faithfulness by returning one-tenth
of your income and increase in goods. That means
both money (income) and non-monetary items
(agricultural produce is a good example). You
realize that a practical way of tithing on
produce or birthday gifts, etc., is to estimate
their value for the purpose of tithing; you very
well can't bring squash to church unless you're
living in a country where that is the more
practical way of tithing. We don't
"pay" tithe, because it isn't ours:
it's God's so we "return" tithes. It is
our joy and blessing to give. It's such a small
transaction on our part to receive such a huge
blessing. The Lord always keeps His word. This is
a large blessing.
2.
God will rebuke Satan for your sake. Satan is the
devourer who works through calamities and
circumstances to rob you of your inheritance. But
he will be successful in doing that if you give
him ground, which you do when you rob God. We
covered that in another lesson. Stealing is a
sin, and God calls the withholding of tithe to be
robbery (Mal. 3:8). Have you begun to notice the
many areas in your life that are unfulfilled or
ravaged - physical, emotional or spiritual - or
the failures that dog your way? Well, if you are
a faithful tither, I would suggest that you bring
this covenant to the Lord and ask for its
fulfillment in your life. It will be done. God's
promise is that when He rebukes Satan for your
sake, Satan will not be able to touch your
finances ("he will not destroy the fruit of
your ground") or touch your family
("nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for
you in the field."), and that you will be a
testimony ("all nations will call you
blessed") and that you will be used for
service ("you will be a delightful
land"), vss. 11-12.
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WHAT
KEEPS A COVENANT ALIVE
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Here's
yet another facet of covenants. A covenant is as
good as one party is still alive. Obviously this
doesn't apply to marriage where the covenant has
to do with bonds between two living people. There
are other covenants, and this third principle is
present in some of them.
When
David and Jonathan made a covenant, David had
nothing and Jonathan had everything. David was
the hunted, but Jonathan was the king's son. So
Jonathan shared from what he had with David who
had nothing. Then came a time when David had
everything, but Jonathan was no longer around, as
he perished with his father in battle.
Remembering
his covenant with Jonathan, David asked if there
was any survivor in Saul's house (family line) to
whom he might show kindness for the sake of his
covenant with Jonathan (2 Sam. 9:1). He was led
to Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son. David rescued
Mephi from a life of obscurity and poverty and
restored to him the real estate possessions of
his grandfather Saul. He also ate from the king's
table for the rest of his life, as befit a member
of the royal family.
What
do we learn from this? A covenant is as good as
one party to it is still alive, as you will learn
in a future lesson in Spiritual Warfare. The
terms of the covenant and its benefits pass on to
the other party's descendants. In this, we
benefit as we understand Gal. 3:29. We are heirs
of the covenant promise God made to Abraham!
That's because one party to that covenant is
still alive - God!
Page Six
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