It’s human nature. Everyday people try to shrink God down to size—make Elohim experience their human experience. Yes God did, through Christ, victoriously walk though our mortal existence. And in so doing, He empowered us to do what many in previous generations only dreamt of doing—live outside the box. It is His nature to constantly remind us that our thoughts and His thoughts are vastly different. Visualize it. Isaiah wrote, “As far as the East is from the West…. And as far as Heaven is from Earth.” Think a thought, then, multiply it one hundred times! Ephesians 3:20 declares that the Lord is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or think! So whatever level you’ve been thinking on, it’s probably too low. If you truly believe in the awesomeness of God, then you must believe that not only can He do awesome things in your life, but He wants to as well! Let’s take the lid off the box, a Blessing Blocker you probably didn’t even know you’d put God into.

I’ve been there. I thought I was doing everything God wanted me to do. Somewhere along the way though, I’d placed barriers on myself and God. Isaiah 1:19 says, “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land,” verse 20 contrasts, “But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” In these situations, I was actually unknowingly resisting and rebelling. I thought I was being willing and obedient. What I had done was allowed my experiences and distorted thoughts to trap me and limit God. These verses in Isaiah seem easy enough to understand (and verse 19 is definitely easy to quote!), but applying them could pose a challenge.

Case in point: Think about a difficult situation you are facing or have faced. As far as you know, you’ve been faithful to God in everything. Now at some point, was there an action the Holy Spirit prompted you to take that defied your natural mind? Why would Elisha tell Naaman to dip in the Jordan River seven times and be clean? What was Jesus thinking when He spat on the ground and made a spit and dirt patty to heal a blind man? And what was up with Peter and John when they, while broke and in the middle of controversy, had the audacity to tell the lame beggar at the gate called Beautiful to get up in the name of Jesus?! They were all out of the box!

The bottom line is this people—The Blessing can’t flow inside the box. I don’t care how long you’ve been saved. You must guard your thinking on this. Constantly renew your mind, hear sound teaching and, by all means, protect your spirit. Don’t listen to any and everything people say, or what’s flowing though the media. Check your caller ID—don’t just pick up the phone! It could be the box calling!

If I seem extra passionate on this point, it’s because I’ve recently been on a personal journey out of the box. It was an epiphany. My thinking on an area was so tightly in the box, that at one point I literally had a person sitting in my home telling me what to do, and I missed it! It took me two years to realize that God was using that person to speak to me.  The box also blocks God’s Blessing in our lives by stealing our time. Two years? Yes, two years. Thank God that this mistake was neither grave nor at the point of no return. My husband and I saw God using it to show us that when we say absolute things like always and never, we limit Him. Whoa! The only thing we should be absolute about is His Word. We’d been obedient, but we weren’t willing. And actually, we weren’t trusting. We weren’t willing to hear and obey God no matter what. So we put Him in a box and struggled until we corrected the mistake. How’d we correct it? We took the barriers off our thinking. We began to trust God in that area and let Him do His part.

Please understand that even though our paths may cross, and our testimonies may be similar, God will not require the exact things from us (outside the basics, of course). Even in the Bible you will not find identical stories of people’s experiences with God. Decisions must not be based on what someone else did or said. It’s not always safe to repeat a previous action either. Remember our examples in the Word. God’s people were always asking for His direction and permission to do things, even if they’d done those same things and succeeded or failed before.

Go ahead and bottle-feed your baby if God gives you peace about that. I did, and my children live in divine health. Go on the missions trip that none of your friends signed up for; you may meet your spouse. Witness to the person that everyone else has given up on. You might help save their life. Don’t abandon your dream, but stop trying to tell God how to use you and how to bless you—you can’t manipulate him. You must be willing and obedient. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:13, “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Don’t allow the box to block you from The Blessing. You must learn to seek Godly advice, hear God, and obey Him. Liberate yourself. Whatever He tells you to do, do it. Put this Blessing Blocker where it belongs—in the box!

One of the reasons that I write the way I do is that I want you to develop a thirst to know God better. God is a good God and he has good plans for your life. Plans of prosperity that are free from harm. Today, I want to talk to you about what you do when you miss the mark. Even when we sin, God has made provision for us to blot that sin from His memory, and to be fully restored to righteousness. 9 Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”? – Proverbs 20:9 If you’ve sinned, you’re not alone. We have all sinned. There is only one man that ever walked the earth sin-free, and that one was both fully man and fully God. His name is Jesus.

“When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to his own land, far away or near; and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their conquerors and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly’; and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name; then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their conquerors to show them mercy; for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace. – 1 Kings 8:46

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:8

If you want to be restored to righteousness, confess it before God. He will forget what you have done and give you a fresh start. God’s mercies are new every morning. He wants to think well of you. He wants you to want Him to think well of you.

He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. – Psalm 103:10-12

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

—Mahatma Gandhi

We all love the words of Jesus in Mark 11:23-24. We can command mountains to move, believe in our hearts and speak our desires into existence (author’s paraphrase). But, check out verses 25-26. Jesus said, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” This is a classic example of how refusing to forgive can hinder us from walking in the Blessing. In essence, not forgiving nullifies the previous verses. How can we expect to receive anything from God knowing we are in direct violation of His command to forgive? Another classic verse is Luke 6:38—give and it shall be given …. Jesus qualifies that in verse 37 saying, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” These must be adhered to in order to get the pressed down-shaken-together-running over blessing. Think about this. How many true givers do you know who judge, condemn and hold grudges?

Carrying old hurts and offenses also gives the enemy an opportunity to rob us of the divine health promised in the Blessing. Many studies have linked forgiveness to better overall health. Two cases in point: a 2001 survey of 1,423 adults by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research found that people who had forgiven someone in their past also reported being in better health than those who had not.* Additionally, the Duke University Medical Center reported in 2003 that among people who have chronic back pain, those who have forgiven others experience lower levels of pain and less associated psychological problems like anger and depression than those who have not forgiven. These findings were presented at the Conference on Forgiveness in Atlanta the same year.*

The Bible tells us that Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, but was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). I am positive that He had more chances to hold grudges than are recorded. He was maliciously railed upon, mentally and physically abused. He forgave them all—He even healed the soldier who came at Him with a sword and forgave the violence against Him as He suffered on the cross. In recounting my own unsavory life experiences, I find that as I verbalize them, I remain free from their attempts to bind me. I don’t share them in an attempt to gain sympathy or to get someone on my side. They are my testimonies of God’s healing power. He healed my mind and physical body as I chose to forgive. Dear friends, don’t waste another day in the past. Forgive and allow the Blessing of the Lord to flow freely in your life!

Be blessed friends, and have the perfect day everyday!

Psalm 138:8

—Shontta 
*http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2001/Dec01/r121101a.html\l (link to the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research)*http://www.Forgiving.org (link to the source of the findings of the Duke University Medical Center study)