The Blessing of Sacrifice.
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I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
“Gather My saints together to Me,
Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”
Are you a beneficiary of sacrifice? Sacrifice is not easy to engage in, yet it is the key that unlocks many gates to people’s deliverances and blessings. It is one of the secrets of supernatural breakthroughs. This post gives a summary of the power and blessings of sacrifice, most of which is from a teaching by Bishop David Abioye on the “Force of Sacrifice.” I believe it will minister to you as it ministered to me.
Are you a beneficiary of sacrifice? Sacrifice is not easy to engage in, yet it is the key that unlocks many gates to people’s deliverances and blessings. It is one of the secrets of supernatural breakthroughs. This post gives a summary of the power and blessings of sacrifice, most of which is from a teaching by Bishop David Abioye on the “Force of Sacrifice.” I believe it will minister to you as it ministered to me.
Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him – (NKJV).
Sacrifice is done in tears and in pain but the person engaging in it reaps in joy and bountifully. The returns are normally fearful because they are beyond what can be explained by the human mind. It is God’s ordained gateway to a new dawn, glorious beginnings and series of breakthroughs.
What is sacrifice?
It is giving out things that are precious and valuable to you; it talks about the cost and not the volume, the quality and not the quantity of what you are giving. Furthermore, sacrifice is parting away with your goods with weeping. The process is painful but gainful at the end.
Benefits of the altar of sacrifice
It reverses curses ()
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
It is the altar of enactment of covenant ()
t is the altar of enactment of covenant ()
It is the altar of termination of plaques ()
It is the altar of supernatural turnaround ()
When to sacrifice
Whenever things look tight.
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
So she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ ”
So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.
1king 17:()
()
When God instructs you to do so ()
Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
When you are delightsomely prompted to do so ()
And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.
Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?”
How to make your sacrifice acceptable
Give yourself first to God
Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.
2cor 8: 1-5
Give it for the love you have for God .
()
And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.
Give it for the love you have for God ()Give willingly ()Give in worship of God ( )Give expectantly ( )
Give willingly.
Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
Give in worship of God.
()Give willingly ()Give in worship of God ( )Give expectantly ( )
()Give in worship of God ( )Give expectantly ( )
And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”
( )Give expectantly ( )
Give expectantly.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,”
( )
( )
Why Would God ask for a Sacrifice?
God will ask for a sacrifice because He wants to know the state of your heart
And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.
“As a partridge that broods but does not hatch,
So is he who gets riches, but not by right;
It will leave him in the midst of his days,
And at his end he will be a fool.”
God wants you to know what is in your own heart (). You may think you know your heart or what its tendencies are until a demand is placed on you.
and ).God wants you to know what is in your own heart (). You may think you know your heart or what its tendencies are until a demand is placed on you. The rich man in was a man who loved to fulfil the law. Jesus knew his deficiency but the man never realised his own deficiency or the true state of his heart until he was put on the spot. The rich young ruler did not know that he was enslaved to his wealth. Jesus also revealed the state of Peter's heart to him, when he told Jesus he would follow Jesus and die with Him. But when he saw death, he ran and denied Jesus. When God calls for a sacrifice, He wants us to search ourselves and know where our tendencies are.
The rich man in was a man who loved to fulfil the law. Jesus knew his deficiency but the man never realised his own deficiency or the true state of his heart until he was put on the spot. The rich young ruler did not know that he was enslaved to his wealth. Jesus also revealed the state of Peter's heart to him, when he told Jesus he would follow Jesus and die with Him. But when he saw death, he ran and denied Jesus. When God calls for a sacrifice, He wants us to search ourselves and know where our tendencies are.
Biblical examples
Widow of Zarephath –
The widow of Zarephath sacrificed the only handful of flour and little oil she had for her son and herself to eat during a drought (cause of the famine in the land), and God gave her food to eat till rain started falling again for crops to grow. She experienced supernatural turnaround through her sacrifice.
Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac –
God instructed Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac, whom he waited for years to have. Abraham went ahead to do so, willingly, in worship of God and with expectation that God will raise Isaac up from the dead (). At the end, God provided the animal used for the sacrifice and He enacted a covenant of blessings, multiplication and dominion with Abraham and his descendants, which is still speaking till today.
The death of Jesus Christ – , )
God also sacrificed his only begotten son for the world, so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. The Almighty Father sacrificed His best to reconcile the world to Himself, and today multitudes are returning back to Him.
In conclusion, sacrifice may the answer to the challenge you are facing today. There are numerous testimonies that emanated from the altar of sacrifice. Nobody gives an acceptable sacrifice and remains the same. Act on this summary today and you will be sharing your testimony sooner than you expect.
Conclusion .
There is nothing that you sacrifice that you don't get back ().
If you give up, you will receive. Every sacrifice, though physical, goes beyond the material and has a spiritual dimension (). We gauge blessings by the physical but there are spiritual implications of a blessing. In , man was first made in the spiritual form, and the first thing God said to man was to bless him ().
God empowered man spiritually when He created man; He gave a part of Himself to man, so that man can function and have dominion over the works of creation (). Blessing is more of empowerment than what is seen in the physical. Blessing is an empowerment that was instituted when man was born in the spiritual ().
says; "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:" The greatest blessing you can get from God is a spiritual blessing. In , God conferred upon man the ability to perform in line with His thoughts which He had expressed in .
The blessings of God are contained in the Words He spoke over man just like He spoke to create the Heavens and the earth.
Man sinned and God's blessing upon man was corrupted but that did not change God's plan. Noah sacrificed the clean beasts at the risk of not seeing the species of these animals again (, , ). Because of Noah's sacrifice, God enacted a law that is still in existence today (), and God blessed Noah and his sons ().
These scriptures tells us that it took a sacrifice for God to re-enact something He had earlier declared in , before man was born or made in the physical form.
Every sacrifice you make carries with it a blessing (). It is the blessing of the LORD that makes you rich and adds no sorrow to it (). Every sacrifice draws an oath from God; it attracts God's attention and a covenant commitment from Him. Don't shy away from any sacrifice. In addition, whenever you give a sacrifice, patiently wait for its blessing, for it will surely come because God is the rewarder of they that diligently seek Him.
The blessing of Abraham was established on sacrifice, and it is an empowerment. God confirmed His Word to Abraham by two immutable things: the Word of God and the oath (). Therefore, as you offer sacrifices to God, expect an empowerment from Him and wait for Him.
In conclusion, the ultimate sacrifice is our LORD, Jesus Christ; He came to this world and died for us. If you have not given your life to Jesus Christ, do so today. If you want to partake in the blessings of sacrifice, now is the time to give your life to Jesus Christ. He wants to change your life; change you to a child of destiny, save your soul, and do what He has purposed for your life.
Jesus is Lord!
