God Blesses Us To Build His Church

God Blesses Us To Build His Church
“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.” Genesis 28:15

We naturally want God to bless us. Many of our prayers are requests, asking God to bless us in a variety of ways. What we often miss, however, is that God aims to bless us so that we might be a blessing to others. 

In Genesis 28, God blesses Jacob. “Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 28:14). Notice the end of the blessings to Jacob, that “all the families of the earth be blessed.” Ultimately, that they, too, might know God. This is the way God multiplies his blessing, blessed to be a blessing. 

The greatest blessing that God gives to Jacob is God himself, a personal relationship with God. “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:15). God promised Jacob fellowship with him, to always be with Jacob and to keep him, everywhere. 

When Jacob awakes from the vision he realizes that the place where God met with him is a holy place, it is, in fact, the house of God. “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God” (Genesis 28:17). Jacob is most excited about having been blessed with the presence of God, being invited to live in the House of God, that is, in God’s very presence. Thus God builds his house, out of living stones, those who live in his presence.  

With the promise of God’s blessing, Jacob arrives otherwise empty handed at a well where he meets Rachel. For twenty years Jacob will serve Rachel’s father, his new father-in-law, Laban. When Jacob leaves, he leaves with a huge family of eleven sons and great wealth. God has blessed him. And by blessing Jacob, God continues to build his house, the people of God who live in his presence, Israel. 

God blesses us too, sometimes with a spouse, or children, or wealth, as he did Jacob. Mostly, however, God blesses us with himself, as he did Jacob. “Behold, I am with you always,” Jesus promised us. These spiritual and material blessings have a purpose beyond our personal enjoyment. We are blessed by God to build his church. “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

God blesses us with his presence through the person of the Holy Spirit. God the Spirit lavishes gifts upon his people, spiritual gifts, designed to be used to build up the church, the house of God. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). What are we to do with these blessings, these gifts? “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another” (1 Peter 4:10). 

We are blessed to be a blessing.  God uses the very gifts he gives us to build his house. “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). 

In the end, this is our great blessing, being the House of God, those people with whom God dwells forever. “Behold, I am with you.”