We want to be those praising God and speaking well of the church so that we may be under God’s blessing today.
Throughout the centuries, those who have blessed Israel and who spoke well of the church have been blessed, and those who spoke evil of Israel and of the church have been under a curse.
In Num. 24:9 God uttered this marvelous word through Balaam, Blessed is everyone who blesses you, / And cursed is everyone who curses you.
As believers in Christ we need to realize that our point of view, our opinion, and our feeling concerning the church and God’s people should be put aside and even denied, and we should take God’s view, His opinion, and His feeling of His people.
Paul was one with the Lord when he wrote to the Corinthians and called them, The church of God which is in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2).
Outwardly speaking, there were many problems in the church in Corinth, and Paul spent an entire Epistle to deal with these problems one by one; there were some problems in this church that we can rarely find in any genuine local church, yet Paul called them, The church of God.
In God’s eyes the church is holy, perfect, and beautiful, for God sees the church not through our tainted human point of view but according to the divine view, and in His view the church is in Christ.
Whenever we have a feeling or a thought that some saints are not that good, whenever we see some problems in the church, and whenever a defect of the saints come to light and we’re about to speak about it “in all honesty”, we need to ask ourselves, Who is right – God or you? Is your point of view correct, or is God’s view of the church correct and accurate?
God doesn’t argue with us; He doesn’t tell us that the church is wonderful and perfect, and here are the reasons why. Rather, even though the situation of His people is many times degraded, even though He Himself may get infuriated with His people, when others speak of His people should be in a proper way, and there must be a proper view of the children of Israel and of the church.
The people of God are the pupil of His eye; no one can easily touch the pupil of our eye, so when someone touches the people of God – whether His earthly people Israel or His spiritual people the church – in an improper or evil way, he puts himself under a curse, and he does not enjoy the blessing.
God loves His people; no matter what Satan – the accuser of the brothers – may say, and no matter what His people may think or say concerning themselves, God still considers the church as being beautiful, perfect, and holy, pleasing in His eyes.
May we have a prayer and a hope that our view of the church would change and be updated to be the same as God’s point of view, and may we help one another to adopt such a divine view of the church.
Blessed is Everyone who Blesses You, and Cursed is Everyone who Curses You (Num. 24:9)
From the very beginning, when God called Abraham and he followed God wherever He wanted him to go, God told him that He will bless Abraham, He will make him a blessing, and whoever blesses Abraham will be blessed.
This is a set principle in God’s eyes concerning His people: blessed is everyone who blesses His people, and cursed is everyone who curses them.
From the time of Nebuchadnezzar (who destroyed the city of Jerusalem) until now, every person, nation, or group of people who has cursed the people of Israel has been cursed, and every nation and people who have blessed the Jews have received the blessing.
The condition and situation of God’s people may not be that good; in fact, their situation may be even worse than the situation of the heathen people, but still, in God’s eyes, they are blessed, for they have God among them, and God is their God.
Our situation as God’s people may fluctuate and our condition may be up or down, but no matter what, God’s view of His people is that they are under God’s blessing, and they are holy, perfect, and beautiful.
Balak paid Balaam to come and curse the people of Israel, but God turned the curse into a blessing; instead of cursing God’s people, Balaam – speaking on behalf of God – altogether blessed them.
To bless someone is to speak well of him, to speak positively concerning him (see Eph. 1:3).
We may say what we want about other people, but when we touch the people of God, when we speak concerning Israel and concerning the church, we need to be very careful that we would not express our point of view but be one with God in the way He sees His people.
According to God’s promise to Abraham, the called people of God – the descendants of Abraham – are like the sand on the seashore (pointing to the earthly people of God, the people of Israel, the Jewish people) and like the stars in the heaven (pointing to the spiritual people of God, the church, the redeemed and saved Gentiles).
May we learn to speak well of God’s people, no matter what we hear concerning them; no matter what we hear concerning Israel in the news or concerning the saints in the church, and no matter what we hear about believers here and there, we need to put ourselves under God’s blessing by speaking well of God’s people.
May we not trust our point of view, our judgement, and our opinions; may we realize that, in the matter of speaking of God’s people, we need to take God’s point of view, His assessment, and His divine view.
Thank You Lord Jesus for making us part of Your spiritual people, the church. Hallelujah, the church is lovely, perfect, holy, and wonderful in the eyes of God. Praise the Lord for God’s people – praise the Lord for the Jewish people as God’s earthly people and for the church as God’s spiritual people. Lord, we want to put ourselves under Your blessing and avoid being under a curse by speaking well of the people of God, no matter what we perceive their situation to be! Hallelujah for the church!
Praising God and Speaking Well of the Church Life to be under God’s Blessing today
God’s word and our experience testifies to the fact that, whenever we are praising God and speaking well of the church, we put ourselves under God’s blessing, but when we criticize or speak evil of the saints or the church, we are under a curse.
For example, when we are in the prayer meeting, we may feel very burdened concerning the low condition of the church, and we may groan and sigh because of how low we perceive the church to be.
But in God’s eyes the church is glorious, wonderful, and perfect; instead of groaning and complaining to God concerning the low situation or condition of the church, we should praise Him and be those speaking well of the church life today.
Those who say that the church is poor, low, or dead, put themselves under a curse, but those who speak positively about the church as the people of God, declaring that the church is lovely and that it is God’s house, they receive the blessing.
We may be disappointed with the church life, and there may be some saints in the church who are not so pleasant toward us; we may even have some solid reasons to not meet because of some situations or some people who said some things…but when we speak of the church, we need to have God’s view of the church and not ours.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3); all the saints are blessed, and the church is under the blessing of God.
Let us remove all the negative speaking about the saints and learn to speak positively of the saints and the church.
Some may say that this is self-deception, that we are lying to ourselves…but we need to realize that there is only one who accuses the brothers, and that is Satan, and whenever we accuse – whether we have a solid base to do this or not – we are one with Satan, and he is under a curse. Speaking well of the church life is not self-deception; rather, we speak the truth according to God.
When we say, The church is wonderful! The brothers and the sisters are beautiful! – this will change our day.
If we say something good about the saints and we’re in our spirit, not lying or performing, then we bless them and we put ourselves under God’s blessing. The more we praise the Lord for His people and speak well of them in faith, the more we put ourselves under God’s blessing.
We need to have faith to speak well of the people of God; when we speak negatively we don’t need faith – we simply need unbelief, and we don’t need to ask for it because we’re full of unbelief. But praise the Lord, we have another spirit – we have a spirit of faith, and as we believe, we also speak!
Those who speak negatively get out of the blessing and get under a curse, being in a bad place, a dark place; but those who speak positively concerning the church and speak well of the church life put themselves under God’s blessing.
All the enemy’s accusations regarding the church are lies; he is the accuser of the brothers, and he speaks nothing but lies and accusations toward God’s people. In God’s eyes the church is uplifted and very living.
We should not see more than God sees; we are not wiser or more perceptive than God.
We should not stand with our estimation of the church; we should not try to “dig deeper” into the negative things that we perceive in the church, but we should simply stand with the Lord’s estimation and be kept from falling from blessing into the curse.
May we be careful of our natural sight; if God doesn’t see iniquity or perverseness in the church, how can we see it? Our God is merciful, and He abounds in mercy; we should be one with God in praising God and speaking well of the church life.
Thank You Lord for the church! Hallelujah, the church is wonderful, glorious, perfect, and holy! Praise the Lord for the blessed church life! Amen, Lord, we remove all negative speaking concerning the saints and we want to speak positively concerning the church, speaking the truth not according to our feeling and view but according to God! We exercise our spirit, Lord, to speak well of the church life and to bless the church, for the church is the house of God, the dwelling place of God, and here God’s presence is real and manifested! Hallelujah for the saints and for the church, the dwelling place of God!
Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Să-L lăudăm pe Dumnezeu și să vorbim de bine de viața de biserică pentru a fi sub binecuvântarea lui Dumnezeu astăzi.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msg. 7 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 11, The Vision of the All-Sufficient One – the Divine View of God’s People.
- Hymns on this topic:
# The church is Christ’s deep longing / And His good pleasure too. / His every word and action / Is made with her in view. / His heart’s love is established, / And nought can Him deter; / Before the earth’s foundation / His thoughts were filled with her. (Hymns #1229)
# Splendid church life! His green garden! / He has brought us, praise the Lord, / To experience the Christ Who’s growing here! / He is full of rich enjoyment / To His saints in one accord; / He is new and fresh, available and dear. / I’m so happy in this lovely place, / In the garden growing in His grace! (Hymns #1237)
# Do you see them in the cities, / Meeting on the local ground? / They’re the local, golden lampstands, / Where the Lord His home has found. / ’Tis the local church, the church God has chosen, / Where all the saints dwell as one! (Hymns #1257)
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