Light of the World Today
Parts 1 and 2 established what was promised and how to position yourself. Part 3 deals with the most urgent and the most overlooked step of all. Taking actual delivery of what has already been prepared and paid for.
"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."
2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
Here is a truth that most people never fully receive even though it is sitting plainly in their Bible. Everything you need for life and godliness has already been given. Not promised as a future possibility. Not available if you meet the right conditions eventually. Already given. 2 Peter 1:3 says his divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. Past tense. Completed. The full package of what you require to live the life God designed for you, the restored life, the fruitful life, the life of which Joel 2:25-26 is a description, has already been provided through your knowledge of Christ Jesus.
The problem is not that the blessings are unavailable. The problem is that most believers have not taken delivery of what has been provided. There is an important distinction between a blessing being provided and a blessing being received. The post office does not break down your door to deliver your parcel. It places the card through your letterbox. It announces that the parcel has arrived. And you either go and collect it or it sits in the depot uncollected. God is not withholding your blessings. He has dispatched them. But they require active, faith-filled, specific collection. Taking delivery is the deliberate act of reaching into the spiritual realm through faith, through the Word and through prayer and receiving what has already been released from the other side.
Your Rights in the Kingdom of God
2 Peter 1:4 says God has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature. The promises are not aspirational statements designed to give you something to look forward to. They are the title deeds of your inheritance in Christ. They are the legal documentation of what belongs to you by virtue of your citizenship in the kingdom of God and your union with Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1:3 in the NIV says praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Every spiritual blessing. In Christ. Already blessed. The blessing is not on its way to you. You are already in possession of it in the spiritual realm. Taking delivery means bringing what exists in the spiritual realm into visible, tangible expression in the natural realm through the mechanism of faith-filled, Word-grounded, persistent declaration and reception.
Consider for a moment what your rights in the kingdom of God actually include. Romans 8:17 in the NIV says now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. A co-heir inherits everything that the primary heir inherits. You are a co-heir with Christ. Everything that belongs to Christ as the Son of God is available to you as a joint heir of the same Father. That includes peace that passes understanding. Healing for the body. Provision for every need. Protection from every form of evil. Wisdom for every decision. Authority over every expression of darkness. Favour in every environment. Purpose that gives meaning to every chapter of your life. Eternal life that gives permanence to everything you build in his name. These are not aspirations. They are inheritance rights. And a person who does not know their inheritance rights will live like a pauper in a palace. Seated on a throne they were designed to occupy but never claimed.
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."
Ephesians 1:3 NIV
Why Promised Blessings Are Sometimes Delayed
One of the most honest questions in the Christian life is why a blessing that Scripture clearly promises can take so long to manifest visibly. The answer is almost never that God changed his mind. The promises of God are yes and amen as 2 Corinthians 1:20 in the NKJV says. For all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him amen, to the glory of God through us. They do not expire. They do not change with the season. And they are not withheld because God is displeased with the level of your faith on a specific Tuesday.
Delayed blessings are almost always the result of one of three things. First, the person has not yet specifically and persistently asked for what they need. James 4:2 in the NLT says you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it. The most obvious reason for an uncollected parcel is that nobody went to the depot. Second, the character or the capacity required to steward the blessing well is still being formed and the delay is the formation time rather than a sign of divine reluctance. Third, there is a spiritual opposition operating against the release of the blessing that requires persistent, authoritative, faith-filled prayer to overcome, exactly as Daniel's answer was dispatched on day one but took twenty-one days to arrive because of resistance in the spiritual realm. In all three cases the response is the same. Keep asking. Keep believing. Keep declaring. And stay positioned in the daily practices of faith, the Word and prayer that maintain the spiritual environment in which the promised blessing can most readily manifest.
Declaration and Prayer Points to Take Delivery Today
Read each declaration and prayer point aloud. Do not rush through them. Speak them with the conviction of someone who knows that what they are declaring is already provided and that they are taking delivery right now. Pause after each one and receive it in your spirit before moving to the next.
Declaration 1: Take delivery of everything pertaining to life and godliness
Father, I receive right now by faith everything that 2 Peter 1:3 says has already been given to me through the knowledge of Christ Jesus. I am not asking you to provide what you have already released. I am taking delivery of it right now. Everything I need for a godly life, for a purposeful life, for a fruitful life and for a life that reflects the character and the power of the one who called me, is already mine. I receive it in full today. Nothing is outstanding. Nothing is pending. Everything has been given. I collect it now in Jesus name. Amen.
2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
Declaration 2: Take delivery of your promised restoration
Father, I take delivery today of the restoration that Joel 2:25 promises over the specific years the locust consumed in my life. I name those years. I name the specific losses. And I receive the full, comprehensive, shalam restoration that your Word promises over each one. Not a partial return. Not the exact equivalent. A restoration so complete and so generous that the latter part of my life is better than the former part as it was for Job. I receive it now. Every year. Every opportunity. Every relationship. Every resource. Every dimension of what was taken. Restored and more. In Jesus name. Amen.
Joel 2:25 ESV, Job 42:10 NKJV, Job 42:12 NIV
Declaration 3: Take delivery of supernatural provision and financial blessing
Father, I receive today the financial blessing that Galatians 3:13-14 says is my inheritance in Christ through the redemption from every curse. I receive the blessing of Abraham over my finances. I receive the promise of Philippians 4:19 right now. My God shall supply all my need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Not some of my need. All. I receive supernatural provision, open doors of increase and divine favour over every financial dimension of my life. I bind the devourer over my finances as Malachi 3:11 declares is my right. And I receive the abundance that 2 Corinthians 9:8 says is available to me. All grace abounding toward me so that I have all sufficiency in all things and an abundance for every good work. In Jesus name. Amen.
Philippians 4:19 NKJV, Galatians 3:13-14 NKJV, Malachi 3:11 NIV, 2 Corinthians 9:8 NKJV
Declaration 4: Take delivery of healing for your body
Father, I receive today the healing that Isaiah 53:5 says was purchased at Calvary. By the wounds of Jesus I am healed. I take delivery of that healing right now for every area of my body where sickness, pain, weakness or chronic condition has been operating. I receive wholeness. I receive the restoration of full health and full function in every organ, every system and every part of my body. I declare Exodus 15:26 over myself. You are the Lord who heals me. And I receive your healing now by faith with the full confidence of someone who is claiming their inheritance rather than begging for a favour. In Jesus name. Amen.
Isaiah 53:5 NIV, Exodus 15:26 NIV, 1 Peter 2:24 NLT
Declaration 5: Take delivery of divine favour and open doors
Father, I receive divine favour right now in every area of my life. Favour that opens doors no human effort can open and closes doors that would harm me. I declare Psalm 5:12 over myself. You surround me with favour as with a shield. I receive favour at my workplace, favour in my relationships, favour with authority figures and decision makers, favour in my community and favour in every environment where you have positioned me. I declare that every door you have ordained for my advancement is open right now and no force of darkness has the right to shut it. Revelation 3:8. In Jesus name. Amen.
Psalm 5:12 NIV, Revelation 3:8 NIV, Isaiah 45:2 NIV
Declaration 6: Take delivery of peace that guards your heart and mind
Father, I receive the peace that Philippians 4:7 says passes all understanding. I receive it right now as the guardian of my heart and my mind. Not a temporary calm that depends on circumstances being favourable. The supernatural peace that remains when circumstances are not favourable and that guards what anxiety would otherwise access. I declare Isaiah 26:3 over myself. You will keep in perfect peace the person whose mind is stayed on you because they trust in you. My mind is stayed on you today. I receive the perfect peace that is my covenant inheritance in Christ. In Jesus name. Amen.
Philippians 4:7 NIV, Isaiah 26:3 NKJV, John 14:27 NIV
Declaration 7: Take delivery of your delayed blessings now
Father, I come against every spiritual assignment that has been operating to delay the specific blessings you have promised over my life. I declare Habakkuk 2:3 right now. If it seems slow in coming I will wait patiently for it because it will certainly happen. It will not be delayed beyond the appointed time. I declare that every blessing that has been in transit, every answer to prayer that has been dispatched from heaven but has not yet arrived visibly in the natural, is arriving now. The appointed time is this season. I receive every delayed blessing by faith right now. The promise has not expired. The blessing is on its way. And I receive it in advance by faith as Romans 4:17 says Abraham did, calling things that are not yet visible as though they were. In Jesus name. Amen.
Habakkuk 2:3 NLT, Romans 4:17 NKJV, Daniel 10:12 NLT
Declaration 8: Take delivery of your kingdom identity and purpose
Father, I receive today the fullness of the identity that 2 Corinthians 5:17 says is mine in Christ. I am a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. I receive the specific calling and the specific purpose that Ephesians 2:10 says you prepared for me before the foundation of the world. I am your masterpiece. Created for good works that you planned in advance for me to walk in. I receive the clarity to see those works. The courage to begin them. The grace to sustain them. And the specific anointing that Proverbs 18:16 says will make room for the gift you placed in me and bring me before the people I am designed to serve. I am not too late. I am not too damaged. I am not too ordinary. I am exactly who you designed me to be, restored and ready. In Jesus name. Amen.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV, Ephesians 2:10 NLT, Proverbs 18:16 NKJV, Jeremiah 29:11 NIV.
So the Light of the World word for today and for the final close of this three-part series is this. The parcel is at the depot. It has been there since Calvary. Your name is on it. God has been trying to deliver it and you have been either unaware that it was sent or too overwhelmed by the locust years to go and collect it. Today you went. Today you declared. Today you received. Now live from what you collected. Speak it over your situation every morning. Refuse to live as though it is still uncollected. And watch as what was already provided in the heavenly realms becomes increasingly visible, increasingly tangible and increasingly undeniable in the natural realm of your specific everyday life. All things that pertain to life and godliness have been given. You just took delivery. Walk in it.
Memory verse for today
"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."
2 Peter 1:3 NIV.