The Blessings Do Come
By Jesus, speaking in prophecy
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Dedicating your life to Me and to serving others is never easy. That’s true whether it’s your full-time occupation as a missionary, or whether you’re working with and assisting those who are, or whether you’re simply dedicating as much time and effort as you can spare amidst your work and family responsibilities. I told My first disciples to “take up their cross daily, and follow Me,” and I’m asking the same of you today, and of anyone who will answer My call.1
Why did I refer to following Me as “taking up a cross”? It means dying to yourself on an everyday basis. It means making the difficult choices to show love, to live a life ruled by love, to step out and give My love and truth to others. It means putting Me and the needs of others first, especially their spiritual need for truth, love, and encouragement. It means sacrifice.
Not to mention that the Devil hates the fact that you’re giving My love and truth to others, and will therefore try to fight you in every way he can. That might mean trying to trip you up in physical ways, or via attacks on your spirit through discouragement, worry, complacency, fear, lethargy, and so on. So another part of taking up that cross means warding off those attacks.
But that is really just one part of the picture. Because what do I promise in return? For one, I promise you all the help that you need from the spirit world to repel and defeat the attacks of your spiritual enemy. I inspired the apostle Paul to explain it this way: “Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses [in the spirit world] … let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”2
You’ve got the forces of heaven cheering you on. And you’ve got Me, the author and finisher of your faith. I reward you with faith when you choose to believe Me and obey Me by reading My Word.3 I give you the spiritual strength and determination to “finish” your faith, meaning to complete the course, to run the race of this life—a life lived for love; a life of giving, of serving, of sacrifice; a life of joy, of glory, and of reward.
I also promise you joy and peace of mind, which gives you strength to pour out to others. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”4 I promise you power to be a witness for Me, even at those times when you feel like it’s too difficult.5 I fill you with My love, and the more you give, the more I give to you in return. In fact, I always give you back more than you pour out. So the best way to increase your store of love is to give more of it to others.
Although you take up your cross daily, and you are faced with choices to do the unselfish thing and to put My commission first, I give you the means to do so and then I reward you accordingly. That’s a pretty good offer, wouldn’t you say? It’s so good that it’s a wonder more people don’t take it! But they don’t, because it requires stepping out by faith and trusting Me to take care of them. And that faith comes primarily through reading, believing, and acting on My Word. My blessings come after the obedience, notbefore. But trust Me, they do come!
It gets even better, because not only have I promised everything that you need to fulfill My mission of love from now until your last day on earth, but I’m adding on great rewards in the next life as well. I’ve promised one-hundred-fold blessings in this life, and in the life to come, happiness and love forever. That’s the ultimate reward worth fighting for and attaining—one that will last forever. Take a minute to think about the greatest treasures you could have on earth, the most money or whatever it is that you could wish for. How long would it last? Compare that with a treasure that you can enjoy forever.
So when you’re struggling under your “cross”—and I know that some days it is a struggle—I want you to pause for a moment and think about the ways in which your life has already been blessed and rewarded since you’ve come to know Me and follow Me. Recall all the times I’ve given you strength when you didn’t feel like you had it within you. Meditate on the love that I’ve shown you through your family, and from your brothers and sisters in Me, and directly from My Spirit.
Everything that I’ve done for you so far I can continue to do for the rest of your life, if you’re faithful to trigger those blessings through your obedience to what I ask of you and through your living according to My Law of Love.6 That’s something you can count on. That’s an investment that will never go bust. It’s rock solid. You’ve already seen Me at work in your life, and you know that I work.
Then take a few more minutes to think beyond this life and what awaits you in heaven. It’s mind-boggling and you can’t even really comprehend it or imagine it fully. That’s fine, I don’t expect you to. The human mind can’t fully comprehend the things of the Spirit, and My Father designed it that way. But even just the glimpses that you can understand and that I’ve revealed in My Word are pretty outstanding, aren’t they?7
I want you to daydream about what is to come in the same way that a child dreams of one day becoming an Olympic champion, or playing on the winning team at the World Cup, or becoming a Nobel Prize–winning scientist. They’re fantastic dreams that seem out of reach, and indeed they are for most, but for those who do attain them, it’s an explosion of joy. Their elation is unequaled, as they’ve reached the goal that they’ve worked toward their whole life.
Everything that they had to give up and the sacrifices they made helped them to reach a goal that they, and perhaps many others, at times thought impossible. That’s how you’re going to feel when you get to heaven and receive your “Nobel Prize.” The prophet Daniel recorded what is to come—those who were faithful to Me and My mission on earth “shining like the stars forever and ever.”8
So when you’re feeling down or discouraged, when you’re struggling through the trials of life, when you feel you’re being buffeted by the Enemy, when you feel that I’m asking too much of you, when you feel like you don’t have anything left to give, when you’re beset by difficulties and problems—I want you to pause and think about the strength, love, and joy that I’m able to give you on earth, and the unimaginable rewards and fulfillment that await you in heaven.
Claim My promises, and hold on to them. Come before My throne boldly9 and ask for what I have promised to give you in My Word, and you won’t be disappointed. You can count on My promises. Determine that you’ll carry on in faithfulness to My will for your life, and let Me be the wind that fills your sails, the current that carries you forward when you feel you can’t row any longer, and the force that empowers you to take one more step when you feel like giving up.
I want you to lift up your spiritual eyes and look into the glorious future that I’ve promised. See the end of the road in your mind’s eye. See yourself crossing the finish line, scoring the winning goal, winning the ultimate prize. That’s what I have in store for you—because I love you.
Originally published March 2009. Updated and republished June 2012.
Read by Bethany Kelly.
1 Luke 9:23.
2 Hebrews 12:1–2.
3 Romans 10:17.
4 Nehemiah 8:10.
5 Acts 1:8.
6 Matthew 22:37–40.
7 1 Corinthians 2:9–10.
8 Daniel 12:3.
9 Hebrews 4:16.
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