The Father's Heart To Bless

The world trains us to chase what we want right now, but we’re not meant to be driven by demand, fear, or distraction. We take a clear look at the Father’s heart to bless, and why real spiritual strength starts with a different priority: time in God’s Word and time in prayer, not just to get something from Him, but to know Him and be shaped by His love.

We unpack how belief works and why we “cannot receive what we do not believe”. When God brings a rhema word in season, our job is to lay hold of it, personalise the Father’s love, and let that beloved identity feed our faith. We also talk honestly about trials, using Scripture to show they’re for a season, and we push back against the lie that your best days are behind you. Good days are ahead, and the Word trains our hearts, our speech, and our focus to match that hope.

From Mary and Martha in Luke 10 to the modern pull of social media, entertainment, and constant busyness, we get practical about what steals our attention and what actually nourishes the soul. Then we close with a bold, freeing theme: you are destined to reign in life through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, living as a royal priesthood with authority that flows from the finished work of the cross.

If this stirred your faith, subscribe, share it with a mate, and leave a review so more people can learn to prioritise the Word and live from the Father’s blessing.

Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Blessing Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Well, I'm glad you didn't have to listen to all of that because I had a few technical issues doing that a bit lately. Now today we're going to be talking about the Father's heart to bless us. You know, in this fast paced world, people want everything now and demand everything now. So if this is the way of the world, let's remember that we live in this world, but we are not of it. So in saying

The Father's Heart To Bless

SPEAKER_00 1:01

that, shouldn't we be looking to God for all of our wants and our needs? Shouldn't we be desiring much, much more in time of prayer and spending time in his word? So in saying that, wouldn't it be better for our focus to be on him and not on him for what we want or what we need, but because that is the lesser of two evils, so to speak, but it's not. I mean, spending time in the Word, spending time with our Heavenly Father, it is an opportunity for us to be blessed and to bless him. Because this is where we want our focus to be. And not only because we we want to, also this should and could look different for every single one of us. You know, are we spending time in his word and time in prayer because um we might receive more anointing, others more peace, others wisdom, favor, or provision. Regardless of how these blessings take shape, they all flow from the same source, our Heavenly Father, who daily loads us with benefits. Psalm sixty eight nineteen tells us this. Why focus on what may or may not happen knowing what the world is like? It is so cynical, you know, and conditional. But when God releases a rhema word in season for us, which is unconditional, for example, to bless you directly from the Father's heart, is it is it's important that we believe and lay hold of it.

Believe The Rhema Word

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As our Lord Jesus said in Matthew eight thirteen, as you have believed, so let it be done to you. We cannot receive what we do not believe. To believe we need to know that the Father has promised, and we find that in his word. So the more we see of what our Father desires for us, the more we will believe him, for he is much, much more in our lives. And we can be confident that we'll experience the much more from this time and season because our Heavenly Father loves us. While He loves all of us equally, there is something powerful about practicing and personalizing that love just as John refers to himself. As the disciple whom Jesus loved, we too can take that posture. This consciousness of our belovedness is powerful because faith works through God. It talks about that in Galatians 5 6. Faith begins with knowing how deeply loved you are by the Father and believing that his heart is always to give you his best. And that's what you find by spending time in the Word. So we use the word, the Rama word, to actually get a better understanding of our Heavenly Father. But see, now, even in a time of turmoil and uncertainty, we need and should remember where the Lord has promised us his much more. But we must be prepared as that doesn't mean we won't face trials. Just because we are a born-again Christian or someone who believes in the God, the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we need to focus on what his word is telling us

Trials Are Seasonal Good Days Ahead

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and how we put it into practice in our lives. As in 1 Peter 1 6 it says, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, but you can take heart in the knowing that every trial is only for a season and that the Lord will be faithful to bring you through, and when he does, you'll come out with so much more than before. Compared to the trial of the evil day, your father has many good days prepared for you. His word declares he who would love life and see good days let him refrain his tongue from evil. And that's in one Peter three ten. Listen, friends, good days are not behind you, they are ahead of you. Days filled with his love, his presence, his favor, his wisdom, and it all begins with this one powerful truth. Your father's heart is to love you, bless you, and provide for you every single day. See, we need to make sure that we prior we let me put this in home. We have to prioritize the one important thing, which is the word of God. When God told the children of Israel he would bring them into the promised land, he describes it as a land flown with milk and honey, filled with fountains and brooks from which they could drink. This you find in Exodus three eight right through to eight, seven and eight. The land was his inheritance

The Word As Our Promised Land

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to bless and provide for them. Now it took them a while to get there because of their constant wavering, you know, trusting God, trusting man, believing in Moses and so forth and such such as. So you read through it and you'll find out. This is why I'm emphasizing to find out the Father's heart about blessing us, you've got to go to His Word and spend time in His Word. Today, our promised land is the Word of God. It is where we find all that He desires for us to receive. The Word is fueled with treasures and benefits that nourish our soul. There is a clarity when we need direction, strength when we feel weary, wisdom for decisions and peace in the midst of life's challenges. As we spend time in the Word, we'll discover how sweet and life giving it truly is. That is why at this pivotal point in time the Lord's heart is for us to make his word our priority. If you go to Luke ten, our Lord Jesus says Mary had chosen the good part by simply sitting at his feet and listening to the word, and that it would be not taken from her. Martha, on the other hand, was worried and troubled about many things. The

Mary Martha And The One Thing

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Greek word for worry carries the meaning of being pulled in different directions. Isn't this what many of us also go through today? We're swept up by the busyness of life, pulled in multiple directions, and before long we find ourselves distracted, anxious and overwhelmed. Often these moments of anxiety are preceded by seasons when we have not been feeding on what's needful the word. But the Lord's heart is not for us to be weighed down. You see, his desire is for us to have good part, just like Mary, of being in his presence sitting at his feet, resting and simply receiving from him. Perhaps some of us feel like we don't have enough time in this fast paced world with so many things demanding our attention. But listen, friends, the truth is we all have time. It's how we choose to spend it. If we're honest with ourselves, a lot of our time is filled with things that don't satisfy us. Listen, I've got a couple of people that I know and they they know I won't mind mentioning their names. Um you know, one of them's Katie, who's had many, many challenges uh lately through her health, and I know that she spends much time in the Word. I have another friend, Glennis. Uh now she's coming up to have a birthday soon. She's gonna be 95, and to look at her and see what she does, it is clear that the father's heart for blessing is upon her and she spends time in his word, because if you had a guessing game with this lovely, precious woman of God, you would think that she's in her sixties, not in her nineties. You gotta understand whether it's entertainment, social media, or even podcasts that may be helpful, they can't do what the word of God can do. Why? Because the word of God carries his anointing. Now, I'm not saying that to um distract

Distractions Excuses And Priorities

SPEAKER_00 14:33

from the the purpose of listening to podcasts, because you're listening to mine, obviously, but what I'm saying is you can't fill up your life or your spare time with things like you know how many likes you're getting on social media, or you can't miss your favorite show, Home and Away, or you know, Battlestar Galactica. You uh you can't say, oh, the footy's on today, so I'll I'll skip church, and uh because that's that's that's really important in your life. Okay, you need to listen to yourselves. You know, if you're late for work, right, your boss will say to you, What's your excuse? There is no excuse for you being late, there was a reason behind you being late, whether that's acceptable to your boss or not, is totally irrelevant. So society uses the word excuse exclusively to find a reason to not be doing what you need to be doing or what God wants you to be doing. So an excuse is behind that is what you have prioritized yourself, and you know, in some cases it could be sleep, you know, but the reason you need that sleep, and so therefore you're late for work, is not necessarily uh justifiable because you might have been out till 2 a.m. at a rave party or something like that. Now, listen, I'm not judging, I'm just trying to paint a picture of how important the word of God is in our lives and how it can strengthen our resolve to be able to spend time in prayer. And you know, I've said this countless times through my podcast, I know I have, and it's like a broken record. It is the same like when I went through the last you know eight sessions on um faith. Sometimes you need to hear things over and over again until you have that revelation knowledge of it. It's the same when you read, you know, um, you know, Matthew 1, 16, and you read it four times, and on the fifth time you get this rhema word knowledge because it finally God reveals something through to you through that scripture, so you can't say, Oh, I've read through the gospels before, so I don't need to do it again. You need to constantly be filling yourself with the word. Why? Because okay, you're constantly filling yourself with everything in the world that is around you, and that is what is controlling you to a certain defect, the word of God carries his anointing, right? It's this anointing that breaks every yoke and brings true nourishment and rest to our souls. That's why sitting under the anointed preaching or opening the word with a hearing heart can build us up in ways that no audio book

Why The Word Carries Anointing

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or um watching church online can do. Because we know that it says do not forsake the assembly. There's a reason that we have to have like-minded Christians around us all the time, because the rest of the time you're out in the world surrounded by ungodly people, you're surrounded by the things that the devil is his playground. And even when the sermon or scripture isn't directly, you know, addressing your situation, the Lord can still shine light into your heart. Psalm 36 9 says this in your light we see light. In his light you'll see exactly what you need for the season you're in. So let's prioritize the one thing that we need in our life, and that without any shadow of a doubt, is his word. I'm reading a book at the moment, uh, which is called it's by Joseph Prince, and it's it's very um aptly named Destined to Reign. See, because God He wants you to reign in life, not

Destined To Reign Through Grace

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just living it, you know, Jeremiah 29, 11 says, I know the plans I have for you, right? So God's got a plan and a purpose for you. But are you realizing that plan and purpose by knowing that you are destined to reign? Or are you just living in the world, doing what the world wants and expects you to do? This is that time, one of the areas the Father wants us to experience much more, and it's reigning in life. Romans five seventeen says this for if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, death was never God's plan for man. He did not create man to grow old, decline and die. When Adam sinned and dishonored God, man became separated from God and death ended the world. Not just physical death, but spiritual death. And from then on every other form of death followed. Now listen to this. This will this should ring alarm bells. Different types of death, you think hang on, there's only one type of death. No, well, you think there's two types of death, okay? Physical and spiritual. But from those And we follow death of a different kind. We have sickness, poverty, fear, addiction, and destruction are all expressions of the death that came about through sin. But God desires for us to live in fellowship with Him and to reign in life. Romans five seventeen continues with much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Now I don't normally promote um books or anything like that, but you know, there is a book out called Destined to Reign, and uh it was given to us by a very, very close friend of ours, uh Ian and Gordon Phillips. Um but also um Joseph Prince put out a a destined to reign devotional um gift edition, so which is worth looking at as well. But the main thing to take from this is that Adam's sin condemned us to death in its mirrored forms, but the Lord Jesus perfect finished work on the cross allows us to reign in life. How? Through receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. So the more we lay hold of our righteous identity and depend on God's grace, the more we will find ourselves reigning over life's challenges. When you reign your addictions don't. See, a lot of people just think that we're living in this world and we've got to make the best of it, but we're not. Reigning speaks of a kindly demure under the old covenant, the roles of kings and priests were separate. No one could be both, except for one person, Melchazadet. And our Lord Jesus is a king priest after the order of Melchizedek. Today, because we are in Christ, the Bible calls us a royal priesthood in 1 Peter 2 9. Meaning we have both the priestly and the kingly anointing. So as priests we can draw near to God in worship, prayer, and thanksgiving.

King Priest Identity And Authority

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As kings, we can take authority and speak his word into our situations. As Ecclesiastics eight four says, where the word of a king is, there is power. See, when you look at this from a different perspective, you get an understanding of that principle about we live in this world, but we're not of it. And all this is possible only because of the cross. At the cross, our Lord Jesus took our place so that we might live in the fullness of life that He paid for us to enjoy. And He was rejected so that we might be accepted. He was forsaken so that we would be brought near. He was in darkness so that we may walk in the light, and he was clothed in our sin that we might be robed in his righteousness. For all of you listening today to this podcast, as you immerse yourself in the revelation of and walk in the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, you will begin to see the Father's provision and victory in every area of your life. So keep on hearing and keep on receiving and begin to reign in life through the one, our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm gonna go on to this uh a little later next week, and we're gonna be talking about you've been forgiven of much more. All right, so if you reflect on that, read those scriptures, get an understanding of your priestlyhood, your kingship, and get a real grasp

Cross Shaped Confidence And Closing

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of understanding who you are in Christ. And remember, we live in this world, but we're not of it. Are you going to be like David and be a man that is after the father's heart? That's what my desire is, and that's why I do what I do. I believe God has called me to get out there and let people know that this is the way that we should be living our lives. We are destined to reign. Amen. Alright, we'll talk to you next week. God bless. Bye for now.