House of Hope Online

November 16, 2025

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Last time we discussed Deuteronomy 28 and the blessings of obedience to the word of God.

Deuteronomy 28:

 1 ¶ “Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

 2 “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the LORD your God.

 3 “Blessed [shall] you [be] in the city, and blessed [shall] you [be] in the country.

 4 “Blessed [shall be] the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

 5 “Blessed [shall be] your basket and your kneading bowl.

 6 “Blessed [shall] you [be] when you come in, and blessed [shall] you [be] when you go out. (NASB)

We focused last week on the basket referred to in verse 5.  We said the basket contains whatever you need at the moment.  If you are going on a picnic, you pack everything you need in that basket.  To study inflation, the government prices a “basket of goods” containing all products and services that people need.  The point of verse 5 is that, when we obey, God blesses our basket.  He blesses us by providing whatever we need in the present time and in the time to come.

My Basket Was Blessed

A year ago on Friday, November 14, my basket of needs included open heart surgery to replace my aortic valve and to rebuild the entire aortic area of my heart.  Blessed was my basket on November 14, 2024, and I give glory, honor, and praise to my Lord and Savior Jesus for seeing me through that surgery and the recovery that followed.  When pneumonia developed in the days following surgery, I prayed, and the Lord healed me of pneumonia.  My recovery was rapid and complete.  The surgeon enlarged my physical heart, while God enlarged my emotional heart and my spiritual heart to believe His word.

God’s word is true.  Blessed are you in the city and in the country.  Blessed are your children and blessed is the produce of your work.  Blessed is your basket and your kneading bowl.  And blessed are you when you come in and when you go out.

Sowing into Grace

Because His word is true, today’s word focuses even more on the powerful promises of blessings in the scriptures.  Last week, we looked at 2^nd Corinthians 9:8 and today the Lord wants me to dig deeper into that passage.

2^nd Corinthians 9:

 6 ¶ Now this [I say,] he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.

 7 Let each one [do] just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.

 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;

Verse 8 is a powerful scripture for us all.  God can make all grace abound to us.  Not some grace.  All grace.  The Greek word for “abound” means to be in excess, to have more than enough, to have an abundance, enough to spare, an amount over and above what is needed.

Just let that sink in.  God makes all grace abound to you.  That is way more grace than you need.  That is overflowing grace.  When grace overflows you, the people around you will benefit.

When you have way more grace than you need, verse 8 says you will always have all sufficiency in everything.  That sounds redundant but it is not.  Verse 8 does not say you will sometimes have all sufficiency in everything.  It says always.  And it doesn’t say you will always have some sufficiency; it says you will always have all sufficiency.  And it doesn’t say you will always have all sufficiency in some things; it says you will always have all sufficiency in everything.

Then, as a result of always having all sufficiency in everything, verse 8 says you will have an abundance for every good deed.  Therefore, doing a good deed just got easier for you because you have an abundance for it.  Now you can feed the poor and not feel like you sacrificed because you have an abundance.  You don’t need to think twice about doing a good deed for someone who needs help because, compared to your abundance, it’s not a big deal, not a sacrifice, not a burden to you.  The Lord says He desires compassion more than sacrifice.

You will not need to worry about the car breaking down, or the roof leaking, or the furnace dying because the Lord has given you an abundance for every good deed.  Get this into your spirit, because I believe the Lord wants us compassionately on the lookout for people who need a good deed.  Too many of us are looking for enough to just get by, but the Lord says through the Apostle Paul that if we obey His command to sow bountifully, if we have a heart to sow into His storehouse, then His grace will abound to us, and we will therefore always have all sufficiency in everything, and we will have an abundance for every good deed.

I want to encourage you to pray for the Lord to show you the good deeds He wants you to fund, and then pray 2^nd Corinthians 9:8 over that good deed.  Ask the Lord for an abundance to supply that need, in Jesus’ name.  Where is the ministry that is on fire to spread the Gospel in these end times?  We know the Lord wants all men to be saved.  The time is short.  Where does the tithe go?  Where are the offerings to go?  In Malachi 3:10, the Lord encourages us to test Him in this and see if He will not open the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing until it overflows.  Jesus said in Luke 6:38 the blessing will be given to you, in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

Trust God’s Word

These are God’s words, not mine.  You can trust His word.  Genesis 26 illustrates God’s faithfulness toward our obedience to His word.

Genesis 26:

 1 ¶ Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines.

 2 And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you.

 3 “Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.

 4 “And I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;

 5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”

 6 ¶ So Isaac lived in Gerar.

Isaac was fleeing a famine.  Note that the Lord appeared to Isaac and gave him direction on where to live and where not to.  Some of us need to know where the Lord wants us.  Do not go down to Egypt.  Remember that Egypt is spiritual symbolism for unbelief.  Do not go to a place of unbelief.  Stay where the Lord tells you to stay.  The word “sojourn” in verse 3 means a temporary stay.  The Hebrew word means to turn aside from the road for lodging or any other purpose, to stay as a guest as in a strange place.  In other words, be light on your feet and sober for where the Lord is calling you.  It doesn’t need to be permanent until Jesus comes for us in the Rapture.

Notice also in verse 5 that the blessings promised in verses 3 and 4 are coming to Isaac because his father Abraham obeyed God and kept His commandments, statutes, and laws. 

This is a major takeaway for us:  if we diligently obey God, not only are we blessed but our children will walk in blessing as well.  Receive that into your spirit!

On the strength of the Lord’s word, Isaac lived in Gerar and planted there and received tremendous blessings.

Genesis 26:

 12 ¶ Now Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him,

 13 and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy;

 14 for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him.

Isaac could have gone to Egypt.  He could have had good reasons in the natural to do that.  He was running from a famine.  But He obeyed the Lord’s word.  Note this is a word that God spoke into His spirit.  What has God spoken into our spirits that we have ignored because we were fleeing famine, because we had to hold onto a job, or we had to pursue something else?

Instead of following his own instincts, Isaac listened to the Lord and stayed in Gerar.  He sowed there and reaped a hundredfold.  A harvest of a hundredfold means whatever Isaac put in, he received 100 times that amount in return on his investment.  That means if God tells us to give a $100 gift to a ministry, we will reap 100 times that amount, or $10,000 in the harvest.  It may not come back to us the next day, but the harvest time will come.  Maybe when the famine comes, and people are getting laid off, we get to keep our job.  Maybe the Lord will see you through open heart surgery and heal you of pneumonia, so you can live and earn more.  You do not know what your famine might be, but do not go down to Egypt, that place of unbelief.

The point is: when the Lord speaks into our spirits, if we obey, there are blessings attached to it.  There is a blessed basket associated with our obedience.  Verse 13 says Isaac became rich and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy.  I love verse 14 – Isaac had flocks, herds and a great household, and the Philistines became envious of him.  Our blessings include a great household, one that others will become envious of. 

All of this is the result of obedience to the word of the Lord, and His grace which overflows us.  Trust His word.

Closing

In closing, I want to encourage you today to raise your expectation of what the Lord is doing through you.  Let us be like the Macedonians that Paul described in 2^nd Corinthians 8.  He said they even gave beyond their ability and begged for the favor of participation in support of the ministry.

Expect the Lord to use you to do good deeds as ministry to others.  Too often, we pray for Him to help us, but if we pray for Him to use us, then His grace needs to abound to us for that to happen, and we will therefore always have all sufficiency in all things, and we will have an abundance for every good deed.  I am praying this word from 2^nd Corinthians 9:8 over all who read this or hear it on the podcast.

Remember it starts with His grace abounding to us through our obedience to His word.  Genesis 26 shows us that the obedience of Abraham and Isaac made Isaac a wealthy man as he fled a famine.  The Lord spoke wisdom and direction into Isaac’s spirit.  He will do the same for us.

Let us pray.

Father God, thank you for the principle of sowing and reaping, and the promise of your grace abounding toward us.  We receive Your word that we will always have all sufficiency in everything, and we will have an abundance for every good deed.  Lord, show us the good deeds that need done in Your Kingdom.  Raise our expectations for well doing and guide us into the blessing of Abraham and Isaac.  Help us to hear Your voice of direction, and may our obedience be a blessing to our children and our children’s children.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.