July 10 - Collateral Blessing or Damage
No man is an island, we are all related to some group of people: vertically, we are related to our ancestors; horizontally, we are related to others who are part of a group that we belong to. We are all parts of a family, a race, or a nation. If you work in a company, you are a part of the company. You may belong to professional societies or are member of a trade union. Your children are educated at schools or institutions. Many young people are members of fitness clubs and so on. We are all related horizontally to some other people. The issue at hand is: are you bringing collateral blessings to them or cause the group to have collateral damage.
When Achan sinned during the time of the Canaan conquest led by Joshua, the whole Israel camp suffered defeat. When Jonah was running away from the Lord, the Lord caused a big storm to come on the ship that he was in and the other passengers suffered collateral damage. Here in the Book of Acts, we see the apostle Paul bringing collateral blessings to the other prisoners and passengers that were in the same ship.
Paul was probably the only person who knew God and heard God’s voice on the whole ship. While the centurion did not heed his advice earlier, Paul was not offended but kept pressing on to bring the Word of God to the people. When all hopes were gone, Paul stood up and told them that they should have listened to him. It was not to condemn them but to encourage them that there would not be any loss of life but only of the ship. The reason he said so with confidence was that an angel of the Lord stood before him that night and told him about his destiny of standing before Caesar. If he was to be kept by God to finish God’s will, the rest of the people on that ship were also to be spared because of collateral blessing.
After the boat went aground, the soldiers wanted to kill all the prisoners for fear of their escaping. But the centurion, who wanted to save Paul’s life, prevented the soldiers from killing the prisoners. All the others prisoners had their lives spared because of Paul once again. For the sake of the righteous, the Lord often would relent from sending calamities to a group of people. When Abram was interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord gave him the assurance that if there were a number of righteous persons there, He would not destroy the cities.
Are you a part of some groups, churches, companies or associations? You need to intercede for the groups that you are a member of. Pray for the nation and its leaders, confessing their sins for you are a part of the group. Are you bringing collateral blessings to damages to the groups? Are you taking leadership with the authority and power from God in those groups? Be a blessing!
Ps 147:12-20 1 Chron 9:1-10:14 Acts 27:21-44 Prov 18:23-24