John Eckhardt - Gods Covenant With You for Your Family: Come into Agreement With Him and Unlock His Power

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GODS COVENANT WITH YOU FOR YOUR FAMILY
by John Eckhardt
Published by Charisma House
Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked GNT are from the Good News Translation. Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Copyright 2013 by John Eckhardt
All rights reserved

Cover design by Justin Evans
Design Director: Bill Johnson

Visit the authors website at www.johneckhardtministries.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
An application to register this book for cataloging has been submitted to the Library of Congress.
International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62136-012-4
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62136-013-1

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

CONTENTS

1
GOD BLESSES FAMILIES
THROUGH HIS COVENANT

[Covenant is] probably the least understood, yet most importantconcept in the entire Bible... and is at once the heartand the foundation of mankinds relationship with God.

J. E. LEONARD

T HE BIBLE IS a covenantal book that reveals a covenantal God. Gods loyalty and faithfulness to covenant is one of the major themes of Scripture. From the Old Testament to the New Testament we see God working His covenant on behalf of His people. God cannot break covenant. God is faithful and loyal to His people.

We can trust and rely on Gods covenant because He is committed to His promises. When a covenant is made, the person enacting the covenant would swear by someone higher than himself. This was so that if the covenant was ever broken, that person would be judged and held accountable to the person higher than him. When God first established His covenant with man, He could swear by no one higher, so He swore by Himself.

For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself.

HEBREWS 6:13

God is the highest. There is no one greater than Him. This means we can absolutely trust, rely upon, and depend upon our covenant with God. God cannot lie. He will remain faithful to His Word.

A biblical covenant is an agreementgenerally between God and man. The stipulations of such an agreement command absolute loyalty as indicated in the first commandment: You shall not have other gods before Me (Exod. 20:3; Deut. 5:7).

Covenant (berit/berith/beriyth) means treaty, compact, agreement between two parties (first used in Gods covenant with Noah Genesis 6:18; 9:917). As discussed more below beriyth describes a compact made by passing between pieces of flesh. Covenant is a solemn, binding arrangement between two parties and entails a variety of responsibilities, benefits and penalties depending on the specific covenant, which is being studied.

God enters into covenant with men. This is a very humbling and sobering truth. The fact that the great God would enter into relationship with men through covenant is amazing. Gods purposes are always done through covenant. Gods covenant with Abraham was for the purpose of bringing salvation and blessing to the nations. Gods covenant with Israel was also for this purpose: to bring the Messiah into the world. I want to explain this more and will in chapter 3 when we talk about household salvation. Right now lets uncover the truths of the new covenant that we are now walking in as believers.

THE NEW COVENANT IS A COVENANT
OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY

If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.

MATTHEW 10:13

The new covenant is a covenant of peace (shalom). Christ is our peace. When salvation comes to a family, Gods peace (shalom) will also come.

We often associate the word shalom with peace, but the peace that Christ went to war for on the cross is a complete, whole kind of peace. According to Strongs Complete Concordance to the Bible, shalom is completeness, soundness, welfare, and peace. It represents completeness in number and safety and soundness in your physical body. Shalom also covers relationships with God and with people. Shalom covers all that concerns you and your family.

Gods thoughts concerning you and your familys peace and prosperity are much higher than you could imagine. It is His desire to bless and prosper you, to give you His grace, favor, and protection. Favor means grace; that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness; and good will, benefit, bounty, reward. If you look up the Hebrew and Greek definitions of prosperity, many of these words carry over into favor as well.

Favor is goodwill. This is Gods kindness and benevolence given to those who love Him. Favor will release great blessings, including prosperity, health, opportunity, and advancement. The Bible records numerous examples of Gods favor upon His people causing them to experience many breakthroughs. Favor is Gods loving-kindness. I want you will get the full revelation of all that Gods covenant of peace can mean for you and your family.

Gods peace (shalom)favor, grace, loving-kindness, blessing, goodness, joy, prosperity, health, opportunity, and advancement can come upon your house. God desires to bring the fullness of His shalom to your house. Many houses are filled with strife and confusion. Alcoholism, drug addiction, strife, division, depression, sadness, anger, divorce, separation, and bitterness dwell in many homes, but this is not Gods plan. This is opposite to the characteristics of the kingdom of God, which are righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17).

One of the descriptions of our covenant is a covenant of shalom. Shalom describes the benefits and blessing of this covenant. In Isaiah 54 God promised His people a covenant of peace (shalom): For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee (v. 10, KJV). But Israel never walked in that covenant of peace consistently because they continued to violate it. The greatest period of shalom was under King Solomon, whose name actually means peace. He was the most prosperous king of Israel. For a forty-year period Israel lived under that promise of shalom. But then Solomon married other wives and took part in idolatry, and there was a breech or a split from the covenant God had established.