Deuteronomy chapter 28 contains many promises for the people of God — increase, favor, strength, and a victorious life. The blessings of this chapter are often presented, quoted, and claimed as if they are guaranteed to every person who simply professes to believe in Jesus. Why is this impossible? In the first place, there is a drastic difference between a profession and a confession in the Bible. See Matthew 15:16-20, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, and Titus 1:15-16. A profession is something that may be said with the mouth but is generated solely by human intellect and reasoning. Carnal man can, and will, say anything he believes will work to his advantage. A confession is not only said with the mouth, but is also reflected in the life because it is generated by the nature within a person — either the carnal or the Divine. A person may profess with their mouth that Jesus is their Lord, and, at the same time, confess with their life that they are under the power of pride, lust, envy, and wrath. “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work” (Titus 1:16).

The powers of darkness have worked their way into preaching and Bible teaching that is now coming from pulpits, electronic media, and print to seduce people into blindly assuming that they are citizens of the Heavenly kingdom, who are entitled to the promises of God, while their heart is still held totally captive by the world, the flesh, and the devil. A person is only a citizen of Heaven, and subject to the promises of God, if they abide in Jesus, which is to have a new birth from above whereby their life is influenced and governed by His self-less love, humility, long-suffering, and total resignation to God –“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Corinthians 1:20). This is solely because the life and power of God are only present in creation where creation is united with His Fire, Light, and Spirit. It is only possible for us to be united with the Fire, Light, and Spirit of God by abiding in Jesus, and the only people who are truly abiding in Him, the only people who are truly confessing that He is their Lord, are those who have genuinely repented and believed the gospel to partake of His Divine nature whereby they reflect the image of Jesus in their life — their mindset, what they allow, what they consent to, say, and do.
The carnal nature keeps people enslaved to comprehending Divine promises from the perspective of self exaltation, self-seeking, and self-gratification. To think that a person may receive the promises of God while abiding in the fallen, carnal, Adam nature is like thinking you could experience the beauty of the Rocky Mountains while being imprisoned in a cave on another continent.

A perfect example of the current deception can be found by looking at the promise in Deuteronomy 28:13 which says, “And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:”. The carnal mind takes this to say that the children of God will be elevated or placed in front of others in their worldly pursuits and desires, but this is not at all what God is promising. Isaiah 9:15 says, “The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.” Is it not clear that the “head” is one who both proclaims and lives by the unadulterated Truth while the “tail” is a false minister?

Now look at Colossians 3:1-3. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Can it not easily be seen that the promise to be “above” is a promise to provide us with Divine power to walk as Jesus walked in the heavenly life, and that those who are “beneath” are the people who continue to possess the carnal, worldly life of sin? The Heavenly life is “above” and the worldly life is “beneath”.

Another common error is to think that the curses of Deuteronomy 28 can not touch anyone who simply professes they believe in Jesus, even though their hearts are still united with the world. The curses are the natural manifestations of evil that break forth when creation, including man, is separated from God. This is not because God wills evil, but because every created thing that is separated from Him is in a state of disorder which produces wrath in the creation itself, and the wrath in turn produces the curses listed in Deuteronomy 28. So, just as those who truly abide in Jesus may fully expect to partake of the blessings, those who do not truly abide in Him should fully expect to partake of the curses.

Does the fact that these blessings are linked to our obedience and the curses are linked to our disobedience infer that we must somehow earn God’s favor? Absolutely not! But it is an unchangeable Truth that the blessings are where God’s light and love are dwelling, and the curses are everywhere else. Our obedience, or cooperation with His will, brings His Divine influence into our lives and into our situations. And when we have that — we have all we need.