Daily Blessing Compilation #12

Allen Wright, pastor, Bible teacher, and author of his latest book, The Power to Bless.

You're like Manasseh. You can forget all your troubles in the sense of there's something good that can come out of it. Everything that the enemy means for evil, God can turn around and use it for good. That's Pastor Alan Wright, and welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new life. Hi, I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in our special presentation from the studio Blessing Broadcast from Pastor Alan's latest book. It's called The Power to Bless, and Pastor Alan, this book has been out now for a little while, and are you enjoying hearing the stories already of people who have read it and whose lives have been changed? Well, I'll tell you this week, I heard Daniel from an executive of a fairly large company who made the book available to every single employee to get one, because he was so taken by it, and his comment was, he said, the book made me mad. And I was like, what?

Oh no, what is that? He said, angry that nobody told me about the power of blessing 30 years ago. So I said, if there's any way that we want anybody to be mad, it'd just be that. But the good news is, Daniel, even if the idea of learning how to speak a biblical and positive vision over someone's life is new to you, or you've never heard of before, the great news is you can start today. And so that's the hope that I'm hearing of people saying, wow, I've never heard of this before, but I'm going to learn how to, and I'm going to start blessing people today, and people whose lives are just being so impacted that many have written and said, I got in the first chapter and I started having just really tears of joy and hope about all the change that's possible. You know, we've all, one way or another, we've not received blessing perfectly.

And so when you do begin to hear it and receive it, it just, it's like water down to a very dry place in the soul. And I guess, Daniel, that's the main thing I've been hearing, those kinds of encouragement, and praying that God will reach many, many people with this very, very encouraging, powerful biblical truth that anybody can learn to partner with God and speak life. Well, if you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. As you listen to today's discussion, go deeper as we send you today's special offer for your donation right now to Allen Wright Ministries.

Contact us at 877-544-4860 or simply the website pastorallen.org, pastorallen.org or 877-544-4860. Of course, we'll have more on this later in the program. But as we get started with today's teaching, we've got to go back to the names Ephraim and Manasseh. And I think we get Ephraim, but why Manasseh, Pastor Alan? And maybe kind of brief us again, which one was the older, which one is the younger, the crossing of the arms, the reversal almost of the blessing that happened? Well, it becomes a lens through which we can understand blessing in general because for millennia, really 3800 years, Jewish dads have been announcing every Sabbath over their kids, may God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.

Well, who are these obscure people? Why not may God make you like Moses and Joshua or may God make you like Abraham and Isaac? Well, Ephraim and Manasseh are the sons of Joseph. And Joseph, when he learns after he's been reunited with his father, Jacob, whose name's changed to Israel, when he learns that Jacob is near his death, Joseph rushes to his father's bedside to bring his two boys, Ephraim and Manasseh. And he brings them so that Jacob can bless his grandchildren.

And what happens is a mysterious and beautiful and telling picture ultimately of the gospel. The first thing that happens is Jacob sees these grandsons and he adopts them. He says, they're going to be mine, just like Reuben and Simeon, like his firstborn children. They're going to be mine, which meant that they became part of the tribes of Israel.

They got an inheritance in the land. And we've talked about that before, that to be adopted is to have a sense of security, of belonging. And when we bless, this is the first thing we do. Instead of being like the world that withholds acceptance until you've proven yourself, blessing extends it. And God changes our lives by blessing us, that is saying to us in Christ he loves and accepts us.

And that doesn't make us lazy. It actually empowers us to become everything God has made us to be. So that's the first thing that happened. And the other thing that you notice about this, and we can talk in more detail about this on another program, but when he blessed them, Jacob took his arms and crossed them and put the right hand on the younger son's head and the left on the older. So Manasseh is the firstborn and he deserves by customary protocol of the day to receive the symbolic stronger blessing symbolized by the right hand. But instead, Jacob crosses his hands, puts his right hand on Ephraim, the younger, and the left hand on Manasseh. Joseph tries to correct him and says, no, no, no, dad, you've got it backwards. He tries to be honoring here, but he tries to take his hand and say, maybe dad's a little blind here, but put the right hand on Manasseh's head. And Jacob says, I know what I'm doing. He crosses his arms again.

Well, what's this possibly a picture of? It only makes sense when you see it in light of the gospel. We've talked about that, and this is fully discussed in the book, that in many ways, God the Father had a firstborn. Jesus was the firstborn of all creation. And on the cross, Jesus deserved nothing but the right hand blessing of God. And in a very real sense, it was like God the Father crossed his arms. And he took that right hand of blessing that should have been reserved just for Jesus the firstborn and extended it to the secondborn and the thirdborn, to you, to me, to anyone who would trust and believe in Christ, as much as it bends our minds, gets the blessing that should have been reserved for Jesus alone. And so that's powerful. But I think also part of the reason this becomes the most important family blessing in the history of Israel and a model blessing is because something in these names.

And let's start. Maybe this is where we could focus today, the name Manasseh. So Joseph has had all this trouble in his life.

He has suffered so much. And then God promotes him and uses him as second command of Egypt right under Pharaoh. And nobody more powerful in Egypt than Joseph, so blessed.

And in the time of that leadership there, he has a son. And I think just in reflecting on how gracious God had been, they named him Manasseh, because it's a Hebrew that sounds like forgotten all my troubles. And Joseph said, I'm naming him Manasseh because the Lord has made me to forget my troubles here in this land of Egypt. Well, I think that when you bless people, you're doing something very beautiful, powerful and countercultural. Instead of trying to dredge up past mistakes and bring up old disappointments and the shame of yesterday and all the regrets and hold it over people's heads and try to motivate them by bringing all that, when you bless, part of what you're doing is you're saying, may God make you like Manasseh in that you live as though you have forgotten all of your troubles. It's a word about freedom.

It's a word about forgiveness. It's a word about the hope of the future because you're not bound by the problems of yesterday. And so our lives then become in blessing, become defined by all that can be for the future. And I think that's a big part of what blessing is all about. You're like Manasseh, your life is not built on or in any way held back by what happened yesterday.

You can live from this moment on from now on. Pastor Alan Wright's latest book is The Power to Bless and based on the story of Ephraim and Manasseh in Scripture. And by the way, Manasseh, so Forgotten All My Troubles.

And a lot of what comes from a good book I hear is personal story and you have dug deep into your own personal life talking about the birth of your daughter and the early years of her life and how that kind of pairs well with the story of really that phrase of the meaning of Manasseh, forgotten all my troubles. We have a framed family photo that was taken in 2001 at the Chef Mickey restaurant in Disney World Resort that I plan to hold on to even though three-year-old Abby is not smiling. She's all dolled up in this picture in a little Minnie Mouse costume and she's at the happiest place on earth.

But she's not smiling because she hardly ever grinned, really, Daniel. Her first several years of life. We named her after David's wife in the Bible, Abigail. The text says she was an intelligent and beautiful woman. But I mainly wanted her to be named Abigail because Abigail means my father's joy. And I knew that she was made to be a joy and have joy and be a source of joy. But in the years that were leading up to Abby's birth, we had had lots of joy, flooded with joy, spiritual wonderful things happening. And Bennett, our son, he had been born into all that joy and four years of all that.

But by the time that Abby was born, a season of great sadness and hardship had sort of come upon us and our home and that climate of joy we'd had, it turned to mourning. And her best friend was her little sister, Mary, lived in our town. Mary and her husband had four little children.

They lived near us. And it's just almost hard to describe how much Ann loved Mary. But Mary became sick. And at first they just thought, well, maybe she's got a little cough. It wouldn't go away. And then she started feeling pain. They said, well, maybe it's fibromyalgia. Nobody thought that a woman at her age who'd never smoked a cigarette could have lung cancer.

But that's what it was. A 33-year-old mother of four who had lung cancer that had already invaded her bones by the time they found it. And within a year, our sweet Mary had died. And all I can say is, you know, that just was a grief that ran deeper than words. And we had other things that were going on. Ann's other sister, Catherine, gave birth to our Zach, who has special needs. And he required multiple surgeries.

That was hard. Two months after Ann's sister's death, there was a terrible accident that could have taken my wife's life. Thankfully it didn't, but it injured her. Ann also faced some other potential medical problems during this period of time. I say all that, Daniel, to say that this explains why Abigail was born into a world where she is nursing in the arms of a mother who's often sobbing.

And this explains why we couldn't find any baby pictures of Abby smiling. And, you know, over time, some miracles along the way and laughter returned into our home. And we grieved Mary's death in a healthy way and recovering from the car accident. And Ann was being sustained.

Zach has made it through his surgeries, you know. But something, you know, had happened to Abby's, like imprinted on her soul. Because if you're a baby, you come in the world, it's like, this world just must be a sad place. So she just never smiled. And, you know, so when you're in that situation, and maybe for our listeners right now, you go, okay, there's someone I love.

And I feel like that maybe they've settled into a life of discouragement and I'd like to help them. Well, with us, one of the things that we just decided early on is that we weren't going to say, well, okay, well, I guess Abby's just going to be our melancholy child. No, this is Abigail, her father's joy. This child was made for joy. And the kingdom of God consists of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It was the will for God to give her a life of joy. So instead of just simply accepting it, we just began blessing her. We began speaking the psalmist's words about the oil of gladness over her life. We announced the messianic promise of Isaiah, assuring us of a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. I would sing a blessing over every night about the depth of my love for her.

I would just sneak in there and just whisper over crib blessings that God has made you to be your father's joy, your child made to be a joy. You know, in other words, we were we were not trying to veer her away from, you know, like a destiny to be a melancholy child. We were trying to bless her into who we knew she really was supposed to be.

And so we just stuck with it. And it wasn't like it happened overnight. But slowly but surely the miracle unfolded and Abby became a child of joy and she started wrestling and giggling with me and Bennett. And she started discovering the delight of a belly laugh. And indeed, she grew into a wise and beautiful woman of great joy. And I wish everybody could meet her. She's the way she can light up a room that kind of sarcastic wit that she has also, which is really funny. And there's not a more joyful person than than Abby.

I mean, you know, she she she didn't smile in their first Disney picture, but she ought to be a Disney princess now. So I say that big, long story, Daniel, to say that. Well, when we bless people to be like Manasseh, part of what blessing is, is saying I'm blessing you with a picture of who you really are. And the past, the dark things of the past don't define you.

And you're defined by something bigger than that in Christ. And and so when you bless someone, you can really steer them towards their true identity. And God really loves to restore.

He loves to take the things that enemy meant for evil and bring it to good. And I think when we bless, we're really tapping in all of that. In the book, The Power to Bless, written by Pastor Alan Wright, as you progress through it, then we talk about a city that will be rebuilt.

Right. Rebuilt on its ruins. And we talk you talk about even the term tell and how how that happened throughout history. And it's talked about in the Old Testament or the pile of rocks, even I think of that.

So you want to talk about this part as we move through this chapter in this particular portion here, where you've come through telling the story about your daughter, Abby, and the melancholy and the joy and being rebuilt. You know, one of my favorite prophetic verses in all the Bible, Jeremiah 30, 18. This is what the Lord says. I will restore the fortunes of Jacob's tents and have compassion on his dwellings. The city will be rebuilt on the ruins and the palace will stand in its proper place. Well, this is a word to people in exile in Babylon. This is a word to people that are separated from all that they love and their homeland and people that could easily despair.

And what God says is something about his nature. I will restore. I love to restore. God doesn't take delight in our troubles.

He doesn't take delight in our exile. He takes delight in restoring. And we do go through difficult things in life. But see, this is a prophetic blessing because what it is is saying is that there's going to be a day in which the things that right now just look like rubble in your life are actually going to be instrumental in building a foundation for a whole new you. The idea of the city being rebuilt on its ruins is a beautiful concept.

That is the picture of a tell. Well, a tell is basically a hill that was formed from a previous time in which a city stood there. And then over time came rubble. So what happens is, oh, let's say you have a you have a city and it's got its city walls and buildings. And and then maybe a marauding army comes and sacks the city and burns its buildings or destroys everything.

Or maybe it's just maybe it's some natural disaster and everything in the city has been destroyed. Whatever might happen or what it leaves is a people that have now been bereft of their homes and all. But it leaves all this rubble. Big mounds of stones and all this stuff. And then and then time goes by and sand and sediment blow and fill in the cracks in between all the old rubble.

And you give it long enough and that rubble just becomes a big hill. Well, where do people like to build cities? Well, especially in ancient times, they wanted to put the city on a hill because that gives you a strategic advantage over the enemy. You'd like to have your city elevated, put a wall around it. And now you got strategic advantage over the enemy. You're at a higher place.

You're at a better vista. So interestingly, often cities would be rebuilt on the ruins of a former city. So to say, the prophet said, your life is like this. The city will be rebuilt on a ruins is to speak a tremendous blessing that, yeah, you might have had some ruins in your life. You have some tremendous disappointments, things that you never would have imagined would go wrong that did go wrong. Some hurt that's come in your life.

You know, just whatever rubble might be there. But what God says is I can take all of that and I can rebuild on top of it. It can become foundational. It can be that the things of yesteryear that were so disappointing and so painful now have become like a tell. It's a higher foundation, a greater vista. You've got a greater perspective and it's going to give you strategic advantage over the enemy of your soul.

The city will be rebuilt on a ruin. So when you bless someone, instead of dredging up, OK, here's the past and you're doomed because of it. That's what the devil does.

That's what curse does. Instead, what blessing does is, ah, yes, there's been some rubble in the past. But look what God is able to do.

You're like Manasseh. You can forget all your troubles in the sense of there's something good that could come out of it. Everything that enemy means for evil, God can turn around and use it for good. Is there somebody that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them. But how? What's missing might be the timeless power of blessing. We all need a positive, faith filled vision spoken over our lives.

Without it, we'll never rise to our God given potential. With it, we can let go of the past and move forward confidently under the favor of God. If you'd like to replace every curse with blessing in your life and if you'd like to learn how to speak life and empower the people you love, contact us today to get Pastor Alan Wright's new Amazon bestselling book, The Power to Bless. And when you do, for a limited time, we'd like to send you four additional life changing resources to help you discover the power to bless. We'll send you Pastor Alan's video masterclass and study guide called Speak Life. And we'll also include Pastor Alan's new video course, The Power to Bless, perfect for small groups or individual devotions.

It also comes with a study guide. Contact us today to get Alan Wright's beautiful hardcover book, The Power to Bless, and receive the four additional life enriching resources. It's time to learn how blessed you are in Christ and to discover the power to bless.

Learn more at PastorAlan.org, that's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860. So was there something good that came out of a father wanting to fly his son's toy helicopter? Ha, yeah, yeah. He crashed miserably into the side of the bathtub. That's a funny story I tell in the book. When Bennett was little, we gave him a remote control helicopter. And we happened to be going down to the beach, so we took it down there for its maiden voyage, you know. And Alan owned the beach, you know, a remote helicopter. And so Bennett took it up and he flew it, you know, not too high.

And it was working wonderfully. And I said, oh, Bennett, can I have a turn? He said, Dad, no, I don't trust you. You might break it. I said, oh, no, I'm not.

No, please. I got hold of it. He said, okay, I got hold of the remote control.

And I'm flying it. And I don't know, Daniel, it was like, I feel like something got in me. I couldn't help myself.

It was like a drug or something. The higher it went, I was feeling ecstatic over it. He was like, Dad, that's too high.

I said, no, I went higher and higher. And within about a minute, it got beyond the range of the remote. And the winds, the beach winds caught it, took it up and slapped it against the top of a condominium, and it came falling down, broken to the ground. It was his maiden voyage, and it already was broken. And Bennett was a little kid, and he just grew quiet. We walked over, picked up the broken helicopter.

He went inside and just went to be alone. And finally, I was like, okay, I got to go face him. And I went up and I said, I'm sorry that I wrecked your helicopter. And then I said, I think what most any father would say, I'm going to get you another one.

You know, why? Because I just think that's what a father's heart is. And if you want to know God and what his heart is like towards you, it's like that. It's like he wants to rebuild what's been broken, to restore what's been lost, to heal what has been hurt, to mend what has been fractured. That really is the heart of God. He has a heart to restore, and it's a heart of blessing that sees the positive possibilities for your life. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching, delivered right to your email inbox, free, find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.