Faith for Others to Flourish [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. When I said I'm blessed, and here's what I want you to see, that was not denial of the real difficulties of life.

It was instead an utterance of something that was even more true. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear today's message in a series titled, The Power of Blessing, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. 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. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching in the series, Praying with Power. Here is Alan Wright. You have not only physical eyes, which are absolutely remarkable, and anybody who has ever lost their eyesight or has been impaired visually would be the first to tell you that being able to see in and of itself in the natural is an absolute miracle. The fact that you can see and you can take in physical reality around you and translate that into messages in your brain and apprehend what is going is absolutely extraordinary. But there is something that is even more extraordinary, I tell you, and it is spiritual eyes. Spiritual eyes see through the mechanism of faith. Your faith is essentially spiritual vision. And when you see something and your spiritual eyes know it to be true, then you're able to be convinced or convicted that this is absolutely real. And that's why people who walk closely with the Lord and walk by faith and not by sight come to understand the things that are real, and they are at times a reality that is higher and truer than anything that you could see with your eyes. And you can grow in this and you can learn. And this is why there are people that you see and their spiritual eyes have learned how to focus.

Let me just get an illustration of this. When we go to the beach, we love the beach and going there all my life. And when we go to the beach, one of the things I like to do is just take a walk on the beach.

I like to just walk on the beach. And while we walk on the beach, for all the years I've always, even since I was a child, I always like to look, see if I can find a shark's tooth. Love looking for shark's teeth there. The shark's tooth is a treasure because it's, well, it's the tooth of a shark.

But it's a treasure because it's rare and it's hard to find. And everything on the beach looks like a little black speck. And so the shark's tooth is different though. And it looks like a tooth. And we like to try to collect the shark's tooth.

If I were to go to the beach for a week, I would say on average, I would find approximately zero shark's teeth. I can't see the face. Everything looks like a black speck to me. And so I bend over, I pick it up, it's a shell. I bend over, pick it up, it's a shell. You do this about three or four times and you go, why am I bending over out here over these black shells?

I just give up on it. Now, my daughter Abigail, 15-year-old Abby, she has a gift for seeing shark's teeth. It's like she's not even looking, just walking down the beach talking about, oh, there's a shark's tooth. Look at that, a big one there, perfect shark. I mean, obviously, if she were to really be looking, she's going to find three, five, 10 shark's teeth in one day.

I mean, she might find five of them on one little walk down the beach. And I'm looking, I can look at the, I say, how do you do it? And she said, well, Daddy, they're black and they're small, they're pointy. And you just, you know, you focus away from everything else except the little black things.

I said, they're all little black shells down there. We look at the same area of beach, she sees shark's teeth, I see black shells. And so what happens is that she bends over when she sees a shark's tooth and she takes it and then she has a shark's tooth.

I don't see a shark's tooth, so I don't bend over and I don't have a shark's tooth. In other words, there's something incredible that happens when you're able to see something. Because when you're able to see something, you're able to appropriate it. And that's the way it is with spiritual vision. When faith sees something and you know it's real, then what do you do?

You pick it up, you appropriate it, and you make it your own. For example, spiritually speaking, we speak about salvation itself. Oftentimes, Christians will use the word saved to describe the experience of somebody becoming a Christian.

And so they might say, well, when we're doing that? Well, when were you saved? And you might say, well, it was in October of 2004. But if somebody said, well, when were you saved? You might say and point to a day, if you have a day and a point in history, you remember that you might say, well, it was on this day.

But in actuality, what's the correct answer? The correct answer is 2000 years ago when Jesus hung on a cross and took the penalty for my sin and then was raised from the grave three days later for my justification, proving that his sacrifice had been complete for me and that he had the authority to forgive my sins. That was when I was saved.

But I came to realize his saving work for me in October of 2008. And I accepted it and I took it as my own. See, when you see something, if it's a shark's tooth, pick it up. If you see a treasure, you pick it up. And this is what faith does. This is what spiritual eyes do. Spiritual eyes see something and realize that it is real. And then you just, you take it. You take it as your own. Let me just say this, that faith is not magical, fanciful, wishful thinking. It is not pretending.

It is not denial. If I were to go down the beach and pick up one of my many black shell fragments that I pick up and out of my frustration, just say, this is a shark's tooth. That doesn't make it a shark's tooth.

And I'll tell you, my kids would be very quick to remind me, no, daddy, that's a shell. When I was a kid, I was taught the way to tell the difference between a shark's tooth and a shell was to see if it would break in your fingers. I don't know if this is actually true or not, but you know, shark's teeth, you don't, they won't just snap in your fingers. It's a tooth of a shark. But a shell normally can just snap like that. Anyway, when Bennett was little and he found his first shark's tooth and he gave it to me, it looked very much like a shark's tooth, but I said, let's see if it's real. And I took it and I broke it. And I traumatized the boy that day.

They still claim, they still claim it was a shark's tooth, but you can call something a shark's tooth, but if it's a shell, it's a shell. We're not talking about with faith, about you being able to just have something that you wish were true and call it forth. What we're talking about is spiritual eyes that see something that is true and you appropriate it.

We're talking about a kind of phenomenon that somebody might say, well, you're just in denial, but if you see in the deep things of the Spirit and you walk by faith and not by sight, then it's more real to you than the things that the eyes could see in the natural. On Friday late afternoon, late into the evening, I was leaving a parking deck at Baptist Hospital. And as I handed my ticket, my parking ticket to the attendant, and they're gracious to let clergy park free, I just written my Reverend Alan Wright and an old church on there and then give it to him for free. And so I handed it to her and she said, how are you? You know how it is when you're in this, in a mind amazing thing, you can think a thousand thoughts in one half of a second.

Like what am I going to, what's the response? And the fact of the matter was it's been a long week, a long week. And every day has been a long day. And Friday was turning into a really long day. I really didn't want to get up and go to the new Canaan fellowship on Friday morning. I was just so tired. But I got up and I went to the seven o'clock meeting and then the day went on and there were good things in it. And I thought, you know, this is going to be a good day.

Late in the afternoon I thought I might even hit some golf balls today and unwind a little bit. But then I get a phone call that our nephew, Zach, was taken to the emergency room. Thank you for your prayers for Zach. He's had many, many challenges in his life. And so my sister-in-law, Catherine, and she's got to go get him out of school and taken to the emergency room because of some irregularities that they found in his blood work.

They're very concerned about it. And so much so they said, don't wait, go get him, take him over to the hospital. And so I wanted to go over and be with them. But also on Friday night I really was obligated to be at the Reinhard Bonnke Evangelistic Crusade because I've been part of the pastoral support team for this. And there was a place reserved for me to be there.

I needed to be at that. I wanted to be with my sister-in-law. I wanted to be with my nephew in the emergency room. And so I said, I just want to wait here until the blood work comes back and we can see we're believing together that he's going to just be able to go home from the hospital and not stay. We're believing together for this blood work to be good. And so about the time that we thought we should have the results, the nurse came in and she said, I'm so sorry we lost his blood.

They had to come and take some more blood from the child and go back and do the test all over again. So we just sit there for another hour. And finally, I'm just like, do I go? Do I not go?

Here, I've got my phone. I will turn around and come back on the way to Greensboro. This is more important, but I also feel like so I'm kind of torn. You know, you hate those times like that.

I'm torn. And I come out and I hand the lady my parking ticket and she said, how are you? And you know what I thought about saying?

I thought about saying, you know what? I'm tired. I'm tired. I am really tired. And honestly, my back's hurting a little bit.

It's been giving me some trouble this week. I felt like the man I talked to a fella this past week, an old guy. And I said, how are you? He said, well, which part do you want to know about? I said, well, how are your knees? He said, well, they're doing pretty good.

And so let's limit it to that. I felt like saying, you know what? No, I'm actually pretty worried. I'm worried about I'm worried about my nephew. I don't know what's going on with this. And and then this family's got so much they've had to face over the years.

And I don't I don't want them to have to be admitted in a hospital. And that's concerned about that. And why I'm talking about things I'm concerned about is that we just had to fix a roof, a piece of the roof at my church for one hundred forty two thousand dollars.

And now there's a hole out in the parking lot where a pipe has been compromised and dirt's being taken away. And I don't know how we're going to pay off the roof problem. And I don't know how we're going to pay for that.

And why I'm talking about that. Can I tell you, we've got a great radio ministry and it is just poised to just absolutely explode on four hundred radio stations. And I don't know how we're going to pay the bills next month. And honestly, I was going to play some golf this afternoon, but the weather has been iffy. And instead, I came to the hospital and then my back hurts more when I don't exercise and I gain a little bit weight. So I'm feeling a little bit unfit today.

I'm tired and I'm worried. You know, that's why part of me thought, you know, now that's there's some truth to that. And I could say that.

But you know what? Instead, I thought I just told I just signed the card, Reverend Alan Wright. And she said, how are you? And I just said, I'm blessed. That's Alan Wright.

And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Before God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful, he blessed them. Before God called Abraham to father a nation, he blessed him. Before God released his son into ministry, he blessed him.

Why? Because blessing is God's secret strategy to empower you to be all he made you to be. When others affirm you, most of the time it's because you've proven your worth.

Maybe you did well on a test, accomplished a goal or proved yourself competent. Such affirmation is nice, but it's not the way of God. God's strategy is to declare your worth before you have done anything to prove it. In the kingdom of God, blessing is the fuel for your productivity, not the reward for it. Maybe you need your heart to be healed from old wounds caused by others withholding their blessing.

Or maybe you're ready to shatter that invisible ceiling that keeps you from soaring. Either way, Pastor Alan writes, the power of blessing will change your life. Change how you interact with others as you discover the ancient skill of the Hebrew patriarchs as they bless their children. Learn how to tune your heart to accept blessing and reject curse.

Most of all, drink in the unquenchable blessing of God in Jesus Christ. Get motivated God's way with Alan Wright's seven message CD album, The Power of Blessing. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. When I said I'm blessed, and here's what I want you to see, that was not denial of the real difficulties of life. It was instead an utterance of something that was even more true. It's more true to say I'm blessed and highly favored than it was at that moment to say I'm tired and worried.

Although I'm tired and worried, and there's a place for talking about that. We're a church. We are people. We want to open up.

We want to be honest. We're not the kind of place saying, how are you? Fine. How are you? Fine.

I don't get any problems. We're not going to be like that kind of people. We're not saying that you just deny your problems, cover them up, and don't pay attention to it.

We want to be real with one another. There's a place for that, but what I'm just saying is in that moment everything within me said, you know the real definition of my life and the definition of this day is that I am blessed and I'm highly favored. You say, well how do you know that? That's just pie in the sky.

That's the problem with Christians. What's the evidence of you being blessed today? This is a hard day. You're leaving the hospital for goodness sake. Your nephew's in the hospital.

What's going on here? I'll say, here's why I'd say that. It's because I've seen something, and I saw it when I was in fourth grade. I saw when my family broke up. I saw it when my mother told me that Jesus was real, and we could pray to him. I saw from the time I was a little boy. I saw that Jesus was real, and you know what's happened is over the years my spiritual eyes have been able to see him.

I can't find a shark's tooth, but I can find Jesus almost anywhere. I tell you, I see him, and what I have seen in faith is that he came, died for my sins, imputed his righteousness to me, so that at any given moment the reality is what Paul said, and that is that I'm blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. So the fact of the matter is, when I say I'm blessed, I am blessed.

I'm a little tired and back hurting a little bit, but blessed. That's what faith sees. Now, when I spoke the words I'm blessed, I felt better. It's like when I spoke the words, it's kind of like bending down and picking up the shark's tooth.

It's like I got it. It was more real to me by speaking it, and then God was good enough to have somebody that would agree with me, because it's hard to find somebody that will agree with you, you know. Most people are ready to curse you, but you find one person that will agree with you, that you're blessed, and something happens, doesn't it? This is what happens with faith.

Now, what happens? It's like every day, parents, your children are asking, like that parking attendant asked me, but they're asking it of themselves. Everybody you meet, especially your kids, they're asking, how am I? See, you may not hear it with words from your children when they're little, a little colicky baby keeping you up all night long.

You get up in the middle of the night, tired, back hurting, wish you could play golf. You got a poopy diaper, baby looking up with you, and that baby doesn't say it with words, but the baby is asking, how do you see me? How am I to you? And I'll tell you, the natural eyes, what they see is a messy diaper, a messed up sleep schedule, a messed up checkbook, and there's part of the flash that you want to say, you're a mess, and you're a mess up, but that's not what you do. It's not what you do.

That's not what you do. Instead, you take that baby and get that fresh diaper on him. You take that baby and say, you want to know who you are? Come here. Let me smell that baby's skin.

Let me put my nose down into this little belly and see that giggle come forth one more time. I'll tell you who you are. You're not the little creature that has come in here and messed up our lives. You're the apple of my eye. You are a treasure beyond all treasures. And I'll tell you what I see over your life is that you will grow in wisdom and stature and favor with God, and you have a destiny in front of you. You are beautiful. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. And I tell you, I love you. Come here. Let me rock you and sing you a song. And psychologists and sociologists who don't even know the Bible have discovered that when that baby who cannot even say anything back to you receives such blessing as that, that that is the most important, vital, transforming experience that a child could have.

And without it, we'll face many difficulties in life. And that little toddler grows up into a... That little baby grows up into a little toddler running around the backyard and comes bounding in the house one day with muddy feet and just absolutely muddies up your nice carpet and then falls into a lamp and breaks it. And you're having a really hard day already and you look over at that child and that child's looking at you and may not ask it with words but is essentially saying, how am I? How do you see me? And I'll tell you what the eyes of sight, natural sight see. They see a mess and they see a bigger mess to clean up and they see a broken lamp and frustration on a child that didn't think to take off of muddy shoes. And what the flesh wants to say is, I tell you who you are, you are a mess and now you have messed up things again, you're a mess up. But that's not what the eyes of faith see.

That's not what the eyes of faith see. The eyes of faith see a rambunctious child who's got a zest for life. What are you doing getting all mud all over your feet like that? What have you been doing? Kicking that soccer ball around? Well that's because you're going to be such a fine athlete. Why do you come running in here and knock over that lamp like that? I guess it's because you've got a lot of energy. You're going to have energy to do great things with your life. Now next time you come in take your shoes off so you don't get mud all over the place.

But I want you to remember this, it's you I love not this carpet. Because you've been fearfully and wonderfully made and God has a great plan for your life and a destiny and I see it in faith over your life child. What I'm saying beloved is that Jacob did something like that for his grandsons. And in the eyes of God when you look at somebody's life that looks all messed up and yet you have the capacity to see beyond the mess and see the potential that is in Christ Jesus for their life and a destiny for their life because they're made in the image of God and you can see good things for them and you can speak it and you can have faith for them to flourish. What I'm saying is that God puts that on the level of Hebrews 11 Moses and Joshua and Daniel and David and even God himself saying let there be light. He's saying when you have that kind of faith and you speak it out you are doing something that is so miraculous and so powerful and so far-reaching and so irrevocable that it is so powerful that it goes right here in this book. What I'm saying beloved is that if you learn how to speak out blessing over others with faith for them to flourish Moses and Joshua and Daniel don't have anything on you because you have entered into the hall of fame of faith. You have been blessed and when you know it and you develop your spiritual eyes you can bless everybody and they will be blessed and that's the gospel.

Allen Wright. It's today's teaching in the series the power of blessing and we invite you to stay with us. Allen is back here in just a moment with additional insight on today's teaching for your life and today's final word. Pastor Alan Wright's power of blessing will change your life. When you make a gift this month we'll send you the power of blessing as our way of saying thanks for your partnership and when you give you'll not only be nourishing your own soul but you'll help broadcast the good news to someone else. When you make your gift to Allen Wright Ministries today we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org. Allen you mentioned when you know it when you develop your spiritual eyes and then speaking faith speaking blessing into others. In this quick busy moment right now maybe folks are traveling in their car maybe they're in a season where life is real hectic.

What's the practical application? How do I how do I see that with my spiritual eyes? Well you begin to think about how anybody in your life that you know you can probably say there's something of value in them that I can see more clearly than they can.

Oh it's true. It's like it's like with my wife I feel like there are things that are treasures in my life that are treasures in her that I can see that she doesn't even know about herself and same she could say for me and I would just begin with that if you want if you're thinking of your kids you're thinking of your spouse you're thinking of a co-worker or a friend. What are the characteristics and attributes and possibilities that you can see in their life that maybe you can see it more clearly than they can? Well what you do is you identify that and then you begin to speak it out and God uses that and that's the power of blessing at work and it is incredibly powerful. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.