Daily Blessing Compilation #1

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Blessing says to a student that's not studying, God's given you an excellent brain. You have an important destiny. God wants to use you to make a difference in the world. You can grow, you can learn. You see, all of that is a blessing statement.

I believe that you can excel in your academics. 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 to be in the studio today with Pastor Alan and departing from our normal teaching pulpit ministry today being Friday, and it will be our practice on Fridays for the next little while to just talk about the power of blessing. And Pastor Alan, we're so excited about a brand new book that you have coming out February 2nd. This is an important time in the life of our country. It's an important time in the life of this ministry, but even just as believers, combating the darkness, combating where the world is showing up with curses, we counter that with blessing. Well, the world is just full of curse, isn't it? All around us, we hear it. Listen, you don't have to go far either.

Just pull in front of somebody in traffic. You'll find out what the spirit of the age wants to do, wants to immediately assign a negative forecast to your life, right? So really, a curse is a sense of saying your identity is flawed, your future is flawed, bad thing is gonna happen, and it's probably gonna get worse. Well, what is blessing? Blessing is God's way of empowering us by a positive identity rooted in his promises that release us into our destiny. Daniel, I just, I want, you know, I'm excited about it, so I don't wanna overstate things, but I think this is not just the most important book I've ever written. Coming out February 2nd, The Power to Bless, How to Speak Life and Empower the People You Love from Baker Books. I don't think it's just the most important book I've written. I think it's just one of the most important books that God is going to use, because there's not that much written about blessing.

Right. We know about prayer. A lot's written about prayer, where we talk to God. There's a lot of Bible teaching, which of course we do every weekday, but blessing is where you speak to another person and you proclaim a positive vision over their life.

And when you do, something of mystical power takes place. The whole book, Power to Bless, is rooted in an ancient blessing from Israel, but it takes that blessing and shows how all blessing contains these gifts within it, that it is a proclamation of acceptance, therefore security, that it's a proclamation of the past is over, so you're moving forward in the future. It's a proclamation, it's an affirmation of fruitfulness and ultimately favor on one's life. So, so excited about the book that's coming out and it seems fitting that we take these Fridays and talk about the power of blessing and maybe give me a chance to speak some blessing to our listeners.

Well, if you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire discussion today, I wanna make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. We've produced a beautiful calendar for 2021, where each month there is a blessing statement along with the attractive images and we'll be talking about that. In fact, pulling some of these blessings from the calendar throughout today's discussion. And if you'd like to get your hands on this, we encourage you to contact us at pastorallen.org, pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. And more on this wonderful calendar as we go throughout the discussion. But why don't we go right into the month of January? Can you tell us about the blessing we'll find for this month? So when you get the calendar, which is our thank you to you for your partnership with us this month, when you get it, it makes sense to me, of course, that if you're gonna hang something on your wall and you wanna keep your life organized, why not keep your spirit full?

That's good. And I think it's good sometimes to have a prayer that you could have for each day or something. But what this is, it's a blessing that's just beautifully inscribed and it'll be on your wall.

You can look at it every day that month. And so in January, I wanna share with our listeners today, Daniel, the blessing, this positive, scripturally-based vision for life as we start a new year. And boy, aren't we eager to start this new year. Open up your heart and receive this blessing. A new thing is happening, a new year, a new way, a new you.

May you have spiritual eyes to see God's fresh grace every day, all day, all year. That's our blessing for January on the calendar. And it's a blessing, Daniel, for newness. That's what we're celebrating when we think about a new year. Boy, it is good to think that the old is over and the new has come.

Yeah, and as you mentioned, new is really what we were looking for with the transition from December to January and the turn of the page. Where did the scripture come from for this particular blessing? Well, I took the inspiration for this. And this is the way, by the way, in the book, Daniel, The Power to Bless, there is in there very practical instruction, so it's inspirational, full of inspiring stories. And I think readers are gonna laugh and cry and be transformed by the stories and by discovering what blessing is.

But by the end of the book, it's very practical. And we have step-by-step instructions on how to craft a blessing. So anyone, anyone, anyone, listen to me, listeners, anyone can learn to bless, it's not difficult. And these blessings that are on the calendar and the ones that we speak, they might have a little poetic ring to them. But a blessing can be just as simple as an affirmation statement to someone. But I think that every blessing and part of the key is that it is consistent with God's word and grounded in God's word. That's what I think where we know we're on target and we're speaking forth in one accord with God's word. So this blessing for the new year was inspired from really one of my favorite prophetic passages in Isaiah chapter 43 at verse 18.

Remember not the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold, I'm doing a new thing. It springs forth now.

Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. This is a scripture that is really full of hope of restoration to an exiled people. And it's an invitation to not be preoccupied with the past. What would happen in our lives, Daniel, if we could just start afresh today? I think that's what we mean by a new day, a new moment, starting from right here. And that's why I wanted to start out the year on the calendar and wanted to speak that to our listeners today, the power of blessing to say I'm blessing you that you will see this new thing that's happening and embrace it. Sitting today with Pastor Alan in the studio and it will become our practice for the next few weeks. On Fridays, we are unpacking principles from this new book by Pastor Alan, The Power to Bless. It comes out by Baker Books, February 2nd. And by the way, pre-ordering the book is so important.

It not only just helps practically, okay, practically putting this book in front of a larger audience and that's not to build some empire here. That is to get this message out. And as we've talked about in a world that is filled with curses, why not counter that? And if you're on team Jesus like we are, we just want to rally together and surround those around us in our communities, our states, our country with blessing. Amen, amen to that. And you know, Daniel, it's so interesting.

I think this is, I was very young when I first started writing books and I had much more in my younger days of sort of that little bit of distorted type of humility, you know, the kind that is like all shucks, you know, don't, you know, and I've shed some of that now because you know, come on, the devil is working overtime through all kinds of people on the internet to spread curse. And we've got the opportunity through this book to spread the power of blessing. And so I'm unabashed and saying, please, please to all our friends, go pre-order the book. That brings a lot of attention to it and you'll be amongst the first to get it.

And then please make an honest review. All these things that draw attention to the power to bless and we want Jesus lifted high. And when you pre-order, you'll also get at no extra charge, the audio book. It is a wonderful perk for anybody that pre-orders a book. I'm not sure what the value of the audio book is, but it's a valuable gift.

You'll get a free audio book along with it as an incentive to pre-order. Well, I gotta say in working with this ministry for as long as I have one thing that I know Pastor Alan, you're careful to do during your normal teaching and proclamation of the gospel is one, putting God in a box and creating a formula out of the Lord. But when you talk about creating a blessing, I like how you put the cookies on the bottom shelf and you say, the blessing itself, there is a strategic way to speak a blessing.

And so it's quite different and you make no bones about saying there is a template. There is a step-by-step way of learning to speak or write or communicate a blessing. There is. So if you think Daniel of someone that you love and I'd like to invite the listeners, just think of someone you love right now and you would like to see their life flourish and grow and change. Maybe it's someone that's going through a difficult time. Maybe there's something that you really like to see them be able to change that needs to change in their character. There is a terrible sinful tendency to wanna simply point out the negative. You know, so a parent gets frustrated with the child who is not studying. And the temptation with a parent is to either just flat out speak curse, well, you're just never gonna amount to anything because you're not, you're too lazy. Or to just come across moralistically, like unless you start studying more, you're just not going to, you know. But what blessing does is altogether different.

It's God's way. Blessing says to a student that's not studying, God's given you an excellent brain. You have an important destiny. God wants to use you to make a difference in the world. I believe that you can excel in your academics. I know you have a contribution to make with that wonderful mind of yours.

You can grow, you can learn. You see, all of that is blessing statement. And I know listeners, even as you hear those words coming out of my mouth, you go, oh yeah, what does that do? It connects to something spiritually. And I think some of this is mystical, but some of it is just flat. This is the way God designed us.

We rise up to live out of an identity, and that identity is getting spoken to us. So when we bless someone for a new year and a new you, what we're saying is that you can have new spiritual eyes. You can live in the grace of God. Blessing in many ways, Daniel, is to say when you really want good for someone, I think any parent, anybody that's had a great friend, you just love somebody and you want the very best for them. You almost have this feeling like, I wish I could just take it and just deposit this good intention in them. Blessing is the thing that God's given us to do that.

Yeah, yeah. It's an actual expression of your goodwill towards someone else, and God uses it. So the power to bless walks people right through it, step by step. The power of blessing can help us focus on the new rather than the old.

That's real timely for a new year that we are in now. You've got another blessing about newness, right? The one rooted in the prophecy of Isaiah. Yesterday, with its joys and sorrows, is over. Tomorrow, with its hopes and challenges, is yet to exist. But today, right here, right now, God's grace blooms before your very eyes. This is what the Lord says through Isaiah. Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I'm doing a new thing.

Now it springs up. Led by the Spirit, you can become mindful of every blessing and savor the textures and flavors of God's grace each moment, in the moment, today, and always. So what drew you to this Isaiah text when you were crafting this particular blessing? Well, similar to the blessing we started the day with, I'm drawn to this beautiful prophetic image because of the invitation to forget the former things and to focus on what's happening right now. In modern psychology, this is called mindfulness. But mindfulness is not the product of modern psychology, and it's certainly not the product of Zen Buddhism.

This is God's deal. Right from the beginning, God was the one who invited us to learn to live in the moment and live in the day, and Jesus is the one who said, don't be anxious for tomorrow. Tomorrow's gonna have plenty of anxiety for itself, but consider today the lilies of the field.

Look at the birds of the air. In other words, the idea of living one day at a time is God's big idea. So what it means to be mindful is to savor what's happening now.

It means to be fully engaged in that moment, and I think that's one of the blessings I just wanna give to the listeners is that you learn to savor moment by moment. I think one of the things that happened to us in pandemic, we had so much of a postponing of life, right? And we're still in it where it's like, we just keep thinking, well, I'm just putting my life on hold until this is over. And there's nothing to savor in the middle of such hardship.

Well, that's not true. Every moment, every little act of grace, every sunrise, every snowflake, every day there's something of God's grace there. There are conversations, there are moments of insight, there's revelation, there are so many things to savor. And I just am blessing our listeners that they can be led by the Holy Spirit and really become mindful of each of those blessings. I think that's what it means to be alive with newness is mercy's new every morning, so I'm gonna be expectant that I'm gonna see something new today.

It's time to quit talking so much about the past. It's time to quit focusing all the wounds from yesterday and to focus in on savoring the actual blessings of God. And so you can become a connoisseur of God's grace. You can become an expert in sensing his goodness.

You can become like someone who is a master interpreter of art, who looks at a masterpiece in a different way. I think that's what we're invited to be as children of grace just become aware of his grace everywhere. Savor it, become mindful of it in the moment, every moment, all the time. Feel the textures and flavors of God's grace.

That's what it means to savor. I'm blessing our listeners, blessing each of you that you'll have that sort of new year. In the studio today with Pastor Alan as we head into the weekend with blessing, with blessing for you. And as we look forward to Pastor Alan's new book releasing February 2nd, Groundhog Day, by the way.

That's right, that's right. The Power to Bless, one of the, if not the most important book. And I gotta say, as I've talked to a lot of creative people in my life, musicians, artists, authors, most of them will always say that their latest project, their latest creation is the best and most important.

But to be honest, this one really is because it is so vastly different than anything else your work has put out. Well, I'll tell you the Power to Bless, the book itself is, it's a big idea book. The big idea of the Bible is about blessing.

I mean, if you think about it, in the beginning God blessed Adam and Eve and then said, be fruitful and multiply. He came to a man named Abram and he said, I'm blessing you so that you will be a blessing. The Hebrew patriarchs learned to bless their children. They blessed their grandsons, they blessed their granddaughters. Blessing was what caused the prosperity of the people, the favor of God to move forward until we come to Jesus.

And when he is starting his ministry, he's baptized. The father blessed him and said, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Jesus called the little children and blessed them. People just wanted Jesus to bless their children. And we're told by Jesus and by Paul, we're supposed to bless even our enemies.

And the last thing that Jesus did while he was on earth, he lifted his hands and before he ascended to heaven, he blessed his disciples. So Daniel, this is the story of the Bible. And yet it's not talked about that much. It's not talked about what blessing really is and how powerful it is. And here's the important thing and why this book's so important. It not only tells a beautiful story of blessing in the Bible, how I came to understand it and the essentials of blessing that will just nourish. And I think, Daniel, I just think it's gonna bless the socks off the readers to hear stories of how God's blessing has been at work.

But then it becomes very practical and teaches anyone. You don't have to be a poet. You don't have to be a Bible scholar.

Any parent, any teacher, any friend, any coworker, anyone can learn to bless. And the book teaches you how. If there are three things that we would love for you to join us on this journey would be to do, number one is pre-order the book. If you go to Amazon, that's a great way to not only make sure you get your own copy and you get the free audio book along with it, but you also are gonna help propel this message. And if your heart is my heart, give me my hand, right? And we're gonna walk together, team Jesus and proclaim this principle from scripture of blessing others.

Number two is after you've pre-ordered the book, once you get the book, once you listen to the book or read the book, then write an honest review. And that's gonna be a great way also to keep propelling this message of blessing. And number three is if you will make a contribution and support the efforts here at Alan Wright Ministries. Right now, we're gonna get in your hands in time here at this new year at 2021 blessing calendar.

And a lot of what we're talking about today is pulled straight from that calendar. In radio, we can't show you the beautiful images, but it's a great thing. Put on your wall, look at every day as you start the day or as you're going through your kitchen or your office, wherever you hang it, it'll be a reminder to you, not only of your daily schedule of what's coming, but that you can be blessed and be a blessing to others in the middle of life's day-to-day activities. So Pastor Alan, we have time today for one more blessing. This one's from Psalm 46, powerful words of encouragement right here. Let's speak this blessing to listeners. Though the nation's rage and kingdoms totter, God is your refuge and strength. He's your help amidst the troubles.

Even if the earth should give way and the mountains fall into the sea, you need not fear. There's a river whose streams make glad the city of God and you are welcomed to its banks to drink, to be immersed, to splash about for joy. The Lord of hosts is with you in the morning, at noontime, in the evening.

He watches over you as you sleep. So I bless you today to be still and know that he's God. No matter the turmoil and politics, the Lord is your God. No matter the troubles of pandemic, the Lord is your God. Amidst the brazen voices of fear, I envision your heart being filled today with calm. Amidst the clamor, may you have moments of profound inward quiet today.

In Christ, you've been given peace that the world doesn't have. You've made a shift in your daily devotionals every day. Not only has a devotional insight, but it also contains a blessing for the day. And by the way, these daily devotionals are at pastorallen.org online.

You too can sign up for those free of charge, pastorallen.org. So Allen, why is it so important to start our day with blessing? A lot of people, Daniel, think that the way that it works is that I go out and I prove myself, so then people will accept me and then they'll bless me. And that's the way a lot of the world does. Even parents, they'll withhold their blessing, dangle it like a carrot. This is the way I'm gonna get my child to try harder.

Employers do it, teachers do it, coaches do it. But God doesn't. What God does is he'll come to someone like Gideon who is afraid, shaking in his sandals, literally in the wine press for fear of the Midianites, and God comes to him and says, "'Hail, mighty man of valor.'" Well, he hadn't proven to be a man of valor yet, but that's how God saw him.

Or Jesus might go to Simon, who was shifty and unreliable, and say, I'm calling you Peter, you're a rock. See, that's a blessing. And when you bless and you receive blessing, what happens is you adopt a new identity. And that identity then becomes the means by which you determine how you're gonna live, how you're gonna think, and how you're gonna feel. So if you feel, in a sense, that you are on the winning team you're much more likely to win.

If you feel like you're on the losing team, you're much more likely to give up. So God's word, accompanied by statements of faith that people speak over your life, will empower you for the day. That's why every day we issue forth a blessing. And you can get it in its devotional form, written, or video, and we also have a blessing podcast now. If you just wanna start, why not take one minute every day, just subscribe to the podcast, and just let me speak a blessing from the scripture, from my heart to yours, and just speak it into your life.

And Daniel, this is why we just want people to pre-order the book, and we want them to get this calendar, and we wanna send it to you as our way of saying thank you for your partnership with us, because hang it on your wall. Fill your heart with blessing. This is the way you're gonna live an empowered and transformed life. It's not by law, it's not by moralism, and it's certainly not by curse.

It's by the blessing of God. Connect with us one of two ways. You can come to pastorallen.org, that's pastorallen.org, or call and we'll be happy to walk you through any of the ways to get the book or the calendar. 877-544-4860.

877-544-4860. Pastor Alan, as always, thanks for your time today and teaching us about blessing. Thank you so much, the delight of my heart to talk about how God has made us to be able to receive and give blessing. Anyone can find the power to bless. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.