The Power to Bless [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. There's a positive future that's attached to that, that there's a way in which your destiny is empowered by seeing this part of your identity. And when you do that and you speak it in faith, you're releasing the power of blessing.

And it's something that really anyone can learn to do. 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 about today. It is release day of The Power to Bless, a brand new book by Pastor Alan Wright. And Pastor Alan's in the studio with us today as we are talking and excited about not only the principles of the book, but really the book itself as an accomplishment. Alan, I would say bless you, my brother. It is release day.

We have made it. It's really exciting, Daniel. You know, people sometimes authors say you feel like you're giving birth to a baby. And the labor process is a lifetime really, you know, when there's a message like this that is a life message. And it's not my message. It's God's message. It's not my principle.

It's His. It's about the mystical force of change that comes through a spoken vision, a positive affirmation of one's worth and destiny, and something the world desperately needs and we need in our own lives. I think the timing couldn't be better with all of the curse that we've been hearing.

And the public arena reminds us just how desperately we need another way. And so what an exciting day it is. And I'm thankful for it and thankful to the Lord for all the insights that I believe the Spirit has been showing me really over the last 30 years, not just the couple of years of writing the book, but all the years of learning and growing to have it in print, just to be able to help other people. That's what I care about. And I've loved writing it and I'm glad it's finally available.

Well, it's available in bookstores everywhere starting today, of course, at Amazon.com. It's the power to bless. And I've brought this up many times before. I'll bring it up again, that it's not just a project that you've been working on for even a couple of years, which in itself is nothing to sneeze at, right? But it is something that you have worked on for as long as I've known you. You've certainly, it's a theme you have come back to over and over again. And we'll probably talk about some of that as well. But it's a huge accomplishment. I think it fills a void in the Christian world today where there's not much written about it in the way you have written.

Well, we've spoken about this. It's surprising how little Christians seem to know about blessing. Something that, well, in many ways is the whole narrative of the Bible, starting with Adam and Eve, where God blessed them and then said be fruitful and multiply. And Abraham was blessed by God to be a blessing. And Isaac and the famous story of Jacob and Esau was blessing his son. Jacob, that blessed his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which is so important to the book. And he blessed his own sons. And David is seen blessing his household. Moses, of course, blessing the people. Aaron proclaiming the high priestly blessing, the Lord bless you and keep you.

The scriptures are just full of this. And when you come to the New Testament and Jesus, he begins his life by this man Simeon coming and blessing him, even as a baby. When he's baptized, the father blesses him.

This is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Jesus began his ministry with a series of beatitudes, which are blessings. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And so it goes until Jesus leaves the earth. And the very last thing he does, he lifts his hands and he blesses his disciples as he leaves the earth. So it is in many ways the narrative of the scripture. The question is, will people understand and receive the blessing or will they reject it? Will people bless their children and their children's children or will there be curse that spread? And how will all this come about?

And so it really is the theme of scripture in many ways, how God came to remove curse and instill blessing instead. And yet we know very little bit about it. So here's another book that's out there starting today, Daniel.

That's it. And it's available. And I just say, Lord, take it, use it and bless your world with it. Available today in bookstores everywhere.

And of course, amazon.com. And if you do need help, you can come to pastorallen.org and we'll link you right up there. I will say some pastors, some Bible teachers seem to be hesitant to touch on things like blessing or about reaping the blessings of God.

I don't know, maybe they're afraid they're getting a little too positive. But but you have been faithful to be honest about what it isn't, how it's not magical. But there is sound doctrine that God has indeed instituted blessing as a true trait of the kingdom. And just in my own experience of being under your teaching to know that as an annual event at your home church, there's a blessing service and it's a way, OK, we're physically going to walk this out and live it out. And it may seem strange and different, but bear with it.

You will be blessed in receiving a blessing. Well, I think that, you know, Christians are comfortable and have learned a lot about prayer, talking to God on behalf of themselves or others. But we're less comfortable looking someone in the eye and just speaking a positive word to them. You know, I mean, in the first place, Daniel, a lot of people are just they're not that comfortable giving and receiving compliments. Right. Right. And so then when you start thinking about blessing someone's life and what does that look like?

So there's a little bit of like, well, I'm not used to that. Let me just be clear about this. The book is not making a false promise that if you just learn the principle of blessing, that suddenly you're not going to be problems in your life. No, that that's that's not some Jesus himself said in this world, you're going to have trouble.

But I'll tell you one thing. When you face troubles, you need to face them under the sound and the power of blessing. Does blessing make a difference in whether someone ends up walking in the fullness of their destiny and under the confidence of the favor of God such that it can empower them for more fruitful living?

Absolutely. And just as a little sneak preview, this ancient blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh, which I use as a lens to talk about the essentials of blessing, I think we see in there four essential gifts of the blessing. One is security, that God wants us to know that we are secure in him like adopted children. And it instills also that we could become like Manasseh, whose name means forgotten all our troubles, so that we're not stuck in the past. Blessing is about being able to move on and not be stuck in the baggage of the past. And I love the name Ephraim means twice fruitful. And I think blessing is the empowerment for fruitfulness in our life.

Not mere blind ambition and success in the same sense of the world means, but fruitfulness in the sense of abiding on the vine and much spiritual fruit coming about in your life. And then in this mysterious blessing where Jacob crosses his arms and it's a real picture of the gospel and how in a real sense God has crossed his arms for us. He has taken his right hand of blessing that should have been just for Jesus and extended it to us.

It's a picture of favor. To be a Christian is to live under the favor of God. So all of that happens in blessing, Daniel. And so if in your own life or you know someone in your life that they need to have a greater sense of security, be able to move on from the past failures and look towards the future, to have the fruitfulness of their life be blessed so it can be all it can be, and to walk in the favor of God rather than in their own strife, then that's what blessing is all about.

And so it's not to say that oh you're going to get rich and famous if you just take hold of these principles. That's not the way blessing is pictured in the Bible. But does it make an absolute difference as the key mystical force that seems to be shaping reality?

Yes it does in scripture and boy we sure want to know about that. The Power to Bless, a new book by Pastor Alan, actually releases today. So you're at a good place. You're listening right now and we're speaking to the author on release day.

So this is a good place to be. You can get the book wherever good books are sold today. Bookstores or online, your e-reader, your Kindle, of course it's available in hardback as well.

And you can do that at amazon.com. Pastorallen.org will give you some info on it. I think you can read more about what all went into this book. In fact Dr. Gary Chapman is credited as writing the intro here, right?

The forward. It was such a privilege to have Dr. Chapman write the forward to the book and to endorse it. And I value and love him so dearly what he's meant with teaching us about the five love languages. And I love some of his opening words in which he says, you know, we could turn our homes from places that sometimes feel like a morgue to a place of life by changing the way we speak. And well said. A lot of our listeners could identify with that. You've had words of death spoken to you and curse that is spoken.

And it's not too late to all of that to change. Your life is destined to be one that is under the sound of blessing. And Daniel, really the book itself is one that when you read it, you're receiving blessing. And it's full of story that inspires you.

And then in the end it teaches you how to do this because anybody can learn to do this. This isn't for the spiritually elite. This isn't for pastors only.

This is just for everyday life, to learn how to speak blessing. Not to put you on the spot here, but along the Dr. Gary Chapman lines, have you had other those who've endorsed the book or other spiritual leaders who have had a chance to read it or know what you're doing come back and say, well, why did God give you this vision? Where has somebody else been all this time? Where have we been? We've missed out on teaching this.

You know, it's so interesting. The pastor friends that I have, when I talk to them about blessing, they are often just spellbound with a picture of the Gospel. I remember I was with a group of about 30 pastors just last year. And I was sharing with them how in our congregation, we were in a setting, we were sharing with one another, they told us some good ideas about things you do at your church. I said, well, we start out the new year by the power of blessing.

They said, what do you mean? I said, well, we actually have a blessing. We speak over every individual or family. And wow, you know, we move people around.

It's a big wonderful thing. Instead of starting out the year saying, everybody needs to have new year's resolutions to try harder to be a good Christian, which doesn't work, right? We bless their lives.

Let's think about God's promises to us and his empowerment to us. And so they said, well, give us an example. And I spoke a blessing that I had announced over the church last year. And when I got finished speaking the blessing, it was quiet for a moment. And it just, it touched my heart. One of the pastors leaned in, he said, can I come to your church?

But what do you mean? And they all began to say, we like to know more about this. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series.

It's launch week. The power to bless is Pastor Alan Wright's latest book and releasing this week. You can get it wherever you find great books sold, including amazon.com, or we'll connect you at pastorallan.org. Not only will you be blessed by reading this book filled with blessing, but you'll also learn step-by-step how to be a blessing to others by imparting your words of blessing into the lives of those around you. The power to bless releasing this week by Alan Wright Ministries. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. It's one of those things, Daniel, it's interesting. It's something that's so prevalent to the theme of scripture. It's something that we, even as pastors, we know very little about. So I'm glad to have written about this so that there's another good resource that can help people learn and grow in the power of blessing.

We're careful to say it's not just for parents, but obviously that comes out in the book because you are a father and you talk about raising your kids and you and your wife both with that spirit of blessing in the home. And that becomes a natural place for many people who are listening right now. Well, start with your own family. Maybe that's less awkward to start with your own children. You want to talk about that and how it can be quite simple?

Yeah, it's so simple. Let me just give an example, one that I often share and is in the book, a time playing golf when Bennett was little, maybe 10 years old. And he was a good little golfer. He played and went on to play all the way competitively through high school. And so we had many joyful hours on the golf course, but if there's anybody listening, it does play golf. It also is one of the most frustrating sports in the world.

And especially for a child who's trying to learn how to hold his temper and not get too frustrated. Well, Bennett was a very cool kid who didn't get upset and flustered very often, but the golf course can bring it out in you. And I remember one day, maybe it's 10 years old, I think, and opening hole, he had a double or a triple bogey. It was a bad hole. And in golf, when you have a bad hole early on, you can feel like, well, I've ruined my whole round. And he was frustrated. I could see it, but instead of throwing his clubs and getting upset, he just pulled it together. And he went on and played a good hole the next hole. And he went on and played a good round. Well, on the ride home, I just said, Bennett, I said, you know, I want to just tell you, I saw at that opening hole that that was frustrating. And I know how that feels.

I sure do. But you held it together. And you went on and had a really good round because you didn't get too upset, kept your emotions in check, got your thoughts positive again. And we had a great time.

And you shot a good round of golf today. And I said, I want you to know that the Bible has a phrase for that, has a word for that. It's self-control. It's a fruit of the Spirit, actually, Bennett, I said. And here you are only 10 years old and I already see the fruit of self-control in your life. That's what that was. And then I went on and I said, Bennett, I believe that you're going to grow into a young man with a lot of self-control. And in my experience, men in this world who have a lot of self-control go very far. Well, that's, you see, just a conversation on the way home from the golf course.

Took about 30 seconds or a minute. And I was thinking, Daniel, you know, that really has been played out in his life. He just finished up law school and he was a very good student and he's done very well on all his exams. And a lot of his exams were as long as five to eight hours long. That's one reason to avoid law school right there. And then the bar exam is, I think, two days of eight hours of exam sitting there in this case with social distancing and a mask on.

And he did very well. And I think part of it is self-control. You know, if you're going to do well in studies, you got to have something in you that sees the other kids are going out there playing video games and throwing the Frisbee or going to a party and you're going to sit there in your room and study or go to the library. Well, that's self-control. And I did not all come because of that one little conversation on the way home from the golf course. Well, no, there are many conversations like that. But I was thinking about that recently, that one little conversation, which that's the way we raised our kids day in, day out like that. And I don't think that I had a word like that from my father on more than one or two occasions, if at all, in my entire life.

And they're listeners right now. You're listening going, you know, I don't think my dad ever spoke a word like that to me. I didn't have my mom or other people, coaches and teachers, speaking to me that way.

Or maybe you did and it really stands out because it was uncommon. Well, what would happen if you learned how to speak that way, not only to kids or your spouse or friends, but speak that way to yourself as well? And what would happen if we were able to get thousands and thousands of people that learn how to speak like that? This world would be a different place.

And that's what's possible. And that's why I wrote this book. The Power to Bless is the book and it releases everywhere today. Today is release day.

We're sitting with Pastor Alan Wright in the studio. And our encouragement to you is get the book, whether you go into a store, you curbside delivery, or you go online to your favorite retailer, including Amazon.com. And whether you get it in hardback or you get it in the Kindle format, we encourage you to digest it. And not only are you going to learn, but I think you'll, as Pastor Alan said, you'll laugh, you'll cry. There's some wonderful personal touching stories in there as well. And it's so practical.

And I do like that. Speaking of practicality, and this is something to sit up here and take note of, because for so many years working alongside Pastor Alan, I know when we talk theology, when we talk about the grace of God, we are very, very careful not to go into formulas, not to go into seven steps for this and ten reasons for that. You're careful to do that because we don't put God in the box, right? And that kind of starts to defeat the purpose of the freedom that we have in Christ. But in this particular matter, there really is a way that you can formulate a blessing.

Let's face it, if we didn't grow up with it, we need to learn, okay, what does it mean? It's more than a compliment. It's more than just expressing appreciation. There's kind of a beginning, middle, and end to it. And I love this practicality you put in the book.

Well, it gets a little preview of what you can learn a lot more about in the book. You know, I like to think of it this way, Daniel. When you know someone, you know someone, you almost always, there's a way in which you see virtue, positive characteristics, and qualities in that individual that they don't see in themselves as well as you do.

I think we can all think that way. Whether it's a good friend, or a spouse, or a child, a parent, whatever, even a co-worker or a student of yours, you see in them something that they don't see. Well, when you see that, you know, you've become like a treasure hunter, and you've mined some gold that wasn't there. It's sort of like just of encouragement in general, you know, when you encourage someone, and this is the way it is with blessing, which is sort of encouragement on steroids, you know. I mean, it's the power of God joined up to the principle of encouragement, and scripture joined to the principle of paying someone a compliment, joined with real faith for their future. But when you do that, it's like you're pointing out to them wealth, spiritually speaking, that they didn't know they had. So if I found out, if I knew that you had a big oil reserve in your backyard, and I didn't, you didn't know about it, and I told you about it, and then you got the the the oil rig out there, and they dug down and struck struck oil, and you became wealthy with it, I wouldn't have made you wealthy.

I would just point out the wealth you hadn't seen yet. I think that's part of the principle of blessing. And so you can see that in a person, and therefore you see treasure. And then you can learn how, and I'll show you how in the book, you can learn how to put that into words, and then when you join it to, this is part of your character and who you are, what you're doing is you're shaping their identity.

And from there, I suggest that what happens when you see it scripturally is that there's a positive future that's attached to that, that there's a way in which your destiny is empowered by seeing this part of your identity. And when you do that, and you speak it in faith, you're releasing the power of blessing. And it's something that really anyone can learn to do.

So I do think that there is a sense in which it's something you can learn how to do. And we actually have an actual worksheet in the book where you can sit down and you could go through the steps, and anyone can learn how to bless. The Power to Bless is the book that we're talking about, and it releases today, nationwide, worldwide, and you can certainly find out more at your favorite bookstore or online at pastorallen.org.

We can certainly direct you there. But being that it's release day today, we're really excited if you're able to not only buy the book, but then go ahead and be ready to leave an honest review that helps propel the message as well. And as we've mentioned, this has become really a life's work for you. And most any person who puts out a creative product, I've heard them say, well, I'm more excited about this than I was the last one.

That's only natural. But there is something truly, without using hyperbole, I think you would say there is something extra, extra special about this particular book for you. Well, I am more excited about this than anything I've ever written. In many ways, Daniel, it reads like a story, because it's my story. It's Jacob's story.

It's the story of all of us. It's God's story of how He has made it possible for us to move from lives of curse to lives of blessing, from living a life that's, well, fueled by our own self-will or our own ambitions, to a life that's empowered by God's blessings spoken through others over our lives. And it's a story of how you can, I don't want to overstate this, but how you can help change the destiny of someone else near you. You can help change the course of someone's life. The words of life, the power of life in the tongue is a biblical principle. And when you release it in faith, it's like you become a sower of seed and you're going to produce a harvest.

So again, it's not magic, but it is mystical and it is far reaching and has irrevocable power. And if you or someone in your life seems to have an invisible ceiling over their life or seems to be drifting aimlessly or seems to be constantly falling back into a mentality of shame, the power of blessing can make all the difference in the world. And it's for that reason, Daniel, that I'm just so excited to get this into the hands of people everywhere. The power to bless is the power to change the world. The power to bless releasing everywhere today. And you can certainly get it at your favorite bookstore, bookstores everywhere, brick and mortar, or even online. And pastorallan.org, of course, is how you can learn more about the author.

And of course, we'll direct you where you can find the books there as well. Pastor Alan, thanks for spending some time on release day today for this brand new book. Well, let's just say, God, this is your ministry and this is your power at work. And this is your glory. And it's your grace that is being released. And you're the one that has shown us how to live by the power of blessing. So to you be all the honor and glory forever and forever and take Lord and use this book to bless many, many lives and Lord for many, many people who have experienced curse instead of blessing to find their life being rooted in a new direction and to see their lives in a whole new light. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.