Bless Those Who Curse You [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright. There's a power that is released in speaking blessing where the flesh would rather speak curse. And the reason that this is so powerful is because there is a principle of faith that is at work.

And God designed everything to operate by faith and what you expect you're more likely to get. 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 Allen Wright Ministries.

As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.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.

Here is Allen Wright. For a number of people who would be coming under the sound of my voice, you've been really hurt. People that have not respected you and maybe have sought to use you. And for people who have grown up with a lot of shame, people who have been in abusive relationships, you hear these words, bless those who curse you, and it could sound a whole lot like the very dysfunction you're trying to escape. And clearly, there's some things that we must say in general response to these kinds of questions. Number one, I do not believe that the Bible is saying that there's not a place for governments with armies that must stop tyrants.

That's not described here. And I don't think that's the view of Scripture. There is a time, right, that evil just, you have to stamp it out.

It's not saying that when you are being treated like the doormat, that you're supposed to just lie there and be mistreated. Jesus came and died for you. And when He did, He demonstrated to you that you were worth His life. You were worth an infinite price.

And so every single human being is made in the image of God. And you, beloved, are a treasure to Him. And your life is treasured.

Who you are is a treasure and worthy of protecting. Your thoughts and your body and your time and your boundaries, all of this really matters. So let's just be clear that when we talk about this, we're not talking about we shouldn't try to stop Hitler and we should just bless him. And we're not talking about losing our healthy boundaries. We're talking instead about a spiritual dynamic that comes up in the course of everyday life. And sometimes it's in little ways in your family. And sometimes it's in bigger ways that do impact the way that we're going to interact with the culture around us.

And I want to just talk to you for a few moments about how powerful this really actually is. And maybe you've seen instances of this in your own life. One of the pioneers in speaking about the power of blessing is a pastor named Bill Ligon. And he tells a story about some parishioners he had that had a seventh grader who had really failed seventh grade and was repeating the grade and was again not studying, not paying attention, being disruptive, and was about to fail the grade again if something didn't change. In their desperation, they call their pastor to come and pray with them.

They say, we've tried everything. And as the pastor listened, he realized that the teachers had developed a real negative image of this student and that the parents had also developed a real negative image. And in fact, they were saying things like, you continue making grades like this and you're never going to amount to anything. And he began to explain to them that really that was tantamount to curse. And he began to talk to them about the power of blessing and changing the kind of statements that they were making over their son to begin to envision and see him succeeding as a student.

And instead of just spewing out all of the negative things that they saw, to begin to affirm that he's a bright kid. And Pastor Ligon said he met with the student. And he said what he realized was this was a bright young man who was very defeated. And so he spent a long time, hours over a period of time, talking to this seventh grader about the power of blessing. And as he talked to him, he realized the student felt so defeated by his teachers.

The teachers had no respect for him. And so he trained him up in this. And finally, when he was ready, he sent him on a mission to school.

And the student succeeded in doing just this. He went to each one of his teachers and he said, I'm sorry for the way that I've been acting, but I believe that you're an excellent teacher and I hope God raises you up to be a star teacher in this school. And one of his teachers looked at him and said, I don't believe a word that you're saying and you hadn't succeeded in the past and I don't see you succeeding in the future. And he said, well, I'm sorry that you feel that way. I understand that, he said, but I still believe that you're an excellent teacher and I hope that you rise up to be a star teacher in this school. And the teacher looked back to him and said, well, if you really feel that way, then maybe we'll try to give it a fresh start. And he started making all As and Bs. He continued to finish all of his schooling career and he went on to become a jet pilot and had a prosperous career.

There is this in individual relationships, but it also can be that there's an impact in the world. I was really moved this week in hearing some stories from some dear friends. It really is a story that started in November of 2002 when a strikingly beautiful newlywed woman named Bonnie Weatherall in November 2002 was serving as a Christian missionary at the Christian Mission and Alliance Ministry near the biggest refugee camp in Lebanon that was helping so many of the refugees and Muslim children. And she particularly was working with the Muslim women and helping them and educating them and also working with the children. And in November 2002, somebody came and from close range shot her in the head three times. The New York Times ran at that time, the whole back page, half of it was on it, and then at her funeral ran on the front page. And there are a lot of articles that you could still read online about this.

But I'm just going to read from the New York Times what was going on here. Sheikh Hamud said, this is I'm quoting from the New York Times, Muslim religious leaders grew wary of the Christian and Missionary Alliance because its members combined computer lessons, English instruction, and gift of toys and candy with Sunday school classes for hundreds of Muslim children. And the particular sheikh said it was upsetting to hear this because they were trying to exploit their poverty to try to get them to change their religion. And evidently a number of the clerics began to preach against the Christian Missionary Alliance. And particularly one influential Muslim monthly publication called The Pulpit of the Calling denounced the group and it said, quote, they destroy the fighting spirit of the children, especially of the Palestinian youth, by teaching them not to fight the Jews. This kind of thing was evidently being broadcast among some of the religious leaders and somebody took it to heart and they went and they shot this beautiful young lady. Now in your flesh, everything within you as a Christian, what you want to say, your flesh wants to say is we'll just never serve them again.

Just let them be uneducated, let them starve, let them, if that's what you want, right? But that's not what's happened. And the reason I bring up this story is because of some very good friends of mine who have traveled to that region numerous times. In fact, one of my friends, Kaleem Andreas, grew up there right near Sidon in Lebanon.

And he and my friend Jay Helvey, they've traveled there and taken other people from the City Men Fellowship, New Canaan Society. And what they've done instead over the years is continue to help the refugees. Refugees from the Syrian Civil War are just flooding out by the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands.

One of the biggest refugee camps is right there near Sidon and also tons of refugees down in southern Lebanon entire. And our guys, my friends, have been there to just encourage some of those few evangelical Christians that are on the front line. They've developed a relationship with a pastor named Mohamed Yamout. And Pastor Mohamed just loves Jesus and he loves all those kids and they supply blankets and supplies and they show love to those kids. Some of our own guys here have helped to build a school and they helped him to buy a van. Now the thing that's interesting about this is that right here in the midst of this community, which is so hostile to Christianity, Pastor Mohamed's van clearly says on the side the entire center for gospel proclamation and he just rides it in and out and everywhere and nobody harms him.

Why? So much love. So much love. They're just loving their kids, right?

It's hard to hate somebody that's loving your kids. And what's happening is the pastors there are telling us that more Muslims are coming to Christ than they've ever seen ever. There's a power that is released in speaking blessing where the flesh would rather speak curse. And the reason that this is so powerful is because there is a principle of faith that is at work. And God designed everything to operate by faith and what you expect you're more likely to get.

You're more likely to get. It has to do with the principle of sowing and reaping. In the book of Genesis, right in the beginning, describes that God made every kind of plant for seed, time, and harvest. That everything in this world operates by seed, time, and harvest.

What does that mean? It means that God could have designed it any way He wanted but the way He designed it was little seeds that have inside of that little seed the potency, the fullness of the potential of the whole big tree. And what we learned is that every single thing reproduces after its own kind. I couldn't tell you anything more important about this principle except that everything in God's universe reproduces after its own kind. You will never ever plant an orange seed and get an apple tree, will you?

You will never ever plant an orange seed and get an apple tree, will you? 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. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. 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. You'll never get unity by sowing division. You'll never get peace by sowing discord and angst. The seed that is planted has the full potential of the entire tree that then bears the fruit and inside that fruit is more seed. Now spiritually this is what happens. And I would like for you to think of every word that you speak spiritually as a seed. This is the way Bible speaks of the words of our mouths, that the tongue has the power of life and death. This is how strongly the Bible speaks about this. That there is something that is going on that is of a spiritual principle here.

And if you can recognize this in the fullness of what it means, it begins to change your paradigm. John and Paula Sanford were pioneers in the whole ministry of inner healing and one of the things that they taught us about was the power of bitter root expectancy and judgment. What happened was that John grew up with a mother who was controlling and nagging and Paula, she grew up with a father who traveled and was emotionally absent. And the last thing John wanted was to be married to a woman who was controlling and nagging and the last thing Paula wanted was to be married to a man who was emotionally absent.

They got married and guess what? The more they got into it, the more emotionally absent and the more he traveled as a pastor and the more she became controlling and nagging in response. And they began to seek the Lord about this and what they discovered was something that is very important that is related to this principle of sowing and reaping. They realized that they had formed judgments in their hearts, that John had formed without realizing a judgment that said, you know, women ultimately are going to be controlling and nagging. And that Paula had formed a judgment in her heart where she had a false belief that said, you know, ultimately, men, when you need them, they're not going to be there for you. And what happened was they began unconsciously to expect this from one another. So the judgment that they held created an expectation and the expectation was reaping the very thing that they didn't want. In other words, the more that John treated her expecting her to be a nag, the more she was.

The more that she's treated him as though she expected him to be emotionally absent, the more he was. In other words, they were sowing the very seed of the thing they didn't want to reap. And when they recognized this and they renounced those things and they began to say, no, I'm not going to hold a judgment that this is who you're going to be and who you're destined to be and began to bless each other, everything began to change in their marriage because the power of sowing and reaping is just a spiritual law. Now, here's the final question. I've talked about the problem of this and talked about how powerful it is, but how could it be possible? How could it be possible that we would ever actually really think like this on a daily basis?

I want to just offer a couple of quick suggestions to you and then we're going to pray for one another, okay? The first is that I think that we really can train ourselves by the revelation of truth. In other words, when the farmer goes out to sow the seed for his corn harvest, he makes a decision, I want corn, so I'm going to sow some seed. And he decides I'm going to sow the corn. What I think is important to see about this is that farmer, the corn that he's going to get, it really didn't depend on whether he wanted to plant that corn and felt like it that morning. It could have been cold. He could have been tired. But he gets up, he goes out, and sows the corn seed. It doesn't have anything to do with whether he just felt great about it.

It had to do instead with the fact that he just knew that corn seed produces corn. And I just want to invite you to begin to think about what would it look like that if you just recognize that the power of blessing is unto itself a spiritual principle that you can cooperate with. There are just things in the world we have to cooperate with, gravity.

You might just say, well, I can fly, I can fly. But you jump off a ledge, you're going to get hurt because you're not going to change that principle. And you're not going to change this principle either. We reap what we sow. And I don't know about you, but it just helps me because I do want to live my life in a way that works. And I think that oftentimes this will just trump our fleshly appetite when we have a spiritual revelation of what actually works. And just remember that the blessing works and curse doesn't.

And you're never going to get the result that you want by simply returning curse for curse. The second thing that I would suggest, and we'll pray with you this morning, is to ask God for the continued infilling of the Holy Spirit. And ask Him to grant you the grace to yield your life more and more to the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit produces fruit in your life. The Holy Spirit always produces love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and self-control.

This is who God is. And God lives inside of you by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Now, you can grow in your sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And you can grow in your yieldedness to the Holy Spirit. And the good news of this is that this means the Holy Spirit in you is always wanting to bless and never to curse. Because this is the nature of Jesus and you have the Spirit of Jesus in you. Jesus came and died for us and blessed us while we only knew how to curse God.

He came into the enemy territory and died for His very enemies. And this Jesus lives in you by the power of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray for one another that we would be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. Let Him mold our thoughts and our actions and our words.

And here's the third suggestion if you want to really live this out in your life. And that is, instead of thinking much about all the things you need to do, think much about Jesus and what He has done. I am absolutely convinced that this is the secret of the Gospel's power being unleashed in our lives. Is that we focus our heart on Jesus who's the author and the finisher of our faith. Because if you need courage to face a difficult thing, if you look to the one who has gone before you as your champion and defeated the enemy on your behalf and made the way of victory possible, and then you have courage. And when it comes to blessing those that curse you, if you look to the one who has come and blessed you instead of cursed you, the one who came not to condemn but to save you, and you see Him in His risen glory and see the countenance of the Lord lifted up upon you, what happens to you is your entire being is transformed by this.

One of the most instructive stories about forgiveness is the story of Stephen, who was the first Christian martyr. He was the deacon and he was full of the Holy Spirit. And we read about in Acts chapter 7 that being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

And he said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice and they stopped their ears and they rushed together at Him and they cast Him out of the city and they stoned Him. And as the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul and they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, the text says, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

And when he said this, he fell asleep. Stephen asked the Lord to forgive those that were killing him. He was blessing the very ones that were stoning him to death.

And how was this possible? It was possible because he had a vision of the risen Lord Jesus. He didn't forgive by simply saying, you know, I ought to forgive now and I may not feel like it, but I'm going to go ahead and choose to forgive. There was something much more transcendent than that going on. His heart was fixed upon Jesus and he had a revelation of the glory of God and all of His grace. And what that vision does is it fills you up with a whole new capacity, a spiritual wealth in which he truly wanted God to forgive and save these people, even as Stephen himself had been redeemed and saved by the Lord's grace.

And when he prayed that prayer, an extraordinary thing happened. God honored it for many, but he honored it for this one man who was named Saul of Tarsus, who later becomes the apostle Paul. And the Lord heard Stephen's prayer and later he brought a blinding light upon Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.

And Paul became the preacher of the gospel to the Gentiles. And so you and I are here likely because of Stephen blessing his enemies. This is what a vision of Jesus will do. You can have a whole new paradigm and see the truth is my flesh wants to curse, but it does not work. You can ask God for the continued infilling of the Holy Spirit and you can have your eyes fixed upon Jesus, who's the author and the finisher, because the way in which he saved you is that he came and loved you before you ever knew how to love him. And because he lives in you, you can do the same.

That's the gospel. Allen Wright, today's good news message. Bless those who curse you from the teaching series, The Power of Blessing. And Pastor Alan is back in the studio here in just a moment sharing with us his parting good news thought for the day.

Wouldn't it be nice to set your mind on God's blessing instead of the curses of the world? This month's special offer from Allen Wright Ministries will help. Coinciding with the release of Pastor Alan's new book, The Power to Bless, we have created a flip style devotional for your desk or kitchen counter. The beautiful spiral bound devotional offers 28 days of inspiration, utilizing some of the most moving excerpts from the new book. Use it day by day for four weeks so you'll keep the promises and assurance of God's blessing right in front of you. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, whatever is true, noble, right and pure, think on these things. So make your gift to Allen Wright Ministries today and we'll send you the inspirational flip style devotional as our thank you for your partnership.

Your spiral bound devotional comes with a convenient easel style stand so you can keep the day's inspiration in front of you and fill your heart with God's blessing. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back now sitting with Pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day.

Bless those who curse you. By the way, the teaching series, The Power of Blessing and Pastor Alan's latest book is The Power to Bless. How to speak life and empower the people you love. It's available wherever good books are sold right now. You can get it through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, online at pastorallen.org. There are also some other formats of the book available if you prefer an audio book for instance.

It's available and we encourage you to get your hands on it. In today's teaching, bless those who curse you. Are some people easier to bless than others? I'm not even talking about their ability to receive a blessing. Have you found that to be true that some people are easier to bless than others?

Let's just be honest about it. When there are people that we just don't like, it's just very hard to bless them. I mean part of this is it's an issue of love because if you're somebody you don't love, you don't want it to go well for them.

That's part of the definition of love is you want it to go well for the person that you love. So when you practice blessing, even if you're just making a choice to bless, you might say well I don't feel affection for this person but I'm going to choose to bless that life. You're implementing the very nature of God and what you'll find I think often as you begin to bless that sometimes then you'll find with it the love then grows. It's like when you pray for somebody that you may not like but as you do pray for them, then you'll find your own heart changing. So it is with the power of blessing. So who is it that you're having the hardest time getting along with? Well, that's probably the person you most need to bless.