Daily Blessing Compilation #10

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. May God let your city be rebuilt on the ruins, and may it be as though you've forgotten all your troubles.

May God make you like Manasseh. 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 be with us today in the studio with our special Friday blessing broadcast with Pastor Alan. And it's good to be with you, Pastor Alan. I've enjoyed these times together where we can dig deeper on what blessing really means for the believer. Daniel, it is so special.

I really look forward to these Fridays. Of course, we always love being able to broadcast messages that have been preached, but there's something about the freshness of sitting down with you and really in some ways digging deeper into this amazing concept of blessing. As I've told you before, our son, Bennett, I was talking to him about the book, The Power to Bless, that's out now. And he said, Dad, I think it's a good book.

I said, oh, it's great. I said, you know, I said, he said, it's like the game of chess blessing is. He says, you can learn to play chess in 10 minutes. You learn what the different pieces do and start playing. And then you can spend the rest of your life learning the nuances of the game. And it's sort of like that with The Power of Blessing and these Friday broadcasts give us a chance to go beyond just here's how the pieces move and really get into some more depth.

And so what a joy it is to be with you in studio again. Well, if you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's discussion, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Of course, we'll have more on this later in the program. But now as we get started with Pastor Alan and today's discussion, what blessing means for your life? We'll rewind real quickly and go back to some of the basics of this. And it's coming from a book by Pastor Alan called The Power to Bless. It's available everywhere.

Good books are sold right now. And the Ephraim and Manasseh blessing, I think you say it's been going on for almost 4,000 years. And yet it's something that most of us, if we've heard of it, okay, that's maybe step one, but we probably couldn't tell you much else about it. So Ephraim and Manasseh, who were they and why did so many fathers over so many years take time every week to bless their own children? It's an amazing story in Genesis chapter 48 when Joseph rushes his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to Jacob, to Joseph's father, who's nearing his death because he wants Jacob to bless those grandsons. He wants their blessing. And that's how much the world of the Bible, you read these stories, how much they understood there's a mystical significance to these positive words of vision spoken over these lives that are filled with faith. And they understood it to be releasing something in their lives.

They understood it to be one of the ways that real grace and power was coming in their lives. So this is what Joseph wanted. He wanted to get those boys to Jacob as soon as he knew his father's death was imminent and he wanted Jacob to bless his boys. And it's a remarkable and beautiful story that's all about Jacob crossing his arms and taking the strong right hand of blessing that's supposed to be the symbol of the higher blessing, the more significant blessing that should be reserved according to social protocol should be reserved for the first born. Manasseh was Joseph's first born. Ephraim was the second born. And so Joseph had positioned them with Manasseh under Jacob's right hand and Ephraim under Jacob's left hand. But Jacob crossed his arms and he put the right hand on the younger, on Ephraim's head and the left hand on Manasseh's head.

And Joseph tried to correct him but Jacob said, no I know what I'm doing and he left his hands there. And the Bible says thus he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. For 3700 years Jewish dads because of Genesis 48 where it says, thus you shall speak to the people. You know may God make you as Ephraim of Manasseh. Because of that at the Sabbath for 3700 years Jewish dads have been blessing their kids may God make you as Ephraim of Manasseh. It's the most important family blessing in the Bible and yet nobody seems to know why. I've read all the Jewish rabbis I could read and there were some various explanations but they weren't good explanations you know. Ephraim of Manasseh nobody's heard of him hardly.

And so we've been looking at some of that on these Fridays. But to answer the question the idea of Ephraim being before Manasseh doesn't reduce the significance of that name Manasseh. Ephraim means twice fruitful and Manasseh means forgotten all my troubles. Joseph had been through so much and he'd been promoted by God in Egypt after all the suffering that Joseph had been through. I mean Daniel he had been through so much.

He had been hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, thrown into prison, forgotten seemingly, separated from his family and it was it was as hard as it gets. And then he was promoted in Egypt second in command and God was clearly using him in a providential way. And he had this son Manasseh.

So that's why he named him. They said it's like God has made me to forget all my troubles. So when you bless people may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh you're invoking the name Manasseh which means may God make you like one who has forgotten all his troubles.

Which I think all blessing does that. See curses always bringing up the past. Always bringing up because you of this mistake you're doomed. Because this happened. You know that's who the devil is.

He's an accuser. Wants to take things in the past and condemn us with it for today. Well blessing does the opposite.

You could live you know from now on. And I think that's a big part of what it means to bless someone to be like Manasseh. That's a good explanation and back to the part about how you studied and you couldn't find a really good answer as to why. Why Ephraim and Manasseh? Why how did how did this tradition start?

But more importantly why did it continue? And to me that's it. Like okay well I guess it's a wonderful story. It's a great light bulb moment and of course bless me like Ephraim. But the Manasseh part was a little bit curious like so now well what about this this guy Manasseh? Why would you want to because it's make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. And so that's what we're talking about today is the Manasseh part of this which might be a little more curious in this instance now that we're diving into it. By the way Pastor Alan's book is The Power to Bless.

It's available wherever good books are sold in stores online of course you can get an audiobook version and your e-reader on your tablet. So do you have a story because your book is filled with good stories and I think a lot of times we take theology and doctrine and and it lives longer in our mind when it's paired with a good story. Well there's so many stories that illustrate this but from our lives Daniel one that I included in the book was of little Abigail. Abby our second born we had decided long before we even knew we were going to have a girl that if we did we wanted her to be named Abigail. Abigail means my father's joy and the idea of having a little daughter was such a joyful thought to me and Abigail was David's wife and the text says of her she was a an intelligent and beautiful woman and we thought well what a beautiful name I just loved the name Abigail and so we knew we would name her that. Oh Daniel I tell you you know we we had had during the season when Bennett was born so much joy had come in my life we had just been all you know Lord had been not just blessing us in our circumstances but just blessing us with a fresh just a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit our lives were just so Bennett was born into a home of great laughter and joy we would just belly laugh together roll on the carpet and I can remember just he would love it like if I take my nose and put it down into his his tummy you know and he would just giggle like a tickling woman you know that was the way he was born. Abby came into a different world before Abby was born Ann's sister her little sister Mary had a cough that was persistent she was so young she had three little children she'd never smoked a cigarette so people thought well it's just one of those nagging cases of bronchitis and then she began to have a lot of pain and when Abby was born I can remember Mary thinking well maybe I won't she came to the hospital she said maybe I won't hold her because I've been coughing still and so Abby was born and her aunt Mary didn't want to hold her because she was coughing and then Mary started hurting and they thought it was fibromyalgia they weren't thinking that it could be a lung cancer that had spread to her bones but that it was and so it was a year of trying to do everything we could to help Mary live and survive it and I can't even tell you how much I love Mary and how much she was she was my wife's best friend we lived in the same town and the cancer eventually took her life and so that's the world that Abby was born into it's very interesting we go back and look at baby pictures pictures of the first two years of life for Abby I can't find any pictures with her smiling and it's because she was nursed in the arms of a sobbing mother who we wanted her to taste joy but there was so much sadness and so much grief and so much and there were other things Daniel that were going on I know our listeners can identify sometimes life when it gets hard it gets really hard and it was hard also heart ministry was hard church was understaffed difficult things that happened my wife had some health issue scares there was a terrible car accident our nephew was born with special needs it was just one thing after the other and that was the world that Abby was born into but her name was joy her name was my father's joy she had it in her name but she didn't have it she didn't have it in her heart well over time by the grace of God our our Ann and I our smile returned and we began to laugh again never the same without our sweet Mary but it didn't happen for Abby and so what to do with that situation right what to do well what we didn't do was say well I guess Abby call Abby's just going to be our melancholy child we didn't say that we said no that's not who God made her to be God she's her father's joy she is she's made for joy she and so Daniel we began to bless her we blessed her that the words of who she is we if she would smile even a little bit we'd smile bigger yeah if she would laugh just a little bit we'd laugh even bigger we kept speaking to her about the oil of gladness we kept speaking to her about the joy of the Lord and how she was made for this and we would we would bless and I would sing songs to her and we would we would celebrate every good thing in her life in other words we oriented ourselves from now on that she can become a child of joy and I think that's what we do that that's that's part of what it what it means to be a Manasseh is that we're all going to go through difficult things in this life and I pray for our listeners I pray that you won't go through that kind of grief that we went through I don't I don't want anybody to experience those kind of but we do grieve in this world and what I think to bless someone to be like Manasseh is to say may it be that you're like one who has forgotten troubles in this sense that you begin to learn to live from now on that the restoration of God is at work in your life so when we're blessing Abby to be a child of joy we weren't like trying to steer her towards something that wasn't her identity we're actually blessing her towards her true destiny we're doing spiritual warfare through the power of blessing and that's what I want to encourage encourage our listeners towards is that in your own life and in others that you know when you've been through dark valleys and difficult times the devil wants to always harken back to that as if you're going to try to make you live in the past or feel doomed about your future because of that past but what blessing does is says you got a fresh start today it can be it is possible it can be that you live as if you hadn't been through all those troubles you have been through them but you can live with a sense of restoration and newness that makes it as if you hadn't been in other words you can live as one who is loved and one who has hope for the future the power to bless by pastor Alan Wright and by the way this new book is available wherever good books are sold and pastor alan is in the studio with us now as we're unpacking more principles and lessons from this book and if you need more information about it we can certainly connect you at pastor alan dot o-r-g pastor alan dot o-r-g online so fresh beginnings often at a new year the change of a new year we look forward to whether we call them resolutions or just take a take a deep breath and know we're beginning something new it's it's central to the gospel and it is for you and we hope you receive that but in the power to bless there is found practical teaching on how you can bless others literally give others a fresh start through what god has done for them in christ jesus and the practicality of it even i'll dare say a step-by-step plan is outlined in your new book pastor alan that's really encouraging and and it's real simple it's real simple anybody can do it well i think that what i really wanted to do in the book daniel was to uh inspire and nourish so that when you read the book what people tell me is that i have experienced blessing i feel blessed for having read it but i also want it to be equipping yeah and so i hope that it does both um it it anyone can learn to bless yeah right so we can help people uh to see that there are possibilities in front of them yeah people need that from us the whole world's always dredging up all the reasons that you can't do it but blessing is all about through god's grace that there are positive possibilities in front of you and i think when we speak that it's it's a beautiful thing um one of the images daniel that you know you and i have talked about before that is so beautiful about about the idea of restoration god you know makes promises after promise even when the people are in exile in old testament times he promises that uh i will restore i will restore um and i love i love the prophecy of jeremiah the city will be rebuilt on her ruins and that's a that's a beautiful image because often in ancient times when a city was destroyed maybe by marauders who come through and leave it in rubble burn the city the walls are down the buildings are down well over time as the winds would blow the sands and sediment of of time would blow through and get captured in that rubble and eventually fill in all the nooks and crannies and what you'd be left with uh after many years is a big hill that is is called a tell a tell and um and and what happened is that oftentimes people would build their new cities atop of one of these tales which was basically a big mound that was formed from the city that had been destroyed maybe even centuries before that and one of the most famous cities most would know is tel aviv right tel aviv which interestingly is not actually on a tell so i don't know why they call it but but you'll you'll hear the name you'll hear the word tell tel aviv you'll hear places and so all these tales spotted all over and um and they'll what happens when you build on a big hill like that is you you have a strategic position in which now you have a better vista you can build your wall around that and now you have a more secure right you're you have a strategic position in warfare if you're higher you got that also a lot of times a lot of the building blocks for the new city were there amidst the rubble so you could incorporate that it was an ancient recycling program and uh yeah um sometimes the waterworks from the prior city were still available so they would build those cities near sources of water so that made sense to rebuild there so the point of all this is think of think of this i'll say to our listeners you know maybe you feel like your life is in a it feels like it's full of rubble you can look back over the ruins of your life well god says you can take that rubble and it can become to you a new vantage point that god says i restore things and the city will be rebuilt on ruins and your life can be not only one that is spared from the ruins of the past it's not just to say okay we usually make a fresh break and start afresh today it might be that what god wants to do is to take the disappointments and and the heartache and the failures and the take all of that and put it together in a way that now gives you a new foundation for a life of greater fruitfulness than you'd imagined before a place of new strategy for the good that you're going to bring in the world and the joy of your own life with a whole new perspective so i just think that's a beautiful image god wants you to live from now on he wants you to live with a sense of being restored and and on the new vista all of this i think daniel is part of what we're doing when we say may god make you like manassa blessing paints a positive picture of what's possible by god's grace in accord with god's word about how there is hope for the future and even though joseph was in the midst of uh of egypt separated from his family he began to sense god's really doing something special in my life so he named that son manassa it means forgotten all my troubles need some inspiration and practical help to bless those you love in conjunction with the exciting release of Pastor Alan's new book the power to bless we put together some tools to get you started on the journey of speaking life and empowering the people you love the toolkit includes an audio message of Pastor Alan's recent sermon on the mysterious blessing of ephraim and manassa the gateway to understanding the power of all blessing also included in the kit is a booklet with a list of scriptures that can be spoken directly as blessings the blessing scriptures are categorized so you can easily access them for specific situations when you make your gift to allen right ministries this month we'll happily send you the power to bless toolkit as our way of saying thanks for your partnership the resources are available for immediate digital download or available in cd and booklet partner with us and be inspired and equipped to bless someone's life today the gospel is shared when you give to allen right ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org the power to bless written by Pastor Alan Wright is available wherever good books are sold and it builds on the blessing may god make you like ephraim and manassa and today we've been talking a lot about manassa and and having that fresh start and having the power to bless someone and with every blessing i think it's woven in there that the rebuilding and the fresh start that you can have in your life even today and i gotta say that rebuilding from the ruins that blessing in particular is one of my first introductions to what Pastor Alan brought to your home congregation in a blessing service every new year and was quite transformational and new to me and so if i could be so bold could you leave us with that particular blessing today pastor well this is what the lord says i will restore the words of jeremiah this is what the lord says i will restore and part of this is to say that the palace will stand in its proper place again and the city will be rebuilt on her ruins meaning that proper order the rule of god despite what you see with your eyes that his promise is that he is providentially caring for the whole world and so the palace will stand in its proper place and the city will be rebuilt on our ruins god promises through jeremiah to restore the fortunes of israel's tents that the dwelling the your life that the original destiny that you have that he intends for that to be lived out in you and so to each of our listeners today this is the way i just want to bless you that no matter what you've been through in your life no matter how dark the valleys or how deep the rubble or how much feels like it's been ruined it's in god's heart to restore he loves to restore he's a father and when his children have something taken from them or something that's broken his commitment his heart his delight is not to leave it in ruins but to restore it to the way that it's supposed to be and not just to restore but to enable it to be such that you can forget as if the as if you've forgotten those troubles even existed so you can really live from this moment on so i'm just blessing in a sense the rubble of your life to become the foundation of a whole new season in which you have greater security greater security greater strategic advantage in the spiritual battle and a greater story to tell may god let your city be rebuilt on the ruins and may it be as though you've forgotten all your troubles may god make you like manessa today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries