Daily Blessing Compilation #9

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

The other thing that is needed, Daniel, is that we have to find those voices. For me, I realize that what I didn't get from my own father, as much as I loved him, I didn't get from him. I needed to find some spiritual fathers in my life. 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 Pastor Alan. It's our special Friday broadcast where we focus on the power to bless.

And there's always good things to take and learn from this. And it's from Pastor Alan's latest book, The Power to Bless. And 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 could be yours for your donation to Alan Wright Ministries.

As you listen to our discussion today, go deeper as we send you this special offer. And you can contact us at pastoralan.org. That's pastoralan.org for more information. And certainly we appreciate your support of this ministry. You may also call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. And as we go throughout our discussion today, we'll tell you more about today's special offer. But right now we're welcoming Pastor Alan back in our Friday blessing broadcast. Good to be with you, Pastor Alan. Oh, Daniel is so, so great. I love these Fridays in the studio where we really get the opportunity to not just talk about this book that we're so excited has been released, but to talk about nuances and treasures and depths of the whole idea of blessing and the practice of blessing that in many, many ways I wish I could have written five books on the subject.

So, we get to expound on it. And so, I hope that our Fridays, for those of you that have the book, I hope you find that this is an excellent kind of gateway into it. And for those of you yet to get the book, that it'll certainly whet your appetite because this is an endlessly deep subject and wonderfully powerful. The power to bless. So, it's a great joy to be with you today, Daniel.

Well, the book is available out now wherever good books are sold, including amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, maybe check your local stores. And of course, if you need help on finding it, we are a resource for you at pastorallan.org. Last time we had one of these sit-down broadcasts in the studio, we talked about the problem of the Unblessed Life. What do you do if you've missed that and maybe you're kind of living with a bit of regret in that?

Yeah. So, let's talk about that. Speak back where you left off on that. Well, you know, Daniel, as soon as we talk about the problems of Unblessed Life, and we talked about the issues as I address in the book of shame, the feeling of I don't measure up, and how it can lead us into real covering up, you know, pretense, like not being real with people, which makes us lonely.

And as we talk about these kind of problems that can cause us to sort of drift our way down life rather than really being focused and mission-directed, blessing is the answer for this. And so, people immediately go, well, yeah, you're describing me and I know I've got that problem. What do I do about that? Well, there's a couple of things to say.

First is, if your parents are still living and they've never spoken that affirming word, I think it's worth your consideration of going to them and asking for it. And they may say, what are you talking about? You say, well, I just want you to tell me what you're proud of and what you think is a special worth in me and just bless it and call it out.

And, you know, you might be surprised that even if they're not accustomed to that, they might be willing to. It's a powerful thing. But the other thing that is needed, Daniel, is that we have to find those voices. For me, I realize that what I didn't get from my own father, as much as I loved him, I didn't get from him, I needed to find some spiritual fathers in my life. In fact, the book is dedicated to my spiritual father, Dudley Hall, who became that voice in my life, who would treat me as a spiritual son. And so I encourage people to find those other spiritual voices because here's the principle, Daniel, and it's completely countercultural.

Listeners really listen well to this because it's radical. It is completely contrary to the spirit of the age. But the whole principle of blessing is built on this, that our formation, our growth, and the release of our true design and destiny does not come by us looking inside ourselves to, quote, find ourselves. Instead, it comes from formative, faith-filled voices outside of us.

And Daniel, that runs really contrary to the spirit of the age. You know, we're in an age, I guess there have been a time in which people have felt like that parents were too manipulative, religion was too controlling, and all of that. And so the pendulum just swung over this place where it was like, whatever you do, don't let anybody tell you what to do, or whatever you do, don't let anybody tell you who you are. Well, that's just completely non-biblical because what we really do need is not to look inside of our own sinful selves and think we're going to find out who we are.

That's not the way it works. Voices of discernment and faith and love on the outside of us can recognize things about us and help us to discover who we really are. So this is, you know, when you ask the question, what do you do if you have not been blessed? You need to find some people to bless you. It's very much like if there's something that you're called to in life, but you don't have a vision for it, it may be what you need is to get around someone who does have a bigger vision, and that can really change your life. Is there a sense in which you've seen maybe people not knowing how to ask for blessing, and maybe it comes out in some, whether it's manipulative or totally this is just subconsciously, where they almost curse themselves, or they will say, well, I am dumb. I've made another mistake.

I am a mistake. And so they will put themselves down to the degree to where the people around them are then triggered to disabuse them of all of that. And in that sense, they do bless, I think, in many cases.

Most of us would not sit in front of someone who's putting themselves down and let them continue to do that. We would then start speaking life into them. Is there a sense where they're crying out in that moment saying, please bless me?

Dr. Darrell Bock Well, I think that the unblest soul is always, in one way or another, crying out. You know, one of the scenes of greatest pathos in the entire Bible is when Esau, the firstborn son of Isaac, has come in for this special moment to receive his father's blessing as Isaac is nearing his death. And Jacob, instead, steals the blessing. And Esau comes in moments later, and Isaac's already blessed Jacob. And listen, this is one of the things that will teach you how powerful blessing is. Isaac doesn't say, well, I'll just take back my blessing and speak it now over you, Esau. Instead, the Bible says he trembled violently. And he said, Who was it then that I blessed? And indeed, he will be blessed. So in that moment, Esau realizes that the father has spoken the blessing over the other son. And that scene in Genesis 27, where Esau begins to just weep, and say, My father, my father, where's my blessing?

And Daniel, I understand that. Daddy, where's the affirmation that I need from you? I think a lot of our listeners right now, you could relate to that. Daddy, where's my blessing? Daddy, where is it that that thing that I needed from you where you told me that you're proud of me that you would tell me about the gifts that you saw on me that you would tell me and affirm to me that I had a positive future in front of me?

Where is that, you see? And so I think that you've got a whole nation crying out of children that haven't received that. Daddy, where's my blessing? So that's, that's, I think, the mark of our of our insecurity is that we haven't been blessed as we should. And when we when we act in insecure ways, and, you know, Daniel, I think that sometimes people are searching to get a blessing by putting themselves down in front of someone else, just in the hope that someone might contradict them and affirm their life. But I think our insecurities squirts out in so many different directions. You know, another way that I see it often, is sometimes the person who is overly boastful all the time talking about themselves. That is just as much a mark of an unblessed soul. Because, listen, it is ten Keller once said, you don't think about your big toe unless it's hurting. Yeah, right.

Yeah. And you don't think about your own ego, unless it's hurting. So you don't need to be focused on self and talking about self unless something has been unaffirmed and left unblest. So all of these different reasons leave us clamoring, sometimes in silence and sometimes in sinful expressions of our life. But we're clamoring, we're yearning, we're looking for someone to bless us.

And we're looking for someone that could show us a different way. Pastor Alan is with us in the studio today. His latest book is The Power to Bless. And we're calling this our special Friday blessing broadcast. Because we're unpacking more and more of what this book has to say.

And it's just the tip of the iceberg. So you'll want to get yourself a copy of this hardback audio book, or for your Kindle or tablet, your e reader, wherever good books are sold amazon.com Barnes and Noble books a million and we'll hook you up at pastorallen.org. I want to hear a story and this has to do with an individual that you and I both know and work with closely here at Allen Wright Ministries. He's been a friend of yours for many years and volunteers his time to the efforts of getting the gospel of grace out. His name is Jeff Deaton. And you write about him in the book. And tell tell us about Jeff and his growing up years.

Something that happened that I can't think of a better illustration of getting that needing a voice outside of yourself the formative voices that can see a different vision for your life. Well, Jeff is, in addition to having volunteered in being executive director at Allen Wright Ministries for many years, and traveling with me to many, many conferences, some of you listening now, maybe you've met Jeff at a book table or something, you know, and he's been willing to take on some humble tasks. And we've had a lot of fun. In the other thing that he does is he is a reproductive endocrinologist. And we have a lot of fun saying, well, that's just a fancy way for saying that he's a fertility doctor. But the way that I like to introduce him, Daniel, to poke a little fun is just introduce him with people not knowing him at all and saying, meet Jeff, he's responsible for a lot of women being pregnant. And so that's what he does. He helps people and there are many, many babies in many, many babies in this world because he was a pioneer in the fertility medicine.

But very unlikely to be so. One of those stories that is so refreshing to hear because he grew up in a humble home, a small town in Tennessee with good parents. But his parents had not gone to college. He didn't have his family gone to college until he did. And most of his friends in his small Tennessee town would graduate high school and stay around and take on some good, responsible, hardworking jobs. So there wasn't much of a vision of a more academic pursuit. And not that everybody's supposed to take a big academic pursuit, but in Jeff's case, something happened.

It turned out that two things. Jeff's mother worked for a local pediatrician, Dr. Harrison. And the second thing is that it was apparent that Jeff was very good at math. He was sort of a math nerd and won math competitions. And Dr. Harrison, knowing that Jeff was good at math, asked Jeff to come and tutor the Harrison's daughter in math.

Well, it so happened that she was a cute, popular girl. And Jeff thought that was a pretty good gig to get over there and tutor this cute girl in math. But what happened was he was astonished to be in the home and fascinated with the conversations that he heard that were unlike any that he had heard before. Jeff was used to Jeff was used to during his growing up years. His older brother would take him to Buddy's place. He'd walk up a couple flights of creaky steps and his brother would perch him down on a bar stool and his brother would go and hustle pool for a while. And Jeff remembered kind of enjoying it because the bartender would give him a frosty cup of chocolate milk. And he remembered liking that. And Jeff had conversations about pool and conversation. But until he went to the Harrison's, he'd never heard people talk about the things they were talking about. And Jeff, I think he put it well, as I quote him in the book saying that his parents were wonderful, loving people, but who, in Jeff's words, couldn't see a different future for me. In his words, he said they didn't have the words to encourage a life that they could not envision.

So Jeff's parents were happy for Jeff to be around the Harrisons. And honestly, that's a good word to all of us, right? If your child is benefiting from a portion of the vision for that child's life that someone else might be able to have that you don't have, well, that's fantastic, right? There's nothing wrong with someone else blessing your child.

It's a beautiful thing. It's no different than me saying I needed somebody to teach my son AP physics. We homeschooled, but I'm not going to be able to teach him AP physics. Well, of course, you need these voices, formative voices from beyond ourselves. So Jeff spent day after day at the Harrisons. And he said that one of the things was that they just spoke of subjects that he hadn't heard of in his own house. Another quote from Jeff, he said, I learned of a whole other world, one that seemed so expansive. I watched an older couple, listen to this, push themselves to learn. Before the Harrisons, I assumed that all learning stopped after high school or maybe college.

But he was seeing these, he was seeing a different vision. And day after day, the Harrisons were just showing Jeff that they believed in him. They were showing him that they affirm not just his math intellect, but the whole potential of his life. And so Jeff gets the notion that maybe there's something beyond high school. So here's a kid from a family, a good family, hardworking family, a small Tennessee town when nobody had gone to college. And next thing you know, Jeff finds himself getting a full ride at Vanderbilt and then goes on to medical school and does residency, specializes in reproductive endocrinology, and then does an esteemed fellowship and becomes a pioneer in the field and has really changed so many lives.

You know, I often just wish it would be wonderful if the Harrisons were still alive to just introduce them to some parents of a child that came into the world only because of the medical practice of Dr. Jeff Deaton. So you know, when you're blessing someone's life, you never know where all that fruit's going to go. But what it means is that blessing is not possible except for a vision that is coming from beyond yourself that then you begin to adopt and see for yourself. So it shapes your identity and therefore it shapes your destiny.

And that's what happened to Jeff. And that's what can happen to any of our lives when someone is able essentially to, through blessing, paint a portrait of what can be. The story and many others found in The Power to Bless written by Pastor Alan Wright and it's an audio message of Pastor Alan's recent sermon on the mysterious blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh, 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 Alan Wright 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 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. Well, with the story of our friend Jeff Deaton and the story of blessing that we've talked about even through the hypotheticals of what's for the person who realizes they've missed it and how do you go find those voices? Some may be thinking, well, okay, I'm not going to be the person that's going to verbally put myself down so that it manipulates somebody else to then step in and bless me. But it does feel strange to just go out and ask someone to bless me. That feels selfish. Is it selfish or is it more like the stewardess in the airplane that says put the oxygen mask on yourself before you can help others? It's very much like that.

It's very much like that. Or it's like saying make sure you eat some food so that you'll be able to feed your child. It's like saying it's just as silly to say it's selfish to ask somebody to bless you as it would be to say it's selfish to ask somebody to teach you how to read and write.

You know, we teach a child to read and write and do math because we value the child and we know that that child may end up being able to learn something that'll then be a blessing to somebody else. So everything in the Bible always points to this. You're blessed in order to be a blessing.

You're loved so that you can love. And so receive blessing as much as you possibly can. Put yourself under the voices that can bless you.

And Daniel, it's important to say this and maybe one Friday we could spend some more deep and detailed attention on this. It's very important to learn to reject curse. All those negative forecasts over our lives. Because what happens is that we tend to believe about ourselves what the most important person to us says about us. And so we have to learn to reject curse and receive blessing. We've got to learn how to take that into our lives. And the more that you take it in, and I'm sure it's like the story of Dr. Deaton, it wasn't like on day one that he suddenly believed a different future for his life.

It doesn't work like that, does it? It's more of a a process of coming into the discovery. You know it's very interesting to me that this book that I've dedicated to my spiritual father Dudley Hall in many ways is a result of Dudley himself. The heart of this book is the Ephraim and Manasseh story which we don't have time to go into today. But oh what if you've not yet learned about the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh it's definitely worth getting the book for this reason. For 3700 years Jewish dads have been telling their kids may God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh and nobody seems to know why. They're very obscure characters in the Bible. Why Ephraim and Manasseh? Well years and years ago I began to study it and I had preached one message on the subject and the next week I was very busy that week and it so happened that Dudley Hall and his family were in town. They live in Texas but they were here in my own town because his son was actually going to be wed here in our church and so I was helping to officiate that and it was a busy week in general. So we celebrated the the wedding on Saturday and went to the reception and I had the sermon you know that I thought I was going to preach the next day and I went home with it and I just looked at it and I thought this is not one of those messages that I feel like I've really heard from heaven and I've got a real pearl to share here you know every now and then you're just like well this is okay but it's just and I just went through my mind I thought my spiritual father Dudley is going to be in church and he's going to be sitting on the second pew tomorrow and he believes that he believes that I'm one of the best preachers anywhere around and he believes I hear from God and he has spoken that over my life and he's affirmed my communication gift and Dudley's going to be here and so there it was 10 o'clock at night and I'm looking at a sermon that just wasn't my best and I said you know God there's something else you want to show me here and I stayed up late with that message that night and it was in that those wee hours because my spiritual dad was going to be there and I thought I know I can do better than this right that's what blessing does and I stayed up with it and that's really where I came into my biggest initial understanding of the Ephraim and Manasseh blessing and I preached it that next day and so in many ways that was the seed for this whole book my point of that story and the point of Dr. Deaton's story is beloved when you've not received blessing put yourself in the position and like a little child if you need to ask other people for it but put yourself in the position of being under the voice of those that know how to bless your life find some people that have faith for your life to flourish and spend some time around them that's one of the principles that we all need to adopt we're made for blessing we need it and we've missed it you can find people who can bring it to you and it'll change your life today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries