Daily Blessing Compilation #20

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

Blessing itself is powerful, but to say the power to bless means anybody can do this. 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 today to hear as we jump into our Friday tradition, The Power of Blessing with Pastor Alan here in the studio. Stepping aside from our normal programming, departing from our normal teaching pulpit ministry to just talk about the power of blessing. And Pastor Alan, we're so excited about a brand new book that you have out. Pastor Alan, we've talked about this several times before. This is not just another book by someone who has spent a lot of their life now writing books.

You're quite excited and I am too about this because to be honest, and this is, I wanted to kind of start off with this question. The word blessing, especially in the life of a Christian, is not an uncommon word, but I think sometimes it's kind of a bland word. Most of us think of it as something we say before a meal, a blessing, or it's just a Christianese kind of a churchy word that we don't unpack until it's full of stuff. Well, and I think the funny thing, it's still, it's not quite the craze that it was a little while ago, but you see the hashtag blessed and it trivializes blessing, doesn't it? At one point, I thought about calling the book Beyond Hashtag Blessed because I don't know, you know, some celebrity has just had, got a new car or something that said hashtag blessed, you know, and it just sort of, it sort of trivializes it.

And sometimes, you know, somebody sneezes, we say, God bless you. And I think we, very few Christians have actually had much teaching about this and realized that a blessing is one of the deepest spiritual forces in the world. It is, in many ways, the release of real power.

It is something that any, anybody can learn to do. And blessing has irrevocable impact. It does good, no matter what. It's like sowing seed. It is like speaking a word of affirmation, but blessing is more than that. It's so important that God blessed Adam and Eve and then said, be fruitful and multiply. Productivity is something that is empowered by blessing. So blessing is not the reward for your fruitfulness.

It's the fuel for it. And when you see the Hebrew patriarchs blessing their sons and their grandsons and granddaughters, why is that there? And why is it that when Jesus comes, everybody wants their children, they bring them to just please lay hands on and bless my children. It's because the ancient world, I think, understood more than we, that there is a very real mystical yet practical thing that happens when someone speaks a positive vision over your life. And when that positive vision is joined by faith and is grounded in the word of God, then this is a powerful mode of transformation in our lives. And yet it's not understood very much. So the power to bless coming out in February is about my journey to that blessing.

It is about an ancient blessing and how one of the blessings described in the Bible is actually a great model for us. And in the end, the great thing, Daniel, is that it teaches how anybody can learn to bless. It actually is a skill you can gain. You can train yourself in it. So parents, if you're feeling like you're frustrated with in the past, you tended to speak words to your kids, you'd rather take them back now.

You'd like to learn a better way. You can train yourself to speak blessing even when you're disciplined. Coaches, teachers, when you're trying to inspire people, there's a better way, the power of blessing. And certainly to husbands and wives, friends to one another, it's God's way of transformation, the power to bless. So as a pastor, what was the point for you where you decided to dive deeper into this? Did you just get curious as the order of service in your faith tradition has a benediction or a blessing at the end of it? So you said, well, let's go deeper.

What is this? Well, honestly, it began early in my married life where, thankfully, I was never that person, that husband that was just speaking out curse. And by curse, we don't mean cuss words.

We mean negative forecasts. But I realized that a lot of my life and speech in the way I thought and sometimes spoke to my wife was not powerful and could sometimes be negative. I remember thinking, I don't want to live like that. And I began to learn a little bit about blessing.

Not much has been written about it, but I began to learn a little bit about it. And there was a time, Daniel, that my dad, who had struggles off and on with alcohol throughout his life, was doing much better. And we, my two brothers and I, we had some counseling sessions with my dad. And I was very eager for those times to be able to have some conversations that would be healing. And one day I just said, you know, the counselor, I said, you know, there's something I really like for my dad. And I would like, I said, Dad, I'd like you to bless me. Well, he didn't really know what I was talking about. And interesting, the counselor didn't really know what I was talking about. I said, well, I mean, like the Hebrew patriarchs where you speak a positive vision over someone's life.

I just wanted it, even though I just need to ask him for it. And he came back to the next session and he'd crafted a little blessing. It wasn't particularly, you know, powerful.

It wasn't really biblically based or anything like that. But the words he shared, I cherished, gobbled them up like a starving person. And it, it really began a journey where I began to realize I need whatever I missed from my, my dad, as much as I loved him, I missed, I missed a lot of that blessing. It wasn't there for a lot of the time. And it was, he was one of those dads that always heard, you know, other people would say, he just brags about you all the time, but seldom to me.

Yeah. And I think a lot of our listeners right now could identify with that. Maybe you had a father who just never was able to look you in the eye, call out your gifts, affirm who you are, and speak a wonderful destiny over your life. Something, Daniel, that by the way, once we began to learn of this more and more and incorporate in our lives, it just becomes a part of who you are. So that's just the way we raised our kids, just by speaking blessing over their life.

And anyone can learn to do this. So the book itself is, it's my journey, but it's also the journey of the Word of God. And then it ends with with all the practical help that anyone would ever need to make this your way of being as well. The power to bless can change your life. This blessing that is the sort of lens through which all of the book, the power to bless gets built. And it's because it's rooted in the most important family blessing, probably in the Bible. In fact, you could say, Daniel, that this blessing, the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh is the most important blessing of the Bible. Let me speak this blessing. Listeners, open up your heart. Wherever you are, if you're riding down the road in the car, you just open up your heart and receive it. That's what you do with blessing. You don't necessarily analyze it, you just take it in. It's kind of like a compliment.

If somebody says compliment, the proper response is why thank you, I'll receive that. So that's what you do with the blessing. And let me speak and then we'll talk some about it. May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh, like the grandsons Jacob adopted as heirs, secure forever. Like Manasseh, one who has forgotten yesterday's troubles. Like Ephraim, one who is twice fruitful, like Jacob's crossed hands, favored by God forever. Now this blessing is central to your new book, The Power to Bless. You want to tell us about that? Well, I've always been fascinated by this blessing.

And let's just start with this, that this is interesting, isn't it? That in the scripture, Hebrew fathers are told to bless their children saying, may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. So every Sabbath in faithful Jewish homes, there's a father and he's saying to his sons, he's saying, may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh, laying his hands on them and speaking this blessing over them. May God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. And what is so fascinating to me is that though it is the blessing that is spoken over every single Hebrew child, no one seems to know why.

I read almost everything I could about what rabbis suggestions were as to why Ephraim and Manasseh. These are such obscure children. They're the grandsons of Jacob, Joseph's sons. And they, we don't learn much about anything in their lives.

They're obscure. If you were going to speak a blessing over every child in the whole Jewish faith, wouldn't you think you would say, may the Lord make you like Abraham and Isaac, or the Lord make you like David and Solomon, or the Lord make you like Moses and Joshua. Why Ephraim and Manasseh? Well, that sent me some years ago into a journey of what is this story all about? And what I realize, and this is much of the substance of the book by way of preview, is I think hidden in here is the model for blessing. That in the first place, there's something about the fact that as Jacob blesses them first, the text tells us in Genesis 48, he adopted them.

It's very interesting. Jacob is blessing the sons of Joseph, but Jacob adopts the grandsons. And why does he do it? He does this because that means they're going to have a portion of the promised land.

Because Jacob is going to be dividing up the land with his 12 sons. And this means since they're adopted, he says, you're going to be treated just like my sons, like Reuben and Sibian. It's a fascinating thing. Adoption is one of the most beautiful and powerful images in the Bible. And it really is the picture of who we are in Christ.

We're adopted. We're chosen in Him. And so I think when you bless, you are finding a lot of different ways to say you're accepted. See when you withhold blessing, you're saying to someone you're not acceptable now. But when you bless them, you're saying you are acceptable. The other thing that you see in the Ephraim and Manasseh blessing is I think something hidden in their names.

Manasseh means forgotten, like forgotten all of yesterday's troubles. And so when you bless someone, I think what you're saying is your life isn't going to be shaped by yesterday's mistakes. Your life isn't going to be held back by all of the baggage from previous years. Your life isn't going to be ruined because of sin in the past or wounds that have been afflicted against you.

No, you can start afresh today. So you bless people so that they forget their troubles and they can walk in the grace of God. The name Ephraim means twice from the name of fruitful. So I think when you bless people to be as Ephraim and Manasseh, you're not just saying, may you start afresh today knowing you're not held back by the past. But you're also saying, may God make you twice as fruitful as you ever would have been on your own power.

But the story, and this sort of gives away one of the, you just got to read the book because it's the pinnacle of it. Jacob does a weird thing. He crosses his hands when he blesses these two sons and he puts his right hand on the younger, Ephraim, and his left hand on Manasseh. And that is just improper because the firstborn was supposed to get the right hand which is a symbolic gesture of the greater blessing. It was just the privilege of the firstborn. And Joseph said, dad, no, no. He tried to put his hands back into the right order. And Jacob said, oh no, I know what I'm doing.

I know what I'm doing. I just think it's a picture of favor. The younger receives the greater blessing. And we who are in Christ, we are like the second born.

He's the firstborn of all creation. He deserved nothing but blessing. But instead God has extended to us his right hand of blessing. So it's all about, it's all about favor.

And so that's in a snapshot what the Jacob blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh is all about. It's exceedingly interesting and powerful. And I draw from that it's about favor, but it's also, it's progressive.

It's very forward-looking. Yes. Everything about blessing is moving you into a positive future. Yeah.

Yeah. Blessing you into a destiny, blessing you into a future. That's what we want for our kids. That's what we want for our spouse.

That's what we want for our friends. And even we're supposed to bless our enemies. It's powerful fuel for transformation. With Pastor Alan here in the studio today and a special Friday broadcast as we send you into the weekend with a blessing. And Pastor Alan has a new book and it's not just any old new book release.

This is really one that you'll want to put your hands on. The Power to Bless because it's a little subtle difference because what, and we thought about that title. Yeah. Blessing itself is powerful, but to say the power to bless means anybody can do this.

Yep. Any anyone can be empowered to bless. And when you do bless, you're doing a very, very powerful thing. You describe in the book how Jacob finally in his old age understood grace and he looked back over his life differently. And really you start thinking about grace more in the New Testament. So this is very interesting, but talk about this part and another scriptural blessing to empower our listeners today. Well, I think the thing that is in many ways, the book is my journey and it's Jacob's journey.

And it's anyone's journey who travels from places of condemnation, law, and a feeling of being unblest to the blessing of God. And Jacob's journey was a long one. You know, Jacob from the time he was born was struggling to get himself in first place.

Jacob didn't feel blessed and he is always trying to be blessed. You know, he was the one who stole his brother's birthright by first selling him some stew. But then later he tricked his aged blind father, Isaac. He tricked him. And Jacob pretended to be Esau so that Isaac would bless Jacob instead of Esau.

And well, he did so. And Jacob was just a conniver. He struggled in love. He worked for seven years to get Rachel.

He was fearful of Esau. And then his beloved, beloved son, Joseph. Well, he thought that Joseph had been killed and he lived most of his life in agony, thinking about that in a grievous way. At the end of his life, Jacob was reunited with Joseph.

At the end of his life, I think, Daniel, that Jacob finally got it. I think he finally realized I have been blessed. I have been blessed.

I just didn't know it. So when he crossed his arms and he blessed those boys, I think he was saying, I know what I'm doing now. I really understand grace and the power of blessing. Sometimes you can be living a blessed life and not know it because the circumstances are not showing it.

And I think that if you look only at your circumstances, you can go, I don't feel very blessed. But the reality is that in Christ, you're blessed with every spiritual blessing. That comes from Psalm 103. And so listeners, open up your heart and receive this blessing from the Lord and from my heart to yours. Be blessed, O soul, to bless the Lord and forget not all his benefits.

With spirit-infused skill, may you uncover yesterday's God moments like a treasure hunter unearthing precious jewels and finding great worth in unexpected places. That's my blessing to you. How important is gratitude?

Well, I think it's just important, Daniel. So, so important that I wanted to have that blessing to our listeners that your heart would just evermore be spilling over with gratitude. Because gratitude is linked to emotional health. Houston University researcher, Brene Brown, who's written so much about shame and empathy, studied gratitude. And she once said that she, in all of her years of research and all the thousands of people that she has interviewed, she never knew or met anyone who had real marks of a healthy emotional character and genuine happiness in their life who did not practice gratitude. Gratitude is, according to research, the virtue or characteristic of personality that is most linked to emotional health.

More than any other characteristic, people that are grateful, their souls are healthy. I think God makes this plain to us that, you know, He says, whatever is true and noble and right and pure, whatever is excellent and praiseworthy, you know, think on these things and the God of peace will be with you. Give thanks in all circumstances. All this, you see, that Paul is saying in the New Testament is because if you want to have peace and you want to have joy, then the avenue for getting there is gratitude. And the way that you become a grateful person is by forgetting not all the benefits of God. So there's a spiritual practice of uncovering, remembering God moments of everything that God has done in your life. And so that's why I want to today on this Friday, just in the middle of difficult times and a long, long pandemic, to bless you listeners and say, I'm really blessing you that you will have a fresh new ability to see everything God's done in your life and give Him gratitude for it. It'll change your life.

It'll bring you joy. And on the topic of gratitude, our friend, Dr. Gary Chapman, who has done some writing on not only the five love languages, but even the languages of gratitude throughout one's life, has partnered up at the beginning of this book, written the forward, right? I really appreciated to have someone of such stature in the Christian world who has written a book that's, well, I think it's fair to say it's changed the world. It's one of the best-selling Christian books of all time, five love languages. For Dr. Chapman to endorse the book and to write the forward for it is a tremendous honor and a testament to how much he thinks the power to bless is really important. If you think heaven is a misty place where you float around on clouds and pluck angelic harps, you're in for the surprise of your life. Our special product this month is all about the hope of heaven.

It's our gift to you when you support this month. Allen's CD album invites you to discover the body you've always wanted, a spiritual resurrected body. Be assured that God isn't going to scrap you or the world. He'll make all things new. Overcome the gnawing anxiety about the end of your life. You can have peace now. Pastor Alan writes, hope-filled messages will lead you into more than a joyous revelation of heaven. According to the scriptures, they'll lead you into a bounding hope. So please help us stay on the radio in your area by making a generous gift today, and we'll be happy to send you the body you've always wanted.

The CD album that is. When you make your gift to Allen Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Pastor Alan, the author of The Power to Bless, and long after the book has been written, Pastor Alan, you still devote time every day to write a short blessing for all of us.

Why is that so important to you? We need blessing like we need air. We live in a world that doesn't bless, Daniel. We live in a world that curses, that tells us what we can't be, and tells us what we ought to be, just moralistically.

That's what dead religion does. But what we need is to be, well, like Adam and Eve, whom God spoke to, blessed them, and then said, be fruitful and multiply. We need to receive an affirmation of who we are in Christ and what we can be in this positive vision of our future that's all rooted in God's Word. We raised our kids under the sound of blessing. I speak blessing over our congregation all the time. And now, through the daily blessing, it's available for anyone anywhere to receive this.

It's totally free. And I really, I think, tune my heart to the Holy Spirit, tune my heart to what God might be saying through His Word for that day, and just this blessing. It takes a minute to take it in, and yet it can change your day, can change your life. Start your day with it or pillow your head at night, but let your life be fueled by the power of blessing. It's available in your email inbox daily as a written form, as a video, as an audio podcast. You can get that at pastorallen.org. Again, via email, social media on YouTube. It's available in many different areas at pastorallen.org.

Find one that's convenient for you. Running short on time, but we have time for one more blessing. When life's air is hot, may you be refreshed at the well of God's grace.

Oh, so be blessed to drink deeply of Christ's living spring. As we send you into the weekend, that's our special Friday broadcast here with Pastor Alan in a blessing for you, your family, your life. 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.