See It to Be It [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. He doesn't make something and then turn around and condemn the very thing that he made.

Instead, he made it, and out of his own holy and powerful beauty, he then blesses the very creation. 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 the teaching today in the series, The Power to Bless, taken from Pastor Alan's book of the same title and 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 Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. I don't know why it came to mind. I was thinking of this past summer, a little moment in a store. We had gone to, Ann and I had gone to a shoe store in Greensboro because she had a coupon. And so she needed a pair of shoes. And you know, you and your men don't try to figure out why your wife needs another pair of shoes.

She just, you know, she just needs another pair of shoes. It's like the other night, I was watching a basketball game between two teams that I didn't care much about. And my wife walked through the room. She said, why are you watching that game? And I didn't understand the question. I was like, uh, it's a basketball game.

And so it's kind of like that. Why you need that pair of shoes? It's shoes.

And so anyway, we're going to get some shoes. And she definitely worked the clearance section and got the coupon. And we came up to check out at the cash register. And the lady that was serving us there at the cash register, the clerk that was attending, she wasn't happy. She wasn't having a good day. She, she was a little rude. Wasn't really looking at us like it was just a big inconvenience.

And, you know, honestly, that's a pet peeve of mine because I grew up working in my granddaddy's clothing store. And I was taught that the customer is king and you put on a happy face, no matter what you're feeling and you serve them. And she wasn't doing that.

And so I was trying not to get a little irritated. And then my wife, my sweet wife, she, she spoke very, very kindly to this woman. Happened to be an African-American lady. And she looked at her name tags and my wife said, well, that's a, that's a beautiful, beautiful name. How do you pronounce your name?

I don't remember what the name is right now. And the lady said, pronounced her name. And Ann said, I love that name.

That's, that's beautiful. And all of a sudden one picked her head up and she said, well, really? She said, you know, I'm not sure I've ever liked it. My mother, you know, named me this because of this and such. And Ann said, well, I think it's a beautiful name. And they, they talked for a few moments. And as we left my wife just said, well, you have a blessed day. And the lady said, you, you have a blessed day too. And I looked back over my shoulder at the way she was interacting with the next customer was totally different.

Now here's what you got to decide. Is that just a sweet pastor's wife having a moment where she brightened somebody's day? Or is that powerful spiritual warfare that just pushed back the darkness and won a victory in the name of Jesus? Because let me tell you about some of the layers of a, of a, of a one minute conversation like that. Here's, here's one of the layers is that, listen, people are in pandemic. People are anxious. People are tired and the simplest job is to gesture of blessing can be transformational.

Let me tell you the other thing that was going on all throughout the summer, as you know, all kinds of racial unrest everywhere, right? And so here's something. Now Ann wasn't thinking about all these nuances. I'm just saying, wouldn't you just follow the Spirit?

The Spirit knows all these things. And here's the nuances to this. And part of the nuances is that different cultures have different ideologies about naming their kids. You know, so I grew up in a white culture and the idea was name your kids the same basic name that everybody else's name.

You know, I mean, as I grew up in this culture, like whatever you do, don't wind up with an unusual name that somebody might make fun of. I'm Alan, my brother's Mark and my brother David. And my brother David, we got about 15 letters between all three names. There was one time in this church, we had three important leaders all at the same time named David Smith. We had two deacons on the board named David Smith and our music minister, David Smith. Somebody said, who you contacted? David Smith.

Which one? And you know, that's part of that. But then there are other cultures and there are segments within that African-American culture where there's a lot of creativity in the names. Naming is something that is very important. And you know what, if you've ever been, could ever try to identify with a people that in any way be disenfranchised or were not the majority and not the ones setting all the standards, you know, naming your child, that's something that nobody can do that for you. So you get full sway on that.

Be as creative as you want. Follow your own heart in that, whatever, you know. And there's a lot more depth to all of this, you know, and not just our culture, but cultures all around the world, right? People have different and different cultures and segments and micro sets of cultures within cultures. People name things differently. And here's what, you know, we can get real judgmental on one another. Like the way I name is better than the way you name and you have unusual names.

You know, all of this, you see? So when Ann says, that's a lovely name. I'm interested in your name. She's also saying that my way of naming my kids is not better than the way your mother named you.

I like that name. So she's not only affirming a person, she's affirming a whole culture. And she's affirming when you affirm a name, you're affirming an identity.

And when you affirm an identity, you're affirming a person. So what I'm saying is that blessing is not just someone who is prophetically gifted, who can hear a direct word from the Lord, apply it to somebody's future without knowing that they would go through 25 hospitalizations and give them a word that you're going to walk through the fire without being scorched. That's a powerful blessing. But I'm saying it's just as powerful if in a simple moment you might just tell someone they have a lovely name. That's why I wrote this book. This is the way Christians are, we're designed to live this way just day in and day out.

And it's powerful. I guess where I want to start is we're going to do six sermons on the power to bless, some of which I'll make some references to things I've written about, but there's so much more that I didn't put in the book. And then after Easter, we're going to have a focus time of our community groups putting into practice blessing.

These are things we've been talking about for 25 years, but what we're going to do is give opportunity for you to learn the craft, to talk about nuances of this, and become expert in the power to bless. So, but I'm happy to get a few foundational weeks with you on Sunday morning, and I want to start here that has, I think, got to be the starting place, and that's Genesis chapter one. I cannot wrap my mind around how important Genesis chapter one is.

I feel like that I could just stay in Genesis one years because of what it unveils about the nature of God and the nature of humanity. Genesis chapter one, verse one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and there was evening, and there was morning, the first day. I'm going to just highlight a few things here that will build the foundation of understanding what blessing's about. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. If you'd like to replace every curse with blessing and discover the power to bless others, contact us today and get Alan Wright's newest book, The Power to Bless. And when you contact us for a very limited time, we want to send you a bundle of related resources that will nourish and empower you. We'll send you Pastor Alan's video masterclass called Speak Life, along with its study guide, and we'll send you his brand new video course, The Power to Bless, and its corresponding study guide. The Power to Bless video course is perfect for small groups or individual growth. It's like bringing Pastor Alan into your life, and he's going to teach you your living room for an up-close discussion of the powerful principles of blessing. With warmth, humor, and power, Pastor Alan shares personally and practically how you can receive God's blessing and be used by God to bless others. Contact us today and get your beautiful hardcover copy of The Power to Bless and receive four additional resources that will empower you to change the world God's way by the power of blessing. Learn more at pastoralan.org.

That's pastoralan.org, or call 877-544-4860. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. In the beginning, God created. This is to say that the first thing the Lord wanted us to know about his nature in the opening verse of the Bible is that he is a creator.

He is creative. That is who God is. He's the creator of the ends of the earth, and all encouragement begins with knowing that he made everything, and therefore he's in control of everything. The prophet Isaiah said, have you not known?

Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable, unsearchable, and so when the prophet goes on to encourage that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and mount up with wings as eagles, it is all rooted in this foundation that God is the creator, so he doesn't get tired.

He's not like the creature. He's altogether different, and at verse two, you see the spirit of God is moving, and the earth was without form and void in the darkness over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering. So the Holy Spirit has a role within the triune Godhead to bring form out of chaos.

That is that what is void of its distinctiveness is not destined to remain in that chaos, but to have the spirit bring beauty and form to it. Just understand God creates, and the spirit shapes what is being created, and then God spoke at verse three, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. So do you see the trinity here, this mystery that God is one but three, that there's a father who initiates creation, a spirit who moves and forms and beautifies and shapes, and there's a word that goes forth, told by John in John chapter one who that word is. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

So Jesus is the word. So all creation came through Christ, the word. So God initiates creation because he has creative power.

The spirit moves, bringing shape, order, and beauty. As God speaks forth the word, it all comes into its being. So this is the nature of the creative power of God, and we can understand that how God fashioned all of this is by his own imaginative, creative instinct, knowing for sure that what he spoke would come to pass, and that's what you call faith.

Hebrews 11 three says it plainly, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. So God used words to create the world, and the spirit in 100 percent harmony with the father's word that he spoke is bringing shape to all of this, and so all of this creative power is immediately linked to God's blessing because as soon as he made the first day, God said that is good. So here's what God does. He makes something, and then he blesses it. He creates, and he affirms it. He doesn't make something and then turn around and condemn the very thing that he made. Instead, he made it, and out of his own holy and powerful beauty, he then blesses the very creation. So when he comes to the pinnacle of his creation, what you see is that this creative instinct is still at work, but notice this. Genesis 1 26.

Now we're at the pinnacle. We're at the very highest moment of his creation. God said, let us make man in our image. This doesn't mean God's more than one. This is just proving that we have the trinity even in Genesis chapter one.

After our own likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And so God created man in his own image, verse 27, in the image of God, he created a male and female and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Now the verse jumped to verse 31 and God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning.

The sixth day, look, look at this, beloved, look at this. This, if the very first thing that we're to know about God is that he makes and blesses the very first thing you're supposed to know about humanity, the most important thing to know about who you are is here in Genesis 1 26, God said, let us make man and our image after our likeness. And this emphasis continues in verse 27, God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him male and female.

He created. So fundamental, the greatest fundamental of human nature is that you are made in the image of God. It is so hard for the sinful mind to believe this, but beloved, you are very much like God. You're not God and you have lots of sin and I have lots of sin, but you are made in his own image. And what this means is that though human beings are not creators or gods, we are creative like God. We are creative like God. And though all blessing originates with God for every good and perfect gift comes down from heaven. Though all originates with God, we are authorized to bless the creation like God. God's a creator and a blesser. And you are also designed to be creative. That means shaping and forming the world in collaboration with God, imagining what can be and having faith that it will come to pass and then blessing and affirming God's good creation so that it can be released into that destiny. We are in that sense makers and blessers. That's who we are. In Leanne Payne's brilliant chapter on creative power and her compelling book, The Healing Presence, she reminds us that Michelangelo commented on his greatest works like the sculpture of Moses or his famous sculpture of David, saying that he saw these figures in the stone clamoring to be free and then chipped away the stone to uncover these masterpieces.

Listen to what Leanne Payne writes about this. The artist then is not creator. He is merely discoverer and servant to the work that is already there. The work says, release me from chaos. Give me my form, my shape, my being. And listening to the work, the artist frees it to become, to be.

She continues, give to me my form. Give to me my being. The soul and chaos cries out. Separate me from the darkness, the stone. I'm here. All of me is here.

Free me. And the spirit, when we invite him, broods over us and the situation and comes into us who are priests of almighty God. And he does it. I see, I feel it. So much power in this.

And when you're talking to a sales clerk at the cash register and you might say, that's a lovely name. You have looked into a block of stone and seen a soul that is saying, help make me, form me, free me for who I really am destined to be. And you have, as an artist, chiseled away a little bit and invited the Holy Spirit to come alongside and make that person into the very one that God has designed her to be. That's exceedingly powerful. So you are a collaborator with God, a co-laborer with Christ. You are in this with God, doing what God does. So let's just lay out here two radical countercultural foundations of all blessing. If you're going to understand anything about the power of blessing, start with these two basic foundational truths.

And this is the first. It's completely countercultural. We are shaped by formative voices beyond us, not our own inner voice. We, contrary to what the spirit of the age says, cannot find ourselves by looking within.

We need an external voice of love, authority, discernment, and artistry to see us and call us forth. We need to have a vision that we can see about who we are destined to be. If I only look inside of myself, I'll only find whatever my own sinful nature could ever find to be.

I need a revelation. The only way you ever become a Christian is by a light that comes into the darkness. And the only way that you're ever shaped into all that you're destined to be is by light of revelation and vision that gets painted in front of you.

It's why we have to help one another to see the highest vision of our lives. In the beginning, God first blessed Adam and Eve and then said, be fruitful and multiply. He didn't require them to prove themselves before blessing them. With God, blessing isn't a reward for productivity.

It is the fuel for it. Blessing is a positive vision spoken in faith and accord with God's word that helps instill true identity and release destiny. We all need to bless and we can all learn how to bless others. If you'd like to replace every curse with blessing and discover the power to bless others, contact us today and get Alan Wright's newest book, The Power to Bless.

And when you contact us for a very limited time, we want to send you a bundle of related resources that will nourish and empower you. We'll send you Pastor Alan's video masterclass called Speak Life along with its study guide, and we'll send you his brand new video course, The Power to Bless, and its corresponding study guide. The Power to Bless video course is perfect for small groups or individual growth. It's like bringing Pastor Alan into your living room for an up close discussion of the powerful principles of blessing. With warmth, humor, and power, Pastor Alan shares personally and practically how you can receive God's blessing and be used by God to bless others. Contact us today and get your beautiful hardcover copy of The Power to Bless and receive four additional resources that will empower you to change the world God's way by the power of blessing. Learn more at pastoralan.org.

That's pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860. Back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day from the series that also comes from the pages of Pastor Alan's book, The Power to Bless. And your definition of blessing, and I think it's key in this message here, the phrase a positive vision, a positive faith vision for someone.

That's key here, right? When you see what is a positive vision over someone's because of authentic discernment and or because of what you know of the Word of God to be true for their lives, then when you proclaim that, you're speaking truth. It's grace and it's truth.

And what that does is it helps form an identity. You see, Daniel, we're learning who we are, not by looking inside ourselves and saying, oh, I'll figure out my own way. The whole spirit of the age is like, well, don't try to tell anybody what to do or who they are.

Don't let anybody tell you who you are. That's not, no, by ourselves and our own sin nature, we're not going to see our lives actually. We need people of real discernment and godly faith that can help speak that vision over life. So we form an identity and then we're empowered out of that identity to live that way. And that's the power of blessing at work. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.