See It to Be It [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. This person is right on my bumper, and I'm thinking of all the things that I would want to say, and not one of them is a blessing.

Not one of them. 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. Are you ready for some good news? You are a collaborator with God, collaborating to shape the world because in Christ, you have been given the power to bless.

The power to bless. It's the title of the book that I've written on the subject. It's come out this month.

We're all excited about that. And you know how much goes into the selection of a title on a book? It's very interesting. The publisher gets to decide finally what the title is.

So the author is making input all along the way, and we probably had at least 200 different titles we considered. At one point, I was considering getting the title Beyond Hashtag Blessed. You know, the hashtag blessed thing is, you know, it's like, had a great meal tonight. Hashtag blessed, you know. And people started using hashtag blessed as just a way to brag. You know, so glad I was, you know, I was the prom queen. Hashtag blessed.

You know, so glad to report I made straight A's. But we shifted away from that because it's not really about the move from the trivial to the not trivial. It's about, it's really more about a power. And so eventually, the publisher said, I won't call it the power of blessing. And I thought about it long and hard, and I said, could we call it the power to bless? And there's a difference in my mind between the power of blessing and the power to bless. We're still speaking here about something that's a great power, but if you say the power to bless, then it is implying a great promise that you, now it's you and me, we're, we are entrusted with this great capacity. We are given this tool.

So in preparation for this, this great capacity, we are given this, this tool. So in preparation for the winter storms of the past week or so, we bought a couple of new battery powered lanterns and I opened it up to put the batteries in. It was very interesting.

I've never seen this before. It had slots for three of the larger D sized batteries, and it had slots for AA batteries. It had both AA, three AAs and three D batteries. And I thought, well, that's the strangest thing I've ever seen. I put the AA batteries in, and then I went to put the D battery in and, and I pushed it in. It didn't quite go in. So of course I just pushed harder and it didn't go all the way into its slot. So of course I pushed a little harder, right?

That's what you do with these things. And I said, honey, it's, it's wedged in here. She said, have you already broken one of the lanterns? I said, no, I haven't yet broken it.

I don't think. I put my finger up under the battery and tried to lift it out and leverage my thumb on the top, tried to pop that D battery out. And I was pretty sure it was one of those moments like, I'm going to hurt myself here. I'm going to cut something, scrape something in a minute. And so I said, I'm going to have to get some pliers. Now, thankfully though, I'm not a tool man. Thankfully because of pandemic and sheltering in place last summer, I actually straightened up my garage and I knew where the pliers were. I went and I got the pliers and I was able to grab the D battery that I had overly wedged in there, pull it out.

And I'm happy to report that I discovering that this strange lantern can run either on D batteries or AA batteries, but not both at the same time that I was able to get the light to shine the tool. I feel like that. And even, even a lot of us as Christians, that we spend too much time trying to force something into a slot that we think it should fit to make it be the way we think it ought to be, instead of taking this powerful tool that God has given us and use it. Blessing is like that.

It's like a basic tool, like a pair of pliers. It's so basic that it honestly is a fundamental of the scriptures. I was speaking to a men's group this past week, New Cane Society, and able to talk to them about the power to bless. And it was sort of an interview format with the guys on the Zoom event. And the moderator said, first, let's talk about what do you mean by power to bless? First, let's talk about what do you mean by blessing? You know, it's interesting, every interview that I do, that's what it goes, well, what do you mean by blessing?

And there's a part of me that sort of chuckles because it's such a fundamental. And I thought, could you imagine going, you know, I'm going in to speak to a group, say a men's group on prayer. And they say, okay, before you start, tell us, what do you mean by prayer? You know, we wouldn't ever say that because it's just so fundamental. We would be interested in the angles that you have to share from the scripture about prayer and powerful prayer, effective prayer, spiritual prayer, intercessory prayer, whatever it might be. But we don't have to say, what do you mean by prayer? And yet we as Christian, we just know so little about blessing.

And it's the way it is everywhere I travel, everywhere I interview, it's the same question. But blessing is so fundamental that if you were to talk to anyone in ancient Israel or any Jew in Jesus's day, and you say, what do you mean by blessing? They'd look like you were from outer space. Like, you don't know what we're talking about blessing. You know, in the beginning, God created them and he blessed them. So very first thing God did with humanity.

That's what we're going to be looking at today. And then the whole story of Genesis, the patriarchs, Abraham, who was called and blessed to be a blessing, who had Isaac, who then blessed in this strange story, the wrong son Jacob, instead of Esau. And Jacob, who once reunited with Joseph after this long torturous journey of Joseph's.

Joseph brings his boys Ephraim and Manasseh to be blessed by his father Jacob. And the whole story, you see, it's this golden thread and it just runs through the whole Bible. It's about this mysterious thing called blessing.

And then you just see it regularly. It's almost like the Bible doesn't ever stop to even tell you everything we're talking about here. It just assumes that we know what blessing is all about. David blesses his household. Moses lists the blessing and curses that are before the people of God.

The prophets are just filled with statements of blessing. And Jesus comes. It's very interesting as an infant, this strange figure named Simeon arrives on the scene and takes the baby Jesus and blesses him. At his baptism, the father speaks from heaven a blessing.

This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Before Jesus goes into his ministry or faces the devil in the wilderness, even Jesus, the sinless son of God, needed to be blessed. He started his ministry with a series of blessings. Blessed are the poor in spirit. They shall see God. And everybody always wanted to bring their children to Jesus so he could bless them. He didn't say they were bringing their children so that they had some specific prayer need. They just wanted them to bless them. It's so important that both Paul and Jesus say you should even bless your enemies. And the last thing that Jesus did as he was on the earth, the last thing he did on the earth before ascending was he lifted his hands, lifted his hands like I do at the end of a service as a symbol of the legacy of Jesus.

He was a symbol of the laying on of hands and he blessed his disciples. So people say, well, what do you mean by blessing? And what I'm saying is it's a fundamental. So it's a real holy privilege to bring an opportunity to write a book about this that when I go talk to people, they go, what are you even talking about? This is how important it is. And people say, well, why did you write it? Well, that's part of it is that we need to know about this. We need to know about this. But you know, another big part of it is, y'all, you know, the more I know, the more I know, I don't know.

The more that I learn about blessing and practice blessing, which I have for 30 years, the more I know that I don't know about blessing and that I don't always practice it that well. I mean, like last week when my wife and I were coming home from something at the church, it was in the evening and I was in the left hand lane going a little bit faster than people in the right hand lane. And I had two more cars to get by before I'd get back in the right lane on I-40 heading west. When all of a sudden some sedan pulls up behind me, it starts, you know, tailgating about a foot from my bumper.

Like they're going to push me out of the way. Butch is there to go, oh boy, you know the feeling. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Embark on a journey of transformation with our free yourself, be yourself resource bundle. Imagine a shame-free life, no more self-condemnation, no more inward angst, wondering if you measure up as you soak in the message of healing grace.

This empowering bundle includes Pastor Alan's landmark book, Free Yourself, Be Yourself, plus an accompanying resource guide and access to the exclusive companion video series. Act now, support Alan Wright Ministries with your donation and step into the abundant life God has awaiting you as we send you this limited time resource bundle as our thanks this month. 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.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. I don't know what this is. I don't know if it's worse for men or just worse for me, but it's like my entire lifetime of walking with Jesus gets thrown out the window right in that moment. And this person's right on my bumper, and I'm thinking of all the things that I would want to say, and not one of them is a blessing.

Not one of them, not one. And it's like in that moment, in that moment, I turned to my wife and said, you know, I can understand road rage. I can understand, you know, what right now. And eventually I got over, you know, and the car, you know, by. And then we noticed, oh, wait, what's up? And it was a young woman, and she had her flashers on, and she started weaving. She got over into the shoulder, was flying down, going to use, and you know, we said, well, maybe she's got some medical emergency. Maybe there's something, you know, that we don't know about.

But you just see, like, I mean, I've been doing this a long time, and there's still like this part of me that like the instinct wasn't to bless. So that's part of the reason I wrote this. I need it. I need it.

I need it. You know, and I want people to understand that there is something that is so profound about it. I want people to know there is something more than this is what you say when somebody sneezes or something you say before you eat your meal.

This is the very collaboration, the cooperation with the Holy Spirit to help shape the world. We are heartened to learn that David Hastings, who's our care coordinator at our Clemens campus, is back in good health after 16-day hospitalization for double pneumonia. David has always had a very positive outlook despite a lot of health challenges, 25 hospitalizations in the past 14 years, and it really stays positive. And part of the reason he stays positive, something he wrote and posted after he was out of the hospital this time, and he told a story I had never heard him tell before. He said that years ago, a man called him aside and spoke a blessing to him. It was quite prophetic to him. It was from Isaiah 43, and the fellow said to David that he believed this was a word for David's life, that Isaiah 43 one, and he who formed you, O Israel, do not fear, for I have redeemed you.

I've called you by name, David Hastings. You are mine. And when you pass through the waters, I'll be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. And when you walk through the fire, you'll not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you, since you are precious in my sight.

You are honored, and I love you. And David took this word, you know, into his spirit, and he just said that's one of the things that's guiding him. And so he said, you know, it's always had this belief in the sovereignty of God to bring about good, and so you can trust him.

You can trust him. So that's a powerful blessing that you see how God could just shape his life. And so you hear a story like that, and you go, well, yeah, okay, well, that's great. Somebody who's got a real prophetic gift, but I don't feel like I hear from God like that, and I don't get those really specific words like that. And so maybe the power of blessing is not something for me.

No, no. Part of the reason I wrote the book is I want people to understand there's something that's just like, it's like prayer. It doesn't have to be big and complicated. It doesn't have to sound spiritual. You just talk to God.

Well, blessing is something that God means for us to have just in our daily speech, just the way that we interact. And what I want you to see is that the littlest moments, not just these like moments you recognize as powerful prophetic moments, but just the little moments carry enormous spiritual power. I don't know what came to mind. I was thinking of this past summer, a little moment in a store we had gone to, and I had gone to a shoe store in Greensboro because she had a coupon. And so she needed a pair of shoes. And men, don't try to figure out why your wife needs another pair of shoes.

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, 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 was a little rude, wasn't really looking at us like it was just a big inconvenience.

And 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 spoke 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 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 beautiful. I love that name.

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 named me this because of thus and such. And Ann said, well, I think it's a beautiful name. And 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 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 one minute conversation like that. Here's one of the layers is that, listen, people are in pandemic. People are anxious.

People are tired. And the simplest 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, when you just follow the Spirit, the Spirit knows all these things. And here's a new one. And here's the nuances to this. And part of the nuances is that different cultures have different ideologies about naming their kids. So I grew up in a white culture and the idea was name your kids the same basic name that everybody else's name.

I mean, as I grew up in this culture, like wherever 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. 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 it's just 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 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, 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. And there's a lot more depth to all of this, and not just our culture, but cultures all around the world. People have different cultures and segments and micro sets of cultures within cultures. People name things differently. And here's what, 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, or I don't.

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.

A whole culture. And she's affirming, when you affirm a name, you're affirming an identity. Alan Wright, today's good news message.

See it to be it. From the series, The Power to Bless, also taken from Pastor Alan's book of the same title. Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day.

Stick with us. Embark on a journey of transformation with our Free Yourself, Be Yourself resource bundle. Imagine a shame-free life. No more self-condemnation, no more inward angst, wondering if you measure up as you soak in the message of healing grace. This empowering bundle includes Pastor Alan's landmark book, Free Yourself, Be Yourself, plus an accompanying resource guide and access to the exclusive companion video series. Act now, support Alan Wright Ministries with your donation, and step into the abundant life God has awaiting you as we send you this limited time resource bundle as our thanks this month. 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. Back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day as we place a bookmark here. See it to be it in this particular teaching that comes from the pages of Pastor Alan's book, The Power to Bless, but also as we're hearing a sermon series by the same title.

Pastor Alan, what's your parting good news thought for today? So in the world, we are given the message in a thousand different ways. If you can accomplish something, then we'll call you something good.

Maybe you could get a good name for yourself if you do enough. With God and the power of blessing, it's exactly the opposite. God calls us by who we really are. And out of that identity, we're empowered to live the destiny that He's given to us. So God doesn't withhold blessing. He creates, He forms, and then He blesses. And that's what He did with Adam and Eve. He made man and woman in His own image, and then He blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. So this is the way of God with us.

It's completely countercultural, and yet it's the way we're changed. And when you are in Christ, this is the way you can learn to help others. So the people in your lives around you that really need to take next steps of flourishing, remember these two things, that we're not formed by just looking inside ourselves for some inner voice. We're formed by blessing that comes spoken over our lives. And that blessing comes first, and then comes the fruitfulness of our lives. That's really key. And you've been given the power to bless others. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.