Blessed are those who live to bless others
God exists to bless
God simply lives to bless.
Blessing is in the essence of the flow of divine love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit [1]
The Father blesses the Son, and both bless the Holy Spirit who in turn blesses them both.
God has a big heart which is full of blessing
Think of it, God has unlimited resources with which to bless
God can pour out a blessing so big we cannot contain it [2].
God’s heart is always to bless His children
God’s heart is always to bless and when He decides to bless you ... you should be aware that nothing can stop the blessings of God from overtaking you (except our disobedience).
Picture a man running as fast as he can down the road, but the blessings of God will overtake him!
To be blessed by God is to enjoy His gracious favour
To be blessed by God is to feel His smile upon your face
How blessed is that man who meditates on His word day and night [3]. I thank God that is me. Is your life full of blessing tonight?
If so, it is dangerously easy to fix our hearts on the blessing rather than the Blesser [4].
We need to grateful every day of our lives for His blessings and thank the Blesser.
And there is more... we not only have the privilege of being able to receive many wonderful blessings but also have another mighty privilege of being able bless other people in the name of Jesus Christ.
We are traders in blessings. We are blessed and we bless in turn.
Let us trade in blessing every day of our lives!
God has given each one of His covenant people the power to bless in His name.
This ability to bless in His name is extremely powerful.
Our words have power
Our words and prayers have an incredible power to bless others.
When we bless in the name of Jesus Christ the situation becomes a ‘thin place’ [5] a thin place is where heaven and earth touch. The kingdom of God can be brought down to earth in the situation when we bless here on earth with what God is blessing in heaven.
Definitions.
To bless is to bestow happiness or prosperity upon
To bless is to pronounce God’s gracious favour upon
To bless is to pronounce or declare God’s favour and goodness upon others
Give and it shall be given unto you
Forgive and it shall be forgiven
In the same way, Be blessed and Bless others and again be blessed.
Our life should be a circle of blessing (the opposite of a vicious circle).
Over the years from time to time I have pondered this God given ability to bless in His name. This ability in some ways is spiritually speaking can be likened to a blank cheque with the amount simply to be filled in.
Although we can bless in general sense the most powerful form of blessing will be that revealed specifically and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
More recently I have read the book ‘The grace outpouring’ by Roy Godwin whose subtitle is blessing others through prayer. The story is set in a retreat on a Welsh hillside where the Spirit of God falls upon visitors usually without human intervention and the ministry team's main job is to bless the visitors through prayer. I highly recommend this book.
We must learn to develop a lifestyle of blessing others through prayer. We can bring about real-life transformation in real people’s lives and situations on a day-to-day basis.
Sounds great but is it too good to be true?
Where in the bible does it tell us we have been given this wonderful power to bless others?
Can we really partner with the Holy Spirit in this formidable ability to bless in the Lord’s name?
We can even bless someone or something even when they are absent from us.
Biblical basis of having this power
There are a number of biblical proofs of us having the power to bless in His name. Here are a few of the biblical strands of truth concerning this.
Firstly, God is glorified when we bless others, and this would be reason enough on its own.
He (Christ) redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit [6].
If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise [7].
The blessing of Abraham comes to the believers through Jesus Christ and God even goes beyond this by blessing us directly. The Lord goes on to promise to bless those who bless you and curse those who you curse or else to curse who curse you [8].
That is a tremendous level of identification.
God really identifies with you as his child.
This is an immensely powerful promise in our in our lives.
It means extremely good news for that target us for blessing and extremely sad news for those who try to curse us.
When God blesses them that bless you it is like compound interest accruing in your account.
Firstly we are blessed ourselves and then we are blessed when we see others being blessed by God blessing them back in return.
Blessing has always been a priestly duty [9] and we are part of the priesthood of all believers.
Remember that ‘you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light’ [10].
There are many scriptures in both the old and new testaments where we find the Father or the Son Jesus Christ or even God’s servants blessing people in many different situations; Jesus blesses children by laying His hands on them,
God blesses... houses,
the disciples, food,
Mary and the fruit of her womb,
the children of Israel.
We can even bless the Lord himself for His many benefits, but we must bless those who curse us and those who persecute us and also bless others with peace. This makes us children like our Father.
We do indeed have this tremendous power to bless, and we can bless others in terms of their spirit, soul and body including health and especially in fertility. Over the years I have known of many cases of infertility where healthy children have been conceived through prayers of blessing on various infertile women.
We can bless the fertility of crops, of livestock and anything that can grow.
Lord blesses the harvests in our various walks of life.
It is interesting that where there has been spiritual revival it so affects nature that wildlife that has left will sometimes come back.
The caribou in Canada, the water in Wales and the eagles returning to Antrim.
We can bless with rain, or we can bless with rain being withheld.
We can bless a marriage, a business, a family, or a friendship.
Jesus told the disciples to bless and not curse and this commandment has never been rescinded!
Do we still have the power to curse like Jesus did to the fig tree? We must be careful never to curse people, but we do have power to curse evil things such as people trafficking or drug pushing.
We must bless in faith
We need to bless others in faith by believing.
If you want your blessing of others to really count, then we must believe it will.
Have the conversation with God along these lines, ‘Lord if I bless so and so, will you empower it and see it fully carried into fruition’?
Sometimes the Holy Spirit will just ask us to bless someone or something. Let us be obedient to all His promptings.
How to bless others in prayer
Here are some examples of how to pray or speak blessing on others in His name
Father God in the name of Jesus Christ I bless my home church
I bless our pastors and leaders
I bless every person who is part of this work with every blessing that you have for them, spirit, soul, and body. I bless every family, every marriage in His name. I bless the financial and material needs of every church member in His name.
I bless my home church with Kingdom growth and a harvest of souls to join us and who in turn will help in bringing in the harvest.
I bless my home church with success as the Lord judges’ success.
I bless my home church to be a centre of healing and revival.
I bless Edinburgh and Scotland through my home church.
I bless my home church praying it be a bright light for Jesus Christ here in Edinburgh and beyond.
Or I bless our leaders that they might have a revelation of having every spiritual blessing in heaven places and that our ministry needs are met. Amen.
Or I bless the foreign people living in Scotland in Jesus name asking that they prosper spiritually and financially and that they feel welcome here.
Is it biblical to bless an unbeliever? God blessed you and me before we were Christians by leading us into His gift of salvation. He sends the rain on the just and unjust.
Some additional blessings in scripture
Blessing Israel/Jerusalem If you want to receive a specific blessing from God there are a number of things that scripture teaches carry a blessing Psalm 122:6-9.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. 7 May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.” 8 For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.” 9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity.
Read the book of Revelation 1:3 blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Conclusion
Let us ask the Lord today to give us a revelation of our power to bless others through prayer and pronouncement and that each one of us develops a lifestyle of daring to bless others in the name of Jesus Christ
Pronounce the Blessing [11]
The Lord bless thee and keep thee
The Lord make his face to shine upon thee
The Lord be gracious unto thee
The Lord lift His countenance upon thee
And give thee peace
Amen
Personal Prayer
[1] Galatians 3:14 [2] Malachi 3 [3] Psalm 1 1 [4] Ronald Dunn [5] Where heaven and earth touch (concept from Celtic Christianity) [6] Galatians 3:13 [7] Galatians 3:29 [8] Genesis 12:3 [9] Numbers 6:24-26 ‘The Aaronic Blessing’ [10] 1 Peter 2:9 [11] Numbers 6:24-26 ‘The Aaronic Blessing’
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