Discover the Power of Blessing in your Life!
Thanksgiving is just around the corner . . .
Are you ready to give thanks for the many blessings in your life?
Thanksgiving is a holiday designed to help us remember to thank God for his blessings. This is a great tradition, but have you ever stopped to consider how God designed blessings to be an ongoing, every day part of our lives? Have you been able to trace the positive outcomes that come from being intentionally blessed?
Let’s take a peak at God’s priority for blessing:
Blessings are important to God. His mandate to Adam and Eve started with a blessing. Genesis 1:28 states, “Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it . . .”
When God met Abraham he told him, “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others” (Genesis 12:2).
When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, his heavenly father spoke a blessing over him, “This is my beloved son in whom I take great delight.” Later, when Jesus and his friends were on the mountain and he was transfigured, his father spoke: “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him” (Matthew 17:5).
God also instructed Moses to train Aaron, the high priest and his sons, to bless his chosen people, the Israelites: ‘May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and grant you his peace.” God ended his instruction by telling Moses, “Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them” (Numbers 6:24-25).
I see an interesting pattern here. God blessed Adam and Eve so they would go and bless creation. God blessed Abraham so he could become a blessing to others. God blessed Jesus so he would go and bless people through bringing salvation and freedom. God blessed Aaron and his sons so they would bless the people, so the Lord could then add additional blessings upon them.
Blessings ripple out . . . making impacts far beyond what we can see at the time. As we make blessings, they often end up coming back to bless us even more.
Our culture is in danger of losing the power of blessing. It’s become far too easy to hurl insults and curses from afar than to come up close and give someone a blessing.
I recently heard a story about a teacher who has PTSD when she opens her emails because of the hateful criticism she receives from her students’ parents. I heard of another who had to leave their job because he was so beat up from the constant verbal harassment from their boss and co-workers.
I’ve been chagrined to see how some of my Facebook friends respond to other friends on my page. I once tried to engage the subject of “respectful dialogue” and it ended up becoming a volley of political assaults, one after another, with no one really hearing or respecting the others.
It becomes tempting to wring our hands in despair and to protect ourselves by isolating.
However, God has shown us a better way to combat the negativity: through the power of blessing!
Author, Craig Hill, writes this in his book, The Power of a Parent’s Blessing: “During the Shabbat dinner, the Jewish father would pray a blessing over his wife. He would pronounce a blessing over each of his children. Very often, the father would proclaim vision and prosperity over his children, thus creating in them an expectation of success. Whether the father knew it or not, he was imparting God’s image of identity and destiny into his children” (page 26.) He goes on to say that he’s seen greater vocational and financial success in Jewish people, and he believes it comes through the power of the weekly blessing.
One of my greatest discoveries of the past few years has been the reality that God created each family to receive and carry a generational blessing. Just as God blessed Abraham to be the father of our faith, which he passed onto his son, Isaac, and his grandsons, Jacob and Esau, starting a practice of blessing each new generation, God wants to do this with us.
God has given our families blessings, the gifts he imparted to us, so that we could partner with him to go and bless the world. But, let me ask you, do you know what your family blessing from the Lord entails?
The Reclamation Journey has created opportunities for you to discover your blessing. During the nine month journey, we recognize how the generational sins and curses have caused God’s blessings to go unnoticed, almost like a treasure chest lost in the ocean depths. Once the sins and curses are cleaned out, God loves to bring forth the treasure of his generational blessings and then begin to give us a vision for how they can impact the world for good.
We’ve also created a “Transforming Your Family through the Power of Blessing” Workshop that we launched this fall. We’ve identified 12 transitional points of life where the power of blessing can literally change the trajectory of a family. When we create the culture of blessing, it can impact everything in our world: our families, our spiritual communities, our government, our cities, our workplaces, and (fill in the blank).
Why? Because blessing changes the atmosphere from death and despair into life!
I can sense some of you saying, “I was never blessed, so how would I learn to bless others?”
Start with simple things such as looking into your child’s eyes before they leave for school and stating, “I love you and bless you today.” Say prayers of blessings for people who serve you and then thank them for doing a good job. I love to bless fathers when I see them spending times with their children. When I ride airplanes, I bless the pilots and the crew, as well as everyone on the airplane that they would know the reality of life as a beloved child and royal heir in God’s family! (Romans 8:14-17)
It’s so simple to do: just ask God how he wants to bless those you encounter and then pray silently or speak out what you sense him saying.
The opportunities to bless are endless once we decide to make blessing others part of our lives. Once you begin the practice, you will soon realize that you are receiving many more blessings in return.
Reclaim Initiative wants to bless you today:
We bless you with the power to bless and positively impact your family and world around you for many generations to come!
We bless you with the tools and the desire to make blessing a lifestyle to impart God’s grace, peace, and healing love wherever you go.
We declare that your words of blessing will bring healing and good fruit to your faith family and family of origin.
May God use your mouths and lives to bless, edify, and encourage those you encounter each day.
We bless you in the mighty name of Jesus! Amen!
Free Blessing Workbook
We’ve developed a Blessing Workbook which incorporates blessings for the 12 transition points of life. We would love to bless you with it as our gift to you! Use it, adapt it or write your own, it’s been created to support you in creating a culture of blessing in your life and family.
We are also available to bring the “Transforming Your Family through the Power of Blessing” workshop to you! Contact us below to find out how you can bless your sphere of influence by bringing the workshop to them!