Many years ago, I approached Pastor Bill Johnson at Bethel Church in Redding, someone who I regarded as a spiritual father to me. I expressed to him with deep feeling just what an impact he had on my life and how grateful to the Lord I was for him. He responded, “Brent, you make me as proud as any father could be.” Afterwards, I stood there by myself in stunned silence. In that exchange that took all of 60 seconds, I was dramatically impacted. Did I just hear Bill say…? I ran his words over and over again in my mind.
Why did his words have such a dramatic impact on me? What was going on in the core of my being?
Quite simply, blessing was going on!
John 1:16 in the Amplified Bible reads:
For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift.
We are made in the glorious image of God who blesses and blesses some more. We have a choice to be just like our Daddy to bless and bless some more. However, God always gives us choice. What makes blessing people so very powerful is that we have the equal choice to curse.
James 3:8-10 came to my mind: "But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be this way."
In this passage the word "curse" means "to speak evil of, or to not speak well of." The word "bless" means "to speak well of."
Bill Johnson chose to bless me by speaking well of me and something inside of me deeply needed it. What I discovered is that his choice to bless me gave me an even greater ability and authority to bless the hearts of others.
This Saturday at Blazing Fire Church is a night of Generational Blessings, where people of all ages will have the opportunity to receive blessings as well as to bless others in order to be congruent with who we are as sons and daughters of Yahweh God. Specifically, I want the younger ones to bless the wisdom of the older, and the older ones to bless the zeal of the younger.
We were born to bless! It's in our new nature in Christ to do so.
Choose today to bless others and to let all curses fall lifelessly to the ground, unspoken by your lips. By doing so, you're looking just like your Daddy!
Why did his words have such a dramatic impact on me? What was going on in the core of my being?
Quite simply, blessing was going on!
John 1:16 in the Amplified Bible reads:
For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift.
We are made in the glorious image of God who blesses and blesses some more. We have a choice to be just like our Daddy to bless and bless some more. However, God always gives us choice. What makes blessing people so very powerful is that we have the equal choice to curse.
James 3:8-10 came to my mind: "But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be this way."
In this passage the word "curse" means "to speak evil of, or to not speak well of." The word "bless" means "to speak well of."
Bill Johnson chose to bless me by speaking well of me and something inside of me deeply needed it. What I discovered is that his choice to bless me gave me an even greater ability and authority to bless the hearts of others.
This Saturday at Blazing Fire Church is a night of Generational Blessings, where people of all ages will have the opportunity to receive blessings as well as to bless others in order to be congruent with who we are as sons and daughters of Yahweh God. Specifically, I want the younger ones to bless the wisdom of the older, and the older ones to bless the zeal of the younger.
We were born to bless! It's in our new nature in Christ to do so.
Choose today to bless others and to let all curses fall lifelessly to the ground, unspoken by your lips. By doing so, you're looking just like your Daddy!
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