February 13th, 2024
How many of you feel blessed today? If you’re a believer, you are blessed, whether you feel like it or not. It’s so important that we don’t just say and do things because it’s the culture of the church. Do we really know what it means to be blessed? This week, God laid the power of blessing on my heart, and I want to share some thoughts with you!
The words bless, blessed, and blessing are in the Word of God hundreds of times. I’m not a Bible scholar, nor did I do an exhaustive study on this, but what I did find was so powerful.
First, blessing is something that is usually verbal. It’s a declaration of favor that carries power in it. Throughout the word of God, we see God blessing His people, people blessing God, and both God and men blessing things. The first blessing in the Bible, in fact, is God blessing animals to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:22). Just a few verses later, God pronounced the first blessing on humanity. Genesis 1:28 says,
‘God blessed them and 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.”’
A few chapters later, we see the power of blessing in the life of one man, with whom most of us will be familiar. Abraham was a man whose origin we know little about, but he had favor with God that touched every area of his life and affected every generation after him.
Genesis 12:2-3 says,
‘“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”’
Genesis 22:17-18 says,
‘I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”’
Abraham was fruitful, miraculously. Abraham was wealthy, miraculously. Abraham was blessed in every foreign nation he stepped, miraculously. He obeyed when God called him out of his father’s house (Hebrews 11:8) and did not withhold anything from God (Genesis 22). He had favor in everything, not because of his gifting or skills, but because God proclaimed a blessing over his life that went before him. Did you know we still partake of that blessing? Galatians 3:7- 9 says,
“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.’
The blessing God proclaimed 6,000 years ago is as powerful now as it was then!
Blessing is not a trivial thing and once given, it carries power. Many will know the story of two brothers, Jacob and Esau. Esau was the firstborn and was entitled to a “blessing” from his father, Isaac. However, his younger brother, Jacob, deceived their father into giving him the blessing instead of Esau. When Isaac and Esau realized what happened, Esau begged Jacob with tears to bless him also, and even though Jacob wanted to, he could not remove the blessing he’d proclaimed over Jacob. What was blessed, was blessed.
The story of Balaam is a phenomenal picture of this truth. If you don’t know the full story, I’d encourage you to read all of Numbers 22-24. Balaam was a diviner, hired by the king of Moab to curse Israel, but he could not. Numbers 22:12 says,
‘God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”’
Three different times Balaam attempted to curse Israel for the King of Moab and every time he blessed them instead. Balaam said several very powerful things in those three oracles.
Numbers 23:8 says,
“How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?”
Numbers 23:19-21 says,
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them.”
Numbers 24:9 says,
‘He crouched, he lay down like a lion and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.”’
Those powerful promises are still true for the people of God today because He never changes. Look again at what Balaam said! He could not “curse what God had blessed.” God had blessed Israel and he “could not revoke it.” He declared, “their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them” and “blessed are those who bless you and cursed are those who curse you!”
Now, we do have to understand that while God will not revoke a blessing, there are contingencies to live in that blessing. It is walking with God and keeping His commandments that allows His blessing to flow in our lives! God cannot bless that which doesn’t align with Him. So, you can walk out of the blessing of God, but nothing and no one has the power to counteract His blessing on your life. How would we live if we truly understood the power of His blessing? We have no reason to live in fear of other people, darkness, curses, or sickness. Even if there is some momentary affliction on earth, we have been given the power to overcome it by the blood of Jesus! We are blessed with a blessing that is more powerful than anything else! As it says in Romans 8:31, if God is for us, who can be against us?
The words bless, blessed, and blessing are in the Word of God hundreds of times. I’m not a Bible scholar, nor did I do an exhaustive study on this, but what I did find was so powerful.
First, blessing is something that is usually verbal. It’s a declaration of favor that carries power in it. Throughout the word of God, we see God blessing His people, people blessing God, and both God and men blessing things. The first blessing in the Bible, in fact, is God blessing animals to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:22). Just a few verses later, God pronounced the first blessing on humanity. Genesis 1:28 says,
‘God blessed them and 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.”’
A few chapters later, we see the power of blessing in the life of one man, with whom most of us will be familiar. Abraham was a man whose origin we know little about, but he had favor with God that touched every area of his life and affected every generation after him.
Genesis 12:2-3 says,
‘“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”’
Genesis 22:17-18 says,
‘I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”’
Abraham was fruitful, miraculously. Abraham was wealthy, miraculously. Abraham was blessed in every foreign nation he stepped, miraculously. He obeyed when God called him out of his father’s house (Hebrews 11:8) and did not withhold anything from God (Genesis 22). He had favor in everything, not because of his gifting or skills, but because God proclaimed a blessing over his life that went before him. Did you know we still partake of that blessing? Galatians 3:7- 9 says,
“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.’
The blessing God proclaimed 6,000 years ago is as powerful now as it was then!
Blessing is not a trivial thing and once given, it carries power. Many will know the story of two brothers, Jacob and Esau. Esau was the firstborn and was entitled to a “blessing” from his father, Isaac. However, his younger brother, Jacob, deceived their father into giving him the blessing instead of Esau. When Isaac and Esau realized what happened, Esau begged Jacob with tears to bless him also, and even though Jacob wanted to, he could not remove the blessing he’d proclaimed over Jacob. What was blessed, was blessed.
The story of Balaam is a phenomenal picture of this truth. If you don’t know the full story, I’d encourage you to read all of Numbers 22-24. Balaam was a diviner, hired by the king of Moab to curse Israel, but he could not. Numbers 22:12 says,
‘God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”’
Three different times Balaam attempted to curse Israel for the King of Moab and every time he blessed them instead. Balaam said several very powerful things in those three oracles.
Numbers 23:8 says,
“How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?”
Numbers 23:19-21 says,
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them.”
Numbers 24:9 says,
‘He crouched, he lay down like a lion and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.”’
Those powerful promises are still true for the people of God today because He never changes. Look again at what Balaam said! He could not “curse what God had blessed.” God had blessed Israel and he “could not revoke it.” He declared, “their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them” and “blessed are those who bless you and cursed are those who curse you!”
Now, we do have to understand that while God will not revoke a blessing, there are contingencies to live in that blessing. It is walking with God and keeping His commandments that allows His blessing to flow in our lives! God cannot bless that which doesn’t align with Him. So, you can walk out of the blessing of God, but nothing and no one has the power to counteract His blessing on your life. How would we live if we truly understood the power of His blessing? We have no reason to live in fear of other people, darkness, curses, or sickness. Even if there is some momentary affliction on earth, we have been given the power to overcome it by the blood of Jesus! We are blessed with a blessing that is more powerful than anything else! As it says in Romans 8:31, if God is for us, who can be against us?
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