My personal journey over the last 12 months has been one of a little financial turmoil. I have a rental property in Bendigo and the tenants basically flooded the house from the washing machine – there is a European laundry in the middle of the house – just off the kitchen, lived with moisture flies for 6 months and then jumped up and down about the whole thing, moved out and stopped paying rent, now one is taking me to VCAT for $40,000 compensation. It is still not resolved.
At one stage I believed that all this cleaning up and draining of finances was God’s will for me, until I found myself reading a financial declaration of Blessing – “we are believing God for jobs and better jobs, raises and bonuses, gifts and surprises, debts paid off, cheques in the mail…. etc”. The lie I was believing was uncovered. It is always God’s will to bless us, even if our circumstances don’t reflect this…. And the other side of that is that it’s God’s will that we bless others – practically, financially and spiritually. Which we do well in Alpha!! So I decided to go after the idea of commanding a financial blessing from God – can I do this???? It is a question I am still answering.
Numbers 6:22-27
Then God spoke to Moses saying,
“This is the way you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them:
The Lord bless you, and keep you [protect you, sustain you, and guard you];
The Lord make His face shine upon you [with favour],And be gracious to you [surrounding you with lovingkindness];
The Lord lift up His countenance (face) upon you [with divine approval],And give you peace [a tranquil heart and life].’
So Aaron and his sons shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Late last year, I was in Koorong looking for another book, and a book completely on this verse came to my attention – someone had left it at the front of the shelf facing out – and there seemed to be only 1 there. So I bought it and read it. It is written by a Messianic Jew – who had his own encounter with the glory of God at a young age and identified this as the only prayer directly penned by God, through Moses. He delved into the Hebrew meanings of the words used and believes there is a power on these words.
I have a tendency to jump up and down at times and say, “that if you don’t know how to pray for someone, bless them!” I truly believe that blessings are powerful, our words carry spiritual significance and they impart the heart of God. To pray for someone can potentially change their life – so let’s bless away!!
People are open to prayer – even if they don’t know God. There is so much judgement and criticism around in people’s words – to bless someone makes them feel good – generally. Who doesn’t want to be blessed???
So this blessing is God’s blessing for us. Yes, Us! I want to be blessed by God. What does it mean to be blessed by God?
May the Lord bless you. 4 words. Vague?? Not when you know what it means.
The Hebrew word for bless is Barakh. In Gen 24:11 it denotes a camel kneeling down so that it can offload the gifts it is carrying on its back.
So if you can picture father God, the creator of the Universe, kneeling down personally before you, his beloved child, with arms outstretched and welcoming in / giving out His love. This is what it means to bless. It demands a response.
The concrete or extended meaning of the Hebrew word is ‘to do,’ or ‘to give something that is of value to another.’ This is where we see the healing, the salvation, the financial blessing, the relational shift, or some other breakthrough. It is not wrong to seek these things, but we can’t miss the giver…. Our God loves to provide for our needs, and he also loves for us to seek his face – to respond to his invitation and to turn to Him as a good father.
Matt 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Prayer of King David – Ps 27: 4 - 8
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling: he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.
Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.
Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Whilst I was reading this book, I was imagining what it might look like – in more concrete terms to bless someone, as the Lord desires to bless us. Because it goes deeper that just, “Here you go, here’s the money you asked for.” The Lord desires to impart his love, His name (Num 6:27) - the essence or likeness of who He is to us; His spirit.
Sometimes we need the practical blessing first to then turn to Him – I think Dave’s testimony from first term Alpha is a good example of this. As a non- Christian, after seeing the pain and swelling go down in his fractured foot when we prayed, he gave his attention and heart to the Lord.
With me, though, I think sometimes God almost withholds the gift, because he wants me to look further to Him – to the giver behind the gift – or he wants me to unwrap the gift in its fullness – to look deeper inside and not just to marvel at its appearance…. Because there is always more in God.
Anyway, when I first read this book and idea of blessing – I was laying on my bed and I imagined what it might be like for me to bless someone in the way God wants to bless us. At first I came up with some flimsy scenario – which I have forgotten now - but maybe the big boxes of kindness that we gave to struggling families at Christmas time. Then I imagined myself taking off my necklace - $1000 of diamonds in a cross that represents my love of travel in many ways and the preciousness of my relationship with God. It also represents the love of my parents in the ring (sitting on the chain next to the cross) they gave me for my 21st birthday. Then I took of my watch – which was a 50th birthday gift to myself – also representative of the watch my dear grandmother gave me for my 21st birthday, and the ring that represents family jewellery from both sides and gold from Dad’s parents’ wedding rings – the love of 2 grandparents I never really knew. Then I took my phone and keys – access to the things I most rely on – my car and my home. Material value all up - around $5K and access to the very essence of who I am in myself, my family history and love from my parents and grandparents.
After imagining this in my bedroom, on my own, I was hit with the love of God – something that has been a little elusive to me over the years. I walked into the living room, knelt on the floor, undone, and sobbed -what else can you do? – for around 10 min. It was real. Then I dried my eyes, picked up my shopping bags and went shopping as planned – still a little wrecked. Oh - the great love of God.
And God says, I want to bless you – to give you what you desire, but more than that – I want to give you all that I am – my very being... Its yours if you say yes, to my love. It will cost you nothing but it will change everything.
This is the Gospel message too – God gave us his Son, to die for us on a Cross – that we might have full access today to God’s love, his very Being and the gifts and surprises that come alongside…. He longs to bless us.
So this is our privilege and what we carry as Christians – what we are able to bless others -to pray a blessing over them – that they may know the love of God and live in the divine peace that only Heaven can bring – where there is no sickness, no heartache, no chaos or turmoil. Only the true peace we can know through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Activations:
Work out a practical way of blessing someone this week - buy them a coffee or smile and say hello - ask how their day is, or compliment them on their shoes.
Practice praying a blessing for someone - even if you practice when you are alone - work out 5 or 10 ways of praying a blessing over them.
Memorise the Aaronic blessing (without the extra bits in brackets as provided by the amplified version of the bible).
If / when you actually pray a blessing over someone out loud - pray what you think / come to the end of your ideas, and then keep going - ask God to pray through you - in the spur of the moment. Prophetic prayers like this can be powerful. You might be surprised! ❤️
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