(Part 3/3 – A summary of the Sunday morning teaching on 19-Apr-15, in AFT Church, English service. From the series The Law of Faith)
Jacob blesses his grandsons
Gen 48:13-20 contains the story of how Jacob blesses his son Joseph and his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh.
The blessing of increase: And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. His descendants shall become a multitude of nations.
The blessing of success: Let my name be named upon them,
And the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. “By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh
Aaronic blessing
God teaches them to bless regularly. One day, while they were travelling the desert, God called him and told him that He had something important to teach him. He taught him some words so that Aaron and his sons could speak those words so that the nation would have abundance, plenty and success. He tells the priest to pronounce benediction on the people.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying,
‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:
“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace
“So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them. – Numbers 6:22
Priesthood is supposed to speak blessing on the people. God taught them this in the wilderness, even before they entered the Promised Land.
Some Christians are still like Old Testament believers. They want someone special to come and pronounce the blessing in their house. The New Testament calls each believer a king and a priest. So the blessing doesn’t have to be spoken only by the clergy. God taught this to Adam. Every person needs to speak good words to produce good things. But we delegate this job to the clergy. We think ourselves unworthy.
You are the High Priest in your house. Speak over your family, you finances, your health, the work of your hands, you business, you life.
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Blessing is merely speaking good things to make good things happen. All these saints learnt it from God and they followed it. This is what a ‘life of faith’ is about. Speaking a blessing is not a one-time affair to be spoken exclusively at important occasions like weddings. Sometimes, people don’t understand the necessity to ‘speak’ the blessing. Some people thing that it is enough to believe in the heart and that there’s no necessity to speak what we believe. In that case, we can omit the benediction that the priest says at the end of service. Is it not?
God framed the world by His words. Speak good words of faith. That is why the promises of God are given. Speak them forth. Have a faith-made life. Have a word-framed life.
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The second part of Hebrews 11:3 contains an important truth.
So that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. – Heb 11:3
The things we see are not made by the things we can see.
The things we see are made by things we cannot see.
Nothing that you see in this world can produce good things for you. Nothing! Everything here was produced by something else. Nothing came about by what you can see. It came about by the word of God. If you put your hope in the things around you that you see, you will be disappointed. Even today, only the word can produce. When the Pharisees were upset that Jesus had called Himself the Son of God, He told them a deeper truth – the Bible called their forefathers gods. Why were men called gods? – because they had the word of God. Every one with the word of God is a god. You can rule and dominate everything that comes against the fulfilment of God’s purpose in your life. By speaking, you can produce good things. You can do what God did. With your word, you can change the darkness in your life to light, the emptiness to fullness, the chaos to peace.
