The Power of Blessing

Click here for the song - The Blessing of God

“Count your blessings, count them one by one” say the words of a well known song. But do we?

We know we are already blessed, because Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law (Gal 3: 13-14). He became a curse for us, in order that the blessings of Abraham might come upon us in Christ Jesus.

Paul tells us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph 1: 3).

God instructed Aaron and his sons to speak blessings over the children of Israel "Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites. 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 turn his face toward you and give you peace.’ " (Num 6: 23-26)

We need to understand that both blessings and curses are usually conveyed through the words of our mouth. “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit”. (Pro 18: 21) James also has things to say about the power of the tongue (Jam 3: 9-10).

If we want to see our families blessed; our churches fulfilling God’s purposes; our communities transformed, we need to understand and implement the power and purpose of blessings. We can easily understand being blessed when someone gives us something, such as an unexpected gift, but we may have failed to understand the power of spoken blessings.

In the foreword to “The Forgotten Blessing” by Aaron Fruh he says:
“The power of verbal blessing has been hidden to Gentiles for generations. Yet God ordained this pathway, and to the Jewish people it remains a cherished part of everyday life. It is a pathway that will lead to healing and restoration.

The Church seems to have all but forgotten this ancient practice, and as a result, we are missing opportunities to use this potent tool to counter the effects of iniquity in our world, our communities and even our homes.

‘I am convinced‘, says Pastor Aaron Fruh, ‘that, throughout redemptive history, God has ordained the verbal blessing to be the fountainhead to counter the curse of sin. Our words matter. They can bring life, or they can bring destruction. Our words can build up, or they can destroy. We have seen the irreparable damage caused by evil words. And we have marvelled at the power of encouraging and positive words – and the humility often required to use them”.

At MET we believe that God still has a plan and a purpose for the Methodist Church and its people. The ministry of John and Charles Wesley proved to be a blessing to our nation at a crucial point in its history. We believe that the Methodist Church and its people are still called to be a blessing and maybe - just maybe - God is calling us to rise up once again at this time to bless our nation at this point in its history.

Over the coming year our aim is to provide various teaching resources, both through our website and our quarterly magazine, MET Connexion, so that each congregation can be encouraged to be a blessing - and in themselves be blessed. Here you will find updates from the Connexional Team of initiatives which we need to speak blessings over as we seek to encourage them in all that they are doing.

We would also like to hear from you about how using the power of blessing has transformed your family, church or community.

Please send your stories, ideas, thoughts and blessings in the first instance to me (click here)

Bless you
Lou Ashford