Thursday, November 13, 2008

Abraham's Blessing

Okay. I've been teaching Sunday school to the 6th and 7th graders at my church. We've been going through Genesis, story by story and I've been trying to "introduce them to God." I had been using the curriculum provided by the church, but found that while the material was good and well intentioned, it simply wasn't getting through to the kids. The lessons were about teaching them to be "good Christians," but they didn't really know God, so there wasn't anything more than "trying to do the right thing" to motivate them. I wanted them to KNOW that God LOVES them and that He wants a relationship with them. I figure that if they know God's love then the "right things" they should do will be fruits of that love instead of calculated decisions.



It's been great!



So we've been talking about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The last couple of weeks have been spent on Jacob. We talked about how God had promised that Jacob would have the major inheritance and how God was going to make His nation from Jacob, but Jacob and his mother didn't trust God and deceived their way into a promise that was Jacob's by right. Jacob got Isaac's blessing. Isaac got that blessing from Abraham and Abraham got it from God.

I grew up in a home that taught the Bible. My dad told us stories of Abraham and King David and the mighty men of valor. One thing that always stood out to me was the blessings from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (called Israel). These blessings weren't like the blessings you hear today--they had POWER. When Esau realized that Jacob had gotten his blessing, he was furious! He begged Isaac for a blessing. Today, we'd just say "OK, here you go," but this was something much more serious. Isaac couldn't give him the blessing again. This was something REAL! I've always believed in these kind of blessings and the power in them, and I've always been sad that they seemed to have passed away.

Skip ahead to this past Sunday. . . A man came to our church this Sunday. His name is Ken Sumerall. He is a pastor to my pastor. He is actually a pastor to many pastors, as is my own pastor, Jack Hollis (who has a blog http://ftcw.blogspot.com/ ). He has been a spiritual father to my pastor, who, in turn, has been one to me. So, as Bro Ken was preaching, I was watching him and listening to how he spoke and thought to myself: "This is a man who is a patriarch to this church like Abraham was to Israel." I could just SEE Abraham all over him. When he finished speaking he invited people to come up and be prayed for. I was heading up to join the worship team, but before I could go up the stairs I stopped. It hit me. "Here is a man who could give a patriarch blessing." I tried to dismiss it, "People don't DO that sort of thing anymore." But I couldn't make myself leave it alone. I struggled with whether it was something I should do and if it would even be a real blessing, believing in my heart the whole time that it would be real, until I head God say: "You have an inheritance waiting for you. Will you take hold of it?" Well, that didn't leave me with any outs. So I went to Bro Ken and told him what I had seen on him and that I wanted a patriarch's blessing.

He leaned forward placing his hand on my head and said: " I bless you right now with a father's blessing. . ." I'm not quite sure what he said next because I felt a wave of heat hit me in the chest and spread in all over my torso. Then I heard him say something that I didn't expect at all. I went up there expecting him to say that I would be in the ministry, or that I would have a supernatural boldness, or that God would do miracles through me or something like that. What he said next nearly knocked the wind out of me. There I was caught in the presence of the Holy Spirit and I heard these words from the man God had impressed upon me as one who could give a real blessing, a blessing with power: "I give you the blessing of Abraham."

Check out what God's blessing for Abraham was and you may have some idea of what that felt like.

Later, God told me that what I felt when I felt the heat in my chest was God "changing my blood." He told me that He had changed the fabric of who I am.

I am still absorbing the implications of all of this, but I know this much. God has called me to be a giver of blessings. I have tried to be conscious of my thoughts and words. I have been openly blessing anything that I have a hand in and blessing any who bless me. And I truly BELIEVE that God is going to be doing things that will awaken me (and any I can influence) to a fuller awareness of the richness of His glory.

So, to all who read this. Be Blessed with His presence. Have God so richly in your life that you cannot escape a day-to-day deepening of revelation of God's love and desire to have a relationship with you.

Amen.

1 comment:

  1. Dang I am SOOOO jealous - I was in England and missed all that, course, I probably would not have gotten it if I had been here becuase I was in a God appointed season of growing and learning to walk with God alone. Something I am struggling with now that I am "back home" oddly enough. There I knew that no one was going to "rescue" me and I HAD to trust God, here there are way too many distractions to spiritual growth. However, I am going to refocus myself as best I can to walk forward from this moment on remembering the God I met and talked to and prayed to and cried to when I was truly alone and a very long way from friends and family.
    Becki

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