“When was the last time you blessed your wife or husband? What about your children? How about your friends or even your enemies? I don’t mean blessing someone by buying them something or doing them a favor; I want you to call down My blessing upon them. Do you know that in doing so, you become an instrument of My power to turn them to Me? You can wake up the deadened and dying heart, encourage a discouraged spirit, and destroy lying spirits by being My vessel of blessing. The world may consider it foolishness when you bless; I consider it an impartation of My courage and an inroad to My kind of healing. Begin to bless from your heart. Watch how people change as you do.”
Ephesians 3:14-19 NLB
14) When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,
15) the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
16) I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.
17) And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.
18) And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.
19) May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Most of us understand the biblical principle of blessing our enemies and those who use us, but few of us fully understand the incredible power of invoking those blessings on others. Fathers, when was the last time that you took your children aside and imparted a fatherly blessing on them? Husbands, how often do you place your hands on your wives and bless them and thank them for who they are and how much they add to your life? What about your friends? Have you ever invoked blessing upon those who have been given to you as alliances by the Lord? Take the time with the Lord and have Him show you how He feels about the impartation of blessing and its effects upon others.
I remember a specific instance when the Lord intervened in the middle of a season of dealing with rebellion in my then young daughter. Something was different from the norm. The rebellion seemed to take on a spiritual state, rather than simple, childlike misbehavior. I was about to impart consequences for actions taken when He said to my heart, “Father, bless your daughter.” Being the “spiritual giant” that I am, I was too out of patience to do it at the time.
The next day, He wouldn’t leave me alone. Given His strength, I took her aside and invoked a loving, confirming, fatherly blessing upon her. I could see her melt as I did. With every word, she brightened and the rebellion actually disappeared from our household. I believe that far more was accomplished than I will ever know.
Show me Your ways, Lord,
Jim Corbett
