Is it possible that we have turned blessing around the opposite of it function? Are speaking blessing to obligate God when blessing flows freely toward what God wants, not what we want?
Every function of spirit sources in Christ. God never gives man the responsibility to create worship. God creates worship and man releases worship. God never gives man the responsibility to create His will. God creates intercession and man releases it. In the same way, God never gives man the responsibility to source blessing. God creates blessing and man releases it.
I don’t want the blessing sourced in man, but the blessing sourced in God released through man.
Consider the religious concept of “blessing” something in order to make it holy, bring it under protection, or mark it as appointed. Totally opposite the Bible and Heavenly concept of blessing. God blesses what He creates, covenants, and commissions. He doesn’t bless something in order to make it, agree with it, or appoint it. He creates it, then blesses what He creates. He makes agreements, then blesses those who keep the agreement. He appoints, then blesses those the fulfillment of the appointments.
We don’t have the privilege or option to bless anything or everything. We have the responsibility and authority to bless what God has blessed.
The called together assembly, the Body of Christ, has been given the “keys of the kingdom” that authorize us to limit or expand what God has already limited or expanded in heaven. The purpose of our worship is to release the worship of Heaven into the earth. The purpose of our intercession is to release the will of God into the earth. The purpose of blessing is to released the expansion of what God has expanded into the earth.
The sense and tense of the verb Jesus used when He gave the keys to the called together assembly says, Whatever has already been limited in Heaven, limit on earth; whatever has already been expanded in Heaven, expand on earth. Blessing means expand, enlarge, and extend. Curse means limit, bind, and restrict.
This formula under the Law set the boundaries of behaviors allowed or restricted. In the kingdom, where the Law and prophets are reaching the fullness and fulfillment, this formula opens the fullness of what God wants, empowered by grace and closes down the influence and control of what hinders or destroys what God wants empowered by the Cross and the Spirit.
We often use the word “bless” in the sense of permission. I want to do something and I want what I want to do to be blessed. This is the error of Cain. Cart before the horse. Horse in cart. Burn the cart and BBQ the horse. Whatever.
Blessing is not permission. Blessing comes upon what God wants. Discover the terms of His covenant and keep them, blessing flows. Discover the will of God for your life, what He created you to be, blessing flows. Discover the call of God for your life, what He wants you to do, blessing flows. The instant God agreed in covenant, blessing was focused upon the fulfillment of the agreement. The instant God created you, blessing was focused upon the fulfillment of destiny. The instant God called you, blessing was focused upon the fullness of purpose.
Blessing empowers, enlarges, and expands what God has already decided, destined, and described. Get into the crosshairs of His target! The blessing flow is there! God blesses what He creates, covenants, and calls.
Rehearse with me the concept that prophecy is more about preparation than prediction. In other words, don’t receive prophetic promises as if they are going happen no matter what in the sense that because you received the promise it cannot but happen in your life. The promise has the purpose of preparation in it. God is prophesying to you so you will become the person who can fulfill the prophecy. The promise may be waiting for your preparation; the blessing flow is waiting where you should be when your preparation obedience is fulfilled.
Although preparation doesn’t buy or earn you the promise, since the promise is made when the preparation begins, the preparation positions you in the crosshairs of the target! You don’t earn the promise because the promise comes when you are not prepared, but you do position yourself in the preparation season to be the person who can walk in the fullness of the promise.
I remember hearing Rick Joyner discussing God’s word to him about blessing. As I recall, Rick said that God cautioned him to be careful what he blessed because it would get bigger. It is possible to bless what should be cursed. It is possible to withhold blessing, and the silence be a form of disobedience. Withholding blessing is akin to limitation. Not the same, but akin to it.
Blessing Authorization
Blessing authorization is as broad as the sphere of your authority. A father has the sphere of authority to bless his children and grandchildren. He doesn’t need a special dispensation to do it because God created family to function in this way. He doesn’t even need to be saved to bless in this sphere of authority. This is true in the sense of marriage covenant as well: the covenant is blessed because God created marriage and blessed it. The people within the covenant don’t have to be saved in order for the blessing of God on marriage covenant to function.
However the authorization doesn’t automatically extend beyond the sphere of authority, being authorized to bless your own children does not mean you are authorized to bless all children. That is a different sphere of authority.
Whenever I eat, I bless the food to be “strength and health to our bodies.” I don’t ask God to bless the food since He has authorized me to bless it and has already given us a covenant promise on the subject. He provides the food and promises strength and health. So, I don’t bless everybody else’s food where I eat, but I am in full authorization to bless what God has already blessed.
I bless my wife, but I don’t bless every other woman. I am not in covenant with any other woman. I bless my city, my nation, because I live here. I have responsibility and authority wherever I am in the will of God.
I also have authority in my assignments. So, I bless the house where God sends me, the city where God sends me, the nation where God sends me. I am fully authorized to bless what God has sent me to bless. I do not presume to bless or curse what or where I am not sent or authorized, or to bless or curse when I lack authority or authorization to do so.
In other words, I need to be silent about things over which I lack authority in term of blessing and cursing. The things I bless or curse are part of the assignment of God upon my life. Many efforts in ministry are being attempted within my sphere of authority that I bless because the Gospel is being preached. As Paul said, “Some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know the Lord brought me here to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But whether or not their motives are pure, the fact remains that the message about Christ is being preached, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.”
To be silent in this sense is spurious. Rejoice that Gospel is being preached, even if the preaching is less than perfect in motivation. Bless the preaching of the Gospel, but remain silent in blessing the impure motives? It appears Paul is referring to the preaching of the Gospel occurring outside the sphere of his authority. He rejoices that the Gospel is being preached, but he remains silent on the blessing or cursing of the process because it is simply none of his business.
I bless the preaching the Gospel, the pursuit of ministry, and the release of anointing in people less than perfect in their motivations. Those who preach false doctrine that denies the Deity of Christ, the power of the Blood, or the inerrancy of Scriptures I do not bless or bid “God speed.” But, I am just too busy with blessing what God is blessing and cursing what God is cursing to get caught up in the vain, arrogant practice of being some kind of investigator of religious verbiage and models of ministry as if God has appointed me to straighten out every one else!
I can bless people created and called without blessing everything they are doing, saying, or modeling. If they are part of my sphere of assignment, I will speak as deeply into their lives as they are willing to receive, make them accountable, and pour out my life to move them higher in the kingdom. If they are not part of my sphere of assignment or remove themselves from that sphere of assignment, I can only bless what is “bless-able.”
How often do you find yourself investing a great deal of emotional energy, mental gymnastics, and calesthentics of concentration in behaviors and ambitions of people that simply are beyond the scope of your authorization? If you spend fifteen seconds on an internet search on any subject or ministry, you will discover that tens of thousands of people are investing hours in discussing, correcting, and cursing things that are simply none of their business, hours they could properly investing in what is their sphere of authorization.
How many times have you seen yourself or someone else devoting a great deal of attention and focus to fixing someone else’s problems when the problems they are attempting in someone else mirror the very problems presenting in their own lives?!
No, I’m not off subject. I’m leading into the discussion of blessing and cursing what is within the scope of our authorization. We can be silent about blessing what is within our sphere of assignment because we have emptied our breath discussing things that are none of our business! It is a common work of darkness – distraction as a means of limitation.
If hell cannot keep us from blessing, hell will work to limit our blessing. In other words, hell will work to fill our mouths with curse or silence our mouth through disgust so that we do not bless when we should release blessing God has already released from Heaven. Sometimes we have to work hard to find something and someone to bless! We have to be really diligent in blessing else we are silent when we should speak!
In other words, I need to spend a lot more time diligently blessing what God is blessing and cursing what God is cursing within my own sphere of assignment than I do distracted by what is wrong with everyone else’s.
What DId Jesus Do?
So, I discover Jesus is an equal opportunity offender! Locating Him in the context of His assignment, in His nation and generation, I can observe Jesus blessing and cursing, expanding and limiting perfectly consistent with His assignment.
Melchisedec
It was an ancient custom, among all the nations of the earth, to consecrate a part or tenth of the spoils taken in war to the objects of their worship. Many examples of this kind occur. This however was not according to any provision in law, but merely ad libitum, and as a eucharistic offering to those to whom they imagined they owed the victory. But neither Abraham’s decimation, nor theirs, had any thing to do, either with tithes as prescribed under the Mosaic dispensation, or as claimed under the Christian. [Clarke]
