The power of blessing

Before creation began, God would have had to make many long-term decisions. We know from Scripture that one of these decisions was to release delegated authority to his creation rather than holding everything under his direct control at all times. He designed for his eternal creation to be free to make it’s own decisions. This is called freedom of choice.

God, for example, allowed Satan to made his own choice regarding his place in heaven. Satan chose to come out from under God’s authority. God allowed many others, some say one third of the angels, to come out from under his authority. Isaiah 14:12-15[1] God also allowed Adam and Eve to make their choice regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sadly, they too came out from under the authority of God. Genesis 3:6-8[2]

Although this freedom of choice, given by God, allowed for sin to come into the world, it also shows us that controlling us is not part of God’s plan.

Control and release cannot work together, and God’s kingdom principle has always been to allow his creation to make choices for itself. However, choices have consequences. The consequences of Adam and Eve’s choice placed them under Satan’s authority, resulting in Satan’s kingdom being established on earth. His kingdom is, as you can probably guess, built on the principles of control and domination, totally opposite to God’s kingdom. We, in turn, also have the freedom to make choices which place us under either God’s or Satan’s authority in our lives.

God always allows freedom of choice at the same time giving clear recommended pathways with clear consequences for each pathway chosen, calling them blessing and cursing, life and death, prosperity and destruction. Deuteronomy 28-30 (These chapters can be read in the Bible reading section)

God’s design was for authority to bring safety, security and releasing, establishing the principle of blessing. In the Garden of Eden, God gave rulership of planet earth to Adam and Eve. They became the authority figures that God established to bless planet earth.

Instead, this authority brought a curse over mankind because of their sin, committed through obedience to Satan’s suggestions. In doing so, they passed on their God-given authority to Satan. We know that Satan was given this authority, because during the temptation of Jesus, Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. Matthew 4:8-10[3] All through the Bible we notice the principle of blessings and cursing in operation as humankind made decisions as to which authority they chose to come under. In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel came under cursing or blessing according to those in authority over them. 1 Kings 15:11-15, 25-26[4] Their story shows us how powerful the principle of authority is for blessing or cursing.

The primary human unit that God gave authority to bestow blessing was the Father and Mother. This unit was designed to release children into their God given identity and destiny, and to empower them to prosper.

Baruch: a Hebrew word for blessing, has as one of its meanings: ‘empower to prosper’

The identity that I receive in my heart as a child about who I am, who God is, and how I relate to him, and others, comes as a direct result of which kingdom principles my parents have worked under. This imparted identity can structure the destiny of much of my adult life.

God’s primary mechanism of impartation of identity and destiny to people is through blessing. Genesis 12:2-3, 27:27-29[5]

Within the Jewish culture, God set a number of things in place that would guarantee that children would come into blessing and enable them to become prosperous in every way – spiritually, physically and emotionally.

These have been called the Seven Stages of Blessing.

 

Stage 1

God expected every child would be born into a family where there was both mother and father present. In fact this principle was so important to God that he demanded the death penalty for adultery. The curse on illegitimate children was powerful, bringing ten generations of destruction. Deuteronomy 23:2[6]

For a child born into a home where there is love and total commitment to marriage and each other, that child will receive the blessings of identity, security, value, commitment, belonging and will open up to being loved and also giving love. Without parental presence and commitment, the child can be conceived in an environment of fear, lust, control, domination, insecurity, inferiority, alienation etc., bringing curses on the child. The reason the child can receive blessing or cursing during this time of life is because of the eternal spirit placed within at conception. Ecclesiastes 12:7[7]

 

Stage 2

During pregnancy both the baby and mother would be honoured. The pregnant mother was established as a woman who was blessed and there was great excitement as the time of birth came closer. The mother was released to give time to her unborn baby as she spoke and sung to it. This all gave welcome to the child, affirming and blessing it, giving it identity and a great deal of value into it’s spirit and soul.

Satan on the other hand turns hearts against the babies and one of the biggest curses upon our babies today is that they are no longer safe even in the womb. There are a number of attacks on the child’s spirit at this stage – gender preference from parents, smoking, excess alcohol, drugs, sickness, rejection, marital instability. Once again Satan establishes a scheme to curse.

 

Stage 3

The birth was considered a wonderful time of rejoicing, with celebrations lasting until the eighth day naming ceremony (and circumcision for a baby boy). During this time the family spoke and prophesied over the little one, once again establishing it’s identity, and also speaking out it’s destiny according to the vision of faith the parents had for the child and the blessing of it’s name. In the Jewish culture the very meaning of the name indicated something of the identity or destiny of that child.

Satan also comes into this place through difficult deliveries, separation of mother, father, and child, bringing emotional retardation to the child by lack of welcome. Yet again Satan has established a scheme to curse.

 

Stage 4

Infancy was to be a time where security was established in the child through the nurture of the mother. Breast feeding brought a deep sense of security and intimacy. She was home with her children finding their strengths and weaknesses, teaching and training with gentleness and creativity, releasing them into their personality and gifts. Proverbs 22:6[8] God empowered women to do this so that they could establish a safe environment for trust.

Nowadays, Satan has brought such a different agenda into homes that many mothers go to work while the child is very young. This can open a door of vulnerability to Satan’s authority in that child. Incest, witchcraft, molestation, child pornography, neglect or rejection can all strike, establishing an inability to trust, resulting in independence.

 

Stage 5

From the age of thirteen, all Jewish children were recognised as adults. With a special celebration the father spoke over his now adult child and prophesied as to abilities and strengths, blessing the son or daughter. The father now took precedence in the training of his teenager and he released the child to look outward and forward, towards the future, away from the family home. Just as the mother had ministered to the spirit and the emotions of the child, the father now ministered into the mind and will of the young adult, reinforcing the establishment of identity, and providing training in how to reach his or her destiny. During this stage a prospective husband or wife was discussed and marriage was considered in depth and prayed for. Other concepts were also taught. The reaching of adulthood meant greater autonomy, and parents and teenagers entered into a new phase of authority interaction. They had to learn, for example, to agree on issues such as prospective husbands or wives, rather than the parents simply dictating their wishes.

We see nowadays so much destruction of the years called teenage years resulting from children not being released or blessed by authority into womanhood or manhood, with the result that we have adults still behaving like children. Many major choices are made during this stage and lack of wisdom and help can bring so much destruction.

 

Stage 6

The wedding day was a great opportunity to speak blessing into the new union. When there had been active blessing during the formative years, this became a natural progression of events. Parents, grandparents and friends were all involved on the wedding day, to bless the couple and release them to cleave to each other and establish a new unit of authority. Where the couple had kept themselves totally pure for this occasion, wedding day blessings became even more powerful. God desired for marriage to be a place for companionship, the closeness of intimacy and security, especially for future children, commitment etc.

Satan, as you would expect, has successfully brought marriage into disrepute, with many opting out of the marriage covenant. Blatant disrespect, adultery and control are rampart. Satan continues to turn blessing into cursing.

 

Stage 7

The children rose up and blessed the parents. This was the last stage of blessing, where the children, now adults, were able to return blessing and honour to those who had given them life. The honour and respect they had received from their parents during their growing up years was now able to be directed back towards their parents. Grandparents also brought aspects of blessing into the child’s life that no other person could. This honouring of parents brought the added blessing of long life and prosperity, promised in the Ten Commandments, upon themselves. Exodus 20:12[9]

When there has been a deterioration of good relationships between parents and offspring, perhaps because of resentment and pain that has accompanied those offspring into adulthood; there, more often than not, comes judgement. This judgement reaps its own defiling, as many children, now parents, do to their children the very same things they hated their parents doing to them. Dishonour always reaps more dishonour. For many people the authorities in their lives have brought them much cursing, and Satan has established a programme of dishonour that consistently brings destruction.

 

So what can we do about this?

When we become believers, we acknowledge a new authority in our lives, the Lord Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to take us from cursing to blessing. As we give him more and more authority he will take those schemes and programmes of Satan, and re-establish his original plans for us. No matter what captivity we have come under, his plans have always been to bless us and to give us a future and a hope. If we will only call on him, he will answer. Jeremiah 29:11[10] The secret to this success, though, is to give him that authority.

Many believers do not trust any authority and so consequently do not trust God’s authority in their lives. God, in his graciousness, gives us the time needed to learn to trust in different areas.

We discover in Numbers 6:22-27[11] that God gave authority to the priests to declare a blessing on the people. The result of this was that God’s name came on the people to empower them to prosper. As believers, we are called priests of God and he wants us to use this authority to bless others. This is part of our healing. As all areas come under God’s blessing, he empowers us to prosper and enables us to have the will power and the self-control to be more than conquerors and over-comers.

May the Spirit of Jesus empower you to become more and more like him as he heals and restores the areas that the enemy has held over you, and may you in turn become more and more like Jesus.

This paper seeks to accurately represent the teachings of Holy Scriptures. You are free to copy or alter all or any part of this paper PROVIDED that the Holy Scriptures are not misrepresented as a result.