Bless Those Who Curse You [Part 2]

Pastor author and Bible teacher Alan writing there is a power that is released in speaking blessing for the fleshly brother speakers and the reason that this is so powerful is because there is a principle of faith is at work and God designed everything to operate by faith in what you expect, you're more likely to get. That's Pastor Alan Wright welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm being excited for you to hear today's message in a series titled the power of blessing is presented with an older church in North Carolina you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright ministry as you listen to today's message go deeper as we send you today special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org that's Pastor Alan.org or call 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860.

More on that later in the program but right now let's get started with today's teaching here is Alan Wright for number coming under the sound of my voice you been really hurt people that have not respected you and maybe have sought to use you and for people who have grown up a lot of shame people been in abusive relationships. You hear these words. Bless those who curse you, and it could sound a whole lot like the very dysfunction you're trying to escape and clearly there are some things that we must say I in general response to to to these kinds of questions number one I do not believe that the Bible is saying that there's not a place for governments with armies that must stop tyrants that that's that's not is not described here and I don't think that's the view of Scripture set there is that there is a timeline that evil just you. You have to stamp it out is not saying that when you are being treated like the doormat that you're supposed to just lie there and be miss treated Jesus came and died for you. And when he did he demonstrated to you that you were worth his life. You are worth an infinite price and so every single human being is made in the image of God and you beloved are a treasure to him in your life is treasure what you who you are is a treasure and and worthy of protecting your thoughts and your body and your time and your boundaries. All of this really matters. So this is be clear that we talk about this were not talking about about. We shouldn't try to stop Hitler and we should just bless him and were not talking about losing our healthy boundaries were talking instead about a spiritual dynamic that comes up in the course of everyday life and sometimes it's a little ways and your family and sometimes it's in bigger ways that do impact the way that we can interact with the culture around us and I want to just talk to you for a few moments about how powerful this really actually is and maybe you've seen instances of this in your own life. One of the pioneers in and speaking about the power blessing is a passionate bill Ligon and he tells a story about some parishioners. He had that had 1/7 grader who had had really failed seventh grade and was repeating the grade and was again not study and not paying attention being disruptive and was about to fail. The grade again if something didn't change in their desperation to call their pastor to come and pray with them is that we tried everything and as a pastor, listen, he realized that the teachers had developed a real negative image of the student and that the parents had also developed a real negative image, and in fact they were saying things like, you continue making grades like this and you're never going to amount to anything. He began to explain to them that really that was tantamount to curse you to talk to them about the power blessing and changing the kind of statements that they were making over their son to begin to envision and and and see him succeeding as a student and instead of instead of just spewing out all the negative things that they saw to begin to to affirm that is a bright kid and pastor Ligon said he met with the.

The student, and he said what he realizes this is a bright young man who was very defeated and so he spent a long time hours over period of time talking to this seventh grader about the power blessing and and is easy.

Talk to Marrazzo student was felt so defeated by his teachers.

The teachers have no respect for him and so he trained him up in this and finally when he was ready, send it to two on a mission to school, and in this student succeeded in doing just as he went to each one of his teachers and he said I'm sorry for the way that I've been acting but I believe that you're an excellent teacher and I hope God raises you up to be a star teacher in the school and one of his teachers looking so I don't believe a word that you're saying you had succeeded in the past and I don't see you succeed in the future, and he said will sorry that you feel that way. Understand that. He said, but I still believe that you're an excellent teacher and I hope that your eyes are to be a star teacher in the school and you look back insisted well if you really feel that way the maybe maybe we'll try to give it a fresh start and he started making all A's and B's. He continued to finished all of his schooling, career, and he will become a jet pilot and had a prosperous career there. There is this an individual relationships but it also can be. There's an impact in the world usually move this week and hearing some stories from some dear friends. It really is a story that started in November 2002, when a strikingly beautiful newlywed woman named Bonnie whether all in November 2002 was serving as a Christian missionary at the Christian mission and alliance ministry near the refugee camp in Lebanon that was helping so many of the refugees and Muslim children and she particular, was working with a Muslim women and helping them and educating them and also working with the children and in November 2002 somebody came and and from close range shot her in the head three times the New York Times ran at that time the whole the whole back cup of the Backpage half of it out was on and then enter funeral, ran the on the front page there a lot of articles that you could still read online about this mystery from the New York Times what was going on here shake mood said this is according to the New York Times, Muslim religious leaders grew wary of the Christian and missionary alliance because its members combined computer lessons English instruction and gift of toys and candy with Sunday school classes for hundreds of Muslim children and the particular shake said it was upsetting to hear this because they were trying to exploit their poverty to try to get them to change their religion and evidently a number of the clerics began to preach against the Christian missionary alliance and particularly one influential Muslim monthly publication called the pulpit of the calling denounced the group and it said quote they destroy the fighting spirit of the children, especially of the Palestinian youth by teaching them not to fight the Jews.

This kind of thing was evidently being broadcast among some of the religious leaders and some I took it to heart. And then when they shot this beautiful young lady on your flesh.

Everything within you as a Christian, once you know what what what you want to say your flesh will society will lose. Never serve them again this letter be uneducated. Let them starve letter if that's what you want right. This always happen reasonably of the stores because of some very good friends of mine who have traveled to that region numerous times if I want my friends claim Andrea's that you grew up there right near Sidon in Lebanon and that he and my friend Jay Helvey. They've they've traveled and taken other people from the city. Men fellowship became society and what they've done.

Instead, over the years is continue to help the refugees.

Refugees from the Syrian Civil War or just flooding out by the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands and the biggest refugee camps is is is right there near Sidon, and also tons of refugees down in southern Lebanon attire and our guys. My friends have been there to just encourage those some of those few evangelical Christians are on the front line.

They developed a relationship with a pastor named Mohammed. Jan looked and I pastor Mohammed just loves Jesus and he loves all those kids and they supply blankets and supplies, and they sure love to those kids. Some of our own guys here have helped to build a school and I helped him to buy a van other thing is interesting about this is it right here in the midst of this community which is so hostile to Christianity. Pastor Mohammed van clearly says on the side the tire center for gospel proclamation and he just rides it in and out everywhere and nobody harms them.

Why so much love so much love is love and their kids right it is hard to hate semi.

This love and your kids, and what's happening is the pastors there are telling us that more Muslims are coming to Christ than they've ever seen ever there is a power that is released in speaking blessing where the flesh would rather speak curse and the reason that this is so powerful is because there is a principle of faith that is at work and God designed everything to operate by faith in what you expect, you're more likely to get, you're more likely to get. It has to do with the principle of sowing and reaping in the book of Genesis right in the beginning describes a God made every kind of plan for seedtime and harvest that everything in this world operates by seedtime and harvest, what is that mean it means a guide to the design it anyway he wanted with the way design it was little seeds that have incited that little seed the potency the fullness of the potential of the whole big tree and what we learned is that every single thing reproduces after its own kind. I just couldn't tell you anything more important about this principle, except that everything in God's universe reproduces after its own kind you will never ever plant an orange seed and get an apple tree that's Alan Wright will have more teaching moment. Today's important series. Set your mind on God's blessing instead of the curses of the world. This special offer from Alan Wright Ministries will help you with the release of Pastor Alan's new book having a blast. We created a flip style devotional for your gasification Beautiful spiral-bound devotional offers 28 days of inspiration.

Utilizing some of the most moving excerpts from the nubuck using day for four weeks. Keep the premises and assurance of God's blessing right in front of you, to Philippians whatever is true, commendable, in particular, think on these things make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries today and will send you the inspirational flip style devotional as I thank you for your partnership. Each spiral-bound devotional come to the convening style stand seeking keep inspiration in front of you and fill your heart with God's blessing the gospel is shared when you get to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you get today.

We will send you a special offer that we are in our final days of offering the special product, seven 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website pastor. Our.like today's teaching now continues you once again is Alan Wright you'll never get unity by sewing division you'll never get peace by sowing discord and angst. The seed that is planted has the full potential of the entire tree that then bears the fruit and inside that fruit is more seed now. Spiritually, this is what happens and I'd like for you to think of every word that you speak spiritually as a seed, this is the way Bible speaks of the words of our mouth that the tongue has the power of life and death. This is how strongly the Bible speaks about this that there is something that is going on that is of a spiritual principle here and if you can recognize this in the fullness of what it means. It begins to change your paradigm. John and Paula Sanford were pioneers and the whole ministry of energy healing and one of the things that they taught us about was the power of Bitterroot expectancy and judgment. What happened was that John grew up with a mother who was controlling and nagging and Paula. She grew up with a father who traveled and was emotionally absent in the last thing John wanted was to be married to a woman who was controlling and nagging and the last thing Paula wanted to be married to a man who was emotionally absent. They got married. Guess what, the more the more they got into it the more emotionally absent, and more. He traveled as a pastor, and the more she became controlling and nagging in response to begin to seek the Lord about this and what they discovered was on the very importance related to this principle, sowing and reaping my realize that they had form judgments in their hearts that John had form without realizing the judgment is that you know women ultimately going to be controlling and nagging and appalling.

Informed judgment in her heart. She had a false belief that said, it also my men when you need him there not to be there for you. What happened was, was they began unconsciously to expect this from one another to the judgment that they held created expectation and expectation was reaping the very thing that they didn't want. In other words, the more the John treated her, expecting her to be a nag more.

She was the more that she's treated him as though she expected him to be emotionally absent. The more he was. In other words, they were selling the very seed of the thing they didn't want to reap when they recognize this and they renounced those things and they began to to say no.

I don't unhook the holder judgment that this is who you're going to be, you know you're destined to be, and begin to bless each other everything began to change in their marriage because the power of sowing and reaping is just a spiritual law, here's here's here's a good final question, talk about the problem of this and, how powerful it is.

But how could it be possible, how can it be possible that we would ever actually really think like this on a daily basis. Oranges offer a couple of clicks. A suggestion to you and they were to pray for one another.

Okay. The first is that I think that we really can train ourselves by the revelation of truth other words, when the farmer goes out to sow the seed for his corn harvest. He makes a decision I'm going to see. I want corn someone so some seed and he decides a Minnesota the corn out things important to see about this is that farmer the corn that he's going to get it really didn't depend on whether he wanted to plant that corn and felt like it that morning.

They could've been cold. He could've been tired, but he gets up goes out and sews the currency. It doesn't have anything to do with whether he just felt great about it and had to do instead with the fact that he does know that corn seed produces corn that's want to invite you to begin to think about what would it look like it if you just recognize that the power of blessing is unto itself a spiritual principle that you can cooperate with their just things in the world. We have to cooperate with gravity, you might just say what I can fly I can fly but you jump off a ledge you're going to get hurt because you're not gonna change that principle in your knuckle change is principally that we reap what we sow that you but it just helps me because I do want to live my life in a way that works and I think that oftentimes this will just trump our spirit, our fleshly appetite. We have a spiritual revelation of what actually works and just remember that the the blessing works and cursed doesn't. And you're never going to get the result you want by simply returning curse for curse.

The second thing I would suggest and will pray with you this morning is to ask God for the continued infilling of the Holy Spirit and ask him to grant you the grace to yield your life more and more to the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit produces fruit in your life. The Holy Spirit always produces law and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and self-control. This is who God is in God lives inside of you by the presence of the Holy Spirit help you can grow in your sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and you can grow in your yielded nest to the Holy Spirit and the good news of this is that this means the Holy Spirit in you is always wanting to bless and never to curse because this is the nature of Jesus and you have the spirit of Jesus and you, Jesus came and died for us and blessed us while we only knew how to curse God.

He came into the enemy territory and died for his very enemies and this Jesus lives in you by the power of the Holy Spirit in the presence Holy Spirit. Let's pray for one another that we will be continually filled with the Holy Spirit and let him mold our thoughts and our actions and our words and here's 1/3 suggestion. If you want to really live this out in your life and that is instead of thinking much about all the things you need to do think much about Jesus and what he has done.

I am absolutely convinced that this is the secret of the gospel's power being unleashed in our lives. Is it we focus our hearts on Jesus whose author and the finisher of our faith because if you need courage to face a difficult thing. You look to the one who is gone before you. As your champion, a defeated enemy on your behalf, and made the way of victory possible. And then you have courage. And when it comes to blessing those that curse you, if you look to the one who is calm and blessed you instead of cursed you the one who came not to condemn but to save you and you see him in his risen glory and see the countenance of the Lord lifted up upon you. What happens to you is your entire being is transformed by this one of most instructive stories about forgiveness is the story of Stephen who was the first Christian martyr.

He was the deacon and he was full of the Holy Spirit and we read about in acts chapter 7, the being for the Holy Spirit. He gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, but they cried out with a loud voice, and they stop their ears and they rushed together at him and then they cast them out of the city and they stoned him and as the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul and they were stoning Stephen he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit and falling to his knees. The text says he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them when he said this, he fell asleep.

Stephen asked the Lord to forgive those that were killing him. He was blessing the very ones that were stoning him to death, and how was this possible, it was possible because he had a vision of the risen Lord Jesus didn't forgive by simply saying you not want to forgive now and and I may not feel like it, but I want to go ahead and choose and forget there was something much more transcendent than that going on. His heart was fixed upon Jesus and in a revelation of the glory of God in all of his grace, and what that vision does fills you up with a whole new capacity a spiritual wealth, in which he truly wanted God to forgive and save these people, even as Stephen himself had been redeemed and saved by the Lord's grace and when he prayed that prayer an extraordinary thing happened.

God honored it many but he honored that for this one man who was named Saul of Tarsus, who later becomes the apostle Paul and the Lord heard Stephen's prayer and later he brought a blinding light upon Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, and Paul became the preacher of the gospel to the Gentiles. And so you and I are here likely because of Stephen blessing his enemies.

This is what a vision of Jesus will do. You can have a whole new paradigm and see the truth is my flesh wants to curse but it does not work, you can ask God for the continued infilling of the Holy Spirit and you could have your eyes fixed upon Jesus whose author and the finisher is the way in which he saved you as a king and loved you before you ever knew how to love him because he lives in you. You can do the same lesson gospel. Today's good news mess. Bless those who curse you from the teaching series, the power of blessing and past real is back in the studio here in just a moment sharing with us his parting good news thought for the day, such amount on God's blessing instead of the curses of the world.

This special offer from Alan my ministries will help coincide with the release of Pastor Alan's new book having a blast creative clip style devotional for your gasification counting beautiful spiral-bound devotional offers 28 days of inspiration. Utilizing some of the most moving excerpts from the nubuck using day by day for four weeks. Keep the premises and assurance of God's blessing right in front of you, to Philippians whatever is true, noble, right, in particular, think on these things make a gift to Alan my ministries today and will send you an inspirational flip style devotional as I thank you for your partnership. Each spiral-bound devotional come to the convening style stand seeking keep his inspiration in front of you and fill your heart with God's blessing the gospel is shared when you get to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you get today. We will send you a special offer. We are in our final days of offering the special product color seven 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website.

Pastor our and dielectric now sitting with pastor and in our parting good news thought for the day. Bless those who curse you, by the way, the teaching series, the power of blessing and Pastor Alan's latest book is the power to bless how to speak life and empower the people you love. It's available wherever good books are sold. Right now you can get it through Amazon and Barnes & Noble online. I past row and.or there also some other formats of the book available if you prefer an audiobook. For instance, and it's available and we encourage you to get your hands on it in today's teaching. Bless those who curse you are.

Some people easier to bless than others.

I'm I'm talking about their ability to receive a blessing.

Have you found that to be true that some people are less than others will… Be honest about it when their people that we just don't like is just very hard to bless them and made a part of this is. That's all issue of love because a review semi you don't love you don't want to go well for them. That's part of the definition of love is you want it to go well for the person that you love so when you practice blessing even if you're just making a choice to bless you my so I don't feel affection for this person, but I will choose to bless that life your implementing the very nature of God and what you find. And I think often as you begin to bless that sometimes then you'll find with it the love then grows like when you pray for somebody that you may not like. But as you do pray for them, then you'll find your own heart changing, so it is with the power blessing so who is at the drama the hardest time get along with, well, private person you most. Today's good news mess it is a listener supported production Alan Wright Ministries