In the name of the Lord Jesus, I declare that wonderful things will happen to you, and beautiful things will be accomplished in you! As a Christian, do you also bless others in this way? When we declare this, we are actually drawing on God's power with faith and bringing God's glory to earth! This is a declaration that pleases God! In this chapter, the teacher will lead us to distribute God's blessings through faith!
Reflection Questions:
Do you often offer prayers of blessing for others?
How can we pray a blessing for others that God will fulfill?
When you are in a prayer meeting, do you feel that time passes quickly or slowly? What kind of feelings do people have in a church where God's presence is strong?
In your opinion, what kind of church can have a strong presence of God?
Passing on God's Blessings
Chapter 8, verses 54-61, is called blessing others. I very much desire and hope that the brothers and sisters in the church will learn to bless their families. You do not need to make it very religious; they do not have to believe before you pray with them. If they say, I do not believe, do not force me to believe, and you stop there, you are stuck. Do not do that. The other day, I saw a sister who said she hoped her parents would believe in the Lord sooner so that she could lead them in prayer. Actually, it is not like that! It is to lead them in prayer first, to bless them: Mom and Dad, come, I will lead you in prayer; I will bless you. It is very simple, not difficult at all. I really want to bless you. Just lead him to say, In the name of Jesus, I declare: I believe that all good things will happen to me. After hearing this, he realizes, Oh, it's like that; there are such things? You can say, It is like that; you are about to experience God. So, let us learn to bless.
Solomon's Prayer of Blessing for the People
And so it was, when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, that he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying: “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers. And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel at all times, as each day requires, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day. (1 Kings 8:54-61)
God's Will is Blessing, So Learn to Speak Words of Wisdom
This is Solomon's prayer of blessing for his people. After the prayer of blessing, he began to speak these words. In these words, the latter part is about keeping and obeying, and the former part is about promises, and not one word of those promises will fail. So, you should often tell your family, when blessing them, I tell you, God has a promise in your life. Boldly say, God's promises are faithful; God will heal your illness, but you must turn back to God. If you turn back to God, God will surely heal you. Begin to always know that God's will is blessing and always speak words of blessing. Therefore, the Bible says: A word fitly Spoken is like apples of gold In settings of silver (Proverbs 25:11). How precious, right? A word spoken with great honor. Do not start learning to speak as if it were a rotten apple. It is a golden apple; start speaking well, speaking with wisdom, and then you will find that what you bless will be accomplished.
Declare Healing and Blessings with Faith, and God Will Accomplish It
Later, I discovered a very wonderful thing: sometimes I have no prompting at all, but I boldly speak as if I have a prompting, and later God accomplishes it. I will give you an example; I did not hear God tell me that he would burp. I said, Put your hand on your stomach; is your stomach uncomfortable? If your stomach is uncomfortable, put your hand on your stomach and pray. After a while, you will find that air is rising. I said it with faith, and in a moment, the air really did rise. I also said, Then you will burp from your mouth, and after burping, your eyes will brighten, and your body will feel lighter. It really happened like that! You know that that happening is not a physiological phenomenon; do not regard that as a physiological phenomenon. That is our God, the God who hears our prayers, who makes the words we speak not fail.
God is a God Who Works With Us
God is a God who works with us. I really do not want you to become God's puppets; God moves you, and you move; if God does not move, you do not move. That is not the most beautiful thing. You must become God's co-worker. Do you know what God's co-worker is like? God's co-worker is that you speak, and He takes care of it for you. This is called co-working. In a company, the boss sends an employee, saying, Go to Guangzhou on a business trip and negotiate business there. Negotiate, and if anything happens after the negotiation, I will take responsibility for you. As a boss, he cannot tell you to do one thing and you do one thing, he says two and you do two. You are in Guangzhou, and he is in Singapore; how does he know what happened? Some things require you to handle them decisively. When you handle them decisively and come back to tell the boss, I did not handle this matter very well, but I should learn to handle it better next time, the boss will answer you, No problem, since I sent you there, I have already given you the authority. You are my ambassador with full powers there. The boss will answer you like this because you represent him in doing things.
If it is like this in business, how much more is it when we work with God! I tell you, the worst employee you hire is the one who does 0.5 when you say one. If he does one when you say one, he is not a good employee either; if he does 1.5 when you say one, he is just about right; if he does two when you say one, that is a good employee, a very excellent employee, because he is thinking for you. If your thoughts and intentions can receive your boss's thoughts and intentions, that is the best employee. If you bother him with everything, you become a puppet; he might as well do it himself. The effort it takes to communicate with you would have been enough to get the job done long ago. So, we must learn not to be God's puppets; we are God's co-workers, working together with God.
If that is the clear will of God, such as praying for a sick person, healing is the will of God, and manifesting God's glory is the will of God, you do not need to ask God, Do you want to heal him? No need. god has already said, by my stripes you are healed, this has been said very clearly. Then, do you need to ask for instructions to bless others? No need. God's will is originally to bless all peoples, and all nations and peoples of the world will be blessed through you. Do you not think these words are very straightforward?
Blessing does not require instructions; you do not need to be stingy for God, God is not stingy at all. You do not need to be stingy either; what does it matter if you bless one or two people? May God have mercy, may God bless, often bless others, bless your own family, and call: In the name of Jesus, I bless you, Mom, may what you do find favor in the sight of my God, and may the God I serve make everything go smoothly for you. Is this not good? May the God I serve bless you and give you a healthy body. Is there any problem with these words? No problem. So, everyone learns to bless their families through these things, and slowly they begin to feel that your God is pretty good. Then, let us come together to believe in my God! Learn to know how to do God's work in this way, to bless.
Paying the Price for Things of God
In 2 Chronicles 8:65, at that time the Israelites consecrated the temple, establishing it as a dwelling place for God's name. Prayer in this place was particularly efficacious, and it undoubtedly possessed unique characteristics. The dedication of the temple involved the sacrifice of 120,000 sheep and 22,000 cattle, a scale that is hard for us to fathom. Preparing a single roast duck can disrupt our household, a roast lamb would be even more chaotic, and a roast bull would throw everything into complete disorder. The sacrifice of 120,000 sheep and 22,000 cattle is truly unimaginable. To spend so much time slaughtering one animal after another, without regard for the hours involved, indicates a devotion unmarred by complaint.
When a temple is built, and God's presence resides there, a distinct characteristic emerges: God's people cease to be concerned with the time spent, and they celebrate the festival for seven days. Even after the designated time, people remained. Do you understand that feeling? They stayed and celebrated for another seven days, and then another. It was only on the eighth day that the king dismissed the people, urging them to return home. And the people departed, filled with joy, to their dwellings. Do you see that?
Previously, I might have read these passages without much feeling, but today they resonate deeply. Have you noticed a characteristic of our church? Sometimes, after I emerge from the small room on Sundays, I see the small groups still leisurely talking away. I urge them to go home, reminding them that they have work the next day. I drive them away. I have observed a remarkable attribute of our church, indicative of God's presence. When you establish a temple, and that temple is filled with God's powerful presence,
and God's powerful presence is there, you will witness a remarkable phenomenon: the people are unwilling to leave. They genuinely desire to remain, content to sit there. I am amazed by how God orchestrates such extraordinary events. Our God truly performs these wondrous deeds, and I encourage everyone to understand this phenomenon. A disregard for time is a hallmark of God's presence. And when we disregard time, we also observe a peculiar outcome: nothing is neglected. It is truly astonishing.
If you believe that God's presence is the fundamental solution to all our problems, you will never haggle with God over time. If you do not begrudge God your time, God will certainly not begrudge you His. If you tell God, I'll attend to your affairs when I have time, then when you are in need, God might say, I'll attend to your affairs when I have time, and you will falter at critical moments. Why? Because the demons will attack you. Is it difficult for us to accept such a concept?
But today, if we embrace it, it seems easier than before. Before our church was transformed, if we had presented such ideas, I imagine everyone would have gathered in small groups at the hot pot restaurant after the service, denouncing Pastor Liu's nonsense and citing countless examples—all of them human examples. Today, I am sharing divine examples, no longer following human examples. People truly need God, they need to worship God, they need to devote their time to God, and then they can return home with joy.
As a result, the kingdom of Israel during that era became the most powerful in its history. Why? Because they did not begrudge the cost before God—the number of cattle, the number of sheep, the amount of time. The seven days of worship were meant to conclude, but they stayed for another seven days. It is a marvelous thing. What did they do there all day? They sang hymns and worshiped God, for fourteen days they worshiped God. It is truly remarkable! Therefore, I believe that if God moves everyone in the future, we should continuously worship our God for days on end. It would be an exceptionally beautiful thing! In the future, if God grants us a small building, we will begin to build a temple, and then we will praise our God within it. We will all set aside our work, and I believe God will bestow even more wondrous grace, causing your work and your life to prosper exceedingly. Amen!