UNDERSTANDING THE BLESSING

Gen. 1:26-28

We begin the year with THE BEGINNING. And i foresee that there are many references God will make to that scriptural place in the quarter beginning this year.

Genesis 1:26-28, we know the story. God had thought aloud about his intention to replicate Himself and the rest of the Godhead in a project called MAN. And now He got just what He wanted. Then at first inspection, His very next move was this:

"....And God Blessed them...." Gen. 1:28

Short but powerful. Words of Power! Revelation! Words that could evoke serial sermons for a lifetime. Very pregnant and Turgid!

When God saw man, He felt like blessing "him" ("her"inclusive, for this discourse).
The BLESSING, "Barak", was God's first interaction with man. The BLESSING was God's first feeling for man. It was God's spontaneity and it is His original emotion for man. It is God's "Truest" feeling for man.

When God was left to interact with man, He was found blessing him (man). He wasn't under any pressure. He was under no duress neither was He considering any third party suggestions. It was purely organic. It was intuition. It was the way He felt. This was love at first sight. Here alone do i agree with that phenomenon. How did God feel about man when He first sighted him (man)? He felt like blessing him (man)! Man is an object of God's blessing and is that creature that tickles God's "B-SPOT".

Before the Words PRAYER, PRAISE, HOLINESS show up in scripture, even that which we call EVANGELISM....and DISCIPLESHIP, we come across this beautiful word - BLESSING. Before God ever placed any demand or requirement on man, He had recourse to this thing and did it on man.

Shame on Satan! He has soiled this beautiful word unto the body of Christ, and that word,"PROSPERITY", too.
But the BLESSING is as ancient as creation. It captures God's true feeling for man. We are treading on something very serious. Without the interference of any "third party", God's intention is to get man under His blessing. And He can do anything in the world to achieve that.

Do you not know, friend, how God truly feels about you? He felt like blessing you and I bet that He still feels the same way today. His feelings are yet to change. Do you not know that EVERYTHING He does to you is with a goal in mind - to get you out of the Curse effects of Sin and to get you perfectly and practically under His blessing?

The BLESSING is always evoked.

The Blessing cannot be made up. It cannot be acted up. It cannot be recited. It cannot be Mechanical. It must be triggered. A rod must hit its Rock and its water must come gushing. Its "amniotic sac" must be punctured, for it is a water-break! It is a water-break! The release of authentic, organic, "OPTION A" blessings, is like the breaking of a jar of water. It is a spill-out! It might be for a short moment, but spontaneous and very Intense.

The "Blesser" is so stirred that he seems to be in another realm. He makes the most gracious utterances of his life. This is how God gets to make such beautiful promises and Long-term commitments as that found in Gen. 8:22:

"...As long as the Earth remains, seed time and Harvest time, Cold and heat, Winter and Summer, And day and night shall not cease..."

Those are delicate statements. God had been moved to make commitment.

But what preceded it?

"Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, And took of every clean animal and or every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. AND THE LORD SMELLED A SOOTHING AROMA. THEN THE LORD SAID IN HIS HEART...." Gen.8:20-21

With Isaac's Blessing the other day, the secret is the same. Gen.27. Isaac wanted to release prophetic blessings on his son, but he knew how it works, it could not be stage-managed. It must be evoked. So he directed his favourite son to get his favourite meal so that all of it would end in ecstasy. Hear his specification:

"...Make Savory food SUCH AS I LOVE...that I may eat, THAT MY SOUL MAY BLESS YOU before I die.." Gen. 27:4

It must be his favourite, that Isaac's soul might be delighted. It must not be something else. It must be "such as he loves", so that the sac of BLESSING might be strciken and it might break. Those who want to get blessed are those who fulfill the pleasure of the "Blesser". This is the mystery with delighting the Lord. Those who delight Him, to His very Soul, meddle with a mighty release of blessings.

Unfortunately for Esau, Jacob came first. He brought THE GAME (as verse 19 puts it) and he got the blessing. And this is how I know that the Authentic, OPTION A blessing is never mechanical - Esau too came and sought to get the blessing. But the Sensation was gone. Papa (Isaac) was already full. Esau wept bitterly for it but there there was not much that Papa could Do. Someone else already stirred his soul and evoked the utterances. But for the sheer persistence of Esau, he was given the alternative - OPTION B; Nothing serious or deep! Clichè!

"....By your sword you shall live, And you shall serve your brother. And it shall come to pass, when you become restless, then you shall break his yoke from your neck.."

Oh what a BLESSING! Crumbs! He got the crumbs of the loaf. The real thing had been gifted out, for the true blessing must be evoked.

And Oh we might speak of the freely-flowing blessings that we have in Christ. But again, they are not mechanical. They were evoked. Ephesians 5:2 helps us:

"And walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, AN OFFERING AND A SACRIFICE TO GOD FOR A SWEET-SMELLING AROMA."

We have a blessing in Christ because God SMELLED something. His "B-spot" was appeased. The Blessings came organically in reaction to Christ's soothing sacrifice!

In Christ's case, God smelled something.
In Noah's case, God smelled something
In Isaac's case, Isaac ate something.

But in the case of our initial reference - Genesis 1, God SAW Something. It was about what God saw. Something must evoke the blessing. There before Him stood a creature made just like Him. He looked round. He checked him. He was amused. He looked again. He had never seen anything like it before. His hands had never before made anything like that. He got excited, and before He knew it, He was in another realm, He was in the realm of Blessings! ...

© Pastor Faith Oluwagbesan
Lead Pastor, FGC CWB