Benedictions

All around the world, men and women, people of all ages, have witnessed the awesome manifestation of God's presence, power and His love rendered in words, words beyond the written pages.
Why are we preaching like this?
Why do we travel all around the world, preaching the gospel?
Because Jesus is coming again.
and he left us with a message to tell the untold, a message for the whole world.
This message of faith in God and his unfailing word has brought about change in the lives of millions around the world, an improvement that brings many more to such meetings with the Man of God, knowing that their lives will never be the same again.
Today, we bring you excerpts from a special meeting with our Man of God, Pastor Chris.
Pastor Chris, we're hearing.
The benedictions.
What is a benediction?

What is a benediction?
A benediction
is an invocation of blessing.

It's an invocation of blessing in prayer, usually in words of prayer.
Now, when we use the term blessing, there are not so many people that really know
What it means, what is the meaning of the word blessing?
Of course, it's to bless, right?
What is it to bless?
What does it mean to bless?
What does that word really mean?
When you say, I am blessed,
or I bless you, God bless you.
What does it mean?
A lot of times we use terms that seem to be religious and we just grew up with them.
Nobody ever told us what they meant.
And we never of ourselves took the time to find out what they actually meant.
And because we never knew the meaning, it had little power, little effect in our lives.
For example, when someone greets you, God bless you.
What does it really mean to you?
It's just like a nice church greeting.
That's what it is to a lot of people.
I know because I greet a lot of people and they say, God bless you.
And I notice
It doesn't really get home to them.
They don't know what it means.
They hear it.
And I said, thank you, Pastor.
But did they really get it?
Did they know the meaning?
Most have never known what it is to bless.
In fact, in many dictionaries, they don't even know what it is.
It's amazing.
Why?
Because how many times have you heard a politician say, I want to bless my country?
They don't use that term.
They might put it at the end of a prayer and say, God bless Nigeria.
God bless the United Kingdom.
God bless the Queen, maybe.
But they really don't know what it is.
You checked most dictionaries.
They can't define it.
I don't know what it is.
Because most of them have never lived in real blessing.
They don't know what it is.
When you know the meaning, you know how to live in it.
You become conscious of it.
Then it really works for you.
All those that it worked for in Bible days knew what it meant.
All right, so first we've defined what a benediction is.
And then we used a complex, but common word,
blessing.
We said, a benediction is an invocation of a blessing.
So I said, so what is it to bless?
To bless means to empower to prosper.
Which means a blessing is an empowerment of prosperity.
When you say, this man is blessed, it means this man has been empowered to prosper.
To prosper means that everything goes well for him.
Things go well.
He would do well financially.
He will do well materially.
He will do well in everything.
It means that everything he does or everything that's connected to him prospers, it works.
It means he always would live in increase.

And then he cannot be defeated.
Because He is protected and preserved.
That's part of prosperity.
Preservation is part of prosperity.
Protection is part of prosperity.
Favour, He is divinely favored.
Favour is in prosperity.

So when you say that man is a prosperous man, it means everything goes well with him.
Now that doesn't mean that they don't face challenges, but it means that they always win.
They always win.
Where others fail they win.
So that's why blessings are so important.
But when people don't know what they mean, even when you say, God bless you, they don't know what that means.
It doesn't work for them.
It doesn't work for them.
Because it's just a religious turn to them.
It doesn't work.
So you find they are not empowered.
They're not empowered.
The favor doesn't show up.
That well-being that is required in life isn't there.
The in and out of sickness, things are working out for them.
It just keeps failing, failing.
They're not living in blessing.

All right, so do you understand what it is to bless now?
So next time I say, God bless you,
You know what it means.
You receive it.
There are some people who know what it is.
When I say, God blesses, I receive faster, I receive it.
Then I receive it.
But some of them just say, thank you, sir.
They say, thank you.
They think it's a kind greeting like good money.
They don't even understand good.
Even good money is a blessing.
But some don't know.
They were taught to say, good money, daddy.
For daddy, good money, mommy.
So it's a greeting.
Oh.
Put a premium on words.
Did you hear what I said?
Be a master of words.
Jesus was a master of words.
All right.
So first thing is we just dealt with what a benediction is.
And we're going to go to something else.
Who gives benedictions?
All right, we will have to see this from the Scripture, all right?
So we know whether it works.
Is it everybody who does it?
Who can do it and it works?
First thing we have to look at is Hebrews chapter 7 and verse number 7.
Hebrews chapter 7 and verse number 7.
Have you seen it?
Without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better.
Now, the words in Greek that are translated less and better refer to ranks, okay, seniority, which means someone of a higher rank can bless someone of a lower rank.
It's not talking about someone that's better than you as a person.
He's dealing with position.
That's what he's dealing with.
So, for example, a father or a parent, a father or mother, can bless the children.
The less is blessed of the better.
And I said, don't be misled by those words.
In the Greek, they refer to rank, position, not quality.
So a parent can bless the children.
You see that in the Bible.
And then again, the priests.
In the Old Testament, we're asked to bless the congregation of Israel.
In the New Testament, you find the same thing.
Leaders of congregations blessing the people, like Paul, the Apostle, blessing the churches.
You cannot bless one that is not blessed.
This is a mystery.
You can only bless one that has been blessed, which means God wants us to utter words, bring into effect the blessings that have already been ordained of Him.
If one is not blessed, you're wasting time trying to bless Him.
Everyone who's born again is called to inherit a blessing.
But I'm going to show you this.
Book of Numbers, Old Testament, chapter number six.
Let's begin reading from verse 22.
I want to show you this principle real quick.
From verse 22, and the Lord spake unto Moses, say in verse 23, speak unto Aaron and unto his sons.
Now, who was Aaron?
Aaron was the high priest.
Aaron was the high priest.
And his sons were priests.
So God said, speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, on this wise, he shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them.
He says, this is the way to bless the children of Israel.
He says, to the high priest and his priests, his sons, he says, this is the way to bless the children of Israel.
You got to do it.
So he goes on to tell them, verse 24,
saying, the Lord bless thee.
He says, say these words to the children of Israel.
Bless them with these words.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
Stop for a second.
How many of you ever heard that the Jewish people are the most prosperous and successful people in human history?
They are, till this day.
Till this day is amazing.
The greatest innovations in the world were created by the Jews, including the cell phones you all have.
The cell phones were developed by the Jews.
Almost all the major things in the world.
Why?
This.
Let's put it back there.
Watch.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
The Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.
Imagine the congregation of Israel gathered and the priests are saying this upon them.
Every time they come together, the priests will say these words upon them.
Every time they come together, the priest will say these words upon them.
They're still doing these things in their various gathering places today.
They're still doing it.
I said, Warren's the prosperous Jewish man.
I said, why are the Jews so prosperous?
And he went on to tell me.
But those things were just the same things are right in the Bible.
They're there.
Let's follow this.
Are you here?
So he goes, the Lord, make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.
Next verse.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.
So he says, and they, God's talking, and they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and what I will bless them.

God already blessed them because they're the seed of Abraham.
And then he tells the priest what to do so that he will continue to bless them.
He says, and I will bless them.
I thought he already did.

But this is the mystery.
And many Christians don't realize, according to the Bible, you have better promises than the Jews ever had.
They don't know this.
The blessings upon the new creation are far greater.
Number one, it includes all the blessings that they were blessed with and much more.
All the blessings they were blessed with and much more that they never knew and will never know as Jews until they give their hearts to Jesus Christ and be born again.
Think about it.
But if we don't teach God's people, they will never know, and they will never walk in such prosperity.
But guess what?
The church is rising and learning now.
And that's what we're teaching.
That's what we're on every platform.
Showing the good news of the gospel of Christ around the world.
So man can come into the knowledge of the blessings of Christ.
then you'd no longer be saying, the Jews are the most prosperous people, you're gonna say, those who are born again, the new creation are the most prosperous people in the face of the earth.
Because that's God's plan.
That's what's going.
There are blessings, there are blessings of the old, the Old Testament.
And the blessings of the New Testament include all the blessings of the Old Testament in much more.
Hallelujah.
And that's why you have to know these things.
You've got to learn these things.
And pastors have to know them.
Otherwise, they will not bless their congregations.
They will use innuendos to curse them without knowing.
Without knowing.
Many Christians are only acquainted with curses.
How many books have you seen on blessings?
No?
They write books on curses.
It's terrible.
How to curse their enemies.
And yet Jesus says, bless and curse not.
Glory to God.
Let's look at a few more examples in the Bible.
Hebrews chapter number three, no, no, no, chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11.
And we're going to read from verse number 20.

By faith, you see, when they did it, they did it by faith because they have faith comes by hearing God's word.
When you bless, they don't empty words.
They don't empty words.
You don't just form words.
You're like, no, no, no, no, no.
If it's got to be by faith and the faith that is connected to God, then it's got to be based on the revelation of God's word.
For example, here the Bible says, by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau.
Now Jacob and Esau were his sons.
Isaac was their daddy.
Now he's going to bless them.
He's not going to bless them just like with ordinary words or just the father's words to children.
No, no, no, no.
He's going to do it by faith, by revelation, because it's got to be consistent with God's Word.
It's got to be consistent with God's plan.
I said, you can't bless anyone except that one has been blessed of God.
If the man is not blessed of God, you're wasting your time.
Glory to God.
Look at it.
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come, concerning their future.
He blessed them.
Next verse.
By faith, Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, his grand sons, and worshiped, leaning upon the top of his staff.
That's amazing.
Think about it.
He blessed them.
even when it was difficult for him to see.
In fact, the Bible says he couldn't see them.
So he blessed them by faith to the point that when Joseph, the father of the boys, thought that his father was making a mistake by putting the left hand on the senior one, the older one, and the right hand on the younger one, Joseph thought his father made a mistake and changed their positions.
Now, when he changed their positions, he was surprised.
His father crossed his hands.
Then he said, my father, please put your right hand on the older one and your left hand on the younger one.
And Jacob said, I know my son, I know.
He said, but truly the younger one will be greater.
You see, he wasn't just blessing.
He was blessing by faith.
He was seen into the future.
And by the words of blessing, he's invoking those
You know, the kind of future that God had planned for the children, He's bringing them to pass in the spirits.
This is why if people are not blessed, even though God had a good plan for them, they will never fulfill them.
Because no one to order the blessing into their lives.
One of the reasons to be in the right church.
Very important.
Very important.
because it will help you journey in the course that God has planned for you.
Pastor Chris will be right back.
There is nothing impossible for us as Christians to change.
Through our faith proclamation, we can affect changes to any situation in the realm of the Spirit.
It's the word dependable.
Does it mean what it says?
Can we trust it?
Can we live by it?
The word is absolutely trustworthy, absolutely dependable.
When you receive this word into you, you are receiving of his spirit, you are receiving of his life.
His word is leverage and act.
when we use the name of Jesus as a legal thing.
I expect a result when I use the name of Jesus.
That's the word that gave birth to us.
So you can see I'm alive with the life of God, because I was born of the word.
This is the integrity of the word.
But you can download this message on Pastor Chris Digital Library app for digital downloads available on Google Play Store.

Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
You're still there?
The power of benedictions.
Wow.
Look at Ezekiel chapter 44 and verse number 30.

He says, and the first of all the first fruits, now the word first, really means best.
The best.
Of all the first fruits of all things, and every oblation of all, oblations are offerings, okay?
Oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations shall be the priests.
You shall also give on to the priest the first of your dough.
That, read the rest part.
That what?
Read it one more time.
That He may cause the blessing to rest in your house.
How powerful is that?
That He may cause the blessing to rest in your house.
He's talking about when you give your first fruits, your first fruits offerings.
And all the offerings, it says, and all the oblations, all your oblations of every kind,
All right?
What did he say?
He gave it to the priest, the house of God, not to your grandmom.
You must give to your grandmom.
You must give to your mom, your dad, whoever.
You must give and even give arms to the poor.
But it's not talking about your offering.
Your offering is given to God.
He's not talking about your first free offerings and your tithes.
You give those to God.
And it says, and what does the priest do?
The priest will cost the blessing to stay in your house.
See, the blessing will work because the priest is ordained of God to order blessings by revelation.
So while a lot of Christians struggle, do a lot of things, and instead of making progress,
They're either turning around in the same place for many years.
They're really to progress.
They're really to.
Because most are not taught over to God.
They have no idea.

Praise God.
All right.
Let me show you another thing.
You want to see this?
Numbers.
Book of Numbers in chapter number 23.
I'm reading from the 18th verse.
Now let me give you the background.
Balak, the king of Moab, was angry with Israel, the people of Israel.
And he knew that the only way to destroy them
would be to curse them, to put a curse on them.
Do you know these things happen today?
Somebody goes to a native doctor, hires a native doctor to put a curse on his colleague in the office so that he can take his position.
And that colleague, one day just either goes mad or has some sickness that cannot be cured.
He can come back to work.
They do it in politics.
They do it in business.
They hire someone to put a curse on another person.
It works.
Don't say it doesn't.
It works because I've seen these things work.
I've had to help some people out who were on the curse.
Sometimes those who have been cursed don't even know that it's a curse that's working on them.
No doctor can help them no matter what they try.
They spend a lot of money.
They try everything.
Sometimes they put a curse on their son or daughter.
They will use everything they have to try to cure that child.
Never works until it brings them to poverty.
So Belak, the king of Moab, hired a prophet by the name of Belam.
And Belam was asked to curse Israel.
Initially he didn't want to go, but finally when they offered him money, they offered the prophet money to curse Israel.
He agreed to do it.
But then when he tried to,
Let's read.
You ready?
Numbers chapter 23, and we are reading from verse 18.
And it took up his parable and said, rise up, Belak.
And here, how can unto me thou son of Zippo?
God is not a man that he should lie now.
This is Belam talking.
This is Belam the prophet.
He's talking to Belak.
He says, God is not a man that he should lie.
Neither is not a man that he should repent.
Had he said, and shall he not do it?
Or had he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Behold, I have received commandment of bless.

See, he's hired to curse God's people.
He's yours God's people.
He's trying to curse, but he can't.
God commands him to bless instead.
So he says, I have received commandment to bless, and he, God, had to bless, and I cannot reverse it.
Brother, if you're truly blessed with God, nothing in this world.
That's why you should never be afraid of being cursed.
Once you are born again.

Once you are born again.
No curse.
No curse can destroy life.
The only way it can happen is if you make it happen.
You are the only one that can make it happen.
And today is not the day to discuss that.
But you are the only one that can make a curse happen for you.
outside of your help, as a born-again person, outside of your help, no one can curse you.
But everyone else who's not born-again can be cursed.
Oh, come on, put that scripture back up there, let's read again.
It says, "'Behold, I have received commandment to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.'"
One or two reading it, there's more.
Come on, next verse.
He had not beheld iniquity in Jacob.
Neither had he seen perverseness in Israel.
The Lord, his God, his William.
And the shout of a king is among them.
Hallelujah.
Next verse.
God brought them out of Egypt.
He had, as it were, the strength of a unicorn.
I love that.
Do I like this?
Look at it, I just told you.
It says, there is no enchantment against Jacob.
Neither is there any definition against Israel.
According to this time, it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, what God had wrought.
In other words, it will be said, consonant Israel, look what the Lord has done.
I told you, this is about you.
Not only Israel, the new creation, there is no enchantment against the new creation.
There is no divination against the new creation.
You can't be with them.
You can curse them.

The Bible says you are the workmanship of God in Christ Jesus.
Look what the Lord has done.
Hallelujah.
It shall be said of Jacob.
Look what the Lord has done.
Say it shall be continually said of me.
Look what the Lord has done.
Hallelujah.
Look what the Lord has done.
Glory to God.
My, my, my.
Look what the Lord has done.

Boy, I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it.
Genesis chapter 27 from verse 32, let's read.
And Isaac, his father said unto him, now, I just want you to see something like what we just saw.
But this time, it's got to do with this man Isaac blessing his sons.
Jacob and Esau.
You remember Esau was the older one.
And he wanted to eat his cake and have it.
He said to his younger brother, who was a smart guy, by the way.
He said to his younger brother, Jacob, he said, I'm hungry.
My mom was dying.
Give me something to eat.
His brother very smart.
He said, I'm not giving you anything.
He said, please, I'm dying.
Give me something to eat.
His brother said, OK, you first agreed that I'm now senior to you.
So if I give it to you, give me your birthright.
He said, who cares?
Have you heard people who say, is that what we will eat?
You say, let's go to church.
He says, is that what we will eat?
Have you read your Bible?
Is that what we will eat?
They are like Esau.
They're like Esau.
Terrible.
Oh.
They're like Esau.
Spiritual things are not important to them.
So he said, is that what I would eat?
Take the breath right.
Give me food.
Take it.
He thought there were empty words.
So his brother gave him the food and went to his mother and said, Mom, Esau has sold me his birthright for food.
A plate of food, not food forever.
So the mother said, really?
He said, yes, I just gave him food.

In the process of time, their father would become old.
His eyes dimmed, the Bible says he couldn't see.
He was so old, couldn't see.
And then he said to his son, Esau, he didn't know what happened between them, only their mother knew.
So he called Esau his first son.
He said, come.
Before I die, I want to bless you.
You go get me some venison.
Prepare the way I like it, and bring it to me real quick.
And the mother heard, and Esau took off, and the mother called Jacob, because there was partisan politics in the house.
Instead of correcting the situation, the mother didn't, because the
Mother loved Jacob and the father loved Esau.
So, mother quickly called Jacob and said, you know what?
Your dad is about to bless your brother.
Remember, he's so juice, but right?
Yeah, all right now.
He said, go quickly.
Kill one of those animals.
Get the skin.
Cover your hands.
That's all you care about.
Because the Bible tells us that Esau was very hairy.
And Jacob was smooth.
So quickly she and him prepared the food, prepared the animal, the meat, got the skin, covered Jacob's hands.
Soon enough, he was there.
And he said, Daddy, I'm back.
The father said, so quickly?
He said, oh, today was a good day.
I was able to quickly hunt and kill the animal.
He was very fast.
His father said, that's fine.
Come, let me bless you.
So he said, let me touch you.
He was suspicious.
So he touched him, and he felt all the hair on his hand.
Then he said, son, are you sure you are Esau?
My very son Esau?
He said, yes.
Then the father touched him and said, these are the hands of Esau, but the voice of Jacob.
So he knew not to talk anymore.
So the father, when he wouldn't say anything more, the father said, come close and let me smell you.
Why?
Because Esau was a hunter.
And it was always out in the field.
Often came back smelling like them goats out there.
So he said, come close and let me smell you.
But he didn't realize the skin of this animal was still smelling.
And he smelled him and said, mmm, surely this is Esau.
He smells like the feel of these animals.
And then he started blessing.
You ready for this now?
Can I read it to you?
OK.
So we are in verse 32, Genesis chapter 27.
And Isaac, his father said unto him, Who what thou?
And he said, I am thy son, thy first-born son, watch.
What happened?
He had blessed Jacob.
After blessing Jacob, Jacob took off and left.
Now Isor comes.

So he says, who are you?
He says, I am your first son, Isor.
And Isaac trembled very exceedingly.
Why would he tremble either with mere words?
I want you to look at it.
The Bible says Isaac trembled very exceedingly.
It shook him.
I said, who?
No, he doesn't know who he blessed.
It might have been a stranger.
God almighty.
What am I going to do?
Where is he that had taken venison and brought it me and have eaten of all before thou cameest and have blessed him?
And, yay, he shall be blessed.
Now, he doesn't know who it is.
It might have not been Jacob.

You see, who is he?
I have blessed him.
Yeah.
And he shall be blessed.
Do you remember what that Belam, the prophet said?
He had blessed and I cannot reverse it.
Now Isaac speaks and says, I've ordered those blessings.
And here he shall be blessed.
Blessed is important, my brothers and sisters.
Now watch, next verse.
And when he saw heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and accident beat a cry and said unto his father, bless me, even me also, oh my father.
And he said, thy brother came with subtlety and had taken away thy blessing.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Watch next.
And he said, it's not he rightly named Jacob, for he had supplanted me these two times.
He took over my birthright.
Oh boy, you saw it.
And behold now, he had taken away my blessing.
And he said, has thou not reserved the blessing for me?
He says to his father, haven't you reserved the blessing for me?
How will you listen to the next day?
And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, behold, I have made him thy lord.
How?
With words!
Not documents!

Are you hearing me?
It's not talking about land documents!
Not title deeds!
Words!
Let's go on.
Behold, I have made him thy Lord and all his brethren have I given to him for servants.
And boy, look at the next line.
And with corn and wine, have I sustained him?
And what shall I do now on to thee, my son?
Listen, he says, I have sustained him with corn and wine.
That means he's going to prosper no matter what.
I've sustained with words, I wish we had time to read the food blessing when he was talking to Jacob.
It's all there.
So you understand what he's saying now?
This is amazing.
Eso, Eso, sold his birthright for a plate of food.
Now he's not going to get the blessing.
Torah bakah sa tala mante le gibber city.
Next verse, Anissa said unto his father, has thou but one, blessed my father, bless me, even me also, oh my father.
Anissa lifted up his voice and wept.
The Bible says, though he wept, he had no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
That's in the New Testament, referring to the same story.
All the father said was, one day you will break out of his yoke.
That's all.

But he will never be greater.
He gave with words.
He gave to Jacob.
The blessing, the promise of his father Abraham.
That blessing was given over to Jacob.
instead of Esau.
So when you hear, imagine, I'm saying to you, God bless you.
Thank you, sir.
You walk away.
Another person who is smart is the pastor I received.
Because they're not empty words.
The words with which were commanded
to bless.
Billham said, I have received commandment to bless.
And he had blessed and I cannot reverse it.
Hallelujah.

We trust you were blessed by this message.
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Thank you.
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