Blessing

The concept of Blessing is: speaking right words. We bless with faith that Jesus is there and comes in their situation: whatever that situation might be. We use words to which a person can respond. When someone is grieving about something, don´t start speaking about the need to rejoice in the Lord at that time.

A blessing is not buttering up a person, to say some positive words to make them feel good.
The words need to be true and in keeping daily reality as well.

A grieving person needs to know that they are seen. That God comes in their grief and sits just quiet with them, without any positive thoughts to start. You might say an encouraging word if they react positively to you.

You can train your mind to think positive thoughts.

Train your mind in thinking about words that confirm us who we are, as we look at ourselves and others in the Loving Light of God. God loves everybody. He has always positive thoughts over us. Even when He decides He needs to hurt us, as this might be good for us in the long run.

When you start blessings, be sure to ask first if it is O.K.! You might decide that it would be wise to first take some time to let them become quiet. Or you could ask: “did you experience a time of blessing before”? If so, check if they observed anything, any bodily reaction. If they feel negative about it, then you might suggest that you just bless them without words.

When you bless

Give attention to what this blessing does to the body. Keep your eyes open: share with Gods authority positive thoughts and watch what happens. You can ask them:”what happens in your body? Any positive feelings coming up? Where in your body do you feel that? There are times that people say: No, I don´t feel anything. Then say: ” That is O.K., we know that God´s Word is true and that He is with us, even when we don´t feel anything. There are many Scriptures that tell us that a person was down or turned into themselves, but that they put their trust in the Lord. They praised the Lord, never mind what they felt. Mother Theresa from Calcutta was such a person.

When nothing seems to affect a person during your blessing

If you observe nothing in their body at all during a time of blessing, you could also start out by asking: are there any grateful feelings? If they say yes,  ask them to notice their body and ask:”where do you sense that gratefulness now”. If they say: “No, I don´t feel any gratefulness, you can suggest that you can bless their ability to think positive thoughts, ask them if that is O.K. Whatever their reactions are, try to end always with a positive note. Thank God for their honesty, that they didn´t work up feelings that were not there or when they were there they didn´t notice them.

I still learn to bless

To Bless others is like a school, you will learn a lot, just by doing it! If I make a mistake with a client, I usually ask for forgiveness. Once a lady said: “Téo, thank you that you are so honest, nobody ever asked me for forgiveness ever. Thank you for doing this”. God can even use our mistakes for his glory! At that time I prayed: “Thank you, Jesus, that you didn´t step in and stop me!”

Hope

“Hope” is commonly used to mean a wish: its strength is the strength of the person’s desire. But in the Bible hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness”.Chapter I: THE CHRISTIAN HOPE – Wiley Online Library

To have an inner reservoir of Hope is also a great help in the moments that you are in danger of falling into sinful actions. The American John Piper tells about a question he received from someone (1)

A young woman from California asked me for an interview last week because she was doing a psychology project on “forgiveness,” and she needed to record some pastoral interviews. One of the questions she asked was something like this: “What are some of your feelings when you forgive someone?” One of my first thoughts was that I have to have the feeling of hope in order to forgive instead of retaliate. In my life — and I think it is the intended biblical pattern — hope is like a reservoir of emotional strength.
.

• If I am put down, I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to return good for evil. Without hope I have no power to absorb the wrong and walk in love, and I sink into self-pity or self-justification.
• If I experience a setback in my planning — I get sick, or things don’t go the way I’d hoped in the board meeting, for example — I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to keep going and not give up.
• If I face a temptation to be dishonest, to steal, to lie, or to lust, I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to hold fast to the way of righteousness, and deny myself some brief, unsatisfying pleasure.

That is the way it works for me. That is the way I fight for holiness in the Christian life. And I believe this is the biblical way to make our calling and election sure.

Courage is another biblical concept (2)

“Christian courage is the willingness to say and do the right thing regardless of the cost because God promises to help you and save you on account of Christ. An act takes courage if it will likely be painful. The pain may be physical, as in war and rescue operations. Or the pain may be mental as in confrontation and controversy. Courage is indispensable for both spreading and preserving the truth of Christ. Jesus promised that spreading the gospel would meet resistance: “Then they will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name” (Matthew 24:9). And Paul warned that, even in the church, faithfulness to the truth would be embattled: “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30; see also 2 Timothy 4:3-4).

So I wonder how we can become courageous?

I have found that one needs to learn courage by meeting courageous people and reading stories about them. The Bible is full of these stories like Joshua and Kaleb. They had both shown faith in God when Kaleb told the people: we can take in the land, the enemies are nothing in the sight of God. He will give us victory. Tragically most of the other spies returning from evaluating the area disagreed. God punished their unbelief, not allowing them to enter the Promised land and send them on the forty-year wilderness trip. Joshua got rewarded for his faith in the Power of God. He became an assistant to Moses. When off-duty he stayed in the Tent where God manifested Himself and worshiped the Lord. Moses anointed him, and after Moses died, we read how God called him to be the new leader if Israel (Joshua 1: 1-9).

There is also the famous story of David who attacked Goliath, with his stick and sling,  trusting the Lord who had helped him to kill a lion with his hands, that He would do the same here. John Bloom (3) says about Davids courage: 

Samuel the prophet had informed David that God had chosen him to be the next king of Israel and anointed him with his brothers around him (1 Samuel 16:13). David knew this information when he arrived in the camp and heard Goliath’s sneering rants. And he drew additional confidence by remembering how God had helped him in the past (1 Samuel 17:34–36).

This reality was David’s courage wellspring. He was not self-confident; he was God-confident.

I suggest we go to a very courageous young girl who showed remarkable courage. She had said YES to the angel when he announced that she would become pregnant without the help of a man. She went at once to Elisabeth, her aunt and when she heard the exclamation of joy when she saw Mary and the child in her leaped of pleasure. Mary hears again the confirmation that she was already pregnant. Think of the courage she had to say: YES to the angel, to accept the consequences the dismay of people who didn´t understand how such a young, well-bred girl could happen to be pregnant? The alarm of her fiancee, who even considered to take the shame on him by quietly leaving her. Then God stepped in, sending an Angel, telling him that this was something of God´s work in Mary. He knew the Bible too; he understood the Scripture that a virgin would become pregnant and bear de promised Messiah.

Let us Read Mary´s song of worship in Luke 1:46-55

Mary’s Song

46 And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

49 For the Mighty One has done great things for me — Holy is his name.

50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.

51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.

53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful

55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”

When we study this worship song, we see that it is full of Bible quotations. Mary knew the Word of God. It was one way to make her courageous, we too can learn to act upon Gods word.

 How do you know that a thought you have, is at least Biblical correct?

You need to know the Word of God. Often I have had the experience that I studied a concept, a Scripture portion. Then later I was in a counseling situation that Scripture portion would come to my mind. I had to think: can I use that now? If I sense an inner peace, I go ahead and share it. Not as “thus sat the Lord”… An abuse survivor, who is already afraid of authoritative statements would reject whatever you would say. Thus I say: I am thinking of …. does this make any sense to you”? If they say no, I leave it at that and don´t bore on. If the Lord keeps confirming this in your heart, you might want to pray more about it, and you could even look for a trusted person an discuss this, without giving any details about your client. If you have the benefit of an assistant: you could pray more over it together.  Let it ripe.

When something is from the Lord, in a later meeting, it is still a correct idea you might share with carefulness. It has at times taken a year for a client to say: “You once asked me if I had this experience….. You know for a year, I didn´t recall anything. Now I do, it was such a tough situation. Now I can face it”. 

If you ever get into a situation that people notice that God gives you insight, then please be very careful. It happened once to me in YWAM Norway. In a time that I visited the Grimerud base at least six times per year.

One morning I woke up and the Lord told me:

“people are saying “l will go to Téo, to find out what God wants me to do.
Téo, I don´t want you to do this anymore, ” So I made a statement accordingly as I started teaching a general subject. I still remember how I carefully avoided saying anything in the area of abuse. Suddenly a girl started to sob, she jumped up and ran out of the classroom. (I was puzzled, what did I say that made this happen?). Afterward, I heard why she ran out. She had noticed that she had always been sitting so tight. During my teaching, she experienced a deep peace and her body relaxed. As she observed what happened physically, she said “it was as if someone pulled a curtain away, and I saw what he did to me when I was just twelve years old… I had completely blocked it all out of my memory”.

It is interesting to notice how body language and memory are linked! That is a perhaps theme for another time.

Let us thank God that He wants to protect our memory until we can handle it!

God bless you all,

1) John Piper: What is Hope, sermon April 6, 1986, downloaded 17.08.2018

2) John Piper: The Righteous Are Bold as a Lion, May 2 1993. downloaded 17.08.2018

3) Jon Bloom Where Real Courage Comes From, June 19, 2015, downloaded 17.08.2018