We bless you from... here!

Part 8 of a series - 'The Grace Outpouring'
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This time we hear how the community at Ffald-y-Brenin eased into a habit and pattern of blessing the whole area around them. They asked the Lord to share out his abundant life more widely.

In part 7 we heard more from Roy on the importance of letting the Lord himself work in people. And a new pattern developed of looking outward from Ffald-y-Brenin and blessing those in the wider community. In this part he elaborates on that.

Gradually a structure emerged as we continued in our new tradition of blessing prayer and we now pray in that pattern as a matter of course. We pray for people and we pray for households. We speak into every household, blessing it in the name of Jesus. We're not interceding; we're speaking to them in the name of Jesus.

The phrase 'We bless you from Zion' captures a biblical attitude to prayer that we wanted to apply to our context when we used the words, 'We bless you from Ffald-y-Brenin, this place where God's presence is being poured out. We speak to you in his name, and we bless you.'

So we bless every household, we bless every marriage, we bless the relationship between family members of different generations and we bless their health and we bless their wealth. We bless the work of their hands. We bless every wholesome enterprise they're involved with, that they may prosper.

Because we're an agricultural community, we bless the flocks and the herds, and we bless the grass so that it will be nutritious in winter - which it wouldn't normally be - and will not need to be supplemented in order to strengthen the animals.

We bless supportive networks of friendship that run through the community, because they're a sign of the kingdom. We bless the pupils of our rural school and ask God to aid their learning. We bless the teachers and pray that school may be a safe and wholesome place, where simple childlike trust and belief in God and in Jesus can be comfortably maintained.

We pray for both places of worship in the valley, that the word of God and the Spirit of God may flow out from both.

Then we speak to the hearts of all the people who are in the community. We bless them to be safe and to be softened, so they may become more and more responsive to the voice of God. We bless them with the overspill of the kingdom of heaven being made manifest here in Ffald-y-Brenin.*

Are you in a place of blessing in your own life and circumstances? Is there a 'Zion' or a 'Ffald-y-Brenin' that you inhabit? Is Father's presence being poured out where you are?

We're not all living in the style of a Ffald-y-Brenin but we do all have much blessing in our lives and the occasional mountain-top experience too. A glorious sunset, the sound of the waves on a pebbly shore, something truly delicious to eat or drink, watching a small child play, enjoying good conversation, the astonishing colours of a bird's plumage or of flowers in a garden or a field - all these things can help to lift us up into the Lord's presence.

So what is stopping us blessing those around us out of our own places of fullness and blessing? We can say with Roy and Daphne Godwin, 'We bless you with the overspill of the kingdom of heaven being made manifest here in {...}  Go ahead, fill in those dots - and pray! If you're not sure what to ask, adapt some of Roy's words above. Bless the people and their families, the shops and homes and industrial units and businesses. Bless the schools and the hospitals and the dentists. Bless the parks, the fields and the gardens.

And give the King (the Lord of heaven and earth) all the glory, for ever and ever and ever. Amen!

Here's an exercise for you. Go back to the image at the top of this article and click on it for a larger view. Count how many things you can see to bless just in that one photo. Now go and look out of the nearest window wherever you happen to be as you read this. What and who can you see there to bless? So what are you waiting for?

Read a brief review of the book (includes several ways to buy a copy).

*Copyright 2008 Roy Godwin, Dave Roberts. The Grace Outpouring published by David C Cook. Publisher permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved.

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What is the Spirit saying to the church?

The Spirit is speaking to the church, but are we listening? And are we ready to live daily for Jesus with him front and centre in our lives and in our hearts and minds?

Spirit and breath are the same word in both Hebrew and Greek. So when, in Old or New Testament writings, you read 'spirit' you might also read 'breath' and vice versa.

The Holy Spirit is the Breath of Truth (John 15:26), the Breath of Power (2 Timothy 1:7), but above all the Breath of Christ (Romans 8:9).

The Holy Spirit is always speaking to the church. How could it be otherwise?

The church is the body of Christ, the Bride of Christ. How could the breath not fill the body? How could Christ's Spirit not speak to Christ's Bride?

A new thing - We are at a time when the Spirit is again speaking to the church. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say we are at a time when the church is again listening to the Spirit. Don't misunderstand me, there are always those in the church who are listening raptly to the Spirit of Christ, but sometimes there is a wider, wholesale hearing that changes all our preconceived ideas and sets the church on a new track. I believe this is such a time.

There are a number of voices now speaking about different aspects of this new thing, and a number of people beginning to see some common themes. What it will become we do not know, but we will know.

Perhaps the central theme is that the Father and the Son and the Spirit matter, that they have a significance we can't overstate. Everyone will say, 'But we already know that!' Well, yes we do, but sometimes we know it in our minds without being driven by it in our hearts.

We know that without him we are nothing, yet without us he is still everything and will, if necessary, raise up the stones to worship him. We know that Jesus said, 'Apart from me you can do nothing' (John 15:5). We know that he said he does only what he sees the Father do (John 5:19), and says only what he hears the Father say (John 12:49-50). We know all these things but we still don't always live them out day by day.

It's all about him first, not us. It's about being in his presence, not being busy with our own stuff. It's really about knowing him, having a close and personal relationship with him - individually and as the church (his Bride).

Bullet points - Having said all that, here's a list of eight aspects that have come to my attention over the last few years. There may be more than this, of course. I've added a reference or two after each one, these are books, articles, or quotes that expand on the topic.

• Forgiveness - Recognising we are forgiven, forgiving one another, 'The Shack'
• Being his people - This trumps doing things for him - Be still and know that I am Elohim (Psalm 46:10), 'It's not about what we do, it's about who he is.' (Paul Young), Eaton Ford - Reflections, 
• Living in heaven - We need this daily, Simple gathering of believers, Missing the best
• Building the Lord's house - Haggai 1, A 3 am wake up call
• Command and prophecy - Ezekiel 37
• Blessing, prayer - Ffald-y-Brenin, The Grace Outpouring
• Love - Love him, love one another, love our neighbours, love our enemies - Henry Drummond
• Listening - Paying proper attention to the Holy Spirit, Are you listening?, the need to listen

At first I thought it would be useful to put them in some kind of meaningful sequence, but I couldn't get that to work. I think the reason is that all eight need to be in parallel, not in sequence. In fact they are so intertwined and interdependent that any kind of structure seems to do violence to the underlying truth.

I need to shout this from the rooftops...

Focus ever more fully on Jesus!

Everything we are and everything we do needs to stem from having him full and central in our hearts and minds every day, every minute. Isn't that what it means to be 'grafted in' to Jesus? He is the vine, his Father is the gardener, and we are grafted-in shoots.