Early in my walk with God, Ken and I went to a Presbyterian Renewal Conference. The theme was, ‘Blessed to be a blessin’. Genesis 12:2 says, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.” Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

The subject of Blessing is enormous, and to touch on this subject is scratching the surface. I will focus more on the ‘spoken blessing,’ but I trust this will lead you to study more on this subject.

Blessing, like many words in the bible, is filled with depth of meaning. I want to quote from a book, “The Power of Blessing” by Kerry Kirkwood.

“Blessing has the power to turn lives around and make us into a blesser. Let’s backtrack to the OT where the word “Blessing” there is the Hebrew word barak. This simply means “to speak the intention of God” and “to be happy with where you are.” In the New Testament, it is the word eulogia from which we get the word “eulogy.” Eulogia means “to speak larger or well of,” or “to speak to the intention or favor of God on someone.” Just as eulogies are tailor-made, so are blessings. …when we talk about blessing someone, we are prophetically stating: “May the Lord grant you all of His intention for you, or “may God’s full expectation for you be fulfilled in your life.” And we know that God’s intentions for people are good.”  

Let us look at one of the many biblical blessings we see in the Bible: Numbers 6:24-26 in the Amplified Translation: “The Lord bless you, and keep you [protect you, sustain you, and guard you]; The Lord make His face shine upon you [with favor], and be gracious to you [surrounding you with lovingkindness]; The Lord lift up His countenance (face) upon you [with divine approval], and give you peace [a tranquil heart and life].’

A blessing spoken over someone can release potential in people, give vision, identity, security, etc. Sadly, so can negative words also carry influence. We know negative spoken words or the lack of positive spoken words can impact a person profoundly. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

There is such power in the spoken Blessing. (Spoken Blessing can be proclaimed directly to the person, in prayer, or even written and sent to them. One of the things I have written is a general blessing that is biblically based to declare over someone when I feel it is needed. John Paul Jackson has written what is known as “A Father’s Blessing”. Here is the link: https://uploads.documents.cimpress.io/v1/uploads/63b5cdba-9e55-4817-9903-e0849106acba~110/original?tenant=vbu-digital. I have also written specific blessing prayers that I pray/declare over our children and grandchildren.

It is a mighty privilege to bless people as often as we wish. Often in difficult situations and when people are battling, we don’t quite know what to do, but the spoken Blessing in prayer is ALWAYS something we can do.