John Hagee - Releasing And Receiving The Prophetic Blessing
Saint Paul introduced the New Testament church to the concept that in the Word of God, there are the unsearchable riches of Christ. Today I'm going to open the pages of the Word of God and reveal to you the hidden treasure of releasing and receiving the power of the blessing. This is going to be directed to your children and to your grandchildren. But it can apply to your marriage, to your business, to every relationship that you have, because the God of the Bible is still a miracle-working God. Will you please stand for the reading of the Word of God. Turn to Proverbs 18:21, as we talk today about "Receiving and releasing the blessing".
Read with me Proverbs 18:21. Ready: death and life are in the power of the tongue. And those who love it will eat its fruit. Two things, death and life, when you open your mouth. You will eat the fruit of what you say. If you speak of things pleasant and wonderful, that's what you will have. If you are a perpetual grouch and gripe, that's what you're going to experience. You have a miracle in your mouth or you have a tragedy looking for a place to happen. That's why when you stand before God in the judgment, you're going to give an account for every word you have spoken, because God is only given to human beings the capacity of speech. It's a sacred right that has unbelievable power that we're going to discover in the next few minutes. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for its life-changing power. Thank you that it has the strength to save us, to heal us, to bring us to righteousness, to turn America around. Let us hear it today with great joy that God has given to us. And all of God's children said, praise the Lord.
You may be seated. You have heard me say often after each service here on Sunday morning, the priestly blessing. It begins with "May the Lord bless you". Say that with me, may the Lord bless you. Those are three Hebrew words: it takes more in English to say it, but three Hebrew words. Three in the Bible is the numerology of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. This Hebrew expression is an expression of the God head blessing you. For a material blessing, it's God's guarantee of the good life for the righteous. Prosperity is very much a Bible theme. I know there are people who don't want to believe that. But you simply have to deny the Bible not to accept that. Out of the middle ages, came the doctrine of Papini, which is poverty is righteousness. I assure you poverty is a curse in the Bible. It's not righteousness.
And they say, well Jesus was poor, the Bible says. You have to ask yourself: but when was he poor? He was poor on the cross when he took your poverty and gave you the riches of Abraham. But he was not poor. If the blessing stopped right there, it would be one of the greatest statements ever uttered. It is the unsearchable riches of the Lord applied to every person under the sound of my voice and the millions who are watching across the nations of the world. The second phrase, "And keep you". Say that with me, and keep you. That means that God will physically protect you and protect your increase from loss. Psalm 91:11 says: for he (God) shall give his angels charge over you to keep you. That word "Keep" in the Hebrew means to guard, to defend and fight for you in all occasions. You have invisible beings around you right now who will defend you, protect you, guard you because God is with you! You are valuable to the Kingdom of God! Give the Lord praise in the house.
The second phrase in the priestly blessing, "The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you". So the Hebrew word here for "Shine" means to shed light or illuminate the area in which you stand. But listen to this: God's face can only shine on you if you're in his presence. That's why the Bible says: in his presence is the fullness of joy. Have you any idea how powerful the presence the God is? Psalm 97:5: the mountains melt like wax in the presence of God. When you see a rocky mountain melting like a candle, that's the power of the presence of God. You say, that never happened to a human being. Oh, yes, it did. In Exodus 34:29, the Bible says that the skin of Moses shone when he came down from the mountain receiving the commandments. And I'm quoting now, "It shone so brilliantly that the Israelites were afraid to talk to him". Why? Because he had been in the presence of God. Let me tell you something. When we come to church, our purpose here is to get in God's presence!
And the next phrase, "And the Lord be gracious unto you". Say that with me, and the Lord be gracious unto you. This is the Hebrew verb meaning to show favor. Let me tell you something. "Favor" is an unlimited word. The favor of God is far better than gold or silver. It's far better than rubies or diamonds or houses or lands. You can do more with the favor of God in one day than you can do in a lifetime without the favor of God. Don't think that's true? Ask Joseph. He went from the jailhouse to the penthouse in one day when the favor of God came to him. The favor of God moves mountains of impossibility. You think you're up against something impossible? When God smiles on you and his favor comes to you, impossibilities disappear. I believe that God is going to anoint some of you, as I'm speaking right now, to face the thing in your life that has been conquering you year after year after year. And you are going to face it with God's word and with God's help. You are going to defeat it and the impossible is going to vanish. And you're going to achieve what you considered unachievable, because God is with you!
People say, well, pastor, my circumstances don't look like I'm favored. Stop looking at your circumstances and start looking at the God who controls the circumstances. Joseph didn't look favored when Potiphar's wife screamed, "Rape! Him! He did it"! He was running from her all the time. But this hormone hurricane had political clout. And the man went to jail for ten years but God was with him. He was in prison but he had the favor of God. I want you to hear that. You may not feel favored but you are favored. You may not feel favored but you are favored. You may have been going up against it for ten years and losing at every stroke but God is with you. And today you're in his presence. And when you leave this place, your face is going to glow with his glory. And you are going to be highly favored because we're going to release that favor on you before you get out of this building today. And you are never going to be the same!
The third phrase, "The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace". This third phrase has seven Hebrew words. Seven is the number of completion and perfection. "The Lord lift up his countenance upon you" is a Hebrew phrase meaning that God will smile upon you. A smile is a symbol of affection, approval, warmth, love, tenderness. Husbands, you know that when you go home and you open the door, and the wife smiles at you, there's a certain pleasant temperature that's there. You're looking forward to the rest of the day. Game on. Things are going well. You walk in the door and she snarls at you like a bulldog chained to a tree, go play golf till about midnight.
When God smiles at you, burdens are lifted. When God smiles at you, Satan's power is broken. When God smiles at you, all of your tears will disappear. When God smiles, he takes the gloom and fills the heart with glory. When God smiles on you, you feel peace in the midst of the storm. The wind is blowing. The ship is shaking. You're wet from head to feet. People around are you screaming, "We're going to drown"! You've got your head lifted up and said, let her rain God. You're with me. It's going to be all right! When God smiles, there is joy that is unspeakable and full of glory! When God smiles, you know you are born to be blessed! Give him praise in the house of God.
That is the cornucopia of the that is the cornucopia of the pantry of heaven. It means may you be fully complete. May you be totally blessed with love, joy and peace. May you have abundance. May you have health. May you have confidence. May you have success in every area of your life. May your children and your children's children be blessed. May you be blessed in their going in and their coming out. It means everything that God has, you may have. Releasing the power of the prophetic blessing. The power of the prophetic blessing is released whenever it is spoken by spiritual authority. Proverbs 18:21, the text: life and death are in the power of the tongue. Again, life and death, nothing is in between.
The power of words in creation, think about this: Ten times in the Genesis, the Bible says, "And God said, and God said, and God said, and God said..". And each time he said, something supernatural happened. The light conquered the darkness. The earth was formed. The mountains and the seas separated the earth. And in six days, it was over. Why? Because of the creative power of the Word of God. The Word of God and the Spirit of God working together release the prophetic blessing. There's a miracle in your mouth. Let me give you some Bible evidence. When Jesus and the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee, a violent storm came up. It was a life-threatening storm. The winds and the waves were shaking that boat so badly, these career fishermen looked at Jesus and said: master, carest thou not that we perish? They were terrified. Jesus rose. He spoke three words: peace be still. Poof! The winds were gone. The waves became like glass because of the power of divine speech.
Your proclamation has supernatural power when it's in agreement with the Word of God. The word "To proclaim" comes from the Latin word "Shout forth". In the New Testament, there's a related word to proclaim that means to confess or to say the same as. So the point is this: when you as a Bible believer speak or proclaim the Word of God with your mouth, the power of the prophetic blessing is released. Here are two scriptural connections you need to make. One, Jesus is the living word. The Bible says: in the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God. John 1:14 says: and the word became flesh. That would be Jesus born in a manger. And he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the father. Now connect those points. Jesus is not only the living word. But according to Hebrews 3:1, Jesus is the high priest of our confession.
How many of you just heard what I got through saying? He is the high priest of our confession. Which means what? It means that whatever we say with our mouth that the Bible says, we have Jesus as our high priest in heaven, who releases his authority upon that confession. And the supernatural power is released to your child, to your marriage, to your business, to the crisis you're facing. Did you stop to think about that? When you are praying, you're praying to your high priest, Jesus Christ. He carries it to God the Father. God the Father recognizes it as the word, releases heaven's power instantly into your life. He will divide the seas, move the mountains! Impossible things happen because you have said what God's word has made possible. Release it, in God's name!
One of the major purposes of Jesus was to bless children. The Bible says: and he took them up in his arms and he blessed them. If Jesus did it, why don't we do it? Today in this service, we're going to release the power of the prophetic blessing into the lives of your children and grandchildren. Because why? They were born to be blessed. God is waiting for you to make your proclamation to Jesus Christ, your high priest, whose supernatural power is going to invade your crisis. It will invade your personal battle. Your blessings are going to come. Your enemies are going to be defeated. The crooked way is going to be made straight. The walls of impossibility that have kept you hemmed in are about to fall down flat. You're walking out of this service today triumphant, victorious, in Jesus' name. Give him praise in the house.
In 1991, Diana and I were attending the International Christian Businessmen's Conference at Oral Roberts University where I was the night speaker. We stayed the last night and the speaker took the text from Habakkuk 2, saying to write the vision down and make it plain: that he may run who reads it, for the vision is yet for an appointed time. But at the end, it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it because it will surely come. It will not tarry. As we listened to the speaker, I reached for my Bible. And with Diana's collaboration, we agreed to write down the vision for our lives and the lives of our church. We wrote it down in that Bible. And 25 years later, every declaration is exactly true. I have that framed in my office. And every time I really get in a real spiritual slug fest, I look at that and I know God will not fail. Just keep fighting the good fight.
When our son Matthew was about nine years of age, he said to his mother as she was tucking him into bed one Saturday night, I need to talk a daddy. My wife has a curiosity factor that runs off the charts. Matthew's "I need to talk to daddy" statement brought a flurry of questions from Diana. What do you need to talk to your daddy about? What have you done? Is there a problem? Have you done something wrong? This is Saturday night. You know that your daddy is lost in another world on Saturday night, getting ready for Sunday. Matthew stuck by his guns, mama, I need to talk to daddy tonight and I need to talk to him right now. Diana came into my study with a very concerned look on her face and she repeated Matthew's statement. I said, what does he want to talk about? She said, he won't tell me. He just said you're the only one that he wants to talk to.
So I closed my Bible. I put my sermon notes in my briefcase. I walked up the stairs towards Matthew's bedroom. My mind was racing as I attempted to envision what had happened in his young life that made him specifically request to speak to me and to me only, and it was urgent and right now. So I walked into his room, which was dimly lit by a small night light beside his bed. And I could see tears in the corners of his eyes. And my concern factor rocketed off the charts. What had happened? What had he done? I was comforted that he was too young to rob banks, take drugs or chase girls. What could a nine-year-old boy do to move him to tears? So I knelt beside his bed as the tears came down both of his cheeks.
And I melted like butter. I said, Matt, what happened? He said, daddy, and he said with a trembling voice. He said, I've said something today that I feel may have offended the Lord. I said, "Would you like to talk about it"? And he said, "No". You know there's a lot of wisdom in that. You don't have to talk about your sins to every tom, dick and harry you know to get forgiveness from God. No. I just want to make sure before I go to bed that God will forgive me. And dad, I know that if you ask him, I know he will. As I listened, I thought of Samuel, who heard the voice of the Lord as a child calling in the night when the high priest of Israel did not hear his voice. In an instant, this bedside chat went from just another talk with daddy to a moment in time where I could see the hand of God shaping the future of my son.
So I changed gears from counselor to the high priest of my house in a nanosecond. We asked God for forgiveness. And then I placed both of my hands on Matthew's head and I prayed the priestly blessing over my son. Following the priestly blessing, I spoke the prophetic blessing and I asked the Lord to protect him from the forces of evil that would come against him all the days of his life, to forgive him of all his offenses, to bless him with the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to bless his going in and his coming out, to bless him in his health, to send the angels of heaven before him to prepare the way and behind him to be his rear guard: and that they would be with him all the days of his life. I asked the Lord to bring him into the Gospel ministry of Jesus Christ and to bring into Matthew's life a godly wife and children, who would forever be a source of joy to his life. Twenty-five years later, every word of that prophetic blessing spoken that night has become reality.
The power of the prophetic blessing is real. It worked for Jacob. It worked for Jesus and his twelve disciples. It has worked for me with all of my children. And I want it to work for your children. Can we all stand together. And I would like for this to happen for the remaining part of this service. Organist, if you'll come please. Fathers, I want you to pray the blessing over each of your children in the order of their birth, the oldest first, down. Feel free to get out in the aisles. Come forward. If you need to use the lobbies, the ramps up stairs, get wherever you are room. But I want you to have the room to bless your children. God wants them to be blessed. Fathers, start blessing your children now, in Jesus' name.