← Jentezen Franklin at Free Chapel
Jentezen Franklin at Free Chapel
The Blessing of God’s Face | The Power of Short Prayers | Jentezen Franklin
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Hello, this is Jensen Franklin, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast. Our goal is to provide you with biblically based teachings that will challenge, inspire, and equip you to live for Jesus. If you haven't already, I'd love for you to go ahead and subscribe today to this podcast so you can get the latest updates from us and you don't ever have to miss a new message.
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Let's go right into the service.
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Record it at Freechapel. I believe it's going to bless you today.
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Numbers, chapter 6 and verse 22. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, listen now, this is God speaking. This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel, say to them. And these next words are not Moses prayer. They're not Aaron's prayer. It's not something he constructed or he wrote out. It was the prayer of God Almighty, every word specifically worded by God. That's why he keeps saying, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord. This is God's will that's important. You don't ever have to worry about if God said something in his word, is it his will? It is his will. And he said, you are to speak this. This was the benediction. This was the end of all the of the congregation meeting together. That's why we, for decades speak this at the end of every service. The benediction means. The word benediction means blessing. This is the blessing. This is the benediction. The blessing is in the benediction. So when you run for your car to beat the Baptist to the buffet might miss. I don't know if my sermon helped you, I don't know if the singing helped you, but if these words are spoken in a congregation, there is something supernatural that is promised by God himself. And I'm going to show it to you in the word. Speak unto Aaron and his sons saying, bless the children of Israel. Say to them, here it is, three verses. Three verses. Like a song, stanzas. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. All of this is the will of God. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. A lot of times we stop right there. A lot of times we let it go. And I don't necessarily quote this next part, but it is the most important part of the prayer. Here's why. Verse 37. So when you do this, when a minister does this, when a father does this, when a mother does this, because we're all kings and priests unto God under the new covenant according to the book of Revelation. So they shall put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Notice something happened when you speak, the Lord bless you in all those three stanzas. You put the name of the Lord on your house. You put the name of the Lord on the recipient of the blessing. You put the name. The name of Jesus contains everything that heaven has to offer. Salvation delivers. So even if people don't believe, even if. Even if you're here today and. And you don't even want to be, but you just came just to fulfill an obligation or something, if you allow a minister to speak this over your life, God says two things. I'll put my name on them and I'll bless them. I don't understand that, but that's the will of God. So the. Maybe you. Maybe you haven't found what you need, but the. The process of that will begin when this blessing is spoken. I'll put my name and I will bless them. So this is called in some circles, the Aaronic blessing, because it was the blessing that Aaron, the high priest, was to speak. Do you know that it is the oldest and continuous prayer even to this day? Christians and Jewish congregations, rabbis speak this blessing over their people. Many do. For 3,400 years, this prayer has been proclaimed. And they have found pottery and things that go back 3600 years where they would even write it. The Hebrews would write it on their cups and write it on things that they would cover and carry on their body. That's how far this goes. And it begins with, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord bless you. It is the blessing. And when it says bless, the Hebrew word is barak, which means to bend low. Normally, when people pray praise, it is the word. When God says, enter into my courts with praise, it's barak. It means to bend low, to humble yourself. But here God is saying, this is God saying, speak this over a congregation and a family, a group of the children of Israel. And when you do, I will bend low to them. It's not you bowing down to me. I will in heaven bend low and notice you. This is God's promise. I'll Barack, I'll bend low. And in this blessing comes favor. In this blessing, the blessing of the Lord is favor and protection and provision and wholeness and peace. You see, it is something to have the blessing of the Lord. The Lord bless you. God's favor is the blessing on that. And then he says, I want you to God chose these words, I want you to say it this way, they shall put my name on their children. This way, they shall put my name on their house. This way. That wherever this blessing is spoken, I'll put my name on it and I will bless you. See, it's something that the next part of the prayer says, the Lord, bless thee and then notice this and keep thee, that when I bless you, I have the power to enable you to keep the blessing. Many people go around and when they do get a blessing from the Lord, they're afraid they're going to lose it. Some of you right now have a low grade fear of torment. That, that, well, I got it, but I'm going to lose it. I, I, I had a breakthrough, but I, I won't be able to keep it. But the Lord, when he blesses you, he then keeps it. He keeps it. The Lord is my keeper. The Lord is the one who keeps my family. The Lord is the one who declares that he gave me and blessed me with children and he will keep those children. He will take care of my family. He will take care of my marriage, he will take care of my finances. He will bless me and he'll keep on blessing me. Turn to somebody and say, it's not going to stop. He's going to keep doing it. He's going to keep watching. He's going to keep favoring, he's going to keep, it's not going to stop. Don't let it stop. Lord, bless me and keep me. You say, well, I got healed, but I'm afraid it's going to come back. Bless me and keep me. I tell you, some of you are worried and you're fearful and you're tormented, but the Lord is your keeper. The Lord is the one who watches and the Lord is the one who doesn't slumber or sleep. He's keeping you. His keeping power is on your family. When this blessing is proclaimed and then the next part says, the Lord, make his face. Oh, this is beautiful. The Lord make his face shine on you. Do you understand that? That in the Old Testament, and mostly in life in general, most people never see the king's face personally. Of course, in Bible days, most per, most average people would never ever even see from a distance the king. And if they got in his presence for the king to turn his face. One of the things that David prayed over and over in the Book of Psalms is, Lord, don't hide your face from me. Don't hide your face from me. Because when God, when the king would not look at someone. That's what Esther was worried about. That's why she fasted for three days before she went in to see the king. Because if the king was displeased with you, he would turn his face away. And if he turned his face away, you were gone. Judgment came to you for just being in the presence of the king. But when it says make your face shine, I mean just to even know that God says that if this blessing is proclaimed, my face is going to show up. And it's not just going to be there and see you, but make the Lord make his face shine upon you. The shine is beam, another word. Like a mother holds a baby. Like a. And holds that baby and the face beams. The daddy, the proud father, his face beams when that baby is born. God says, pray this prayer that notice he's not out to curse you, he's out to bless you. And he says, I want to, I want, I want you, I want to bless you and I want you to keep what I bless you with. You say, well I tell you, it feels like the enemy's put a curse in our family. But the devil can't curse what God has blessed. Even Balaam had to admit, I can't curse Israel cause the priest put the blessing on them. And I can't curse what God has blessed because God has the power to keep the blessing even when the accursings are coming. And the Lord make his face shine on you twice. The face of God is mentioned in this prayer and I'll come back to that second stanza, but if you go to the last, it says, may the Lord make his countenance come upon you. So both times are a reference to his face. Attention is one of the most. Attention is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Along with food and water, a baby's basic needs include the attention and gaze of a face. This has been in study after study. It's not optional. They must have a face early in the first few days that they are born. When a baby cries, they can tell our face responds to them. Because when they see a face, and usually the first face that they see is their mother and their father, and that's what they need to see immediately. The doctors are careful to get that baby and let the face. Even though the child can't even make out there's a face there, as the eyes begin to clear, there's a face there. Psychologists call this attunement. The baby becomes attuned to its parents faces and it learns very quickly that when it sees that face, that, that face loves it. And that face cares about it. It's attuned to that face. There's something about that face. A baby becomes attuned to other human being faces, especially the grandparents faces. Faces they can tell when they see that face. Mom and dad may not know what they're doing, but these old people know what they're doing. There's security there, there's everything that they need is in the grandparents face. And when you put the baby down to nap in the crib, the face disappears. And the baby, as you walk away, will many times begin to cry because the baby figures out how to bring the face back. All I've got to do is scream loud enough and the face will come back. A child cannot survive without the face. The face, listen, becomes the mirror through which the child learns if it's the source of delight or disappointment. Because when it sees the face, if the face is not happy to see it. But when it's someone like a parent who sees the child. And when the king turns his face to you and he zones everybody else out and he said, I'll make my face shine or beam like a proud, proud parent. I'll cause my face to shine on you. I'll see you. I'll let you know that you have my undivided attention. One of the most terrible things that you can do is when somebody is talking to you to zone out halfway in the sentence. I really have to work on this. A counselor told me one time, you need to listen with your eyes because there's nothing worse than telling a story. A psychologist did a study one time and he filled a room of university students and he got with them and the professor didn't know it and he said, now I want you to act interested in the lesson up to this point. And when he gets to this point, I want you to disengage, I want you to look around, I want you to act like you're disinterested. And you know what they did? Study after study. And it didn't matter how great the professor was when the crowd started stirring and looking around. And maybe the reason I don't preach better sermons is some of you need to hear this. But, but I'm going to tell you what it matters if you're in attunement and the face is making contact. Because when we, when we, when we pay attention and that's what God is saying, I'll bless you, I'll keep you, I'll make my face shine. I'll Beam with delight. Hallelujah. I thought he was mean. I thought he was mad. I thought he was stingy. I thought he was sending lightning bolts. I thought he would send a judgment on me. I thought he'd pour out a veil of hell on me. I don't. I don't understand. No. He said, I want to bless you. I want to keep you. I want to shine. I want to beam when I see you. That's my child. You matter to me. I see you. I love you. I care about you. There are certain faces that we look for that encourage us. And he said, my face will shine upon you. Attention is so valuable that we don't just give attention. We have. We don't get up and say, give attention. We say, pay attention. You have to pay. Jesus paid attention on the cross. He paid so that he could be personal and that he could look you face to face and turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look on his wonderful face. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious. The word gracious comes from the word grace. Give you grace. Grace is unmerited favor. Grace means I don't get what I earn. I get what you give me as a free gift. Grace is, you don't deserve it. You just get it. And he says, when I look at you, my face is going to beam. And I'm not looking at you knowing that you're unworthy. I'm looking at you through the blood of my son, Jesus Christ, and what he finished on the cross. And I beam with delight, not disappointment. The Lord make his face shine on you. The Lord be gracious, extend grace to you. I mean, every time we speak, say that God is covering our babies with grace. God is shining his face on them. God is guiding. God is watching. You say, well, bad things happen to everybody. You're exactly right. But still, to know that the face of God is there, God's face doesn't just turn to us. His face shines upon us with delight. And as his. As he looks at us, his face grows radiant. That's a powerful thing in the New Testament. In the Gospel of John, the ninth chapter, there was a man born blind. He couldn't see Jesus, but Jesus could see him. And the scripture said that every day he lay at the gate begging, begging, and he could not see. And nobody saw him. How do you know nobody saw him? Because the Bible said when he got healed, in the Book of John, the ninth chapter, the scripture said, the people asked, is that the Same one that lay at the gate all these years, for decades. You know why they said that? Because they were walking past him every day, but never seeing him, never noticing him. But Jesus sees the unseen. And he shined his face on that man. And that man, Corrie Ten. Not Corrie ten. Boone. But Fanny Crosby was once asked, do you want God to heal you of blindness? And she was in her later years of life, and she said, not now. And they said, why? She said, because the first face that I want to see is Jesus. And Jesus healed him. He sees the beggars. He sees the little children. The apostle said, no, we don't. We don't want to let the babies get around Jesus. But he sees the unseen. He sees the lonely. He sees the single mother with the children struggling. He sees you. He shines his face upon you. He gives you his full attention. That beautiful. That he doesn't just know that you're there, but he sees you with full attention. His face shines on you. In the book of Genesis, chapter 16, Hagar was a single mother. She had been cast out of the home of Abraham. Sarah, his wife, had said, get her out and take this baby out that you made with her at my request. Done with them. Get them out of the house. And she is in a desert, and she does not have provision for her baby. She's abandoned. She's forgotten. And God shows up in the desert and hears the baby crying. God sees the unseen. God sees your struggle. You may feel unimportant, but when he shines his face on you, you have his full attention. And he says, I'll be gracious. I have grace for you. I have grace for your addiction. I have grace for your habit. I have grace for your adultery, your fornication, your sin. I have it. I can cleanse you from that addiction. And the Bible said that when she got to that place, that God showed up. And God met. And then God even blessed her. Said, ishmael shall be blessed. Ishmael's not cursed. Ishmael shall be blessed and deceived. If they would turn to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. There is no Jew or Gentile in God's kingdom. He sees us all the same. But you got to serve the living God. Listen to this. The Bible said that God said these words, or she said these words. She called the name of that place. You're the God that sees me. Now. I know you see me. You're the God that sees me. Every single mother speak the blessing over your home. And God sees your children. And God sees that you've been abandoned every every single father who's raising children alone and it's the hardest job in the world. But oh, God sees you. Hallelujah. His face shines upon you. He's beaming on you. He beams with love. He beams with I want to bless you. I'm bowing low. I'm coming down to where you are and you have my full attention and I'm beaming with delight. Job says this. I can't see him. I go forward and he's not there. I can't see him. I go backwards and he's not there. But when you can't see him, he said, I know he sees me, and he knows where I am and the path that I take. Psalms Psalms 94 said, who is formed the eye, who has formed the ear? Do you not think that he will not see and he will not Hear you? Matthew 9:46 When Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. And the Bible said in Matthew 6 that listen carefully that God sees what we do. And it was in in the conversation of fasting and prayer. God sees what we do in secret and he rewards us openly.
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I really want to say thank you for joining us this week. If you haven't already, make sure you click on the subscription button and leave us a review. It helps this podcast reach even more people when you comment, when you give us your feedback. For more messages and inspirational materials, download the Jensen Franklin app or you can head over to JensenFranklin.org I want to thank all of you who give generously to help us produce weekly content like this to reach the world with the message of Jesus. God bless you and we'll see you next time.