Neal Lozano - The Fifth Key: The Father's Blessing (2019 PDS Retreat)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so there's a great advantage in being an intercessor because you actually get to see a session and at the end of the session you might have a few minutes to dialogue with the leader just about what you're learning so I want to encourage you to and father Hicks talk tonight it's on our website he gave it at our leaders conference so you can pick it up and most of the sessions at least two of the sessions tomorrow they will be made available as well so I don't want I want to encourage you to be available to be an intercessor with somebody because it's it's part of the training receiving watching praying participating it's really how you learn so so the other thing I wanted to say about that is if you if you have an appointment and please be on time and and especially if you're an intercessor if if you don't show up that's going to delay or maybe even cancel that person's appointment so we really won't want to encourage you to to get that worked out well ahead of time so so I realized I'm looking at the schedule and I realized that there's a few things that I want I want to share with you I'm going to speak to you about the father's blessing today and I'm going to pray for you and we're going to enter into the father's blessing and so this is a talk which is really you know in some ways a lot of the messages have been I want to learn and take it away and I also want to receive this message I want you to just receive you can pick up the information another time I just really want you to have your heart open to the Lord ministering to you through this session but I've mentioned several times about angels and demons and we believe in them and I want to give you some examples of how angels work during an unbound session and now I can't guarantee you that these are angels it may be the Holy Spirit it's very hard to distinguish some sometimes between a messenger and the messenger and the messenger the messenger and that they carry the messenger yeah yes I can't even distinguish the words but um so as Janet described to you we take people through the the interview the interview is like the center of everything we do and when you come for an interview in the next two days those who have sessions assigned we want you to come with what's coming up so don't come with we have about an hour for each of you and if you come with your whole everything they won't be time to minister to you and so what you want to do is say Lord what is coming up in me during this conference what are you doing today father and and then just come and bring it share share your story but let the let the leader guide you if they need more information they will ask but you don't need to give them too many details the focus of it is like what happened how I responded even if you don't have words for it just to describe it and what's going on now in your life I'm having trouble with this in my life these are this is some of the traumatic events in my life and tell your story the leader will help you to do it it's and the Holy Spirit is leading it so it's it's just no concern at all just come be open to the Lord and so the so the leader will take some notes and then lead you through the five keys so um as Janet described that after the fourth key after the outcome actually after the third key we will ask you to be quiet just don't pray just pay attention to anything that comes to your mind and then we give an expression of faith and the command and then we wait about five seconds say is there anything coming to your mind and now this is the point where I think angels are really active so I'm going to give you three little stories of how it went so this is actually didn't happen to me but it was just we trained some people and and this person came up front took us through the first key first four keys gay gave the command and and the man said is there anything coming to your mind and she says wings wings are coming to my mind and of course the leaders like wings you know and and the person standing there with this confused look I'm thinking about wings and then about ten or twelve seconds later she begins to weep and the leader says what's what's going on she said when I was a little girl there's such chaos in my family that I used to climb up onto the roof and I used to ask the Lord for wings so I could fly away the father hurt her her prayer and like 40 years later she got her wings it was this young man I I was leading I was going to do my sessions and his father was coming with me and he realized he had me I was taking him I said no no no no let me give you my son to take my son and his son was about 16 years old and kind of heavy guy and and a little awkward and um so we sat down we started the interview and took my notes I had a picture of what his life was like a little bit and so I took him through the first three keys and then I gave the command and I said is there anything come in your mind and he says a rabbit that's a good oh my goodness rabbit what do I do with Lord what do i do at a rabbit but I really believe I really believe whatever comes to somebody's mind at that point is important it's important and I'm gonna seek the Lord so I say so I'm thinking and I'm looking at the paper I say I said well well is it more more like a is it a rabbit or is it more like a bunny they said oh it's a bunny okay that's progress and there and the reason I ask that is because when I envision or imagine a bunny I'm thinking a bunny is something that either wants to be held or something you want to hold and I knew from this story that he was kind of isolated and his mother and father separated and I knew his story so that I came to my mind and then so so I said okay why don't you just say this in the name of Jesus I renounce the lie that no one is ever going to hold me and the 16 year old boy broke down and wept now I think that's a miracle that a 16 year old boy who is shy who's not real connected to people finds a way for his heart to be revealed in a few minutes for him to identify and to renounce the lie that's been holding him bondage is that the work of angels the work of Holy Spirit I kind of lean towards the angels with the impressions under the mind because we don't say tell me what you're seeing I say tell me what's coming to your mind so it could be a thought or it could be an image a lot of times it's images I'll tell you one more story so I was missing to this young man and I took him through the first keys and I gave the command and he said I just have this picture of of me up in an empty place looking through this portal on a beautiful field now years ago I would have just prayed him through that portal into the field but our approach is a little different and I'm thinking differently and I just thinking about it a little differently and he used the word empty so I know from experience that many times people grow up with a sense of emptiness it's not the kind of emptiness that we had before the Lord but just a sense a negative sense of emptiness and I know that's it's often connected to nothingness so I just went for I said okay well if it's okay with you just saying the name of Jesus I renounce emptiness and I renounce nothingness and as soon as he said nothingness he started laughs hey just laughing in their facet I said what's going on he said in college I was really into nichy's Notting this now it wasn't that he got demonized in the class but you can see that if you have a sense of nothingness in you and emptiness you're going to be attracted to that and it's going to reinforce it and create their bondage sometimes when we give the command and because we're not we're not we're just dismissing the spirits we're still dealing with the person's heart so sometimes they'll say well nothing's coming in my mind and what's really coming to their mind is this isn't working and nothing's going to change and you have to create a safe atmosphere for them to say whatever it is that comes to their mind and and and if you you always pray you're always doing this with your eyes open so you're perceiving and you're helping them maybe to express what it is and if they say nothing nothing is going to change that's what came to my mind you're really happy that's great okay so would you renounce doubt and unbelief would you renounce the lie that I can never change and maybe discouragement disappointment you know so you just help them process whatever is coming to their mind and so that's what the leaders will be doing with those of you who have a chance for unbound ministry or if in the future you have a chance to maybe you'll have a chance to minister to one another before you leave here as well as come to a ministry team and there's also ministry teams in many different cities that you can connect to on our website heart of the Father calm so this I think I covered everything so now I'd like to speak to you about the father's blessing in many of the countries we've we've gone to and for many people even some of you everything up to this point is nice but for some people this is what it's all about see you and I'll probably repeat this in the talk but but we know that Jesus died for us he saved us so that we could come home to the Father so I'm gonna speak about it today with the father's blessing because that's what we do that's the fifth key and on Friday morning I'm going to speak about Ava's heart I'm gonna speak about coming home to the father because it's in the father that we find our true identity and our purpose so let's let's pray in the name of father and son the Holy Spirit Heavenly Father we come to you in your son Jesus and we ask you to bless us today I ask you to restore and begin to restore and further restore everyone's heart that's been damaged and held back from you I find it difficult to trust you to know you and to release themselves to you father I ask that your spirit would be working in our midst today and and release the significance of what it means to hear the words and receive the blessing of the Father and father we come to you in the name of your son our Lord Jesus Christ amen so blessing traces back to the heart of God we sing the song praise God from whom all blessings blessings flow whether it's major blessing or small blessings if you live in a city you get small blessings all the time Lord please give me a parking spot and there it is you know I my wife gets blessed all the time she comes home from the store and she says you wouldn't believe it there was a sale at Talbots and and not only was there a sale but I had a 40 percent coupon I was blessed then there's big blessings like my son just returned he gave his heart to the Lord family life has changed because of today the blessing of today all blessing flows from God and we give Him praise for it all in Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 it says and God blessed them after he created he said God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves a prompt on the earth and in verse 31 it says that God saw everything he had made and behold it was very good now you've probably preached on it every other day it was good but the day that he made you see because when he created Adam you were in Adam and he knew you that day he knew you in that moment and his heart was filled with the light and he saw you and he saw this is very good increases multiply I want more Jesus tells us in the gospel that it's out of the heart that the now speaks so imagine what was in God's heart that day great pleasure great delight when he looked upon you now you can see that by meditating in Genesis you can see that the light of the father who he loved to spend time with his his children and the cool of the day and walking with them but you can see it later when the blessing of the Father is restored Jesus went into the Jordan identified with our sins and the heavens opened up and the father spoke Jesus at that moment restored to us the father's blessing that we ran away from that was hidden from us because of sin the Greek word for blessing literally means a good word a blessing is a good word that finds its source in the heart of God and words have power the hebrew sense of blessing has to do with speaking well about a person a blessing imparts something a blessing empowers someone to prosper to thrive to succeed to have a pleasant journey its Shalom take my peace with you it's giving something so when we speak about blessing it's maybe a little little different than some of the blessings you were trained to give it has to do with speaking that about imparting to someone the thoughts of God and speaking them or releasing them into someone else's heart and what I want to say is the thoughts that God has for you is the treasure you've been seeking for all your life and you're still seeking now you've found that the treasure but there's more there's more of what is in God's heart for you that needs to expose the lion and wipe out the darkness as he reveals to you his delight and pleasure over you and God's plan is that the family and the church would learn to speak blessings in this Hebrew sense then parting something from God everyone needs to hear the whispers of the Father and I would like to reflect on the life of Jesus and special moments when the father broke into the life of his son to speak in this Hebrew sense of blessing these special blessings have to do with his identity and his destiny or you could call it his mission or his life's purpose so I had two concepts first at the conception and the sixth month God sent an angel Gabriel to Nazareth to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph a descendant of David the Virgin's name was Mary and the angel went to her and said greetings you who are highly favored the Lord is with you Mary was greatly troubled with these words and wondered what kind of greeting this could be but the angel said to her do not be afraid Mary you have found favor with God you will be with child and give birth to a son and here to give him the name Jesus imagine that moment this young girl is visited by an angel and the angel says you're gonna be with child you found favor with God you're gonna you're gonna conceive and then the angel said you're going to name him Jesus which which means the Lord saves she might have immediately thought could this be the one the Savior the one we waited for and that would have been enough just to kind of knock her over win it but then the angel goes on he will be great and he will be called the son of the Most High the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever his kingdom will never end God is revealing the identity of his son and he's blessing Mary and Jesus in these this encounter with the angel and during the pregnancy at that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit now all Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit but when Scripture itself says someone's filled with the Holy Spirit then it's time to get ready for prophecy and Elizabeth doesn't just deliver a message you know I think the Lord saying dunce I have this impression she says in a loud voice she exclaimed blessed are you among women and blessed as a child you will bear for why am I so favored that the mother of my lord should come to me as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears the baby in my womb left for joy blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said will be accomplished why am I so favorite that the mother of my lord should come to me his identity is being revealed affirmed by the father the Mary is being blessed then the Shepherd's God provides shepherds and kings to honor Jesus and confirm his identity and his destiny and it says the angel revealed the glory of God to the shepherds and announced that today a savior has been born and they witnessed a heavenly host praising God so we have have revelation introducing Jesus as Savior Lord and son and Luke chapter 2 verse 19 it says that Mary treasured all the up all these things she pondered them in her heart she took them in and they were going to be stories to be told blessings to be repeated in the life of her son now here's my here's a favorite one I like to tell in Luke chapter 225 it says there was a man in Jerusalem there called Simeon who was righteous and devout he was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ now I picture Simeon as a very old man and the reason I do is because I know this about God he never comes early you have a promise from God where are you lord did I hear your right you going through all the trouble and then when he comes ah Lord perfect timing just in time this is the right moment but we go through a lot so he had a promise from God so I imagine him being a fairly old and and I don't know if Mary and Joseph would have known he was a prophet or they just thought it was an old man that was muttering around the temple but on this particular day he's moved by the spirit to go into the temple courts and I imagine he's wondering or why today is this a day and and I kind of imagined him looking around and wondering is this a day and and then he then he sees across the courtyard he sees this this couple carrying something and and he's compelled to go over and when he gets there he sees the baby it takes a baby in his arms and he says Sovereign Lord as you have promised you may now dismiss your servant in peace my eyes have seen your salvation which you've prepared in the sight of all people a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel Simeon did not witness the miracles he did not hear the preaching of the kingdom of God he did not witness the death and the resurrection of Jesus he wasn't there at Pentecost to receive the Holy Spirit but when he looked into the face of this child he received it all and said now you can dismiss your servant in peace it's prophecies they came to Mary and Joseph to confirm what they already knew he imagined Mary and Joseph going back home that day how did he know did you hear what he said is everything everything that's in our hearts he knew he must be a prophet oh thank you Lord God was bringing revelation and encouragement to help them to firmly hold to what is true and when we speak blessing and we prophesy to one another the thoughts the treasures that are in the heart of God for one another that's what we're doing we're bringing encouragement and revelation to help you to hold firmly to what God what you already know is true and these were the stories that Joseph and Mary would have told when I when I wrote on down I wrote a meditation on I'm blessing and as Janet told you it later became a book called will you bless me and it's about Joseph and Mary blessing Jesus and after I wrote it I found out a lot of people were surprised to realize that the first person to ever hear the Christmas story was Jesus Mary and Joseph told him the stories over and over again and I sometimes I wondered I wonder if if Jesus told the disciples or he said oh go ask my mom [Laughter] so that so the book I'm gonna read most of it to you and I found out that whenever I wear my mr. Rogers sweater right I haven't great anointing to read so so I'm ready as you are so the book begins with dad tucking Anna into bed and she sneezes and her stuffed animals go flying around the room and and dad says bless you Anna as he picks up the the animals stuffed animals and she says why do you say bless you now I wrote the book but I don't know what she was in her heart when she asked that question so I know a couple things about kids sometimes they ask questions because they want the answer sometimes they ask questions because they don't want the next thing to happen I used to teach religion in high school and they figured me out save all the best questions for the last 10 minutes Oh get him talking and he won't get to give us the assignment so maybe Anna wanted to know the answer to that maybe she just didn't want dad to turn the light off but her father was a good father he knew this was a a moment so he went over to the shelf and he picked out a book that grandma I'd given her about Jesus and he snuggles up beside her on the bed and begins to read a long time ago in a place called Nazareth a little boy played with a wooden chest that his father had made there were treasures in that chest treasures given to his family not long after his birth mom the boy called out could you tell me about the wise men again his fingers toyed with something shiny inside the chest Mary set aside her sewing and pulled her son Jesus onto her lap it was after you were born she said three wise men came to see us from far away they were beautifully dressed and carrying gifts just for you one brought gold another frankincense and a third one myrrh and God told him a very special child had been born it was a star wasn't it mom Jesus interrupted that's how they found us that's right Mary told him God put an amazing star in the sky and the wise men followed it Joseph put down his tools and leaned closer to hear his wife and son he loved these moments when Mary talked to Jesus about his birth telling her son all the thoughts and plans God had just for him Joseph could feel the presence of God Jesus his true father reaching down to bless His only Son through Mary's simple words now tell me about the angel Jesus begged the one who told the Shepherd's about me Mary smiled well the shepherds were watching the Sheep late at night when the whole sky suddenly lit up with God's glory at first the Shepherd's were frightened but the angel said to them shepherds don't be afraid the news I bring you is wonderful today in the town of David a savior has been born for you and here's proof of what I'm saying is true you'll find this baby snuggled in warm clothes and lying in a manger Mary touched her eager son's face the Shepherd's came she said and told us all the angel had said about you God has such a special plan for your life Jesus the little boy grew quiet now Joseph could tell he was thinking tell me again about the first angel mom Jesus pleaded the one who told you I was coming that's my favorite part Mary drew a deep breath remembering the wonder of the moment as a young girl I was pledged to be married to your father I was so excited thinking about it day and night and then she paused the angel appeared it was Gabriel wasn't it the boy chimed in yes it was and he said you didn't need to be afraid that's right then he told you about me and you should name me Jesus Mary looked deeply into her son's eyes the angel told me that you would be great Jesus you will be called the son of the Most High as Jesus took in these words he rested his head against his mother and heard the soft beat of her heart somehow Jesus since there were many treasures kept there for him to know someday Joseph wiped his eyes he treasured moments like these when he and and Mary had had the joy of unfolding the heart of the father to God's own precious son just then the boy's head popped up he said so what happened to the gold he asked we can get married Joseph said I guess God knew we needed it for our vacation in Egypt right now Jesus has hopped off Mary's lap and ran outside to play the moment was over but the blessing was eternal and his father closed the book so Anna he said that's a blessing the special thoughts and plans God has for you shared by someone who loves you very much will you bless me she asked and that's the purpose of the book that children will say will you bless me and parents will we'll see how to do it and so Anna's dad goes on Oh Anna he said you're my precious daughter but you're also the daughter of a king God loves you and is already whispering what a treasure you are every time I tell you a story about how we prayed for a child like you or how we picked out your name I'm blessing you and God is whispering his own quiet words into your heart do you want to hear one of the stories again he asked how about the day we found out you were coming or the day we brought you home or tell me about the whisper and I interrupted God is always whispering words of love to you Anna if you listen closely you'll hear him and I said quietly and listened Leopold Simon and the doll with the feather boa seemed to listen to although Leopold might have been sleeping tenderly touching his daughter's cheek and his daddy Prague Heavenly Father you loved Anna so much thank you that I'm her dad I know you have special plans for her as she rests and I let her feel how close you are and help her to know your thoughts and hear your quiet whispers of love deep in her heart a moment later and I was fast asleep the moment was over but the blessing was eternal Jesus was told stories we need to remember the stories about our families and about our children and the stories need to be told the stories are a form of blessing so I was learning about blessing when my oldest grandson was born that's Matt's son and so when we heard he was born we got in our car and we were driving five hours to Virginia to meet my to meet my grandson and on the way down I said Lord would you would you show me something about my grandson so that I would have a story even from the beginning to tell them about some of your whispers or what you think of him or who he is and so as we drove down I prayed I wondered if the Lord was gonna show up so of course when we got there Janet got the first hold and I was standing there patiently wondering and and then I sat down and they carefully put Stephen in my arms and this is what I said in my head hello Stephen I'm your grandpa and I'm a Christian and sometimes God gives me pictures and then I pause just like it would have with anybody hoping that God was going to show up that I wasn't gonna be left empty and immediately I had this picture in my mind of a man walking up a sand dune and the man looked like he had been alone with God kind of like a Moses figure but but but thinner than Charlton Heston and he was just you know someone that had been alone with God he's coming out of the desert and I saw thank you lord my grandson is going to know what it means to be alone with you and then I thought I I said but Lord why is he at the beach so when you get an image it's complete God has purpose in the whole thing so I said but Lord why is he at the beach and immediately I felt the response of my heart it's because he's gonna be there when the tide turns now it's private interpretation but I'll tell you what it means to me it means that the things that we've labored for in our lives and worked for and I wanted to see the kingdom advance and the church advance we're gonna see the fulfillment of that or it's going to be fulfillment in his generation in his lifetime and so I held that and I've told that story many many times and looking back over the years of having told that I just didn't realize that the tide was going out and it hadn't turned yet but there is a turning of the tide it may be right now we certainly see evidence of it in places like student Ville and Michigan and and different places we go there is a turning taking place and the kingdom and the world and the church is going to overtake the world and I believe it's going to be in his generation the fulfillment of the promise so back to the yeah back to the scriptures I was debating whether to tell you another story I put it off in mark chapter 1 verse 9 it says at that time Jesus came from Nazareth and Galilee and was baptized by John the Jordan and as Jesus was coming out of the water he saw heaven being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove and a voice came from heaven you are my son whom I love with you I am well pleased present in these words is a blessing of his identity and his destiny his purpose and along with it is the empowering of the Holy Spirit and the spirit would drive him out into the wilderness as he prepared for his ministry one more time we have this Hebrew sense of blessing coming from heaven Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem he's going to suffer and die he's transfigured with Moses and Elijah and the from the cloud of voice speaks this is my son whom I love with him I am well pleased listen to him the father is empowering him to go to the cross Satan's attack is always two things he attacks our identity and he attacks our destiny evangelism 101 God loves you and he has a plan for your life what is the enemy's design it's the rob you of that awareness and knowledge of God's love for you and that you have purpose and meaning you have a destiny to fulfill so every attempt by the enemy is to rob us of those two things and we have recorded in Scripture two attacks of the enemy upon the life of Jesus the first one is when he comes out of the desert so he's baptized in the River Jordan he goes into the desert he's praying and fasting he's thirsty he's hungry and the tempter comes to him and says if you are God's Son tell these stones to become bread if you are God's Son and the three temptations echo that same sentiment if you are God's Son deny your sonship throw yourself down and we receive revelation from God we can expect it to be tested it was tested with Jesus Jesus was stood the temptation by quoting the scriptures and it's interesting that he allowed it to happen three times before he dismissed the enemy and said away from away from me Satan going through the testing allows the truth to take hold deeply in our hearts so it's not just a word that we heard but it's a word that we can live and so sometimes now all of you have gone through testing and there's a process by which God forms you as a man of God through the times of and the times of testing do end as it did with Jesus when He said away from me Satan for his written worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone the second temptation is about his destiny or his life's purpose his mission before Jesus was to go to Jerusalem Peter speaks the very temptation of Satan Matthew 16:21 from that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders chief priests and teachers of the law and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life Peter took him aside him again to rebuke him never Lord this should never happen to you Jesus turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan you were a stumbling block to me you do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men as closest companions walking with him to his destiny they speak the enemy's temptation Jesus was not concerned with Peters feelings that day he had his eye on what he was destined to do he was going to fulfill the Father's plan whether anybody walked with him or not he knew where he was going a little side note that I'd like to reflect upon with this scripture as I kind of imagine the disciples in heaven sitting around the table talking about old times telling stories and and then somebody says hey Peter remember the day you rebuked the Lord ha ha you rebuke the Lord how could you rebuke the Lord parents have a difficult job they need the correct behavior and honor the child many of us were Dishonored when our parents were making sincere efforts to confess correct us correction has to do with performance rejection has to do with identity and all parents get it mixed up and it was mixed up for them as well if we're not blessed we don't know our true identity and then we think that anytime someone corrects us they're rejecting us now you if you worked in a parish you've had people work for you you know try to correct as gently as you could you said the best you could and they go away crying and in tears feeling rejected if we're not blessed we do not know that we have what it takes to fulfill the purposes of God in our life and I know we we only have what it takes by God's grace but it's it's like do we have confidence do we believe if our Danity and destiny is not blessed and valued we basically have two choices in life and Jesus described those choices when he told the story of the two sons the older brother try harder earn it if I can't be accepted at least I can be right there's rules self-righteousness self-reliance and your other basic choice is the younger brother it's hopeless I'll never be good enough why try self condemnation worthlessness imagine the younger brother saying Ah I'll never be like my older brother matter of fact I never even want to be like my older brother I'll never be like my dad why bother give up God wants us to learn to bless the blessings we received from God are incomplete until they're given away the blessings you received are going to go much deeper in you the more you learn how to speak the blessing into the heart of somebody else the more you learn that the more you'll get caught up in it you will receive as much delight and pleasure over speaking it as a person receiving it parents need to be taught to bless their children a family blessing consists of meaningful touch a hug a spoken word attaching a high value to the one being blessed or picturing a special future for the child and its priests and deacons you can do that seminarians you can do it for one another so many seminarians are struggling with their identity and like do they belong and can I make it and comparing themselves to one another and and what would happen if you caught hold of something of God for a brother seminarian and started speaking into their life and speaking into their heart expressing confidence and filling those gaps their their father never blessed them I remember praying for this one priest I did the interview and he said my father was the greatest man ever I was so close to him all my life and he would come to Manny he came he saw I just feel like I'm dead I feel like I'm not a priest and I feel like I don't know what to do I don't know if I should leave the priesthood everybody around him was like this is an amazing priest but inside he was dead and it happened to be a bishop to a future bishop that was in the room with me and and and we were kind of stumped we didn't know I mean he was talking about demons this and it must be that and it must be he was searching he was searching everywhere and finally by God's grace I think it was finally by God's grace I asked them did your father bless you when you became a priest it's faith skyla sake I don't know why this happened but I asked my father advice about everything everything oh we would talk and I asked his advice about everything but I don't know why but for some reason I never asked him about joining the seminary becoming a priest it was a gap he didn't know his father's blessing and there was a hole in his heart and he couldn't name it because he still had a great relationship with his dad but there was something in him hungry for the father's blessing and there's gaps in all of your lives in my life Jesus died to make the father's blessing real to you so you could receive it and it's never too late my father-in-law is over to our house when he was up it was close to 90 at the time and he had been through I'm bound he actually took it into the prisons and he knew it but I didn't know actually what he got or what he didn't do but he told me that he was using it with the prisoners and so I was sitting at the end of the counter and he he just kind of came into the kitchen real slow real slow didn't say a word and he just came up and he came beside me and put his arm across my shoulder I didn't want to breathe I didn't want the phone to ring I didn't want anybody to say anything I just wanted to take the blessing in touch is a way to communicate blessing and sometimes I'll say you know some people were never touched and and heads will go that was me I mean somebody washed your hair and somebody scrubbed your face and somebody touched you but but but whether it was your own hardness of heart to push people out or because nobody ever really touched you and a way to communicate that blessing and value it's not too late the father embraced the prodigal you kissed him it's not too late some of us as some of us were born at times of great turmoil and stress worried divorce was being considered alcoholism abortion might have been considered for you or abortion was considered for a sibling maybe one died before you came and maybe your mother didn't want to bond with you because she was in such sorrow about the last job we all we all have our stories because we're born into a broken world maybe there was no money there was no time for celebration for you when you were born but as Matt would have told you that's the small story the bigger story is the eternal story the the eternal love of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and we are interpreting and our lives based on this limited perception of reality the perception of our experiences and how we react and respond to them and how we interpret life based on it the redemption is this Jesus broke out of the bigger story into our smaller story and he's breaking us out so that we might be enter in fully to the eternal story the eternal love the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit so we've been we've been given a promise everything works to the good for those of us who love God so it doesn't matter what how bad your story was yes you need to tell it yes you need to mourn your loss yes you need to renounce the lies that have come to you and repent of your sin and forgive those who wounded you but as you love God through all that it becomes something rich for others I didn't learn about unbound by reading a book now I read books and I particularly study everything that we teach so I'm I know that I'm not teaching any heresy or misleading or doing any harm but I learned it by living through it by entering into it and the best thing that you have for your parishioners is to enter into it and allow the redemption to take hold of you so you have a firm testimony that no matter how bad it was in my life God has turned it to good and now I have something to give and we have power we have power from the cross when Jesus said Father forgive them they do not know what they're doing we have the power to forgive the impossible and so we can do as it says in Ephesians 6 take our stand against the devil's schemes Jesus came to destroy the devil's works so we could hear the whisper of the Father we're no longer living the small story we're living the eternal story and that's why we call our conferences freedom in Christ so now I'd like to pray for you to receive the blessing of the Father so you can stand and you can stretch take a moment and then we're going to go for it that money father I want to ask that you would you'd visit your sons tonight and you'd open up heaven for them in a special way so I'd like you to go in your imaginations to the river Jordan I want you to see yourself standing on the banks and have you've been there I want you to just perceive the perceive the Sun and the clouds it's kind of like a perfect day it's a bright day but it's not too bright and then like you just as smell they the moist breeze coming off the river as you look into thee as you look down the banks and you look into the river you see you see the Baptist and he's preaching it's preaching a message of repentance but today you find it very hard to hear him because you've been coming there every day for a week and every day you were saying I think today's the day I'm going to be baptized think today's the day and every day you went home and then yesterday something really unusual happened the Baptist stopped preaching and he pointed his finger to the hillside and he said look there's the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and you looked and you saw him and you can't get him out of your mind even thinking how can a man be the Lamb of God how can a man take away sins that's been going over and over in your heart and on the way home yesterday you asked about him and they said oh he's a Nazarene his name is Jesus I think he think he might be John's cousin huh I'm not sure and you can't stop thinking about him so today's you're standing on the banks and there's a crowd around you and you're looking down at the Baptist here you're not really hearing him and then behind you you feel the crowd moving and you look over your shoulder and there he is the Lamb of God and he's coming towards the water and he looks like he's headed right towards you and it looks like he's gonna walk right by you and as he comes to you you find yourself walking with him step for step first your ankle deep and your knee deep and you're standing before the Baptist's waist deep you've never seen John like this he's trembling and he says to Jesus ike i can't baptize you I'm not and John and Jesus says baptize me for righteousness sake John takes one trembling hand and puts it on the head of Jesus and he puts the other hand on your head and in that moment it's like lightning goes through you it's like all the wheat and the chaff is being separated all the darkness and light within you is being separated and you know you're never going to be the same again and then you're plunged into the water and it's like a wind comes by and blows all the chaff away and and you're under the water for just a moment but it seems like a long time and you're smiling because you're thinking I'm clean I'm really clean and you come out of the water and you hear a rumbling in the clouds and a voice begins to speak this is my son you look to your left for Jesus he's not there and this voice these words are echoing in your soul deep in your soul this is my son and you're looking you're looking for Jesus and he's not there and then you realize these words are for you this is your blessing this is what you've sought for all your life receive your blessing this is my son in whom I take great pleasure this is my son in whom I delight I'm so proud of him he's answered the call he said yes this is my son whom I love this is your blessing now let the holy spirit complete this blessing Holy Spirit we ask you to go deep within us and release the cry the cry of the Spirit the stirring and many of you right now just let it come up and then whisper in response to the father's delight ABBA my father Abba My Father whisper to your father if you've heard if you've received his word respond you are my son ABBA my father Abba Father Jesus dwells in you you are identified with the son and the father's delight is an immeasurable there's two more things I wanted you to have an opportunity for right now the father can speak your name like no one else ever did or quit so listen for his whisper listen for your name now the one thing that is really missing is touch the father embraced the prodigal and so we're ending with plenty of time today I want this to be a time of extending the blessing some of you have prophetic gifts most of you have prophetic gifts I'd like you to use them but speak out of the father's delight and pleasure and if you have a brother to minister to just form it this way and the father says what does what is the treasure in the father's heart that he wants to bring to the person that's standing before you so there's a couple things you can do you can turn to somebody not yet and you can say will you bless me or you can turn to somebody and just look them in the face and pause and then one of you will have to speak the father's blessing but wait on the spirit and wait until you really see the person in front of you and the other thing you can do is you can touch someone in an appropriate way you can touch them or embrace them but don't go too quickly to that I want you all to be touched before you leave today but minister to one another from the heart the father is blessing every brother here and now some of them some of you just need someone else to speak the words so I released you in Jesus name to to bless one another take your time and move to somebody else after you're finished move out and just say I am a a man who wants to bless and I'm carrying the blessing of God to give away go for it Thank You Lars thank you

Channel: Steubenville Conferences

Views: 3,682

Rating: 4.7837839 out of 5

Keywords: Steubenville Conferences, Catholic, Franciscan University, Catholic Ministry, New Evangelization, Youth

Id: IOj60fiPir8

Length: 72min 21sec (4341 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 15 2019