Jehovah bless you and keep you

The Word of the Lord is found today in Numbers chapter 6, beginning with verse 22: "The Lord spoke to Moses saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, and say to them: Thus shall you bless the children of Israel, saying to them: The Lord bless you and keep you The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace, and He will put My Name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them."

And I will bless you.

That is what we ask at this moment, Lord, that you do Father, that You bless this people, that you give life to this Word. You are the great high priest Jesus, now convey grace, open our hearts and minds, flood them with Your Truth in Jesus Name.

My brothers: as I shared with you, these are well-known words such as Psalm 23 or the Our Father. We have heard in many different contexts this passage that we know as the priestly blessing or the Aaronic blessing. Some traditions my brothers conclude each service with these words. How many have worshiped in a Church whose tradition is that, they end each service like this? It can be a priest, a minister, but in the Anglican context it is like that, in the Catholic context, in other contexts, at the end of each service they pronounce these words about the Congregation. We hear it at funerals still in this tradition, and at weddings.

By the way: this weekend I have the privilege of celebrating a wedding of a special couple here, and it is almost certain that at the conclusion of that ceremony I will pronounce on this couple these words of blessing; They are beautiful. But like everything known, this passage can be so well known that we stop appreciating its passage or feeling its impact, just like Psalm 23 or the Our Father.

Well, in the Name of Jesus, let's reflect a little on this passage and see what the Lord wants to share with us about it. The first thing, brothers, when reflecting on it, I think the first thing we recognize is that it is an extremely beautiful passage, it's beautiful, beautiful. In my university studies I was an English student, an English major, and verses 24, 25 and 26 can be compared to any poem by Shakespeare, Charlster, Millster, Cervantes. It is one of the poetic works, as simple as it is, it is one of the most exalted poetic works not only in the Scriptures but in human literature, this little blessing.

Knows? doing my homework for this message the Lord showed me some things that are so beautiful and I can't resist the opportunity to share them. For example, in its form, that is, only in the use of its words, it is almost a perfect poem. Knows? In its original language, this blessing is made up of twelve Hebrew words, that is, one word for each tribe of Judah. Isn't that beautiful? one word for each tribe of Judah.

And many commentators see in the word of this blessing a shadow of the Trinity in the Old Testament. In other words, each symbolic blessing of Jehovah the Father, the one who blesses us and keeps us, Jehovah the Son, the one who showed us His Face and had mercy on us, and Jehovah the Holy Spirit, the one who infuses us with His peace. Isn't that beautiful? enclosed in these simple words is beautiful.

But brothers, this is more than just poetry, there is more here. We recognize that there is power in these words. We recognize this, although perhaps we do not understand why, and there we come to another danger: if it is not merely a poem, this blessing is not magic either, it is not an incantation. It is not an amulet, a luck that we are throwing at it, it is not: abracadabra, it is not de-tin-marín-de-do-pingüe, it is not that we are throwing holy water on it. It's life. Without the principles of faith behind it, even these beautiful words are empty, they are vain. So my brothers: what are those principles behind the power of these words?

The Pastor has been preaching a series about how to live a healthy and healthy life, a beautiful series these days. And in other words, when talking about a healthy and healthy life, another way of looking at it is: how do you live a blessed life, a blessed life? and this passage is an outline, an outline of a blessed life. It is a profile, an outline of a blessed life.

The Lord shares His idea with us. You are not getting this from a magazine, you are not getting it from the internet, a comment you found there, but from the Voice of the Lord itself, the Lord is sharing His heart with us about what it means to Him, from where every blessing emanates, for Him, what is a blessed life?

In these three simple lines, in these blessings the Lord is showing us His heart and explaining to us: This is the way to live a consistently blessed life for those who have enough common sense to listen to God, this is the way in which the Lord blesses us. The Lord in this passage instructed His priests in the Old Testament, Aaron, to stretch out his hands over His people and declare this blessing.

Verse 27 states God's intent in this: "And they shall put my Name upon the children of Israel." They will put My Name, Jehovah; Jehovah. "They will put my Name and I will bless them." And my brothers that is the idea: the apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 10 verse 13: "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved and if that is you my brother, if you call on the Name of Jesus over you as the sovereign of your life and you submit to the Name of Jesus, to the name of Israel, the Lord to through this Word he vows to bless you.

This weekend I was consulting with Reverend Gregory Bishop about this text, my brothers, in all things Hebrew I consult with my buddy Greg. And you know? about this passage, and I was saying, Wow Greg, these look like covenant words. And at one point Gregory says: "No Sam, they are votes" and at that moment as I always say: you, you are good, you are good. Votes, they are votes, read it, look at it. It is as if the Lord were marrying His people. They are like the vows that a boyfriend shares with his beloved. He says: "Whoever dares to live under my Name, I vow to bless him." I will bless you.

Know my brothers above all that this is the intention for your life. Verse 23, declares the Lord through Moses: "Speak to Aaron" says the Lord to Moses, "and to his sons, and say to them: Thus shall you bless the children of Israel saying to them:" My brothers, first, above all, know that God's purpose, God's desire is to bless your life. God's purpose is to bless you and there is no one who knows better than He how to bless you. In quotes, not even us. Even we don't know better than God how to bless us. God's purpose is to bless us.

Here the Lord gives these instructions to the priests and says to them: Do you know? you have the privilege of standing before My people, this is My people. Bless them in My Name and bless them in this way. My brothers: the priests, the ministers, we are like, in the best of cases, cables, just like these cables that connect an amplifier to an instrument and that instrument is connected to an instrumentalist, to a worshiper, we who are doing is transmitting an energy, a blessing that comes from another source. It is God who blesses you, it is God who receives your prayer, it is God who is transmitting. Even this message, ask God for it, is the product of wiring, God's energy flowing through cables that are sometimes a little loose, but God uses the instruments that are there.

But the one who blesses you is God. He is, that is His wish. And my brothers, when we speak of the people of Israel know from now on in the remainder of this message, it applies, these promises, this blessing apply to you, it applies to us. The apostle Peter wrote in First Peter that we are now: "Royal priesthood, holy nation" that is, a separated nation, "a people chosen by God for a purpose: so that you may announce the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into His light admirable."

Why does God bless us? for two things: because He does not know how to do anything else, simple and simple. That is His nature, it is to bless. The Lord does not need, do you know brothers? the Lord does not need to utter words to bless us. Even these words of blessing are superfluous; His mere Presence blesses us. The business of heaven, the eternal industry is to bless us. If the Lord had pores, blessing would flow from the Lord's pores, it flows from His Altar like a river.

God equals blessing. The Presence of the Lord, a relationship with God, being close to Him and under His Name equals blessing. The Lord blesses us first and second, He is interested in blessing you, it is part of His plan. Because every time God appears and blesses us, money for rent appears, or bread appears on the table, or your mind is freed, or your body is healed, or your children end up loving the Lord as much or more than you do. Every time God blesses you the Name of the Lord, the Name of Jesus, the Name of Jehovah is exalted and the influence of the Lord spreads more and more conquering the darkness, that was the idea.

It was the idea to bless this people that the Lord was going to send, He knew that He was going to send them to a people, to a land that was promised but mined with darkness and pagan peoples. And when the Lord blesses you, he turns you into a sign in life, into a treatise in the flesh. Every time the Lord opens the door for you, every time the Lord pours out a blessing on you, every time when we thought: there is no hope, every time the Lord illuminates you when you thought there was no answer, and your neighbors, and your coworkers, and your family members see it, the Lord shines and says: This is the way a living and powerful God blesses those who love him, that's the idea. It turns us into signs. Advertising for the Kingdom of God.

Someone paid dearly for that ad, the blood of the Lamb, the blood of Christ. "Bless Jehovah my soul, my whole being blesses his holy name. Bless Jehovah my soul, do not forget any of his benefits. He is the one who forgives all my iniquities, He is the one who heals my ailments, He is the one who rescues from the hole to my life, He is the one who crowns my life with favors and mercy, He is the one who satisfies my mouth with goodness, so that it rejuvenates like the eagle. Bless Jehovah, my soul" and every time your lips pronounce that Word blessing the Lord, giving glory to the Lord, more and more the Lord is blessed and His glory extended.

Know this my brothers: God's desire is to bless you. Satan will say otherwise. What's more: let's take a moment to proceed in what remains of this message, because some of us hear those words, we say: amen, we shake our heads, but it's like the enemy has put a shell in our hearts that at the time of the truth in the chair of our heart, it is difficult to navigate beyond a doubt.

Maybe the Lord is in the business of blessing you Pastor Samuel or these brothers but I don't think that's what the Lord wants with me, no. In the Name of Jesus I declare to you, indeed, close your eyes wherever you are if this applies to you especially, receive this Word, let it hover over you and declare with me: the Lord wishes to bless me. The Lord loves me and wants to bless me.

My brothers: believe it. Start with that, start with that because everything else descends from that truth. Verse 24 states thus: "The Lord bless you and keep you." I read that this way my brothers: May Jehovah be the one who blesses you and may Jehovah be the one who keeps you.

Knows? this town was about to enter a literally unknown land but God knew this and that is why he sent them there, that there they would have wholesale options of gods; big gods, skinny gods, fat gods, skinny gods, gods of all sizes and that every day of the year, every month of the year, you name it, there was a god there, a buffet of gods, options. They could choose to have any of these foreign gods bless them or, as was more common, continue to worship, supposedly, the God of Israel and continue to worship El Shaddai, the mighty God but in his own way, inventing his own way of worshiping this God and may God bless you.

This Word, to be under this Word, listen well: may Jehovah bless you. May Jehovah be the one to keep you, because my brothers, you have free will. You can decide to depend on your own cunning, manage your life according to your own ideas and as best suits you according to your circumstances, you can do it, you can choose in other words who will bless you and in what way, and to what extent.

Now, my brothers, that is what many, before you get scandalized, let's face the truth, this is what many have as a blessing. In other words, we can do things however we want and wait for the Lord to give us His seal of approval or maybe hope that He will get us out of our messes when things go wrong. In other words, we do what seems right to us, we lead life in our own way and what we have as a blessing is that the Lord seals that and gets us out of our mess.

My brothers: we can choose who blesses us and the way we choose is not with our words, but with our decisions. It's not what we say, it's how we choose to live our lives and make our decisions. Let's say I have an option that feels good or is easier, or results in a win for the moment, but by choosing it I may risk my commitment to God and His principles.

And my brother: if you have not experienced that crossroads, wait because it will wait for you. That is the classic crossroads, that awaits each of us. An option to do something and make it easy, to get out of trouble, even though we know that we are risking God's principles and perhaps even our relationship with God. God's blessing in other words, costs, costs. A relationship that may fill your loneliness for a while, perhaps, but it is a time bomb that will explode at any moment, destroying the Work of God in you, what will you do?

Or a project-work that gains momentarily but ends up contaminating your life, your mind, your time, your peace, your marriage, your relationship with your sons or daughters, what do we do? You know, it's worth it for the Lord to be the one to bless us as and in the way that He sees fit to bless us even if it's not the most flashy blessing or the most, the latest model, but it comes from Him and it comes without fuss, without strings attached.

My mother, look: both my mother and the mother of my wife Marina, sister Toñita, both are rejoicing with the Lord but both were fans of this verse, Proverbs 10:22: "The blessing of Jehovah is the one that enriches and does not add sadness with it." Jehovah's blessing enriches us without strings attached, without strings, without adding sadness.

It is worth it that the Lord is the one who blesses us. In the long run when it is the Lord blessing us, we come out ahead. And for this reason he adds: "And keep you." Jehovah bless you and keep you.

Brethren: learn to pray this way. It is not selfish to ask the Lord for this, in fact, the Lord is instructing you to pray in this way: Lord, keep me, not only from external attacks from Satan, not only from that, from that, but also, but keep us from gods aliens, to keep us from ourselves, from our nature to do things our way even if it is not God's perfect Will for us.

My brothers, we better pray this way, here I am going to be a couch, instruct you in this blessing, tell the Lord: Lord, bless me and keep me from evil. I know that everything you have set aside for me is good, even if it seems at first that I'm losing, I'd rather eat legumes with you than share the fatted calf with Satan, that in the end, Lord, my life resembles the dream you dreamed when you created me and woven me together in my mother's womb. May that be in our prayer, may Jehovah bless you and may Jehovah be the one to keep you. The priests stretched out their hands and declared in verse 25, "The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you."

Knows? Light does not shine in a vacuum my brother. There is a relationship between darkness and light. As deep as the darkness is, the more the light shines and so is the face of God, and so is the face of God, so is the face of God.

My brothers: I don't think anyone, few of us would choose darkness, few of us would choose darkness, but here I am going to share a truth that you already know: no matter how holy you are, no matter how consecrated you are, no matter how faithful Whatever you are, no matter how much you attend any service, no matter how much you tithe and offer, and serve, sooner or later darkness will reach you. The Lord does not promise to exempt us from darkness, the rain falls equally on the just and the unjust.

Sooner or later, a drop or two sometimes will fall on you and your home. The Lord does not say that He would exempt us from darkness, a financial squeeze perhaps, or losing a job, or a storm that wipes out your marriage, God forbid, or suddenly losing a loved one, He does not exempt us. of the darkness What He promises is that He would illuminate those darknesses with the light of His Face, that at that moment He will appear in the midst of our anguish, our despair, our pain, He appears and the darkness appears before Him, that is what what he promises

That for now, with the light of His eyes fixed on you, He illuminates a path where there was no solution, a source of hope. Even in the midst of darkness we see him declaring: You are mine, I am here and this is under My hand and under control. This is the face of God, this is the Face of God. He illuminates our darkness even when the darkness is of our own creation, did you hear that? even when we ourselves are the ones who turn off the lights my brothers, and for this reason he adds: "and have mercy on you."

My brothers: not all, but perhaps even I would say, even most of our darkness is of our own invention, sometimes it is so. And when the Face of God appears in those moments, perhaps for a moment of inattention, let's say, we put out the candle, when the Face of God appears in those moments, do you know what that is called? mercy, grace Knowing us, God renews, says the Book of Lamentations: "He renews his mercy toward us every morning." Every morning, He is precious.

My brothers, we do not deserve it but that is the point of the mercy and grace of the Lord. And that is something that Satan, Satan in the middle of accusing you, he is going to omit this detail, okay? pay attention. He will tell you: you do not deserve the grace of the Lord. And when Satan tells you: you don't deserve the grace of the Lord, do you know what you answer? amen, hello! Nobody deserves the grace of the Lord, nobody deserves the mercy of the Lord, that is why it is mercy. What part of mercy don't you understand Satan? we have no defense, we have no way to defend ourselves before the Lord, we do not have a case before Him; What's more, He has every right to leave us rotting in our own darkness.

But at that moment we fall on our knees and beg Him, learn this prayer, it's a good one to have: Lord, have mercy on me, have mercy on me, and it is precisely at that moment that, instead of hiding His Face, He illuminate our darkness with the light of His Face.

Knows? the Israelites were terrified of the Face of God, they hid from the Face of God. It was something supremely. They saw the Face of God on one side and on the other they hid, Moses deals with Him. So much so that many commentators see this text and say: this idea that the Lord lifts up His Face over you, that makes His Face shine on you is equivalent to the smile of God.

When the enemy wants to tell you: look, God already with this, this is the charm, and God wants nothing to do with you, and case closed, know, that morning the Lord woke up loving you, with mercy ready for you, if so you only ask for it, and if you ask for it He gives it to you with His smile, He bathes your face with His light and even the deepest darkness will melt, He is an expert in that. He is an expert in that, the Face of God.

Verse 26 also speaks of the Face of God, with this we conclude. "The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace." Jehovah lift up His face upon you and give you peace. In other words, when you call out to him, let him direct his gaze to you. When you call upon Him, may He fix His eyes on you.

Brothers: right now there would be several brothers bringing, only God knows what before the Lord. This Church, my brothers, there are powerful needs here. And I don't know what you've been asking the Lord for, maybe you're asking him for wisdom about a life or death decision you're going to make. Maybe you are asking for provision for your home or not even yours, that of a loved one. Perhaps you find yourself praying and fasting for healing, if not your own then that of a loved one.

How many of us, I'm speaking here to veterans of prayer, know that there are prayers and there are "prayers"? There are some prayers that we never forget, maybe you pray every day, but there is an encyclopedia of maybe three, four, five prayers that we never forget. Those are the prayers that we bring to the Lord in supplication and despair, crying, letting our noses run, throwing ourselves to the ground, crying out before the Lord and sometimes it reaches this point; We haven't even asked him anymore, we've prayed, we've told him everything we were going to say to the Lord and for the moment there are no words, his prayer doesn't even consist of words, they are already groans. Wailing.

God has that one covered too, the Lord has that covered too. Romans chapter 8, the Lord understands those unspeakable groans between your spirit and the Spirit of God. My brothers, I don't know about you, God bless these brothers with the Word of prophecy and counsel that the Lord has raised and they are here, at the moment you are on your knees like many of us and a brother, a sister, full of discernment and wisdom, approaches. and armed with the prophetic Word of the Lord, has it happened to you? and I bring you a prophetic Word.

I am going to confess this to you and this came to me, what's more, of all the ways in which the Lord spoke to me prophetically, personally, this is one of the ones that resonates the most. Some of the Words, I confess to you, some of the prophetic Words that have impacted me the most are these. If I tell you, it's because I know that position, there pouring out everything before the Lord and with seven, eight klinex around me, and a servant of God comes, a servant of God and tells me: "Servant, Jehovah has bowed down to you and heard your prayer." Spot. "The Lord has heard your prayer" nothing more.

Answer as He answers, he has not said yes, he has not said no, he has not told me how He was going to work. But knowing that I am on God's agenda, knowing that I am in His sights, knowing that He is aware of me and my request, and He has an order, and that I am part of His order, and His plan, and that He thinks of me enough to send a glass just to tell me: Samuel I am here, I'm here.

The Presence of the Lord, the Face of God, that word: panei in Hebrew which is translated "to the face of God" many times is translated as: the Presence of God. The Presence of God, having the Presence of the Lord by your side. What's more: the Lord appears and you have been praying, you were asking God for the same thing for three months and suddenly you forget what you were asking for, suddenly you forget because of the beauty of the Presence. What, what did you want son? How beautiful to be in your Presence, I even forgot my God. Stay here with me, Your Presence gives me peace, Your Presence gives me shalom, Your Presence gives me order in the midst of the storm. Even though Jesus is sleeping in the stern in the middle of the storm, knowing that He is riding with you gives you peace, true peace, true shalom, the Presence of the Lord.

Tilt your face for a moment. The Lord addressed this prayer to the people of Israel but also, as we said at the beginning, to everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord. If you have not invoked the Name of the Lord in a public way, you have not said, you do not remember saying at one point: Lord, without options I am yours. I declare to heaven, to earth, to hell, to the whole world: I am yours, you are sovereign over my life. If you haven't prayed that prayer in a public way, before going into any other part of this message, I want in other words what is my agenda? I want this blessing to extend to you and the only way for this lifestyle to extend and for this blessing to extend to you is to be under the Name of Jehovah, to be under the Name of the Lord Jesus. Put the Name of God on you.

It's that simple. You invoke the Name and He takes care of it from then on. If that's you, if you haven't prayed like this before, I invite you to raise your hand and we want to pray for you. If you haven't prayed like that before, God bless you young man. God bless those hands. If you raised your hand, don't worry, there are mothers here who can help with the baby, but this is important. My sister who raised her hand here, this young man who raised her hand, please come to the altar, come here, don't be ashamed. It's the wisest thing you can do.

God is with you, with each step, the promises of God are getting closer and closer to your life. God bless you young man. People of God: please get up. God bless you gentleman, touch them. It is a sublime moment, let's just drink in the Presence of the Lord. Brothers: the most important transitions in the world are so quiet and sublime, at this moment there are lives making the transition from darkness to light, from death to eternal life and you are a witness. Please extend your hands to these souls, you are a priest now. You are a royal priesthood, a people set apart for blessing. We bless these lives.

What's more: Jehovah blesses you at this moment, Jehovah blesses you gentleman, Jehovah blesses you young man, Jehovah blesses you lady, Jehovah blesses you my sister, Jehovah blesses you young man, Jehovah blesses you. In the Name of Jesus we cancel all curses on their lives. In the Name of Jesus, every way that the enemy has invented to ruin us and deviate from the promise that the Lord has placed for their lives, we cancel it in the Name of Jesus.

We declare every blessing in this Book, every promise that is in this Book, we declare that this scroll and its promises, from Genesis to Revelation, from the breath of God in your lungs to the moment He receives you in glory, that applies to you too, that applies in glory. Say this prayer with me, the brothers who are on a par direct you in this prayer: Lord Jesus, I am yours, my dreams are yours, my hope is in You. Jesus, I receive you as my Savior and as the sovereign of my life, bless me. Bless my entrances, bless my exits. Fill my body with the Holy Spirit, let it be His temple.

Lead me in Your ways. Keep me from evil, guide me all the days of my life until I see you in glory. I ask you as your son and your servant in Jesus Name. Lord, we bless these lives in Jesus Name and glorify You for them Lord, rejoice over them O God.