Speaking blessing

I read Numbers 6:24-27 just the other day and was caught by the last verse. I'm sure I have read it many times before but somehow God wanted to show me something else, something new in it - He wanted to remind me of what He has done and is doing through those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ - those of us who have put our trust, our very lives into His hand.

As the priests say the words that God has told them to say – as they ‘invoke’ or put these words on God’s people then God blesses them. As I was talking that over with God, seeking to understand what it means to be a priest of God as Peter tells us (1Peter2:9) and how I am to speak and act and live as that priest in the church and in this world I asked Him to more fully explain to me how and when to bless.

I wrote the following in my journal:

Do You tell us to invoke a blessing:

Because you always bless those who bear Your name?

Because You have decided to work through Your priests?

Because Your priests are Your representatives and You work/care for/bless people through them?

Ephesians 2:10 tells us that You have created good works that we might walk in them -

is it the ‘work’ of blessing that You have created for us to walk in?

Isaiah 55:10 says that Your Word never returns void without accomplishing the purpose for which You sent it.  Does that mean that as we speak Your word – You work through it?

You bless Your people that they might be a channel of blessing. You give them truth that they might speak it into the chaos and confusion of this world.

You are the only One who can do anything about the evil and wickedness we see around us BUT You have decided to do something through us and You reiterated that decision, that instruction, through the Lord Jesus whilst He walked amongst us. In Matthew 5 and in Luke 6 it is recorded that He told His disciples to 'bless those who persecute you' and if we are to bless those who persecute us surely we are to bless all in Your name just as You have blessed us. And how did You bless us? You blessed us with grace and mercy, with love and joy and peace whilst we were helpless, while we were sinners and enemies of God. (Romans 5) 

I haven't got to the bottom of it yet, but I am daily asking the Lord to give me a fuller understanding of what it means, not simply to speak blessing in His name but to BE a blessing for and to Him. I'm asking Him to expand my mind, to renew it and so transform me into the image of the One who is The Blessing, the One who came to BE a blessing and who has promised to always bless those who come to Him.

O Lord help me, help us all,  to fully understand this so that we determine that together we, as Your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which You prepared beforehand for us to walk in, might go out and be a blessing to those we meet and in that way be a blessing to and for You.