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Evangelism as Blessing

May 22, 2026 | Uncategorized

Project 2026

Have you ever noticed how people react when you say, “God bless you,” or “Have a blessed day!” There are a few grinches who return a sour look, but most people smile. Some say, “Thank you!” and express gratitude. Some say in response, “God bless you too.” And occasionally, it is as if you have given someone the gift of hope.

You see, “God bless you” is a kind of prayer you say over someone else. You are invoking God’s name over them, praying that they would know His goodness and love. The Bible says, “It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance” (Romans 2:4). I am convinced that a simple and sincere, “God bless you!” opens the windows of heaven. It quickens in men and women who hear and respond positively to the blessing, a sense of God’s love and watchful care. People are starved for the love of God. And we are to be a kingdom of priests who stand on the bridge between heaven and earth, giving God visibility and audibility (Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9). That’s where God wants you – in the middle, representing Him, speaking the blessing He desires for those who do not yet know Him to hear. We prefer the comfortable end, and not the middle. We prefer to be blessed with no obligation to pass on the blessing. God not only wants to bless us, but He also wants to bless others through us, from this middle position.

I know, you probably don’t feel worthy enough to bless someone else. But it isn’t your blessing. You are the actor on the stage of life reading the lines given by God. As a priest, in the middle, you get to pass on a blessing greater than your own, “May God bless you today.” This can be expanded. “May He be with you today … watch over you … guide and direct you … May you experience His love and grace, His presence.”

There is also another level. That is when you move from a casual passing “God bless you” to a more intentional and deliberate blessing. You never want to force yourself on others. Or embarrass them. If God is loving, a good and blessing kind of God, He cares about the atmosphere in which the blessing is conveyed and the openness of the intended recipient. The Holy Spirit will help you know when to say, “May I pray a prayer of blessing over you?” Often you will see tears. You’ll see relief on faces, a visible change. You may on occasion have a gushing of tears from the individual who has been under a terrible weight. The prayer should be simple. The Holy Spirit will give you the words. Here is an example:

“Father, our Father (Not ‘my,’ but ‘our,’ you are inviting them into the family), I pray for your grace. For [name] to know and experience your love. You care about_____, and that is why this encounter took place. It was no accident. You guide our steps, and you want to carry our load. May now experience your goodness, your power – the power that saves, heals and delivers – that sets us free. You want to know you and call you, father. I invoke the name of Jesus over _____ And I pray for to experience your presence and the purpose you have for his/her life.” And then the blessing is pronounced: “The Lord bless you, and keep you, and smile upon you. Amen.”

The full Aaronic blessing follows. You may want to memorize it: “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord cause His face to shine on you and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His face to you and give you peace.”

Here is the promise of God. When the priests “invoke” the sacred name of the Lord over the people, God blesses them. There is a blessing connected to uttering the sacred name of the Lord, and we argue from the New Testament perspective, from uttering the sacred and powerful name of Jesus. In the New Testament economy, the role of believers has been elevated to the status of a kingdom of priests. We are authorized to utter this blessing with the confidence that while we speak it, God is working quietly in the lives of those that we bless.

“So, they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and then I will bless them.”

The above is only a template. But there are several things that are not random. Take time to read the scriptures behind the prayer.
• GOD – FATHER. First, God is Father, even to the prodigal. This is a call to come home (Luke 15:11-32).
• The GROUND of GRACE. Second the ground here is that of grace. The goal is for the individual to know, to experience God’s love (Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Hebrews 4:16; Romans 6:14).
• The GUIDANCE of GOD. There is an affirmation of God’s care for the individual and His sovereignty – this prayer encounter was no accident. God is guiding the individual, though unaware, with the goal of making their burden light. (Psalm 23; 1 Peter 5:7; Isaiah 46:4;
Proverbs 3:24; Psalm 37:23-24; 119:105; Proverbs 3:5-6;
16:9; Jeremiah 29:11).
• The GOODNESS of God – Enabling GRACE. There is then a return to the theme of grace, enabling grace as the power that saves.
• GOD’S PRESENCE. And finally, there is a prayer for knowing God’s presence, followed by a more formal blessing prayer (Romans 1:16; 10:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Corinthians 12:9).

Here is the thesis.

Blessing wakes up in individuals a sense of God’s watchful presence. The clearest indication of God’s presence is His love. Awakened to God’s unconditional love, we are constrained. Captivated. The atmosphere of unconditional love allows for the conviction of truth – true truth. Truth that transforms. “The goodness of God,” we are told, “leads to repentance” (Romans 2:4) At the intersection of love and truth, we experience the liberating power of the Holy Spirit.

There can be no true love without truth (Ephesians 4:15; 1 Corinthians 13:6; 1 John 3:18), otherwise love is only a wrapping for a lie. It is not authentic. Likewise, there is no truth without love since the greatest truth is that God loves us. He loves us enough to always tell us the truth about ourselves, both what we are and what we can be, by grace. Thus love, and truth that trues, taps God’s saving, liberating power.

We bless, as an expression of God’s love.

In doing so, we awaken a sense of God’s goodness and His presence.

Awareness of His presence quickens love – and truth applied in love, The goodness of God leads to repentance, At the intersection of love and truth, The Holy Spirit works to convict, and convince men of righteousness, and to bring change – conversion, salvation.

Too often we pray selfishly – about ourselves and our problems, and not about those who have never known the love of God, the 3.5 billion who have yet to hear the gospel. We seem preoccupied with our narrow slice of pain. God’s arms are big enough to embrace us and those on the other side of the globe. Both His children and those who have not yet experienced His redemptive grace. The question is – are we willing to make room in our hearts and devote times in prayer for those who have never heard of Jesus, the Christ.

Intercessory prayer cannot be used only in prayer requests for each other as believers. It is the missional aspect of prayer. It calls for us to stand ‘in the middle,’ between God and a lost world and pray for the light to break into the darkness. We are to be a kingdom of priests, invoking the name of Jesus over our friends and the world. Speaking God’s love as blessing. Using life-giving language.

Proverbs 15:4 tells us, “The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.” That’s quite an assertion. We are back in Genesis at the ‘tree of life.’ Another translation calls this a ‘wholesome’ tongue. The Hebrew word is marpe. Amazingly, it means to heal, to cure, to impart health, to realize a remedy. This is the life-giving, wholesome speech of the believer to another. It is intended to aid one in regaining their composure in the midst of a crisis. The words of a friend bring tranquility into chaos. This is the power of presence. Language is curative. It is a medicine for the troubled soul. The word can mean to bring ‘deliverance.’ Perhaps this is why Psalm 107:20 (NASB) declares, “He sent His word and healed them, And saved them from their destruction.” In Colossians 4:6, Paul urges, “Let your speech always be gracious” – full of life-giving grace. Paul then pictures the one disconnected from God suddenly open and asking questions. They are at the tree of life. Our prayer for an open door – an open heart, along with our exemplary walk and talk, our soothing tongue. has led them to a place of longing for life, for God.

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“Whenever God determines to do a great work, He first sets His people to pray” (C. Spurgeon). This reliable principle begs the question: “How does God mobilize his people to heartfelt prayer?” Most importantly, how does God move Christian leaders who shepherd His church to unite in fervent, persistent, biblically focused prayer for the fulfillment of His purposes? By two things mainly: 1) distress over the degradation of the church and the surrounding culture and 2) hope that God will pour out His Spirit on his church and fill it with His fulness until it overflows with transformative impact on society. Many believers are distressed at the current state of things. At the same time, there is much reason to hope for God’s divine intervention in response to passionate, biblically guided prayer.

Believers across America now mourn the debility of the church; its vitality is faltering, its impact fading, its mission neglected, and its devotion to God being undercut by love for this world. Right now we are enduring the largest and fastest religious shift in American history. Its scope is greater than every previous spiritual awakening in our history combined, only in the opposite direction. Christians are being confronted by “spiritual forces of evil” (Eph. 6:12) operating from the heavenly realms that boldly infiltrate every aspect of society, even the church. These dark powers aim to 1) frustrate God’s purpose to bless all peoples on earth through Christ with countless benefits, including righteousness, peace, joy, and justice, and 2)
inflict endless varieties of misery on everyone. When spiritual decline and cultural decay prevail, God’s people rise up to seek the Lord in prayer as the fountain of every blessing, asking him to fill the earth with his glory, pour out His Holy Spirit, inspire his church, and deliver people and cultures from innumerable troubles. Now is the time to pray with desperation for spiritual and cultural renewal, for divine intervention, for the fulfillment of God’s purposes for his church and his creation in Northeast Ohio.

Christian leaders, especially pastors, have a heightened responsibility to press into God with prayer for the church. Biblical precedent shows that gathering church leaders together to engage in heartfelt prayer for the welfare of their community often initiates widespread spiritual and social renewal both in church and society (2 Chron. 7:13-14; 15:8-10; 34:29-32). New Testament accounts show that when Christian leaders unite in prayer, often in response to social and/or spiritual crises, spiritual awakening and gospel advance follow (Acts 1:13-14; 2:1-4; 4:23-31; 13:1-3).

Jesus himself instills expectation of an outpouring of God’s Spirit in response to prayer with this promise: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). Our Father in heaven is especially ready to pour out upon us the blessing we most need and long for, the very Spirit of God who imparts divine life, wisdom, and virtue.

With all this in mind, now is the time for Christian leaders across Northeast Ohio to come together to seek the Lord with biblically grounded, Christ-directed, wholehearted prayer for a God-given spiritual awakening. The trumpet of God is blaring! He is calling us to pray! Join Christian leaders from across our region to humble ourselves, seek the Lord’s face, and be willing to respond through His intervening grace to any changes He calls us to make! (Psalm 110:3)

The Gathering is an extension of the nationwide PATH (Prayer at the Heart) initiative piloted recently in Northeast Ohio. Put The Gathering on your calendar: Sunday, September 24, 6 pm, Calvary Chapel of Cleveland, 709 Brook Park Road, Brooklyn Heights, OH.