On 1st January 1951, shortly before he was imprisoned by the Communists, Watchmen Nee gave to the church a New Year message on the significance of God’s blessing as seen in the miracle of the loaves. He wrote:
‘All service is dependent upon the blessing of God. We may be very conscientious and very diligent, we may believe in his power and may pray to him to put it forth, but if the blessing of God is lacking, then all our conscientiousness, all out diligence, all our faith, and all our prayer is in vain. On the other hand, even though we make mistakes, and even though the situation we face be a hopeless one, provided we have the blessing of God there will be a fruitful issue….
This lesson is not easily learned. The hopes of so many are still centred, not on the blessing of the Lord but on the few loaves in their hand. It is so pitifully little we have in hand, and yet we keep reckoning with it; and the more we reckon the harder the work becomes. My brothers and sisters, miracles issue form the blessing of the Lord. Only let that be upon the loaves and they will be multiplied. Where the blessing of God rests the thousands are fed…
We should be able to trust the blessing of God and wait for it. And we should often find that, even where we had bungled things, somehow all was well. A little bit of blessing can carry us over a great deal of trouble.
What is ‘blessing’? It is the working of God where there is nothing to account for his working… When five loaves provide food for five thousand and leave twelve baskets of fragments, that is blessing. When the fruit of your service is out of all proportion to the gifts you possess, that is blessing. Or to be rather extreme, when, taking account of your failures, there should be no fruit from your labours, and still there is fruit, that is blessing. Many of us only expect results commensurate with what we are in ourselves, but blessing is fruit that is out of all correspondence with what we are…
A life of blessing should be our normal life as Christians and a work with the blessing of God upon it should be our normal work. ‘Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.’ (Malachi 3:10)
