Sid: We want everyone everywhere to understand the mystery that’s been stolen from the church of what the Jewish Patriarchs knew. They understood the power of the blessing and the man that I know that has studied this the most over the years and has emphasized this the most over the years is Pastor Bill Ligon from Brunswick, Georgia. And Bill and I go back a number of years and I was a member of his church for many many years. Bill, refresh my memory, how in the world, you come from a Baptist background, you’re not Jewish; how in the world did you get so interested in the Jewish Blessing?
Bill: Well, I was in transition Sid, I was making a change and starting over, planning a new work, having been in larger churches and on the mission field and I felt like the Lord spoke to me and told me to plant this work on the foundation of the Aaronic Blessing. And at that point I sought out an old friend of mine a conservative Jewish Rabbi whom I had befriended years earlier and I found him in retirement in Columbus, Georgia. When I called him and I told him and gave him my name the old Rabbi began to weep, he said “Bill I have never had a friend like you, where are you? And I told him, I said, “I’m in Brunswick, GA and I’m planting a new church and God has told me to plant it upon the Aaronic blessing.” And I said, “Can I come to see you and study with you?” And he said, “My homes always open to you.”
Sid: Now, just out of curiosity, did the Spirit of God really tell you to plant it on the Aaronic Blessing?
Bill: Oh, yes, most definitely, He said the blessing…
Sid: Well, that’s unusual.
Bill: “He said the blessing had been lost from the church and He had never intended that it would be removed from the church.” You see when the church was founded by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost all three pillars of faith which God used to change the lives of the Children of Israel and make them into a great nation, were present both in Judaism and in the Church. Now the Jews had the Blood Covenant, they had sacrifice everyday in the Temple; they had the moral code and they had the Ten Commandments; and they had the High Priestly blessing the Aaronic blessing. The church was founded with all three, the Church was founded with the Blood Covenant, the blood of Yeshua, Jesus Christ, they had the Ten Commandments. Jesus said, “I didn’t come to destroy but to fulfill and give it its proper meaning.” And they had the High Priestly blessing, Peter said, “For this you are called to give the blessing that you might inherit the blessing,” and so the Lord showed me that the blessing had been lost to the Church.
Sid: Or if you use the blessing it’s kind of the significance is just words and we’ve lost the significance; therefore we can’t believe; therefore we can’t have faith; therefore It’s not going to manifest.
Bill: That’s true because all people say is that “May the Lord Bless You.” But they don’t know what that means and really there is more to it than that, a great deal more because God intends to release His favor upon His people. So God made it clear to me that He wanted to restore that blessing to the Church and to all of His people. God created everyone and so that’s when I studied with this Rabbi. Came back home and went to six seminaries and did my research and then came back and produced the material and began to then speak the blessing in my own congregation over my people.
Sid: You must have gotten so excited in those early years when the revelation first hit you through what the Rabbi was telling you.
Bill: It was, I was excited about it and the Rabbi became excited, he and I worked together on this and we had a great time together in his home studying.
Sid: Well, I just can’t wait, we have so many other things to talk about, but I want to know about the Power of the Aaronic Blessing.
Bill: It’s amazing Sid, that was in 1973 and ever since then we have not only taught the blessings locally, but we have gone to other places, we have done television and radio. We have been in conferences around the country teaching people the principal of blessing. And now other people are beginning to teach those principals, but it’s amazing how God has changed the lives of people through the power of the spoken blessing.
Sid: But tell me specifically what it means the Aaronic Blessing.
Bill: The Aaronic Blessing, and God said, told Moses, he said “When this blessing is spoken and most people know what it is but he said, “You will speak this blessing and every time you assemble my people together have Aaron and his sons speak this blessing, “May the Lord Bless You, now I bless you, but may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord let the light of His countenance upon you and give you His peace. And now God made a promise in verse 27, He said, “Thus you shall put or invoke my name on the Sons of Israel and I then will bless them.”
Sid: You know I’ve read that in scripture and I’ve pondered what does that really mean? What does that really mean, Bill?
Bill: Yes, the word invoke or put. Let me give you an illustration of what can happen; a person leaves his house and goes out and gets into his automobile and puts the key in the ignition and turns it with the intension of moving a ton of weight where he wants it to go. Now he can turn it and that will release an electrical charge from his batteries into the combustion chamber and he can start his engine. He can sit there and turn the engine up, push down on the acceleration pedal and turn it up until he’s neighbors all hear him racing his engine, but he goes nowhere and does not accomplish anything. In order to that he has to invoke the power of that engine; that’s the strength of that word in the Hebrew. To invoke the power of the Name of God Himself so in order to that he puts it into gear and when he does he invokes the power of that engine and moves that automobile, a ton of weight with one finger on the steering wheel to where he want it to go. Now that’s exactly what can happen; a lot of people seem to get together and they make a lot of noise, but they can’t seem to get their lives in order. They can’t seem to go the way they’re supposed to go; God’s intention was that His favor would be released through this spoken blessing. And that’s what it does; it engages the Name, the covenant Name and the power of God to release God’s favor upon those who receive the blessing.
Sid: You know I remember years ago you shared a story about a woman that had a mark on her forehead and the power of the blessing with her. Tell me about that again.
Bill: Those people lived on the western side of the state and they came to see us and she had this make on her forehead. It was there because her mother had told her that it was there because she was born under a curse and she wasn’t wanted and she wasn’t accepted. So I taught her husband how to lay hand on her and release blessing upon her life and I taught her how to forgive her mother and those who had rejected her and how to bless them. They went back home and they began to do that. He began to lay hands on his wife everyday and one day he called me all excited. And said, “Pastor Bill,” he said, “As soon as I began to bless my wife that mark on her forehead like a birthmark began to fade,” it was a V which was the first letter in her name and he said, “That it began to fade and now he said that it’s gone completely, it’s never ever done that before, but it’s gone.” And we followed up on him for some time and it didn’t come back. He continued to release God’s spoken blessing over his wife and it produced tremendous results in her life.
Sid: Well, I have to believe that there are so many amazing things that happen when people understand the power of the blessing. I happen to believe that that had to have a major impact on you to see how what God did in the Blessing internally, actually reflected on the outside.
Bill: It was so significant in my life that I thought I need to begin to impart this blessing to my wife and I wanted her to impart it to me. So we agreed and we began to lay hands on each other and speak blessing and success and health and favor over each other. We’ve been doing it now for year; it brought tremendous results. And one of the most significant things it did for me Sid, when we married fifty-three years ago, fifty-three and a half years ago, thank you,
Sid: Congratulations.
Bill: Thank you.
Sid: I mean that’s a rarity these days Bill.
Bill: I was raised in a home with, I had an older brother but he was already gone. I was raised in a home with three older sisters, a mother and a grandmother. All of whom spanked me when they wanted to. Ha-ha. And when I married my precious wife, I loved her dearly.
Sid: She didn’t spank you did she?
Bill: Oh, no when she wanted to talk seriously with me I just withdrew and so one of the things that I could not accomplish was emotional intimacy. Now she said, “We need to get closer.” And I said, “Well come here sweetheart, and let me hold you in my arms and I’ll show you how close we can get.” She said, “No, I want emotional closeness, I want emotional intimacy.”
Sid: And you didn’t really have a clue.
Bill: No, and I could not seem to have that breakthrough. Sid, the root problem with marriages in America is that the average man cannot achieve emotional intimacy with his wife. He can achieve physical closeness, but not emotional intimacy. So when my wife began to lay hands on me every day after a few months I realized that that wall had been melted down and that my wife and I had bonded in emotional way. And so I would not live without it every day.
Sid: Actually as I study your course and have heard your teaching, there was an emotional bonding but it is even deeper. It is almost a spiritual bonding. It’s like the Bible says, you become one.
Bill: We did, we became one and we began to experience God’s blessing and favor. And one of the things that I’ve been able to do for my wife in 1970 when we were missionaries in Barcelona, Spain she was diagnosed with stage four cancer. God supernaturally healed her on Valentine’s Day 1971, but every day when I lay hands on her I say “May the Lord bless every cell and nerve in your body with health and life.” If we could just get husbands and wives in America to begin to study these principals and begin to release God’s favor upon each other the sky is the limit on what they would do.
Sid: I believe that we haven’t even scratched the surface, not just husbands and wives, but entire families. Not just entire families, but entire churches.
