Doug Tales 144: Blessings and Clearings, Part One

Part of conquering spiritual evil is learning to do things the way our Savior wants us to do them. During his life, Doug Mendenhall sought to follow Jesus Christ’s will in all things, and that included when others asked for blessings. Doug shares some things he learned by experience about serving others via priesthood blessings in Conquering Spiritual Evil, Volume Two (2020), pp. 91-92:

Let’s discuss a little about the actual voicing of blessings. Why would it be called “voicing” and not “giving a blessing?” A friend shared some text messages from another man where he claimed it was he that was giving a blessing when he laid hands on another person and not the Savior. The blessing actually came from him, so he was “giving” the blessing. I wish him well with that attitude and hope the person on the receiving end will actually get some competent help from someone that knows and understands who the real Healer is.

“Voicing” a blessing is when the person receives the blessing from the Lord through the person providing His voice. We must prepare to be His voice. After we have prayed and received a confirmation that it is indeed His will, we can then proceed with our preparations. This may include fasting and prayer, scripture reading, meditation, breathing, energy work, and whatever else our Savior tells us to do or sacrifice.

And yes, sacrifice is a requirement. (Maybe He will tell us to put our electronic device down for a day or two.) These things are designed to release us from the world and prepare us to be His voice to that person who requested the blessing. Many times the person requesting the blessing is so ill he or she cannot sacrifice.

During these times, the required sacrifice from you may be more than usual.

Please remember, we don’t give them anything, we are not God. We are acting as His voice. Therefore in the blessing we repeat the words given to us from God.