Patriarchal Blessings...Solidifying Identity

I was reading last night from Tony Robbins' Awaken the Giant Within (you can get it used for 79 cents! Dang! I paid 14 bucks! If you do buy this book, it may be worth it to pay for a new one so you don't have to stare at Tony's 80's photo...kind of disturbing.< /twobits>) about identity. He was saying that how we identify ourselves determines which resources we tap into in our reservoir of capacity. It's chapter 18 for those who want to follow along ;). His theory is that we can change a lot about our actions and behaviors simply by adjusting our identity, or rather who we see ourselves as being. The basis for his theory is that because being consistent is so important to American/Western culture that we will do whatever we must to be consistent with the identity we have adopted. He sited the example of Jean Valjean from Les Miserables, among others. So...What does any of this have to do with Patriarchal Blessings? Everything. Before I go any further we need to be on the same page. I guess if you don't have the same presuppositions, you'll still prove my theory correct, but if you want the best result you should be on the same page.

Presupposition #1: A patriarchal blessing is an inspired blessing from God representing the potential He sees in you.

Presupposition #2: God can not lie.

Presupposition #3: A patriarchal blessing is not a declaration of what must happen, but rather what could happen if you accept it as being inspired and accept the content as a guide.

Shoot! That about sums it up. If you can accept your patriarchal blessing as being God's view of what your life could be (your identity) then the likelihood of your blessing becoming reality is huge. Conversely, (this is for those who say patriarchal blessings are bogus) if you don't buy that your blessing is inspired by God then I'll make my own prophesy...at the end of your life you'll be able to say with some confidence that the whole thing was bogus since none of it happened. That's the wonder of it all. God, in His infinite wisdom, knows that we respond to suggestion. He doesn't MAKE us do what He says we can do...He suggests it to our mind and soul with His words in the scriptures and more specifically to us via a patriarchal blessing. He doesn't tell you everything you have to do, just those things that we might not be inclined to do if left to our own desires. Awesome. And if we reject His view of what we could be and do, it is our choice. It serves to our own condemnation (I view condemnation as meaning: con=with , -demnation=state of impeded progress or damned...to be in a state of impeded progress.). And the resulting false sense of reality will further impede our progress. It's not until we can acknowledge with humility that results we find in our lives today is the result of what we imagined it could be that we will be able to set a new course by finding a higher identity and as a result tap into more of that latent capacity that lays outside the realm of our perceived abilities. That's all...for now.