Michael W. Smith Talks About Billy Graham Blessing

During an interview regarding his book, A Simple Blessing, Michael W. Smith talked about how much Billy Graham has blessed him—and how he recently returned the blessing.

Enjoy this snippet from our conversation:

Billy has always been a special encouragement to me. I was with him the day before we went to Haiti. My wife and one of my girls, Anna, we all went up to Montreat and had a visit. I try to go every three, four months just to be with him and visit him.

I think we actually have a little bit in common. You know, we both have five children and we’re both in ministry and everything that comes with that. It’s a high calling and sometimes it comes down to the whole family thing. Billy will say, “I wish I hadn’t been gone as long.”

He seems to really want to pour into me, family wise, especially when my kids were growing up. He’s just so encouraging. You walk in the room and he starts talking and you’re edified for a good year! You got a good dose. He has a real gift of encouragement and I see that encouragement as nothing but a blessing.

Even this last time, he was such a blessing and then I felt like, for the very first time, maybe I have been a blessing to him. I think he’s so grateful that I come to see him. It was the very first time with Billy that as we were getting ready to leave—and I always look forward to him praying over me—that he looked at me and said, “Would you pray this time?”

So I got to pray over Billy which was just amazing. I was saying, “Oh Lord, thank You…” what an honor to be able to not only pray for his health and his well being, but I pronounced a blessing over him. It’s so incredible how it kind of comes back around. I’m very, very grateful.

Used with permission from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.