"FOR YOU,O LORD WILL BLESS
THE RIGHTEOUS;
WITH FAVOR YOU WILL SURROUND HIM
WITH A SHIELD."
-PSALM5:12 Amplified
One thing holding Christians in bondage than anything else is a lack of knowledge of righteousness. When a man accepts Jesus, he is moved into a position of a new birth. He enters into the Kingdom of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. That man would automatically become God’s very own child.
With this new relationship, there are certain privileges, rights and freedom that he will enjoy...
Righteousness is what you are, the very nature of God...
The verse we are about to partake is the blessings we have as righteous people of God. We have access by faith into His grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Today, let us know this righteousness more by knowing the favor we have with God eversince we accepted Jesus.
"For our sake He made Christ virtually to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of the righteousness of God what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right standing with Him, by His goodness."-2Corinthians5:21Amp.
Let us discover that from this righteousness; we have this favor from God all along. Not only discovering but be determined to live by it.
Before anything else, let us know several meaning of the word FAVOR; it means to assist, to promote over another, to give advantage and a special treatment.
"LET US LIVE FAVOR-MINDED"
A note of caution however should be keep in mind... Not that we are better than anybody else,but living in confidence and boldness, expecting good things.
I have made a five point outline on how this favor could manifest in increasing level in our life.
After this preaching, expect to live in preferential treatment not because of who you are... but because of Jesus our Righteousness! He will bring us more into the heart of Our Father. His honor and glory will spill over us.
FAITH IN GOD:
What will you do if a friend of yours would give you a servant and that he is in-charge of that servant’s salary? Of course you would give that servant instructions, errands, command him to do work, you will have power and authority over him, and would naturally obey you, because that is what his job description is.
That is the same way we should treat faith to acquire favor from God! Let us look at Luke17:5-10 as the disciples asks Jesus to increase their faith. "...and the Lord answered,if you had FAITH trust and confidence in God even so small like a grain of mustard seed, you could SAY to this mulberry tree, Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would OBEY you.Will any man of you who has a SERVANT plowing or tending sheep SAY to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and take your place at the table? Will he not instead tell him, Get my supper ready and gird yourself and serve me while I eat and drink;then afterward you yourself shall eat and drink?Is he grateful and does he praise the servant because he did what he was ordered to do?"
That is why when Jesus on His way to Jerusalem, when He was hungry cursed the fig-tree because it did not bear fruit. The next day,the fig-tree was withered up to its root, Peter saw the tree wondered and Our Lord answered, "Have faith in God"
We have favor from God by living and exercising faith by means of saying it. Faith is an action word. Faith is a spoken word.
Faith would obey us. Not by our whims but by means of our Faith in God.
APTITUDE FROM GOD:
Aptitude is an inherent ability. It means that we have this God-given ability. It is written in The New Living Translation of Romans 8:29 and 30 "For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn with many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him. And He gave them right standing with Himself, and He promised them His glory."
This inherent ability we have is what God says in Jeremiah1:5 that before we were born God knows us, He protected us, and appointed us.
Let me illustrate this Aptitude of Favor in the field of Medical Science and show how from the beginning we are much favored. A woman has a single egg cell every month. If she would not have any sexual relationship with a man, this fertile egg would die and there will be menstruation. However, when a sexual intercourse or copulation occur, the male would ejaculate at least an average of 100million sperm cells. Let us remember that only one of these sperm cells has the ability to fertilize the single egg cell of the woman. Each sperm cell had been provided by a whiplike flagella which is his means of locomotion. Imagine that after the ejaculation,each sperm cell, 100 million of them, rushes, speeds and had to beat the rest of the 99,999,999 others just to reach the lone egg of the woman. ONLY ONE SPERM. THIS SINGLE SPERM SHOULD BE THE FASTEST, THE STRONGEST.... Let’s think it this way: before we were born in this world, we have already beaten 99,999,999 foes. That is why God’s eye is upon us before we were born! We are more than conquerors to Him that love us! HALLELUJAH!!!
Let me challenge you, ladies and gentlemen, my brethren in the LORD Jesus Christ.... we have a favor of 1(that’s us):99,999,999 ratio! Why should we give up over one major problem?! From now on, no obstacle, no foe, pestilence, bankcruptcy, disease, persecution, name it.. can overpower us! Psalm91:7 rings true to me now..."A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you."
Eversince, know that we have this shield of God’s favor! Don’t give up.
VISIONS FROM GOD:
In 1994 Tara Holland dreamed of becoming Miss America, On that year, she entered the Ms.Florida beauty pageant and only wind up 1st runner-up.The next year, she entered the same beauty pageant and again garnered the 1st runner-up. After that loss she rented hundreds of videos and bought magazines and books to polish her beauty know how on beauty contests. In 1997 she entered the Ms.Kansas Pageant and won the title and then in that same year, won the Miss America. As she was walking the ramp during her victory parade, she was interviewed by a reporter and asked her if she was nervous walking down the runway infront of millions of people watching on television and audiences on the place of the contest; Tara’s response was interesting..."No, I wasn’t nervous at all, you see, I had walked down that runway a thousand of times before in my mind!"
The next point in discovering favor is Vision.
Genesis 13;14-18 Showed us how God gave our father of faith, Abraham,this words..."lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are... I will give to you and to your posterity... Arise, walk through the land for I will give it to you..." God accounted to Abraham every favor because of his right standing with God. In Galatians 3:6-7, we have inherited this favor because of Jesus.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR GOD:
Opportunities are possibilities due to a favorable condition of circumstances. That is what the Dictionary defined it. Children of God had this shield of favor along the way of our Christian journey.
In the book of Howard Hendricks"Taking A Stand" he wrote and I quote it here:"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems."
All of God’s people encounter this...
A good example was David when he was running errands for his father,Jesse. He was bringing food to his soldier brother in the field where they are position in battle-array. He saw and heard Goliath taunting the army of the living God for forty days to a duel. David could not believe that God’s people were cowering in fear! No one could match the Philistine’s giant of a champion. Israel’s tallest man, King Saul could not compensate for more than 9 feet of Goliath’s height. God provided the young lad an opportunity to a step nearer the throne of Kingship by testing the mettle of his heart. The rest is classic battle of divine magnitude. David responded to the opportunity and said to Goliath;"You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but i come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, Whom you have defied.This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and i will smite you and cut off your head...so David prevailed over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath,and killed him, and cut off his head with it.When they saw that their mighty champion was dead, they fled."
In times of problems, tests or situations so insurmountable, we have the option of two attitudes to arise in such opportunities... Genesis 42:36’s"All these things are against me" or Romans8:28’s"All these things are working together for good..."
Choose.But I do believe that we are molded according to Romans8:28! amen? Amen!
REWARD OF GOD:
Brethren... living, breathing, moving and acting in the favor of God is that we should never stop doing good. The Bible says in Galatians 6:9 says, do not stop doing good for in due time you will reap a harvest!
Reap your reward in doing good which is so natural for us. Reward for us, is just around the corner. Watch for it. It is His word. He is faithful, even though we may become faithless...
Stand firm on these reaping of rewards. It will surely come to pass.
CONCLUSION:
Let us now live in a new level and let us change our mind-set.Let us speak and command faith in behalf of Jesus, for our favor. You are chosen by God to be like Jesus. In due time your level of special treatment with God would be manifested. Take every opportunity.
There is more ahead of us...
Experience the glory of God’s favor.
He will surround us, compass us round about as with a shield. Dream God’s vision. Let us now arise. GOD BLESS US!
