BENEFIT #7:
WE WILL EXPERIENCE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
You have already heard a number of my testimonies about the preferential treatment that I have received—treatment I neither asked for nor demanded. I’ve learned that if we come before God with a humble spirit, He will lift us up and give us preferential treatment.
James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” Likewise, 1 Peter 5:6 instructs us, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”
Centuries earlier, a young woman named Esther had experienced the kind of exaltation Peter wrote about:
And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her. So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast, the Feast of Esther, for all his officials and servants; and he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts according to the generosity of a king (Esther 2:15-18).
Esther obtained favor and, as a result, was beloved by King Ahasuerus, who made her his queen. When the favor of God is on our lives, prominence and preferential treatment come right along with it.
WHEN THE FAVOR OF GOD IS ON OUR LIVES, PROMINENCE AND PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT COME RIGHT ALONG WITH IT.
BENEFIT #8:
OUR PETITIONS WILL BE GRANTED—EVEN BY UNGODLY CIVIL AUTHORITIES
We find more than one of the benefits of God’s favor depicted in the story of Esther, the young Jewish girl who hid her identity and became queen of a vast area extending from India to Ethiopia. After learning of Haman’s evil plot to kill all of the Jews in the kingdom, Esther formulated her own plan to petition the king for the lives of her people:
At the banquet of wine the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”
Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and request is this: If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, then let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.” …
So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther (Esther 5:6-8; 7:1).
Although the king did not worship the God of the Jews—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—he granted Esther’s petition because the favor of God rested upon her.
BENEFIT #9:
POLICIES, RULES AND LAW WILL BE CHANGED OR REVERSED TO OUR ADVANTAGE
The decree calling for the death of all Jews had already gone forth, and the date had been set. Yet because of the favor of God that rested upon Esther, a new decree went forth:
And the king held out the golden scepter toward Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king, and said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. For how can I endure to see the evil that will come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my countrymen?”
Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “Indeed, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he tried to lay his hand on the Jews. You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for whatever is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring no one can revoke” (Esther 8:4-8).
Notice that not only did the king agree to set forth a new decree, but he also allowed Esther and her cousin, Mordecai, to write it as they pleased and then seal it with the king’s own signet ring. The Bible goes on to say that “in every province and city, wherever the king’s command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a holiday” (Esther 8:17).
BENEFIT #10:
WE WON’T HAVE TO FIGHT SOME BATTLES, BECAUSE GOD WILL FIGHT THEM FOR US
Most of us are familiar with the words young David spoke to the Philistine giant before he killed him with a stone: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.… Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s” (1 Sam. 17:45,47). When we put our faith in God and His great favor, He will fight our battles for us. That’s not to say we will never have to take a stand and exercise our faith, but we will certainly never have to fight our battles in our own strength.
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, the deeds You did in their days, in days of old: You drove out the nations with Your hand, but them You planted; you afflicted the peoples, and cast them out. For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them; but it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, because You favored them (Ps. 44:1-3).
One battle that God fought for Carolyn and me involved the changing of a law in Texas. Our two daughters were born 13 months apart, and when they were old enough to attend school, we anticipated that our younger daughter would start school one year behind her sister. However, because of her birth date, Texas law said that she would have to wait another year. Carolyn and I knew that she was capable of learning, and we didn’t want her to be two years behind her sister.
We talked to the teacher, to the principal, and finally to the superintendent, who told us that although she understood our reasons for wanting the girls to be separated by only one grade, Texas law simply would not allow it.
So Carolyn and I decided to go over all of their heads, and we took our petition to God. We began to confess daily that the law would be changed in our favor—and by the time school started that year, the law had been rewritten, and our daughter was able to start school one year behind her sister. God fought our battle for us and even reversed the law to our benefit.
I’m telling you, walking in the favor of God has its benefits.
Putting a Demand on the Favor of God
We’ve just examined 10 specific benefits that come with walking in the favor of God. Although these benefits are ours to receive, they will not manifest in our lives if we don’t put a demand on that favor. The way we put a demand on favor is by declaring it.
Looking again to Job 22:28, which we first examined in chapter 6, we read: “You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways.” The Amplified translation says, “And the light [of God’s favor] shall shine upon your ways.”
To declare means “to speak from the mouth.” So according to Job 22:28, we will speak something and it will be established for us. Take salvation, for instance: We don’t get to go to heaven until we open our mouths and lay claim to our salvation. The Bible says, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:10).
So in order to put a demand on the favor of God, we need to declare it. We need to get up in the morning declaring, “The favor of God goes before me today!” Throughout the day, whenever we think about it, we need to declare the favor of God—all the way up until we go to bed at night. If we make declaring the favor of God a natural part of our everyday lives, then we will see that favor manifesting in everything we do.
IF WE MAKE DECLARING THE FAVOR OF GOD A NATURAL PART OF OUR EVERYDAY LIVES, WE WILL SEE THAT FAVOR MANIFESTING IN EVERYTHING WE DO.
Personally, I don’t leave my house without putting a demand on God’s favor by declaring it. Doing so is as natural to me a
s putting on my clothes. I don’t mean I declare God’s favor every once in a while; I do it every single day of my life. And each time I see a manifestation of God’s favor, I stop right then to acknowledge it and to thank Him for it.
Can you imagine what might happen over the course of one year if a person were diligent in declaring the favor of God? I’m not talking about just playing with putting a demand on God’s favor to see if it will work. I’m talking about getting up every morning and declaring out loud the benefits that will come as a result of walking in God’s favor. What do you suppose would happen if that person would not give up declaring favor, no matter how many attacks came against him or her? I am confident that in one year’s time, that person would be able to look back and see manifestations of God’s favor like never before.
Wise Solomon wrote that “a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, [and] loving favor rather than silver and gold” (Prov. 22:1). In other words, favor produces things that money cannot buy. I’ve had this happen many times in my life, and I didn’t have to spend one dime for what the favor of God produced. I’ve learned to confess for the favor of God instead of praying for money, because I know that favor will produce the kind of blessing that money cannot buy.
Psalm 5:12 says, “For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield.” The human body naturally generates an electromagnetic field that can be detected with certain meters. I like to think of God’s favor in a similar way: When God surrounds me with favor, there’s a magnetic field of favor that follows me wherever I go. Anyone who comes into that sphere of influence is affected by what is on me. If I’m filled with joy, I can walk into a crowd of depressed people and my joy will affect them. When the favor of God is upon me and someone gets within my field, then God’s favor is going to get on them, too.
I am happy to report that most of my staff members are prospering. They are blessed. They are experiencing favor like they’ve never known in their lives. Why? It’s by association. They’re associating with people who are blessed, who are prosperous, and who are experiencing the favor of God. The Bible says, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed” (Prov. 13:20).
Translated literally from the Hebrew, Psalm 5:12 says that God will crown us with His favor. You can’t see it, but I’ve got a crown of favor on my head at all times. It opens doors for me that no man can open, and it will do the same for you.
For reasons I will discuss in the next chapter, I believe that the Body of Christ has entered a season in which it is critical that we walk in the favor of God. I believe that those who are willing to put a demand on that favor by declaring it on a daily basis will see a substantial move of God in their lives.
Tremendous advancements will be made in the spirit realm during what I’m going to call this “season of favor.” We will go further than we’ve ever gone, with more people experiencing prosperity and success than ever before—if they are willing to declare God’s favor and then be quick to take hold of opportunities that are presented to them. In order to recognize and seize those opportunities when they come, we’ll have to be sensitive to the Spirit of God. As a result of laying hold of these God-given opportunities, many believers will achieve financial independence and give more toward the work of the gospel than in times past.
I believe that during this season of favor, some will also experience more joy and happiness in their lives than ever before. My Bible says, “Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!” (Ps. 144:15). A lot of Christians are miserable, even though, according to the Word of God, they should be happy. Christians ought to be the happiest people on the planet, and I believe that we will be in this season of favor that is upon us.
Another thing that I believe will be manifesting to a greater degree in this season is divine direction. Some people will receive a clear sense of direction from the Lord—direction that will enable them to arrive, after many years of believing, at the places to which
God has been leading them. In some cases, this direction will have to do with changes they can make to positively affect their health. As a result of this direction, many will walk in a greater level of divine health, because they will put a demand on the favor of God. During this present season of favor, many ministries will accomplish more in one year than they have previously accomplished in 10 years. This means that more souls will be won, and the harvest will be greater than what we’ve witnessed before. So don’t give up on your loved ones; they’re coming in. I don’t care how far into sin the enemy has taken them—Jesus’ love goes even farther, and He will bring them out.
DON’T GIVE UP ON YOUR LOVED ONES; THEY’RE COMING IN. I DON’T CARE HOW FAR INTO SIN THE ENEMY HAS TAKEN THEM—JESUS’ LOVE GOES EVEN FARTHER, AND HE WILL BRING THEM OUT.
Now, just because we’ve entered a season of favor doesn’t mean that everyone will experience it. Everything that happens to you will be directly connected to what you expect. When the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, he was imprisoned and facing death. Yet he said, “For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation” (Phil. 1:19-20). In other words, Paul was saying that he was going to get exactly what he expected.
No matter what comes your way during this present season of favor, expect the favor of God to go before you, expect the benefits of favor to manifest in your life, and expect God’s favor to surround you.
If you do, you’ll most certainly get exactly what you expect.
9
A DESIGNATED TIME OF FAVOR
As I’ve just described, I believe that the Church—meaning the Body of Christ—has entered a designated season of favor like no other generation has ever seen. I also believe that, according to the prophetic word of David found in Psalm 102, this season of favor will immediately precede the second coming of Jesus Christ.
But thou, O LORD, shall endure forever; and thy remembrance unto all generations. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory (Ps. 102:12-16, KJV).
The term “Zion” is used more than 150 times in the Bible. In the Old Testament, Zion generally refers to the fortress of the city of Jerusalem, known also as the City of David. However, in the New Testament, Zion takes on an additional meaning that refers to God’s spiritual kingdom—and, more specifically, to the Church. The apostle Paul, himself a Jew, understood this spiritual concept of Zion, saying, “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem … to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven” (Heb. 12:22-23). So we see that Zion has both a literal and a spiritual meaning, each of which is indicated in David’s psalm.
What many people fail to realize is that David was not only a psalmist, but also a prophet. He was a seer. He saw into the future. In fact, in Psalm 22, David saw more than a thousand years into the future and wrote about the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. He even quoted the exact words Jesus would speak on the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Ps. 22:1). On the day of Pentecost, Peter spoke the following words about David:
Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on the throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ (Acts 2:29-31).
The reason I’m taking time to make this point about David is that we may see his reference to Zion in Psalm 102 not only in the literal sense, but also as a prophetic wor
d about the Church. In other words, David looked into the future and saw the set time of favor that was to come upon the Church.
To say there is a set time for something means that it is in the plan, in the mind, and in the will of God. It means nothing can change that which has been set. The word “set” is the same word you and I might use in referring to concrete. When a wet concrete mixture that has been poured into a form begins to dry, or set, it creates a solid foundation. It doesn’t matter what happens to the structure built upon the foundation. The walls may come down, but the foundation is still set. Likewise, it doesn’t matter whether someone believes it or not; God has a set time for His favor to be bestowed upon His Church, and nothing can stop that from happening.
Now let’s see if we can pinpoint when this time might be. Verse 16 of Psalm 102 says, “When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory” (KJV). Notice the reference to the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ: “He shall appear in his glory.” When? Although we don’t know the day or the hour, we know it will happen at a time when God is building up Zion.
In Matthew 24, we find the account of Jesus talking to His disciples about the end of the age. When they asked Him, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming?” (Matt. 24:3), Jesus gave a detailed description of end-time events. He talked of wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, false prophets and lawlessness, to name a few things (see Matt. 24:4-8). Certainly these signs have been experienced by virtually every subsequent generation to some degree, leading many to believe that the return of Jesus was imminent. But until recently, there was always one piece of the puzzle that was missing.
As part of His response to His disciples’ questions, Jesus said, “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place” (Matt. 24:32-34). The fig tree Jesus spoke of is Israel, who put forth her leaves when she became a nation in 1948, thus providing God’s “super sign” to the world that the coming of Christ is near. The missing piece of the puzzle has been set in place.
The Favor of God Page 13
