The Favor of God

by Jerry Savelle

  JESUS IS IN A BUILDING PROGRAM RIGHT NOW. NOT ONLY HAS HE BEEN BUILDING UP THE NATURAL ZION, BUT HE HAS ALSO BEEN BUILDING UP THE LOCAL CHURCH AND THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL.

  You may not have realized this, but Jesus is in a building program right now. Not only has He been building up the natural Zion, but He has also been building up the local church and the Church universal—just as He promised to do when He said, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).

  So both David and Jesus pinpointed a set time in which God’s favor was to be poured out upon His Church, and that time is now.

  I’m not saying that we haven’t experienced the favor of God thus far. We have. In fact, the favor of God was manifest the day Jesus came to the earth as a babe. His birth was an expression—a manifestation—of the favor of God. Everything Jesus did during His earthly ministry was a manifestation of God’s favor. His death and His resurrection were manifestations of favor. The facts that you and I have been made the righteousness of God and that we are new creations in Christ Jesus are manifestations of the favor of God.

  Although you and I have had access to that favor since the day we made Jesus the Lord of our lives, I believe that what has come upon us now is a time of favor like no other generation has ever seen. In other words, I believe we are going to experience exceeding favor—a beyond-the-norm kind of favor—during this designated time. Paul talked about this kind of favor in his letter to the believers in Ephesus:

  And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace [favor] you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace [favor] in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:1-7).

  Notice that throughout most of this passage, Paul uses past-tense verbs, indicating that he’s talking about things that have already taken place. But then, in verse 7, he refers to what will happen in the future: “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace [favor] in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

  Paul started by describing things God had already done, but then he spoke about something that God was going to do in the ages to come. I would say that the ages to come that Paul wrote about are here today. In other words, we are in a designated time of favor in which we can expect God to show us His exceeding riches. This is God’s set time to bring favor upon the Church, and this outpouring of favor will surpass anything the Church has experienced since its birth.

  WE ARE IN A TIME OF FAVOR IN WHICH WE CAN EXPECT GOD TO SHOW US HIS EXCEEDING RICHES.

  We read in the book of Acts that there was great favor on the Early Church. The Bible says that “continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:46-47). God’s favor upon the Early Church brought a great harvest of souls. I believe that harvest was also a shadow, or pattern, of the harvest we are going to experience in these last days.

  Prophetic Patterns of Favor

  As we study the Word of God, we find that God often did things in the Old Testament that were used as patterns for the pouring out of His favor as described in the New Testament. When God established an Old Testament pattern, He required mankind to carry out His detailed instructions with precision and accuracy.

  For instance, when God established the Passover, which He instructed Israel to keep as a feast and an everlasting ordinance throughout all generations, the set time and method of sacrifice for the feast were specific. Throughout subsequent centuries and generations, each Israelite household sacrificed a male lamb at twilight on the set date, and then applied the blood of that lamb to the doorposts and lintel of the house. This pattern was rehearsed year after year until Jesus, who is the Lamb of God, was slain at the precise moment prescribed for God’s Passover. Leaving no detail unfulfilled, God even saw to it that twilight’s darkness covered the land for the three hours that Jesus was on the cross.

  The Bible is full of Old Testament prophetic patterns that God established for His New Testament purposes. We find one of these patterns in the book of Isaiah:

  “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” says your God. “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Isa. 40:1-5).

  Isaiah spoke of a designated time in which God would declare comfort, or favor, over His people. Then he uttered this familiar phrase: “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (v. 3). These are the very words used by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to describe John the Baptist.

  In Psalm 102, David spoke of a time of favor, and here Isaiah referred to a time of comfort. The difference in the two prophecies is that Isaiah was seeing the first coming of Jesus, while David saw His second coming. For each of these events, God had already established an appointed time.

  In Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia, he explained, “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son” (Gal. 4:4). So as we read Isaiah’s prophecies about the crucifixion, resurrection and substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus, we understand that he was seeing these events as they would happen at the appointed time. God would not allow Jesus to come any sooner than the appointed time. But once the prophecies of old had been fulfilled, and it was time for the Redeemer to manifest, nothing could stop His appearance.

  Notice the pattern: Before Jesus came the first time, there was a manifestation of God’s favor. When we hear about valleys being exalted, mountains being made low, and the crooked places being made straight, that’s the favor of God in action. The favor of God was poured out before Jesus came the first time, and before He makes His next appearance, there will be a manifestation of God’s favor like no generation has seen.

  The Amplified translation of Ephesians 2:7 says that God will “clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.” Let’s really take hold of the words “immeasurable,” “limitless” and “surpassing.” The word “surpassing” indicates a place we’ve never been before. “Immeasurable” and “limitless” imply that God’s favor will manifest so often that we won’t even be able to keep up with it.

  I’m not saying that we won’t be opposed, or that we won’t experience some adversity. We will. But when the favor of God is on our side, we’ll face adversity and overcome it just like the three Hebrew children did (see Dan. 3:19-30). They went through the flames and came out on the other side with not so much as a singed hair or the smell of smoke on their clothes. In so doing, they set an Old Testament pattern that will be fulfilled in and through us today.

  Peter spoke of the fulfillment of another Old Testament prophetic pattern when he said, “But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent t
herefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:18-19). Peter was referring to the words the prophet Joel had spoken concerning God’s refreshing of the land:

  Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain.… “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust.… And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:23,25,28-29).

  Joel saw into the spirit realm and described events that would not only take place in the land of Judah in his day, but also take place in the last days. We know that the last days began on the day of Pentecost, when God poured out His Spirit on 120 people who had gathered “to wait for the Promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4), as Jesus had instructed them to do. Many who observed the 120 that day thought they were drunk. But Peter explained, “These are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy’ ” (Acts 2:15-17).

  Some Bible scholars describe the last days as a period of time lasting approximately 2,000 years. In that case, if the last days began on the day of Pentecost, then we must surely be near the end of the last days.

  Looking again at Joel’s prophecy, we see that there will be a restoration in the last days: God said He would restore the years that the locust had eaten. Peter affirmed this when he exhorted his listeners to repent, “that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:20-21).

  We can see from these Scripture passages that a major restoration is on God’s agenda for the last days. I’ve been saying for many years that God is going to raise up an army that will literally march into the enemy’s camp and take back everything that has been stolen from the Church. I believe we who are alive today are part of that army, and I believe we will fulfill the prophetic pattern of favor that was established when the children of Israel plundered the Egyptians as God delivered them out of 430 years of bondage.

  Walking in Favor Takes Commitment

  Just as Israel had to be committed to walking in the favor of God in order to break the bondage of slavery, we too must be committed to walking in the favor of God in order to live victoriously in these last days.

  Some will take what they’ve learned about the favor of God and the importance of declaring it on a daily basis and approach it with the attitude: Oh, isn’t this wonderful! I think I’ll try it. Most people, when they say they are going to try something, are not yet committed. All it will take is a couple of trials, and they’ll quit. If you’re not committed, then declaring the favor of God on an occasional basis is not going to produce results.

  I’ve had people tell me, “Brother Jerry, I heard what you said, and I tried declaring God’s favor in my life, but it didn’t work for me.” My answer is always that being a tryer of the Word never produced results in anyone’s life. It’s the doer of the Word who is blessed:

  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (Jas. 1:22-25).

  Simply put, where declaring the favor of God is concerned, to do nothing is to experience nothing.

  Anytime we receive a revelation from God, He expects us to handle that revelation in a proper manner in order that we might be blessed. Moses established the prophetic pattern for handling that which God had spoken when he summarized the Law for a people who had already seen many of God’s miraculous manifestations of favor.

  Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them (Deut. 11:18-21).

  Moses told the people that not only should they lay up in their hearts and souls the things they’d learned, but also they should talk about those things day and night and teach them to their children. The promise attached to this command was that their days would be multiplied in the land. Where the favor of God is concerned, I do exactly as Moses instructed the Israelites to do. I declare God’s favor consistently, on a daily basis. I talk to my wife about it, and we talk to our children and grandchildren about it. We talk to them about the designated time of favor that is upon us and about our expectations for greater manifestations of favor in our lives.

  Earlier in this chapter, we read a passage from the book of Joel that talked about the former rain and the latter rain. The prophet Haggai offers this comparison: “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former” (Hag. 2:9, KJV). I like to illustrate this promise by saying that the glory we see described in the Old Testament was just a moderate display compared to the glory that is to come.

  THE GLORY WE SEE DESCRIBED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS JUST A MODERATE DISPLAY COMPARED TO THE GLORY THAT IS TO COME.

  When I look at the displays of God’s glory and favor in the Old Testament, I personally think they are pretty awesome manifestations. But God calls them moderate. In essence, He is saying, “You haven’t seen anything yet. If you think that was something, just wait until I turn up the volume.”

  Some people think it’s strange to talk about God’s plans for the future. But isn’t that exactly what God does in His Word? If we’re made in the image of God, shouldn’t we be talking about His future plans as well? A vital part of my commitment to walking in the favor of God involves seeking the Lord as to what He plans to do so that I can be in the flow of it. After all, if you’re in the know, you’ll be in the flow.

  God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, saying, “Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them” (Isa. 42:9). As we read chapters 42 and 43 of Isaiah, it’s clear that God is telling His people about the restoration He’s about to bring into their lives. We also see that there is a problem. God can’t get anybody to talk about what He is getting ready to do. “But this is a people robbed and plundered; all of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; they are for prey, and no one delivers; for plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore!’ ” (Isa. 42:22).

  What God is saying is this: “When I reveal to you what I want to do for you, I need you to start charging the atmosphere with My Word.” The reason God wants us to charge the atmosphere with His Word is that the Word never returns to Him void. Isaiah 55:11 says, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

  The prophet Amos says, “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). Why would God first reveal to the prophets what He is preparing to do? Because prophets are not just seers; they also speak God’s Word and His plans into t
he atmosphere. Jesus couldn’t even come to earth in the flesh to redeem mankind until God had revealed His plan to the prophets and they began to speak it. This is how God births the supernatural into our natural environment.

  God started speaking about Jesus’ supernatural birth in the third chapter of Genesis, when He said to the serpent, “ I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:15). Throughout the Bible, children are never referred to as the seed of a woman. They are always spoken of as the seed of man—except in this reference. God was giving insight from the beginning that the One who would come to bruise the head of Satan would be a supernatural Seed coming through a supernatural occurrence that would take place at a designated time in the future. And so it happened:

  Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

  But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.” …

  Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

  And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.… For with God nothing will be impossible.”