“Expecting Favor!”

How would you like to find favor awaiting you everyday and in every circumstance you find yourself? You walk into work and your boss comes hurrying over to you with a smile on his face and announces, “I have decided that I am giving you a 25% pay raise and an extra week vacation.” Then when you go out for lunch you find the restaurant packed to the hilt but the moment you arrive the waitress motions for you to come forward past all the other waiting guests as she ushers you to the best table in the establishment. Your food comes in record-breaking time and then as you prepare to pay you are told that an anonymous guest has already paid for your meal. After your lunch you make a quick stop at Wal Mart to pick up a couple things. As you pull into the parking lot a space opens up right at the front door. Once you have picked up your items you see that the check out lines are long and slow, but as soon as you step in line, the store manager quickly summons an employee to open a new register just for you. Everywhere you go you are met with preferential treatment and all your needs are over abundantly cared for. Living a life filled with favor would be an extraordinary thing, yet God’s Word tells of a supernatural favor that is possible for those who trust not in the arm of flesh but solely in Gods grace.

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound in every good work.” 2 Cor. 9:8

The above verse is one of those scriptures that we often read but don’t really grasp the magnitude of what God is actually communicating to us. The word grace means unmerited favor, and Webster says abound is “to overflow” or “be in great plenty.” So for God to make all grace abound toward you is to have your life overflow with unearned favor. Look at the adjectives used in this verse. “All grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things.” Not only can God make all favor overflow to you, but so much so that in all things and at all times we will have all we need. This verse is not just talking about physical things, but “all sufficiency in all things” would certainly include the physical. All means all; body, soul and spirit - physical, emotional, and spiritual. The Amplified Bible says it this way “And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and what ever you need be self-sufficient (possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation.)”

Why would God direct such supernatural favor toward us? The Word makes it clear that it is so that we will have all we need to fulfill the purpose that God has given us to do. “that ye…may abound in every good work.” Favor always comes with an assignment. God’s favor is poured out upon us not for our own selfish consumption, but so that we will be fully equipped to accomplish Gods purposes upon the earth, and that we might display His glory and goodness.

Now I realize that this verse does not “promise” that all grace will always abound in our lives. It says that God is “able to make all grace abound toward you.” Just as grace for salvation of the lost soul is available to all, yet only a few accept this gift; in like manner, I believe that there is much more grace and favor available to us than most of us ever experience. While we certainly can’t earn our salvation, which comes by grace, our part in salvation is to believe what God’s Word says and receive by faith what Christ has made available to us. Likewise to receive the grace talked about in this verse, we must first believe that God desires to pour favor out upon us, and than have a willing and humble heart ready to receive it. I suspect that there are two main reasons we don’t experience much of this available favor.

1. We don’t “really” believe what the Word is promising, nor have confidence in the Fathers love concerning us.

2. God knows our hearts and sees that we would spend this favor upon our own lusts, thus drawing our hearts away from Him, rather than in accomplishing “every good work” and bringing praise and glory to His Name.

So how do we prepare ourselves to receive God’s favor? A good place to start would be by diligently seeking the Lord with all that we are and surrendering ourselves to His will. Our will must become the Fathers will. Secondly, we must begin to speak faith filled words. I am not talking about a name it and claim it gig. I am talking about speaking what the Word says; believing and claiming for ourselves what the scriptures say is God’s will, and what the scripture says is available to us and through us as kings and priests of the Most High God. As Dr. Kenneth Hagen once said, “Faith begins where the will of God is known.” For years I often believed and spoke a bad report over myself. I figured that if I was in a hurry to get somewhere, I would have a flat tire; or when I receive a little extra money, something would break down that would consume more than the little extra that I had gained. And guess what? My faith worked perfectly, for what I believed and spoke usually did come to pass. I am learning to no longer do that, but instead to always speak and expect favor. God’s Word is filled with promises of who we are in Christ, and what the cross has accomplished for us. Let’s choose to allow them to renew our minds, fill our hearts, and flow continually from our lips. .

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Eph. 3:20

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also: and greater works than these he will do: because I go to the Father.” John 14:12 NAS

“You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock…Your baskets and your kneading troughs will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but will flee from you in seven. The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouses of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many but borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I gave you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never the bottom.” Deut. 28:3-7, 12-13 NIV