This morning we will finish my recaps of the messages I received during the recent Mighty Men of Valor Conference. I truly enjoyed providing you the recaps and I trust they were a blessing to you. Yesterday I provided you a recap of the first message delivered by Pastor Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, CA. Today we will cover Pastor Bill’s second message, entitled, “The Purpose of Favor”, as we close out this series of messages.
So what does this mean to you today? Several things. Let’s get into them.
1. Praise and worship unlock the favor of God in your life (Ps 67).
a) In thanksgiving and praise what I SAY is the sacrifice; I give God the fruit of my lips. But in worship I am the offering, my entire being becomes the sacrifice.
b) When you praise God in the middle of loss you taking your valley of weeping and you make it a place of refreshing springs (Ps 84:6).
c) Don’t ever waste an opportunity to give God praise in the middle of pain. When you get to heaven you will still be able to praise God, but you will have no pain. Once you are in heaven you will never have a chance to praise God in the midst of pain. So don’t waste those moments down here.
d) God is always worthy of praise. For you to withhold thankfulness until God does something you approve of is you becoming the judge of when God is worthy.
2. Be thankful that God chooses to use you. God can do what He wants to do in the earth without us, but He chooses to use us.
3. For us to beg God to heal someone is for us to assume we have more mercy than He does. You must know God hates sickness, just like He hates sin.
4. You will know your mind is renewed when the impossible seems logical.
5. You walk with two legs. The two legs we stand on and walk with are PURITY and POWER!
6. The Favor of God comes for a purpose.
a) It’s okay to pray for God to bless you (see Psalm 67). Those who don’t pray for the blessing are actually selfish. The blessing equips us TO BE a blessing.
b) God’s blessing empowers us to triumph over challenges and our victory prophecies of God’s favor.
c) The favor of God causes us to experience victory in this world in such a way that those who know us know it is NOT US!
d) The Blessing of the Lord ON us offers all those around us a picture of what God is like.
e) The abundance of the Lord, His profuse favor, should not diminish your reliance on God, it should increase it!
f) Your identity is not in what you own, it should be in WHO OWNS YOU!
g) When Israel was in the wilderness they experienced miracles first to sustain them. Later the miracles came to advance them. Likewise today, the favor of God comes you to initially simply to sustain you. But later, God has an expectation that you will use His favor to advance His Kingdom.
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for teaching me about Your grace and my requirement to live by faith. Your favor comes to me by grace; completely unearned, unmerited and undeserved. I don’t ask You to bless me because I am so good. I open my heart to Your blessing because You are so good. I refuse to live this life focused on me and my family alone. You sent me into the earth TO BE a blessing. I receive Your blessing and Your favor. You bless me in ways that far exceed what I need. I am then in a position to bless others out of the overflow. I declare that I have an excess of love, peace, mercy, patience, kindness, meekness, and money; and I am able to bless others from that overflow. My marriage is blessed, so I am able to bless other marriages. My children are blessed, so I am able to focus on being a blessing to other children. My finances are in order, so I am able to bless others from my finances. Your favor is on my life in such a way that I am a walking, talking billboard for You. Your favor on me testifies and prophecies of Your goodness in the land of the living. Like Jesus I am able to pray, “Father, glorify me, that I may glorify thee!”. I declare that You do, and as You glorify me, I glorify thee in this world! I declare this by faith! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
