DIVINE FAVOUR: THE SHIELD OF THE RIGHTEOUS

DIVINE FAVOUR: THE SHIELD OF THE RIGHTEOUS

Study Text:    Psalms 5:12

Introduction:
       -    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 he becomes 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.

-      All these are combined together in what we can describe as Divine Favour.

-      Favour often shows up in hard times, in storms of life. When our world falls apart, God's favour shows up just in time to show us His kindness and goodness.

-      Shield is used in Scripture to illustrate God's divine strategic protection around His people against any and all weapons, intentions, and attacks of the enemy seeking to harass, harm, or destroy God's work in us and around us.

-      Many believers are lingering in one place for years, they have prayed, they have waited and yet there is nothing coming into their lives.

-      My beloved, what you need to change your situation is the Divine favour of God. One day of favour is worth a thousand days of labour, God can do for you in one day what you could take years to accomplish alone.

-      We shall discuss the topic under three sub-headings:

1.      The Meaning of Divine Favour

2.      The Motivations of Divine Favour

3.      The Manifestations of Divine Favour

1.      The Meaning of Divine Favour

-      Divine Favour is blessings from God that you do not deserve nor can you explain how you received them other than by the hand of God.

-      Favour can be displayed in many forms. For example: wealth, riches, connections, wisdom, compassion, faith, knowledge etc., these are just a few.

-      Favour is very important in our lives, because it is the engineer of every great future. It is the master key to a world of fulfilment. It changes and gloriously repositions people. God determines the placement of everyone by His favour (Psalm 30:5-7).

-      Life is not a race of strength, swiftness, or skill. It answers absolutely to favour. The quality of a man’s life is a function of the favour at work for him. (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

-      The favour of God is what determines the limits of every man’s destiny. Once you are favoured, you are made.

-       Favour is what converts labour into fortune. It enhances the value of your labour. Apostle Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. The limit of your destiny is defined by the level of favour operating in your life.

-      Your destiny is favour limited. So the more favour you enjoy the more glorious your destiny. Every man is limited by the level of favour he enjoys.

-      The psalmist said God’s favour surrounds us like a shield. That means everywhere you go you have an advantage, a divine presence, opening up the right doors, causing things to fall in its place and giving you the right break.

-      No matter who is against you, what is not working out God has surrounded you with his favour to thrust you to your destiny.

-      Job 10:12 You have granted me life and favour, and your care has preserved my spirit. If you believe it or not, God’s children are surrounded by God’s favour day and night.

-      God told Abraham in Genesis 12:2 AMP And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you [with abundant increase of favours] (God’s favour is not for just once or twice, he said he will do favour in abundance.) and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to others].

-      You and I are the seed of Abraham. God wants to do favour us likewise. God’s favour is such that it keeps on coming and he will bless us so much that we will end up to be a blessing to others.

-      God’s favour causes you to be promoted even though you are not qualified, God’s favour gives you blessing even though you don’t deserve it.

-       God’s favour will put you at the right place at the right time. God’s favour heals you in spite of your condition.

-       God is saying to you what he said to Abraham, “I am going to assist you, I am going to provide you with advantages, I am going to give you preferential treatment and bless you.”

2.      The Motivations of Divine Favour

1. Godliness (righteousness and Holiness):

-       This will always produce greatness even in the midst of opposition and challenges. All uniquely favoured men in the bible like Joseph, Job, and Daniel were lifted because of their godliness.

For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield (Psalm 5:12).

2.      Repentance.

-       If you want to be a person of Divine favour you must be a person who is repentant, nothing puts you in the right standing with the Lord apart from repentance.

-      That is the reason why God said David was a man after His own heart, not because David never sinned, but because he had a repentant heart.

Today we have believers who defend their sins, worse still others even deny their sins (You ask them saying, I heard that you did this or said this, is it true, No) and this is a person expecting God to favour them. Be repentant to enjoy God’s favour.

3.      Forgive offenses.

-       God forgives as we forgive. The scripture says in Mathew 6:12-15 (….if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you…).

-           As a believer, God does not forgive based on His capacity to forgive, but He forgives according to the proportion we forgive.

-           He doesn’t give forgiveness because you need it, but because you have sowed it or done it.         If you need divine favour, learn to forgive.

      4.   Honour the Spiritual chain of authority.

-           There are three divinely ordained or major areas of authority that the Lord has set. These are: Government (Nation), The Church (Spiritual) and the family (Parental).

-           The divine purpose of authority is provision, protection, and promotion. Blessing doesn’t flow up, it flows down. (Heb 7:7)

-           That is why you are to honour those in authority over you if you want to enjoy divine favour.  Honour is more than just an attitude. It is more than just the way you posture yourself around others.

-           It involves action. How do you act towards your National, Spiritual and family leaders?

5.         Use your gifts.

-      God greatly blesses us when we put to use our gifts and talents that He has given to us. There are believers, who never put their talents to use and remain very poor. The story of the talents in Mathew 25:14-28 should teach us a big lesson on this.

-           Whatever gift God has given you, use it to your best and not with pride as others do, they give people hard time to look for them, beg them because they are the only ones gifted with a certain gift.

6.         Respect servants of God.

-           Many believers have failed here greatly; they have remained stagnant because they have familiarized the man of God around them.

-           They get used to them because of their simplicity and fail to respect them, hence miss their blessings. Look at these examples.

-          2 Kings 2:23-25 Children laughed at prophet Elisha and 2 she bears came out of the woods and ate them.

-          Numbers 16:19-40 Korah, Dathan and Abiram with all their families were swallowed by the earth, because they gathered against Moses and Aaron.

-          Numbers 12:1-15 Miriam and Aaron, God punished them because they never respected Moses.

-          2 Kings 5:20-27 Gehazi disregarded Elisha and got leprosy.

-           No matter how uneducated, short, tall, young, ignorant etc. your spiritual leader may appear to you. They are human and they make mistakes, but Respect them and have your blessing. That is the reason why David respected Saul even after Saul was rejected by God.

7.         Giving (tithe, offering and other gifts of love to the Lord):

-      You will receive financial and other favours when you give. (Luke 6:38).

8.         Singing Praises to God:

-           When you engage in high praises, it touches the heart of God because that is one thing God cannot do for Himself. So, He places extreme value on it and those who do it for Him (Psalm 67: 5-7).

9.         Prayer and Fasting:

-           Nehemiah prayed for God’s favour and the king favoured him beyond imagination (Nehemiah 1:4-12).

-           Esther and Jabez were also beneficiaries of divine favour through the platform of prayer and fasting.

3.         The Manifestations of Divine Favour

-      We, as God’s people, have the beautiful opportunity to walk in favour everyday of our lives: to see people go out of their way to bless us, to open doors for us, and yet, they do not know why.

-      Favour will bind broken hearts, mend troubled relationships, and cause loved ones to open their minds and hearts to hear about Jesus.

1.    When Favour is upon us, the works of our hands are confirmed! Psalm 90:17.

2.    Favour produces supernatural increase and promotion. Genesis 39:21.

3.    Favour produces restoration of everything the enemy has stolen from you.

4.    Favour produces honour in the midst of your adversaries.  Exodus 11:3.

5.    Favour produces increased blessings of the Lord in the material realm. Deut 33:23, “And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the LORD: possess thou the west and the south.” Psa 44:3

6.    Favour produces recognition even when you seem to be the least likely to receive it. 1 Samuel 16:22.

7.    Favour produces prominence and preferential treatment. Esther 2:17.

8.    Favour causes policies, rules, and regulations, laws to be changed and reversed to your advantage.  Esther 8:5.

9.    Favour protects you. Favour serves as a shield! Psalm 5:12

-           It will keep you safe and shielded from the effects of evil. Even when bad things happen to you, God will use them for your good and His glory. Look at the life of Joseph.

10.    Favour places the wealth of the wicked at your disposal. It will transfer the resources of evil or unsaved people to your stewardship or ownership.

-           Exo 12:36, And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.