Unmerited Favor (26 page)

The Lord’s ways are amazing. See the extent of Joseph’s promotion in Genesis 41. In the space of less than an hour, he rose from a lowly prisoner to the highest possible office in all of Egypt. That, my friend, is the unmerited favor of God! No striving, no self-effort, no compromises and no manipulation, just pure grace and grace alone made all the difference in Joseph’s life!

Don’t forget what we covered at the beginning of this book. When the Lord is with you, you are a successful person. It may feel like you are in a prison now, stuck in a hopeless situation, cast away and forgotten like Joseph was, but the story is not over yet! The Lord’s promotion is around the corner. Whatever situation you are in right now, do not give up.

As you receive God’s wisdom, riches and honor, as well as long life, will follow after you.

If you are caught in a situation and you don’t know what to do, it is time to humble yourself and ask the Lord for wisdom. The Bible says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
³⁴
To ask the Lord for wisdom is to say, “I can’t, Lord, but You can. I give up on my own efforts and depend entirely upon your unmerited favor and wisdom
.
” As you receive His wisdom, riches and honor, as well as long life, will follow after you. Run to Him right now!

Chapter 21: Greatly Blessed, Highly Favored, Deeply Loved

We have taken an exciting journey to understand the Lord’s unmerited favor and we are now at the penultimate chapter of our journey. I pray that God has opened your eyes to the exceeding riches of His grace (unmerited favor) in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, and given you a revelation of what it truly means to be righteous by faith and not works.

We are washed by the blood of Jesus, filled with His Spirit and clothed with His righteousness. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, the veil that separated us from the Lord’s holy presence was rent in two,
¹
and a new and living way to God’s holy presence was opened. Today, we can enter
boldly
into the holy of holies with no fear or trepidation because we are not standing in our own holiness, but Christ’s. Beloved, do you know what an awesome privilege this is? To do this was impossible under the old covenant of law.

Under the old covenant of law, the only person who could enter the holy of holies where the ark of the covenant stood was the high priest of Israel. And even the high priest could not enter anytime he wanted. He was only allowed into the presence of God
once a year,
on the Day of Atonement. But today, you and I have free and complete access into Jesus’ presence any time. Jesus is with us all the time. This means that we can be a success at all times, in everything that we do!

Jesus is with us all the time. This means that we can be a success at all times, in everything that we do!

The Divine Exchange At The Cross

As we prepare to wind down, I want to make sure that before you close this book, you will have full assurance of your perfect standing in Christ today. Let me reiterate what the new covenant is in very simple terms to you. In the old covenant of law, God told the nation of Israel that unless they kept His commandments perfectly, He could not accept them. But God Himself found fault with the old covenant because man could never fulfill its requirements, and He decided to make a new covenant that was based entirely on the perfect work of Jesus.

In the new covenant of unmerited favor, God essentially said, “I have a better way. Let Jesus keep perfectly all the laws on your behalf. And even though there is no sin in Him, let Him pay the price for all your law-breaking. Let Him carry all the punishment that you deserve. Once all your sins have been judged on Jesus’ body on the cross, I will never punish you for those sins again. All you need to do is to accept Jesus and believe all the good things that He has done, and I will put all that He has accomplished to your account, and give you all the blessings, favor and success that My Son deserves.

“As for all the wrong things that you have done and will ever do, I will put them all to His account—on the cross, He will bear all the judgment, condemnation and punishment that you deserve for your sins. This way, all the good things that He has done become yours, and all the bad things that you have done and will do become His at Calvary!”

This is why we call it the gospel of grace. “Gospel” means “good news,” and this is GOOD NEWS indeed! Even if you don’t fully understand the theological differences between the old and new covenants, you simply need to understand the divine exchange that occurred at the cross and you will already have a profound and intimate understanding of the gospel of Jesus. What am I saying here? I am telling you that you do not need to be a Bible scholar to understand the gospel. You simply need to know the person of Jesus and all that He has done for you! You need to know that the moment you accepted Jesus, God gave you an eternal “A+” for your right standing with Him. You need to know that today, you can enjoy favor with God. It is completely undeserved and unmerited, and it is yours because of what Jesus did on the cross!

How To Increase In God’s Unmerited Favor

God’s Word tells us that “Jesus
increased
in
wisdom
and stature, and in
favor
with God and men.”
²
This is a good verse to pray and speak over your children—that they first increase in favor with God, and then in favor with man. Your “vertical relationship” with God should always be given priority over your “horizontal relationship” with the people around you.

Like Jesus, you can increase in wisdom and in God’s unmerited favor. How? You have probably noticed that some believers seem to experience a lot more unmerited favor than others. I believe that this is because these believers understand the key to accessing God’s favor. Romans 5:2 clearly spells out that “we have access
by faith
into this grace [unmerited favor] in which we stand.” To gain access to your computer or your bank account, you need a password. To gain access to and increase in God’s unmerited favor, the “password” or the key that we need to have is faith, faith to believe that YOU, _______________ (insert your name),
are
highly favored!

One of the things that I have taught my church members to do is to declare over themselves that they are
greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved
.

“How do we know that we are greatly blessed, Pastor Prince?”

Read Hebrews 6:13–14 for yourself. God wanted us to be so anchored in the sure and steadfast knowledge that He
will
bless us, the seed of Abraham, that He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”

“How can we say that we are highly favored?”

Ephesians 1:6 tells us that by God’s grace (unmerited favor), God “made us
accepted
in the Beloved.” In the original Greek text, the word “accepted” is the word
charitoo
, which means “highly favored.”
³

“And are we really deeply loved by God?”

God didn’t just love us. John 3:16 says that “God
so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” He demonstrated how He SO loved us when He sent Jesus to die on the cross for us.

I pray that the verses that I have shown you here and throughout this book will help you believe that through Jesus,
you
are indeed greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved. If these truths are still not established in your heart, start speaking them. Look at yourself in the mirror every morning and declare boldly, “Because of Jesus’ perfect work on the cross, I am righteous by His blood, and I am greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved! I expect good things to come my way. I expect good success and I have a confident expectation of good!”

Because of Jesus’ perfect work on the cross, you are righteous by His blood, and you are greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved!

Once you receive Christ, you are standing on favor ground. You are no longer on condemnation ground. God looks on you as His favorite child!

“But Pastor Prince, how can God have so many favorites?”

Hey, He is God. Don’t try to limit an infinite God with your finite mind. The Bible tells us that God counts the very hairs on each of our heads.
⁴
(I love my daughter very much, but I have never counted the number of strands of hair on her head.) His love for each of us is intimate and deeply personal. In His eyes, we are all His favorites!

The Story Of Esther

When you know that you are greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved, you don’t have to depend on your self-efforts. Look at the story of Esther, for example. When King Ahasuerus was looking for a new queen, the most beautiful women in the land were all brought into the palace. All the women were given the opportunity to adorn themselves with whatever they desired from the women’s quarters before they were brought for an audience with the king. But when it was Esther’s turn, she “requested nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised.” And look at the results: “Esther
obtained favor
in the sight of all who saw her,”
⁵
and 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.”
⁶

While the other women grabbed the best garments, perfumes and accessories to beautify themselves, Esther did not rely on her own abilities but submitted herself to Hegai, the official who had been appointed by the king to oversee the women. There was so much wisdom and humility in her decision. Can you see the beauty of Esther? She did not trust in her own efforts. While the women tried to outdo one another by relying on their own efforts, Esther wisely submitted to the one person who would know the king’s preferences best, and the results speak for themselves.

This incident also demonstrates to us that Esther depended entirely upon the Lord’s unmerited favor. When you depend entirely upon the Lord’s unmerited favor, you are in a position of rest, trust and ease. Esther did not have to struggle. When she rested in the Lord and humbled herself, the Lord promoted her and exalted her above all the other beautiful women. God resists the proud and gives unmerited favor to the humble.
⁷
When you humble yourself and cease from your own efforts to promote yourself, and depend on Jesus and Jesus alone, the Lord Himself will be your promotion and increase. Like Esther, you will stand out in a crowd and obtain grace and favor with God and man.

When the Lord promotes you, He gives you the influence to be a blessing and protection to the people around you.

Do you know why the story of Esther is so important? Read the details in the Book of Esther. Because Esther was promoted to become the queen, she was in a favored position to protect all the Jewish people in the kingdom from being killed. When the Lord promotes you, He gives you the influence to be a blessing to the people around you. There are no coincidences, only God-incidents. The Lord will bless you to be a blessing!

Having Favor Does Not Mean That You Won’t Face Problems

When God’s unmerited favor is shining on you, good things
will
happen to you. However, at the same time, I want you to be aware that you might also face some problems that arise because of the favor on your life. For example, if you are a businessman, you will have more business than you can handle. If you are a doctor, patients will be forming long lines to be treated by you. But these are “good problems” to have.

As the Lord continues to bless our church, our problem is that we keep running out of space to accommodate the precious people who come every Sunday to hear the gospel of grace and the “now-word” that God has for them. As it is, we already have four services every Sunday being broadcast “live” at several overflow venues, with many standing in line for more than an hour each week to get a seat in our main auditorium. Our largest overflow venue currently accommodates more than 2,000 people. It’s a “good problem,” but securing new overflow venues remains a constant challenge as we await the completion of the much bigger venue that we are currently building at the time of this writing.

So unmerited favor does not mean that you won’t have any problems in your life. But remember, even in the midst of those problems, God’s almighty grace is sufficient for you, and in your weakness, His strength is made perfect!
⁸

Having Favor Does Not Mean That Everybody Will Like You

Enjoying God’s unmerited favor in your life also does not mean that everybody you meet will like you. I believe that you will have favor with a large majority of people, but there might be a handful of people whom you just don’t seem to have favor with. Let’s look at Jesus’ life because the same favor that is on His life is on yours today.

When Jesus began His ministry at 30 years old, multitudes flocked to Him everywhere He went. For example, Matthew 4:24 says that “His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.”

Jesus had so much favor that when He stood before Pontius Pilate, Pilate actually tried various means to release Jesus. In fact, Jesus had to keep His mouth shut in order to have Himself crucified. He knew that if He opened His mouth and spoke with God’s favor and wisdom, He would have been released.