Bill Johnson - Why You Need Grace and Favor to Step Into Your Purpose
Hey, before we get into the word, I think it would be good if we prayed for some folks. I believe that the Lord is going to heal learning disorders and injuries to the brain. He’s going to heal things for which people take medication, like antidepressants or bipolar disorder. I’ve lost track of about 65 cases of bipolar healed and stopped counting that several years ago, so we see that somewhat regularly. There are a lot of issues with the brain; perhaps you still have effects from an aneurysm from some years ago. If you need a miracle related to the brain—anything other than needing a bigger brain, because we have to use the one we have first—put a hand up, because we’re going to pray for you. Put them up high! All right, good. This is going to be really wonderful. In fact, a number of the things we pray for tonight will be measurable, mostly in the days to come, but some of you will actually feel a cloudiness lift off. We’ve had people experience changes in color and clarity of thought. We’ve had some with amnesia; one guy had total amnesia and was healed, and we’ve had a number with partial amnesia. We’ve had people with brain injuries who had to retire from teaching and similar professions, whom the Lord totally restored. So, we’re going to see that tonight.
Is there anyone here with cancer? We’re going to pray for anyone with cancer. I know it was called out earlier, but I want to target it. I hate that disease. Is there someone? I can’t tell. Okay, I see people pointing, but I don’t see who they’re pointing to. All right, right down here. Got it, thank you, Lord.
High blood pressure and diabetes—if that’s you, stick your hands up. That, of course, is measurable later, but I feel some of you will actually feel a divine energy come into your body. Now, don’t get that mixed up with new age terminology; the Bible used it first. It’s a biblical term; the energy of God—energy is the original language of the word that is used. You’ll feel this energy of God come into your being as a sign for you when you are prayed for, and you will know that things will change. As far as going off medication, please only do that when you know. You don’t need to prove faith by doing something. Faith never draws attention to itself; it doesn’t say, «Hey, look at me, how strong I am.» Faith always draws attention to the One who is faithful. The whole focus is on Him and who He is.
So, we’re going to pray for those folks. Did you guys have anything else? Scoliosis? Anyone with scoliosis? Let’s go after that; it was mentioned during the prayer time. All right, schizophrenia? We had a guy in Randy’s group with a few cases; I remember one in Dallas where I prayed for a guy, and it was like the lightning of God went through his head and his entire being. I didn’t know he had schizophrenia; I just laid hands on him, but the lightning of God went through him, and he was completely healed. A year later, he came to me and said he was delivered completely of schizophrenia. He has since ministered the gospel in Africa and prayed for and brought deliverance to 40 people who were in insane conditions; they were delivered and set free. So, freely receive, freely give—that’s good news.
Any other issues? Dyslexia? A torn muscle in the left arm? If you have that, just pretend I’m dyslexic—get in on it! All right, a torn muscle.
There’s also someone with an injury to the hip, right in front of the joint area, causing a sharp pain. I don’t think it’s there all the time; I don’t know, but when I felt it a moment ago, it came and left. If that’s you and there’s pain in your right hip, put a hand up real quick! All right, we’ve got a few. Everyone who raised your hand for anything, stand up. And for those watching online, you might as well get in on this—just put your hand on your own body, and we’ll watch Jesus heal.
There was a great report this morning; I don’t remember all the details, but I remember the most important part. Someone was here who didn’t believe in the prophetic—involved in one of our ministry efforts, I believe it was that—maybe at another location, but they were kind of skeptical. They were brought into a group, where they were ministered to prophetically. They had a loss of hearing and found it very hard to hear. As the person was prophesying, the individual was leaning in, trying to hear the word. The more they listened, the more they realized their ears were being healed. By the end of the prophetic word, they were completely healed. That’s pretty fun—that’s a first!
We’ve got wonderful people; these are gifts that God is about to give. They can’t be earned—just receive. You don’t have to try to believe hard for this; even if you’ve been prayed for a thousand times, I encourage you tonight to pray like this is the first time. Put all the other times aside, and we’re going to have people pray for you. Those of you praying for head trauma, lay hands on their heads. Someone do it and lift off the steel band, the restriction of darkness off their heads, and make a decree: «This changes tonight; this ends tonight.»
All of you standing, put a hand up. This approach helps us ensure everyone is covered. Those sitting, if you’re a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, come to one of these and lay hands on them. Find out what’s wrong quickly and begin to pray for them. We will watch Jesus do an extraordinary work. Find out what’s wrong; you should be praying by now. Lay hands where it’s appropriate, and just begin to speak to the condition. Holy Spirit, come. Glorify the name of Jesus through miracles, signs, and wonders. We speak to the issues of the brain; I rebuke the spirit of trauma; loose people now in Jesus' name! Let the refreshing presence of God come. We speak to brain damage—let brain cells be recreated where there has been damage or injury.
Where there’s been an aneurysm, heal what was destroyed and restore what was stolen. We pray and release the peace of God, the shalom of heaven over each person. We declare those with learning disorders: this ends tonight! The trauma of this effect on your life ends tonight. We declare Jesus turns this around tonight for Your glory, God!
You’ve got about 15 more seconds. You did great—stay with the person; don’t leave. Everyone that received prayer, examine yourself. For example, if it was very difficult to read, grab a Bible and check it out. Just do something—put faith into action. If there was difficulty moving, do that. If you had migraines related to this issue, move your head around and see if there’s any difference. If there was a tumor or anything like these conditions, scoliosis—bend over, move around, and have someone examine you to see if you can tell any changes.
Okay, everyone who’s at least 80% better tonight, wave your hands over your head to testify to what Jesus has done—at least 80% better! There we go—people back here, over here, a bunch right there, and some more over here. Wonderful!
All right, turn and pray one more time. Don’t quit on me! Don’t let your faith sit down. Stand up, and let’s pray for a breakthrough for people. Please don’t be a spectator; participate. Join your faith with these folks for breakthrough. They confessed a need, and it must move us!
Alzheimer’s, we rebuke you in the name of the Lord Jesus. We call for the restoration of any damage or disease on the brain: bipolar, schizophrenia, any of these disorders. We declare the healing and delivering word of Jesus now. Those of you who pray for someone’s head, please do that prophetic act; it’s a symbolic action—just lift it off and declare to them, «This ends tonight.» Make the pronouncement: «This ends tonight; Jesus is the One who restores all.»
All right, just give me your attention for a moment. Everyone that received prayer, please stand up and examine yourself. Even if you think there’s nothing you can do to test yourself, stand up, examine yourself, and move around. Do something. When the blind man walked to wash himself in a pool, that was something a blind man wouldn’t have been able to do. He just obeyed an action, and when he did, he was healed. I encourage you to take an action, even if it doesn’t seem reasonable. Often, the release of a miracle is connected to an action of faith. For some, that’s moving into the aisle. Honestly, I’ve watched this for years.
So, examine yourself quickly, move in a way you couldn’t move, and see what the Lord’s doing. Everyone who is at least 80% better tonight, wave both hands over your head like this—do it for about 15 seconds so that we can see who you are. We thank You for this, Lord. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Bless the Lord. Go ahead and be seated; that’s wonderful. We’re so thankful for that every chance we get.
Does anyone have a testimony of a difference recognized in whatever happened to your brain? Any kind of disorder? Right here? Anyone else? Yeah, back over here. Beautiful—right back over there. There are several. Anyone with dyslexia, any kind of learning disorder? Anyone have a noticeable change they were able to test with dyslexia? Where? Oh, way back over there. Wow, you did? How long has that been your whole life?
Hold on a second—run back there, Chris. I’d love to hear from you. I don’t want to embarrass you, but I would rather hear from you. What did Jesus do? So, I’ve had dyspraxia since I was about five. It means I can’t see words properly on pages, and the words kind of jumble when I read. There are some other things too that I didn’t know how to test yet, but when they prayed for me, I started reading my Bible, and the words weren’t jumbling as much. I could see that the words were bigger, and I could actually read each word in a line, which is usually really hard for me. Beautiful—that’s wonderful! Thank You, Lord. Isn’t that wonderful? Bless the Lord!
Anyone else healed of a learning disorder? Right back over here—did you? Yeah, just stand up. I just felt like something was lifted off, and then God put a crown on my head.
(And then someone else speaks) I’m sorry, just get the mic closer. I just felt like God lifted something off and then put a crown on my head.
Isn’t that amazing?
Yeah, that’s beautiful! I felt more peace in my hand. I felt more peace. I had multiple things they prayed for, including the brain damage and depression. I had a lot of head issues going on, and I’m feeling peace—that’s the biggest thing.
That’s good—bless you. That’s wonderful! Thank You, Lord.
Anyone else with a testimony of healing tonight? We’ll take one more—anyone willing to give a quick testimony of what Jesus did for you? Is that your hand up over here? It’s like this, so I don’t know if you’re serious.
Okay, hold on! I’m having Chris run to you; I’d love to see Chris run. Praise God! I was praying for this gentleman and his head, and you didn’t mention anything about restoration of brain cells. As I was praying for him, it came loud and clear to me. I heard you say, «Restoration of brain cells.» That’s why I didn’t even stand up for prayer. I should have! At any rate, I felt tingling go through my head because years ago, as a young person, I did drugs, and a certain drug I did—it killed brain cells. I could do art and sing back then, but after a month of doing that drug, I couldn’t draw a thing. My art teacher said to pursue art, and after a month, I couldn’t draw anything! I’ve been asking God to restore that. He has restored me to carry a tune; I can at least carry a tune now!
Praise God, that’s beautiful! Go buy some art supplies! Yeah, go buy some art supplies! Get some supplies tomorrow! A friend already bought some for you. That was prophetic! All right, so I’m going to get with it. Thank You, Lord. Beautiful! Let’s give a shout of thanks. Yeah, we bless You, Lord. Thank You, Lord! Thank You! Bless Your name. Bless Your name! Beautiful, beautiful.
All right, we’re going to do an old-fashioned Bible study, so let’s get ready. I want to talk to you about increasing in favor, and we’re going to use a verse about Jesus to kick things off. We’re actually going to study the subject through the book of Ephesians. I’m not here just to inspire; I want to talk to you about this increasing favor because we need it.
All right, Luke chapter 2 is where we’re going to start. It’s the last verse in Luke 2; actually, we’ll read verse 51 as well. All right, Luke 2:51–52. Then He, speaking of Jesus, went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them. But His mother kept all these things in her heart, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.
Go back to verse 51. Then He went down with them to Nazareth and was subject to them. Just make a mental note of subjection, being submitted to people. That phrase has been so horribly abused by those wanting to control; it’s one of the touchiest areas to teach on because it looks as though someone is wanting to gain control over people. True submission is one of the expressions of honor, and in submission, you don’t always get to do all you want to do, but you do get to do more than you’re capable of doing. In submission, you actually step into drawing from somebody else’s grace, and it enables you to function above your level.
When that happens, it’s like you get drawn into an expression of Christ that you wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. In the experience of operating in somebody else’s grace, somebody else’s gift, you actually begin to develop a grace of your own in that specific area. It’s one of the most abused subjects, but it’s also one of the most beautiful and glorious subjects. Why do you think the enemy would want to pervert it? Because he’s afraid of us learning the beauty of this subject. Yes, Bill! Amen!
All right, so He went down with them to Nazareth. He was subject to them. His mother kept all these things in her heart. She kept the words that had been spoken about Jesus. This is where Anna, Simeon, these different ones, the shepherds, the wise men, the angels—all these different witnesses came speaking about who this child was. The phrase «kept all these things» is the word «rhema,» meaning the freshly spoken word of God. She kept all these words in her heart; she didn’t understand how they would be fulfilled. She didn’t have a strategy to make things come to pass; she just put the words in a safe place so that she could host what God was doing.
She had done this once before; Gabriel showed up and said, «You’re going to give birth to the Christ child.» She said, «Be it unto me according to your word,» and she hosted a move of God. She hosted the life in the seed of God, and Jesus came forth. Now she has an opportunity to do the same thing again, but this time it’s the word of God spoken about her son, Jesus.
Years ago, I would record every 49ers game. I would record them all, of course, because I would be in church. I would get home, and often times the game would be over. I would look at the score; if they won, I would watch it. If they didn’t win, I wouldn’t need to. An amazing thing happened when I would watch a game that they had already won. When I saw an interception, it didn’t trouble me; it didn’t bother me. Why? Because I knew the outcome. That’s what the prophetic is for; that’s what the promise of God is for. It lets you know the outcome ahead of time, so when difficulty comes, I already know the outcome.
Verse 52: Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. That last phrase «in favor with God and men» is the word «charis.» It’s the word «grace,» and it’s the word «favor.» Jesus increased in favor with God and man. Now I understand why He would need to increase in favor with man; because He’s going to be interacting with people. As Eric spoke this morning, He would need to be welcomed into Zacchaeus’s house. There’s a favor that gives open doors where different priests, who were interested in the authentic gospel, would open doors for Him. He would be brought into the marketplace, and certain business leaders or people would open doors for Him to minister.
So, I understand why Jesus, who never sinned—absolutely perfect—still had a need to increase in favor with man. What is a mystery to me is why He would need to increase in favor with God. This implies that the need for the increase of favor is not because we’ve sinned. Once you’ve been forgiven of sin, the record of sin is abolished, and the continuous need for more grace has nothing to do with your past. It has to do with what you’re becoming. The word «grace» is the word «favor»; it’s the exact same word.
So when you see the Holy Spirit giving gifts to people in 1 Corinthians 12—the gift of tongues, the gift of interpretation, the gift of prophecy, the gift of wisdom, the gift of faith—wherever you see that gift, it is connected to grace. It would be as though grace emitted a fragrance or flavor, and that flavor would be a miracle, that flavor would be faith, that flavor would be a prophecy, an interpretation of a tongue, but it’s all connected to favor.
Ephesians chapter 2. I don’t have an answer as to why Jesus had to increase in favor with God, with the possible exception that because grace is not focused on our past, but on what we’re becoming, He actually grew and learned. The Bible says He learned obedience through the things which He suffered. So there’s this learning process that even the Son of God was brought into. I grew up hearing about grace, and actually, I don’t think I ever got it, but I would hear the definition of grace: Grace is unmerited favor. In other words, you’re getting God’s attention; He’s thinking and looking favorably at you, and this is a free gift you didn’t earn. I get that part, but what I didn’t realize was that this favor starts at salvation; it actually starts to bring us into salvation, but it continues throughout eternity because it’s not about our past; it’s about what we’re becoming. And it’s true that throughout all of eternity we will be growing, we will be maturing, we will gain insight, and we will gain grace.
In a moment, I’m going to read a verse to you out of Ephesians 2; we’re going to read several verses in this book about grace, which remember is favor. In this passage, it says that in the ages to come, He might show us the surpassing riches of His grace. So think with me for a minute: ages to come. One hundred billion years from now, you will just be starting to understand the riches of His grace. Heaven is an industrious place; it’s not a place where you sit on a cloud playing a harp. It’s a place of expansion, personal growth, and development.
We are being raised and trained in time to reign in eternity. The call of God in the believer’s life, when you turn from sin, when you pray for someone and they get healed, when you resist a temptation and you grow—each time there’s one of these moments, you actually reign. Your royalty becomes evident by the choices you make, and He’s strengthening the royal blood in His people. When you pray for a friend and you see God answer that prayer, you pray, «Oh, God, help them to sell their house; they’re so desperate to sell that house,» or «My friend needs a job; he has to have a job to provide for his family.» We pray these prayers, and God answers them; it’s actually Him affirming your call to royalty, to rule and reign with Him throughout eternity, and He’s training us in that role now through the exercise of prayer.
So to neglect prayer is to neglect the training for eternity. Ephesians 2:2: «And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.» Look at that verse again: «And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.» We make statements, and they’re partially true, statements like «I decided to follow Jesus.» That’s true—after He decided to choose you—because dead people can’t make good decisions. He chose you when you were dead, and He made you alive, and it was in that condition you responded to His invitation. Yes, «I chose Jesus,» but I chose Him after He chose me. Many are called; few are chosen. Many are given the opportunity to step into this thing, but not everyone does.
Jump down to verse 4: «But God!» And I love that phrase. This is the scripture my dad wanted on his tombstone: But God! 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 you have been saved, and He raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
So just look at this: what He’s done is grace brought us, number one, salvation, but number two, a position in Christ that will take all of eternity to fully discover and unravel. Should we have a coffee run before we go any further? Can you do this? The end result of this: I hear people say all the time, «I just want to increase in favor; I just want to increase in favor.» I’m going to give you three resources, three places that you can go for increased favor. Yep, actually, I’ll give you four; I’ll just throw in a bonus.
All right, look at verse 6. Now I want you to think as we read. «He raised us up together; He made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.» I don’t have time to go into this, but it is one of the great mysteries that you, as a believer, are in Christ. You remember seeing those balloons at Disneyland? You see those balloons, and inside the balloon is another balloon of like Mickey Mouse? You know, the balloon—the mouse is in the balloon. This is profound; you may want to write this down; you might even want to take a picture and put it on your screensaver or something. That’s what you are: you are in Christ. So the Father sees you as His Son Jesus; He sees you in Christ. Where is Christ? He is at the right hand of the Father.
Now here’s the challenge: this position in Christ at the right hand of the Father is more than a point in theology; it is more than something to imagine what that might be like in eternity; it is actually an invitation to an experience so that we think and see according to our position. You can have a billion dollars in your bank account, but if you don’t think and see—if you don’t know it’s there—you won’t live accordingly. You could actually have unpaid bills; you could have the pressure of debts, things that are due, but you live unaware of what you have actual access to. When He reveals to us that we have been put in Christ, seated at the right hand, right hand is always strength; it’s the strength of the Father. Jesus is exhibiting the strength of the Father’s authority—that’s where we reside.
We don’t discover that by striving; we actually discover it through grace. We discover the position and the place through experiencing the increased favor of God. When you prophesy to someone, that is a spiritual gift; it is a grace; it is an expression of you being favored by God, and when you minister to someone, they are now being favored and graced by God. There is no part of our life that we can afford to have outside of the experience of grace; anything removed from grace will be soiled and destroyed. Everything about our life is favor.
All right, just hold on. Verse 6: «He raised us up together and made us sit in heavenly places in Christ.» It might be good just to take a quick note. I’m sorry; there are three positions of the believer in the book of Ephesians. We stand against the wiles of the devil—the assaults, the attacks. It’s a position of strength and authority, a position of warfare. In Ephesians 4:1 it says we walk: «Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you’ve been called.» And in this verse and elsewhere, it says we are seated. So we sit, we walk, and we stand. The position of standing is actually the Roman boots—the soldiers would have deep spikes in their shoes so that as they withstood an attacking enemy, they had secure footing. They wouldn’t easily fall on slippery ground. Instead, the spikes on their shoes would dig into the ground to ensure they had strong footing.
So there’s a place where you stand and fight, but there’s also a place where you sit and allow Him to do the work for you. Grace is likened to the posture of sitting because it’s not your work; it’s His. Verse 7: «That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.»
Stop right there. Let’s take the last verse first and then we’ll work backward. We are His workmanship. The word «workmanship» is the word «poema.» We get our English word «poem» from this word «workmanship.» So when He says you are the workmanship of Christ, He is saying you are the masterpiece He’s been writing all through your life. After day, line after line, phrase after phrase, He is identifying that Christ-likeness that has been established in you, and He’s writing this masterpiece.
I think oftentimes what words of encouragement are or what prophetic words often are, is they are the reading of the poem that God has been writing. We’re simply taking time to identify that which we see God doing in another person. We owe it to people to read the grace, the favor that becomes manifest in them. I remember when my kids were small; I say this was something we practiced in Weaverville as a church family. I would sit in a group of maybe 15-20 people, and my children would be present. I’d point to someone and I would just ask the group, «What do you see God doing in that person’s life?» My kids would sometimes be the first to speak. They would say, «Well, I see, you know, his name is Daniel, and Daniel in the Bible was a prophet of God; he could hear from God and speak on His behalf.» They would start talking, as 10-year-olds, and begin identifying what they saw God doing in his life.
I honestly think it was the reason that throughout the bulk of their childhood, they just encouraged each other. There wasn’t that need to fight or to put the other down to be exalted through that process.
I don’t want to paint the wrong picture; they were not divine, but honestly, they weren’t that bad. Benny said they had one fight in their life, and Eric and Briyan, for example, just one time all growing up. I think part of it was because from early childhood, we just looked for the gold and called it out. We didn’t have the language for it; we just knew we could recognize the grace that God was putting in somebody’s life, and we had the privilege of calling it out. It is a God-given gift to be able to see the treasure that’s in another person. In this passage, he says that every single one of us is his masterpiece, his artwork, and he is writing something that will stun the nations when they have a chance to read it. But it will never be about you; it will include you, but it will include you as the one who is favored. If you’re favored, you know, if, say, Bill Gates comes to you and says, «I’m giving you a position of great favor and these resources to invest in your community,» he gives that kind of favor. How many of you know we don’t applaud the person that was given the grant; we applaud the grant giver, the one who gave the favor? This workmanship, that is beautiful and perfect, artistic—a masterpiece—is to be read by one another, but it’s never about exalting ourselves. I’m thankful that when Jesus is exalted, something exalting and glorifying happens to us, but it has never been about us; it has always been about boasting in him, lifting him high.
So here, in this process, we read one another’s poem; we look deeply into what God is doing. Sometimes you see a friend that’s really battled to make the right decisions; they may have taken three steps backward and four steps forward. You know what? You celebrate the step forward! When our children learn to walk, do we scold them because they fell? No, we don’t see them doing this and falling over and go, «You’re never going to get it! You’re obviously in rebellion; there’s something wrong with you.» No, we’re people! So what do we do? We sit there as parents, watching the kids take these steps and trying to walk; we just keep backing up because we want them to succeed. We stay close enough to catch them, but we want them to succeed. How about we do that with one another? How about celebrating the steps that they took instead of punishing them for the steps they didn’t take? Part of that is reading the poema, the poem—the masterpiece that God has put in them.
Now back up to verse 7: «In the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ.» So that’s your job for eternity. Verse 8: «By grace, you have been saved, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God.» By grace, you’ve been saved through faith. What I want you to see here tonight for this next phase is how many of you can actually say you have thought about or purposed to increase the favor on your life? Has that been in anybody else’s heart? I know we hit the subject a number of years ago; maybe how many of you this is a new subject—the need to increase with favor? How many of you aren’t going to raise your hand no matter what I ask you? That’s what I thought. Some people’s kids, you know, they just have issues. I remember it was probably about 12 years ago when the subject of favor started circulating through Bethel, and I started becoming aware of the fact that I could watch two people minister, both of whom had just as good teaching, just as good a gift—whatever they were able to do with their insights or musical gifts. However, one would be incredibly effective, and the other wouldn’t be. It wasn’t sin in their life; oftentimes, it’s according to the favor they have. It’s not that one is more profound necessarily; it’s not that one wrote a better song. You can have two equally good songs—in fact, I tell you, you can look at books; there are books that have sold millions of copies that aren’t as good as some of the books that sold 50,000 copies. But why did they sell a million? God breathed on them, and they have favor. You have to recognize what he’s favoring. When the Bible teaches the last shall be first, the first shall be last, he uses, in one of the instances, a very strange occasion where people went to work the last hour of the day and got paid the same wages as those who had been working for 12 hours. Jesus said the last will be first, the first will be last. The whole point of that story was we have to know how to celebrate the person who receives unusual favor and grace, even when it’s not our turn to be exalted, promoted, and honored that way. We have to take their promotion personally. They get something undeserved, which, if you and I are honest, none of us are in this because we earned it. There isn’t a thing about your life that you earned, and if there is, it’s not grace.
I can be faithful to the lifestyle of grace; I can be faithful, and in that sense, there is reward, so there’s that earning, but I hope you understand in the subject of grace that everything you and I are about is the result of him giving us unmerited favor. Something we didn’t earn; something we could not work for. This may sound a little awkward; I’ve mentioned it before, and it’s a point where I could be horribly misunderstood, but it’s worth the risk. I’ve heard people say through the years that they will pursue the gifts of the Spirit when their character is more upright. I get that because I’m as sick of anybody in the room with people who live corrupted lifestyles trying to pursue the gifts of the Spirit. I mean, it frustrates me because it lowers the standard of what it looks like to follow Jesus. So I understand the reasoning behind it, but it’s just not true because once the gifts become something that happen when I am more sanctified, then they’re no longer gifts; they’re rewards, and they almost, by nature, have to flow through people that are in process.
All right, so for by grace you have been saved, and through faith—not of yourselves; it is a gift of God. By grace, you’ve been saved through faith, and that refers to faith; it’s a gift of God. We already know grace is a gift, but now he says you got it through the use of faith. But even faith, you didn’t come up with on your own. The Bible says each person has been given a measure of faith. Every person has a measure. We all have different measures, but we all started with a measure. The principle of scripture is use brings increase. So any measure you have of anything—whether it’s money, whether it’s favor, whether it’s wisdom, whether it’s leadership, insights—it doesn’t matter what it is, anything you use well will increase through faithful stewardship.
If you want to increase in favor—which I think I should make the primary point tonight—I feel like because of how few hands were raised, maybe I should talk to you about your need for favor. There’s a whole bunch that you can never accomplish in your life without favor. You won’t accomplish it. You can’t. He said God’s given me a dream; God’s given me this word. That’s awesome! You won’t get there without favor. If you can get there without favor, it wasn’t a very big dream. It is the celebration of the body that enables us to become all that God has designed for us. How is it that one person gets the promotion while another does not? How is it that one person’s car just doesn’t break down while another person’s breaks down all the time? These are poor examples, but I have watched Gabe, for example. If there’s anyone I’ve ever seen that gets free food when he goes out, it’s him! He comes home and tells us, «Well, it happened again!» He’ll go into a restaurant, and someone will order something they don’t want for some reason. There is a favor on his life that attracts free food. Is that true? It is so true it’s gotten weird. Eric, my son Eric, has this favor on his life for stuff; it’s just crazy. As a kid, imagine this: he gets in a bicycle race. There are different age groups, and in his age group, he finishes like 25th or something, yet he’s the guy who won the big prize—the bike! How does he win a brand new bike when he didn’t finish first? I don’t know! Somehow, they thought the guy who was down here in the list should win the bike, so they gave him the bike. How do you do that when you’re not in first? I couldn’t believe it. I’ve watched it his whole life; there’s just this favor thing on him.
How many of you see favor like that on other people? All right, how many of you want that? Okay, now we can talk. I’ve been working for that one moment. I can’t give you answers if you don’t have the questions. I can’t give you solutions unless you’re hungry. All right, so now we can start the meeting. All right, now, you still with me? Yes? All right, what I’m going to do is, oh no, no, no, I have to do one more thing. Chapter 3—sorry, sorry, this one will tax your brain a little bit, but just work with me, and then I’m going to give you the sources for favor. If you really want to increase with favor, I’ll give you four. There are three that I usually do, but I’m going to throw on a fourth one just because you guys are so nice. That’s favor! That’s right; it’s favor. Because I just remembered a fourth one.
So verse 1 of chapter 3 says, «For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you.» He’s talking now about how God has measured to him a gift that is actually for your benefit. Here’s the thing about favor we noticed a year or so ago about Solomon’s life. I’ve quoted it many times since then because of how important it is to me. The Queen of Sheba prophesied to Solomon and said God has highly favored you because of his love for Israel. The point is, the favor that comes upon our life has to benefit the people around us, or it is misused favor. So when God gives you a gift to prophesy, it is for other people. A gift to lay hands on the sick and watch them get healed is for the sake of other people; the opportunity to pray for somebody and see economic change in their life—I’ve seen this happen.
Years ago, we recognized a grace on friends we’ve known for 25 years, and I never thought—I mean, it never crossed my mind to have them pray for me. We had always literally lived hand to mouth; there was enough to pay the bills, but it was just enough for 25 years. We were sitting here on a Sunday night; God was moving powerfully. We saw friends in the back of the room; they didn’t have any position of leadership at that time or any titles, but Benny and I wanted to have them pray. We went back; they just put their hands on our shoulders and prayed a very simple prayer. I don’t know what happened, but there was a grace on their life. It seemed that everything they touched turned to gold, and something happened that night where our life has been completely different—a 180-degree turnaround from that night. What happened? They had favor they were willing to share with us.
Here you go; does that make sense? So what we need is, yes, it can happen through prayer; yes, it can happen through the laying on of hands. But you may miss the point; it actually came because we honored them. It came because of an honor for who God had made them to be. You still alive? Can you endure a few more minutes? Good, because I’ll need every bit of those few more minutes. All right, let’s jump down to verse 7. This is where I’m going to challenge you to think for a minute. He says in verse 7, «Of which I became a minister according to the gift of grace.» I became a minister. Now, look at verse 8. «To me, who am the least of all saints, this grace was given that I should preach.»
Okay, here are two very important things to realize. If you can imagine that grace were like a potter’s hands, Paul is saying grace shaped me into a minister. Grace made me what I am; it was grace. But then he took it to another level and said, «Not only did grace shape me, but he says in verse 8, 'To me, who am the least of all saints, this grace was given that I should preach.'» Do you see the difference between becoming something and doing something? Do you see any difference between becoming something and doing something? Here’s the challenge: the Lord wants us to do our lives, our ministry, according to grace. What does that mean? It means that we perform according to what we’ve become.
Come on! Many people will try to copy another person’s gift on their life, and they’ll try to perform the same way. They can say the same bold words in a sermon; they can sing the exact same song, but because they haven’t been shaped by grace, they can’t perform at the same level. Grace shapes us; it shapes our identity. Grace—that unmerited favor—the fact that we are welcomed into the beloved as Christ himself changes something about your identity. If you keep thinking of yourself as insufficient, inadequate, or a constant failure, then you’re violating the very grace that God has put on your life. It doesn’t mean he removes it; it just means you don’t benefit from it. It’s the million dollars in the bank that you don’t make withdrawals from. It can be there; you can live under the stress of bills that are due, but you just never withdraw what has been put into your account, and grace is that favor that says you will be treated like Jesus. You will be welcomed by the Father just like Jesus. In fact, when he sees you coming, he sees you in Christ as Jesus! The next time you wonder if he’s listening to you while you pray, just remember you’re in Christ.
I’m not real into working on my or our self-esteem. Let’s have better self-esteem. For me, that makes a poor target. Learning the heart of God is my target. The self-esteem is a byproduct. I’d rather have something healed up as a byproduct instead of pursuing it because anytime you pursue a lesser vision, you tap into lesser grace. All right, now I want to give you four sources of grace, and I’m going to save one for last. That makes me happy because it’s so unusual. All right, the first one I want you to turn to is chapter 4 of Ephesians. You guys all right? Come on! All right, I know I’m challenging you. Verse 29 of Ephesians 4 says, «Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.»
All right, look at it again: «Let no corrupt, unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word as is good for the need of the moment.» So what is this saying? You are dispensers of grace. The first place we learn to get grace, in my list—I’m not going to say in order of importance, I’m just going to give you what the Bible teaches—the first one I’m going to put on the list is that we actually receive divine favor through another person’s words.
Now this is bizarre when you think about it—divine favor. God is going to show you favor because somebody stopped long enough to talk to you to give you an encouraging word. Don’t let corrupt words, unwholesome words proceed out of your mouth; speak according to the need of the moment. Pay attention to how people are doing, how well they’re doing. Put your stuff aside for a moment; rejoice with those who rejoice. See, immaturity says, «When I’m weeping, I need you to weep with me.» Maturity says, «If you’re weeping, I’ll weep with you even though it’s my day of joy.»
So you pay attention to the needs of the moment. You see something that’s going on in a person’s life that you care for; you begin to speak to them. Maybe it’s somebody at the grocery store, someone that you see week after week as you buy groceries, and you notice they look downcast. You just serve them; you just speak words to them. «You know, I’m so thankful for the work that you do. You serve us week after week after week, and I just want you to know I notice your faithfulness. I notice your willingness to serve us. You just make life better for all of us. Thank you so much!» What are you doing? You’re speaking according to the need of the moment. But what’s the end result? This is bizarre—it may impart grace to those who hear.
Now think about this: grace, this gift, is not human favor; it’s not favor with man. The very fact that you spoke encouraging words demonstrates they have favor with you, right? But what you’re doing is you’re giving words that God notices, and he backs up by choosing the person you chose. It’s like putting a mark on somebody, and God says, «I’m going to strike the mark.» You say, «Well, here, I want it on this person’s life.» God says, «That’s the person I’ll invade! That’s the person I’m going to touch! That’s the person I’m going to show favor to!»
I don’t want to overemphasize human responsibility, but man, I don’t want to underemphasize it either! When God has given us tools, it’s foolish to sit back and watch and wait for someone else to do it. When he’s given us tools, you can actually go out of here tonight, go out for coffee, do whatever you do, go home tomorrow, go out to work; you can pick someone and just begin to look in their eyes. You can take two minutes, speak an encouraging word, and what you’ve done is put a bullseye on them where the Lord says, «All right, I’ve seen where you have shown favor, because, Chris, because you have favor in my eyes, when you show favor to Jared, I am going to extend favor to Jared in the same way I would show favor to you.»
That’s actually what the Lord is saying. It’s not that Jared doesn’t have favor already; it’s just the choice of one of God’s delegated authorities to extend words of kindness to another person. God gets so thrilled with the process that he increases the favor in that person’s life. So what is the first source where we can get favor? The increased favor with God is through people! If there’s not a value for the words of encouragement, how many of you have ever had somebody come to encourage you and you sloughed it off because you thought they were lying? Oh yeah, right here! I remember one particular Sunday where it was such a horrible service. I thought it was just horrible. People came up, and at least I thought it was. I went home, laid on my bed, and said, «God, you were going east; I was going west!»
I don’t know if that’s my exact words, but I said, «I don’t ever want that to happen again. Show me what happened.» At the end of the service, people came up and said, «That was a great morning!» They were all lying—I knew it! How many of you have had some time where someone came up? If there’s not a value for what that person is saying to you, what I’ve noticed is there are times where God will put the word I need most from the mouth of the person that has the least favor in my eyes. Ouch! Oh man, I have stories. One of the strangest individuals I’ve ever met—now I know enough to treat people kindly and with respect, so I did. I looked at him in the eye; I listened; I would talk with him. They’re not even alive anymore; they’re home with the Lord. But still, this process in my life was like God blesses or afflicts us with the people we need. That’s the way it works right there.
One day she came up to me and just gave me a very brief word identifying something the Lord had highlighted to me the previous week that I hadn’t discussed with anyone. It had to do with a lesson that I was to learn from a movie, and she came up. If I remember right, she gave me the movie, and I thought, «All right, all right, Jesus! I will receive from anyone—even a donkey or crazy people. It’s just the test of my faith; maybe it’s not yours.»
The second one, I’m going to make quick reference to the second and third, then we’ll get into Ephesians 4 for the rest of it. The second one is it talks in scripture about—it’s in Luke chapter 4; it’s somewhere around verse 20—the people in Nazareth marveled at the gracious words that proceeded from his mouth. This would be the most obvious source of favor. If you want to increase, what is grace? What are gracious words? Grace-filled words, favor-filled words.
Jesus walked into the synagogue; he was in there ministering in Nazareth. His words were filled with God showing up, backing the favor, and they, through their unbelief, shut down their season or their moment of divine favor. Do you see the connection between faith and fully realizing favor? Favor is the bank that you draw from to exercise to become and to do all that God has given you to do.
One of my prayers for tonight is that the Lord will let everyone in this room know how much they need favor because it’s not a light subject; it’s everything about our life. You say, «Well, all grace has been given to me; I have all the favor.» Yeah, whatever! If Jesus needed to increase, then I bet you and I probably do too! It might be wise, it might be smart of us to follow his lead on this one. It’s favor with God and with man, and some things you will never accomplish in your lifetime, even though they are God-given dreams, until the expression of divine favor with God and with man becomes pursued and realized.
So, the second one is the most obvious: it’s from the voice of God, from the mouth of God. Where do we receive favor? Where do we receive that grace that enables us to become and enables us to do? It’s by hearing God; it’s through the reading of his word when he highlights scripture to us. It’s those moments where he speaks, like Mary; she pondered these things, these words she pondered in her heart. What I want you to see is that perhaps the best illustration of favor in the Bible to me started in the book of Numbers in chapter 6 when the Lord spoke to Moses and said, «Here is a prayer, or here is a blessing, a decree I want you to make over my children every day.»
It was this decree: «God, shine your face upon us.» The shining face is the face of delight, joy, and acceptance. If you can imagine the face of God looking at you exhilarated, excited about today, wild about tomorrow, happy that we get to do life together—that is favor! And that’s the picture of favor that was to be announced, prophesied over the people of God every single day of their lives. Some months ago, one of our young ladies was here for the three-year anniversary of her mother’s death. It was just a very sad Sunday. I didn’t know that her mother prayed that Numbers 6 prayer over her every day of her life. I didn’t know that!
She was here at the third service, and it was the only service I ended the message with the Numbers 6 passage, and it was like a gift to her, reminding her that what her mother initiated was continuing to work in her life. It actually provided a real moment of healing for her—that she was still feeding off of it days afterward. It’s that favor; it’s the delight of God’s face. The one thing that you see in scripture that you don’t ever want to experience is where he turns his face; he turns his back towards somebody, and we see that in Psalms 25. He turns his face away from evildoers—he turns from somebody. That’s a point of rejection. What you want to do is respond to the gift. You can’t earn it, but you can reject it; you can be receptive!
I don’t think the Lord would have me speak on this tonight except that everybody in the room is positioned for greater favor. I don’t think he’s doing this to tickle ears; I don’t think he would highlight this to me so we could walk out with greater knowledge of grace. That doesn’t do any good apart from experience! We’re not in this to become smarter; we’re in this to become changed, and so the Lord changes us by favor. Favor creates in us that sense of identity and that sense of purpose.
So here we have two ways to receive grace. The first one is through one another—it’s the encouraging word, just the words according to the need of the moment. But the second one is from the Lord himself, which is obviously the most prominent.
The third one, I’m just going to mention in reference as well, and I’m going to give an illustration of it. It says in Proverbs, «He who finds a wife receives favor from the Lord.» Amen? Amen! And some of you guys are needing favor! I’m telling you! Oh boy, we’ll talk about that later another time.
What’s the point? While something could be made out of marriage and the beauty of partnership—to become one with somebody, to join hearts together to serve—two are better than one. There’s a whole bunch we could do about favor. Instead, I want to shift it and use it as an example of what really brings favor. What really brings increased favor in our life is when we obey God’s opportunities, his open doors, when he provides the opportunity for relationship and we respond accordingly and run with what he’s given us. It’s not just the marriage that brings favor; it’s our yes to what God is doing that brings favor.
All right, here’s the last one; you ready? Yes! Yes, we’re ready! Boy, are we excited! We could hardly stand it! Ephesians 4:7: «To each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.» Verse 8 is an Old Testament prophecy: «Therefore he says, when he has ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.» What is that? He’s using an Old Testament reference to reinforce the concept of God-given gifts. Yes, Bill, that’s right. According to the measure of Christ’s gift in verse 7, he gives an Old Testament passage.
Now we’ve got a parenthesis: «He ascended; what does it mean, except that he first descended into the lower parts of the earth?» He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all things, above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. All right, let’s read it the way it should be read! Verse 7 again: «To each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.» Verse 11: «And he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers.»
There is an element of grace that only comes from how we respond to the gifts that God has put in our life. I don’t know how to illustrate this; I’ve tried for years. It’s a subject that I’ve taught on for goodness knows probably 30 years. If you could just pretend that your life was a motor, and when the prophet is ministering to you and you get an opportunity—maybe sit in on Chris’s ministry for a while, or you’re taking his prophetic school, or you’re in one of his prophetic sessions—you have the opportunity to receive. You’re around the prophetic, and guess what? His fuel, his grace gets put into your motor, and it causes your motor to run similar to his.
Each of the Apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, pastor, and teacher have different motors; each of their gifts—where they function; they think differently, they see differently, they function differently, and their function is according to the grace, the fuel of the presence that enables them to function the way they do. Does that make any sense? So when each one of us has received grace fuel according to the measure of Christ’s gift, if I see Chris, and I say, «You know, I’m into prophecy! I’m all about prophecy! I love the prophetic! Evangelist, make me nervous! But prophets, count me in! I’m in! I want to prophesy; I want to bring the word of the Lord to people!» What happened? That’s fine! What you do is you’re saying I will receive grace here that will be useful in portions of my life, but I said no to the grace that’s offered through the evangelist. So there are some parts of my life where there will be dysfunction. Why? Because the motor won’t work.
It only works with that kind of grace—that kind of fuel! What’s the command? To be instant in season and out! In other words, be ready to function in any given situation according to the grace that operates in you. How is it that the evangelist can take the place where they make a deposit in me where I think differently, I see differently, I function differently? It’s only according to the honor I have in their gift; it’s the honor I have for them as a person, but it’s also the honor for the Holy Spirit who chose them and gave them grace for their life.
People will be saved; why? Because they are favored with God to bring people into the kingdom. The cool thing is they’ve been designed to share the grace; they’ve been equipped to share the favor. When an evangelist hangs around you, it may not even be in a class; it may be you travel with them; you go with them to Sacramento to minister in one of our friends' churches down there, and you just hang around them. You just see how they function—at Starbucks—you see how they haven’t even laid hands on you. They haven’t even prophesied. All they’ve done is their fuel has been splashing on you for three days! What happens? You get home from that trip, and you start thinking differently; you start seeing differently; your whole function starts to change. Why? Because their fuel got in your motor—her fuel got in your motor. The way you run is affected by what you’ve received.
«To each one of us, grace is given.» But it’s received only according to honor. One of the reasons I love being here so much is that there is really an honest, good, full expression of all five gifts. Not every church has that, nor do I think every church should fight for it. The subject of creating a prophet who isn’t one—like somebody said, «It’s easier to lay hands on someone than to take them off.» Once you’ve ordained someone it’s tough to pull the leaven out of the dough once you’ve put it in there, you know? That’s the whole deal. So I encourage churches: don’t try to make this happen! But learn to recognize what you have!
But here’s the cool thing: there are evangelists that function here. What I love about our evangelists is that they’re not just interested in souls; they’re interested in you being a soul winner. They want you to have a heart for people. The pastor is not just interested in gathering people to themselves. They want you to have a heart for people. The teacher is not just interested in being the expert on scripture. They want everybody else to do the same. Receive the grace; receive the fuel! Is this making sense to you?
All right, we’re going to wrap it up here. All right? Verse 11 again: «He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.» The word equipping is the same word used to set a broken bone. When he says these gifts were given to reset what isn’t functioning, so that it will function healthily again—to put back in place, to restore to full function—what are we being equipped for? The work of ministry!
It was never meant that ministry would be done by the experts; it was always meant to be done by all of us. «For the edifying of the body of Christ"—verse 13—"till we all come to the unity of faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man.» Man, that’s a hard one to imagine! «Till we come to the unity of faith.» Do you want him to pay attention to your dreams? Pay attention to his! You dream his dream, and he’ll dream yours. What is his dream? All of us who confess Christ in a unity of faith—all of us. The same knowledge of Jesus as the Son of God—all of us together, each member of the body coming into a full mature man—all of us representing the fullness of Christ himself on Earth!
He has some lofty goals that it will take grace to get to. It will take favor to get to, and one of the primary tools for receiving that favor is the position of honor that we have for the grace resting on the lives of other people. That’s probably enough!
Let’s stand. I have certain friends that I know, as I’m sure all of us do, who just have this favor thing on them, and it’s just bizarre! In fact, I’m going to be with a friend like that this week. The first time I saw him, I thought, «What is it that is on you? I see something that makes me want to hang around you.» And then I find out that the mayor and the governor and all these various leaders in the body of Christ around the world, they want to connect with this person. Why? Favor!
You can’t have the influence you ache for without favor. What has to be settled in our hearts is that when God gives us favor, we always benefit. But it’s never about us! Do you remember when Mary took the ointment—the $60,000 jar of ointment—and broke the lid so it couldn’t be preserved and then poured it all over Jesus? Wiped it in with her hair. She did it all for him, but she left the house smelling like he did! We always benefit from the favor, but we have to keep focused; it’s all about him.
I don’t want to deny that it’s on my life; I want to make sure I live responsibly. I’ve seen increasing favor on my life that makes me nervous, and I hope the favor in your life does make you nervous! I hope it does! We pray better that way! I pray my favorite prayer: «Help!» I pray it better when I’m nervous! The favor opens up doors for opportunities that you couldn’t earn or ask for!
I don’t want to put undo pressure there because then some of you would just simply panic, and panic never helps us. But to realize that God gives us divine moments—moments that cause the name of Jesus to be exalted—cause things to take root in people that change their life, their identity, their sense of destiny, their purpose. All these things get rocked when a person of favor chooses them.
One of the things I’ve been exercising in the last quite a few years is I like to select people. I mean, none of us can be involved in every person’s life, but I can be involved in somebody’s life! I mean, there’s the corporate ministry, which I love. I love talking, meeting with people. But the personal choice of individual I love! I love just taking them all for no reason, and it’s not earned. It’s just a moment to show unusual favor, kindness, or a gift or something toward somebody.
I know that God pays attention to the person I show favor to, and I watch as things will increase—for promotion and things of that nature will be released into a person’s life when I show favor. I want you to see yourself as that—a dispenser of God’s favor. I want you to hear him say, «Who you choose, I’ll choose. Who you’ll favor, I’ll favor. You release words according to their present need, and I’ll back your words and add my own.»
«I’ll add what you have said! I will add to that grace that you have released.»
How can you take a person? Chris amazes me! Chris is a sign and a wonder to me. I know him well; he’s a dear friend and has been for 38 years. Here’s a high school graduate who didn’t want to go into business but did leave it all at a personal cost to come into ministry. Now he ministers to world leaders! How does that happen? You couldn’t buy the position if you wanted to! You don’t have the money! All of us combined don’t have the money to have the influence to the heart of kings. What happened? He was given favor! He used it well.
I’ve been thinking about Chris this week and his «yes» to God. I’m so thankful that in all of our 30 years, there’s never been one second where I questioned his «yes» to God. There’s never been a moment— not one passing thought—never once has it ever been questioned! His «yes» to God was absolutely yes!
What happens as a result of abiding in favor, using favor well? Sometimes doing it well—like all of us—sometimes doing it well, sometimes afterwards going, «I should have done that differently.» That’s life; that’s how we grow. Chris wouldn’t be any different than the rest of us. But the point I’m trying to make is he is positioned by favor. He is positioned by the Potter’s hand, who said, «I’m going to make you into this! I’m going to put you in this environment! You got there by grace; now I’m going to release my favor through you and enable you to perform according to another gift of grace.»
I made you something by grace; you will now perform something by grace. Never will there be a moment in our lives where we don’t need grace to enable us to become and to do! You can talk to the people that have multiple degrees. Talk to Randy Clark. He’s just one of the smartest men, most brilliant men I’ve ever met in my life. He has such deep understanding of scripture; he’s the most trustworthy apologist of scripture that I’ve ever met. His understanding is profound. He’s got his doctorate degree; he’s got his master’s; he’s got his degrees; but he would be the first to tell you that none of what he has is because of what he has earned—it’s all grace!
It was all grace; it’s all grace! Because the seminary told him, «Go after law; don’t bother with theology! You’ll never do it.» What am I trying to say? Every hero of faith that you and I may have, you sit down and talk with them, and you find out the real story. These two potter’s hands came down and took a lump of clay and said, «I am going to make you into a vessel of honor, and once I have shaped you, I’m going to enable you.»
The people on your right and left: you need grace, and I just have this sense that because the Lord highlighted this for tonight, you were set up! So this is the way we’re going to do it tonight. I want you to grab a hand, and I want you to pray casual prayers; you’ll get casual answers. I would like for you to push into this one and pray for yourself; just trust me. If you don’t realize your need for grace, just believe me; you need it badly. If Jesus needed to increase, oh boy, do we ever need to increase! So people on your right and left—if you only knew their need of grace! If you only knew how they needed favor at work; they need favor in their family! Their whole lineage! Their parents, grandparents; they need favor.
So I want you to lift your voices. Let’s pray this prayer of favor, and then we’ll wrap it up—great favor! Great grace! Increase the favor, God! Increase the favor! Increase the grace, Lord! Pray for their faith to be activated because faith works with grace! Unbelief rejects grace! Increase, increase the grace, increase the favor!
Father, I thank you. Father, thank you. Now put your hands on your heart; pray for your own life, your own household! God, explode your expressions of favor in my life and my family’s lives—our households! Explode, increase the favor! Increase the demonstrations of favor on us, God! Thank you, Lord!
Now we’re going to pray one more prayer, but let me just talk to you again for just a minute. I’m going to use Chris as an example again, just because I like his story. His story is very easy to measure. He had this call of God years ago to minister to world leaders as a mechanic in a small town. You can’t get there from there! But the Lord spoke it to him. When he came here, he still had that cry. It was a very specific word Jesus came to him while he was taking a bath one day and spoke to him and told him what was in his future.
Some things he’s never talked about, but he was willing to mention to me the prophetic ministry to world leaders. We meet a lot of different leaders from people you don’t know, or even hear various actors, actresses, CEOs, musicians, athletes—people that are well-known. They’ll sneak in; we try to hide them if we can so that you won’t ask them for their autographs or something like that, you know? Harassment.
Chris, one day, wanting to be more effective there, asked Cindy Jacobs how to minister to world leaders because she does it all the time. She made a statement to him that he connected with. She said, «Oh, I never have a word before I go into their office!» She just seeks an audience with this world leader, and when she gets in there, God speaks! That would have depressed me; it encouraged Chris. Chris thought, «Well, I can do that!»
What happens here? He joined his faith over the things he had pondered in his heart about his future for years. He joined his faith and gets into the environment, and every single time he’s told me, he ministers at a level prophetically that he doesn’t anywhere else! It is as clear as can be! Why? Something was activated when he believed God would do such a thing!
I believe every person in this room—your time for increase is upon us! But it means you won’t know what you’re doing, and God actually has to talk for you to be successful! That’s an inbuilt dependency!
Yes, hands on the heart! Let me pray for you, and then we’re going to wrap this up. All right? Father, work deep in us! Deepen us first in the realization of our need for grace, favor! We want your favor, your shining face on us, that this causes doors to open that we may even be afraid to dream about! But I ask that they’d come about in this next season, and you’d help us join our faith to what’s already been spoken over our lives to see you do what’s impossible! In fact, to see you do through us things that are too big, we can never take credit for!
We want people around us to know it really is your grace! So I pray all of this, that Jesus would be exalted, and God, we thank you for grace! We thank you for favor! Amen! Amen! Amen!