Joseph Prince - Experience Success When You Rely On His Favor
This is an excerpt from: Prosperity With A Purpose
One of the saddest things is that, I feel like there's a whole new generation. You know, they look at favor, and they this favor message and all that, it is some, you know, preachers who try to make people feel good. No, no, friend, favor of God is a valid, central teaching of the Bible. In fact, the word favor, you can actually say it's grace, because grace is undeserved, unmerited favor, and to be full of grace means to be full of favor, amen. And the Bible says clearly that in Exodus 12, "The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians". That's key. When God gives you favor with your bosses, amen, that's when promotion starts, that's when increment in your salary happens, amen. When God gives you favor in the eyes of your clients, they'll want to do business with you compared to someone else that, you know, in the natural have more experience and maybe can offer more, but for some reason they gravitate towards you. They like you, they trust you, and a lot of business is done like that.
When people have that confidence in someone, they give the person the business, amen. That's called favor, and God can give you favor in spite of your experience, in spite of your education, achievements, it's not dependent on all that. It's the Lord who gives favor, amen. So, look to the Lord for favor, amen, look to the Lord for favor. And, you know, we used to, even for me, when I was young and just started out in life, you know, I didn't have much, but I trusted God, that God would give me favor in every situation. I could tell you stories of the stories, even during my life in the army, how God gave me favor with my superiors, all right, with my immediate, commander, and, how doors were opened to me, and privileges that otherwise were not given to others were given to me. And it's really the favor of God. I learned down through the years that you can trust God for favor. But you say, "But I don't deserve God's favor". No, friend, grace is undeserved favor. The more undeserving you are, you qualify, amen. All you gotta do is to receive it, amen. God wants you to receive favor. Why not receive favor today? Amen.
We also see in the life of Joseph, the Bible says that God gave him favor in the sight of first and foremost Potiphar, and then later on before Pharaoh. God gave him favor. It was something that God gave, God imparted, and he promoted him. With every favor that God gave Joseph, he was promoted. In Potiphar's case, he was a slave when God gave him favor. And the Bible says that, whatever Joseph did, God prospered. All that he did, the Lord prospered. Everything under Joseph's hands. So much so that Potiphar put everything in Joseph's hands. Now, think about this. Potiphar, like many of our employers, are the ones who are in a position to promote us. Ok, many of them, they are not believers, ok. I assume that probably you're working in a place where the person's not a believer. If the person's a believer, all the more God can speak to him. But in this case of Joseph, Potiphar wasn't a believer, but the Bible says, "Potiphar saw that the LORD was with Joseph and all that Joseph did the LORD caused to prosper in his hands".
So he saw that the Lord was with Joseph, and that Joseph was prospering in everything that he touched because of the Lord. Now, how do you assume that came to Potiphar? Okay. By observing with his eyes, amen. Whatever Joseph did, whether he was planting crops, you know, it became a great harvest of bumper crops that year; whether he was handling a group of servants, and they all became highly motivated under his charge. Whatever it is, we see that Joseph prospered, and it was evident for a heathen to see. Someone who didn't believe in God they go by their eyes. So what's gonna happen is that I believe that when God gives you favor, the world will see it. Your boss will see it, your clients will see it. And the people under your ministry, and even sinners that we reach out to will see it, amen. Many a time, you know, this is a forgotten factor in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sinners want to listen to someone that they find favor in.
Alright, they will listen to someone; just like Billy Graham, God gave him so much favor with sinners that they are willing to spend an hour in a stadium listening, invited by their friends. But there's something about the man Billy Graham that drew them to want to spend that time that they can otherwise spend elsewhere. Why? Favor. So, if you're a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, believe God for favor. It's a vital part of getting people saved, amen, because when you have favor, you prosper. And the world can see it, and the world knows, right, the world wants to be associated with winners, amen. When they see God is with you, and, you know, the world has this idea about God: Oh, God is just a demanding God, you know, demanding things of us that we're not able to measure up. That's their idea of God. God is just waiting to pounce on me, God is a harsh God. They see a judgmental God. They don't see a God of goodness, a God of love, amen, a God who gave up His Son that you might be saved. They don't see that. They don't see that kind of God.
The world, if they see that kind of God, the goodness of God will lead them to repentance. No, they see a God that's angry, and sometimes we preachers are guilty of that because we present an angry God to people. No, my friend. Nope. All the anger of God is exhausted at the cross of Jesus Christ when Christ bore our sins. And that's why in Isaiah 54 that came after Isaiah 53, after the redeeming work of Jesus, in Isaiah 54 God swore he would never be angry with us again, amen. What does it take for us to believe that? God has raised his hand swearing He will never be angry with us. And my friend, God does not have to swear because his Word alone is enough. But God swore: As I swore that the waters of Noah, the flood of Noah will never happen again, so I swear I will never again be angry with you. Wow. What a sworn oath, amen, because of what Jesus has done.