Joyce Meyer - Favor with God

TOPICS: Favor

Well, welcome to «Enjoying Everyday Life». I am so glad that you have joined me today. You know, the first thing I wanna say to you today is that God wants to do much more for you than perhaps you even realize, and may not know how to ask for. I wanna talk to you today about the favor of God. You know, I was in church for many, many, many years, and I had no idea that I could pray for God’s favor. What is the definition of favor? An act of kindness beyond what is due, approval, support, to be preferred. Favor is the grace of God, and grace is God’s undeserved favor. We cannot earn favor, nor are we entitled to it. But God wants to give it to us.

Isn’t it so wonderful that God wants to give us things that we don’t deserve? Now, if you have children, you know how you feel about your children. You just want to do things for them. You want to give them what they want. You want to bless them, you want to show them favor. And if we feel that way as human parents, how much more does God feel that way as a divine parent? God wants to give us favor because we’re his children, and he loves us. But now, I want you to listen to what I’m gonna say: ask for it, expect it, confess it, and believe for it. God wants to give you favor.

Now, I wanna say again, you don’t wanna just presume or assume, which sometimes I think we get kind of bad at that. We get kind of lazy in not exercising our faith. And God’s been impressing on my heart just the last couple of months that I need to do some fresh teaching on faith and just simply believing God. Because faith is the hand that reaches out and receives the grace that God wants to give us. We receive everything that we get from God through faith, and we receive from satan, our enemy, through fear.

So we want to release our faith for the promises of God in his word. And he says over and over that he wants to give us favor. I believe that there are many people listening and watching right now, that it has never one time occurred to you to ask God for favor. You may get some favor in your life at different times, but you’ll get a lot more if you ask for it, believe it, expect it, and notice it, and thank God for it. What might favor look like in reality? Well, maybe you’re given a discount that hasn’t been advertised yet, or that you have no idea why you’re getting.

We have one man that works for us, and this guy has got an anointing for discounts. God gives him so much favor in that area that it’s really downright comical. I mean, he’ll go in a store to buy something or to buy a case of something. They’ll say, «We’re gonna give you 15% off on that». And he’s like, «Oh, okay». Or he’ll go in a store and they’ll say, «Well, do you have this coupon»? «No». So they’ll give him one and he gets a discount. I mean, it just happens over and over all the time. Maybe you get a job that others are more qualified for than you are.

You know, I worked at a seafood company many, many, many years ago, and I had a situation where my boss wanted me to lie for him. Somebody had overpaid their account, and I was in charge of the bookkeeping. So, the right thing to do would be to send them a check to cover their overpayment. But he wanted me to put a debit on their account to balance out the credit, so it looked like we didn’t owe them anything. And I labored over it all night long. And I knew that God did not want me to tell the lie and that I was gonna have to tell him that I couldn’t do it. And I thought he probably would fire me. And I had just committed to getting a lot of work done on my teeth, and it wasn’t a good time to lose my job.

But I went into work early the next morning and I said, «I just need to tell you something. I’m a Christian, and I can’t lie about not owing this man money». And of course, he got embarrassed and turned red and just kind of huffed around. And he said, «Well, just get back out there and go to work». Well, all day long I kept expecting that he would come out and tell me that he was letting me go. But at the end of the day, he came out and he put their statement on my desk and said, «Well, just send them a check». But the interesting thing was that after that, for the rest of the time that I worked at that company, I kept getting promoted and promoted and promoted until I was second in charge to the head boss.

And I was doing things that I wasn’t even qualified to do. I was over all the truck drivers. I was in charge of the inventories. And God would give me the grace and make me able to do those things. He gave me favor, I believe because he loved me. And I don’t ever wanna say that I deserve anything from God. But when we do things right, God does show up with his power. And I think it was a blessing to me for telling the truth and taking a chance on losing my job just to do what I knew that God wanted me to do. And I encourage you to always do what you know is right, even if it means a personal loss to you.

So many people today compromise because they don’t wanna lose their job or they don’t want to lose their friends or whatever the case might be. But I would rather lose anything than the favor of God. Perhaps you get upgraded to first class on an airplane just because they had two seats open in first class. And out of all the people on the plane, they just picked you and said, «Would you like to sit in first class»? Dave and I have had that happen. And I’m sure that some of you watching have had that happen. Well, you know, that’s just not lucky or coincidence. That’s God giving you favor. People do special things for you for no reason at all. Doors of opportunity open for you. God’s favor can open doors for you. And thankfully his favor can close wrong doors.

Now, I wanna say this again because it’s important: «Ask for it, expect it, confess it, and believe for it». Every day when I say my prayers, I don’t like to say, «Say my prayers», when I pray, one of the things that I confess or speak out loud is, «I have favor with God and God gives me favor with man». Another thing that I say on a regular basis is, «Something good is going to happen to me today, and something good is going to happen through me today». Now this may be new thinking for some of you. It may be something that you’ve never thought of. Maybe it’s never occurred to you that you can ask God for things that you don’t deserve, but you can and the Bible backs it up.

Now, here’s another example. Let’s just say that it’s pouring down rain and the parking lot where you’re trying to find a parking place to go into the store is completely packed. And all of a sudden you find a place right in front. Well, you know, I actually had this happen to me just day before yesterday. I was with my daughter, we were going to a restaurant to eat and it wasn’t raining, but the parking lot was jam packed. And she drove around the lot two or three times. And then all of a sudden somebody right in front of the door of the restaurant pulled out and we got that parking place.

And I had to laugh because I knew what I was gonna be sharing with you today, and that is the favor of God. Let’s just say you get promoted at work for no reason. You didn’t do anything special. You just got promoted. There were other people that might have even been more qualified than you, but you got promoted or you get a raise that you weren’t expecting. Don’t ever give luck the credit that belongs to God. And don’t think when good things happen in your life that it’s just a coincidence. «Well, isn’t that a coincidence»?

You know what I believe it is? I believe it’s a wink from God. Just this little wink that says, «I’m proud of you. I’m pleased with you. Just want to do this for you to say, I love you». God’s favor will get you in front of the right people at the right time. It opens doors. When you have favor, people will like you. And they won’t even know why, but they’ll just say, «You know, I really like that person». And I pray for that favor because I’m in front of so many people on television or in the conferences that we do. And I want people to like me, but I don’t have time to dance around trying to make them like me. And I certainly can’t fashion my messages in such a way that they won’t bother anybody, so they’ll like me. I need to preach what I believe that God is telling me to preach. And so I just trust him for favor, and I believe that I get it.

Proverbs 3:3-4 says, «Let not mercy and kindness [shutting out all hatred and selfishness] And truth [shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy] Forsake you: bind them about your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So shall you find favor, good understanding, and high esteem in the sight [or the judgment] Of God and man». So let’s just take out some of those explanations that the Amplified Bible puts in just to make sure that you get the message. Always be merciful and kind. And always tell the truth. Speak the truth, follow the truth, and know the truth. You will find favor and good understanding with God and with man.

You know, in Luke 1:30, «The angel said to her,» her being Mary, 'do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace (free, spontaneous, absolute favor and loving-kindness with God.'» well, you know, we could ask, «Why, Mary»? I’m sure there were millions of young maidens that were holy young ladies that loved God with all their heart. But there was something about Mary, and God favored her. She is highly favored among all women because she got to give birth to our Savior.

And then there’s Abraham in Genesis 12:2. And you know, we look at these people in the Bible like they were something other than humans, but really they were people just like me and you. Understand that, people just like me and you living ordinary lives. And Abraham was actually in a family of idol worshipers, and that’s what he’d been taught. But Abraham knew somehow in his heart that there was more. And God spoke to him one day and said, «I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you [with an abundant increase of favors] And I will make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to other people]».

I remember early in my ministry, I claimed that scripture, because I believe what we see in the Bible is not only good for those people, but it’s good for us. But there’s another thing about Abraham, and that is that one of the first things that God spoke to him, he said, «Take everything that you own and leave your father’s house and go to the place that I will show you». And then he says, «And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you…» and the scripture that I read earlier. And so, just imagine how many of you, I asked myself this question this morning and I don’t know if I could do it.

You know, first of all, Abraham didn’t have this great relationship with God. He was just becoming acquainted with him. He was used to worshiping idols. And so maybe now if God told me to do something like that, I would. But would I have 50 years ago when I was first getting to know him? «Hey, Joyce, I want you to just leave everything that you know and go to a place that I will show you». Boy, you talk about faith. I mean, he had to step out in faith. And the Bible says because of his faith, he was considered to be righteous with God. People in the Bible who found favor with God: Joseph, sold as a slave by his own brothers. He was the baby of the family.

And you know, sometimes the older siblings are jealous of the baby because the baby usually does get a little special treatment. And that’s just the way it is. I had a baby when I had a 14 year old, a 12 year old and a 10 year old. And I’ve heard that, «Well, you know, he didn’t have to work like we did when we were young». And you know, usually by the time you have the last child you’re in better shape financially, and you’re able to do more for them than you were able to do for your other children when they were younger. But it’s not uncommon for brothers and sisters to be jealous of the baby.

And Joseph had a dream, and he needed to learn a few things. His dream was that his father and all of his brothers were gonna bow down to him. And he made the mistake of telling them his dream. And they responded in a very hateful manner. They were jealous of him. And in acts it says they hated him, and they hated him all the more. But it also says, «But God was with him». You know, no matter how people feel about you, if God is with you, then you’re gonna win in the end. «If God be for me, who can be against me? „If God is on my side, whom shall I fear“? And so they were gonna kill him. They were gonna take him out and just kill him and throw him in a pit. But these slave traders were coming by, and they decided, „Well, why not make a little money? We’ll sell him“.

So they sold him, and he was taken to Egypt. And he was sold to a man named Potiphar, who was a very wealthy man. And the Bible says that, „Joseph pleased [Potiphar] And he found favor in his sight, and he served him. And [his master] Made him supervisor over his house and he put all that he had in Joseph’s charge“.

Now, isn’t that interesting? One of the worst things happened to him that could happen to somebody. His family turned against him and sold him as a slave, severely mistreated him. But the Bible never gives any indication that Joseph ever had a bad attitude during any of this. He didn’t blame God. He didn’t appear to be angry with his family. And wherever he went, he just did a good job while he was there. And so he got favor with Potiphar. Well, Potiphar’s wife wanted to have sex with Joseph, and he, because of being a man of God, he refused. And so, she told her husband that he raped her. And Potiphar had him put in prison. And he was in prison for, I think about 13 years for something that he did not do. But listen to this.

Genesis 39:21, „But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy and loving-kindness and gave him favor in the sight of the warden of the prison“. So I don’t know if they put Joseph in charge of the prison or what, but he had favor and apparently got things that others didn’t get. Well, he then interpreted a dream that the butler and the baker had. And that got them out of prison and back into Pharaoh’s house. And he asked them, „Now, don’t forget me“. But they did forget him. You know, we shouldn’t do that. When people do us favors and do special things for us, we should not forget all about them. I really try to remember all the people that have helped me get to where I am in ministry, and pray for them, and tell them I appreciate them and send them gifts once in a while. Don’t forget the people that have helped you get to where you are.

And so, Pharaoh had a dream that really troubled him, and nobody could interpret it. And the butler and the baker said, „We know someone that could interpret it“. And so he had Joseph brought before him. And sure enough, Joseph interpreted the king’s dream. And he ended up in charge of all the grain in Egypt. A famine was coming, and the dream shared that they would have seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. And Joseph knew if he saved during those seven years of plenty, then they would have all they needed during the famine. And so Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of everything. Only person in Egypt that was more powerful than him was Pharaoh. I hope you’re seeing the line here.

See, these people weren’t just lucky. God gave them favor. And, you know, Hannah had prayed and prayed and prayed for a child. And she was in her old age and still hadn’t had one. And finally God blessed her with a boy that she named Samuel. And she had promised God that she would give him to the Lord for his service, if he would give her a child. And so it says, „Now, the boy Samuel grew and was in favor both with the Lord and with men“. You see, if you have favor with God, then God also gives you favor with men. But I wanna go back to where we started: „Ask for favor, pray for favor, expect favor, release your faith for favor, and confess favor“.

Don’t just be passive about it and think, „Well, you know, if God wants to do something, he will“. You receive everything you receive from God by faith. James 4:2 is a very important scripture, and I use it frequently. It says, „You have not because you ask not“. You can’t get any simpler than that. And there’s more to that scripture that I don’t have time to get into. But „You have not, because you ask not“.

Now, Daniel, he was another man who had such great favor with God. He was taken into the king’s court along with some other young men. And they were gonna be trained to be servants in the king’s house. And they were given a special diet that they were to eat which was rich in dainty foods. But Daniel had made a commitment to only eat vegetables for a period of time as a fast unto the Lord. And so he stepped out in faith and went to the man that was in charge of him and his friends. And he said, „If you will let us keep our commitment to God and just eat vegetables, at the end of the 10 days, we’ll be in better shape than all of the other people that are eating the rich and dainty foods“.

And the Bible says that God made Daniel to find favor and compassion and loving kindness with the chief of the eunuchs. And he was allowed to eat his own diet. And at the end of those 10 days, he was in better condition than all the rest. There are several places in the Bible where Daniel was promoted. And it says he was promoted because he had an excellent spirit. Whatever you do, do it with excellence. That doesn’t mean extravagance. It just means to take what you have and do the very best that you have with it. Even if you have an old car, you can still keep it clean. Maybe you don’t have a lot of clothes, but you can keep 'em clean.

Don’t show up at work looking like you just took everything you have on out of the dryer and put it on with all the wrinkles in it. Be an excellent person. Treat people excellent. Be excellent in your relationship with God. And then there’s Esther. Esther found favor with God, and through that she was able to save a whole nation. And then there’s Noah. Of all the people on the earth, God was gonna destroy the earth with a flood. But Noah was a righteous man and he told Noah to build an ark because it was gonna rain and there was gonna be a flood.

Well, that might sound interesting, except Noah had never seen rain and didn’t know what a flood was. But he obeyed God. And I tried to find out by doing some research how long it took him to build the ark. And I found everything from five years to 75 years. So, I guess we just have to guess at that one. The thing that’s interesting is out of all the people on the earth, Noah was chosen.

And do you know that if you will release your faith and be obedient to God in all that he asks you to do, that God will pick you to do special things and give you favor that he does not give somebody else. You can have favor with God, if anybody can have favor with God, you can. So ask for it, expect it, believe for it and confess it. And you’re gonna enjoy living in the favor of God. You have a great rest of the day.