I can't speak for others, but I want to live blessed; even more I want to be a blessing to others. Staying blessed allows God to keep using me as a vessel for His purposes, and that requires me to continually respond to His calling regardless of my feelings in the situation. That also means my faith is in a testing mode daily.
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The Envelope
Please!
“Let your requests be known” is
something I spend much time on with God on a regular basis. After all isn’t that what prayer is all
about? I’ve learned that I’m not the
only one who petitions for something they desire.
We received an unusual appeal on
Tuesday. “The Favor of Your Reply is Requested!” was printed on the
front of a large white envelope. It was
from an investment company asking us if we would favor them over other firms,
with our income.
My husband and I both looked at
each other and smiled as he said, “You can use that on your blog.” I tore off
the front with the message, and tucked it under a stack of papers ... you know, just in case he happened to be correct.
Right away it got me to thinking. Overnight I tried to process what that
statement actually meant in the company’s eyes and if God was trying to get
something through to me. Well, of course He was, who was I kidding?
Release of Favor
Calling
We
discussed the state of affairs briefly and went into more detail later that
evening. What appeared to be an attack
from satan I actually thought was a testing from God.
That person’s problem took me
back to the message on the envelope and if they were somehow tied
together. Both had requested something
from me, but what they wanted was entirely different.
Bestowing Favor on
Believers
It doesn’t come as a surprise
when another Christian asks me to pray for them and it shouldn’t to you either. This is something we are to do for one
another daily as members of the family of God.
What I felt honored over was that the individual called me (us). This person knows plenty of believers, but
felt that if they called us, we could agree with them in prayer for the desired
answer. Wow, isn’t that something? Doesn’t that make you feel special knowing
someone trusts you to have the faith you need for Heaven to move?
“For where two or three are
gathered together in My name (as my followers), I am there in the midst
(middle/among) of them.” (Matthew 18:20
NKJV emphasis mine)
When someone asks us to pray for
them, they are requesting favor from your faith reserve. They believe in your faith, because you have
demonstrated you are trustworthy of God’s favor on your life in answered
prayers. Somewhere along your faith
journey they have seen God work on your behalf, and want to tap into that
grace. That says a lot about your Christian walk.
If no one is calling you to ask
for your “two or three” faith, there is a reason. Our favor walk is directly
related to our faith walk, and people can see if it is working in our lives.
Bestowing Favor Unintentionally
As a teacher, minister, counselor
and writer I read a lot for my work.
Researching material takes quite a bit of my time, and in my exploration
I have come across some great and not so great writing.
One of the places where I write
has thousands of contributors. As part
of that community of online writers we encourage one another by reading
articles written by other people.
I have been writing for this
establishment for almost two years and by the time this is published I would
have read 7,000 out of the three plus million articles they have online. I enjoy the research aspect of writing and
always have. It’s actually the best part
of it for me, because I often get to meet writers from around the world, and learn tons of interesting
facts. If you want to be a good writer,
you have to do your homework.
The thing about looking at other
people’s work doesn’t mean they will look at yours. Let me explain why that little bit of
information is so important to an online writer.
Most people who are online
writers are doing it to make money and do it part or full time. If a person is writing online as a career,
they don’t often look at articles unless it pertains to the topic they are
working on at the time. This particular
place where I contribute some of my articles keeps tab on how many articles you
have visited. So when I see that a top
writer has only visited 25 articles in the past five years and mine was one of
them, I am thrilled! Not all writers
feel that way, and get angry when that individual’s article gets top
billing. They feel that socializing
should play a part in the rank of the article.
They’re not too off with that thinking, because the Internet search engines think
the same way.
The more visits a site has, the higher
it goes in ranking for the search engines such as Google, Bing or others. Having more visits is important to an online
writer, because it generates traffic from other search engines all over the
world. Visits (likes) mean your message was
noticed and hopefully will be promoted to the public successfully. This is something every Christian writer
strives for in winning a life to the Lord – “getting the word out to the
World.”
What does this have to do with
favor? If you receive something from the
world that causes you to increase in any form, that is God sending favor to you
from man. An experienced writer that notices my work and promotes it causes increase to my credibility as a writer, thus increasing my income. Most of the time the world
doesn’t realize that they are being used by God to increase you in finances,
position or favor.
There are countless times when
the unsaved have given to ministries or a religious cause because they want to
do something good or need a tax break.
Either way, it is another lesson of proof that God does fulfill His
promises. In reality, it’s favor given
unintentionally, so God can receive the glory, not man.
Bestowing Favor
Like Christ
Scriptures tell us that we are to
show exceptional kindness, grace and favor to our brothers and sisters in
Christ. That is usually easy, even
though not everyone does it.
“As we have therefor opportunity,
let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of
faith.” Galatians 6:10
(KJV)
The hard part about operating in
obedience to God is demonstrating the grace of God toward those who we feel
don’t deserve it. I have to be honest, I
don’t always want to be nice to nasty people, and surely don’t want to hand out
my grace card of favor to them. However,
that’s exactly what we are supposed to do… show love to the unlovely.
“Withhold not good from them to
whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine (your) hand to do it.” Proverbs 3:27 (KJV)
“Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when
it’s in your power (ability) to help them.” (from the NLT)
The person that called for prayer
was facing several serious things, in which they were being treated unfairly
and unkindly. It was as if a swat team
from the devil was zooming in to destroy their faith, finances and family. Doing something good for this individual
would be easy, because they certainly were due my kindnesses.
“But I (Jesus) say unto you,
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you,
and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Matthew 5:44 (KJV)
Love, bless, do good, pray for my enemies? Ooh, I don’t want to do that. Love the enemies that are trying to destroy
my world? You’ve got to be kidding. My phone friend told me that along with the
persecution came cursing, ridicule and threats as well.
Sure we know that’s what the
Bible says, but doing it is another thing right? That would mean I would have to give grace
like Christ did regardless of what was coming against me. I’m not sure I can or want to do that.
That brings me back to the
envelope. So what do we do when the world seeks a favor from us? When it is within our power to do good we are
to do it right? Isn’t that what God is
telling us? Yes, however, we are not
released to give favor to those that are not of the faith when it goes against
His Word, because that would be an unequal yoking with Him.
God
sometimes asks us to do things that seem unreasonable and makes no sense to us, but
it will not contradict the Bible. For
this very reason we need to stay in the Word of God so that we recognize if it
is a favor request from God, satan or man.
I came across an old television
program this week that happened to deal with a similar situation of the person
who called me. There was an accident
where the person hit them from behind.
Neither of the vehicles was damaged, and an agreement of $5 was given to
the first driver because of the inconvenience caused by the second driver. (That
tells you how old this program was!) As soon as the person realized that the
other driver was famous, they decided to sue for $250,000.
The mother chose to show mercy and
goodness to the individual that was suing them.
She showered the disgruntled driver with kindness, grace and favor even
though she was the one being sued. In
the end, the charges were dropped. What
happened? Mercy happened. Even in situations where favor, God’s mercy is
not warranted, God still gives grace when it comes to repentance. If we are to be Christ’s hands and feet in
this world in order to win souls, it means we are to reply to the request of
“favor” in order to bring others into the Kingdom of God.
Vessels of Favor
There are many ways God shows His
favor; we perceive them as blessings or forms of His protection from the evil
one.
Vessels of God are to become
vessels of His favor for Him to pour out on others as He blesses us. We learned this in our lesson about God’s
favor shield.
“But let all those that put their trust in Thee (God)
rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them: let them also
that love Your name be joyful in You.
“For You, LORD, will bless the righteous; with favor
You will compass (surround) him as with a shield.” (Psalm 5:11-12 KJV)
“But let all who take refuge in You
be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You.
12 Surely, Lord, You
bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.” (Psalm
5:11-12 NIV)
Are you a vessel of favor God can
use to dispense on undeserving souls? I
think that we often forget that we were once unbelievers that God showed grace to
when we received His favor to forgive us from sin.
Maybe God wants to use you to do something
that will change the life of an unbeliever and you really don’t want to do
it. You might want to reconsider the
cost of not obeying the voice of God.
We receive blessings, grace
(unmerited favor) from God because He loves us.
Favor is never given because we “deserve it”, but is given as a tool or
vessel for a greater cause.
Paul admonishes
us that we have knowledge of the good news of Christ in our bodies or “vessels”. This information is a hidden treasure to the
world, and God’s mercy allows us to be a part of His overall plan.
“But we have this
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and
not of us. We are hard-pressed on every
side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair.” (2 Corinthians
4:6-8 NKJV)
In order for favor to be
increased in our own lives, we have to be willing to give it to others
freely. God didn’t ask us to validate
His reasons why we need to be kind to others that persecute us; He just said to
do it.
I feel richly blessed when God
calls on me to give blessings (which are favors) to others. It lets me know that He feels I am a vessel
He can use, and that draws me closer to Him.
The more I am used to bless others, the more my favor levels need to
rise.
If you are seeking God and
longing to walk in His blessings, there will be times when someone out of the
blue asks, “The Favor of Your Reply is Requested!” How will you respond?
You cannot give favor if you don’t have it to
give. This company was hoping I would
bless and favor their company above any others with something I had that they
needed (or wanted). They did not realize that I was not required to bestow anything on them without the direction of the Holy Spirit.
On the other hand, my phone friend messaged that God heard our prayers and the situation was resolved. As a fellow believer, I was required to use my faith and reply to their plea. Praise God for His mercy and favor toward our request.
It’s Time to
Release God’s Favor
Christian Mom with six kids sunrisewithasixpack.com
After reading this, I guarantee
that your favor vessel will be tested.
As a matter of fact, if you have been seeking God for blessings (favor)
I know you have been in trials. The
question is, what are you going to do when a request is made of you from God or man? It may have to do with finances, but not
necessarily.
Perhaps God is asking you
to give the favor of time to someone or something. You may be asked to give up possessions,
friends, family or a position. Whatever
it is, don’t delay giving God what He requests of you. If God wants you to release something into
His hands so He can reply to someone’s request for favor, do it. You can be sure that what you give up will
not compare to the blessing He has that will replace, restore and renew what
you gave away.
“Now to Him who is able to do
exceedingly above all we ask or think, according to the power (of the Holy
Spirit) that works in us.” (Ephesians 3:20
NKJV)
Our God is able to do above that
we can ask or think. Release favor
blessings and your request for them will come back to you.
“Give, and it will be given to
you” (how) good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will
be put into your bosom. For with the
same measure that you use (give blessings, favor and mercy), it will be
measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38
KJV)
Let God use you as His favor
dispenser. Get excited when someone calls on you above all others and reply
“Yes” to their request according to God’s Word, knowing you have been called as
a chosen vessel of favor for our Almighty God.
If
You Can Use Anything, Lord Use Me - Ron Kenoly
Until next time, release blessings of favor at God’s
request!
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Scripture reference was taken from the New King James Bible Version provide by Bible Gateway.
