Recognizing Divine Favour Pt.1

Messages for January 2017: Our Month of Divine Favour

Message for Sunday the 1^st of January 2017

Theme: Understanding How Divine Favour works

Topic: Recognizing Divine Favour Pt.1

Introduction: Every time patients go to see a Doctor, they complain of whatever abnormalities they observe in their bodies and based on what they say and the Doctor’s further investigations through tests conducted he can come up with a diagnosis. What we want to do today is to carry out scripture tests to know whether we are walking in divine favour or not. If we are, we would eventually be learning how we can maximize it. If we are not, we shall learn how to get into it and stay there through further studies.

What Divine Favour is:  This is a compound word that carries two meanings. First Divine and second is favour. Divine simply means that which originates from God or that which is of God.

Favour on the other hand means kind regard, friendly disposition, support, kindness, goodwill etc. Divine favour therefore means among other things: kind regard, friendly disposition, support, kindness, goodwill etc. from God towards a person. Bishop David Abioye of Winners Chapel in a message I listened to, defined favour as the magnet that attracts blessings to you. He cites the example of the children of Israel in Ex.3:21 and 12:36 where God gave them favour before they could be paid for four hundred years of servitude.  

Bible example of people divinely favoured:

Noah: In Gen.6:1-7, we see an example of a man who was divinely excluded from the wrath of God because God favoured him. His name was Noah. God had said He would destroy the earth with flood but then we read in verse 7 that Noah found grace with God. The word translated grace here carries a more expanded meaning of divine favour. As a result of the favour Noah had with God, he was protected by God from the judgement God brought on the earth. So we see here that favour commands divine protection for its recipient.

Saul: He was chosen by God to become the first kind of Israel without any qualifications. Israel never had a king prior and he was from the smallest tribe in Israel whose number was grossly reduced because of their sin against God in the time of the Judges. See 1Sam.9:19-22; 10:1-7. In these texts of scriptures, we shall see the many things that happened to him the same day to prove that he was divinely favoured.

Mary: She was described by the Angel Gabriel as highly favoured. She was indeed not just favoured but highly favoured. The circumstances surrounding her conception of the Lord were mysterious and too preposterous for the natural man to believe yet God intervened and caused her fiancé to marry her in spite. See Matthew 1:18-21 and Lk.1:28-37.

Apostle Paul: He referred to himself as the least of the apostles and he did not meet the Lord naturally yet he became one of the greatest because of the grace of God. God caused him to take the entire Asia Minor for Christ in the space of two years and he left us a legacy of two third of the New Testament! See Acts 19:1-11; 9:1-10; 1Cor.15:9-10 and Eph.3:8.

More can be said here but for want of space and time, we shall stop here and continue next week to look at the evidences of divine favour in a person’s life. Meanwhile, all these characters we have examined had one thing in common; they were in covenant with God. Are you in covenant with God? For you to receive the favour of God and be able to keep it, you must belong to his family. To do so means you have to get born again and this is as simple as saying the following prayer out loud and in faith and you will be born again:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.