“The Fantastic Favor of God”
Ephesians 2:4–7, NKJ
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us...raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”
Quite often, people only remember what God has done in the past
You know, like how He parted the Red Sea, or rained fire down from Heaven and consumed Elijah’s sacrifice,
or fed multiple thousands of people with just a little boy’s small lunch.
As well as what He has done for them personally in their lives in past situations.
On one hand, we all know that God has performed countless, amazing miracles throughout history, and it’s important that we give Him the utmost praise and glory for what He has done.
But on the other hand, we also need to give Him praise as we look forward to what God wants to do in our lives today.
Paul was talking about and looking towards the future, not the past
TBS. (the Bible says) that “in the ages to come” God would do things that far supersede anything He’s ever done before.
The “ages to come” that he’s talking about, that’s the time were living in right now.
God is a God of way to much, not a God of barely get by,
When He fed the five thousand, which really was more like 12 to 15 thousand with women and children,
everyone had their fill and there was still an abundance of leftovers, 12 baskets and then some!
And if that meal was anything like the water Jesus turned to wine, it was probably the best bread and fish they had ever had.
Praise the Lord, God never does anything halfway,
*He’s always giving us His best,
*He’s always advancing,
*He’s always doing new things,
*He’s constantly looking for new ways to shine His favor down and bless His Children!
TBS.(the bible says) in Lamentations 3:22-23 NKJ
22. The LORD’s mercies
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
God is constantly doing new and exciting things for all of us, we may not see it in the natural,
but He is always constantly working behind the scenes on our behalf!
And the best news is, we are only limited as to what He wants to do for us, by our expectation of Him!
We can receive from God as much as we can believe Him for! He will always exceed our expectations we have.
Praise God, He’s so good to us!!
TBS. in Jerm. 33:2-3
2-3."This is God's Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God: 'Call to me and I will answer you. I'll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.
God wants to outdo Himself in our generation! He longs to show us things, Great things, that we know nothing about,
What an exciting time to be alive, right now Praise God, in the middle of a so called recession, in 2011!
What a better time to be blessed by God, He’s not participating in it, its not even mentioned in the bible.
He’s not hindered by it, in fact His Favor shines right thru it. Amen!!
What’s happened so far to us, is just a foretaste of what’s to come, we haven’t experienced all God’s goodness,
We’ve only experienced a fraction of it, the best is still yet to come!!
Remember, God is a God of increase!
Where you are today is not where you are going to be forever, its just a stopping off place on the journey.
And I certainately, wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now, as the old song says!
Would you?
When you walk in the Favor of God, good things just come your way, with no effort on your part,
Just one moment of His Favor can excell and propel you and take you places you can’t begin to get to on your own!
Jerm. 29:11 NKJ
11. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
God has great plans for us, for all of us who believe and are Favor minded!
Plans that lie ahead of us, not behind us.
I don’t know about you, but I know God’s plans are a lot bigger and much better and more focused than my plans.
You see, all of our plans are limited to say the least, but God’s plans, they know no limits what so-ever, there limitless!
And He wants us to very much be a part of His Plans, plans that He has thought about in great detail.
Plans He has worked on, behind the scenes for our life time on our behalf!
The Sad thing is though, so many Christians never choose to completely go with God’s plans.
Oh they know what’s right, and They know that they should go with God’s plans,
but somehow they just can’t give up control of their consistently flawed plan.
Oh they hear the word, and hear it, and here it, but never totally apply it to their lives,
They don’t even attempt to try to live the abundant life God has promised for all who will believe.
They go thru the motions at church, but never put it into motion when they leave!
James 1:19-24 MSG.
19-21.Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
22-24.Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
That’s why we need to be good soil and let the word, God’s seed, sprout, grow and be cultivated and brought to fruition in our lives.
You know when the farmer plants for a harvest, he wants to get the best return possible.
He doesn’t just plant it, walk away and leave it unattended!
No, He tills the soil, fertilizes the soil, cultivates the crop, he does everything possible that he knows to do, to make the soil better.
He constantly is studying, trying to learn more useful information to benefit the abundance of the crop.
He eats, sleeps and breathes the growth process of the seed from planting to harvest.
We hear from time to time of the % of people that are living below the poverty line in America.
What we never hear about though, is the percentage of Christians that are living below the spiritual poverty line,
When it comes to receiving the abundant life, God has promised to all who will believe in the word,
Why is it, that so many never live at the level or even close to the level, that they are entitled too?
TBS. The poor you will always have among you,
There is poor financially speaking of course, but there is also poor spiritually speaking to.
Poor is a frame of mind, a frame of mind that God never intended on us living in.
God gets no glory in someone being poor.
He has given us the word, the instruction as to how to live the abundant life, and still so many choose to not participate.
And by choosing to do so, they choose to disagree with word as to Jesus and why He came.
John 10:10 NKJ.
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
A person has to almost be totally disregarding God’s word, if they choose to live below the poverty line.
It’s a tragedy, because God has so much more He wants to do for all of His children,
Just as a parent loves to give their children good gifts,
It fails in comparison to the good gifts God longs to give His children, Praise God!
If you will accept them, walk in them and inhabit them,
He has greater levels of His favor and blessing in store for you.
Levels you can’t even comprehend and no level that is not attainable!
What you get out of life is up to you and how much you want to believe God for in your life!
Dare to dream big! Dare to keep a God-sized vision in front of you!
If God be your partner, make your plans large, so large that there’s no way you could ever do them by yourself
and when you do, expect them with His help and Favor, to come to pass!
Its your God given right, its all part of your spiritual inheritance and its been available to you from the first day you said “I DO” and accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.
Praise God, If your not shouting already, it ought to make you want to SHOUT!
I’ll close with this Deut. 32:46-47 GWT.
46.he said to them, “Pay attention to all these warnings I’ve given you today. Then you will command your children to faithfully obey every word of these teachings.
47.Don’t think these words are idle talk. They are your life!
God spelled it out for us, He only wants the very best for us, that’s why were so fortunate were blessed by His goodness and not ours.
Get “The Fantastic Favor of God” in your life today.
Walk in it, run with it, inhabit it, just don’t leave it, dormant on the shelf any longer.
God does not get any glory from you not being blessed, He gets great satisfaction from you being blessed.
So be Favor minded and be blessed today, do you believe it, then receive it today, Amen!
