Good morning highly favored of God!

I love THE FAVOR OF GOD ~ there’s nothing like it!  Every morning, before I leave my house, I claim THE FAVOR OF GOD and expect it everywhere I go!  I could tell you story after story how GOD’S FAVOR has surrounded us like a shield.

We have come to depend on GOD’S FAVOR.  I believe that THE FAVOR OF GOD is the answer that will cause you to rise above the trouble in this world and not be affected by the problems that affect other people.

The more you see THE FAVOR OF GOD in the Word, the stronger your faith and expectancy for it to manifest in your life will be.

I love Psalm 5:12.  It says,

  • For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; with FAVOR You will surround him as with a shield.

The shield David is referring to is an important part of the armor that he and his men depended on.  In David’s day, a shield wasn’t just a small piece of armor that you held up in front of you.  This shield was as tall as a man.  It was large and broad.  It protected your whole body.

So, in David’s mind, when he thought of THE FAVOR OF GOD, he thought of it like that shield – one that surrounded him, protected him, and couldn’t be penetrated.  That’s how THE FAVOR OF GOD is on our lives ~ it surrounds us like that shield.

Another word to describe this shield in the Old Testament is the word “wall” or “hedge”.  Do you remember how God had placed a hedge of protection around Job?  Job had a wall around his life, his house, his family, and his possessions and Satan couldn’t penetrate it.  Satan says of Job in Job 1:10,

  • “Why, no one ever had it so good!  You…make sure nothing bad happens to him or his family or his possessions.  You bless everything he does.  He can’t lose.”

Satan was fully aware that Job had a hedge or wall of protection around him and that he couldn’t penetrate it.  He tried on several occasions to bring it down and knew he couldn’t so he tried talking God into bringing down the wall.  Satan says to God in verse 11,

  • “If You would just bring the wall down and let me in, then You will find out the only reason he serves You is because of all these things You’ve done for him.  He will turn his back on You when that wall comes down.”

Why would Satan try to talk God into pulling down that wall?  Because Satan knew he couldn’t; then discovered God wouldn’t.

Satan doesn’t have the ability to pull down the wall because if he did, he wouldn’t have asked God to do it. This means, the only one that could bring down the wall was Job himself, and he did.  God didn’t bring it down; Satan couldn’t take it down.  Job brought it down by opening the door to fear and when that hedge came down, he became like the rest of the world.  Job said in chapter 3, verse 25,

  • For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.

Fear isn’t the result of just one negative thought.  It comes just the same way faith comes, by hearing and hearing.  If you expose yourself to negative opinions and thoughts all the time, you’re going to grow in fear.  Satan’s purpose in exposing you to negative information is to distract you from the promises of God.  If you listen long enough, it will produce in you the same thing it produced in Job, great fear.  It will eventually cause you to fear that what you’re hearing is going to happen to you, until you bring down the wall.

I exhort you to not subject your spirit to negative voices coming from the media, friends, or relatives.  If you allow fear to be developed on the inside of you, then you’re no longer looking to THE FAVOR OF GOD to protect you.  You’re just consumed with all those bad things.  That’s why Proverbs 4:23 (AMP) says,

  • Guard your heart with all vigilance. 

It’s imperative that we keep a firm grip on the promises of God that keep us going (Hebrews 10:23).  God has put a wall of FAVOR around our lives, but it’s up to us to keep the wall up.

My challenge to you is to do whatever it takes so that this wall stays in place.  Be strong in faith, expecting GOD’S FAVOR to manifest in your life every day.

Walking in the favor of God,

Lisa Gordon

Assistant Pastor

Jesus City Church