Favour with God is what paves the way for man to enjoy the favour of men. No man enjoys favour outside God. It is God that stirs up the heart of men and opens up the heart of men. For any man to desire to show his fellow man favour, not necessarily monetary favour, his heart must have been touched by God because the bible says the heart of a king is in the hands of God, he controls it the way he controls the course of the stream.
The Bible says that with God all things are possible and without him, we can do nothing. For one to have a smooth sail in life, the place of favour is also important. Everything God will use to make you the man and woman that he wants you to be is already on earth, in somebody’s hands. Life is transactional, in the sense that resources move from one man to another man and one of the ways that opportunities flow from one man to another man needed to accomplish purpose is the favour of God.
In Luke 2:52 we see clearly that Jesus could not fulfil his mandate without the favour of men. Even while on the cross he found favour. In fulfilment of prophecy, Jesus found favour in the sight of Joseph of Arimathea when he demanded for the body of Jesus, to preserve it. So we see that the reality of favour with men cannot be underestimated.
In Luke 8:1 we see that Jesus had disciples and people who were ardent followers and provided for him from their substance, in other words, they were partners, ministry partners. He had supporters, people who took it upon themselves to provide for his ministry. Jesus had to move from place to place because of his ministry and he still had people following him all the way, supporting him in his ministry.
Jesus did not do ministry alone. No matter how small your vision and assignment are, you can’t do it alone. You will always need men.
Everything we will ever need to fulfil destiny is no more in heaven, it is here on Earth.
One of the platforms it will get you is on the platform of Favour. Some, you have to work by yourself to get it done but one way to move resources to get to your direction to do the things the lord has laid in your heart (your mandate, dreams, vision, assignment) is that it will flow to you on the platform of favour.
The scripture talks about people who were available and consistent with the ministry and life of Jesus
There was no city that Jesus had a prompting to go to that finance stopped him. The Bible says those who were with Jesus were ready to provide for him out of their substance. All this was on a platform of relationship.
•THINGS THAT ACTIVATE FAVOUR
Favour with men doesn’t just happen to us, there are things that activate Favour with Men.
– IMPACT: Luke 8:1-3 talks about Mary called Magdalene, 7 demons came out of her and she was healed. One of the ways favour will help fulfil your mandate and the calling of God in your life is based on Impact. How you were able to touch people’s life.
When you touch the heart of men, it will not be too hard for the hands to Open. But when you want to force the hand of men to open and you have not touched their hearts, you have a lot of work to do.
What you should aim at most times is how to touch the hearts of men, it has a way of opening their treasures.
Only God could have known the impact Jesus had made in the life of Herod stewards’ wife, just like the impact he had made in the life of Mary Magdalene that seven demons were cast out of her life and the woman became so attached to Jesus’ life and ministry on the platform of blessing, grace, transformation and impact.
You must find a way to touch and be a blessing to people’s lives. It works like Magic.
In your lifetime, one of the areas you should concentrate on is not people’s hands but their hearts.You will understand it in days to come; the place of impact.
Touching lives, blessing lives, giving people hope, giving people opportunity for life. It comes with a great reward.
Don’t do it as a strategy, just do it for kindness’s sake. Do it because you are not expecting anything in return. Do it because you have a genuine heart.
The best time to give is when the receiver did not ask you for it.When you are not told to do something but God impresses in your heart to do it and you obey.
When Mary Magdalene with seven demons in her life was delivered, liberation and joy came and her potential opened up and she followed Jesus to any city he went to.
Herod Steward’s wife also was determined to follow Jesus anywhere he went.
Jesus’s life and ministry; the mandate of God upon his life. He was able to get a cot to ride on, and he got it, he needed room to eat the last supper and he was given a room, he was carrying his cross and was tired, someone showed up and helped him, and he was on the cross and everybody ran away but John the beloved was standing by the cross, he opened his eyes on the cross and saw John and he said “Son look at your mother, mother look at your son” and from that day Jesus on the cross, he handed his mother to John and the Bible say the mother followed John home and was living with John.
Even while he was on the cross dead, instead of his body to be decayed and prophecy not being fulfilled, one man showed up and requested for the body of Jesus to be buried…
No matter how far u can go in life, you need men.
The next point is RELATIONSHIP: After the place of impact, the next thing is relationship. Things flow to us on the platform of relationships.
Don’t despise anybody. We need men. We need relationships. Relationships are powerful.
Mary Magdalene maintained a good relationship with Jesus. Aside from casting out demons from her, if she does not have a good relationship, she would even forget that demons were once casted out of her.
Luke 8:1-3
We need men. The dreams, the visions we have are not big enough. We need men. We need people in our lives. Favour flows to people through men. There are things we will not be able to do if God did not put people around us. We saw in the four gospels how a sick and paralyzed friend was helped by his friends to be healed of Jesus. And they go to help him and bring him out to get healing. We need people. We need men.
Mark 2:3-11
Wait until when we find ourselves on the cross and we should see how many people will stay with us.
The Bible says all the disciples left Jesus but John. Jesus saw him and told Mary, “son behold your mother and mother behold your son.” John 19:26
He handed over his mother to John. This is a person that will be convinced together.
We need men that will bear the burden. What we want people to do in our lives and do for us is what we should also do to them.
We should be the last man standing. We must not despise and abandon people in your trial. The people we are not there for when in their low estate will no longer need us when they rise.
If there is something we should be discerning and sensitive about is the moment and seasons of people’s lives such that we will be there for them at that particular hour.
These are the times when men are going through tough times. These are times when men are struggling to rise. The contribution we can make to people’s life when men are struggling to rise is a lifetime reward. To some people, they may not have the reward but their children.
One day these children will walk somewhere and will be helped by people that were once helped by their parents.
We have discussed impact, relationship and now HONOUR. Honour all men. Let’s learn how to honour all men. Honour to men is not towards only a particular set of people. The rich man has been giving to people but he has no one to give to him.
The reason why doors of opportunities have been closed to some people is because of dishonour. Dishonour is one way the journey will be hard. Dishonour is one way that hardens the journey of men, honour all men, don’t judge or rate people by what they wear. Let’s honour all men. If you have a shop, attend to customers with dignity and honour, treat everybody well, respect people, people notice honour, nobody jokes with honour, go the extra mile.
Lastly, GRATITUDE. Most of us are not grateful people, ungratefulness is an attack from the pit of hell, just as the scripture says that on the last day many will be ungrateful.
2 Timothy 3:2
Ingratitude is a machinery set in place by hell to move people away from their place of blessings. Sometimes, it makes people lose opportunities. Most of us have locked the door to favor because we don’t show gratitude. Somebody gave you something but because you were expecting more you didn’t acknowledge, when we don’t show gratitude we close the door of favor.
Let’s be grateful, pls show gratitude to every effort, no matter how small or big it is, be grateful, show gratitude, don’t say, it is not enough, don’t start with ingratitude and ungratefulness.
Jesus honoured men..he showed gratitude. Thanksgiving was a major part of Jesus’s life and ministry. He healed ten lepers, only one came back to say thank you. His gratitude paced way for a bigger and greater dimension of wholeness.
Luke 17:11-19
There is nothing that is too small not to say thank you. It’s pride to trivialise a favor done to us because you’d miss out on something bigger when you don’t appreciate the little.
In addition to that, let people be able to trust you and rely on you. It’s called integrity, it opens up doors for you. Let yours be a different narrative even when people hurt you badly. A man that hath friends must shew himself to be friendly…
Proverbs 18:24
We need to develop that capacity to relate with people.