The Favor of Yah (God) is a popular subject of many bible teachers in christian circles today. Several books have been written on the subject selling millions of copies. People clap with joy and excitement at the many sermons on the subject because after all, it is nice to be favored, right? To be singled out as special? To be the subject of special treatment and attention? To walk into an airline and get bumped to first class, or to have the owner of a restaurant comp your meal or give you a dessert on the house and it is not your birthday? These are nice little perks that the Most High does for his children and it is always nice to be the recipient of such attention, but we must not miss the true purpose of Yah's favor, and that is to empower the man or woman her has selected to fulfill his divine purposes on the earth.When Yah selects someone to fulfill a plan he has ordained, the assignment is never an easy one, so his favor is not a luxury, it is a necessity to bring it to completion. There are many key figures in the bible that received tremendous amounts of favor from Yah, but if you look at their lives, what they had to face and endure to accomplish what he assigned, you will understand favor's underlying purpose in Yah's overall plan.
Joseph had a dream that his family would one day give honor to him, but the path that lead to that prophecy being fulfilled was extremely difficult. The bible says he was given favor by Yah when he was a slave and when he was in prison. To sustain him through all his difficulties and to position him in a place where he would come in contact with the person (the cup bearer of Pharaoh) who would be his key to the place and his promotion to become Egypt's Prime Minister, he needed Yah's favor and lots of it. Queen Esther, a Hebrew orphan and captive in exile was gathered along with probably hundreds of other young women to be a part of the Kings harem and possibly his future Queen. The odds of her being chosen by the king were slim to none without divine intervention. Yah gave her favor with the right people who groomed her and prepared her to be presented to the king and she was chosen to be queen. However, her new crown was to position her to help save her people from annihilation not so she could sit back and eat dates all day. Noah found favor with Yah to build an ark (that took over 100 years to build) to protect his family and many animals in the midst of Yah's judgement on the earth. Yah let Moses find favor with the Pharaoh's daughter as a baby and his life was not only spared during a time when male Hebrew boys were being killed, but he was raised under the watchful eye and protection of the very people who called for his execution (if that is not favor I do not know what is). Miriam (Mary) found favor with Yah to be the mother of our Messiah Y'shua which put her integrity in jeopardy (being pregnant and unmarried) and put her in danger as some time after messiah was born as King Herod sought to kill Y'shua.
I want you to see something here. The common thread that connects all these people together is this, Yah had placed tremendous amounts of favor on these people because they were called to be in a position that would save lives, many, many lives. When you see people given resources, supplies, access to people in places of influence and other things in ways that are out of the ordinary and in some situations just impossible under natural circumstances, that is Yah's favor at work to assist them in saving lives, not to drown themselves in excess. Not to say they do not enjoy some of the benefit, but that is not the sole reason. With the exception of Miriam (Mary) every single one of the aforementioned people were called to be deliverers (Mary gave birth to the greatest deliverer of them all, Y'shua our messiah) . The favor that Yah gave them was not just for their personal benefit, but for the benefit of many. Noah finding favor with Yah to build that ark not only saved his life, the life of his family, and countless animals, but it delayed Yah's judgement for over 100 years (the length of time it took to build the ark) giving the people around him extended time to repent. Sometimes the people around you are spared (or at least delayed)Yah's immediate judgement because of his favor on you as you fulfill his purpose in their presence. Yah is always about the greater good and for his glory alone. Joseph was able to save the lives of millions (including his family) during a very severe famine that could have destroyed millions of people because of the favor that ear marked his life.
Yah can show favor on anyone for any reason without answering to any of us. His word is chuck full of ways his favor is made manifest to us and it's benefits:
1. Favor is a Shield (Ps 5:12)
2. Favor accompanies wise choices (Prov 3:1-5 & Prov 8:35)
3. When a man takes a wife (Prov 18:22) how is that for Yah being pro-marriage?
4. Takes away reproach (Luke 1:25)
5. Humility brings favor (James 4:6)
There is an abundance of scriptures on the subject and it tells me Yah's enjoys bringing his favor into situations to change men's lives and glorify his name. However like with anything, there is always the potential for abuse or mishandling of such a precious gift. We must take measures to always be grateful when Yah bestows his favor in our life but to also know that where much is given, much is required and he expects us to handle his benevolence properly. Yah's favor is not :
1. To be used as a get out of jail free card when we choose to continue to sin.
There are scriptures that document when Yah's people got into sin, their choices got them into hot water, they sought his favor and he helped them (II Chronicles 33:1-10) but in many of those situations, they stopped sinning and made amends. We get ourselves into pickles and we need help from Yah to get out of it. There is nothing wrong with enlisting Yah's help when we are in over our heads, my concern is that many preachers today are teaching Yah's people that he loves his kids sooooo much that what they do is of no consequence all they have to do is call on his name and presto his favor wipes away their mess. This is a dangerous and mis-leading teaching and I will be bold enough to say spits on Y'shuas sacrifice for us. He was severely beaten, whipped, and CRUCIFIED for our redemption. He did not die for our redemption for us to treat sin so cavalierly. If we find ourselves in a mess of our own choosing and Yah's bestows his favor on us and delivers us, we better gratefully take measures to not make light of it and neglect so great a salvation and it is not a license to do more of the same.
2. To manipulate circumstances to satisfy our greedy desires.
"Oh God give me favor to get that new car, promotion, to snag a husband, snag a wife, to hit the lotto, etc." and the "prayer" list goes on. Again I say this is not to say that Yah does not answer prayers like these, but I believe if he does, it is in alignment with his purpose, not so we can make a genie out of him. If we are asking for favor to obtain something we better consider why we are asking for it in the first place and really consider if it is in alignment with our Yah ordained purpose. If he answers that prayer, we may live to regret asking for it. King Hezekiah asked Yah to extend his life when the prophet told him he was about to die. He asked to remember him and Yah extended his life by 15 years during which time he got lifted up in pride, showed off Israels sacred treasures to a heathen king and fathered a child named Manasseh who succeeded him on the throne and was one of the most wicked kings Israel ever had. (II Kings 20). Yah's plans are bigger than we could imagine and it goes far beyond us trying to play the favor card to get "stuff" from him. If that is all we see favor for, we are in sad shape and missing the point.
I will share a true story of how one aspect of how Yah's favor works. I have a friend who is a pastor in Los Angeles who took a trip to see her sister last year in Texas. Her connecting flight was not for a few hours, but as soon as she landed she was informed that she had been upgraded to first class and put on an earlier flight. She was happy for the upgraded seat as she had been ill and a large comfortable seat was what she needed. Little did she know however that as soon as her plane left Dallas, a torado hit the area and had she been on her original flight, she would have been stuck in Dallas as they had to ground all the planes for a couple of days. In this scenario, Yah's favor had a specific purpose, that upgrade spared her a 2 day delay, possibly saved her life and she was treated to some extra perks to boot. Yah's favor always serves a multi-faceted purpose to accomplish much at once. Those two days she would have "lost" she was able to spend her sister (as planned) and experienced some spiritual breakthroughs for her ministry from which many people are benefiting. today.
I have another colleague who is an attorney whose passion is for orphans and fatherless children. I have personally witnessed her receiving an abundance of favor with heads of state, celebrities, and other people of influence to have access to funds and resources for her non-profit organization and other events related to her work. She uses her access to these things to help these neglected children have a shot at a better life. She does not use it for selfish reasons and because of her faithfulness, Yah has given her more.
The Yah we serve is awesome and there are times he shows us favor just because he loves us and as a sign to us he tends to the smallest details in our lives. I am not here to present Abba Yah as a tyrant who is selfish with his loving favor (far from it), but I just want to admonish us to stop and consider what his favor is really about; it is to help people, to save people from destruction and make their life and the lives of others better. Let's keep in mind favor's true purpose, to not take it for granted, to know we will give an account for how we use it, and to use it wisely.
Shalom
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