"THOU SHALT ARISE AND HAVE MERCY ON ZION FOR THE TIME TO FAVOUR HER,YEA,THE SET TIME IS COME"
Divine favour means God helping or supporting man in a unique way or manner. It also means divine acceptance,preference and worth. It delivers to somebody what he/she cannot get by strength nor might but gives what only God can give.When God's favour is at work in anyone's life,his mercies automatically become available to such a person and when his mercies are available,one is not judged according to the multitude of one's errors. When one is favoured,God takes over one's battles.It has made some people to excel on the earth in such a way that is extraordinary. It can single out one for preservation from multitudes scheduled for destruction. A man that is favoured can secure a glorious destiny/future for his/her lineage.
Favour brings about divine blessings. It secures divine presence and it is divine presence that secures evil dissapperance from one. When a man is favoured,It is seen by ALL. It radiates to everyone around such a man. A favoured person will always overcome oppositions come what may as they see oppositions as ladders to their greatness. It is also FAVOUR that gives meaning to LABOUR as it shows that one has really laboured because without it, labour is futile. Divine favour secures deliverance from one's enemies daily. A favoured person prospers where ever he goes because God is with him. Favour is God's license of rewarding man for excellence. It can also act as a shield preserving one from one form of evil or the other. When a man pleases the lord in any way,God uses favour(and not dollars) to reward him. It is a gift that God gives to some people for one reason or the other. It can make one a household name in one day. It brings about divine remembrance whereby one is remembered for good. It sorts out people that are dear to God from multitudes of people.
People that are clothed with favour exhibits one/two attributes that makes it stick on them. It is very important to highlight such attributes so that we can also partake of it...The attributes are :
(1).OBEDIENCE: It was Obedience that distinguished Abraham for divine favour. God told him to leave his father and mother and sojourn to a foreign land.When he obeyed,God favoured him. Moses also obeyed evry instruction that proceeded from God's mouth and that secured him God's favour. Elijah,Samuel,Joshua were not left out as partakers of God's favour because they were men addicted to obedience.
(2).RIGHTEOUSNESS:It was righteousness that distinguished Noah for favour in his time. Out of everyone,He was the only one found righteous and blameless and that secured him God's favour.
(3).HUMILITY:It is another attribute that can distinguish one from the multitude for favour. Moses was favoured because he was the meekest of all men during his time.Joshua also enjoyed God's favour because pride was not found in him. David was also favoured because despite his exploits when he was a youth,he still humbled himself before Saul and God exalted him in due time.
BENEFICIARIES OF DIVINE FAVOUR.
(1).ABRAHAM***He was favoured by God to be a great nation. He was blessed,great and he was a blessing. He was rich in cattle,silver and in gold. He was blessed to the extent that the land that he shared with Lot could not contain both of them.
(2).NOAH***He was favoured in the sight of the LORD in a world of wickedness. God made a convenant with Noah that he would enter an ark of protection,he and his sons and his son's wife. Even after the flood receded,God remembered Noah, blessed him and his sons.
(3).ISAAC***He was favoured by God when he sowed in a foreign land and he reaped a hundred fold. He was blessed of God to the extent that he was great,had possession of herds,great store of servants and he was the envy of everyone in a foreign land.
(4).JACOB***He was favoured by God unto fruitfulness and multiplication. God promised him that nations and a company of nations shall be of him and that kings shall proceed out of his loins. All of these came to pass. The lord spoke further to give unto him and the seed after him the land which He gave to Abraham and Isaac.All of these promises became a reality.
(5).JOSEPH***The lord favoured him to the extent that that God made all that Potiphar did to prosper. He was favoured to the point that that potiphar made him overseer of his house and all that he had. The LORD blessed Potiphar's house for Joseph's sake and the blessing of the lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the field.The Lord also showed him mercy and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.In the Prison,the lord was with him and that which he did,the lord made to prosper. God also favoured him to be the ruler of the house of Pharaoh such that according to his words should all the people be ruled and only in the throne was Pharaoh greater than him(2nd in command). Pharaoh set him as ruler over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh also gave him a wife without paying a dowry in a foreign land.
(6).MOSES***He was favoured by God to bring the children of Israel by a mighty hand out of the land of Egypt. He was a great man in the land of Egypt,in the sight of Pharaoh`s servants and in the sight of the people. God used him to wrought diverse signs and wonders. There arose not a prophet since in Israel like Moses.
(7).JOSHUA***He was favoured of God to lead the children of Israel into the promise land.Besides Caleb,he was chosen by God to enter into the promise land out of all of them that left Egypt in his generation.God magnified him in the sight of all Israel. God was with him so that his fame was noised throughout the country. He commanded the sun to stand still and the sun obeyed him."For there was no day like that before it or after it,that the lord hearkened to the voice of a man like He did unto Joshua"
(8).DAVID***He was favoured of God to kill a six cubit tall uncircumcised philistine;Goliath of Gath who was a threath to Israel. David was also favoured to be the king over God's people and he never lost a single battle.
(9).SOLOMON***He was favoured of God to succeed David;his father as the king over God's people and God gave him wisdom when he asked for it.The wisdom that he had surpassed the wisdom of everyone in his time. God also showered him with great prosperity and he enjoyed peace and rest during his reign as the king over Israel.
(10).NAPHTALI***He was satisfied with favour and full of the blessings of God.
(11).ESTHER***She was an orphan and jew that was to contest with many virgins for the post of Queen Vashti. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all that looked upon her. And the king loved her above all the women and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins:so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her Queen instead of Vashti.When she was to defend/deliver her people from the destructive hands of Haman,she also obtained favour before the king.
(12).ISRAEL***These are the descendants of Abraham.Because of the convenant that God made with Abraham,God had a special interest in Israel.God did a lot of amazing things for Israel because of his convenant with their ancestors.He raised up a deliverer to save them in the land where they were afflicted.When their taskmasters won`t let them go,God wrought a number of plauges in Egypt to the extent that their male children were slaughtered for Israel's sake.
*****And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians and it shall come to pass that when they are going,they shall not go empty handed but every woman shall borrow of her neighbour and of her that sojourneth in her house,jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment and it shall be put upon your sons and daughters and you shall spoil the Egyptians.And the lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians.
*****And the lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians,so that they lent unto them such things as they required and they spoiled the Egyptians.
*****And the lord was gracious unto Israel and had compassion on them,and had respect unto them because of his convenant with Abraham,Isaac and Jacob and would not destroy them,neither cast He them from his presence as yet.
*****And because God loved their fathers,therefore He choose their seed after them and brought them out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt to drive out nations from before them greater and mightier than they are,to bring them in and to give them their land for an inheritance.
*****For they got the land in possession not by their own sword,neither did their arm save them:but God's right hand and his arm,and the light of his countenance,because of his favour towards them.
Till today,as small as Israel is in the world,they are a force to be reckoned with because of God's favour on them which is sealed by convenant.
Time will not allow me to tell you about people like;
* Mephiboseth who was favoured to sit at the king's table to eat and dine with him.
* Daniel who was favoured to prove interpretations to the dreams of a king Nebucadnezzar amidst professional sorcerers.
* Mary who was favoured to be a vessel that conveyed our saviour to the world.
God's favour to live an enviable/worthy life on the face of the earth is still very much available with Him.Let us endeavour to do what the above mentioned people did so that we can experience a full manifestation of what they experienced i.e DIVINE FAVOUR!