Transcription
We share this morning on recognizing God's gift of favorable relationships in your journey here on earth. One of the most valuable gifts that God will bless you with is the gift, the blessing of favorable relationships. It will interest you to note that even our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he needed favorable relationships.
So right at the beginning of his journey here on earth, you will read in Luke chapter 2:52 that he grew taller. He increased in stature. Then God increased him in wisdom. Then God increased him in favor because favor flows from two major directions. Favor flows first from God, and then favor flows in the eyes and sight and hearts of men.
But today, within this short time of the word, the spirit of God wants to open your eyes to see the deepest kind of relationship you could ever encounter in your journey here on earth. And that's the, that's the relationship that flows from the soul. It flows from the soul of men, of women towards you. You have often heard about people having a soft spot for someone. Now, the secret behind that mystery is that it flows from the soul of the person, much deeper than just the heart. It flows from the soul, from the inner being of the person, and is mysterious.
You are also going to find out that often times it is actually happening just as a result of divine influence, that it is by the influence of God that that man loves you so much. It is by the influence of God that that woman loves you so much. So in Proverbs 18 verse 22, Contemporary English Version, made a very powerful statement, says, "A man's greatest treasure is his wife." And I encourage you to sometimes ask questions when you read certain things in scripture. Now, a man's greatest treasure is his wife. She is a gift from the Lord.
Relationships are so powerful. And there is a common saying that when God wants to bless you, one of the ways he does it is to use supportive relationships, destiny helpers, true friends, and well-wishers. Well-wishers. Many of you are not aware that there are people that have helped you very significantly, and you never knew they helped you. Those who operate in the intelligence community will understand this better. Those who carry out background checks and are asked to present a list of certain people to be appointed, promoted, will understand this better that unknown to you, God had given you so much goodwill, so much approval in the heart of certain people. And when that happens, they have a soft spot for you. And they are willing, they are well-disposed, favorably disposed to always do something in your favor when the opportunity comes. And many times, even when the opportunity is not there, they go out of their way to do something good for you.
In Proverbs chapter 17:E1 17, Proverbs 17 verse 17, Living Bible, it says, "A true friend, not just a friend. A true friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need." So they are divine helpers and partners in destiny. God uses them in different areas of life. Some of them will support you for a particular need, for a particular goal to be achieved, and they may disappear after that. Some will support you at a certain age of your life. God will place them there to teach you, to train you, to mold your character, to mentor you at a particular age, phase, or season of your life. Then there are some that God will bring to support you for a lifetime. For a lifetime. I pray that God, more than ever before, will begin to send your way lifetime destiny helpers.
Can that man or woman say the loudest amen? [Applause]
So you see this clearly in Proverbs 17:17, Contemporary English Version. It says, "A friend is there to help in any situation." Look at that. It says, "and relatives are born with a divine purpose to do what? To share our troubles." So how does this happen? This is the reason why naturally you will see that relatives will be inclined, will be inclined to help a member of the family because God has already put it there in their hearts. It is divinely programmed to happen that way. Says relatives are born to hear our troubles. So God will impress their hearts to be well-disposed towards the son, the daughter, your siblings, members of your family and household.
Apart from family, another dimension of people will bring are non-members of the family that would have goodwill. Can somebody say goodwill?
Goodwill towards you. And then it will evolve into friendship, and some will evolve into close friendship. It's not only husbands and wives that eventually look like each other. We have seen instances where two friends over 20, 30 years eventually begin to look like each other. So God has ordained to use certain people to help you, to prepare you, to support you, and favor you in the journey of life. So God will often use your biological family. He will also use well-wishers. God uses the goodwill, the support, and favor of people to bless you in the journey of life. Three things, note them. Goodwill. Someone say goodwill.
Support. Someone say support.
And if you're expecting the three of them, someone say favor.
So what are the three things? Goodwill, support, and favor of people to bless you. I pray for someone here that between today and December 31st, you will experience an unprecedented flow of favor with men, so much goodwill, so much support, and so much favor coming even from strangers in the name of Jesus.
Luke 2:52, Luke 52:52, The Voice, it says, "And Jesus kept on growing in wisdom, in physical stature." Then what next do you see there? "in favor with God." That's always the first one. "And in favor with others." For you to know that this is a divine pattern that God even uses it for his chosen ones. 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 26. You will see exactly the same pattern with a young boy Samuel that God raised as a prophet.
1 Samuel 2:26, The Voice, "He said, 'The boy Samuel grew tall, just the same way like Jesus, wise in the ways of the Lord, and in favor with God and the people he served.'" One man that enjoyed this everywhere he went, everywhere he was, was a man called Joseph. In Genesis chapter 39 verse 21-22, Contemporary English Version, it says, "This Lord, the Lord helped him," referring to Joseph, "and was good to him. He even made the jailer like Joseph so much." Can you see the secret behind people's sympathy for you, people's empathy for you, people's special preference that they give to you from time to time? So it is not sometimes about you or about something about how you look or the way you speak. It is deeper than that. God was the one that made the jailer like Joseph so much. And when God wants to do it, he will move beyond the heart. He will the soul. When somebody loves you from his soul, from her soul. When the man blesses you from his soul, that's the deepest, the deepest kind of blessing you can receive.
In verse 22, he said, "He put him in charge." God had already touched his heart. He put him in charge of the other prisoners and everything that was done in the jail. In the family, he was a favorite. Something interesting you will see in Genesis 36:7:3, said, "And Jacob loved Sol Joseph more than he loved the other children because he was the son of his old age." Now, that wasn't really the reason. That was not really the reason because Joseph was not the last son. After Joseph, there was Joseph's younger brother. So if it was just having a soft spot for the last born, the moment Benjamin came into the picture, he should have shifted to Benjamin. But that special fatherly favor that was flowing towards Joseph stayed with Joseph, even with the coming of a younger one in the name of Benjamin. So it was divine. God will single you out for special favor. [Applause]
But be, be careful. Be careful because it has to be well managed. And I want to encourage parents here. This is a unity service. Every one of us will benefit from favored relationships. People, just God would raise one, two, three, four people that will just have that special love for you. Within almost every family, especially large families, you will see there. And in fact, as you listen to the message today and look at your family, you can write down who this member of the family has a soft spot for. You can write it down. Is there husbands that have a soft spot for their wives? We know them. Wives that have a soft spot for their husbands? People know them. But it has to be well managed.
If you read Genesis 37:3-4, by verse 4, you read, read that the brothers of Joseph became angry. And one of the things that triggered it in verse 3, you will see there, the father was going to make a special attire for Jac, uh, Joseph. I believe the way he, God had blessed him, he could have done the same for the remaining children. But he made it only, only for Joseph. And that is just one that the Bible cited. Many things would have been happening that, you know, the, the special love for Joseph was just too obvious. So in wisdom, in wisdom, sometimes when you just want to bless your favorite, intentionally do it for some other persons in that same cycle. It is wisdom, and you'll be, you'll be reducing the possibility of resentment, grudges towards you and towards that favored one. Are God's favor right? Listen to this message now. You need to have this in mind. And if you are the one being favored, don't also become proud and begin to flaunt it.
In Acts chapter 7 verse 10, God's Word Translation, it says, "And rescued him from all his suffering. When Joseph stood in the presence of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, God gave Joseph divine favor." Those of you who are serving in certain platforms, certain organizations, certain institutions, serving in government at different levels. Today, the hand of the Lord come upon you with divine favor in the sight of everyone that you relate with in the name of Jesus.
Now, we need to ask ourselves, why must Jesus increase in favor with men? Because that is what Luke chapter 2:52 tells us. Why did this begin from his youth? Just like the prophet Samuel, in the journey of life, you will need people to fulfill different aspects of your destiny. You will need the goodwill of people. Sometimes what will bring that move of protection will come out of the goodwill of someone. Support, favors will come from different people. Many of the great things you are destined to achieve in life, you can't achieve them alone. You are going to need people for God to use them and bring it to pass. So God influences people to show you mercy. God influences people to show you favor. Like I said in Genesis 37:3, Joseph was not the only child born to Jacob in his old age. Yet Joseph became and remained his favorite son. Favor in the eyes of people for different aspects of the journey of life to be fulfilled.
Now, take note of this category of people. Your God-sent helpers and partners in destiny would often manifest as friends or well-wishers. There was a time that Israel needed to move forward and take over the promised land. And, uh, before they could go into Jericho, they had sent two spies. And the moment they came into the town, something happened. By instinct and also possibly intuition, they were moved. They saw many houses, but something just told them, go to that house. They were not given any particular house to go to. Israel did not have an asset, human asset in Jericho working with them to give them intel. But as they come, they came in there, they saw houses, but by their intuition, they were led to one house. And when they went there, they found out that it was a brothel run by one woman called Rahab, the prostitute. Do you know that this woman had a soft spot for the people of Israel? The moment they came into her house, without begging her, she was already well-disposed to assisting them in their mission. And that woman was not an ordinary woman. She, she, she was grounded. She knew how to hide them. They didn't tell her. She knew how to hide them to the extent that when the soldiers came, they actually searched and went up where they were, but they didn't see them.
Listen to this. God will use people that are not godly to help you. So be careful about there are so many dynamics to this journey of life. God will use people that are not yet God's people to help you. But one of the ways God will do it is that he will touch their heart towards you. And if he really wants to give you the deepest measure of favor from such persons, it will touch their soul. It will touch their soul. So a soft spot for any person or group of people emanates from the soul of the person from which it is flowing, and it is divine. That is why it survives no matter the offense. Somebody will come to you and borrow money and not pay. If it's other people doing the same thing, there is a predictable reaction from you. But when it comes to someone you have a soft spot for, somehow you, you tamper justice. You know, you, you just, you, you are more willing to forgive. You are more willing to pardon. You are more willing to give the person a little more time. But you won't do that with other people. So this woman helped them. So this is exactly what God does. He raises, he touches the hearts of people to show you mercy, to show you favor, to have to extend goodwill towards you, support you, even sometimes beyond your expectation. I pray that these closing few days of this month, God will give someone listening right now an end-of-month testimony. And God will use someone to make it happen. Praise ye the Lord.
So we begin to close it up because of time. We're going to take quite a number of things today. I go now to Psalm 103. It says, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name." This verse encourages individuals to praise and bless God from their innermost being, recognizing his goodness and benefits. Psalm 103 verse 1 is a powerful verse that calls for a complete dedication of one's life to praising God. In The Voice version, he said, "Oh my soul, come praise the Lord." I told you, and I'm still emphasizing that the deepest and the best that can come out of any person in terms of goodwill, in terms of honor, in terms of appreciation, it comes not just from the heart, it comes from the soul. Beyond that, there is nothing more. So he says, "Oh my soul, come praise the eternal." The Voice version, "with all that is in me, body, emotions, mind, and will. Every part of who I am, praise his holy name." I want to encourage you from today to do this if you want to touch the heart of God.
In 1 Samuel 18 verse 1, it describes Jonathan's soul being knit with David, indicating a powerful loving bond. This is often cited as an example of a godly soul tie formed through friendship. 1st Samuel 18:1, New King James Version, it says, "Now it came to pass, when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." You see the power, the power of a soft spot. When God decides to touch the heart, God saw the enmity that was coming from Saul towards David, to the extent that Saul was going to make attempts, several attempts to kill him. But God moved ahead and touched the hearts of certain people, including the son of Saul, in great favor and mercy towards the same David.
There are some things we should not mistake a soft spot for. There are things that look similar, but we should not mistake a soft spot for such, for such things. A soft spot is not always due to a good heart or a good character. Please have this in mind. So when someone has a soft spot for you and is treating you so well, it doesn't always apply that the person has a good heart or a good character. People who are mean, surprisingly, have one, two, three, four people that they are consistently kind and merciful towards. It can only be God. Rahab, for instance, had a soft spot for the people of Israel.
When God wanted to provide for Elijah during the time of famine in 1 Kings chapter 17 verse 1 to 8, of all birds, God chose the ravens. If you go and check on them, you'll discover that these ravens are completely different from all of God's creation in terms of motherhood. 95% would always care for their offspring. But ravens are different, completely self-centered. They wouldn't even care for their offspring. And it was this stingy, self-centered creature that God chose to use to provide for Elijah morning and evening as long as that situation was going on.
Don't mistake a soft spot for lust. Yeah. Lust is centered around physical attraction and with the ultimate goal of sexual intimacy. That is not a soft spot. That is not a soft spot. So when someone has a soft spot for you, it's not about physical attraction. The person may appreciate one or two things about you physically, but that is not the real pull. And certainly, the goal is not for sexual pleasure. So you must also have that in mind.
Don't mistake a soft spot for fear. When you see many people respect, including police officers, they respect certain people, elderly people, they respect maybe clergymen. It's not necessarily due to fear. They just have a soft spot for people in that category of citizens.
Don't also mistake a soft spot for charm or manipulation. Even in marriage, people suspect sometimes that, ah, our brother has been charmed, our sister has been charmed by this spouse, that man has been charmed by his wife because the love and favor is so overwhelming, consistent, and persistent flowing from the other spouse. Sometimes people will want you to act in certain ways, and that husband or wife will refuse, and so they begin to, you know, conclude that perhaps this thing is not even ordinary, maybe they have brainwashed her, brainwashed him, is under manipulation. That is what happens when people have a soft spot for a particular person.
So there are challenges that come with it, and like I said earlier, we should try and be sensitive. Avoid isolated favors when we could, in wisdom, just make it rub on a few others within that same cycle. Dealing with your children, please apply this wisdom. Dealing with, even at the workplace, single one person for bonuses, single one person for promotion, single one person for international training. After a while, they will gang up. People will be bitter. But if there are three, four on the list, it will be different. So we need to be intentional in extending favors to those that God has given us a soft spot for. And God will bless you for doing so in the name of Jesus Christ.
And please also know when to say no to people you have a soft spot for, because it will happen at a point in time that person will realize that you have a soft spot for him, for her, and they, we are all human. Someday they are going to attempt to overstretch that goodwill. We naturally should exercise restraint. There are people we know if we ask them and ask again, they will do it. But that we should have self-control and show some restraint. But not everybody does this. So you have to also know when to say no, even to that child you love so much, intentionally so you don't have an ultimate negative outcome.
So the last scripture is the scripture where we started. Proverbs 18:22 says, Contemporary English Version, "A man's greatest treasure is his wife." And so today, we say God bless all the wives, all our mothers that have been standing in love, in support, in covering over not just their husbands, but virtually the entire family. Can everybody say amen? [Music]