Prison to Palace in One Day: 10 Things the Favour of God Does

Sermon outline

Favour is God's goodwill and preferential treatment toward His children, so raise your expectation, believe it is for you, confess it and celebrate it, and it will promote you as it promoted Jesus and Joseph.

1. Jesus grew in four areas

   As a child Jesus grew strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the favour of God was upon Him, just as the Lord blessed Samson as he grew. Jesus grew in wisdom, which is the divine application of God's wisdom and not school knowledge, in stature, in favour with God and in favour with men.

   “Jesus grew in wisdom, Jesus grew in stature, Jesus grew in the favor with God, and he grew with favor with men.”

   • Luke 2:40
   • Judges 13:24
   • Luke 2:52

2. Raise your expectation, believe it and confess it

   God forgives, heals, redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love, and His love is with those who fear Him and keep His covenant. Since Pentecost the Holy Spirit is with every believer, so raise your expectation, believe that favour is for you and keep confessing favour whatever your circumstances.

   “Because when you confess favor, you will begin to experience it.”

   • Psalm 103:2-6
   • Psalm 103:17-18
   • Acts 2:1-4

3. What favour means

   Favour means to treat with high regard and approval: something granted out of goodwill rather than as payment, a gift not earned or bought, a token of love and friendship, and preferential treatment with advantages and special privileges. You don't need a religion of dos and don'ts or a pious act to enjoy it, and when you acknowledge God's favour, it motivates Him to favour you even more.

   “When you acknowledge God's favor, it motivates Him to favor you even more.”

4. Ten things favour produces

   Favour brings supernatural increase and promotion, restoration of everything the enemy stole, honour in the midst of adversaries, increased assets especially in property, and great victories in the midst of impossibilities. It brings recognition when you least expect it, prominence and preferential treatment, petitions granted by ungodly authorities, rules and policies reversed to your advantage, and battles won that you didn't have to fight.

   “Favor from the Lord guarantees success.”

   • Deuteronomy 6:11-12

5. God is on your side

   In his 40th year of serving the Lord, he says he is not an original but the sum total of the men and women of God he has learned from through television, books and tapes, which are an investment, not a loss. God is for you, not against you, and His goodness and peace will override the enemy. Remember that it is the Lord who gives power to get wealth, because some who start humbly forget God once He prospers them.

   “God is not against you. God is for you.”

   • Deuteronomy 8:18
   • Isaiah 1:19
   • Psalm 5:12

6. Favour promotes you

   Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in everything, so he put him in charge of his whole household; if God did that under the old covenant, how much more for you now. Uncommon favour moved Joseph from the prison to Pharaoh's palace in a single day. You cannot buy or beg for favour; you appropriate it by faith, and it can turn tragedy into triumph within minutes.

   “Just in one day, it was favor that moved Joseph from the prison to the palace.”

   • Genesis 39:3-4

7. Facts about uncommon favour

   Uncommon favour is a gift from God that can stop if it is not recognised and celebrated, and it is guaranteed to those who qualify through acts of obedience. It is when God causes someone to want to become a problem solver in your life, and it is an exception to the rule. Much of what his ministry has accomplished came through favour, and once you have seen a principle work, it works again and again.

   “Uncommon favor is when God causes someone to desire to become a problem solver in your life.”

8. How favour grows

   Favour begins with a seed from you, so he keeps to a balanced middle road on sowing and reaping and practises it. Favour is an attitude of goodness, not a payment, and it grows over time: when he turned around and put the kingdom of God first, he began to see favour. Don't compare yourself with others; favour can come in a day, as it did for Ruth when Boaz accepted her, it comes when intercessors pray, as for Peter, and it begins when you solve a problem for someone, as Joseph did for the butler.

   Illustration: A farmer who plants nothing and sits watching the soil will see no harvest; only when seed is planted can a harvest be expected.

   “Favor is an attitude of goodness towards you, not an exchange of payment for something you have done.”

   • Proverbs 11:1
   • Matthew 6:33
   • Luke 2:52
   • Ruth 4:13
   • Acts 12:5
   • Genesis 40:1-23
   • Genesis 41:9-14