Good Prayer Warriors, Bad Receivers: Speak the Favour of God

Sermon outline

Favour is put to work by your mouth: fill your heart with God's promises, personalise them and say them, refuse every evil report, and walk as the righteous whom the Lord surrounds with favour like a shield.

1. Give due diligence to the Word: carry the promises and personalise them

   Beyond hearing him teach, he wants each person to carry the promises of favour everywhere, take them out anywhere and read them aloud. He reads the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 from the Amplified and shows how he makes them his own, saying and even singing at home that the blessing of the Lord is on him sitting down, standing up, walking in and walking out. People spend as much time whining, murmuring and complaining, so they might as well meditate on the Word.

   Illustration: Seven ways your enemies will flee, and he says you can make it nine and give them two more ways to run. Eat the book, digest it, bring it up and chew it again.

   “You're going to give yourself wholly to something in order to get the result.”

   • Deuteronomy 28:2-10
   • Proverbs 10:22
   • Joshua 1:8

2. A surplus of prosperity, spoken out of your mouth

   The Amplified promises a surplus of prosperity: more than enough to meet your need and bless somebody else. God opens His good treasury, the heavens, to give rain, which he takes as the anointing falling on your land so that the seed you have sown yields a harvest. Praying and coming to church are good, but this is about making your way prosperous, and you remove the boulders and mountains in your path with words. He has them say 'I'm happy' and points out that nobody could say it without smiling: speaking God's word of favour releases a force in the same way.

   Illustration: God has a treasury, and it is not called the Reserve Bank.

   “The sword is only effective if spoken out of your mouth.”

   • Deuteronomy 28:11-13
   • Ephesians 6:17

3. The fullness of the blessing: begin to confess it

   Paul did not say he would pray about it. He said he was sure that when he came he would come in the fullness of the blessing. In the same way, when their pastor has spent time with God and comes to the church, he comes with a blessing to impart, and all they have to do is receive it. He then reads from his notebook a prophecy he heard from Kenneth Copeland about a manifestation of the blessing that will drive out debt, and stops on the word he wants to emphasise: confess. Tonight the confession is favour, not prosperity, prayer or fasting.

   Illustration: He says debt is a financial sickness, a financial leprosy, and that it will have to leave the way leprosy left the lepers of old.

   “When I come to the church, I come with the fullness of the blessing.”

   • Romans 15:29

4. God is your source: get in a posture to receive

   The prophecy speaks of blessing beyond your income, from where you have no idea. So do not limit God to your salary, and do not try to work out which person will be the channel. God is the source of your total supply, for a life with nothing missing and nothing broken. The Lord told him in prayer that His people are good prayer warriors but bad receivers. To work, it must be said first: once you say it, you are in a posture to receive it.

   Illustration: In a game of cricket many people can bowl the ball, but some of them need to learn to strike it.

   “You must be in a posture to receive from God.”

   • Philippians 4:19

5. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks

   Here is a key: get enough of God's Word in your heart and it will come out of your mouth. He gets up and goes to sleep speaking it. Idle words are non-productive, inoperative words, and he stresses that you are judged by them in this life too, because whatever you say that is not in line with God's Word works against you and against His favour. Bless yourself with your mouth morning and evening.

   Illustration: Pastor Zubeda came round to his study to see what he was up to, and found him saying aloud that he is blessed standing up.

   “I want your words to work for you.”

   • Matthew 12:33-37

6. Favour with God and with men: make the scripture yours

   He turns Luke 2:40 into a personal confession: I am growing, I am waxing strong in spirit, I am filled with wisdom, and the grace and favour of God is upon me. He repeats the definition of favour as friendly or kind regard, goodwill, approval, unfair partiality and favouritism. You need favour with men as well as with God, so do not go around fighting with everybody, and confess favour with your boss, your supervisor and those around you. Laban learned by experience that he was blessed because of Jacob. Meditate on promotion and favour, not on the recession.

   Illustration: When he was working and praying for an increase, the whole department got one, and he believes they were blessed because of him. Your boss may come and say, 'Name me your wages.'

   “Not only do you need favor with God, but you need favor with men.”

   • Luke 2:40
   • Luke 2:52
   • Genesis 30:27-28

7. The first two words: association and integrity

   He reminds them of the first word he gave on an earlier night, association, and has them write it down again. The second word he introduced was to always operate in integrity, whatever others say, and he gives Proverbs 11:27 for it: the one who earnestly seeks good finds favour, and trouble comes to the one who seeks evil.

   “As you operate in integrity, God's favor comes on you.”

   • Proverbs 11:27

8. Set a guard over my mouth: refuse the evil report

   From Psalm 141 he prays for a guard over the mouth and a watch over the door of the lips, and not to eat the delicacies of evil men, which he takes as not speaking like them or receiving their words. Evil words are not only swear words. The ten spies brought an evil report that there were giants in the land, while Joshua and Caleb said we are well able. If a mountain is before you, move it, and if there is no door, create one by your faith.

   “Evil words is any word that comes against the word of God.”

   • Psalm 141:1-4
   • Numbers 13:30-32

9. The windows of heaven open one way: that tree you don't touch

   In what he calls a side trail, he says no amount of praying or singing opens the windows of heaven. Only the tithe does, and God's 'if I will not open' is personal to each tither. In Christ the Garden of Eden system is restored, and as Adam was told not to touch one tree, the believer is told not to touch the tithe, which is holy to the Lord. He and his family tithe, and the church gives a full tenth of its income to field ministries. With the window open you are already in the way: you open doors, your clothes last, and the anointing works for you. He adds that the ground matters, so tithe into an anointed ministry.

   Illustration: He sings a line of the chorus about opening the floodgates of heaven and letting it rain, and says it sounds good but it is not right.

   “There's only one way to open the windows of heaven.”

   • Malachi 3:10-11
   • Genesis 2:15-17
   • Deuteronomy 28:1-14
   • Deuteronomy 29:5
   • Leviticus 27:30
   • 2 Corinthians 5:7

10. Let the righteous strike me, and let no corrupt word out

    Coming back to Psalm 141, he says a righteous man striking you with the Word is kinder than an evil man telling you how nice you are while you stay under a curse. He used to read Ephesians 4:29 as only a ban on swearing, but corrupt communication is anything out of line with God's Word, such as saying you are poor or sick when the Word says otherwise. Words are meant to impart grace to the hearers, and you are one of the hearers. Evil speaking is the same as the evil report: 'I can't do it', 'I won't be able to pay my bills'.

    “Even when I speak, I'm also speaking to me.”

    • Psalm 141:3-5
    • Ephesians 4:29-32

11. The third word: be confident in your righteousness

    From Job 33:26 he gives the third word. The New Testament teaches that we are the righteousness of God, whatever anyone says about you, however rotten you feel, and even if you had an argument before church. Do not let the devil tell you that you are not worthy to come to church because you got angry: you are worthy by the blood of Jesus. In Christ we have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, and we think and function like Him.

    “Righteousness is a nature imparted to your spirit when you were born again.”

    • Job 33:26
    • 2 Corinthians 5:21
    • Philippians 2:5
    • 1 Corinthians 1:30

12. The fourth word: you are surrounded with a shield

    Psalm 5:12 adds to the last word: the Lord blesses the righteous and surrounds him with favour as with a shield, in front, behind, beside, above and below. Do not go by feeling. Your car, your books, your clothes, your house and even your street are blessed because you are there, and people are blessed because of you. He says he is giving nine words with eighteen scriptures, and that this one must be the last for tonight.

    Illustration: Children blowing bubbles: you are in a bubble of blessing. A storm recently hit the area around his house in Hillcrest and his house and the neighbours on either side were untouched. Praying before the service, he heard sirens going down North Coast Road and was assured it was no one he knew.

    “You are in a bubble of blessing.”

    • Psalm 5:12
    • Philippians 4:6