BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

The Bible tells us that if you and I belong to Christ—if we’ve made Jesus the Lord of our lives—then we “are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” In other words, whatever God promised to Abraham, He has also promised to us, as we see in Romans 4:16: “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace [divine favor], so that the promise might be sure to all the seed...’’ (NKJV). The Apostle Paul tells us that these promises are sure to the seed—or as we might say today, God’s promises are a sure thing. God intends for us to enjoy the fullness of every blessing that He promised to His people in Deuteronomy 28. As heirs of God’s promise, these blessings are our heritage. If we are living without the fulfillment of God’s promised blessings in our lives, then either we lack an understanding of our heritage or we are simply ignoring the promise that comes to us through our covenant with God. Genesis 12 contains a particular promise that God made to Abraham—one that applies to us as Abraham’s spiritual seed. God said, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing” (verse 2, NKJV). The Amplified version of this scripture says, “I will bless you [with abundant increase of favors].’’ In other words, God promised to increase His favor in Abraham’s life. An Abundant Increase An abundant increase in favor brought good things into Abraham’s life, and it will do the same for us. This kind of abundant favor is our heritage; it is available for us because we are the seed of Abraham. We can’t even imagine the good things God’s favor will accomplish in our lives, because God “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). As the Bible unfolds Abraham’s story, we see that God’s favor on his life caused him to become a very successful, prosperous and powerful man. No enemy could defeat him as he walked in the favor of God. Regardless of where he was or the circumstances he was facing, Abraham came through victoriously every time. At one point God said to him, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1, NKJV). When Abraham left his family and his country, he ended up right in the middle of the desert—but God still made him a winner. Of the end of Abraham’s life, the Bible says that “Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way” (Genesis 24:1, New International Version). God’s intent in establishing a covenant with Abraham was to create a channel by which He could bring blessing into Abraham’s life. Through the promise made to Abraham, God also has a channel through which to bring blessing into our lives. God wants us to walk in divine favor—the kind of favor that opens doors men say cannot be opened. Please remember that walking in divine favor does not mean we will never have any problems, face any opposition or experience any hurts. The point I’m making is simply that if we take the time to gain an understanding of our heritage of favor and then determine to walk in that favor on a daily basis, we will experience God moving in our lives in new and powerful ways. God Is Disposed to Show Favor The earliest record of God’s interaction with mankind paints a beautiful picture of His very nature, which is disposed to show favor: “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Genesis 1:28, NKJV). God’s grace and favor were manifested in the first blessing He pronounced over the man and woman whom He had created in His image: Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion. Within this one blessing, we see the very heart of God and the great favor that He has bestowed upon mankind. However, many people—even many Christians—are still in need of a revelation of this favor. FEB '14 : BVOV : 25

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