Divine Favor over the Patterns of Men

5/2004

In this day and hour we have heaped to ourselves teachers having itching ears.

And these teachers have told that God has laid out a whole bible full of patterns for us. . Patterns for our churches, patterns, for our ministries,  patterns for our lives, patterns for getting the gifts of the Spirit, patterns for getting our healing,  patterns for how to learn of God, and patterns to teach us even how to pray.

These teachers then tell is further that the Bible contains experiences we are all to have. The Moses experience, the Abraham experience, the Isaac experience, the Joseph experience, and the lists just keep going on and on.

So believers pray and seek God to become members of the Enoch company, people pray and seek God to become members of the Elijah Company, people pray and seek God for a John the Baptist ministry, and people pray for mantles of bygone prophets apostles and great preachers.

It should be self-evident the more that I say here, that while there are underlying truths to much of this, at the same time all of this is largely self-serving and an act of our ever searching lustful eye, for something, anything that we have not that would exalt us among the brethren.

What books did Mosses read? What promises Enoch claim? What bygone mantle did Elijah seek? Did Jesus confess His gift of healing until He received? Did Paul the Apostle fast and pray for the dead Christ to appear to him and convert him? 

Regarding this so great a cloud of witnesses, there are some common threads that occur in all these people’s lives:

“And he found favor in the eyes of God.”

“And he was pleasing in the eyes of the Lord.”

What you need to see in these hero’s of faith’s lives is there was something different about them as opposed to other men. 

There were certain qualities that caused God to sit up and take notice of these people. 

They had a certain purity of spirit that others did not.

This in turn caused them to not seek God for personal gain and status; instead they had an unquenchable longing to seek and know God for himself.

And in their hunger for God they were willing to do things other people wouldn’t do.

They were willing to sacrifice anything in order to enter into a greater fellowship and a greater knowledge of God. They joyfully laid down their houses, lands, and even their people and brethren rather than seeking what they could get out of this. These also often suffered rejection, and many paid the ultimate sacrifice in enacting obedience of God that they might have a greater inheritance.

“And he walked with God.”         

With that said lets look at a few of these people a little closer

Genesis 18:2-4 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My LORD, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: 

Jacob found favor in the eyes of the Lord

Genesis 30:26-30 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.  And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.  And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. 

And Joseph found favor in the eyes of the Lord

Genesis 39:5-7 And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian'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. And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well-favoured (Of the Lord. And that favor of the Lord [Not a natural earthly Charisma] became discernable to those all around Joseph ). And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.      

Genesis 5:23 –24 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. (Enoch found divine favor, and for this Enoch received a permanent seat in the heavenlies without ever having to die.)

Genesis 6:8-9 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. 

And Solomon walked with God

1 Kings 8 24-25 (Solomon) Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou (Solomon) hast walked before me.

 

The testimony we should be seeking is to be pleasing in His sight, rather than being seduced into the never-ending web of men’s patterns which have been laid out to snare us.