Increase Your Favour

“The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”

It’s a wonderful blessing. Moses was instructed to bless the Israelites with it, and in many believers’ gatherings we speak it over each other. I love the blessing but it creates a question: how do we make his face shine upon us and how do we turn the face of God to look at us? How do we increase in his favour?

We have a lot of overnight guests in our home; many of them are strangers to us when they first arrive. Regardless of what we might (or might not) receive from our guests, we consider it a blessing to have an opportunity to host so many people from all around the world. From the onset, we choose to operate out of love. We love them all, but the ones who gain my favour are the guests who honour my Boy by engaging him and getting to know him to see the greatness I already see in him.

I never get tired of hearing other people make positive comments about my Boy. If they are a server in a restaurant, it’s a guarantee of a larger tip if my Boy has had a good experience. I’m certain every parent can relate.

This past weekend, we hosted a guy and a girl from a visiting church in California; during my prayer time in the morning, I thanked the Lord for what they added to our home, and especially the joy that was deposited in my Boy. As I was speaking to the Father, I heard him speak clearly to my spirit and say, “If you want my favour, do the same thing for my children.”

God’s love for us will neither increase nor decrease but we increase his favour (make his face turn toward us) based on how we respond to what’s on his heart. His children are at the centre of his heart – he is called a Father for a reason.

Father God is proud of [all] his children and he loves it when we engage with them, especially the ones we might consider as having less value than some others. James 2:27 says pure religion is taking care of widows and orphans – the helpless ones. Proverbs 19:17 tells us that when we give to the poor, God considers it a loan and he will repay us, and law of sowing and reaping from Matthew 13:8 reminds us not only do we reap what we sow but also the blessing we receive is larger than what we originally planted.

That same day, I kept the Lord’s words in my head and put them into practice. I was ministering at a Vancouver church; every person I interacted with is a precious son or daughter of the Father. God is honoured when I honour his children and I also received a blessing – his face to shine upon me.