21.3 Walk in Favor
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
We cannot speak of Father without also speaking of abundance and favor. To walk in God is to walk in favor; favor is just another word for grace. Grace – favor means all good intentions surrounding us, going before us, following behind us, filling us full, and flowing out from us to others. Favor is the Father Himself. – Favor is always intentional.
God always leads us in triumph in Christ, in the celebration of and in all the rewards of full and final Victory, and through us sends forth the savor, diffuses the aroma, of His knowledge in every place (1 Corinthians 2:14 – modified).
The Aroma of God
Think of that. 2 Corinthians 2:14 claims that we are imbued with the smell of God. Smell surrounds, goes before, follows after, fills, and flows out. The smell of the Father is favor.
To give thanks is to live in “good grace,” that is, in favor. We live in favor every moment because the Father favors the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the only life we are.
I desire that those whom You have given Me may be with Me where I AM (John 17:24a). (Some of the words creating the new creation.) As Jesus is favored by God, so are we, the aroma of Father.
Favor
Favor (Webster’s 1926): noun.
1. Kind regard; countenance (good face towards); approving disposition; commendation; kindness; good will.
2. Act of countenancing, or condition of being countenanced, or regarded propitiously; support; aid; promotion; befriending.
3. A kind act or office; kindness done or granted; benevolence shown by word or deed; an act of grace or good will.
9. A gift or present; something bestowed as an evidence of good will; a token of love; something worn as a token of affection.
Synonyms: Favor is the demonstration of good will. In good grace – in favor of, upon the side of; for the advantage of; for the sake of.
Even More Favor
Favor (Webster’s 1926): Verb
1. To regard with favor; to aid, or to have the disposition to aid; to wish success to; to be propitious to; to countenance; to treat with consideration or tenderness; to show partiality to.
2. To afford advantages for success to; to facilitate.
3. To give confirmation to; to sustain.
4. To resemble in features, to have the aspects or looks of, as, the child favors his/her father.
5. To oblige; to show favor or kindness to.
Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful (Luke 6:36). – Be filled with favor as Father is filled with favor.
Expectation
The word “expectation” is a synonym of hope, hope in its immediate and active state. Paul pairs the two words in Philippians 1:20 – according to my earnest expectation and hope.
Earnest expectation is the Greek word apokaradokian.
- Apokaradokia: eager expectation. From apó, "away from"; kara, "the head"; and dokéō, "thinking") – properly, thinking forward (literally with head out-stretched), referring to eager, intense expectation. Also, turning the attention away from everything else. (adapted from biblehub.com)
To Expect
Expect (Webster’s 1926):
1. To wait for; to await.
2. To look for (mentally); to look forward to, as to something that is believed to be about to happen or come; to have a previous apprehension of – goodness.
Synonyms: Of expect, anticipate, and hope, expect is the strongest and implies some ground or reason for considering that the event must happen. Confidence.
Expectation (Webster’s 1926):
1. Act or state of expecting, a looking forward to an event about to happen.
2. That which is expected or looked for.
3. The prospect of the future; grounds upon which something excellent is expected to happen; prospect of good to come.
Two Things Always Together
To walk as one person together with the Father is to expect favor every moment. Expect God – Expect goodness and favor, not just all around, but also going before and following after, and even more so, filled with and flowing out from. The expectation of Father.
Here is the most important point. Giving thanks cannot, cannot, CANNOT ever be by itself. Giving thanks is the first part of two, always together, never ever separate. We give thanks AND we expect God to arise in ALL favor.
Are We Not His Flesh?
Let’s place this into our example of one suffering cancer. Giving thanks in the sphere of and for the expectation of goodness coming out of the cancer does NOT mean sitting under the cancer imagining that “This is the will of God. God gave me this to ‘try’ me or to teach me a lesson.” I cannot express to you how EVIL that thought is, a thought at war with God.
Giving thanks, even for the cancer, puts you and me together as one person with Father. The Father suffers the cancer or any other difficulty as we do, for are we not His body? Are we not the flesh of Christ?
We Expect God
But we never give thanks by itself. In all things, at all times, we expect the Father, as one with us, to arise in healing, in goodness, in salvation, in provision, in abundance, in favor. We expect God. We expect that the aroma of the Father, favor and goodness and abundance, is our aroma, our every moment.
We give thanks in and for the cancer; we expect God to heal us of the cancer, any moment now. And if the healing does not show itself in the next moment, no matter, we walk with God, we expect God every moment.
Yet we never expect God, ever, without also giving thanks.
Upon Firm We Should Hold
And thus we return to our key verse: Hebrews 3:6/14. Unto the end firm we should hold. – Until perfection comes (Father arises) upon firm we should hold.
Confidence, continuing every moment.
The expectation of all the favor of God towards us and out from us every moment.
Bebaios katecho – Upon firm we should hold.
- Bébaios: (derived from bainō, "to walk where it is solid") – solid, sure enough to walk on; hence, firm, unshakable; literally, "what can be tread upon." (adapted from biblehub.com)
- Katecho: I hold fast. I take possession of. I lay hold of.
Upon FIRM. Let’s establish the meaning of this word.
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed (Romans 4:16). This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus (Hebrews 6:19-20).
The firmness upon which we walk is the very firmness of path by which we enter boldly through the veil, not just to enter into all that is Christ, but to sit down upon the throne that is there inside the Holiest – the Mercy Seat. And in sitting down, we become that same Mercy Seat.
Our Walk
Here is our walk.
I thank you, Father, inside this sphere of difficulty, for I know that You share the difficulty entirely together with me. And I thank you, Father, for this difficulty that we share together, for I know that You and I, Father, cause everything difficult to become unending goodness for us and for others.
And with every breath in which I give You thanks, my Father, I expect You to arise in healing, in provision, in favor. You go before me, Father, causing favor to shine upon my way. You come after me, Father, causing all things to come back together in goodness. You flow out from me towards others, the aroma of goodness in every place I go.
Breathe In – Breathe Out
Breathe in – expecting favor. Breathe out – giving thanks. Breathe in – expecting Father. Breathe out – placing all things into goodness.
Breathe in – drawing all things into thankfulness. Breathe out – sending favor and goodness out to all things. Breath in – drawing all things into the Mercy Seat of Father. Breathe out – sending forth the aroma, the glory and compassion of God covering everyone we pass by.
Expectation, keeping our face turned every moment into the good speaking of Christ always sustaining us. This is our walk in Father, sending favor forth upon our way.
The Hows of God
This is the conclusion of the HOWS of God, the means of God by which He accomplishes His determination, Cross, Blood, and Resurrection Life. Did you notice the “breathe in – breathe out?” The breath of incorruptible life; the breath of resurrection.
Yet I have seen that in my neat little package of “ten” most important verses, I have left a huge hole. We must have twelve. One must bring in the role of the Spirit into the means of God and the other must bring in the role of members of one another, church life, into the means and opportunity of God. We will add both of those under the eighth most important verse in the Bible, Love one another. You will see how they fit.
God’s Opportunity
We see that God has given us all means necessary to know the Father in fullness here on this earth in these bodies of flesh. We see that God has provided Himself all means necessary to reveal Himself again on this earth, through His image, man.
BUT!!! The huge question driving the heart of Jesus right now remains. When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith in the earth? Will the Father have the opportunity to commit the crime again of walking upon this earth as He is, a humble servant, as men and women, His Body, sharing Heart with Him?
The final three most important verses in the Bible show us that God will have His opportunity, His moment to reveal Himself.