Extend God's Favor to Others
Numbers 6:24-26 NIV
The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.
Let me direct you to another verse on God’s favor. It is
probably very familiar to churchgoers. Many pastors use this verse to bless the
congregation. So you may have heard it but may not have considered using it the
same way Aaron, his sons and today’s pastors apply it.
Numbers 6:24-26 NIV
The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.
Does that sound familiar friends? It is a very loving
blessing that actually God Himself wrote and gave to Moses. God used these
words. God revealed his love and kindness toward his people in these verses. In
the past I thought that this blessing was more of a prayer request from Moses
and Aaron to God. Before reading the Bible in more depth I simply considered
this a blessing appeal; like “Dear God, Please bless and keep the Israelites.”
Well that is not the case at all. These words did not originate from Moses. They came from our Heavenly Father only.
Numbers 6:22-26
The
Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to
bless the Israelites. Say to them:
“‘“The Lord
bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’
This blessing in words is from God to us. It is not a blessing or
prayer from Moses and Aaron. This is not a petition to God. It is an out and out
blessing in words from God Almighty to his children. You dear are one of his
children and you are also made righteous through Jesus. God’s Word, the Bible, does not say “May the LORD bless you
and keep you.” The word “may” is not
included in this verse. God says, “The LORD bless you and keep you.” He is
saying “I, God, bless you and keep you.” And he does not say that he will bless
you and keep you. He says that he does bless you and keep you now!
Hang in there! We are almost to our Word from God on how to extend
his shield of favor to others on earth. These verses are one of our tools in
exercising the actual act of sharing the shield of favor. I just had to show
you the origin and purpose of this scripture from God.
This very week we are going to take our fantastic shield of favor
from God and extend it to other people. They don’t even need to ask us for it.
We will give others God’s favor ourselves. Don’t be alarmed at that statement. We
have the authority through the works of Jesus to act as the righteousness of
God. Why do we forget this authority so often?
This simple action will bless you as you declare blessings over
other people, both believers and nonbelievers. I love it! How awesome is this!
We have the privilege to share God’s favor over other human beings whether they
believe in Jesus of not. How very satisfying it will feel to give away such a
gift of favor!
Let’s take action and bless others with the favor of God. The opposite of taking action is plainly inactivity. Do you want to be the inactive member of the family of the favored by God? Of course not. Nor do I. So God is giving us an answer, a take action to bless others in a very easy way.
We will use the words of God in Numbers 6:24-26 to give God’s
shield of favor to others. Wait until you see how straightforward and humbling
this act is for you. It removes the view of self completely as you say the
words of God over someone other than you. This in turn fills your heart with
more compassion for that one you speak over. I can tell you this from my own
very recent experience.
My mom invited me to join her church small group to volunteer for a local organization for women. This awesome faith based place helps women
in need to give them hope and rebuild their lives. Many women transition here
from prison with no place to go. Their need for shelter and food are met as
well as so many other things. So my mom’s group and I went there uncertain of
our mission but quickly learned we were there for a lovely job. We were asked
to pray over each door in this facility that homes a woman and possibly her
children. We split in to small groups to cover each floor in the building. We
individually prayed over each door of our respective floor. In my case, I had already begun to write this Bible study you read
now. So I chose to use Numbers 6:24-26 to announce over my doors. As I
whispered the words of the verses my spirit became flooded with humility so to
speak. I had to fight back tears and control my emotions so these dear women
living here did not misunderstand my feelings. I was not feeling sorry for them
really although I certainly had tremendous compassion for them and their many
needs. I felt honored that God would let little ole me declare and affirm the
words of Numbers 6:24-26 for these women. Honor and humility mixed with the
presence of the Holy Spirit in this building was a gift. It renewed me somehow
and much of it due to those words I spoke for another person in Numbers. So
dear ladies know that this right to announce the words of God, in order to
extend his favor, is truly a blessing for the giver also.
Numbers 6: 24-26 NIV
The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.
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