Unmerited Favor (22 page)

How To Eat Of The Bread Of Life Every Day

Now, remember, Jesus is in the Old Testament
concealed
, and in the New Testament
revealed
. Manna in the Old Testament is a shadow of Jesus, but in the New Testament, Jesus is our substance and our bread of life.
¹⁰
Hence, in the same way that manna had to be gathered and eaten fresh every day, we need to have a fresh revelation of Jesus every day! This comes by reading His Word, listening to anointed messages that point you to His finished work, reading resources that are full of Jesus, and spending time with Him and feeding on His love daily. Don’t be mistaken. This is not a duty. When you have a revelation of Jesus’ personal love for you, you will want to feed on Him not because you have to, but because you
want
to. To do something good because you have to is to be back under the law. To do something good because you
desire
to—now, that’s grace. In any case, if you have not been reading the Word for a stretch of time, you should
not
be feeling
guilty
. You should be feeling
hungry
.

For example, if you are just reading the Bible because you think that you have to in order to be blessed, there is no doubt that you will still be blessed because of His living Word, but you will run out of steam. Under grace, you read His Word because you want to see more of Jesus. It’s the same action, but one is motivated by legalism, while the other is motivated by Jesus’ love and unmerited favor. One stems from self-occupation, whereas the other is moved by Christ-occupation. One depends on your grit and willpower, while the other depends on His power working mightily in you.
¹¹
When you read God’s Word out of legalistic obligation, you will find that five minutes can seem like an eternity. And if you are reading it in bed, before you know it, you will be in dreamland. Have you experienced this before?

On the other hand, when you are consumed by Jesus’ love, time passes really quickly without you even realizing it. You are simply immersed in and enjoying His presence, His Word and His favor. Although the actions appear to be the same on the surface, you experience a world of difference. Why? Because one is born of legalism while the other is born of a living, dynamic relationship with the Savior Himself!

Do The One Thing That Is Needful

Let’s come back to the questions that we were looking at earlier. Do you think that it is practical to be occupied with Jesus? Does it help you? Does it put food on the table? Does it prosper your finances? Does it make your physical body healthy? We have looked at what it did for Peter. Now, let’s take a look at what it did for Mary. You can find this story of Mary and her sister, Martha, in Luke 10:38–42.

Mary was seated at Jesus’ feet when the Lord came to visit them. Martha, the elder sister, was busy working in the kitchen, making sure that everything was in order and ensuring that there was enough food and drink for their guest. Who was Martha busy serving? Jesus. And while Martha was frantically running in and out of the kitchen, what was her younger sister Mary doing? In the midst of all the busyness and activity, Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet, beholding His beauty, beholding His glory and hanging onto every word that proceeded from His lips. While Mary was resting and drawing living water from Jesus, her sister Martha was restless, frantic and stressed from serving Jesus. One sister was focused on serving, while the other was focused on receiving.

Look what happened after a while. Martha’s stress from serving finally led to this outburst of frustration: “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
¹²
In one moment of anger, she blamed two persons: The Lord Jesus, as well as her sister Mary. Now, listen closely to Jesus’ response, and you may just find yourself in the Lord’s description of Martha: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
¹³

This is an amazing response. In Middle Eastern culture, it was right for Mary to be in the kitchen preparing food and serving her guest. Now, it would have been a shameful thing for Mary to sit at Jesus’ feet and not help Martha if Jesus was just an ordinary guest. But Mary knew something that Martha had missed. Jesus was no ordinary guest. He was God in the flesh and the greatest way you can minister to God when He is in your home is to sit at His feet and keep drawing from Him! That is what delights our Lord.

The one thing that is needful is for you to sit at Jesus’ feet and  keep your eyes, ears and heart on Him.

When you come to Jesus to draw as much as you can from Him, He loves it. That is why Jesus was pleased with Mary. That is why He defended Mary’s action, saying, “...one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part...”What is the “one thing” that is needful? Is it to busy yourself in serving the Lord? Is it to be troubled about many things? No, the one thing that is needful is for you to sit at Jesus’ feet and keep your eyes, ears and heart on Him. One sister saw Jesus in the natural, needing her ministry. The other sister saw Him as God veiled in flesh with a fullness to draw upon. Which sister do you suppose complimented Jesus and made Him feel like the God that He is? Mary. Martha obviously forgot that this God-Man multiplied loaves and fishes to feed a multitude.
He has not come to be fed but to feed!

Unfortunately, sometimes, the hardest thing for us to do is to sit down! Sometimes, the most challenging thing we can do is to cease from our own efforts and rest solely on Jesus’ unmerited favor. Often, we are like Martha—worried, busy and troubled about many things. It can all be legitimate things that we are worried about. In Martha’s case, she was trying her best to serve the Lord. She ended up doing many things that day but missed out on doing the
one
thing that was actually needful.

When you do the one thing that is needful, you will end up  doing the right thing at the right time, and God will  cause all that you touch to be amazingly blessed.

Believers who do that one thing that is needful are not worried about anything else. On the other hand, believers who fail to do that
one
thing end up being troubled about
many
things. Do you believe that only one thing is needful—to rest at Jesus’ feet and receive from Him?

Hear The Now-Word God Has For You

My friend, you did not pick up this book to hear what Joseph Prince has to say. You picked it up to see more of Jesus, to hear His words and to receive the “now-word” that He has for you. A thousand words from a mere man will do nothing for you. But just one word from Jesus can change your life forever. In writing this book, my prayer is that the person of Jesus will be exalted and glorified in these pages as He speaks through me. I am only a vessel. I am always praying that the Lord will give me the supernatural ability to proclaim and unveil His beauty, loveliness and perfect work in a fresh and powerful way.

Now, is it practical to just be occupied with Jesus? Absolutely. We find that later, in the Gospel of John, Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair to prepare him for his burial.
¹⁴
On resurrection morning, some women came with ointment to anoint Jesus’ body, but it was too late then. They were doing the right thing, but at the wrong time. The Lord had already risen. But Mary did the right thing at the right time. This shows us that when you do the one thing that is needful, you will end up doing the right thing at the right time, and God will cause all that you touch to be amazingly blessed.

Like Mary, choose to focus on the beauty, glory and love of Jesus. Choose not to be troubled about many things or constantly occupied with yourself. Like Peter, turn away from the storm and look at Jesus, and you will start walking above the storm. Beloved, choose to focus on the Lord and rest in His finished work. As Jesus is, so are you in this world!

Chapter 19: The Prayer Of The Unnamed Servant

We concluded the last chapter by showing that when you do
the one thing needful—
resting at Jesus’ feet and drawing from Him—you will end up doing the right thing at the right time. To take it one step further, I want to share with you how you can depend on Jesus’ unmerited favor to be found
at the right place at the right time
. Turn with me to Ecclesiastes 9:11, which says:

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.

—Ecclesiastes 9:11

This is a very interesting passage, written by the wisest man who ever walked the earth (other than Jesus). His name is Solomon and he is the son of King David.

In the system of the world, the race goes to the swift, the battle to the strong, bread to the wise, riches to men of understanding and favor to men of skill. The world’s system of reward is based on meritocracy and achievement. In other words, you will succeed in life based on how swift, strong, wise, knowledgeable and skillful you are. It is based entirely on you and your abilities.

As a new covenant believer in Christ, while you are living in the world’s system that is based on meritocracy, you have a supernatural advantage because you have the unmerited favor of Jesus.

Listen closely to what I am saying. There is essentially nothing wrong with this system of reward in the world. Meritocracy is a good system and it has caused nations to flourish, communities to prosper, and given people the incentive to create opportunities for themselves. However, as new covenant believers in Christ, while we are living in the world’s system that is based on meritocracy, we have a supernatural advantage because we have the unmerited favor of Jesus.

God Chooses The Weak To Bring Down The Mighty

God is interested in your success. Even if you are not the swiftest, strongest, wisest, most knowledgeable and most skillful in the natural, God can still bless you with good success when you depend on His grace. You can rise above the system of meritocracy through His undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor. The system of the world only rewards the strong, while those who are weak are neglected and in some cases, even despised. But, in Jesus, there is hope for the weak. God’s way is completely opposite from the world’s way. According to 1 Corinthians 1:26, “not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” Isn’t it fascinating to discover that while the world looks favorably upon the wise, mighty and noble, God does not? Let’s see in the next verse what God chooses instead: “God has chosen the
foolish things
of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the
weak things
of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”

Isn’t it amazing? God has chosen the foolish and weak things to qualify for His abundant blessings. But the verse does not say that the foolish and weak things will remain foolish and weak. Instead, by God’s unmerited favor, they will put to shame the so-called wise and mighty things in this world. In His hands of grace, the foolish and weak things become even wiser and mightier than the wise and mighty things of the world.

This is something I have experienced personally. In high school, I was a stutterer. I watched the other kids talking and reading aloud in class effortlessly while I had serious trouble getting words out of my mouth.

I remember how there was this teacher who would come into class, and always get me to stand and read aloud in class. He did this just for the sheer pleasure of watching me stammer and stutter, knowing full well what would happen. And true enough, while I tried to get the first word out—“th-th-th-th-the,” my classmates (especially the girls) would laugh, this teacher would laugh, and my ears would burn and turn red. This would happen every time he asked me to read in class.

Honestly, if you had told me then that I would be preaching to thousands of people every week, I would have run for cover under the table and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” If there was an area anyone who knew me back then believed I would fail in, it would have to be public speaking. But God looked down and said, “I am going to make a preacher out of this boy.”

One day, when I was tired of being miserable, I told the Lord, “Lord, I don’t have much to give You, but whatever I have I give You.” I remember how my voice was the thing that embarrassed me the most, so I said, “Lord, I give You my voice.” When I said that, I pitied Him for getting someone like me who had so many weaknesses.

To cut a long story short, after I gave all my weaknesses to the Lord, something supernatural happened. I stopped being conscious of my stuttering and it supernaturally disappeared. In the area of my weakness, God supplied His strength. About two years ago, one of the teachers from my high school days came to my church and sat in one of the services I was preaching in. After the service, she wrote me a note that said, “I see a miracle. This must be God!”

I believe that the reason God chose someone like me to preach the gospel is so that others (especially those who had known me before) would look at me and say, “This must be God!” and God gets the glory. Now, seeing how God has used my voice, my main weakness, to bring life transformation and miracles not only to people in Singapore but also around the world through our television broadcasts, I feel humbled because I know what I was like before God touched me. My friend, when you look at yourself and see only weaknesses, bear in mind that God can use you. It is those who are proud and who depend on their human strength that God cannot use.

Why does the Lord choose foolish and weak things to confound the wise and mighty things of this world? The answer is simple. It’s so that “
no flesh should glory in His presence
.”
¹
God chooses the things that are weak in the natural so that no man can boast of his
own
ability. All glory redounds to the Lord and as the Bible tells us, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
²

It is Jesus, His wisdom in your life, His righteousness and His perfect redemptive work on the cross that make you a success. So when you boast of your success, you can boast only in Jesus. Without Jesus, you have nothing to boast about. But with Jesus in your life, you can boast in Him and Him alone for every success and blessing that comes through His unmerited favor. If you are strong, mighty and wise in yourself, then God’s unmerited favor cannot flow. But when you realize your weaknesses and foolishness, and depend on Jesus instead,
that
is when His unmerited favor can flow unhindered in your life.

We see this in the story of Moses. In his first 40 years as an Egyptian prince who was looked up to and admired, he thought that he knew everything. The Bible says that in this first 40 years, Moses was “mighty in words and deeds,”
³
but God could not use him. However, in the next 40 years, something happened to Moses. He had fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, and went to dwell in the Midian desert. He became a shepherd and was no longer considered mighty in words nor deeds. Indeed, he had even become a stutterer.
⁴
And at this point in his life, when he probably thought that he was a has-been, insignificant compared to what he had been, and that his glory-days were behind him, God appeared to him and said, “...I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people...out of Egypt.”
⁵

Forty years earlier, at the zenith of his ability, Moses could not even properly bury one Egyptian whom he had killed—he was found out and forced to flee.
⁶
But now, stripped of his dependence on his human strength and mindful of his weaknesses, he stepped into his call, dependent solely on the unmerited favor of God. And this time, when Moses waved his rod over the sea, the sea covered tens of thousands of Egyptians perfectly.
⁷

The Bible tells us that “God resists the proud, but gives grace [unmerited favor] to the humble.”
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Beloved, God will not impose His unmerited favor on us. Whenever we want to depend on ourselves and our wisdom, He will allow us to do so. His unmerited favor is given to those who humbly acknowledge that they cannot succeed in their own strength and ability.

God Sent A Shepherd Boy To Defeat A Philistine Warrior

When God wanted to bring down a mighty giant who was terrorizing the nation of Israel, He sent someone who was weak in the flesh. Think about it. In the eyes of the world, what could be weaker against a trained and fearsome soldier than a young boy who had no formal military training, no armor, was dressed in a humble shepherd’s garb, and did not even carry any real weapons other than a sling and five smooth stones from a brook? It is no wonder that Goliath mocked this young shepherd boy and his strategy. When David stepped into the battlefield, Goliath asked him sarcastically, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?”
⁹

The implications of this battle were massive. It was not just a duel or contest between two individuals. The Israelites and Philistines had agreed to each send a warrior who would represent their nation. The defeated warrior would commit his entire nation to become servants to the other nation. It would be an understatement to say that a whole lot was riding on this one fight. And who does God send to represent Israel? In natural terms, He sent possibly the most unqualified person onto that battlefield in the Valley of Elah.

David was not even a soldier in the army of Israel! Do you remember how this shepherd boy ended up at the battlefield to begin with? David was there to deliver bread and cheese to his brothers who were in the army!
¹⁰
And yet, David found himself standing on the battlefield as Israel’s representative against the haughty Goliath. From delivering bread and cheese, he was now called upon to deliver the entire nation of Israel.

Don’t Despise The Day Of Humble Beginnings

David was at the right place at the right time because he humbled himself and submitted to his father’s instructions to deliver bread and cheese to his brothers. Young people, this is something you need to understand. Submission to your parents and God-appointed leadership will always cause God’s favor to flow in your life, and you will find yourself, like David, at the right place at the right time!

The Bible says that we should not despise the day of humble beginnings.
¹¹
There is nothing glamorous about delivering bread and cheese, but David did not despise it. And that put him right in the Valley of Elah, the wind blowing in his hair—a young shepherd boy with no military experience representing the nation of Israel against a mighty giant who was a man of war from his youth.

God loves to take the foolish and weak things to shame the wise and mighty things of the world.

This is what God loves to do. He loves to take the foolish and weak things to shame the wise and mighty things of the world. Pay attention to this young shepherd’s words when he stepped into battle: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you.”
¹²
What strong and bold words from a young shepherd boy!

God’s Definition Of Humility

“But Pastor Prince, didn’t you just say that God gives unmerited favor to the humble? David’s speech certainly doesn’t sound very humble.”

That’s a great question. When I was a young Christian, I used to think that to be humble meant that you always had to be soft-spoken and that you should always give in to others. There was a leader in the church that I was attending then who always got onto the speaking platform with a slight bow. He was always very gentle, almost apologetic in the way he spoke, and to me, that was the picture of a humble man. But in reality, humility has nothing to do with whether you are soft-spoken or walk around with a hunch. That is how the world defines humility.

The clearest way to identify humility in someone is to see if the person is Christ-occupied or self-occupied. When somebody is arrogant, proud and self-confident, he is clearly self-occupied. At the other extreme, someone who is always fearful also has a problem with pride even if he appears to be very soft-spoken and gentle. Instead of looking to Jesus, this person is self-conscious and constantly looking at himself. Both extremes are manifestations of pride. While one extreme manifests pride in terms of arrogance, the other extreme manifests pride in terms of self-consciousness. As long as a person is occupied with self, that is still pride. Humility then, is being Christ-occupied. This person knows that without the Lord, he cannot succeed, but with the Lord, all things are possible.