Chapter 2
The Favor of His Face

The heart to seek God is birthed in us by God Himself. Like all desires, it is not something that can be legislated or forced, but it grows within us as we “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8).

For while we have been given the capacity to perceive God’s goodness through the new birth in the Spirit, that capacity is something that must develop in us throughout our lives. As Paul explained, “When that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. . . . For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:10, 12, NKJV).

The Measure of His Presence

The quest for the face of God has two central dimensions—the quest for His presence and the quest for His favor. Let us first consider some of what the Bible has to say about the first dimension: seeking His presence.

First, we must realize that seeking the presence of God is not about trying to get God to do something. He’s already given us His Holy Spirit without measure. All measurements are set up on our end of the equation, determined by the degree to which our lives are in agreement with God and His kingdom. Scripture gives us some specific clues about how we can bring our lives into greater agreement with God and “host” greater measures of His presence. Significantly, all of these measures correspond with deeper truths about who God is. If we are going to bring our lives more fully into agreement with God and His kingdom, the primary thing we need is a burning conviction that God is good.

Another foundational revelation about the presence of God is that God actually holds all things together. Colossians 1:17 says, “In Him all things consist” (NKJV). Consist means to “hold together.” The pantheist worships all things, believing all things to be God. While it is crazy to worship a tree as God, it is correct to realize that God holds every cell of that tree in place. He is everywhere. And since I can’t imagine a place where He isn’t, I might as well imagine Him with me. This truth about God brings me into a measure of awareness of His presence.

The quest for the face of God has two central dimensions—the quest for His presence and the quest for His favor.

A more profound truth is that God has come to live in each person who receives Jesus Christ through His work on the cross as the necessary payment for sin. In one sense, He was already in me as the one who actually holds my cells in place. But when I receive Him, He comes to make my body His temple—the eternal dwelling place of God. He has come in an increased measure of His presence.

We progress to a deeper truth when we learn that whenever there are two or three people gathered in His name, He is there in their midst. He is already in me as a part of His creation, and He is in me as His temple, but that measure of His presence increases still more when I come together with other believers in His name. “In Jesus’s name” means more than an ending to a prayer. It is in fact the attempt to do and be what He would do and be in that given situation. To gather in His name means that our gathering should look like it did when Jesus met with people two thousand years ago. (If that is a correct definition, then how many of our gatherings are actually in His name?)

David discovered a wonderful and even deeper truth that adds to this revelation of increasing degrees of His presence. He said, “You . . . are enthroned upon the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3). His throne is an even greater measure of His presence. He holds my being together with His presence, and then He moves inside to reign as God over my life. He increases my encounter with Him by having me gather with others in Jesus’s name. Ultimately, His glory begins to fall on us as we learn the honor of serving Him through thanksgiving, praise, and worship.

This is not a definitive list by any means. But it gives us a place to start in our quest for the greatest treasure of all—God Himself. The point is that the presence of the Lord can and will increase for those who embark on this quest. Isaiah seemed to tap into this understanding when he wrote, “I saw the Lord . . . with the train of His robe filling the temple” (Isaiah 6:1). The word for “filling” implies that He came into His temple, but He also kept coming. That explains why those who seem to have the greatest measure of God’s presence on their lives tend to be the hungriest for more. There’s always more to hunger for! This shouldn’t be a hard concept to embrace, since we believe that He Himself fills the universe with His presence. King David declared that the universe is actually the work of His fingers.1 That’s a really big God who has a lot more to give us than we can imagine.

I cannot live in mediocrity, content with merely knowing that there is more of God to experience and explore—and then do nothing about it. Truths that are not experienced are, in effect, more like theories than truths. Whenever God reveals truth to us He is inviting us into a divine encounter.

His promise “I will be with you always” has to be more than a verse we quote in difficult times. His presence with us is the one factor that could make our impossible assignment to disciple nations a doable command. The promise must become an invitation to discover this increasing manifestation of His presence in our lives so that we might fully enter into our purpose on the earth.

He is to be known through encounters. John 14:16 says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” We will be Spirit filled forever!

Jesus didn’t set limits on what we can have in this lifetime. He did set a pace to be followed and not just admired religiously from a distance. Many people are content to live with the concept of the presence of God in their lives, but they fail to enter the intended experience. When I married my wife, I wasn’t interested in the concept or the theory of marriage. I wanted to experience marriage in all its privileges and responsibilities. People who respond to His presence properly can be trusted with increased favor, which we’ll look at more in a moment.

We steward the presence of God by learning to obey the commands “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 4:30) and “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). We grieve Him when we do something wrong; we quench Him when we fail to do what is right, stopping the flow of His love and power that comes from the Father. Jesus modeled what life could be like when a person neither grieves nor quenches the Holy Spirit.

It is for this reason that we see such a great measure of the presence of God in the person of Jesus. John said of Jesus, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him” (John 1:32, NKJV). Certainly this is not talking about the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that was already in Jesus’s life. This was the inauguration of Jesus’s ministry, and the Holy Spirit came to rest upon Him as a mantle of power and authority for that specific purpose. But the fact that the Holy Spirit came to rest on Him is evidence of Jesus’s faithfulness to be perfectly trustworthy with the presence of God. The same principle is true for us.

The Holy Spirit lives in every believer, but He rests upon very few. Why? It’s not because He’s fragile; it’s because He is holy! Few people give Him a life to rest upon. The one whose life is not in agreement with God—which is what He calls “entering His rest”—has not given Him a place to rest.

In Jesus’s Footsteps

Jesus is also our model when it comes to pursuing and increasing in measures of God’s favor, as we read in Luke 2:52: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (NKJV). This is really a remarkable statement. Jesus Christ was perfect in every way, yet even He needed to grow in favor with God and man. It’s easier to understand that He needed to grow in favor with man. No doubt favor opened many doors for life and ministry that would have otherwise been closed to Him. But how is it that the Son of God, who was perfect in character and sinless, needed to obtain more favor from God? While I can’t answer that question to my own satisfaction, I do know that the implication is quite clear: if Jesus Christ needed to increase in favor with God, I need it much more.

Possibly Jesus obeyed His Father in embracing a life that required Him to grow in favor with God only because of our need to learn how to do the same thing. One thing I’m convinced of is that, by Jesus, the Christian life was definitively modeled for every believer. Everything He did in His life and ministry He did as a man who, though He was fully God, had set aside the privileges of His divinity in order to show us a model of the kind of life He would make available to each of us through His death, resurrection, and ascension. For our sakes He showed us how to grow in favor with God.

What Is Favor?

In order to grow in favor, you must first have favor. So what exactly is favor? I think we are most familiar with the idea that favor is preferential treatment shown to somebody. It denotes acceptance, approval, and pleasure.

While the Greek and Hebrew words translated “favor” in Scripture include these definitions, there is a deeper dimension to the Greek word for favor: charis. Almost everywhere in the New Testament this word is translated “grace.” Grace (and favor) is essentially a gift. If we gain favor with people or, as we might say, get into their “good graces,” we have special access to them and we receive something from them. The same thing is true about gaining favor with God, although the charis we receive from God is obviously different from the favor we receive from men. At our conversion, we learn that God’s grace is His unmerited favor toward men through the blood of His Son. This unmerited favor includes not only being forgiven of sin but also receiving access to the very presence of God in the same way that Jesus has access to Him.

God gives us His grace to empower us to become like Christ.

Every believer receives this favor from God, but we don’t all recognize the additional dimensions to the charis we receive. God’s grace is also His operational power, the force of His nature. He gives us this grace to empower us to become like Christ.

These two aspects of God’s grace—access and power—set us up to understand what it means to grow in favor with God. At the heart of growing in favor are two aspects: (1) the pursuit of God, the practice of coming before God through the “new and living way” (Hebrews 10:20) that Christ has made available to us, and (2) receiving, in God’s presence, measures of His own nature that empower us to be conformed into the image of the Son He loves.

Considering the fact that it takes favor to get more favor and that we have all been given a measure of favor with God through our conversion, the issue of growing in favor is an issue of stewardship. The real question is, What have I done with the favor God has given to me?

I believe that the failure to understand and pursue the journey of stewarding the favor of God has led so many people to die in the unnecessary tragedy of never having their God-given dreams and desires fulfilled. Often those same individuals blame others around them for not supporting them in the pursuit of their dreams. The sober reality is that most dreams go unfulfilled because of the lack of favor with God and man. Where favor is increasing, we witness the power of exponential increase that comes through agreement. That is the by-product of favor.

Our authentic dreams from God cannot be accomplished on our own. That is a sure sign that a dream is too small. We must dream so big that without the support that comes through favor with God and man, we could never accomplish what is in our hearts.

While God loves everyone the same, not everyone has the same measure of favor. Yet everyone is positioned to increase in favor if each one of us effectively stewards what we have. In other words, when we seek His face from the favor we have, we increase in favor itself.

The Supreme Issue

As with all gifts, God’s favor is given to all of us freely, with no strings attached, and it also comes with a purpose. But not everyone necessarily chooses to use it for its intended purpose, or to use it at all. But God’s favor most definitely is something that we’re supposed to use.

Jesus taught on the subject when He gave a parable about talents. In His story the word talent does not mean a natural ability to do something well. A talent was a sum of money in the ancient world. Because it can be measured, it represents the subject of favor very well, because favor also is a measurable commodity.

For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.

—Matthew 25:14–15

Just as these servants were each given different amounts of money, not everyone starts out with the same amount of favor. We can’t allow ourselves to trip over this—where there is a debate between our idea of what is fair and God’s, we’d be wise to stick with God’s. God is sovereign (supreme authority, self-governing, not ruled by another), and He decides who starts with what.

“All men are created equal” is not a verse in the Bible. The statement is true as it pertains to God’s love, for He loves everyone the same. But not everyone is given the same measure of favor. To consider God unjust because of this is foolish. He is God. And God is love, which means He does everything out of His goodness.

Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

—Matthew 25:16–18

The servants were given various amounts, “each according to his own ability.” They were given something because they had the capability to use it. Clearly, proper stewardship is using what we’ve been given in order to gain increase. Similarly, the word traded here is a word that simply means, “to work with.” The faithful servants put the money to work, just as we must put the favor we’ve received from God to work in our lives in order to bring increase. Now clearly someone who understands how money works will be able to work with money more successfully than someone who doesn’t; in the same way we must seek to understand the nature and purpose of God’s favor if we are going to put it to work successfully.

God in His wisdom gives us only what we can handle by His grace as we engage in this learning process. He doesn’t expect us to solve calculus equations before we’ve learned addition and subtraction. That’s not to say that God doesn’t want full maturity in each of us. But He knows that the key to growth at every stage, whether we’re in charge of much or little, is the same. The primary issue is always faithfulness. God, who is perfectly faithful, is looking for this trait in those who say they love Him.

Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, “Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”

Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, “Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”

—Matthew 25:19–23

Each one of us is given the opportunity for increase by faithful use of what we’ve been given. In the kingdom of God, faithfulness is the supreme value and is always rewarded. On the other hand, consider God’s verdict on unfaithfulness:

And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.”

But his master answered and said to him, “You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.”

—Matthew 25:24–28

In this story, the one who started with the most is the one who was found the most faithful. His responsibility was greater, and he was duly rewarded. But the opposite can also be true. I have observed that some of those who seem to have the greatest opportunities in life end up being the ones who squander them the most and therefore fall into the greater judgment. They are held accountable; they must give an answer for their unfaithfulness. Scripture is clear on this point: “From everyone who has been given much shall much be required” (Luke 12:48). The landowner honors the slave who started with the most and who earned the most by giving him the unused talent of the unfaithful slave. The first slave had the greater responsibility, and he proved to be the most faithful. Faithfulness is what God is looking for:

For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

—Matthew 25:29–30

In the same measure that faithfulness is rewarded, unfaithfulness is judged. God judges everything that opposes love. How did the lazy servant oppose love? Consider the master’s rebuke to him. Interestingly, he didn’t correct the servant’s view of him as a hard man, but he rebuked him for his wrong response to that view. Instead of being inspired by a holy fear of the master, which would have given him a correct sense of the weight of the trust that had been laid on him, he looked at the task and said, “Too hard.” In ignoring his responsibility, he was dishonoring his master by essentially telling him that his expectations were too high.

The faithful servants didn’t make excuses. They took what they were given and simply used it. They may also have known their master to be a hard man, but apparently they also thought him trustworthy and desired to please him. In fact, in going out and getting more talents with the ones they were given, they were acting like their master. They were aware that they represented the master in his absence and endeavored to rise to his level of doing business. Their love for him was demonstrated in actions that revealed their deep honor and respect for his authority and their sense that it was a privilege to represent him.

I have been disturbed to see the attitude of the lazy servant operating in so much of the church when it comes to fulfilling our commission to imitate Christ in destroying the works of the devil and performing signs and wonders. The favor that we’ve been given to be like Christ has this commission included in its purpose. It uniquely positions us as representatives of His kingdom to carry out exploits that bring Him honor and to bring people into their God-given destiny. Jesus’s words were, “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give” (Matthew 10:7–8).

Faithful servants don’t get hung up over how they’re going to fulfill the Master’s command before they’ve even tried or even after they’ve tried a few times and been unsuccessful. They trust the Master. If He said it, then apparently He thinks they’re up to the task—if they use the talents He’s given them. They see that being given the opportunity to represent Him in all His power and glory is the greatest privilege they could ever receive.

Unfaithful servants look at the commands to do the impossible and question the goodness and wisdom of the Master. Instead of pursuing Him to find a way to fulfill His commands, they put them out of sight and go about their business. Ignoring God while pretending to serve Him is a serious violation of relationship and cuts us off from being able to do the very thing we were put on the planet for—to live our lives to honor the One to whom we will give account.

Jesus modeled perfect faithfulness for us by taking on the form of a servant and perfectly fulfilling His Father’s will. He showed us that the best service comes from those who aren’t actually hired servants, but by intimate friends who take on a servant role as an expression of love.

We have been given favor because it empowers us to serve more effectively. Favor is not to be used to draw attention or people to ourselves. His is a selfless kingdom. When people use the favor of God for personal gain, and not for kingdom purposes, they have chosen where they will level off in their development and experience.

As It Was in the Beginning

As Jesus showed us, the way to becoming a faithful servant of God is by learning to be His friend. In fact, friendship is the purpose of our creation. Everything in creation was made for His delight and pleasure, but human beings alone were made with the capacity to draw close to God in intimacy. No other part of creation has been given the opportunity of becoming a friend of God, even becoming one with Him through His indwelling Spirit.

In the beginning God walked with Adam in the cool of the garden. His desire to spend time with those who love Him by choice set the stage for all the conquests that were to come. While Adam and Eve were placed in a garden of perfect peace, the garden itself was placed in the midst of turmoil. It was in this original setting that Adam and Eve were given the assignment to subdue the earth. God said, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). As they increased in number they would be able to establish and extend the rule of God over the planet by representing Him as His delegated authorities.

He has chosen us for this purpose, not because we’re better, but because we’re the ones who signed up. He enlists everyone who is available.

The reason that the territory beyond the garden was in turmoil was that Satan, one of the three archangels, had set up his rule there after being cast out of heaven for his rebellion and his desire to be worshiped like God. God in His sovereignty allowed the devil to set up his rule on planet Earth because His intention was to bring eternal judgment to the devil through mankind, in particular, through the fruitfulness of intimate co-laboring between God and man.

We must always remember that Satan has never been a threat to God. Instead, God chose to give those who were made in His image the privilege of executing the judgment of God on all the fallen hosts. God determined that it would it be fitting for the devil’s defeat to come at the hands of those made in the image of God, who worship Him by choice, because it would mean that the devil would be overcome by those who succeeded where he had failed. This divine justice strikes at the very heart of how and why Satan was removed from heaven in the first place.

We see God’s divine plan expressed by David in Psalm 23:5—“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (emphasis added). It’s as though God said, “Satan! My people love Me, and I love them, and you’re going to watch!” Such romance strikes terror in the heart of the devil and his hosts. At this table of fellowship our relationship with God deepens and overflows into a life of victory in conflict with the powers of darkness.

God is looking for partnership, a partnership in which He empowers His people to become all that He intended them to be. He is the One who said that He made the heavens for Himself, but the earth He made for man. Through this partnership, He portrays the intended similarity between His world (heaven) and ours (Earth). His people are to demonstrate His rule to a dying world.

He has chosen us for this purpose, not because we’re better, but because we’re the ones who signed up. He enlists everyone who is available.

Jesus Christ: The Person of Wisdom

To want to grow in favor with God is the most natural desire in the world. Wisdom knows how.

Wisdom gives us the keys to understand and use the favor that we’ve been given in accordance with God’s purposes in giving it to us. Increase in wisdom and increase in favor go hand in hand for us, because they are interdependent. Jesus, once again, modeled this for us, as we saw in Luke 2:52. He “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (NKJV). In fact, Jesus is the person of wisdom, as 1 Corinthians 1:30 states: “Christ Jesus . . . became for us wisdom from God” (NKJV). This should convince us that studying the life of Christ and deepening our relationship with Him are central to stewarding our favor with God.

We should also study Proverbs, the book of the Bible that best expresses wisdom. As such, this book gives us some of the greatest instruction for growing in favor. The following verses from Proverbs give practical instruction for how to pursue an increase of favor.

“Do not let kindness and truth leave you. . . . So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man” (Proverbs 3:3–4). This statement describes those who embrace the instruction of the Lord with diligence, committed to obey and not to lose sight of His Word. By doing so they position themselves for an increase of divine favor. Placing high value in the voice and Word of the Lord plays a big role in obtaining more favor from God.

“For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD” (Proverbs 8:35). The entire eighth chapter of Proverbs reveals the person called Wisdom, which, of course, is Jesus Christ. The chapter primarily focuses on the role of Wisdom in the story of Creation, and in doing so unveils the true nature of wisdom—it is the creative expression of God. This verse promises that finding the wisdom of God as it pertains to His creative expression in our fields of influence is a sure way to increase in God’s favor.

One helpful way to see how this promise works is to look at it within the picture we’re given in the New Testament, where we are told that we are the body of Christ. Like the members of a human body, every part of the body of Christ is unique, yet each finds its significance and function only in relationship to the rest of the body, particularly the brain. Finding wisdom is the process of discovering and correctly aligning our lives in relationship with the head, Christ, and with our unique destiny to express an aspect of His nature in a way that no one else can. God’s favor rests upon us when we are being and doing that which He created us in His wisdom to be and to do.

“He who diligently seeks good seeks favor” (Proverbs 11:27). The word good here means “things that are of benefit” or “pleasing.” Those who put extra effort in pursuing the things that please the Lord and bring benefit to the King and His people cannot help but increase in favor with God and man.

“A good man will obtain favor from the LORD, but He will condemn a man who devises evil” (Proverbs 12:2). The word good here carries several other characteristics that I did not mention in the previous verse. “Pleasant,” “cheerful,” “gracious,” “generous,” and “festive” are a few of the definitions that apply to this verse. The world wants to paint “good” people as boring, legalistic, and somber. But God’s goodness can always be recognized in those who seem to overflow with joy, encouragement, forgiveness, peace, and generosity. Their goodness is the fruit of a life lived in celebration of their life with God, and because they are like Him, He is drawn to them. Good people are easy to promote. They automatically align themselves for the lifestyle of increased favor.

“Good understanding produces favor, but the way of the treacherous is hard” (Proverbs 13:15). One of the primary commands in the Book of Proverbs is to seek understanding. Many Christians, recognizing that God is opposed to a purely intellectual gospel that is devoid of the Spirit of God and that consists of form without power, have fallen into the error of believing that God values mindless Christianity. But the truth is that none of us will reach maturity if we think we have to dumb down or cut off part of ourselves in order to serve God. If we are going to be successful in fulfilling the assignments that God has for us, we will need all of our faculties and energies to be focused and engaged in what we’re doing and what God is doing. After all, we’re called to be disciples, that is, learners. Jesus certainly sought to bring His disciples into a deeper understanding of kingdom reality. Those who pursue understanding life from God’s perspective please Him greatly. Practicing the principles of the kingdom positions a person for an increase in the favor of God.

“The king’s favor is toward a servant who acts wisely, but his anger is toward him who acts shamefully” (Proverbs 14:35). To “act wisely” is to live as Jesus would live, with a deep-seated awareness of the King’s thoughts and values. Such a lifestyle attracts the King’s scepter of favor.

“He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22). The implications of this promise go far beyond simply getting married. Many have done that without any increase of God’s favor. This promise is given to those who correctly steward the blessing of marriage. If you want to catch the attention of the king, treat his daughter well. By nature, it implies unity—becoming one—which illustrates the relationship of God with His people. The groom is to love his bride as Jesus loves the church and died for her. The bride is to honor and respect the groom as the church respects God. Stewarding marriage by maintaining honor and love in the relationship is to position oneself for increase of favor with God and man. It is when this relationship is held in proper esteem that the message of God’s love is most clearly seen in this world.

As you can see from these verses, those who grow in favor are not those who are focused on jumping through hoops and crossing things off the list in order to get God’s attention. That’s the mentality of a hired servant, not a friend. A friend grows in favor by embracing a life of obedience, motivated by passion for Him and Him alone. This truth is an important factor to remember when pursuing God’s favor. Many people want more money, or open doors for their business or ministry, or even greater opportunities for their families. But God’s favor is first and foremost about giving us the privilege of knowing Him, simply for the purpose of knowing Him. It could be said that divine favor comes to those who have chosen to keep the main thing the main thing—knowing and loving God. “Let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me” (Jeremiah 9:24). Those who are angry with God in their hearts will often look at a subject like this and accuse God of showing partiality, not realizing that divine favor comes to those who have honestly dealt with the issues of the heart.

God’s Favor Affirms Our Identity

As I mentioned earlier, we gain favor with God as we pursue His wisdom in order to discover and fulfill the destiny for which He created us. Vital to this process is one of the primary expressions of God’s favor—declarations in which He recognizes our identity and asserts His approval and acceptance over our lives. Scripture is filled with these declarations, but there must be moments in the life of every believer in which we hear the voice of our Father speak them directly to us. That’s when they become ours.

It shouldn’t surprise us that we need God to show His favor toward us in this way, because this kind of need for affirmation and approval is wired into our DNA. The pursuit of favor is a normal and deeply rooted human behavior. Everyone has a deep-seated awareness of incompleteness apart from outside recognition and affirmation. Even though the pursuit of man’s approval has caused many to fall into an unhealthy fear of man, the basic desire for affirmation is authentic and necessary. When we receive this kind of favor, it increases the effect of who we are and what we’ve been given to do in life because it taps into the principle of exponential increase through agreement. It affirms the fact that two are better than one if they are united. With favor our potential increases as the strength of others is added to our own.

At a very early age children can be seen pursuing recognition from someone important to them. “Daddy, watch me! Daddy, watch me!” was heard frequently in my home when my children were about to try something new or courageous. The attention they got from me, and the subsequent cheers of support, were essential building blocks of their self-esteem and confidence in life. While I worked hard to give them my undivided attention in those moments, there was an unusually greater positive effect whenever I spoke highly of them to my friends in their presence. It seemed to communicate to them my ultimate sign of approval. That is something I still do even though they are adults now.

Seeking Glory From God

The heavenly Father spoke of His Son, Jesus, in the hearing of bystanders, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17). The mark of divine favor upon a life is always such a heavenly cry!

The challenge for every one of us is to renew our minds and hearts so that our affections are anchored, keeping God’s approval as our supreme goal and reward. If we fail to place our value for the favor of man in its appropriate subordinate position in our hearts, we will be vulnerable to tragedy.

Most of us, in fact, need to break our agreement with the spirit of the fear of man first in order to be free to develop the proper priorities when it comes to God’s favor and man’s favor. Many people don’t recognize that their agreement with that spirit is still operating in their thinking, so they will not venture out in their passion for God without the approval of others. Seeking the recognition of man at the expense of approval from God is foolish at best and completely self-destructive at worst, but it is also the way of this world, and so we must be proactive in dismantling such thinking in ourselves and courageous in resisting the peer pressure to cooperate with it. This is where one of Jesus’s warnings comes into play. He warned His disciples of the potential influence, like leaven, on their minds by the religious system (Pharisees) and the political system (Herod).2 Both have the fear of man as their common denominator.

Jesus also said, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” (John 5:44) This verse does not teach that honoring people is wrong. That would bring us into conflict with the rest of Scripture. What it does say is that faith cannot coexist with the fear of man, that is, with being more concerned what someone else will think of us for a particular decision than what God thinks of us. This is important for us to note, because it is impossible to please God apart from faith. And the pursuit of favor has everything in the world to do with pleasing God.

Nothing compares with the satisfaction of pleasing the heart of our heavenly Father. Embracing the ultimate quest for His face means becoming a person whose every thought and action is driven by the goal of hearing the declaration from heaven: “Well done!” Thankfully, Scripture is filled with clues as to how to become—and how not to become—such a person. In the next chapter we’ll take a look at how the history of Israel gives us rich revelation that defines the kind of relationship God has called us into and the choices we all have to make in walking out that relationship.