What does the favor of God look like? I have asked hundreds of people that question. And the majority of the time people never describe to me what the favor of God looks like in or on their own personal life. They describe to me what they think the favor of God looks like in other people.
Psalm 89:17 “You are our strength oh God. Our power is based on your favor.”
Psalm 86:17 “Send me a sign of your favor.”
Early one Sunday morning, while living in High Wycombe, England, my family got in the car and started down the motorway. This was a normal Sunday for us. Get up early and drive for several hours to minister in a different church each week. While driving to our destination, I remember thinking to myself, "We are making great time this morning." Then I heard Bethany's voice, "Daddy, where are we going today?" I said, “Baby we are going to speak in South Wales.” Everything was going so good that morning, and there was very little traffic. A few minutes later Bethany made another statement, “Daddy, I don't remember this being the way to Wales.” I said, “Baby, you just relax and leave the driving to Daddy!” I remember thinking to myself how cute she was in that moment. But then Bethany asked me one of those questions, “Why are there no road signs that say South Wales, Daddy?” Then she said, “All the road signs say 'Oxford.' Daddy, isn't Oxford in the wrong direction?” Tammy had been resting with her eyes closed, but I remember at that moment she opened one eye, smiled, and said, ”That’s my girl." All I remember is that I was making great time going in the wrong direction.
The highway department puts out signs to let you know that you are going in the right direction, and so does God! It is called His FAVOR!
When I looked through the Bible to see what the favor of God looked like, I began to discover that the favor of God looked different in every single person I would read about. I could not find any two people in whom the favor of God looked exactly the same! I have come to understand that the favor of God does not look the same on any two people. Just like every person has a different finger print, unique and different D N A. Every person has their own place of favor in God!
I know many people who seem to be making great time in life, but I wonder if they are not going in the wrong direction. Why do I say this? I say this because there are no signs of His favor in their life. If you don't discover what the favor of God looks like in your own personal life, then you will become disillusioned, you'll loose hope, and you'll become jealous, or envious when you see the favor of God in other people's lives. Far too many people are not reaching their personal potential in life, and I believe one reason is because they have not found God's place of favor for their life!
I grew up in a pastor’s home, so I was always around ministers. I was like the fly on the wall. I got to hang around so many great ministers. But I must tell you that the prophets were my favorite. I would sit in church and watch and listen to them in awe. I thought to myself many times that if I get to choose what gift I have, I want to be a prophet. When I got a little older and started in ministry, I really desired to prophesy to people. Plus the Bible says desire the best gifts and as far as I was concerned that would be to prophesy. It has been over 28 years since I started in ministry. But to tell you the truth, there was a hidden struggle going on inside me for many years. I experienced many years of inner frustration, self-questioning. Why was God not letting me do what was in my heart to do? All I wanted to do was prophesy.
It was a beautiful Saturday morning in the United Kingdom. Five pastors had asked Tammy and I to mentor them. Over the next several months, over one hundred more pastors asked us to give them mentoring modeling principles for their personal life and ministry. Over the next year, it doubled again.
Can you guess when I really began to see true success in our ministry? When I quit going in a direction that had no signs of God’s favor. I have now learned to flow towards the signs of God’s favor in my life. I have had several friends say to me, “How is it possible that the rancher, Eddie Windsor, has so many pastors around the world wanting him to speak in their church?” They say, “I just don't get it.”
I had a very large American ministry call me while I was in the United Kingdom. They said, “We have been trying to establish our ministry in the UK for several years with little or no success.” When they told me how much money they were investing each year in their UK efforts, I realized it was more than I had made in five or more years. They said to me, “We just don't get it. How can you accomplish so much in such a short amount of time without enough money, and you don't even have a known name?
I simply replied to them the only possible answer. “It’s called the favor of God.”
I flow towards the favor of God in my life. God’s favor is on the fruit of my life. I’m not suggesting you only follow signs, but I have found that the signs of God’s favor tell me I’m going in the right direction.
Eddie Windsor
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Eddie & Tammy Windsor, Ministry Blog
Additional blogs by Eddie & Tammy Windsor
Friday, December 4, 2009
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