The Power of Favor, Part 3 | Dr Mike Woods, Sr | 20 July 2025

How many know that God is faithful? Hallelujah! There's nobody like him. Amen. And he has not failed any of us. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Great is thy faithfulness, oh Lord. Our Father, there is no shadow or turning with thee. Thou changest not. Thou compassion, the field. As thou has been, thou forever shall be, will be. Great is Thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning. Yes, God. New mercies I, I see. All I have needed, thy hands have provided. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. He's faithful. Great is thy faithfulness, oh Lord, unto me. Somebody lift your hands and say, great is Thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed, thou hast, have provided. Great is thy faithfulness. Say, great is thy faithfulness. Hallelujah. Great is thy faithfulness. Hallelujah. Lord. Hallelujah. To thee. He's been faithful to you. Come on, real quickly, come on, clap your hands and give God glory. Come on and give a faithful God praise. Come on, y'all, come on, give a faithful God praise. I wish I had somebody in this room, glory to God, they know he's been faithful. You should have lost your mind, you should be crazy, you should be dead in your grave, but he's been faithful, he's been good. Come on, open your mouth and a praise, a praise for his faithfulness. Grab somebody by the hand. We're praying. He's a faithful God. He's a great God. He's an awesome God. Put some pressure in that hand. You're holding the hand of a miracle. You holding the hand of a survivor, of somebody the devil tried to destroy, but they're still here. Put some pressure in that hand. Father, we thank you today We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your grace. Father, we give you praise for being in the house this morning. Father, speak and send your word. Let your word go out in a way that the weak will leave saying I'm strong, that the poor will leave saying I'm rich, that the discouraged will leave encouraged, that doubters would leave with faith, that sick bodies would be healed. Father, we thank you in advance. Your credit is good with me, so I thank you in advance for what you're getting ready to do. God, thank you for healing. Thank you for breakthrough. Thank you for the future. Thank you for where we're going. God, we thank you that our history does not define us, but you prepared a destiny. You prepared a future. And God, we thank you for where we're headed, and we give you praise. And we give you glory and we give you honor. Come on, if you believe God has a future for you, loose your hands and clap them and give God praise for what's to come. Because what's to come is better than what has been. I wish I had somebody to praise him. Let me prophesy to you, what's to come is better than what has been. I tell you, praise him for what's coming. What's coming? It's coming, it's coming. It's coming. You've been praying and it's coming. You've been asking and God said it's coming. You've been expecting, but God said it's coming. You are faithful, God. You are faithful, God. And that's why we pour it out to you, God. We pour ourselves out as a drink offering. Hallelujah. But thank you for this word. Let us express the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Ghost today. And we give you praise. And we give you glory in Jesus' name. Would you clap your hands once again and bless God? Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I did not anticipate that I would have to stand in this place today as of last week, but then the Lord spoke to me and say, no, you preach. Yeah. So I called my good friend Apostle Howard and said, possibly we're gonna bring you in October. God told me to preach, and that's just how we roll. I've known him for 35 years, so he was like, Apostle, I understand. So he— so we're gonna give you what does say the Lord. Amen. I've been teaching a series, glory to the name of God, and, um, I want to stay in this thing. Praise. Thank God for all of you that are here today. Y'all give yourself a hand. Amen. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I want you to point to Mario, play that video for me. There are moments in life when effort isn't enough. There'll be times when your connections will fall short. And no matter how hard you knock, there'll be doors that will remain closed. What you need in these moments, it's not more hustle, it's not luck, it's not more friends. What you need in these moments is favor from God. Favor is the unfair advantage, the supernatural endorsement, the divine yes in a world full of nos. Every success story has a memory of favor, and in this season, God is about to tip the scales in your direction. You are one moment of favor away from everything, and I mean everything, changing. Hallelujah! Give God praise! You believe that? Hallelujah! So I started last week talking about the power of favor. Say that with me, say the power of favor. Praise God. And then on Thursday night I did part 2, and I almost ran out of my studio video teaching that word Thursday night. It was so— if you missed any of those messages, but definitely go back and listen to Thursday night. Uh, it was, it was just the Holy Ghost, was amazing. Glory to God. So we, um, we're gonna come to the— we usually have church on Thursdays in the building, but we circumvented that, and I know why, because everybody that was on there to hear that word Amen. All right, so today I want to dive into part 3 of this because I believe in this hour like never before we need favor. Say, we need favor. Say this with me. Say, in the name of Jesus, say, the favor of the Lord is upon my life. Say, God desires to endorse his assignment his plan for me. Say, I cannot fail as long as I have favor in my life. Say, favor produces uncommon success. Say, in the name of Jesus, say, I receive uncommon breakthrough, uncommon success. Uncommon prosperity, uncommon miracles, uncommon healing. In the name of Jesus, it belongs to me. If you believe that, give God praise and glory. Hallelujah! So just by— let's just read the foundation scripture of this whole series. We're gonna go to Luke 2:52. Um, glory to God. I think you could put that on the screen, Mario. It may be there for me so they can see it again. Thank God. Oh, that's so good to see you, Apostle Betty. Love you so much, Mother. Such a blessing. I told my sister, I said, if y'all see y'all Sunday, it's gonna make my whole day. So I'm thankful. Them and Melissa done made my whole day. Glory to God. So thank God for y'all being here. Luke 2:15. Luke 2:52. Glory to God. We got— so I'll just read. Glory to God. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. So watch this. This, the scripture tells us, and we've already covered this, that favor can be grown and increased. I'm gonna say that again. Favor can be grown and increased. If Jesus grew his favor, and we're supposed to be like Jesus, right? Then we ought to be growing in favor as well. Are y'all hearing this? We shouldn't get saved and just settle for mediocrity and to settle for the norm. Amen. We should desire more. And here's what I determined: if something is not increasing you. It will ultimately decrease you. I'll say that again too. If something is not making you better, it's ultimately going to bring you down. And that's why I make a habit to spend time with people that increase me. I don't just listen to everybody. I don't go to everybody's conference. I'm not wasting my time and sit and listen to somebody that ain't feeding me. All right, it might work for you, but if it's not increasing me, ultimately I'm losing time where I could be sitting under something that can increase me. All right, touch your belly. Say, I ought to be increasing. And definitely you should be increasing in favor. We learned that favor is divine endorsement. It's God endorsing you. Yes. Oh God. Which means it takes the effort out of what you're trying to accomplish. Oh my God. See, when you're doing something for God, it's his business. Yes. Oh, glory to God. It's not our business. Amen. The reality is too many people in this time have taken God's business and made it their own, and they created enterprises out of God's business and with God's people. Oh boy. But when God has endorsed you, you'll do it when there's nobody. Y'all ain't got to talk. You'll do it when your bank account says you can't afford this. But you know I'm endorsed by God. I got favor with God, and I'm gonna do this because God said it. Just touch yourself, say, I'm endorsed by God. Y'all stay with me. I'm on the strict assignments for my wife to preach quick, so I'm gonna do it. But because I don't wanna— I got— I'm— I gotta go home with this lady. I don't want to get beat down. Glory to God, because y'all see me on 11 Alive News with a black eye saying I was abused. So let me, let me, let me move. But say, I'm endorsed by God. Favor is also supernatural current, all right, that's constantly flowing. So favor is always there. Yes, yes. Now, if you don't receive it, it's because you got out of alignment. As long as you're in alignment, favor will show up for you. So you need to— because God— watch this— God is always 100% invested in your progress. I'm talking about he 100%, and all he wants is obedience. All he wants is alignment. And I learned when I got out of God's way, the floodgates of blessing begin to flow in my life. Because as long as you're doing it yourself, you're limiting heaven's influence. Just say that with me. Say, I need heaven to show up for me. So favor is the key to uncommon success. Favor is the difference between your present and your future. We've already talked this. Just reviewing. So if you really want to move into what God has promised you, you need to align yourself so favor can begin to work in your life. You need to humble yourself. Oh boy, we talked about that on Thursday, how humility unlocks the heavens, how there's a plan bigger than you. I went to Jeremiah 1:5 Thursday night. And I shared the Bible said, before I formed you— yet said in Hebrew, before I built you as a human, he says, I knew you. So he says, I was close to you, I had time with you. So you got a pre-Adamic self. There's a person that was created before you became human, and you and that person spent time with God, and God was making deposits in you in the pre-atomic place. And when you were born, you were born with all the destiny and purpose and assignments already in you. There's a plan that's bigger than you. Y'all don't believe me? Then he went to the end of Jeremiah and told you again. Jeremiah 29:11, for I know The thoughts that I think toward you, these are thoughts of peace and not of evil, that you might have an expected end. Oh God, see that? When you line up with God, God will show you where you're going. He'll show you how it's going to end up, and you'll know no matter what this looks like, I'm going to win, I'm going to survive, I'm going to come out. Y'all ain't got to help me preach, but I need you to understand something. I've been through hell and hot water. I've been through storm and rain. I've had ups and downs. I've been lied on, talked about, rejected, kicked out. But you know what kept me going? I had a glimpse of what God said my end was gonna look like. So never define yourself by what people say. Oh God, just look at somebody and say, get a good look me, because I'm going somewhere. And what you see now is not what the end looks like. If you believe that, clap your hands and praise God. So why do we desperately need favor? Deuteronomy 16:15. You can put that one on the screen, Mario. 16:15. This is the B-Claw. It says, the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all your increase— there's that word again— all right, and in all the works of your hands. Therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. Blessed here is the word barak, which means God puts his hand upon your life. And he controls your life not only with his authority but with his resources, with his ability. You can— when you're really blessed by God, you do what you're— you do through the ability of God. The hardest thing to do is try to complete a kingdom assignment without the blessing. He said, if you're gonna increase, I'm gonna bless you. When God's hand is upon you, that's favor. He says, I'm gonna bless all the work, which means failure becomes not an option. Yes, when the hand of God is on me. Oh my God. So I should grow to a point where I don't fail no more. Amen. Y'all don't like that, right? The Bible said, be ye perfect, for I am perfect. Teleios in Greek means without fail, to be complete. So he says, be completed without fail. The only way I can do that is that the hand of God is on my life. We got to stop making excuses and throwing grace at it. Oh, okay, okay, it's my birthday. I I'm not gonna mess with y'all too much, but we do what we want to do and throw grace in it. Let me help you. Grace, charis in Greek, which is the empowerment toward righteousness. Grace ain't just the forgiveness of sin. Grace empowers you toward holy living, holy behavior. It empowers you toward doing what God God tells you to do. It's not just something you keep in your back pocket as an excuse because you want to sin. Okay, all right, okay, I'm gonna move. It's my birthday. I'm gonna move. But I want all the works of my hands to be blessed. Whatever I touch, I want him to bless. And you know what? Blessing may not look like you think it Some things we define as blessing ain't necessarily blessing. Can I submit to you that a blessing is not a Bentley? You can have good credit and a lot of money and buy a Bentley, that don't mean it's a blessing. A 10,000 square foot house is not a blessing. Oh my God, it's a house. You get good credit and get a good down payment and you can make that monthly note. Are y'all hearing this? That's called a mortgage, not a blessing. But a blessing is when you don't have to think twice. If you got a Mercedes and all you doing every month is praying for the note to be paid, and that Mercedes ain't no Mercedes no more, it's a mercy-sades. You saying, Lord, give me mercy to pay this note. That's not a blessing, that's a burden. But when the favor is on you, you don't worry about how it's going to be paid. Matter of fact, you just put all your stuff on autopay when you're blessed, and you don't never even look at it. You just go through life and your bills just get paid every month, and you don't even You understand how? Touch yourself and say, Lord, give me an auto pay anointing. Oh, y'all ain't got to talk, you better receive that. Glory to God. So that when, when you get in that tight place, you're not worried. You know God's got it. And once you said, I will bless all the works of your hand, and then you will rejoice. See, this is something to shout about. See, we've been dancing and don't know what we're dancing. We have more praise breaks, tresses in the church, and folks don't know what they shouting about. Just shouting because the organ sounds good and the drums are beating loud. But when you're dancing and worshiping, you ought to be worshiping because of something that you know he's done or is doing. God, you ought to have something for real to shout about, to rejoice over. That's why, because when favor is on your life, it lets you really realize you cannot work hard enough to get everything you deserve. Y'all hearing this? Folks be taking on 4 jobs, got 4 jobs trying to pay their bills, trying to save a little money from one job, working on Christmas with one job. It's too much, cuz you can't work hard enough to get what you deserve. You need to walk in faith. And operating in obedience. We desperately need this so we can chill out. People dying young because they're worried. Anxiety is killing them and making them sick. Disease comes from dis-ease. Yes, come on, come on. You got disease in your body, someplace there's dis-ease. You're uneasy, you got anxiety, you're worried, but you got to trust the Lord. Say, I got to trust the Lord. So this morning, let's get into this. I, I want to give you some character traits of favor really quick so we can get out of here, so I won't get beat up when I get home. You today. Today. Yeah, y'all pray for me, okay? Pray my strength. The old saints in the Lord. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I want you to go to Psalm 67. Glory to God. And I don't know if— yeah, Psalm 67. I'm going to read one verse because I don't have time. And verse 1. Glory to God. Say, I'm favored of the Lord. Say, God loves me, and because of this, I'm not worried about a thing. Hallelujah. 67:1, the Bible says to the chief musician Neginoth, a psalm or song. It says, God be merciful unto us and bless us. Hallelujah. And cause his face to shine upon us. Selah. I'm gonna read it again because it's just all right to read the Bible. He says, God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. Inside of this one verse, there are three major characteristics of favor. All right, before— but before I do that, I want to just kind of bring you up to speed on this song. So first of all, when you read the Book of Psalms, it is divided by divisions, not chapters. And there are 5 distinctive books set up around various types of songs. This psalm is what is called the hymn. We, we don't sing hymns in the church much. And Pastor Jeffrey, Apostle Jeffrey just sung one. But many times people don't sing hymns. You say hymn to some of y'all, y'all be like, who's him? But yeah, these— the Bible said we should sing songs, spiritual songs, hymns. So we should sing those as well. Amen. Some— you go to singing that, sometimes people say, are you religious? They, they too religious. But that ain't necessarily what that means. Amen. A hymn is a song of testimony and praise. A hymn speaks to what God has done. And this song here is a hymn. It speaks to God's ability to perform, and it testifies to what he's done. Anybody here got a testimony? When you can look back over your shoulder and see what God has brought you through. So you, you can write your own here because you can— testimony means to have a monologue about the test, to talk about the test. Are y'all hearing this? And the way the world comes to God, we have to be open and transparent about the test. We got to be willing to tell the truth about what God has brought us out of. We can't come in here and act like we never did nothing. Y'all ain't got to say nothing, okay? And act like we never made a mistake. That's right, that's right. Your testimony signifies that God delivered you. I grew up in the church where we had testimony service. Pastor made sure you testified. I mean, it was almost like a command. I grew up, my daddy was a pastor, so we would get instruction before we go. You, you testify today. It wasn't no negotiation. Get up and give your testimony during testimony service. And I'm sitting back there saying, I really ain't got much to thank God for right now, but you met that you pushing me to get up and testify. Oh Lord, this seem like the devil right here, but we're going to obey him. We get up, giving honor to God, who's the head of our life. Uh-huh. Bishop, saints, and friends, and we give our testimony. Cuz some folk didn't have no testimony. Get up and say, Lord Jesus, I thank you that my shoes fit this morning. No, you just got the right size. That's not a testimony. A testimony talks to the fact of what God has done, has done something. You can look over your shoulder and know it was nobody but God. Oh, when you can look at that sickness that the doctor told you wouldn't be healed and God healed you. That's your testimony. When you didn't have a dime to pay the bill and God showed up and paid it. Are y'all hearing this? And so you can write your own hymn out of your testimony. Say testimony. Another type of song is a lamenting song. These songs were written when there was a grieving in the heart of the psalmist concerning something that was going on amongst the people. So they were writing. There are times— hear this— when you are grieving and you have to take your grief to God. And these Psalms teach us, glory to the name of God, that God is the answer in grief. Watch this, that God is the replacement for tears. So instead of crying, because God's not moved by emotion, You got to get faith again in his ability. Somebody say, oh, my emotion does move God. It doesn't. What moves God is faith. The Bible said without faith is impossible to please God. What causes God to gravitate to you is your belief in him. And you being emotional, throwing a tantrum, is not a good sign that you believe. Y'all ain't got to say much. I mean, you say you believe, but you rolling in the floor panicking, your blood pressure 200 over 180. You almost stroking out dead. You don't believe God. Are y'all hearing this? You don't— you stressed out over what's going on. And God says, I need you to, when you have attempted to lament, to pray. To worship, to pray. You have a couple of options when you're tempted to complain. You can either worship, praise, or pray, or complain. Now watch this, you got to choose that I ain't gonna complain about what I'm allowing. Never complain about what you permit. If you're allowing it, shut up about it. You don't get to complain about that. And that's what lamenting psalmists teach us. It teaches us— I'm gonna give you one, for example, uh, Psalm 30. David was, glory to God, with his men. The Amalekites came and took the men out the camp and smitten Ziklag, and they were weeping and crying. The Bible says everybody else was weeping and crying, but David encouraged himself in the Lord. So everybody else is having a fit. Y'all having a fit because Trump signed a beautiful bill. What you having a fit for? And Jesus is your King. Y'all ain't got to say nothing. Trump is the President of the United States. Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He can sign 40 more bills. I don't care. Favor is on my life. Y'all ain't got to say nothing. God takes care of me, not Trump. Okay, yeah, who he done sign that bill? Everybody I talk to, what you think about what Trump did? I don't think nothing about it. I love the Lord. Hallelujah. And I know the Lord's got me. Hallelujah. So say lament, say songs of lament. Then I'm gonna run through these. There are songs of thanksgiving. They are diadak, which means these songs totally give thanks to God. Yeah, yeah. Hallelujah. These songs are what are called sephar tahelium, which means I thank you, God, for what you've done and for what you will do. Which means I ain't got it yet, but I'm gonna keep thanking you until what you said shows up. Up. See, this is how you get promises to move in your life. You got to learn how to thank God when it ain't showed up yet. You got to learn how to give God thanks when it looks like it's not going to happen. You got to learn how to open your mouth and tell the Lord thank you, in spite of how you feel, in spite of what it looks like. Thank you, God. I wish I had a thankful church this morning that that knows that God's about to do something. Listen, if he did it before, I heard the old preacher say, he'll do it again. If God did it in the past and you got a testimony, he'll do it again. I'm telling you, what you're looking for is coming. Give God thanks. The Bible says, in all things give thanks. Let me move, let me move, I got to go. So I'm just, I'm just talking about these songs. There's a royal song song, which is a didactic song. They only sung these songs when the king came to temple in honor of dignitaries, in honor of special people. When the king would show up, they would sing these particular songs— watch this— to make the song aware, the king aware, oh, that our King was bigger than him. Amen. They were singing these songs for the sole purpose to make him aware that you are subject to our God. They were singing stuff like, the Lord is my refuge and my strength, because either King believed that he was the refuge and strength. So they were saying stuff like, the Lord is my refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. He is above all kings. Hallelujah. Uh, there are pilgrimage songs These were songs that they saw when they were making a journey to the temple. Some of us complain about going 12 minutes to church. They would have to walk to church on a weekly basis. They would start their journey 2 days before the Sabbath, and they'd be singing these songs on the pilgrimage. Some of y'all got cars, bicycles, public transportation, Uber. And you can get you to church pretty fast, and folks still complain about coming to the house of the Lord. I was talking to a guy the other day, he said, Apostle, yeah, I really want to come back to church. I mean, he was a member of our church. He said, I still watch, and periodically he still tithes. He said, I want to come back, but man, COVID scared me. I ain't going. I've been COVID. We didn't quit doing COVID. We kept going through it because why would Jehovah Rapha kill us at church? He's a healer. Are y'all hearing this? I can't preach that he's a healer and being here scared I'm gonna get COVID. But watch this, same dude I'm talking to, we was in the mall. I saw them in the mall, hundreds of people walking around, but you won't come to church. But these folks, 48 hours in advance, had a whole worship set and was singing pilgrimage songs, worshiping on the way to the house. Yeah, let me give you one of them. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. They would start out singing in that 48 hours before church. All right, we'll keep moving. Then there were enthronement songs and imprecatory songs. Enthronement songs were songs when you were elevating someone, so you would sing these songs in honor of that elevation. Uh, imprecatory songs were songs of vengeance where you would sing and worship God to take care of your enemies. Y'all hearing this? I'll tell you, there's power in the word. You ain't got to fight, just let God take care of your enemies. I learned a long time ago that God can fight better than me. But this one verse, this— in this hymn, it says, God be merciful, Yahweh be merciful. Yeah, not your favorite preacher on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. Yes, just God be merciful. Here's the first characteristic of favor. Yes, it's part of his character. Yes, it's mercy. Somebody say mercy. Unlike grace, mercy is the highest level of favor. Mercy— watch this— is when God expresses justice toward you and says, my eyes are upon you even though— watch this— you have wronged me. Somebody said, Lord, be merciful. It's when God says, through your repentance and the power of my blood, I'll show you mercy, even though you were clearly wrong. Watch this. Mercy always demands transformation. Any recipient of mercy— well, I got to go. Will change their direction. They'll change their course when you really receive mercy, because there's so much love that comes with mercy. You know you were wrong. Oh, y'all ain't got— and a person that refuses to repent can never get mercy. If you just think you're right and, and You ain't gonna listen to nobody, you will never receive mercy from God, which means you won't receive favor. It requires repentance. Repentance is metanoia in Greek, and it means to return to the top, to return to the state of obedience. Repent, return to the penthouse, always on the top. Metanoia means when I repent, I'm going back to the top and I'm going to stay there. All right, when you receive mercy, you don't desire to be loose and just live out of control. I believe that there are some people, Apostle, that's out of control and love it. They love it. They'll come in here, they'll preach, they'll shout, they'll speak in tongues, they'll go through the motions and go out of here and won't act like they're recipients of mercy. People who have received mercy are happy about that person. Well, I've been in a courtroom or two in my life. Every Apostle worst salt has been to jail. So I've been to jail in these 36 years. I done made some mistakes. Are y'all hearing this? But ain't nothing like going to court. You know you stole it. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. You know you broke the law. All right. And the judge says, I'm giving you mercy. You're free to go. Oh, y'all ain't got to say nothing to me. There's a joy that you were set free that comes over you, and you say, you know what, I ain't stealing again, I ain't getting in that car with them again, I ain't making that mistake no more because I've been given mercy. So when you really receive mercy from God, there's something that comes over you. Yes, sir. That's— I don't ever want to be in the position where I got to be constantly needing mercy. See, when you're living under favor, you live in a realm of mercy where mercy is granted as a gift to produce harvest. Ah, he gives you mercy as a gift to produce harvest in your life. Glory to God. Just, just take this over and say, harvest is coming. I'm telling you, because the mercy and the favor of God is hovering over your life. And you know, because you put seed in the ground, not necessarily money, but seed of your life. You poured your life out. They were just singing it, I pour it out. I was back there weeping because I was thinking about how I pour my life out as a drink offering. There are things I'd love to do, there are places I would want to go, but because I'm saved, because I'm a child of God— y'all ain't got to talk to me here— because I'm in love with Jesus, there's just stuff I I can't do. Y'all ain't got to say nothing here. I'm a recipient of mercy. I— oh God, I can't run around and bang hoes. I'm born again. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. I cannot do things I would desire to do. I'm saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost. Is there anybody here that's born again, that's saved, that's made Make up your mind. I'm going for broke. I'm pouring myself out because if I pour my life out, the favor of God's going to come and harvest is going to show up and God's going to bless my socks. I wish I had somebody that's looking for the blessing, looking for the breakthrough, looking for the miracle. Clap your hands and give God. Praise! Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. I got to go. Yes, go to Exodus 34:6. Let me show you what mercy looks like. And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, the Lord, the Lord The compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Let me show you what this looks like. The high priest will go in front of the people and lift his hands up and say, mercy, mercy, may the mercy of God be upon you, may the mercy of God be be with you. And what he's saying, may the love of God abound with you. May the grace of God stay with you at all times. May your life be in a continual place of harvest. See, favor puts you in a life of continuity where the things of God are constantly manifesting and coming forth in your life. Lord, I wish I could preach this like I feel it. I need you to see this. God wants to bless bless you at all times. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. Blessing is not designed for just a certain season. There's a place of continuity where God wants to let his mercy shine through your life at all times. I wouldn't serve a God that wants to fractionally bless me. I wouldn't serve a God that limits his access. But God has given you access. He's giving you something that money can't buy. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. He's giving you something that your hard work can't produce. He's giving you something that religion cannot give you. God says, I want to give you mercy that causes harvest to abound at all times. Mercy! Oh my God! Apostle Jeff sung it. He's faithful, he abounds in continuity. You may fail, but he ain't failed me yet. Oh God, we love you. God, we adore you. Hallelujah. Mario, you may have to hit that switch, the top switch on the wall. It's causing that buzzing. monitor. Now the other one, cut the other one off. There we go. Somebody say favor. Come on, say it again. Say favor is upon my life. The other thing he said, he says, Lord, be merciful unto us and bless us. Say blessing. This is another characteristic of favor. So what is blessing? I already told you, blessing ain't a car. No, it's not. It's not a house. Glory to God. These are things that people that ain't even God can acquire. And quite honestly, a lot of them got bigger ones than you. Yes, they do. All they got to talk. So it can't really just be a blessing. All right, are y'all hearing this? Yes, cuz watch this. The devil can bless you to bind you. The devil will give you stuff only for the purpose to bind you up. But blessing is the attitude of favor. In the text here, it's barak again. It's the attitude of favor that comes toward you. It's not an exchange or payment for something. That's called favors. Yes, yes, there's difference in favors and faith. People will do a favor for you and expect something in return. They'll bind you up and try to control and manipulate you. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Because of what they do for you. I don't want that kind of relationship. That's what I do things for people. I don't expect nothing. That, that's how God graces you to love. You should never expect nothing in return. If this ain't no 'I scratch your back, you scratch mine.' Watch this, then you got preachers Apostle Tressa, that'll use their gift, think they're doing you a favor because they give you a word. Y'all ain't got to say much. And there'll be prophets who manipulate and control because they have a gift. You even got them that won't prophesy. Unless you do them a favor first. Y'all ain't got to talk, you got to give first. Okay, y'all ain't been to that ministry. It's out there, okay? Some of y'all don't call 1-800-MASTER-PROPHET. Don't, don't look at me like that. And paid your money because you wanted to work. You had to do the prophet a favor before he'll give you something God gave to him free. Y'all ain't got to talk to me. Freely I have received and freely I give. That's what this office is about, giving God what we got free, selling out for free, and blessing people through his gift. Notice I said his gift. This is not our gift, it's the gift of God. But you got a lot of witchcraft prophets that use the word to manipulate people. People think because somebody said, thus said the Lord, that God actually said. Let me say something to you. God is not— that's right, Apostle, they are lying on God. God is not speaking as much as some of these people say he is. See, when you walk in favor, you understand that I don't really need no words from God, from a prophet. 'Cause I hear from him personally. So when— oh my God— the prophet do prophesy, he's just giving me a second witness to what God said when I went to God for myself. I don't need the prophet to tell me my future. I got a relationship with God on my own. And I'm not knocking prophecy. I'm a prophet. What I am saying, we got to grow up. And as you mature, the less you will need prophecy. That's why the Bible said prophesying shall cease. Ah yeah, I said it last week and I can't wait till it do, cuz that mean people will have grown up and gotten the word for theyself and they got an ear to here. That's right, Melissa. God himself, he wants to know you. He wants to spend time with you. He wants to bless you. Come here, Jabez. Jabez said, bless me indeed, have favor upon me indeed, enlarge my territory. See, when your territory gets enlarged enlargement. You ain't got time for folk that can't see the enlargement in your territory. And enlargement in your territory is not a physical place, it's a realm and dimension of the spirit. See, if you mess around and judge somebody by the size of their church or the size of their ministry or what kind of car they drive, you're gonna miss God. If you want to catch me, you better go in the realm of the spirit. It and start asking God where my territory is. My territory is the realm of heaven. I operate from another dimension. I operate in glory. Glory to the name of God. I operate in his authority. Some people are super impressed by what's big, big with no power, big with no anointing, big, big, big, and God ain't nowhere. I'd rather have little with a lot of God. Y'all ain't got to talk to me here. I'm going to go. God said this favor ain't nothing you got to do for it. I'm going to just give it to you as long as you're alive. It's operating in your life. Say mercy. Mercy. Say blessing. Say favor, because people will try to entice you and make you feel, okay, I'm gonna give them this to tie them to me. You have to be careful because people are trying to give you gifts. They'll come bearing gifts only to tie you in. Yes, sir. You have to be careful with that. Matter of fact, go to Proverbs 1:10. I'm almost done. Good God Almighty. He says, my son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them. The word sin here is a Septuagint translation of a Greek word, hermētia. And harmisia means to miss the mark. See, harmisia really is not even a Bible word, okay? It's an archery word. And when the Greek archers would pull back their bow and go over their target and release it, if they missed the mark that they were aiming at, they would say harmisia, meaning I was inaccurate, I came short. So we beat people up by what we call the big sins. All right, homosexuality, lesbian, fornicators, liars— we tear them to pieces. But the reality is, if you're missing the mark, if you're inaccurate, not living in your purpose, not flowing in your assignment, you are in sin and you're missing faith. And watch this, when men who miss the mark try to minister to you, or when people come into your life who are not aligned with God and try to give you advice, the Bible said don't receive them. The Bible said don't give in to them. You ain't gonna get— listen, I've been— I've seen the word work. Yeah, I've seen it with my own eyes. Anybody witness to what the word can do? Yeah, you ain't gonna change the Bible and get me to follow you. Y'all ain't got to talk. I don't care how popular you are, you ain't gonna preach another gospel and try to entice me, seduce me in, try to make everything right because you want to do it. Oh, y'all got to say that ain't no blessing. Somebody said, my pastor don't teach against that, I feel good in sin. That's crazy. Are we here? Say, I love the Lord. I love the Lord. Say, blessing, blessing is upon my life. Say, I will not Follow sinful men. That's inaccurate, man. Remember, that's Mr. Mark. This— the church, baby, ought to be the only place we can come to where we take for granted that the preacher is going to have something from God. Amen. You ought to be able to take for granted that when you show up at church, yeah, the preacher got a word. Yeah, you ought to be able to take that for granted. If you can't, if you guessing in the car, I wonder what he gonna say today, that ain't about where you ain't need to go. You don't need to be there because you can't— you ought to take for granted that the preacher got a prayer life, all right, that when he show up from church, he's gonna have a word from the Lord. Are y'all here? Yeah. My God. Say I'm blessed. Blessing is an act of favor. Watch this, that causes someone to become a problem solver in your life. See, when people show up and solve an issue, that's favor working. When somebody that you don't even know comes into your world work and start solving issues for you. And I can't tell you how many times it happened in my life, in ministry, in business, how people show up at stuff I don't even know. Yeah. And I'll be like, Lord, I have no idea how to get this project from this place to that place. He sends the person with the knowledge. Yes, he does. I didn't look up, and I could be somewhere and overhear a conversation. I've done it many times. That conversation be just for me, and I turn around and say— I'll be at a Hawks game and turn around and say, I heard you say this, I'm working on this, tell me what we need to do, what's the next step? That was God working. And the first thing come out of the mouth, said, man, I normally would charge people $2,000 to $3,000 for this information, but I'm gonna give it to you free because you asked. That's favor. God wants to send problem solvers into your life. If you constantly got issues that can't be solved, and especially us, the apostles, we have to— our role is to be problem solvers for the body of Christ. We carry a government to solve issues. I always say prophets prophesy, My daughter was praying earlier. She's been with me. Matter of fact, I got affirmed as an apostle in 2005 in my Jackson, Mississippi church. Apostle Prophet Greta was there, and I've been an apostle for 21 years. And yeah, that's about right there. I'm not right, huh? So 21 years. And I was listening to her pray this morning. I always listen to her pray, but I hear— because she grew in the culture, I hear a lot of culture coming out all the time. Now what happens is God brings her though through me unlocking the parts I had to unlock. She found her own fire. Y'all hear me? So now she can unlock problems in other people and solve problems for other people, cuz she found her— see, God doesn't call us to mimic somebody. All right, all right. He called you to be a problem solver. You can't do it if you try to—