Focus on Favor

 Sam and I have been learning about living in the favor of God.  Favor doesn't mean that life is charmed or everything goes smoothly or we never have troubles and trials.  What God's favor means is living with the constant awareness of God's bias towards me and trusting that my Divine Advantage is not removed in difficult circumstances.  When confronted with tough, uncomfortable, or frustrating situations, my unshakable faith in God's favor for me leads me to ask, not "Why?", but "What does this mean?", "What do I do?", and "What do You want to be for me in this?".  God always has good and victorious intentionality for us in every situation.  The focus must be on the real issue behind every issue: our relationship with God.  How does He want to upgrade my experience of Him?  How does He want to show His character to me in this?  Discovering the answer to those questions will provide powerful purpose and focus to endure almost anything, standing in the faithfulness of His nature and unrelenting love for me.

As I contemplate this theme, I am reminded of Mary.  The angel greets her with a declaration that she is favored of God, then proceeds to describe how this favor will show up in her life:  she gets to bear the Son of God!  Only catch is that she will conceive before marriage and not by her husband, a very troubling situation to a pious young woman.  Have you ever wondered at Mary's unshakable confidence in her right-ness throughout the process of people discovering her pregnancy, deciding to divorce her, shunning and slandering her, etc.?  I used to think it must've just been a supernaturally enhanced personality trait she had.  But now I understand...she had a revelation of God's ultimate intention in the situation: the Son of God, Savior of the world, being born to a virgin as prophesied!  That revelation of what God was doing in and through her gave her the ability to focus on the great favor of her spiritual position instead of the earthly "reality" of slander, misunderstanding, and shame.  Wow. 

Likewise, Jesus endured the unknowable shame and pain of our blame and our death, how?  Because of the joy set before Him!  Even in the moment of death, Jesus trusted in His favorable standing with God.  He looked into the eyes of His Father and saw His intentionality for the situation: that God would be Life for Him after death, and He would not only walk again Himself in victorious life, but would always lead us in triumph as well!  The thought of this relationship I have right now with Him was so joyful to Him that it gave God Himself the focus to endure His toughest trial!  Wow Wow Wow! 

So what does this mean for my life?  Everything!  For every situation in my life God has a corresponding intention:  something He wants to give to me, something He wants to be for me, something He wants to do through me.  It is essential that I look into His eyes to discover the intention in His heart, commit myself to partnering with Holy Spirit towards that intention, and never lose focus of His relentless love towards me! 

Aah!  This is a worthy goal and pursuit!
Blessings!
Sarah

P.S.  Alot of these thoughts have been fueled by Graham Cooke's teachings.  I highly recommend his material to anyone desiring to go deeper in the things of God!  www.grahamcooke.com

Thoughts on Creativity by Lori Vafiades

It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is in the image of God.

God's first thing on the "to do" list was to create.  His first title is Creator.  He made something from nothing. 

Adam looked at the something God made and was invited by God to join in the creation process and create names.

Inspire means "to breathe in". The word spirit and the word breath are the same in many languages, including Sanskrit, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.  The Latin root for both spirit and inspire is the word spiritus, meaning "breath".   Inspiration is God's breath taken into ourselves.  We need simply to accept the gift.

If we don't breathe in, we can only duplicate what others are doing.

We have to reprogram our minds to believe that the work of our creative selves is at least as important as the work of our housekeeper selves, our yard maintenance selve, our parenting selves, etc.

Serving the creativity is not serving self, it is serving God!

It is ironic that when we adopt a servant attitude, which seems to imply bondage, we are actually set free to create something greater than ourselves, something that results from a collaboration between God and us.  We are partnering.  We don not have to make it up ourselves!

Breathing out, serving the work, becoming the creative person you were born to be is ethereal, heavenly work.  Banish the critic that would keep you earthbound. 

In order to create, you must face your inner critics and steal their power.  Begin by trying to identify them.

In the New Testament, Jesus invited the disciples to leave their sensible, responsible lives for the chance to participate in the creation of something entirely new in the world. 

We are here to do God's will, not gratify our own egos.  Once we understand that, the creative flow we are hoping to generate will begin to course through us. 

You don't have to become world renowned to influence other people through your creativity.

Our creativity, our art, has purpose and it is not important that we understand that purpose before we become productive creators.

We must simply begin! 


Confessions of the Creative 
By Lori Vafiades

I was created to create.
I am co-creator.
The Lord finds pleasure in my creation.
Creativity is of the Heavenly Order.
What I create is of the New Wine and of the New Song that God is releasing in the Earth today.
It is safe to open myself up to more creativity and I can trust God in this journey.
The refusal to be creative is self-will and is against my true nature as a Child of God.
I will seek an alliance - artist to artist - with the Creator.
When I open myself up to creativity, I am agreeing with God's destiny for me...
His destiny to give me prosperity, hope, and a future.
There is nothing new under the sun; the ideas are God's, the obedience is mine.

When I create...I worship.
When I create...I pray.
When I create...I please God.
When I create...I obey.

My creativity will show forth the Truth and the Truth will set men free.
I was created to create.

- Lori Vafiades
www.greatcompany.org