The month of August 2015 has been declared a month of Basking in Divine Favours by God Almighty through His Prophet as inspired by The Holy Spirit. The month of August is the eighth month and the number 8 represents New Beginnings, and our Father in heaven is saying that in this month and beyond we will experiencing His goodness in a New dimension, He says He will open new doors of favour unto us like He has never done before, doors that will launch us into a new realm of His Glory in Jesus name.
The word basking means ‘to lie exposed to warmth and light, typically from the sun, for relaxation and pleasure’.
Favour means an attitude of approval or liking, showing an act of kindness beyond what is due or usual, when we say Divine favour, it means that it is from God.
Basking in Divine favours, I believe in my own interpretation means swimming in God’s endless favour. It denotes that a fellow sleeps and wakes up within the confines of God’s Divine favour (the goodness of God).
The following scriptures explain it better:
Psalm 103: 5 ‘Who satisfies thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.’
Psalm 23:5-7 ‘Thou prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, thou anointed my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of The Lord for ever.
Psalm 125:2 ‘As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so The Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.
Brethren in the Bible there was a man that basked in the Divine favour of God all his life and that man was King David. This is how God introduced David the eighth and the last son of Jesse the Bethlehemite in 1 Sam 16:1 ‘And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? (May the Lord not reject us in the name of Jesus.) Fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehmite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.
In Acts 13:21-23, this is what Apostle Paul confirmed The Lord said about David: ‘Afterward they desired a King and God gave them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, after the space of forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their King to whom also He gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all My will (NCV says who will do all I want him to do, AMP says who will do all My will and carry out My programme fully), Of this man’s seed hath The Lord according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus. No wonder in the Bible a lot of people referred to the Lord as the son of David.
Brethren this is awesome, My prayer for us is that The Lord himself will testify of us in this way, that He will find you & I to be men & women after His own heart, who will do all He wants us to do according to His will in Jesus name.
Brethren of all the Kings in the Bible David was the only king The Lord introduced as a man after His own heart who walked in the ways of The Lord. Some of the kings according to the Bible did what was right in the sight of The Lord but not with a perfect heart. King Amaziah the son of Joash in the Bk. of 2 Kings 14:3 (And he did that which was right in the sight of The Lord, yet not like David his father.
2 Chron. 25:2 says ‘And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart’.
So Brethren this tells us that before we can please God, we need to have a perfect heart towards Him, a heart that loves and obeys Him because we love & fear Him. Our Lord Jesus said in the Bk. of Matt. 15:8 (This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me)
Brethren the state of our heart matters to God, at all times, that is why he gives us a new heart (a heart of flesh) and takes away the stony heart when we become born-again Ezek. 36:26 because as the Chief Potter it is only a heart of flesh He can work on, if our hearts are not malleable then He will not be able to mould us into the shape He wants us to become, not what we want to become.
King David was also the only King that was recorded in the Bible who could officiate as a King, a Priest and a Prophet, he was a Psalmist as well, he wrote the greater part of all the Psalms in the Bible.
This beautiful compliment ‘a man after My own heart, is one that should characterise every person who wears the name of Christ (for the Bible says every born- again child of God is named and called by His name because he paid the price to purchase us with His precious Blood)
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For David was not only the ancestor of Christ according to the flesh
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But he possessed many of the attributes that were later perfected by Christ which should characterise all those which are Disciples of Christ.
Let us consider some of these attributes that David had that were confirmed in the Bible that made him stand out as a man after God’s own heart and my prayer for us is that God will grant us the grace to manifest these attributes in our lives or for God to perfect them if they are already manifesting in our lives.
David loved the word of God, we can please read the whole of Psa.119 when we get home so we can have a better understanding of this statement but I will quote Psa. 119: 11 Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee, He was able to discern that the word of God was law, it protects, it revives from affliction, it gives peace of mind & hope amongst so many other benefits.
David loved to pray Psa. 116: 1-2 (I will call upon Him as long as I live.) David knew that God was a God that answered prayers and his love for prayers was based upon the fact that God had answered him before, he loved to commune with God Psa. 42: 1-2 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before God? David loved the presence of God hence he said in Psa.122: 1 ‘I was glad when I was asked to come into the house of the Lord. Psa. 10: 4 ‘I will enter your gates with thanksgiving and your courts with praise’. Psa. 84: ‘For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand, I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
David loved to praise God ( He was a worshiper, I think this attribute really stood out in his life, He loved to praise and worship God) he did it with the whole of his heart not minding who was watching him or the circumstance he found himself, he always praised God. Psa. 119:164 ( Seven times a day I praise you, He praised God because of His righteous judgements, for His Greatness & faithfulness, His loving-kindness and he was determined to sing praises as long as he lived Psa. 103:33. The example of David bringing the ark of The Lord into the city of David from the house of Obed-Edomite in 2Samuel 6:11.
David loved unity among Brethren Psa. 133:1 David knew the value of good friendship and unity as exemplified in the relationship he had with Jonathan in 1 Sam, 18:1 Prov.18:24 says ‘There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He also knew the terrible pain of division within a family (his sons Amnon & Absalom 2Sam. 13
David hated every false way: I hate every false way Psa. 119: 104 His hatred was based upon his understanding of God’s precepts. His hatred affected his selection of activities and friends. Psa 101: 3-4, 6-7.
The only sin recorded against David in the Bible was the sin of sleeping with Uriah’s wife and the killing of Uriah and the covering of the sin. But when the Lord sent Prophet Nathan to him, he genuinely repented of his sins because the Bible says a broken heart and a contrite spirit will The Lord not look down on.
His reaction to the death of Saul in 2 Sam. 1:19-27(verse 21: ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offering: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.) was something out of this world, for as long as Saul was alive he chased David from one cave to another because he wanted to kill him, David even had an opportunity to kill him but he did not, in 1 Sam. 24: 4-5, he felt so bad (the Bible said and his heart smote him) that he cut the skirt of an anointed of the Lord, David understood that even though The Lord had rejected Saul he was still the anointed of The Lord, Brethren we must not on any account fight an anointed man or woman of God, we must at all times leave the Lord’s anointed to Him to deal with, He knows how to deal with them.
His reaction to the death of his son Absalom that overthrew his kingdom and seeked to kill his own Father in 2 Sam. 18:33 (And the King was much moved and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept, and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom. Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son.
His reaction to Shemei a relation of Saul as he ran for his life from his own son Absalom in 2 Sam.16: 12-13 The Bible said Shemei cursed and threw sand at him but this is what he said to one of his men that requested he give the command to have Shemei’s head taken off, ‘It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing today.
Brethren I can assure you it is only a heart that is like the heart of God that would react in this way and manner. The Lord will help us in Jesus name.
So Brethren because David was a man after God’s own heart and he had all these attributes, God was confident that David would do all that God asked of him. My prayer for us is that God will grant us the grace to be motivated at all times to do All of His will in Jesus name. The Bible says in the Bk. of Matt.7:21 ‘Not everyone that saith unto me Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.