The scripture says that God has favored us and put a shield around us. In this weekly message, I want to show you how you can maintain that shield, and live the abundant life that God has called you to.
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I have two scriptures to read before we start. The first is from Psalms 5:12, it says,
Psalms 5:12 For you, LORD [Yahweh], will bless the righteous; with favor you will surround him as [with] a shield. [GBMV]
The second scripture is from Romans chapter 13:8. It says,
Romans 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. [GBMV]
Being Righteous
I want to ask you a question. You see, this scripture says that the Lord will bless the righteous.
We are the righteous, right? But what is required to be righteous? What is required for you to be called righteous? What actually is, does it mean? Everyone has different pictures of this. Some people associate it very much with holiness and being holy. Perhaps your thought is you need to do the right thing.
You need to walk carefully and not stray. Perhaps you should not walk in the flesh, not sin. Maybe being righteous means you never sin.
Perhaps it means you need to be holy and perfect, acceptable for the Lord. You need to earn the right to his blessing. You go to church every week.
You need to pay your tithes. All of these are different ideas we could have about righteousness. What is it that you associate with righteousness when you think about it? Because it could change everything about your spiritual life and living for the Lord.
Sometimes, I don’t know about you, but I get the impression that sometimes God has favorites, right? It’s like he favors someone else more than you. Perhaps some people just have it lucky, don’t they? They just got it lucky. They seem to be favored by the Lord.
Maybe they’re holier than you. Have you ever had that thought? Maybe that person is just holier than me. They’re just more blessed than me.
They’ve got more than me.
God’s Favorite
Well, I’ve got some good news for you today. God chose you as his favorite.
God chose you to be favored, and he has blessed you. So how did you become his favorite? How did you earn this shield of protection from him? How do you get that?
Well, there are a few things I want to just go over today to help you understand better what it is that God wants to do in your life and why he’s favored you. I want to show you a few principles, basic principles, to help you understand how you can walk in that shield of protection and favor that God has for you.
Because you see, God has put a shield of protection around you. He has favored you. He has given you his blessing, and all of these are promised to you as the righteous in Christ.
A Foundation
So you need to understand what true righteousness is. You need to understand what blessing is, and you need to understand what protection is. All of these things God has given you.
What are you required to do? Because there’s always something we have to do, isn’t there? It seems like we always have this feeling like we have to do something.
Well, in Christ it’s very simple. There is only one thing that he commands you to do in order to be favored, and I’m going to show you that today. So what are the requirements to be favored?
Being Righteous
Firstly, what is righteousness? Righteousness, quite simply, is right standing with God.
That’s actually all that righteousness means. So many people seem to make it complicated and think that you’ve got to be holy and you’ve got to do the right thing. Yes, there is an aspect of doing the right thing, but at the end of the day righteousness just means one thing.
It means being in right standing with God. So what is right standing? I mean, perhaps you could be confused on that. Well, if you want a simple illustration, you could be facing one way and God is the other way, behind you.
So all you’ve got to do is you’ve got to turn around and face him, and now you are standing the right way. You’re facing God. So there is something you have to do.
You do have to turn around and face him, and you do have to do the right thing. But all of this is through faith. Righteousness is through faith and grace.
It’s no longer based on your actions or fulfilling the law or doing all of these things that they had to do in the Old Testament. All you have to do is have accepted Jesus as your Savior and look to him as the Lord of your life, and you’re in right standing with God. So you need to understand that you are already in right standing with God if you’re looking to him.
You don’t have to do anything more to add to this. You are already a part of the righteous if you have accepted Christ.
See, because you can’t do this yourself. Righteousness is a gift of God. It’s a gift that he gives you by grace.
Because Jesus wants to live his life through you. Just as Jesus walked the earth back in the old days, he now wants to walk the earth through you. So if you submit to him and let him take control of your life, if you give to him your life and say, Lord, live your life through me, you’re now the righteous in Christ.
You’re now living as Christ in this earth, and you’re living a righteous life in right standing with God. So now, knowing that, how is it that God has blessed us? See, because the scripture at the beginning said, the Lord will bless the righteous. You see, that’s another one of the gifts God gave you when you accepted Jesus as your Savior.
Being Blessed
He blessed you. The scripture says in Ephesians 1 verse 3,
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in [the] heavenly [realm] in Christ: [GBMV]
This scripture is the key scripture that we teach in this ministry on the way of blessing, that God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing.
And you know, that is a gift of God. He blessed you with spiritual blessings. These blessings are already in your spirit.
And you know, that scripture teaches that this was once and for all. He already did it. He already blessed us in the past.
He doesn’t have to continue to bless us again. We don’t have to keep trying to earn his blessing, because it is already inside of us. His blessing is already resident in us.
If you are in Christ, see, because it says through the Lord Jesus Christ. And those blessings are in you. So now, you can tap into those blessings.
They’re always there, and you can choose to release those blessings out. And we teach in the way of blessing how important it is that through your words and your actions, that is how you release the blessing of God into this earth. That is how you release everything that God has put into your spirit, into this earth, through the words that you speak and the things that you do.
Now, keep that in mind, because that’s going to be very important as we keep going now.
So, in summary, God has set you in right standing already when you accepted him. You’re in the right place now.
God has blessed you with everything you need. And all of this is in Christ alone.
Favor and Protection
So now, moving on to the next part, how do we become favored of the Lord and have that shield of protection around us? Being protected.
Isn’t that something that we all want? Isn’t that what we always ask for God? We say, Lord, thank you for your protection. Thank you for your favor on us. Thank you that wherever we go, your shield of protection, your hand of protection is over us.
I don’t know about you, but that’s probably one of the strongest things everyone asks for. Besides asking for finances and the Lord to take care of us, we want his protection on us. Well, it comes back to that scripture in Psalms 5, verse 12, that says, the Lord Yahweh will bless the righteous.
With favor you will surround him as with a shield. So, he promised here in the scripture that he’s going to bless us and he’s going to surround us with a shield, because we are the righteous, right? So, that means that shield of protection is already around us. That means he already has favor on us.
He’s already put his favor and his protection around us. So, there’s not much more you can do, is there? Well, I want to show you that there is one very important thing you can do, and it’s what he commands us to do in the scripture.
So, how does he favor us? This scripture, I don’t know about you, but the first thing that comes to mind when you read it is you think favor, right?
And how do you see favor?
What does favor actually mean to you when you think of it?
Perhaps you see favor as like this aura that’s around you wherever you go, just like this thing glow around you that people just say, ah, and come to you and love you or just give you things.
I don’t know. What do you see favor as? What does that favor actually mean? See, at the end of the day, all that favor actually means is to be someone’s favorite. It just means you’re the favorite one.
Have you ever been the favorite person of someone? Maybe you were the teacher’s pet, as they call them, or maybe you were the favorite child in a family. It doesn’t actually seem fair to others. From your viewpoint, it’s great.
Everyone loves you. Everyone favors you. Everyone gives you everything you want.
You think, what’s wrong with everyone else? I’m fine. But you see, it doesn’t actually seem fair to others because you’re the favorite. You’re being given everything.
Grace is Favor
Well, you know, you are God’s favorite. God has favored you. He has given you blessing because you are the righteous, because you are in Christ.
And that doesn’t seem fair, does it?
But you see, at the end of the day, that’s grace. You don’t deserve to be his favorite. You don’t deserve to be favored, but he chose to favor you, and he chose to put his protection around you.
And that’s really humbling, isn’t it? It kind of makes you think, I don’t deserve this. But you see, that’s what God promised you.
And you know what this verse is really saying?
As I got into the scripture and I studied it, I wanted this to be the key verse in this teaching.
And I looked into the Hebrew in the back, and there are a couple of things I saw that were really interesting.
Firstly, he said that he favors us by surrounding us. Now, when you read that scripture, you think that it’s talking about him putting favor around us, right?
But what that scripture is actually really saying is that because you are his favorite, because he favors you, he’s going to put a shield around you.
And the word that they use for shield there is the Hebrew word “tzinah”. If you look this up, you’ll see it’s a large, full-body shield.
It’s like the kind of shield the Romans used to use. It’s a full shield that they hold in front of them, so they’re fully protected. You get a smaller kind of shield, which is just for dodging little attacks.
But this is not that. This is a full shield of protection the Lord has put around you to protect you and keep you safe. It’s a full shield.
So, that shield is promised to you. And what we call that is the mantle of protection.
Putting on The Mantle
Now, this is something that you have to actually put on daily. You see, because God said he will surround you with a shield. But you have a choice still, don’t you? You have a choice if you want to stay behind that shield or if you want to just go out and not think about it. This is the mantle of protection.
The mantle of protection, as we’ve described it in our series on Mantles of God, is like an undergarment. It’s like your underwear that you put on to protect your sensitive parts. And you have to make a choice to put it on daily.
You have got to choose to stand behind that shield and put it on. Now, when you get dressed in the morning to go out, perhaps you’re one of those people who stays at home just in your pajamas all day. Then you don’t care, right? You don’t care about being perfectly protected or wearing the right clothes.
But if you’re going to go out into the world, you’re going to get dressed, right? You’re going to put on clothes because you could come under attack. Perhaps, just as an example, I like to go hiking. But when I go hiking, I don’t just wear any old shoes or any old clothes.
I like to wear clothes with nice pockets and good solid shoes so that I’m protected when I go out. So that I don’t hurt myself or step on something sharp or get bitten by an animal of any kind. So that’s what you need to do every day.
You need to put on the mantle of protection as you go out. And the scripture talks about putting on the whole armor of God. And this is a perfect example of the mantle of protection.
And the armor has multiple parts to it, which all mean different things. But that’s a message for another time. Today, I want to focus on how you can maintain that protection when you go out.
You see, because I don’t know about you, but I’ve found when you decide to go out and work for the Lord, you come under attack. Have you experienced this? Have you gone out and decided, today, I’m going to do something for the Lord? Today, I’m going to go out and reach people for the Lord.
I’m going to go be a blessing. I’m going to go minister. Or maybe even just in your workplace, you just want to shine Christ wherever you go.
And you find that things start to go wrong. And maybe you start to fear. You say, what if I’m not protected? What if I’m not protected by the Lord? What if that shield fails? What if I don’t see the blessing of the Lord? Perhaps you’ve had this experience before where you went out expecting God’s blessing, and it wasn’t there, and you didn’t see it.
So, you think you did something wrong. You think you’re no longer walking in righteousness. You’re no longer walking in love or doing the things that God told you to do.
And so, you think that you have to do something now, that you have to try and earn God’s blessing back. Well, that’s not what the scripture says, is it? God has already blessed you. He already has favored you.
Picking Up The Shield
So, why did you not walk in that protection?
Well, I want to talk about now being Christ in this world. What is it that God actually wants you to do when you go out? What does He want you to do in this world as the righteous and as believers? We are called to be Christ in this world. And you might think that means being perfect.
That’s what the scripture says, right? It says, be perfect. (Matthew 5:28)
But you can’t be perfect. So, how do we go out and be Christ in this world if we can’t do this in our own strength? How do we go show Him what Christ looks like? And how do we do what the Lord has called us to do?
The Power of Love
The key here is love.
Love is the key to everything. And that is the key point that I want to bring home in this message today, is the power of love.
John 15:12 says,
My instruction remains the same, That you continually [agape] love one another, just as I loved you. [GBMV]
See, the scripture commands us to love. It tells us that we must love. So, you don’t need to do anything else except love.
And in fact, that’s what it says in the Romans 13:8. It says,
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. [GBMV]
Love fulfills everything. And if you are walking in love, you’re in right standing with God. You are the righteous.
And that is all that God requires of you, that you go out and show His love to others. See, this is the power of love. The love talked about here is what’s called agape love.
Many people talk about this, but few people actually really understand what it means to love in this way. Agape love is what is known as the love of the Spirit. And this love is what God commanded us to do.
You Can’t Do This
So now, we go out, and we try and love other people. But as soon as you go out, you’ll find it’s really hard actually to love people, isn’t it? Especially when people are not nice to you. It’s actually really hard.
And you find the more you try and do this, the more you can’t do this. You can’t love like this. You can’t actually love unconditionally.
See, because agape love is unconditional. It has no conditions. It doesn’t matter who it is or what they are.
Agape love still gives out in love and still loves them. And you’ll find that you can’t do this yourself. So in order to do this, you have to let Jesus love through you.
You have to let Him be the one that loves through you. Agape love is so powerful that it overcomes everything. In Romans chapter 8, it talks about love and how none of us will ever be separated from the love of God.
And there are several scriptures in there that are just so powerful that stood out to me. It says nothing, not death or life, not present or future or any of these things, no matter where you are, whether you’re here or down in the depths of hell, nothing can separate you from the love of God. And that’s what agape love is.
It’s the love of the spirit. It’s so powerful that nothing can touch it. Nothing can destroy it.
Nothing can overcome it. You see, because it’s the love of the spirit and the power is in your spirit. And the spirit takes precedence over everything else.
Power in The Spirit
All the power in your life, the power of God, when it flows in your life, is going to come through your spirit, and it’s going to come out into your soul and into your body, and it’s going to come out into this world. So you need to ask the Lord to love through you. You need to ask Him to help you do this, to help you walk out and show love to others.
And that’s actually really simple. All you do is you just say, Lord, you come and live through me. You love others the way you want to.
And then you’ll find suddenly that it’s not hard anymore. It’s not hard anymore to love those people who you previously hated, to love the things. You don’t love sin.
You don’t love what they are doing in this world necessarily, but you still have the love of God for them, and you still show that love to them, because that’s what it means to let Christ live through you in this world. And you know, love is so powerful that if you do this, love will become a shield of protection around you.
Love will become something that protects you from all things.
When you let Christ live through you, that love will automatically protect you. That shield will suddenly be around you, because you are favored of the Lord, because you are going out there and presenting Christ to others. That shield of protection is automatically around you. And you won’t have to do anything anymore, except just go out and be Christ in this world.
Protection Is Normal
You know, there’s an example of a famous man by the name of John G. Lake. And they say that at one stage, when there was a plague going around, and for some reason he would go and pray for people with this plague and he would never get sick. He was just perfectly protected.
And they said they did an experiment where they put germs in his hands and then looked, and the germs died instantly. And you might think, wow, well, he was a man of God, right? He was walking in the power of God. Yes, that’s true.
But you know, every single one of us should walk in that kind of protection. Every single one of us should be walking in that protection and should be experiencing the blessing of God in our lives, that nothing can touch us, that no plague can come near us, because that is the blessing of the Lord. And you should be maintaining that shield.
The only way you’re going to maintain that is by walking in love, because you see, that’s all that God commanded us to do, to walk in love. So you should be walking in that kind of blessing. And you should maintain that shield, because you see, as much as the Lord has put his shield of protection around you, as much as you are the favorite of the Lord, the truth is that you can still be under attack, and you can step out from that shield.
Maintaining Your Stance
So you need to maintain that shield, because one of the ways the enemy will try and make you step out of that is by bringing condemnation on you. He’ll bring lies into your mind and make you think that you’re failing. He’ll make you think, oh, you’re not special.
You’re not righteous. You don’t deserve this. Look at the way you live your life.
You’re not holy enough to deserve the Lord’s favor and protection. See, that’s why you need to know the truth, that you are righteous, not because of what you have done, but because you are in right standing with God and because you are trying to present him in this world, because then he can’t lie to you. But if you believe that lie, then he gets past the shield and his attack can come and he can bring destruction in your life.
And then that shield of protection can’t protect you anymore, because you allow the enemy past it. You allowed him into your life. See, 1 John chapter 3:21 and 22 says,
1 John 3:21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, [then] have we confidence towards God.
22 And whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. [GBMV]
If your heart is condemning you and you think that you are not worthy of this protection, then you will drop that shield and the enemy will get in, and then you will experience the attack of the enemy and you will experience theft, strife, and destruction in your life. But you see, he said we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
And all that he commanded us to do was love. So don’t stop loving, don’t stop giving out in love, because that’s how you will maintain your protection. That is how you will maintain what the Lord has given to you.
Fellowship With Others
The next thing that is very important is the people that are around you. Other believers, other Christians, and those who are also walking and trying to present Christ in this world. You see, because you can’t hide away by yourself.
You can’t just hide away behind your little shield of protection and never go out there and never interact with other people, because that’s not what God made us to do. That’s not how God made us. I’m sure you know, as human beings, we’re very social, right? We like to be around people.
We like to have fellowship. And fellowship is, in fact, very important. That’s why God established the church, for us to go and fellowship with other believers, for us to give out in love to them and to receive from them.
And you know, it’s very important that you have that kind of protection, because you see, if you go out and you are with other believers, all of you have your shield, right? All of you have your shield and you’re holding and you’re standing behind it, and you can protect each other, because they can stand behind you with their shield. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen those old, seen movies with the Romans. I’m sure you’ve seen movies with the Romans when they marched, and they’re all in there with their shield in formation, you know? And nothing can break through, because they all walk in perfect formation, holding their shield in front of them.
You see, that’s what the church of God is like. That’s what God made us to be, to walk in unison with each other, as a body to protect one another and to keep that shield of protection. If you have people with you, other believers, they can encourage you.
They can help you to keep your shield of protection up and not let the enemy lie to you. And they can point out when you’ve got a hole in your shield, or when you are not holding it correctly, they can point that out to you. So that’s why it’s very important to have other believers.
An Open Door
But you see, the problem with other believers is they can open the door to the enemy. They could also fall, put their shield down, believe the lie of the enemy, perhaps open the door to a curse in their life, and then you can come under that attack too. And that’s why that’s one of the things that we’ve talked about before, is what we call breaking spiritual links.
You see, when you interact with another believer, your spirits link together, and the two of you, you kind of receive something from each other. Because that’s one of the functions of the human spirit, it’s called communion. You commune with another believer.
And when you open your heart to them, you can receive so many good things from them. They could bless you with whatever blessing it is that’s on their life, whatever things God has shown them. But you can also open the door to contamination.
You can open the door to a curse in your life, if that person is under a curse. If they’ve failed to hold their shield up of protection, and they’ve failed to keep giving out the way God wants them to, or perhaps they’ve just allowed the enemy into their life, in any way, you can come under that curse. So that’s why it’s important that sometimes you do need to actually break links with other believers.
You can’t necessarily always just accept everything. And so I want to bring a little bit of balance to this, you see, because some people go overboard on this. Some people go overboard the one way that we should fellowship with everybody, and we should just be open to everyone.
And some people go overboard on breaking links, where they say, we should break links with everyone, disassociate with everyone, not associate with anything. See, that’s not scriptural either, is it? God didn’t tell us to break links with everyone. God told us that we should fellowship in love with one another.
And so the key is, yes, you should fellowship with other believers, but you should keep your heart closed off when there is clearly a curse in their life. You must keep watch if a person is struggling or battling with something, that you keep your heart closed so you don’t come under that same curse. The scripture says you should not partake in another man’s sins.
So if that person is allowing an open door in their life, you need to break links with them, and you need to make sure that you keep your heart closed. But at the same time, you need to be there to try and help them, to be a blessing to them. And that’s where the power of love comes in.
Giving Out
When you come into contact with another believer or another person, you must look to meet their needs and to be a blessing to them. See, because that’s what Christ wants you to do. Jesus is your source of blessing, not the person.
So you mustn’t look to the person, another person, as your source of blessing. You mustn’t look to them to meet your needs. You must just go out and give out in love, just as Christ did.
Give out in love to whoever needs it. And when you do that, you come under that protection, because love protects you. If you walk circumspectly, you walk carefully, and you just keep your heart closed off from any curse or contamination, but you’re still ready to give out in blessing to others, to help them in their time of need, and to show the love of Christ.
You ask the Lord to love through you. Then you’re going to walk in the shield of love, and it’s going to cover you all around, wherever you go. It doesn’t matter where you go.
You could walk into danger, and the Lord will protect you. That doesn’t mean being stupid. That doesn’t mean going out and just walking into a danger zone, thinking, oh, I’m fine, I’ll be protected.
Obviously, you still got to be careful where you go, because you can open the door to a curse in your life. But that protection is going to be around you. It’s going to be all around you, no matter where you go.
He is going to keep you safe, because you are his favorite. When you are his favorite, he’s not going to let anything happen to you. He’s not going to let the enemy overwhelm you or stop you from fulfilling the call that he’s placed on your life.
Conclusion
So, if you want to put on a shield of protection, then give out in love. Give out in love to others. Don’t stand behind your shield, hiding from others.
Don’t stand hiding from the world, thinking that at any moment you could be destroyed or come under attack. That’s what the enemy wants. That’s fear.
That’s not going to protect you, because you’re living in fear, hiding behind your shield, saying, I don’t want to do anything, because I’m going to come under attack. You will come under attack, but you will have that shield of protection around you to get rid of the attack of the enemy. I really just want to bring this home, because it’s a revelation for me.
I was tempted so recently to hide away and not give out or not go out and interact with other believers, because, you see, we have this idea that we can come under contamination and curse so easily. And that is true. But, you know, at the same time, God wants you to give out.
He wants you to be a blessing to others. He wants you to represent Him in this world. So, in conclusion, if you want to fulfill the call of God on your life, there is one call that God has placed on all of us.
We are all called to love like Him. Every believer has a call to love others, and this is all that God requires of you. It’s all that’s required of you is that you love everyone, that you love the way that Christ loved.
You are the righteous in Christ. God has blessed you. You are His favorite, and He has placed a shield around you.
So, when you go out now to do whatever you do, if you go to your workplace and you want to shine Christ, if you go out on the streets to minister, it doesn’t matter where you go. Take His love with you, because that’s going to be your shield of protection. Take His love and shine it forth, and when you do this, it will release His blessing in your life.
See, that comes back to words and actions. When you go out and shine His light through the things you say and the things that you do, you’re going to release His blessing, and when you do that, you’re going to live the abundant life that God has for you. You’re going to live a life of blessing in every area.
You’re going to live the way that God intended, full of health and wealth and relationships, full of blessing, because you chose to give out and love the way that God wants you to.
My Prayer
Father, I thank you for this message that I gave today. I gave it to the best of my ability, and Lord, I know there are some of your children out there who really want to go out there and just represent you in this world.
They want to go out there and minister to others. They want to go out and preach whatever it is you’ve called them to do, whatever their desire is. Perhaps they want to go out into the world and do something and present you there.
It doesn’t matter whatever it is. I ask you, Father, now that you give them wisdom and that you give them strength to do it now. I see it’s like someone is hiding behind that shield.
Perhaps you were hiding because you had hurts in the past. Perhaps you tried to give out and love with a pure heart of love, and you got hurt. Well, God says to you, my child, that was not me.
That was the work of the enemy. He is the one who hurt you, and he is the one who tried to stop that pure heart of love because I put that heart of love in you, and I gave you that softness, and the enemy tried to fill your heart and surround it with stone. That was not me, but it was his lies.
And my child, I want to heal that heart. I want to heal that wound, and I want to let my love shine through you again. And so reach out now to me, and let me heal that wound now, and let me take that heart of stone, and let me shine my love through you.
And you don’t need to fear because I will protect you. I will hold you in my hands, and I will not let the enemy hurt you again as long as you’re willing to give me that heart and let me love through you. Thank you, Father, for that person now.
I thank you that you heal that heart of stone, that you let your love shine through them now, that you, Lord, will protect them as they do this. In Jesus’ name. Thank you for it, Father.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
I hope that it’s been an encouragement to you, and I hope that you will open your heart now to let the Lord love through you, that you will let him shine his light, and that you will live the abundant life that he has for you today.
Amen.