Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, June 1st. Could life's obstacles sometimes be a sign of God's favor? Today's podcast helps you learn how to recognize the favorable hand of the Lord. All of us who are believers know in our heart that God loves us.
Now, we know that first of all, because the Bible says it. And secondly, there are times when we feel it. But oftentimes God's children do not feel that God loves them, and therefore they say, well, I know that sometimes He does, but oftentimes I'm not sure. And all of us would like to feel like that we are walking in the favorable sight of God and that we have His favorable hand toward us. And there is a passage of Scripture.
That I believe gives us the characteristics of a person who is indeed walking. and who is receiving and who is experiencing the favorable hand of God. All of us would like to experience that, and I believe we can.
So I want you to turn, if you will, to Nehemiah. And I want us to look at the second chapter, but I want to give you a little background of what's happening here. You'll recall that under Nebuchadnezzar many of the Jews were taken from Jerusalem over to Babylon and they were made slaves.
Well, one of these was a person by the name of Nehemiah. And he is now the Cupbearer of the king, not Nebuchadnezzar, but Artaxerxes. And so he's lived through a period of time of captivity. And being the cupbearer of the king, he has a special relationship to him. And while he is serving, the scripture says that his brother and some others came from Jerusalem and told him about what was happening in Jerusalem.
That is that the walls were torn down as a result of the captivity, the gates were broken, and the enemies were just pilfering the place. In fact, it was in great despair. The people were despairing, and they're continually fearful of the enemy.
So when he hears this, the Bible says he begins to fast and pray for several months, and then he comes to end of the king. And if you'll notice the 11th verse of this first chapter says, O Lord, I beseech. Thee, may thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant. And the prayer of thy servants, who delight to revere thy name, and make thy servant successful to-day, and grant him compassion before this man.
Now I was the cupbearer to the king.
Now, what happens in this second chapter, in these first eight verses, I want us to notice here, this is his coming before the king and making his request. And the title of this message Is the favorable hand of the Lord. Listen to what he says in verse 1.
Now it came about in the month Nicane, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king.
Now I had not been sad in his presence.
So on this particular day the king said to him, Why is your face sad? though you're not sick. This is nothing but sadness of heart. And notice how Nehemiah responded. He said, then I was very much afraid.
And I said to the king, Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies desolate? and its gates have been consumed by fire. Then the king said to me, What would you request?
So I pray to the God of heaven.
Now, listen. This is one of those quick ripcord kind of prayers. You do it instantly in an emergency.
Now there's nothing wrong with those as long as that's not the only kind of prayer you're doing. And if you'll notice before this, in this first chapter, he spent months fasting and praying.
So if you believe in short-term prayers, then if you want them answered, there better be some long-term prayers that precede them.
So he said, So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king. If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah. to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it. Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will your journey be? And when will you return?
So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time. And I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the river, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph. The keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress, which is by the temple. for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go.
And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was upon me.
Now I want us to think in terms of God's favorable hand upon us. God loves everybody. And he loves his children. I think in a very special way. I don't believe God is prejudiced toward anyone.
He has intimates. That is, anyone who is willing to build an intimate relationship with Him, He has an intimate relationship with Him. But God, because He's a God of love, desires to show His favor toward His children. That is, He desires to show His goodness. He desires to express His goodness.
He desires to give to us everything we need. Everything we desire that fits His will and purpose for our life.
So he is a good God, the Bible says. He is a loving God. And I think Nehemiah put it in such a beautiful way when he says, The good hand of my God was upon me, that he says, the favorable hand of God was upon me. And so as I look through this book and read this scripture over and over and over again, asking myself this question, What is it in a man's life, and what is it in his relationship to God that he can say, The good hand of my God is upon me, that God has a favorable hand toward me? Because I think all of us would like to feel that and sense that, that we are favored by God.
Doesn't mean we are better than someone else, doesn't mean that we are more loved than someone else, but it means that God works in your life and my life, that it's very evident that He has favored us, that is, that He is expressing His goodness and expressing His love toward us.
Well, I think there are a number of things, and if you're wise, you'll jot them all down. For the simple reason that the truth is, all of us want to feel the favor and the goodness of God upon our life. One of the first things that I noticed in the life of Nehemiah is this: that here was a man who lived with a definite purpose in mind. For example, he was the cupbearer of the king, not out of his own choosing, more than likely, because he'd become a slave there in Babylon, but he had been willing to serve the king. And so he had a very definite purpose at that time in his life, and it was, of course, to be the best cupbearer he could possibly be and bear witness of his God, Jehovah.
Not only that, when he heard the news of what was happening in Jerusalem and how the gates were burned and the city walls were torn down and the people of God were a reproach, and what we don't realize oftentimes is what the nationalistic spirit of those Jews was. I mean, they were the people of God. They were the chosen people of God. They recognized, they believed that they were the descendants of Abraham, God's friend. And so they saw themselves as a particular, peculiar people, even as God says that they were.
And so he was struck and awed by what was happening. And the scripture says he set about to fast and to pray. And his purpose became To do something about the condition of the nation of Israel, that is, especially the holy city. The walls broken down, the gates burned, left them absolutely open to all kinds of attacks of their enemy. And so he purposed in his heart to do something about it.
Now he set out to pray to ask for God to give him wisdom and direction. And it's very evident and very clear that God gave him that direction because of what he does. But here was a man who had a very definite purpose, and he set out to accomplish that purpose. As the slave, the cupbearer to the king, he was good at that. He did it well.
When God gave him a different purpose, he did that well. When we say purpose, we don't mean that it has to be some Christian vocation necessarily, as preaching or some missionary or music or whatever it might be, though all of those are calls of God. But God gives each one of us a purpose in life because we are created as His children. He does have a will and a purpose and a plan for our life. And if you've examined the scriptures, God is a God of purpose, a God of plans, and one who pursues the fulfillment of those plans in people's lives.
So if I should ask you, what is your purpose today? What is it you're trying to accomplish? What sense of direction do you have?
Now, if you have no purpose in life and you're just sort of floating through doing the best you can with no sense of direction, nothing you want to accomplish, and no divine purpose, that is, no sense of godly purpose and godly direction, and somehow allowing God to use you in some fashion. then why should you expect the favorable hand of God to be upon you? It is very clear, here's a man who lived with a definite purpose in mind. And he said, the good hand of my God is upon me, the favorable hand of God is upon me. The second characteristic I noticed in his life was this: that here is a man in whose life prayer is a priority.
If we want the favorable hand upon us, the favorable hand of God, we're going to have to be men and women of prayer. Because you see, it's many women of prayer who are listening to God, who are sensitive to God, who are building an intimate relationship with God. And so when He speaks, they're able to hear. And so, when something rises in the life and then there is a challenge, what is their first response? Not to run to their friends.
Their first response is as his was, and that is, he said, he set aside days of fasting and praying, and for several months, this is what he did. If we want the favorable hand of God upon us, What is it that God wants from us most of all? He wants an intimate relationship, not service. Service is a result of that. An intimate relationship, building a relationship with us, whereby what?
He desires and is able to pour out those extra blessings. His favorable hand is upon us. He was a person in whose life prayer was a priority. The third thing I want you to notice about him is this. that his was the pathway of faith.
Here's a man who was governed by his faith in God. And if you'll think about what happens here, he's fasting and praying for several months and asking the Lord to give him direction what to do.
Somewhere in that season of prayer and fasting, God said to Nehemiah, Nehemiah, you're the person that I want to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls and the gates.
Well, I can imagine that Nehemiah must have said, Well, you want me to go? How am I going to go when I'm a slave? When Artaxerxes the king, all he has to do is to speak his mind, and my head is gone. And how am I going to get him to let me leave his service and go back to my people? How long is it going to take?
And what is he going to say? And how am I going to do it?
So he must have had a thousand questions. That's why for several months he spent time fasting and praying. What was God doing in this period of time? Building his faith. Establishing within him the continuous reminder that his promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, his promises to the nation of Israel, were covenant promises that God would somehow, miraculously, in some way, he would fulfill those promises.
And he knew it was not the will of God for the holy of holy cities to be in such distress.
So several months he prayed and fasted, waited upon God and listened. And so what happens? And you'll notice what he said. He said in this 11th verse of the first chapter, he says, Now, O Lord, I beseech thee. May thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant.
And the prayer of thy servants who delight to revere thy name, make thy servant successful today. Grant him compassion before this man.
Now how do I know he walked in there with faith? Simply this, because of what he requested. When he walks in, of course, the Bible says that he looked a little sad, and so the king said to him, Now, you're not physically sick, so what's wrong, Nehemiah? That this is something in your emotions. And so he said, Well, And then he just let it fly.
Which a cupbearer would never do. He just said, Well, And notice how he said it. He said, If you'll notice in verse 3, He says, Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad?
Now that's rather courageous. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies desolate and the gates have been consumed by fire?
Now he didn't say this because the previous king, he is the one who did it. He didn't say that. He's wise enough not to say. He said, why should I not be said? He says, my people, they're living in a desolate position.
Then so the king said to him, Well, what would you request?
Now, why would the king respond so quickly and so affirmatively? Because for days and weeks and months, this man had been on his face before God, crying out to God. He walked in there believing that the God who sent him in there to make the request is the God who said to him, Nehemiah, I'm going to send you to Jerusalem, you to do the work. If God said to him, I'm going to send you there, then God would have to assume the responsibility for making all those things possible. He wouldn't have walked in there making those kinds of requests if he'd not been on his knees, crying out to God, and God assuring him that his God who sent him also would provide every single need that he had.
Here was a man who said, the favorable hand of God is upon me. Why? Because he was a man with a purpose in his life. And he was a man who knew how to pray and talk to God. And he was a man who was willing to trust God for every single need, trust him for his divine protection, and trust him for every single thing he needed.
Besides that, He was walking into a situation that I don't see any evidence in Scripture that he had all that skill and knowledge and know-how to get this done. He just knew that if God sent him, God would make it happen. If we want the favorable hand of God upon us, we must learn to walk by faith. We must trust God because you see our faith says more about what we believe about God than probably any other aspect of our life. If we believe that God is who He says He is, then whatever He tells us to do, we'll be willing to do it because we can trust Him.
If God is not trustworthy, what kind of a God is He? if he is a trustworthy God. a faithful God. A God who is reliably there when He says, I'll always be there, never leave you nor forsake you. Every single promise that He's given, He says, You can do all things through Christ who will strengthen you.
Your God will supply all of your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. That person. who is walking by faith is going to experience the favorable hand of God because God desires to pour out His blessings. And as Paul says, He'll do more abundantly than you and I expect or think. That's the favorable hand of God.
He's a man of faith. He's the man who's willing to trust the Lord for whatever the need may be. Then I think there's another principle here, another characteristic of the person who certainly experiences the favorable hand of God, and that's this, that the bottom line, the principle that governs their life, is the principle of obedience.
Now, I'm sure that when God said to Nehemiah, when he began to talk about the condition of Israel, the nation of Israel, and God, he was probably saying, Lord, send somebody. Send somebody to rebuild the walls, somebody to rebuild the gates. And God began to talk to him about himself. He probably said, Well, Lord, how am I going to do that? And probably argued with God as Moses did, and probably like all of us do when God challenges us to do something that we don't quite understand how it's going to work out.
But as God began to work in his heart, he was committed to be absolutely obedient. If we want the favorable hand of God upon us, If we want Him to be able to pour out His blessings upon us unhindered by something within us, then we must learn. To walk in obedience to Him, leaving the consequences to Him. And that's why you can never separate faith and obedience. You can't separate them.
Here's the reason. If I obey God and leave the consequences to Him, it means I'm going to trust Him. to handle the results of my obedience. If I really and truly trust Him, I'm going to do what He requires me to do.
So here's a man whose life is characterized by obedience, willing to do the tough thing. Willing to do the difficult thing, willing to do what seemingly was the impossible thing, willing to do what he probably felt very unqualified and untrained to do. But if God said, do it, He was willing to do it, and as a result, he could say to those men with whom he spoke there in the very beginning: the favorable hand of God is upon me.
Now listen. The favorable hand of God has been poured out in all of our lives at different times. Did you stop to think? Wow, how God blessed me. God had to do this.
Only God could have arranged this. Wow. God is personally involved in my life. He is excited about what's going on inside of me. Did you stop to praise Him and thank Him and give Him glory and honor and give Him all the credit?
You want the favorable hand of God poured out in your life? Then the recognition that He's the source. and the recognition and praise and honor that belongs to Him. That's a vital part. of keeping the flow in your life and my life.
I want to ask you today in Jesus' name. Just take God at His Word and accept the fact that He loves you. and that the best that he has to offer His full hands are ready to be poured out. To those who will allow him to do so. by positioning themselves.
with these characteristics. A purpose. Prayer. Faith. Industriousness, obedience, recognizing the part that pain has.
working together with others, being willing. to pay whatever price is necessary. Looking to Him always. giving him the credit and the honor and the glory. It's yours for the asking.
Yeah. Thank you for listening to the favorable hand of the Lord. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
