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            How To Get and Keep the Blessing and Favor of God!

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By David Wilkerson
May 10, 1993
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          The book of Haggai is a marvelous lesson on how to get
          and keep the blessing and favor of the Lord. In utter
          simplicity the prophet Haggai outlines how God's
          children can live and walk under God's continual
          blessing and favor.

          Yet Haggai also shows the causes and reasons why people
          lose God's blessing - and what they must do to come
          back into His favor! This is true for nations,
          families, individuals.

          The wonderful truth is, God blesses those who walk in
          faithfulness - He shows favor to those who favor Him. I
          don't know about you, but I love to be around people
          who have the favor of God! There is something of the
          exuberance of Christ about them. And they have a
          settled peace. You don't have to worry from one day to
          the next whether they're up or down, because there is a
          steadiness about their walk with God.

          One of the greatest sorrows a pastor has to bear,
          however, is to witness the awful changes that take
          place in Christians who go sour. These are believers
          who at one time were on fire for God, dedicated and
          zealous for His work. They were happy, blessed, growing
          in faith, maturing spiritually.

          Then one day you began to sense that something had gone
          wrong. A frown had replaced their smile. Suddenly
          they'd stopped growing. Spiritual decay had set in!

          This happens to married couples! Perhaps it is true of
          your marriage. Only a year or so ago, you both seemed
          so happy. There was a spark in your eyes, and you were
          sweethearts. Everywhere you turned God was blessing
          you. People around you thought nothing could ever come
          between you. You both enjoyed the fullness of God's
          favor.

          But now something is wrong. In a matter of just months,
          you both are walking in sorrow! You can't agree on
          anything - there is constant misunderstanding between
          you. Your love for each other and for God's work is
          waning. His blessing and favor on your marriage has
          been withdrawn!

          This also happens to individual Christians! I have been
          greatly blessed by the faithfulness and zeal of many
          individual Christians, many of whom are single. They're
          so full of joy, excited about the Word of God, always
          putting the Lord's work first, When I see them I say to
          myself, "There goes one who will never quit and never
          grow stale. He [or she] is determined to go all the way
          with the Lord!"

          Yet, sadly, some of these zealous believers begin to
          change. They start missing meetings, whereas they used
          to come to every service. And a sad, dour look has
          swept over their countenance, The blessing of God is no
          longer there - you can almost see it draining out of
          them!

          Now when I see them, I wonder, "Lord - what happened?
          How could they just drift away? How did such coldness
          get into their spirit? How could they forget the secret
          of having Your blessing and favor upon them?"

          The same thing happens to nations! From the day God
          commanded His blessings upon Israel, down to modern-day
          America - nations that once lived under bountiful
          goodness soon forget God! They forget why He blessed
          them - and they become His enemies, going from favor to
          awful judgments!

          No nation was ever so blessed as Israel. God told them,
          "I picked you out of all the peoples of the nations -
          and I carried you in My arms! I found you, bathed and
          clothed you. But then you turned sour on Me! You turned
          against Me, committing spiritual adultery!"

          Like Israel, America has lost God's blessing and favor!
          At one time this nation was greatly blessed. Our
          forefathers were, for the most part, godly men. And up
          to just a few years ago, America blessed the whole
          world as the number-one lender nation. Not anymore! We
          are now the number-one debtor nation, owing more money
          than the rest of the world combined! We're so deep in
          debt we'll never get out!

          What has happened to America? It has lost its soul, its
          blessing, its favor with God! No longer are we one
          nation under Him - because He has turned us over to our
          sins. We have become godless - and now we are under His
          divine discipline!

          How do nations, families, individuals lose the blessing
          and favor of God? What causes this fall into ruin and
          shame? Haggai lists three reasons for this:

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            1. Self-Interests Begin to Replace God's Interests!

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          "This people say, the time is not come, the time that
          the Lord's house should be built: (Haggai 1:2). The
          Israelites gave up building the Lord's house - in order
          to build their own homes!

          This scene took place sixty-eight years after Solomon's
          temple was destroyed. A remnant had returned to
          Jerusalem out of Babylonian captivity specifically to
          rebuild God's house. And, indeed, they laid the
          foundation of the temple with zeal and excitement!

          But then they began running into some hard places -
          difficulties, discouragements. Slowly, they lost
          interest in the work of God. They said, "This just
          isn't the time - we're having too many problems.
          Besides, we're spending so much time here. We're
          neglecting our families and our businesses."

          One by one, they walked away to look after their own
          interests. And the Lord's interests - which had
          everything to do with their own well-being - became
          secondary!

          They began building their own houses. And they used the
          lumber that had been stored up to build the temple -
          all the beautiful cedar that had come from the
          mountainsides.

          When Haggai came on the scene, he heard the pounding of
          nails and saw houses going up everywhere. Then he went
          by the house of God - and it was being neglected!
          Nobody was working on the temple!

          He began to cry out: "Is it time for you, O ye, to
          dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie
          waste?... Thus saith the Lord... Consider your ways"
          (verses 4-5). He was saying, in other words, "Wake up -
          think about what you're doing!"

          You might ask: What is the temple of God that is being
          built today? Scripture says it is our bodies: "Know ye
          not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
          which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not
          your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19).

          Indeed, the church of Jesus Christ is His body on
          earth. He is the Head, in glory - and our primary work
          here on earth is to build up His spiritual body.
          Everything we do for Jesus doesn't just build up a
          local church or ministry - it builds up Christ's body
          on earth!

          How, then, do believers today lose the blessing and
          favor of God? By stopping work on His temple! It
          happens when we stop praying and seeking God - when we
          stop building up His spiritual body!

          Scripture says that if just one member hurts, the whole
          body suffers. I know if I bang my finger or stub my
          toe, my whole body reacts - even my head feels it!
          Therefore, if you're not doing your part in building
          Christ's house - if you're not seeking Him with all
          your heart - then you're hurting the whole body. You're
          even hurting the Head, Jesus!

          Here is the problem Haggai points out: When the people
          put God's interests first, He provided their food and
          shelter. Indeed, they were cared for by Him in every
          way: Their vineyards grew, their grapes were heavy.
          They slept peacefully at night, and their children
          danced in the streets. None of their enemies prevailed
          against them. It was a marvelous time of God's
          blessing. But then the people became absorbed with
          their own interests!

          Now, God is not against our providing for our
          household. We are to be diligent in our daily work and
          business. But the Israelites had stopped doing God's
          work completely. Self-interests had possessed their
          every thought!

          Today, many Christians come to God's house and just
          sit. They never do anything to build His body. They're
          too concerned about their own careers and families -
          too busy with their own interests!

          They say, "Someday I'll have time - then I'll be able
          to put the Lord's interests first, As soon as I've paid
          my bills and put aside a little nest egg, then I'll
          give more time to spiritual matters." No! These are
          lukewarm, even cold - giving God less and less of their
          time and resources!

          Perhaps at one time you came to God's house with
          genuine zeal for Him. You were filled with Christ - He
          was your everything, your life. But now you have become
          wrapped up in making money, trying to improve your
          life-style. Suddenly, your interests have over-whelmed
          the interests of God. You have pushed His work out of
          your life!

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                     God Says You Will Pay a High Price
                     for Putting Self-Interests First!

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          "Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye
          have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with
          drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he
          that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag
          with holes" (Haggai 1:6).

          God was saying to the people: "You run after material
          things - houses, land, money - and they eat up all your
          time and energy! When you were consumed with doing My
          work, you had joy and satisfaction. But now you are
          empty, disillusioned, unsatisfied. And no matter what
          you do, nothing will ever satisfy you!"

          "Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and
          when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it, Why? saith
          the Lord of hosts, Because of mine house that is waste,
          and ye run every man unto his own house" (verse 9).

          God said, "You wanted it so badly and worked so hard
          for it. But you robbed from Me to get it! You brought
          it home, and it didn't satisfy you - because I blew all
          the satisfaction away!"

          This is what is happening in America today! Think about
          it: Never in the history of mankind has there been a
          country of so many, with so much - with no
          satisfaction! You buy things you coveted and worked so
          hard to get - but as soon as you bring them home, all
          the newness wears off! It brings no joy, no
          satisfaction. You can actually feel the emptiness
          flowing into you!

          Our nation is consumed with self - self-pride,
          self-ambition, self-will - with every person out for
          his own interests! No wonder so many are drunk and
          dazed with drugs, wandering in darkness and confusion.
          God has blown on our materialistic pursuits - and
          nothing of it can ever satisfy!

          God says: "I called for a drought upon [you]... upon
          all the labour of [your] hands" (verse 11). He is
          saying, "If you begin to neglect your soul and turn to
          material things, you will end up joyless, dissatisfied,
          empty, dry! I will bring a spiritual drought - and all
          your hard work will only make you feel worse! You will
          say, 'Is that all there is to life?"'

          To the carnal Christian, God is saying: "I've called
          for misery, dryness, so you couldn't find any
          satisfaction - so it would drive you back to Me! I want
          you to put My interests first, so I can once again
          bless and favor you!"

          Thank God, He does that! Each of us ought to pray,
          "Lord, anytime I start to slip away from You, make me
          miserable!"

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            2. The Second Reason People Lose God's Blessing and
             Favor: They Refuse to 'Give Up on Measuring Up'!

                      -------------------------------

          "The people did fear before the Lord... and they came
          and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their
          God" (1:12,14). Finally, the people were convicted of
          their self-interests and returned to working on the
          temple. They were back where they should be - building
          the house of God!

          As they stood before the foundation of the temple, the
          walls started going up. But something was wrong - many
          of the older people began weeping! Why? Because they
          had seen the splendor of Solomon's temple sixty-eight
          years before - and this new one did not measure up. In
          comparison, it seemed as nothing!

          They began to talk of past glory, saying, "This temple
          has no ark in it. There is no mercy seat, no cherubim.
          There is no consuming fire on the altar, no shekinah
          glory coming down on the house. After all our hard work
          - all our sacrifice and obedience, all our putting
          God's interests first - we don't measure up! This is
          nothing compared to what we once saw. Why struggle, why
          go on, when we see so little for all that we've done?"

          The implications of this attitude were very serious -
          and it angered God! Haggai said to them: "Who is left
          among you that saw this house in her first glory?... Is
          it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?"
          (2:3). He was saying, "You're standing here measuring
          your present situation with something in the past - and
          it's making you miserable!"

          This strikes at the very heart of what is happening in
          the church of Jesus Christ today. It is one of the key
          reasons people have lost the blessing and favor of God!

          A host of God's people today are giving up - because
          they don't think they will ever measure up! Like the
          Israelites, they have gone back to God back to putting
          Him first, seeking His will, building His house. But
          when they look at their lives, they say, "I have so
          little to show for all my struggles! I have so little
          of God's holiness, so little of His glory in my life.
          Compared to other Christians, I'll never measure up.
          What's the use of struggling? I'll never have victory."

          I am convinced this is why many devoted Christians give
          up the fight. They compare themselves to other
          believers - and they become discouraged because they
          feel hopelessly inferior!

          This happened to me years ago when I began reading the
          Puritan writers. I saw their holy fire for God -
          getting up at 4 and 5 in the morning, praying six and
          eight hours a day, never speaking a foolish word,
          consumed with the Word of God. They appeared so holy,
          so godly. It sent me on a guilt trip - I felt I could
          never measure up to them!

          Beloved, the problem is we have our eyes on our
          condition! We don't realize that, in the dealings of
          God in our lives, we're at just the right place. We
          can't measure our spiritual lives by somebody else's.
          If you continue to do this, you'll begin to think God's
          glory has depleted, that it has run out for you. You
          won't expect it in your life!

          Haggai showed Israel they were focused on the wrong
          object. They had lost sight of the fact that God's
          glory hadn't been drained or depleted! God sent this
          word to them:

          "I am with you, said the Lord of hosts... be strong,
          all ye people of the land... and work: for I am with
          you... my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not"
          (2:4-5). "The glory of this latter house shall be
          greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts"
          (verse 9).

          God was saying to them, "You may have thought the glory
          of the first house was something. But it was nothing
          compared to the glory that's ahead! You'll have My
          peace upon you - My glory will flood your soul! Just
          stay in the precious fear of God. Keep going, keep
          doing My work, no matter how you feel. Be strong, for I
          am with you!"

          If you'll just stand faithful - if you'll stay true to
          the Lord and not try to measure yourself by anything
          except your own love for Jesus - then you can be
          assured, you're growing. And God promises to be with
          you!

          Haggai warned them, "I beg you - before you get
          discouraged about not measuring up, look back and
          review your past walk with God. Remember what it was
          like when you quit on God. You lost His favor and
          blessing! Do you want to go back to those days when God
          had to blast you with mildew? When He rained down the
          hail of disappointments on you, and all you did was in
          vain?

          "No - you have come back to the Lord, and you're on the
          right track! God is with you, no matter how little
          progress you think you're making. Keep going - the
          glory is just ahead!"

          Then comes this incredible word from God:

          "Consider now... this day... the four and twentieth day
          of the ninth month, even from the day that the
          foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it
          [mark it down]... From this day will I bless you"
          (verses 15-19).

          Beloved, you can mark this down too - it is God's
          promise to you! From the very hour you focus again on
          building up Christ's body - setting aside all selfish
          ways, letting Him become your all - you can start
          looking to see His manifold blessing. You can literally
          mark it down! You will know He is favoring you, smiling
          on you - rejoicing in you!

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                    3. The Final Reason for Losing God's
                  Blessing and Favor: The Touch of Death!

                      -------------------------------

          Jewish law had said: "He that toucheth the dead body of
          any man shall be unclean seven days... Whosoever
          toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and
          purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the
          Lord" (Numbers 19:11, 13).

          Now, listen to Haggai's word to Israel:

          "Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead
          body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the
          priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then
          answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is
          this nation before me, saith the Lord; and so is every
          work of their hands; and that which they offer there is
          unclean" (Haggai 2:13-14).

          Haggai was saying, "If at any point death touches you
          or you touch death, you have become defiled. You're
          unclean - you have defiled your whole body, the temple
          of God!"

          God had imposed these strict laws for health purposes,
          to protect the people against the spread of contagious
          diseases. Yet to the Jewish mind, death was always a
          type of corruption and Sin. Even the New Testament ties
          death to sin: "And you hath He quickened, who were dead
          in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).

          According to Ezra and Nehemiah, the death touching
          Israel was sensuality and mixture with the world.
          Israelite men had lusted after heathen Canaanite women
          and married them. They had children who didn't even
          speak the Jewish language. There was an unholy mixture!

          Beloved, if at any point in your Christian life you
          have a touch of the world - a tinge of compromise, a
          desire that's pulling at you - that is a touch of death
          And it's going to cost you the blessing and favor of
          God!

          Haggai posed another question to the people:

          "If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment,
          and with his skirt to touch bread, or pottage, or wine,
          or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests
          answered and said, It shall be unclean" (Haggai 2:12).

          Haggai pictures a priest carrying home a cut of
          sanctified meat from the altar of sacrifice. The
          prophet asks: "Does that holy meat transfer holiness to
          his garment? When he puts it on his table at home, does
          it communicate holiness to any of the other food
          there?" The answer was an emphatic, "No!"

          Here is Haggai's point: Being around holy things does
          not transfer holiness to you!

          These Israelites thought the land itself was holy, so
          living on the land made them holy. Likewise today, many
          Christians convince themselves they are right with God
          as long as they come to His house. They think that
          through the sanctifying praise and prayers of God's
          people, somehow the holiness of God will be transferred
          to them,

          Yet singing in the choir, doing good works, sitting at
          the Lord's table - none of these spiritual things in
          themselves can make you righteous. You can sit in a
          Holy Ghost meeting and soak in all the blessing of God
          - but it won't make you holy if death is touching you!

          On the other hand, the death and corruption of sin are
          transferable. Sin is a communicable disease - it
          spreads to everything it touches! If sin is touching
          you at some point, it begins to spread through your
          whole body. Show me a man who is touching death
          somewhere in his life, and I'll show you how it has
          crept over his wife, his children, his entire
          household!

          Here is why God shut off all His blessings upon Israel!
          It is why He struck them with blasting and mildew and
          brought disfavor, droughts, dissatisfaction, economic
          chaos, emptiness, poor harvests. It was because they
          were unclean before His altar! They had become careless
          about touching what was dead and they had become
          corrupt, wicked!

          If there is something of the world in your heart - if
          the touch of death is not purified - you can have no
          blessing from God. You are in His disfavor - and all
          you do is unclean in His sight!

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                   Thank God - He Has Made Provision for
                   the Cleansing Of Every Touch Of Sin!

                      -------------------------------

          Are you battling a secret sin? Has that sin hindered
          the flow of God's blessing to you? Do you feel empty,
          dry, lonely? Listen to God's Word to you:

          "My little children, these things write I unto you,
          that ye may sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
          advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
          and He is the propitiation for our sins" (1 John
          2:1-2). "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
          just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
          unrighteousness" (l John l:9).

          If you want to be clean, run to Jesus! "In whom we have
          redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
          according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7).
          "And you, being dead in your sins and the
          uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened
          together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses"
          (Colossians 2:13).

          New life and new blessings are yours - right now, in
          Christ! It doesn't take God long to clean it all up.
          Simply acknowledge before Him: "Lord, I have failed
          you. But I want it out - I want Your blessing!"

          Call on His cleansing power. God will bring back to you
          all of His favor: "A faithful man shall abound with
          blessings" (Proverbs 28:20).

          Dear saint, I urge you - determine in your heart not to
          look at the past. Become faithful once more, putting
          His interests first and seeking Him with all your
          heart. Start work again on the temple of the Holy
          Ghost. The Lord has promised you: "Mark it down on your
          calendar - from this day on I'm going to bless you. I'm
          going to favor you!"

          Hallelujah!

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