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Moving around Pentecostal circles you will realise that there are certain “pet” topics that preachers have. Preachers love dishing out a diet of favour and blessing while eager congregants lap it up with just as much gusto. I guess it is human nature to want to hear positive messages that give you hope for the future.

Favour is lavished upon us by God and we must enjoy the favour of God in all spheres of our lives. Jesus Christ the son of God also enjoyed favour. The scriptures state that Jesus grew in stature, in favour with God and man. From the aforementioned scripture I glean that favour is double sided. There is vertical favour which is favour from God and horizontal favour which infers favours received from man. Believers should be growing and increasing in this form of double sided favour. In all the messages I have heard recently about favour, I am yet to hear a message about how to maintain favour. I will outline two important keys to assist us grow in and maintain favour.

1. Intimacy with God — Favour is cultivated and maintained through intimacy with God. This entails reading and studying of the Word, prayer, cultivating a deep and meaningful relationship with God. Befriending the 3rd person of the God Head, the Holy Spirit is also important. As you become intimate with God, He lavishes you with favour out of the love relationship that has been developed with Him.

2. Man is the conduit through which favour flows — It is important to cultivate favour with man as it is through man that blessing and favour flow to us. God cannot throw favours directly at us from heaven and therefore we need to work on the horizontal favour that will flow through men. Some ways we can cultivate favour with man are by displaying Ubuntu (Godly behaviour), being loveable (people desire to be around attractive people), become a person that people want to bless. Work at developing good manners, etiquette, good grooming. Finally develop and nurture good relationships with friends, family and associates.

Enjoying favour with God and man is one thing, but maintaining the favour is something else. I have learned from experience that one of the best ways to maintain favour is through remembrance. In a previous article I alluded to the benefits that accrue to us through observing the virtue of gratitude. If we cultivate the virtue of gratitude and add to it the ability to remember we will be well on our way to enjoying and maintaining double sided favour.

Favour brings with it many benefits and prosperity. However, I have noted that when the benefits of favour are unleashed in our lives, they may in some instances cause us to be become forgetful and unbalanced. Remembrance will help maintain a balanced attitude during times/seasons of double sided favour. The scriptures caution us of this danger.

On countless occasions Deuteronmy 8:18 is quoted out of context. It would appear the emphasis is on the “power to get wealth” but no mention is made about the caution that when we are blessed we should remember the Lord our God who is the source of favour and blessing. Mankind has not changed since then and King Solomon was on point when he said “there is nothing new under the sun”. Even the children of Israel who had experienced God’s favour and blessing firsthand would quickly forget God when they were in throes of great blessing.

I read a very sobering book by a man of God whom I have a great deal of respect, Bishop Dag Heward-Mills of Lighthouse Chapel in Ghana. The book is aptly entitled “Those Who Forget”. After reading this simple but profound 91 page booklet I was convicted strongly of any form of “selective amnesia”. It is amazing how favour and blessing can cause us to suffer from “selective amnesia”.

Heward-Mills states “People grow up and forget who cared for them, who nurtured them and who loved them. They forget those who brought them to Christ, those who raised them in the Lord and those who put them in ministry. It is possible that people can forget the people who helped them at the most important crossroads of their lives. Can they turn around and attack the very people who raised them up? The answer is “yes”! It happens all the time.

People forget God when they prosper. Europe has forsaken God because they have become the richest continent. But it is God who gave them what they have. People become atheists after becoming millionaires. What a pathetic sin it is to forget the one who gave you everything”.

Maintaining favour entails several important things, chiefly among them is never to forget God or neglect fellowship in the house of God. It has often perplexed me when the very blessings that God has bestowed upon us cause us to forget fellowship. I have seen the unemployed, single persons quickly forget fellowship when God blesses them with jobs/business, finances and families. The spouses, children, job/business given by God become an excuse to absent themselves from church meetings. Commitment levels are compromised as forgetful people enjoy the grace, favour and blessings given by God. I have reminded people in the past never to let God get to a place where He regrets having lavished you with His favour.

Above all never forget to look back and remember where you come from and especially remember those who assisted and helped you in your life’s journey. A forgetful heart chokes the conduits of favour and blessing.

Heward Mills adds that there are eight common mistakes made by people that suffer from “selective amnesia”, however for the purposes of this article I will dwell only on one which I deem to be very important.

They forget and dishonour founders and fathers — it’s important to remember founders and fathers. Genesis 9:22 “And Ham the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without”. Sadly in Zimbabwe we have developed a murmuring spirit that has caused us to forget and disrespect both our spiritual and founding fathers of the nation. I am amazed at how generous we are with our derision and criticism to political leaders and spiritual fathers. I do not dispute that they may have many faults and weakness, but it does not negate the efforts and sacrifices that they made for this nation.

I learned with shock and horror a few years ago that a group of young, upstarts who claimed to be “prophets” started circulating rumours that they wished to rebuke Bishop Tudor Bismark and Apostle Ezkiel Guti, for reasons best known to themselves. Immediately I realised that these young men suffered from “selective amnesia” and they were heading for trouble. Let us always look back and remember the sacrifices and pioneering work of our spiritual and political fathers.

In the same breath I pay homage to my spiritual father Apostle Ken Haskins and his wife Pastor Beulah of Victory Fellowship who have contributed immensely to my spiritual life and to whom I am eternally grateful. It is also fitting to remember our political father Joshua Nkomo who sacrificed his life for the nation of Zimbabwe during this period when we celebrate the 16th Anniversary of his death.

I read this book by Heward-Mills when I celebrated my 50th birthday (my golden jubilee). Instead of making my birthday about myself and receiving presents I took time to celebrate and remember all those who had contributed positively to my life. I based this on Heward-Mills theory that there are ten people we should always remember and I did just that. These are:-

l Your soul winner — the person who led you to Christ.

l Your first teacher — the person who groomed you and taught your first life lessons.

l Your trainer — the person who trained you in ministry or your chosen vocation.

l Your inspirer — the person most inspirational in your life.

l Your example —

l Your life teacher — the person who taught life lessons.

l Your launcher — the person who created opportunities for you to be who and where you are today.

l Your father — both natural and spiritual.

Finally, I encourage as Heward-Mills does in his book that we “should grow in our understanding of why God blesses people. People who lack understanding of why God favours and blesses someone will quickly neglect these important principles. A deeper understanding helps you to have a better memory. The more you understand, the more you remember!”

An ancient Chinese proverb says “You hear you forget, you see you remember, you do you understand”. Don’t allow yourself to suffer from “selective amnesia”, REMEMBER so that you can maintain double sided favour in your life.

Don’t forget to be thankful, remember the people who made things happen in your life.

Never forget God — Solomon was a man who enjoyed double sided favour. He enjoyed favour with God to the extent that God asked him what it was that He wanted and God granted him the desires of his heart. He enjoyed favour with man and he also enjoyed favour that came from his father’s contacts (1 Kings 4). The Philistines paid tribute to Solomon and served him all the days of his life. He had dominion over the kings from Tiphsah to Gaza and he had peace in all his sides. Men of all nations and kings came to hear of his wisdom including the queen of Sheba.However despite the double sided favour that he enjoyed, Solomon forgot God . . .

While we enjoy double sided favour let us remain close to God and continue to cultivate a meaningful relationship with Him.

Don’t forget fellowship — it is possible to get so carried away by the activities and the business that comes when double sided favour comes your way. There will be so many demands on your time. Fellowship is extremely important. Prioritise private and corporate prayer. Don’t put God in a position of regretting having exposed you to double sided favour. Don’t neglect corporate fellowship. Sunday meetings, home fellowships and any other meetings that may be necessary for your growth and sustenance in the Lord.

Don’t forget to look back and remember – if you fail to look back and remember you may soon become ungrateful and take God’s blessing and favour to you for granted. A man who understood this secret was king Ahaseurus as he took time to go through the books of the records to see if people who had done him good had been remembered and rewarded for their good towards the king.

The king could not sleep. He took time to reflect where he had come from, how at some stage there was a threat on his life and was grateful for the fact that his life had been spared. He took time to see how he could be grateful to this man who saved him.

Don’t forget to be thankful – God warns that in a season of double sided favour there can be a danger of forgetting who the source of the blessing is. David understood the principle and was grateful to those who had helped him along the way. Jonathan was a destiny connector to David, and through him David was prepared and groomed for the throne. I don’t imagine that David and Jonathan’s friendship was ordinary in any way. David clearly understood the role that Jonathan would play in his preparation for the throne. He took the relationship so seriously that they cut a covenant. The covenant remained active and still applied to David after Jonathan had died. David in a spirit of thankfulness searches out Mephibosheth Jonathan’s son and blesses him.

David disregarded the persecution that he had suffered at the hands of Saul and instead he remembered the covenant that he had made with Jonathan. He had entered into his season of double sided favour but he never forgot to be thankful. Sometimes the good that people do for us can be tarnished by some other factors e.g. David could have chosen to dwell on the persecution at the hands of Saul rather than the good done to him.

Barzalai — David remembered Barzallai who had provided for him in Mahanaim.

Remember people who have made things happen in your life — God will send people who will make things happen in your life. These are catalysts that expedite your season of double sided favour.

Favour with God is cultivated through intimacy with Him. Favour with man is cultivated through Ubuntu, grooming and etiquette . . .