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The Father's Business Podcast
The Father's Business Podcast
When God's Favor Looks Nothing Like Instagram
What does it truly mean to be "blessed and highly favored"? The angel's greeting to Mary has become a popular phrase, but Mary's subsequent journey challenges our modern interpretation of divine blessing. When we examine Mary's life after this pronouncement, we discover a path marked by difficulty rather than ease.
The transformative truth revealed in this episode is that Mary was blessed and highly favored not because her circumstances would be easy, but because God had specifically chosen her. Her identity as God's chosen vessel preceded any action on her part, and the pivotal moment came when she fully embraced this identity through her magnificent song.
Elizabeth and Kimberly unpack how this understanding transforms our approach to our own identity and circumstances. True blessing isn't about getting what we want but about becoming who God created us to be – beloved children who can live from their divine identity regardless of external conditions. Like Mary, we can choose to receive our identity and live from it, allowing it to transform how we navigate both celebration and suffering. Join us as we explore what it means to be truly "blessed and highly favored" in God's kingdom.
The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God. I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
Speaker 2:And I am Kimberly Roddy. Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast. We are so glad that you've joined us. Well, hi everyone, welcome to the Father's Business Podcast. We have been off for a few weeks because we had a Ruach Journey Conference. So, for those of you who are praying for us, thank you so much for praying for us, thank those of you who also supported us and thank you to those who joined us. We want to shout out to our Ruach leadership team that helped us and shout out to all the participants that came. It was a great time together in Maryland.
Speaker 2:As always, we had our things coming in and going out that are hard, because I think God did show up in a lot of ways, and so the enemy wanted to take us out on the front side and the back side. But for those of you that were able to be with us, we hope that you are still processing the many things that you learned, the things that you received, and I know that, elizabeth, you and I have been talking about it. We're doing the same thing. There are things that you always learn and take away experiences. You take away scripture, you see differently ways that you sense the movement of the Spirit in you differently, and so I think there's a lot of things that we are all walking away with to process, and so we continue to pray for those who came, and I hope that you were encouraged.
Speaker 2:If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us and let us know that you have questions. We welcome those questions. We want to walk alongside you. As we said, this is a journey. We call it Ruach Journey for a reason. It is a journey to walk this out and understand all that God has for us. So today we are going to jump into a topic that Elizabeth did touch on while we were at the conference, and I think it's an encouraging one that we all need to pay attention to from the story of Mary and her life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think one of the main themes of what we're talking about at Ruach Journey from beginning to end is that God is far more involved in the ordinary moments of our lives than we can even understand.
Speaker 1:And we go all the way back to the womb and how God knit us together in our mother's womb and then it says in Job that he watched over our spirit from the time that we're in the mother's womb all the way up through our developing years to where we can get to a point in our body where we can even understand that we need to have a relationship with God as our brain comes online and fully understands the things of His Word.
Speaker 1:And so God is far more involved on things going on beyond the surface than we can ask or imagine. And I think a lot of times I mean I even joke about it there's a lot of things on social media about wanting to sign up for the blessed and highly favored plan versus the persecution plan for the upcoming year, and I joke about that and talk about how I'm waiting for my blessed and highly favored phase. But as we really kind of dig into the life of Mary which is where that phrase comes from we understand what it truly means to be blessed and highly favored. So, kimberly, why don't you read Luke 1, 28 to 30 for us?
Speaker 2:Luke 1, 28. The angel went to her, being Mary, and said Greetings you, who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her Do not be afraid, mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
Speaker 1:There's so many things in this scripture that I love and partly because it's such a familiar verse that we hear at Christmastime a lot. But I love that it starts off and by saying that she is favored, past tense and blessed. She wasn't going to be blessed and highly favored because she's going to choose to be obedient. She was blessed and highly favored because that's who God called her. That was her identity.
Speaker 1:And I think so many times we try to look at our circumstances and try to say that, well, if my circumstances are a certain way, if I find favor in my definition of favor, in my circumstances, then I am favored. But what God is trying to start to lay out here for us is being blessed and highly favored doesn't mean that life is going to be easy or smooth or straight and flat road ahead of us, but it means that he's going to be with us. So I mean, kimberly, let's just think about it for a minute. If we are being truly honest with ourselves, what do we think? This is not time for religious answers. In your heart, what is a life that is blessed and highly favored?
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously it looks like the prosperity gospel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, let's throw out some ideas.
Speaker 2:Obviously, it looks like having good health, having good wealth, having an easy life. I mean, we like the word ease, oh, ease. You know, it looks like things going smooth in my way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it looks like your children all walking with God and having healthy relationships and partners, and I mean even children that like spending time with you, having co-workers that you get along with. I mean there's so many different areas. I think my blessed and highly favored might include, like a house at the beach. Like you know, there's so many things. What about being understood by the people around me and then really seeing my true intent of what I meant when I said those words, versus what they assume my motive was? I mean, there's so many layers of what blessed and highly favored looks like and I think the way you kind of back yourself into your definition of blessed and highly favored is what makes you mad.
Speaker 2:Yeah uh-oh, what's the matter, buddy? Hey you dreaming, hey you. Okay, my name is oliver. Oh, he's in the chair like he was dreaming. Go back.
Speaker 1:So there's so many definitions okay, there's so many definitions of what blessed and highly favored means and I think if you can't really find your honest answer for that, what is it that makes you mad or makes you feel stressed out when things aren't going well with my husband at his job, when my kids aren't making the grades that I think they should make in school, when you know money's a little tight and we're not sure we're going to be able to pay the bills at the end of the month, these types of things that cause a feeling of unrest inside of me. If you take the opposite of those, then that's my definition of blessed and highly favored. Does that make sense, Kimberly?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does, and so, if you know, it's interesting, for obviously Mary didn't have those things either. I mean, she's a young girl who's a virgin, pledged to marry a man named Joseph, and now an angel's coming to her, like it even says she's troubled. Yeah, at his words, because she's probably like wait a minute, I'm confused. Right Like I'm not. I'm sure that she didn't feel like her life was full of favor. Right Like I'm not, I'm sure that she didn't feel like her life was full of favor.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, because I mean we don't know how old Mary was, but traditionally she would have been anywhere from 12 to 16 years old, pledged to be married to a man who's a little older than her, don't? We have no idea exactly how old Joseph was either, but imagine your 12 to 16 year old mind first even wondering am I making this up? Did an angel really appear here? And then the angel's telling me that I'm pregnant but I've never been with a man. So now you got to explain to your fiance that you're engaged to, that you're pregnant, but it's okay, because it's God's child. Like I mean, we can just keep going down this road Kimberly. Then the weight of I'm going to raise the son of God, and how many different ways can I screw that up, right? And then they, first Joseph, talks about divorcing her, and then he you know angel comes to him and gets his mind right, and so he's like, okay, okay, we'll still get married.
Speaker 1:But you know, the village had to be whispering. I mean they can watch, kind of the timeline of when Mary and Joseph got married versus when she's due with a baby. So there's the public shame of all of that, and this is God's definition of blessed and highly favored. And so then, as you know, kimberly, they go to Bethlehem for a census and, by the way, while she's there, we don't have any room for you. You're giving birth to the Son of God. Now, no one there knew that, but God knew and he did not provide for her a nice, comfortable place at an inn. She gives birth in a stable area for cattle and has to put Jesus in a manger which is basically a feeding trough. This is away from family, so you don't even have your mom there with you when you're giving birth. And so then all these strange shepherds show up and wise men show up late. There's just total chaos around all of this. And we're just getting to the birthing part of Jesus.
Speaker 1:And then Joseph has a dream and says we need to flee. And so I don't know that if my husband, todd had a dream and said I think God's telling us we need to move to Egypt, I would be fully on board with that without some more evidence proving that this is what we need to do, right? So now she doesn't even get to go home with her new baby, she gets to go to a land where they are foreigners. They stay there for a while and then eventually they come back to Nazareth and there's still whispers. And there's still all the way through Jesus' adult life there are whispers and rumors that he's a bastard child and it doesn't get easier. Like she wants her baby to stay home, like we all would.
Speaker 1:And at age 30, he takes off and does three years worth of ministry and even the first time that she comes to him for help with changing the water to wine, he's like it's not my time.
Speaker 1:Like you know, there's so many complex things and so much in between that we don't even know about Mary's life, and yet she's blessed and highly favored, I mean. And then the ultimate thing is your son goes into ministry, some people celebrate him, some people chase him out of town and three years later you are standing at the cross while you watch your son be brutally tortured and killed, and that's it. I mean. I don't know what she thought God's plan was, but did she think, when the angel came to her and said you're blessed and highly favored, that she was going to lose a son at the age of 33? Yeah, I mean. There's just a. There's so much there, and yet where we get skewed and our, we get our world turned upside down is we try to link blessed and highly favored to the circumstances of our life, and that's when we get in trouble and that's what we can't do.
Speaker 2:And I think that's a similar line of thinking, where we are so focused on our actions and our thoughts that we do this so many times to Jesus, right, we put on Him what we think of us. So we can do that in the positive or the negative. We can think that he must love us because we're the greatest thing since sliced bread, or we can think that he hates us because we're this horrible sinner. Right, and I think that you know we often do that in salvation. We think it's up to us to be saved and to stay saved. We've got to do all the right things to be saved. We've got to do all the right things in order for Him to love us. So, of course, we connect our actions and our behaviors to being blessed by him as well. And it's a sad reality to think about it that way, because it's the total opposite of what the gospel message is. Because the gospel message is that he gave us his righteousness in exchange for our unrighteousness, and in a sense, that's what he's saying to Mary. He's saying, regardless, I have chosen you, Regardless of who you are, regardless of your circumstances, regardless of your story. I have specifically chosen you for this time in history, to be Mary, to be the virgin who is conceived, who conceives Jesus.
Speaker 2:Who can't explain this, who is utterly going to be misunderstood, right, Right, and I've called Joseph for such a time as this too. But he directly says to Mary you are highly favored. He put that mark upon her and I think sometimes, Elizabeth, if we could just realize how this goes back to our identity that you said in the beginning, if we could realize how Jesus sees us and live out of that identity rather than out of how we see ourselves, we could be a much freer people. How does this connect to Mary's song when she recognizes that God has called her and the angel says the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the Most High will overshadow you. She says I am the Lord's servant. May your word be fulfilled, Right, Right. And then Elizabeth visits her.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And Elizabeth said blessed are you among women.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promise to her. And then Mary, saying my soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on, generations will call me blessed. She received the blessing is what she did, and I think that that's what's so powerful. Is that she didn't? What we often do is no, no, no. I'm not the one God, and she probably. I mean she did. She was troubled. She must've said something like that, right, but then she did not outright reject the Lord's blessing upon her. She said my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for he has been mindful of his servant. From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty one has done great things for me.
Speaker 2:Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones. He has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant, israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors. That was her song, I mean. Scripture calls that her song. After she realizes, I am blessed, she received that. I think that's pretty powerful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is very powerful because, you know, we talk about this a lot on our podcast Kimberly, about understanding who we are in him and who God is for us, and it's one thing to know it in your mind to go yes, this is what Scripture says about me. It is a whole nother level. When you receive it and take it on as your identity, I am the beloved, I am blessed, I am highly favored. Not because of what I've done, because, much like with earthly relationships, if you are a parent, you love your child because you love your child. Now, am I more pleased with my children when I feel like they're acting in a correct way? Sure, because I'm human, but my love for them does not change.
Speaker 1:When they're disobedient, I may be disappointed. I may want more for them. When they're disobedient, I may be disappointed, I may want more for them, but their identity as my son and daughter does not change because of their actions. Much like Mary was blessed and highly favored because of who God said she was, not her obedience or disobedience, but it's one thing for God to say to us you are blessed and highly favored. It's a much more powerful point and part of the reason why we do rock journeys is to help people get to that point of fully receiving and stepping into that place of. I am blessed and highly favored. That is who I am. I am a covenant daughter or son of God most high. The deck is stacked in my favor, not because of me, but because of all that beautiful stuff you just read in Mary's song of who God is, because of the Mighty One, I can receive my truest identity in Him.
Speaker 2:What I also see in that is that when we receive what he has for us and when we have understanding of that, we then properly worship Him and our position in Him is right. You know, like we say just what you said he is God, we are His children and we understand that relationship and therefore we praise Him and we honor Him and we worship Him for being the holy and the mighty and the awesome one. And we recognize that we are his child and we often, like when we went through the study, safe in the Father's Heart, we are aware that he is our father and as his children, whether we are biological or adopted children, we are dearly loved. And so when we recognize we are on kingdom business, as we often say, or we are living out of that identity, then we want to worship Him and it flows.
Speaker 1:And I think it's significant that scripture shows us that her response was after being troubled, that her response was a song of worship, right, and so it's okay to have questions and it's okay to ask God, I don't fully get what you're up to and so I don't want us to turn into an artificial people that whenever someone asks hey Kimberly, how are you really doing? Oh, I'm just blessed. I'm just blessed, it's okay to go. You know what it's hard right now, but God is still with me. So therefore, I I am blessed and I am favored, because being blessed and highly favored is whether we're in plenty or we're in lack, because blessed and highly favored means that God is with us, he has his hand on us, he is not going to forsake us and he's going to walk us through both the easy times and the darker days, and so we are far more capable of doing more than we can ask or imagine, because we have a God who is bigger than we can ask or imagine. But we also have to partner, like Mary did when she said I am blessed. We're going to have to be intentional, to partner, to live in that place of identity moment by moment, because it is so easy to look around and see well, you seem to be blessing so-and-so more than you're blessing me. They have more of what I want.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was younger, in my 20s, and all I wanted to do was desperately be married, and it got to a point where it felt like every time I went to someone's wedding it felt more like a funeral to me, because they were getting married and I was not, and God really had to take me through a deep heart search journey to go. You know what God blessing my friend with a spouse is, not God holding back on me and being able to be excited for them and also say I'm blessed and highly favored today because my identity is not being someone's spouse. My identity is I am a beloved daughter of God Most High, and so it was quite a journey, and that was not an easy journey. There was a lot of heartbreak. Kimberly, you were there for a lot of that as my roommate at the time. It was hard, and so I don't want anyone who is really struggling with tough times right now to be like y'all sound like you're being very trite and brushing off what I'm going through In very dark and difficult places.
Speaker 1:We can continue to live from that identity of blessed and highly favored, because it's not just Mary, I mean. If you look throughout Scripture. You look at David, who was anointed as king and then was sent. He had to run for his life because Saul wanted to kill Scripture. You look at David, who was anointed as king and then was sent. He had to run for his life because Saul wanted to kill him. You look at Paul. He has this glorious conversion experience on the road to Damascus and then he spends a lot of his life either shipwrecked in jail, being persecuted I mean so being blessed and highly favored.
Speaker 1:But you know I joke around how I want the blessed and highly favored package. Well, maybe I don't. Maybe what I'm really asking for is the light and easy package. Can we just have simple, non-chaotic, everything kind of goes my way, kind of ease to my life? And that's my definition of blessed and highly favored. And so I think for all of us, we are learning. How do we step into the fullness of that identity that God has given us, whether our circumstances change or not? How can I be different in the midst of those circumstances, leaning more into who God is for me in the midst of all of that?
Speaker 2:So let's end today with a blessing. So be blessed as you hear these words, for surely, o Lord, you bless the righteous. You surround them with your favor as a shield. Who you are and everything you have is the result of God's favor. He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing. You are surrounded by his grace.
Speaker 1:Your Abba wants to take you as his precious child, right up next to His heart today. He will keep you close and make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. Your Father smiles on you with His compassion as you seek Him.
Speaker 2:Your Father's providence goes before you to provide for every need. He is with you to strengthen you and keep you from harm. The Lord God is a sun and a shield. He bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold.
Speaker 1:He has written this day of your life in his book. Be blessed as his favor rests on his appointed work through your hands. See the great thing he is about to do. His word says the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. He directs it like a water course wherever he pleases. Be blessed as God breaks through hindrances and uses everything to fulfill his purpose. He rejoices today in doing you good.
Speaker 2:Even if circumstances make it hard to believe, trust in his unfailing love. He is not slow in keeping his promise. He surrounds you with the shield of his presence. He promises that weeping may endure for a night and his anger is only for a moment. Joy comes in the morning and his favor lasts for a lifetime. He keeps you today in His love and faithfulness. He is inviting you to live in the assurance of your Father's blessing and favor. Be blessed to trust His goodness towards you today.
Speaker 1:I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast. This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you. To donate, go to wwwTheFathersBusinesscom. Be sure to follow us at the Fathers Biz on Instagram and Facebook.
