Inspired by Highly Favoured: Our Powerful God’s Covenant with You

The prosperity gospel is a false teaching that is spreading rapidly throughout the world. Words like “favour”, “blessings”, and “victory” are being thrown about carelessly, and an imaginary alarm sounds inside the heads of many Christians. We often have a skewed view of what God’s favour truly is. In Stuart Foster’s book Highly Favoured: Our Powerful God’s Covenant With You, he defines favour as finding a sense of belonging with Jesus Christ. This means that we have a guaranteed place within the community of God through Jesus’s work on the Cross. God looks upon each of his children with gladness and proudly claims that we belong to him. Because of this truth, we have been called highly favoured. We do not have to work to earn God’s favour because he casts his favour upon us out of his great love for us.

We live in a “level-up” society that teaches that we must always be working toward something bigger and better than what we already have. We have been taught that we earn or “manifest” blessing out of our finite human power. Stuart Foster debunks this myth by explaining that right now, in this current moment, we already have every ounce of God’s favour. We cannot earn more and we cannot lose what we have been freely given. No one has more or less of God’s favour based on class, gender, race, etc. Take a look at the people of Israel, for example. They tried to obey God, but they failed constantly. They had some great moments of obedience, but they also had moments of intentional rebellion against the One that called them beloved. They never lost God’s favour no matter how many times they messed up. God remained faithful to Israel even when they did not do the same for him.

We need to correctly define favour so that we are better equipped to grow in discipleship. God’s favour does not always look how we as humans think it should. God’s favour does not necessarily mean that we will get everything that we want, such as a new car, a job position, or better health. In the application note titled “Godliness More Than Grandeur” in The Africa Study Bible, we are reminded that God cares more about our hearts than he does about any earthly projects (1 Kings 6: 11-13). God’s favour looks like God executing his will and great plan for our lives. It looks like God’s children being made righteous and holy in his sight. We are favoured in that we have a purpose, hope and a future in God (Jeremiah 29:11). We are “tied forever to Jesus”, as Foster says, which is a blessing in itself. His promises are not like earthly, fleeting promises. We have security in God’s will to bring glory to himself. God has already won. Therefore, there is no condemnation in his name. We have a written record of God’s faithfulness in the Bible through his covenant of favour with us.

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Hear what people are saying about Highly Favoured: Our Powerful God’s Covenant with You below:

“God’s Favour” is a frequent preaching and teaching subject in Africa that is often misunderstood. In this well-researched and carefully written book, Foster engages the topic in a fresh and balanced way that is both faithful to Scripture and meaningful to contemporary audiences. I highly recommend this book.” —Dr Clifton R. Clarke, Assistant Provost and Associate Professor of Black Church Studies and World Christianity, Fuller Theological Seminary

“Highly Favoured could not have been written at a better time than this. Foster describes the struggles we face in our context when we are away from the soothing warmth of a relationship with the Creator. But God is committed to relate as a father to his people and to fulfil every promise he ever made, because he is God Almighty. This book will help you to reunite with the eternal source of salvation and refreshing revival. The Spirit of God truly leads you through the pages. I highly recommend this book to every person across Africa and the world.” —Pastor Jeffrey Muleya, Family of God Churches, Zimbabwe Tonga Bible Translation Project

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