Cómo andar en el favor de Dios, Pt. 1

The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Therefore, go around the world teaching and preaching the gospel to every creature, to the last of the earth. En Contacto, the biblical teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Today on En Contacto, how to walk in God's favor. Part 1. The Bible says, And God said to Jehovah, That the evil of men shall be much in the earth, And that all the thoughts of the heart of them shall be of evil only. And Jehovah repented that he had made man in the earth, And it hurt him in his heart. And Jehovah said to the heirs on the face of the earth, To the men that I have created, From man to the beast, and to the reptile, and to the birds of the sky, For I repent that I have made them. But there was no grace before Jehovah's eyes. And that is what I would like to talk about in this message, How to walk in God's favor. And this is the first of three messages in this series, How to walk in God's favor. When I think about that, first of all, I think about what we want to say with God's favor. We want to say, first of all, God's approval, and God's acceptance, His support, His provision, His divine energy, His joy, and all of those, and each one, are expressions of God's favor. So I ask you, do you think you walk in God's favor? Do you feel His presence and power in your life? When we accept Christ, the Holy Spirit came into our lives

to seal us as children of God, and in doing so, I am sure that His intention is that each one of us perceives His grace, feels it, experiences it, and knows that God has poured His love upon us to save us from our sin. So I will ask you a simple question. What is one of the evidences of God's favor in our lives? The first clue is clear, and it is that we listen to Him. That we listen to God, and we have learned to listen to Him. Until we learn to listen to God, we will never enjoy His favor, because we will live out of His will, justifying our actions, saying that everything is fine, that we are believers, but that is not enough. When I think about that, and about learning to live in His favor, those verses are very important. Let's go to Psalm 32, verses 8 and 9. Psalm 32, verses 8 and 9, says thus, I will make you understand, and I will show you the way in which you must walk. So I have to listen. I will set my eyes upon you. Do not be like the horse, or like the mule, without understanding, who have to be held with the head and with the brake, because otherwise they will not come near you. Then we must be listeners. I will make you understand, and I will show you the way in which you must walk. To know the will of God and His way, the first lesson is to learn to listen to Him. How do we listen to God? Have you thought about that in your own life? Do you listen to Him? When you are ready to pray, it takes time to listen to you, the only one who speaks.

That is why the Holy Spirit came into our lives, since we were saved, to be our director and internal guide. He is the one who guides us in the right direction. He is the one who gives us awareness of what is happening. He is the one who shows us the other side of the question that we could not decipher without His good advice. So, learning to listen to God is the basic lesson for a pious person. I will set my eyes upon you. The certainty of being in His care and His presence. If we do not focus on God, we will not listen to Him. So, ask yourself, on a common day, how much time do I spend quietly listening to God? You will say, well, I have to get up to go to work. Well, get up a little earlier. In other words, it is better to get up a little earlier or stay there a few more minutes if you are anxious to pray. Lord, I do not know what will happen to me this day, because you do not know. I do not know everything that will happen, you do not know. I do not know who I will meet, you do not know. I don't know what I'll need. He doesn't know. I can ask a hundred questions and he doesn't know the answer to any of them. That's why we need to start the day by listening to God. Maybe someone will say, well, I don't know how to do it. Just keep listening to this message and you'll find out. Because this is one of the basic lessons of Christian life. Undoubtedly, it is one that we need to remember continuously. Because by accepting Christ as your Savior, you become the Son of God. He is your Heavenly Father, whom you must listen to daily, all day, during the night, in the morning, in all circumstances. Lord, what is your will? What do you want me to do? How should I react to that, Lord? What will I do about this? What is the origin of my needs? We have many questions, many reasons to listen to God, who is willing to speak to our hearts if we are willing to listen to Him. When someone tells me, I've never heard God speak, I can tell you without a doubt, because you haven't been listening to Him.

God doesn't save someone and tell them, do your best. And sometimes that's what they tell a new believer. Since you are saved, do your best. And that's just what the pastor told me when I was 12, when he called me to the pulpit to give a brief testimony of what God had done. He told me to do my best. Well, at the age of 12 and a new convert, I had no idea what that meant. But I did discover, shortly after, that I had to learn to listen to God. I didn't know how, without instruction, but I learned to listen to God, because I think that's the fundamental lesson that every believer needs to understand. How do I listen to God? Who do I worship? Who do I sing to? Who do I pray to? How do I listen to Him? So, to listen to God, we must learn to identify His voice. Let me ask you, of course, don't raise your hand. Think about this. In a sober and serious way, if you had to answer God, do you know how to listen to God? Do you know, are you aware, when God tries to speak to you? Do you know it in your heart? Even if you say, my conscience told me this and that. Think about the fact that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. Try to say something to Him. Perhaps sometimes it seems meaningless to you, but that's not the point. The point is that God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. He knows just what we need when and how, and He knows how to tell us so that we can understand it. Every day, we should want to listen to God from the moment we wake up until we fall asleep unconsciously at night. So, to listen to God, we must learn to do so. First of all, God's voice is consistent with the Bible, which we must always remember. God will never tell us to do something that is a violation of His Word. Never. Perhaps we don't understand it, but God will never ask us to break His Word. So, it will be consistent with the Bible. Secondly, He often disagrees with human reasoning.

Someone will say, well, doing that is logical. If we obey God, we will not always do what is logical. If we listen to God sometimes, we will not do what is reasonable, because He knows the past, the present, and the future. He knows our skills, our talent, and His will for our life. Thirdly, He clashes with carnal desires, the sinful desires that sprout in someone's life. We must all be sensitive to that. And when we listen to God, what we listen to will clash, discrepancy, we will feel conflict. This happens when we are tempted in some particular aspect of life. We feel that internal conflict. It is the spirit against the flesh trying to direct us in what to do. Often, the fact of listening to God defies our faith. We listen to what God is trying to tell us. Listening to God will challenge our faith so that we do something that perhaps we do not believe is possible. Sometimes it requires courage in our life. I mean, Lord, are you sure you want me to do that? Yes. Because when God gives us an order, He accompanies it with His power, strength, energy, and preparation to help us do what He has called us to do. So, when someone says, I know God is calling me to do this, but I don't think I can do it, remember this. God does not call us without giving us what is necessary to help us and empower us to do it. with a peaceful voice. Every time someone says, well, I've never heard God speak, well, wait for Him to shout. God will not shout, because He has the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. And the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, God the Father, God the Son, the three persons of the Trinity, whisper to us, this is my will, this is my way, walk in it. Something else, God speaks very clearly to us. I cannot remember that God ever says, decipher it. God always speaks very clearly. Someone will say, well, God has never spoken to me. Of course He has! Maybe He was not listening. Maybe He was

surprised that I spoke to Him. Maybe I spoke to Him in an unexpected way, that I did not anticipate. But to say that He has been saved by the grace of God and that He has not spoken to Him, of course He has! That is the reason why He was saved. He gave Him conviction of sin. Someone preached or read something and felt conviction of their sin. It was the Spirit of God who spoke to their heart. He told them that they needed to be saved. It was the Spirit of God. He gave His life to Christ. It was the Spirit of God. God does not stop speaking to us when we are saved. There begins the voice of God in our lives. Not only does He lead us to conviction and salvation, but to a daily life of obedience and surrender to Him. He speaks to us in a personal way. Pay attention. God will never speak to all of you. God speaks to you, and to you, and to you, and to me, never to all of you. He may speak to all of us as a community. Look, I want you to do this and that, but He speaks to us in an individual way. This is the care of God for you. Wonderful, loving and personal. God loves you enough to speak to you about your situation. Look, perhaps about your marriage, your children, or the person you are going to marry, or your money, or whatever. Pay close attention. God speaks to us clearly and in an individual way about every concern that we have, or things that have us without care, even if they should interest us. He gives us conviction of sin. God always speaks. For example, He has not said to your children, listen to me. Has He ever said, if you do not listen to me, to whom will you listen? And they have the answer. If you do not listen to God, to whom do you listen? Listen to someone who really does not know you. There are many people who do not know you and want to tell you how to live, and what you should and should not do, and they can influence you in various ways, but the important thing is this. God, who created you? Who gave you the Holy Spirit from the moment you were saved? That is who we should listen to above all the world, no matter who they are. God is the only infinite wisdom. Only God knows everything about us. He knows our potential, our will, our purpose, our plan. He knows who is convenient for us. He knows where we should live, what we should do. God knows everything about us. We should consult Him about everything in life. He mentions a matter that we should not consult God about. So, I ask you, would you say that you are a listener? In the midst of God's children, would you say, tell me how someone who listens to God. I pray to God, and I listen to Him. I listen to messages. I listen to the voice of those who speak the truth. I listen to the lyrics of songs. I listen to God.

Listening to God is a sacred task, and very special in our relationship with God. So, how does God capture our attention? Well, He does it in various ways. Perhaps if I said, well, this is the way in which God captures our attention, it would be different in the lives of each one. One of the ways in which God captures our attention is that He worries us. We cannot determine what it is, but we feel a certain anxiety inside. So, we prostrate ourselves to pray, and we do not feel that we are moving forward. Or we kneel and think, Lord, what is He trying to tell me? Sometimes God has to worry us a lot in terms of our life, to take us until we finally say, well, Lord, you must be telling me something. Because, look, it is natural and normal for us to see the first thing we think is the matter, and we think, Lord, you must be saying this, or not even including God. It must be happening to my children, my husband, my wife, our relationship, the debts we have. So, God worries us enough to give us enough stillness to say, Lord, what are you trying to tell me? So, it is very important that God captures our attention. Sometimes it is through a message from someone else. Sometimes God can speak to you through someone else, because God has spoken to you. God is not complaining, that's not the point. God wants to capture our attention, and sometimes someone else must be the medium through which God speaks. A long time ago I learned that when someone says to me, well, this is what God told me to tell you, two thoughts come to me. The first, who is he and what kind of life does he lead? And the second, who is he and what kind of life does he lead? And the third, who is he and what kind of life does he lead? And the fourth, who is he and what kind of life does he lead? And the fifth, who is he and what kind of life does he lead? And the sixth, who is he and what kind of life does he lead? And the seventh, who is he and what kind of life does he lead? And the eighth, who is he and what kind of life does he lead? And the ninth, who is he and what kind of life does he lead? And the tenth, who is he and what kind of life does he lead? And the eleven, who is he and what kind of life does he lead?

to In that way, in the face of disappointment, what do we do? We pause and say, Lord, what are you trying to tell me? Sometimes there are also failures. Failure catches our attention. Not all failure is bad. If failure, in any aspect of our life, catches our attention, puts us on our knees before God, look, when that happens, it's not so bad, because what it does is bring us closer to God. Sometimes economic problems catch people's attention, especially if they could lose their home. Especially if, for example, they could lose their job, lose opportunities. So, instead of turning to God, people look for loan money. So, instead of listening to God, obeying God, trying to avoid that anxiety they feel and that feeling, it's God's kindness, it's God's grace that makes us see that maybe we made a bad decision. Maybe we weren't listening. God can correct any decision we make if our hearts are committed to Him and are sincere. Sometimes it's a disease or injury that catches our attention. I've known people for years who have said, well, I was going in the wrong direction, God put me to rest and here I am. I remember the last time I fell and I was at rest for a while and I thought, well, what's going on? It took me about six weeks to pray and listen to God.

But when it caught my attention, I said, yes sir, thank you, thank you. If this was necessary to stop me, to catch my attention, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for that. Sometimes that's what God uses. So, to walk in God's favor, whatever the cost, it's worth it. When the Bible says that in the midst of all sin and evil in the world, Noah found grace in God's eyes. See what God did to him when he found grace. So, ask yourself, do I walk in God's favor in my life? Be sincere. Do I walk according to the pattern I want to follow? Do I walk in God's favor? Is that the testimony of the Spirit to my spirit? That God and I are on the same line? Do we have the same itinerary? Do we want the same thing? Do I have the same goals in my life? Look, do I want the same goals in my life? Do I walk in His Spirit? For His Spirit? Do I want the same thing that God wants for my life? Are my desires the same desires of God? Ask yourself, is this what God wants? Sometimes God wants more for you than what you yourself want. Sometimes God wants something better for you. Maybe you say, I don't deserve it. That's not what God says. Sometimes we think, well, I could never deserve it. Maybe that's just what God wants.

Look, God is not a capataz. He is our admirable, wonderful, beloved Heavenly Father who wants to give us the best in every aspect of our lives. And what does He want us to do? To walk in His favor. And to walk in His favor, we must learn to listen. That is the first step. What does that mean? It means that I want to walk with His approval. I want to walk with His acceptance, His support, His provision, His divine energy, and His joy. Learning to listen to God is the first lesson. Amen. Father, thank you for loving us. Thank you for reminding us of this, because we want to instruct our children, from a very young age, to listen to us. By being saved, the first lesson is to listen to you. I ask you for those who are here today and are not listening to you. Form your own mentality. I ask you to give them great conviction that it will be an act of love on your part to have them today, in the direction of that inappropriate relationship. Tie what they should not do, where to go or live,

to do this or that. ask for your direction and guidance. I ask that you stop them to remind them that you are willing to give them a clear direction with which your blessing comes. I ask that the Holy Spirit speak to someone today who has not yet accepted Christ as their Savior. He has lived on his own. He is fine with that, believe me. But the Lord does not know what is coming. I ask you, I ask you to be willing to stop. Ask forgiveness for their sins and repent there where they are. Lord, let them be sincere with themselves and recognize that they have tried to speak to them for a long time and they have ignored you. But today they listen to you and surrender their lives. I ask that the Holy Spirit put a great and heavy burden on every heart that lives in sin, that lives in disobedience, that plans to sin and disobey you, that it is such a heavy burden, good God, that they have to repent right now where they are to reconcile with you before this message ends. Thank you for your great love for us, Lord. We surrender ourselves today to you. And we praise you for your forgiveness, your love, your kindness towards us. In the name of Jesus, Amen. ♪♪