The Favor of God

by Jerry Savelle

  Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:26-31, 34-35,37-38).

  When Mary asked how this thing that Gabriel had just told her could possibly happen, she was thinking in the natural. The angel then explained that what God was about to do was not going to be brought about in the natural; it would be a supernatural occurrence. In order for this supernatural occurrence to take place, Mary had to become supernatural-minded. That’s exactly what she did when she said, “Let it be to me according to your word.” Her affirming words charged the atmosphere with faith for the supernatural.

  I believe that, in this designated time of God’s favor, there are many supernatural events and occurrences that God has prepared and made available for each and every believer who is willing to become supernatural-minded and charge the atmosphere with faith for miracles. But we will never be in a position to experience the supernatural if we’re saying things like, “I tried confessing the favor of God in my life and it didn’t work” or “Nothing like that ever happens to me.” If we charge the atmosphere with negative words, we will have negative results.

  We can’t just talk any way we want and still expect God to pour out His supernatural favor in our lives. It isn’t going to happen. First, we have to become supernatural-minded, and then we have to use our mouths to charge the atmosphere with faith.

  The Bible says that “God … gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Rom. 4:17). That’s the way God operates. He calls things that do not exist as though they do.

  In 2 Corinthians 4:13, we see that “since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore

  I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak.” We have the same spirit as who? God. So if we have the same spirit of faith as God, then we’re going to call things that do not exist as though they do.

  Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). When we become supernatural-minded, thoughts of the supernatural are going to get down into our hearts, and we won’t have to try to charge the atmosphere with faith. It’s going to spring out of our hearts and mouths all the time.

  What you hear me say is what is in my heart in abundance. That’s the reason you don’t hear me talking about sickness and disease, failure and defeat. You don’t hear me saying, “Woe is me” and “I don’t know what we’re going to do.” This kind of thinking is not in my heart in abundance. Out of the abundance of my heart, my mouth speaks about the favor of God. My words then charge the atmosphere with faith for the supernatural to come to pass in my life.

  Jesus said, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:22-24).

  I’m saying that I’m going to experience the fullness of the supernatural favor that God has designated for this time. Will you join me in saying it, too?

  10

  SUPERNATURAL FAVOR FOR OUR TIME

  October 1970

  Shreveport, Louisiana

  On the final day of the conference at Carolyn’s home church, the two of us were seated near the front of the auditorium, only steps away from Kenneth Copeland as he wrapped up his teaching from the fourth chapter of the book of Mark.

  For the past four days, he had been using the parable of the sower to demonstrate the need for us to guard and nurture the Word of God that had been sown into our lives. “Satan comes immediately to steal the Word,” he explained. “And anytime he attempts to do this, the circumstances he uses will most certainly test the quality of your faith.”

  As a young believer, I was taking everything Brother Copeland said to heart. Little did I know that the quality of my own faith would be tested within that very hour.

  Parents have the innate ability to recognize the distinct cries of their own children. So when the nurse on duty for the childcare center rushed into the auditorium, carrying a screaming toddler, Carolyn and I knew instantly that it was our 13-month-old daughter, Terri. Even from a distance, we could see the huge bloodstain that covered the nurse’s uniform, and as I took Terri into my arms, the source of the blood became apparent—it was coming from what was left of two of her fingers.

  We found out that Terri had placed her hand beneath an occupied rocking chair, which had severed the ends of the two longest fingers on her left hand, just below her fingernails. Carolyn’s and my faith was tested in that moment—and so was Kenneth Copeland’s. I’ll never forget what he did that day.

  He stepped down off that platform, walked right up to me, laid his hands on Terri, and declared, “In the name of Jesus, I command this pain to stop and this bleeding to cease.” Immediately, Terri stopped screaming, laid her head on my shoulder, and closed her eyes.

  Then Brother Copeland looked me in the eye and said, “What do you believe?”

  Without hesitation I told him, “I believe God will restore my baby’s fingers.”

  “Good. I’m going to set myself in agreement with you and believe that these fingers will be restored. But you need to take her to the doctor so that she can be properly treated.” With that he turned around, went back to the pulpit, and said to the crowd, “Now let’s go back to Mark 4.”

  Before leaving for the hospital, we stopped in the restroom to wash Terri’s bloody hand. That’s where the nursery worker found us and handed me the two severed fingertips. Facing the stark reality of the situation, Carolyn and I knew we had a choice to make: We could respond to what we saw in fear, or we could respond in faith. We chose faith, and off we went to the hospital.

  Dr. Simon Wall was one of the top plastic surgeons in Louisiana. After examining Terri that morning, he said, “I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Savelle, but it is just not possible to reattach her fingertips. They are too severely damaged.” With that, he took the two severed fingertips from my hand and discarded them.

  He went on to explain that he would take a small graft of skin from Terri’s hip and cover the ends of her fingers, but they would never be the same. “She’ll never have fingernails, and the fingers will never be the right length. I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is.”

  I said to him, “Sir, I’m not trying to be a smart aleck here, but I just want you to know that I do not accept what you say as final authority. The God I serve is a God who can restore.”

  “You don’t understand, Mr. Savelle. What you are suggesting is medically impossible.”

  “I’ll tell you what, doctor,” I said. “You go ahead and do everything you can for her, and we’ll believe that God will do the rest.”

  I was not suggesting that the doctor didn’t know what he was talking about. He did know; he was at the top of his field. But at that time, I possessed something that T.L. Osborn describes as “young faith.” This meant I had a faith that had not learned to doubt. So for the next six weeks, Carolyn and I stood firm in our faith, believing that God would restore our little daughter’s fingers.

  When we arrived at Dr. Wall’s facility on the day the bandages were to be removed, it was apparent from a collection of statues displayed throughout his office that he served Buddha. Seeing those statues helped me to understand why the doctor was unable to believe that Terri’s fingers could be restored. Neither medical science nor Buddha could do anything like that.

  When Dr. Wall cut away the dressing from Terri’s fingers, he raised his hands and yelled, “My God!”

  I said, “What is it, doc?”

  “Look,” he said, holding up Terri’s hand to show us her healed fingers, complete with perfect little fingernails.

  I looked at the doctor and said, “No, sir, not your God. It’s my God who did that, and His name is Jesus.”

  As it tu
rned out, both Dr. Wall and his wife became Christians as a result of the miracle they witnessed when God restored our young daughter’s fingers. Although I did not realize it at the time, God also used that experience to open my eyes to the real possibility of the supernatural favor of God manifesting in our lives on a regular basis.

  Since my first experience with the supernatural more than 40 years ago, I’ve witnessed many such miracles and supernatural manifestations of God’s favor—not only in my own life, but also in the lives of those to whom I’ve ministered. One time, I was preaching a sermon titled “Jesus the Oppression Breaker” to a large crowd in Nigeria. Pretty soon, I noticed people lifting wheelchairs and crutches high above the heads of those who had come to listen. Jesus was moving supernaturally among the crowd, healing those who had been unable to walk. That day, 21 others who had been blind from birth instantly received their sight.

  Another time, during praise and worship at a conference in South Africa, the Lord spoke to me, saying, “I don’t want you to preach your message tonight. Instead, I want you to continue in this flow of praise and worship. I’m going to do miracles in the midst of it.”

  When the meeting was turned over to me, I asked the worship team to continue ministering. I read aloud from Psalm 150, which talks about praising God with every kind of instrument. I had the pianist play, and then I directed the trumpet player to join in. Finally, I saw a guy standing by the bongo drums, and I told him to play. But he just looked at me and didn’t move. So I said, “Do you hear me? I said praise God on those things.” He went to the drums and started playing, and that’s when the place erupted. What I didn’t know was that the young man had never before played the bongos. But everyone else there knew it, and they understood the significance of what happened when the anointing of God came upon him to worship the Lord on the bongos.

  As he played, and the worship team continued to minister, miracles started breaking out in the crowd of more than 8,000 people. One man, who was lying on a gurney near the door, had been brought to the meeting in an ambulance. Right in the middle of this time of praise and worship, he got off of the gurney and started running around the building, totally healed and set free. At another session in that same place, a woman’s withered foot grew out right before our eyes, and we watched her walk around that building as normally as everyone else did.

  In the four Gospels, we read numerous accounts of demon-possessed people being set free by Jesus. Although this isn’t something we see on an everyday basis in the United States, it is not uncommon in other countries. A demon-possessed man was brought to an outdoor crusade I conducted in Kenya. Those who brought him had chained him to a tree in the open field where we were having the crusade, but I didn’t know he was there.

  At one point, I noticed a lot of noise and commotion coming from the direction of the tree, and I could see the crowd beginning to withdraw from that area. I left the platform to go see what was happening, and I was stunned to find this man chained to the tree, behaving like a wild animal. I walked up to him under the anointing of God and began to cast devils out of him, just like Jesus did in the Bible. It took a little while, but pretty soon, he was in his right mind. When they took the chain off of him, he lifted his hands and praised God.

  Whether it’s the restoration of a toddler’s fingers or the healing of the sick or the deliverance of those who are bound by the devil, I’ve come to understand a powerful truth about the God we serve: He pours out His supernatural favor as an expression of His love for us—and as a demonstration of His love to unbelievers. Anytime there is a manifestation of this supernatural favor, lives are changed.

  What Is the Supernatural?

  We often associate the term “supernatural” with something that is weird. The supernatural is not weird, although Hollywood and the media would have us believe that it is.

  Personally, I like Webster’s definition: “departing from what is usual or normal [the norm] especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature.” This definition takes the term “super-natural” out of the realm of the mystical and gives us something we can work with.

  First, let’s consider “the norm”; in particular, let’s look at the present difficulties many people are having. For some, the norm may involve the loss of a job or a home. It may involve sickness or some form of bondage. In the natural, this is the way it is for many people. But it does not have to be this way for me or for you. I believe that in this designated season of God’s favor, I am routinely going to experience the supernatural—a consistent departure from the norm.

  Psalm 62:5 says, “My expectation is from Him.” In other words, what we expect is what we get. It’s a biblical principle—a spiritual law. If we expect the world’s norm of loss, lack, sickness and bondage—or whatever the media tells us to expect—that’s exactly what we will get. However, if we expect to see God at work in a situation according to His promises, that is what we will get. I like THE MESSAGE translation of this verse, which says, “Everything I hope for comes from Him.”

  We should never base our expectations on what the media says. In the book of Hebrews, the writer admonishes believers to lay aside all things that will ensnare and hinder them, and look unto Jesus (see Heb 12:1-2). The Amplified Bible says, “Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus” (Heb. 12:2). If we spend our time looking unto Jesus, we won’t be hindered by distractions. But we can’t focus on Jesus if we are at the same time paying attention to the media.

  When we choose to look unto Jesus, we are actually positioning ourselves to experience the supernatural. Looking unto Jesus ensures that we will be in position to make a departure from the norm, which in turn positions us for lives of total victory. The Bible says that “God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade” (2 Cor. 2:14, THE MESSAGE). This is the kind of life God wants us to experience.

  The second part of Webster’s definition of “supernatural” is “transcending the laws of nature.” “Transcend” means “to rise above” or “to go beyond”; it doesn’t mean “to do away with.” For instance, whenever an airplane takes off, it transcends the law of gravity. The laws of lift, drag and thrust supersede the law of gravity, enabling the aircraft to take flight. All you have to do to find out if the law of gravity is still in place is turn the engines off. Likewise, I was not doing away with the laws of nature when I dared to believe that my daughter’s fingers would be restored. I just had confidence in God’s ability to supersede them.

  THE SUPERNATURAL IS YOU AND ME DOING ALL WE’RE CAPABLE OF DOING IN THE NATURAL, AND THEN GOD STEPPING IN AND ADDING HIS “SUPER” TO IT.

  As we can see, the supernatural is nothing more than a departure from the norm that comes through the transcending of the laws of the natural. Yet there is a part we have to play in seeing manifestations of the supernatural favor of God in our lives. I like to put it this way: The supernatural is you and me doing all we’re capable of doing in the natural, and then God stepping in and adding His “super” to it.

  This is exactly what happened when Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, went to see Jesus about his dying daughter. Jairus said, “Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live” (Mark 5:23). But before Jesus could get to the child, a messenger came with word that she’d already died. As soon as Jesus heard this, He told Jairus, “Do not be afraid; only believe” (v. 36). Then Jesus went to Jairus’s house and restored his little girl to life.

  That healing was a manifestation of the supernatural favor of God, yet Jairus was required to do all that he could do in the natural before God added His “super” to it. The first thing Jairus did was to go to Jesus, which meant going against the grain of the norm of his day. Rulers of the synagogue were typically religious people who were not in favor of Jesus’ ministry. So Jairus was actually laying his job on the line. The next thing Jairus did was to tell Jesus what he needed: “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her” (Mark
5:23). Finally, he continued to trust Jesus for the miracle his daughter needed even after receiving word of her death.

  Jairus did his part; he took his expectation for his daughter’s restoration as far as he could by going to Jesus, telling Him what he needed, and daring to believe what Jesus said in spite of a negative report. When Jesus saw that Jairus had done all he could do in the natural, He added His “super” to it, and the girl was raised from the dead. I’d call that a supernatural manifestation of God’s favor!

  It’s important to note that in order to be positioned for the supernatural, we must be willing to do what Jesus tells us to do. When the rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus told him to follow God’s commandments. The young man said, “I have kept them from my youth.” (As you may recall from our earlier discussion of this passage, the reason he was rich was that he’d obeyed the commandments throughout his life.)

  We could say that this man came to Jesus thinking he’d done all he could do. But Jesus said, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Luke 18:22). The Bible says the young man walked away sad and grieved at that saying. When Jesus revealed to him the one thing he wasn’t doing, the man didn’t want to do it. He wasn’t willing to take his faith as far as he could in the natural.

  The 10 lepers who saw Jesus from a distance were willing to take things as far as they could. Because they were considered unclean due to their leprosy, they were not allowed to enter the village. They would have been stoned had they done so. But they knew Jesus had the power and the authority to cleanse them from their leprosy, so they called out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (Luke 17:13).