Favorites

What is the shocking theology behind the fact that God thinks you're His favorite flavor?

The sages all say it, but can it really be true? 
 

“Each soul is my favorite.” 

How is this possible?

• First note this is a frequent message of Jesus given to each listener:  the treasure in the field, the lost coin, the lost sheep, the lost son, etc.  
• Because favorite-ness is who God is—it’s the only way He loves!
• The key to knowing this is to experience God’s miraculous favor personally. It is central.
• If you don’t believe in favorite-ness, then you necessarily will go over into a ratings system—which is false. You will see yourself as somewhere in the middle.  But parents never treat children that way.
• The effect of a "ratings system" relationship will cause you to cap off your expectation of God’s favor in you, because you’re basing it upon your works, talents, success, etc.  Yet God’s love starts from the inside and works out; rating systems are the reverse.
• Atheistic philosophies (naturalism, determinism, materialism, etc.) ultimately lack any ability for true favorites (only temporary, isolated, incomplete, arbitrary).  And also in hell there are no favorites, because everything is self-conflicted.
• The Greek word "church" means "called out" (for favor); a "peculiar" people.  "Why are they so blessed? Why were they picked?"
• Favorite-ness is the reason there is a Chosen people:
  to announce to all others they are also Chosen!

• Don't believe God has all favorites?   Q:  Is the Father’s favorite Jesus or the Holy Spirit?  Neither?  No—each one.  See?   Multiple unique favorite-ness is rooted the reality of the Trinity. That's why it's so eternal and mysterious. God can’t love any other way but in a special way. God cannot love you more than He already does.
• The great tradition of heroic lovers of God, with miracles to confirm, all seem to have discovered this.  E.g., Augustine:  "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. "
• C. S. Lewis:  "God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel.  He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us.  He does not have to deal with us in the mass.  You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created.  When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world."

Limitless Supply

• God can do this because He's infinite.  He doesn't have to order loves because He's not carving up resources. He can give everyone infinite attention.
• My mother had this epiphany walking outside one sunny day and seeing that if the sun is big enough it can "love" everyone fully.
• But some say “God is too big to care about my little need”. However, the only way God can care about any need and every need is if He’s big.  The problem is we limit God, when His love is actually limitless.

Head to Heart

Q:  So how does one move this material from head to heart? 
A:  Experience. (Because heart knowledge is experiential.)

Examples, from deep to deepest:

1. Family:  this is the place where God has designed experience of unconditional favoritism to happen normally. However, most families seriously distort this, therefore it's essential to have generational prayer for Inner Healing.
2. Marriage:  no one else can replace you in marriage, where each is a permanent favorite.  (And each resulting person is a function of a unique relating.)
3. Experiential prayer.  There is nothing like having God directly tell you that you're a favored favorite.

Normally, the best practical prayer for experiencing God is the laying of hands, which has a "Spirit" about it that feels like it's your birthday. This taps into God's infinite charm for the person, which is not just a bonus— it’s the essence of why you were given life.

Objection:   " I don’t have the same gifts as others for experiential praying"

• Some are like rose bushes, others are like oak trees. Because of your uniqueness, the issue is not your particular set of gifts, but whether you are receiving the sun and living your fullest life.
• So this is not to wait until  someone else gives a word to inspire, but each person has a unique gift of loving the unique other. 
• Jesus never says love humanity, but love neighbor—very specific.  
  Jesus says love as you want to be loved—i.e., you always choose your best good.
  Jesus is saying:  do the prayer of the laying on of hands as you would have it done to you. 
• In the prayer of the laying on of hands you simply
  Celebrate God for the person; celebrate the person for God. 
• When you love someone, you bring out their real self; they’re truest self. For example, the laying on of hands prayer helps bring out a person’s most peaceful, joyful, loving self.
• You've never prayed for an ordinary person...

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. (C.S. Lewis in the Weight of Glory)

Why does God think you’re special?  Because you are special -- uniquely His.

Love Unmatched

Life is not about waiting for and collecting blessings.  If you look only for the blessing, you will miss Me as I pass on by once you collect your goods. 

This life is first and foremost about your relationship with Me.  Does anyone still know that a life of blessedness flows from our relating?  The true blessings of life are attained in your knowing Me, for there is no higher attainment.  Everything else you’ll ever gain—wealth, health, friends, prestige—all of it will be gone one day. 

Look for Me in these and other possessions for I augment each part of life and put the proper touch into it in such a way that you’ll know where things belong and how fleeting possessions of any kind are. 

I bring seasons of anointing to areas of your life that only last for a time—some as short as a sunset, others as long as another’s life.  But in the end, it all comes back to you and Me. 

It is in this connection that true love finds its expression, a love that builds My Kingdom on the earth and prepares the way for your coming to Me, closer and closer with each step, together forever, a love unmatched in the universe.  Let us love as I have ordained it.  Do not let My gifts for you ever be a source of entanglement.  For the true light that shines brightest, shines when you come to Me with open hearts and hands, yearning only to know and love Me more deeply.