Opening the Gates of Heaven Perry Stone

forgotten? People today would be saying, “I just don’t understand why God would allow such a good boy to have such difficulty in his life. This is not fair!” It was about timing; a famine was coming, and God needed a man to save the sons of Jacob from starving to death in the land of Canaan. Joseph had the ring of favor placed upon his hand, giving him authority over all of Egypt. But first he had to pass the test. Continuing to believe and holding on to your faith will eventually pay off. T ROUBLE D OES N OT A LTER F AVOR One more major point should be made. Often when trouble strikes our lives, we assume that we have lost favor with God, or else the difficulty would have been restrained from manifesting. I have often said that real “blessing” is not an exemption from trouble, but blessing is the favor to continually survive from crisis to crisis and come out on the other side smiling. The path of favor says, “I will make it. I will walk this path of affliction and opposition, and in the end I will have survived and thrived in a crisis!” Circumstances cannot alter God’s blessing. Favor enables a believer, like Joseph, to interpret the dreams of others while in prison (Gen. 40), eventually leading to the deliverance of God’s man from thirteen years of prison to sit second in command with Pharaoh after interpreting the king’s dream (Gen. 41). Favor brought Ruth from the