Now to Him who is able to (carry out His purpose and) do superabundantly more than all that we dare to ask and think (infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes or dreams), according to His power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20 AMP
This is a message that I received on our bible study WhatsApp group and it came at a time that I really needed to hear it.
“God wants you to set your expectations in Him as high as you possibly can. He wants to do things in your life that are so extraordinary that some people are not going to believe it. Extraordinary means “remarkable, uncommon and rare.” If you will stand in faith for the extraordinary to come to pass, then the extraordinary will become the norm in your life.
God is good and he is continually looking for opportunities to express his goodness in your life. It is up to you to position yourself to receive this goodness. The way you do this is by eliminating any wrong thinking that you may have allowed into your life.
Don’t allow yourself to doubt Gods goodness or his love for you. Don’t question Gods desire to give you good things that you think you don’t deserve. Don’t limit God by expecting so little from him. If you limit God to conventional or usual methods of provision, you will not be in a position to receive from unusual sources. God wants to bless you in ways that are remarkable, uncommon and rare.
If you don’t expect the extraordinary to happen, your life will remain as it is. However, if you expect Gods goodness and mercy to follow you every day of your life you will start to see positive change in your circumstances.
So dare to set your expectations high and see the extraordinary things that God will do when you put your faith in him.”
I am not a believer in the “Prosperity Gospel or the Health and Wealth Gospel” but I am a passionate believer in the blessings of God. All you need to do is read the bible to see that God is a God of love and he wants to pour out his blessing on those who love him.
Matthew 7:9-12New Living Translation (NLT)
9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
In my own life, I have seen God move in many miraculous ways. He has poured out blessing upon blessing, some of which were a result of desperate and urgent prayers and some of which were not even dreamed of or imagined. God’s blessings are always good.
But this is by no means the norm of my life. Not YET. I do not live in some holy bubble where I experience love and blessings every minute of every day. No.
We are living in a very broken and very fallen world. As much as we would love to live in that wonderfully euphoric space, the realities of life plunder our ‘joy reserves’ and eventually we find ourselves feeling exhausted and quite simply ‘out of faith’.
Our family has been believing for a ‘huge’ miracle for two years now. It is mostly me that is confident in the miracle coming to pass because I believe that God has given me this promise and I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he is able.
But we are now coming to the end or our open window period. If something does not happen in the next 5 weeks, our chances will be slimmed down by at least 90%. But God is able. No matter what the circumstances. He is able! As I am writing this, I am seeing this for myself. A speck of a chance for us a gaping wide hole of opportunity for a God who is able to do all things.
I spoke about this to my husband just the other day.
I said “I want to see our miracle come to pass when I am still full of faith and believing for this miracle! I want to be able to shout out from the rooftops that God has made a way where there seemed to be no way. I don’t want to be in a complacent space saying ‘It may happen and it may not happen, or whatever is meant to be, will be.”
Yes, I do want Gods will to prevail over and above my own, and I am at peace with whatever His will transpires to be.
BUT, I also do believe that this ‘anticipated miracle’ is Gods promise and blessing for us. And I need to keep my faith big enough to match that. So that I can undoubtedly proclaim his awesome and incredible goodness when it all comes to pass.”
God is our father in heaven and his very nature is to pour out his love in our lives. With that love, comes blessing upon blessing.
While I have been pondering this and struggling with this faith thing, God has brought some other very important relationship things to my mind. I need to invest my time in Him if I want him to invest his blessings in me. And not just financial blessings, I am talking about blessings of joy and affirmation and purpose and so much more.
I know that our lives are busy and seem to become more and more stressed every day.
But God is our anchor.
Our one sure thing.
Our hope in times of trouble.
Our quiet in the storm.
We need to make time to spend in his presence, to be affirmed by his love and to be re- assured of his faithfulness.
The scriptures assure us that we can trust in the Lord for our every provision.
Matthew 21:22
And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Matthew 6:30-34 New Living Translation (NLT)
30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.33 Seek the Kingdom of God[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
All these things come when we spend time with Him and get to know the incredible depth of his love and commitment to us. Then, we can come to him with our desperate needs and heartfelt desires and trust that He will do the ‘extraordinary’ in our lives.
We can trust him for
… that job or promotion
…that relationship to be restored
…that loved one to come to true faith
…that child to overcome their drug or alcohol addiction
…that dream to come true.
Because our father in heaven owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10)
We must call on Him when we are in trouble and he will rescue us and we will give him glory. (Psalm 50:15)
It’s all to His glory.
He will bless us with incredible and inconceivable blessings when we stay in a true and living relationship with Him.
John 15:7
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
I am choosing to ‘press in’ to God by doing the Daniel fast for the first 21 days of October. This commitment is more about the pressing in than the fasting but I feel that if I do the two together, it will intensify my commitment and keep me focused.
Fasting and praying go hand in hand.
By fasting and praying, we pursue God in our lives.
For more information about the Daniel fast, go to https://draxe.com/daniel-fast/