My wife and I are blessed with a wonderful and beautiful 4-year old. But there are times I refuse to do things for her that I feel she should be able to do herself. Being a child, she likes to push the boundary and ask for help when I know she should not. Even when she genuinely thinks she cannot do something and tells me so, I tell her, “never say I can’t.” Usually, she finds out she could, after reluctantly trying.
Most of us run to God our Father for every thing having been equipped with the wherewithal to make things happen in our lives and in the world. Two interesting episodes happened in the scriptures. The children of Israel were faced with the Red Sea just after coming out of Egypt and Moses went to God on their behalf. God responded by saying, “Why are you crying to me? Tell the people to move forward.” Into the Red Sea? Yes. “By now, you should know that the Red Sea is not big enough to stand before your God, shouldn’t you? You have also been given a rod (representing God”s word) with which to do signs and wonders, so what is your problem?” – paraphrased. The other episode was when the disciples came to Jesus with the problem of feeding five thousand people in a desert place. Jesus said to them, “give ye them to eat!” Effectively, he expected them to feed the people, just the way He went on to do!
Obviously, God expects us to operate in His class. He is looking for people like Elijah who decreed no rain nationwide, “except by my word.” Elijah did not even say “Thus saith the Lord…” yet most of us wait for God to heal us when he already has! We pray for demons to stop terrorizing our communities when our very presence should terrorize them since they are under our feet. We pray for financial breakthrough when we carry the very blessing of Abraham and through us the world is meant to be blessed rather than us depending on the world for daily bread.
The message in church has been about system breakers and I so love it. However, God is not the system breaker, we are. We will forever remain under the dominion of the systems of this world if we are waiting for God to break the systems that keep us bound. He simply won’t. Like a good Father, He would not do for us what He has equipped us for. We have been more than equipped by the finished work of Christ to dominate any system in the world and if we don’t learn to do it ourselves, God will not do it for us. How do we do it? Start small. Address headache first, without having to call on God. If you miss it, do it again since practice makes perfect. Then go on to bigger issues.
–Tolu
I’ve been teaching and preaching a sermon series entitled “THE CHRIST CHURCH” and on Sunday I talked about “PRAYER”. Prayer is not a foreign topic to us here at the Resurrection Center however we need to keep prayer at the forefront of our lives and ministries.
