Eternity Daily Bible Study
(A ministry of Eternity Christian Fellowship)
Walking In The Spirit - 80
Studies in this series can also be found online at www.globalchristians.org/walkspirit/
Topic: When God Is Our Resource
Date: 13th January 2009
Luke 1:37 MKJV For with God nothing shall be impossible.
Abraham went out from Ur of the Chaldees with God as his only resource. And God guided, provided, blessed and multiplied him and now his spiritual and physical descendants are 'as the sand of the seashore'.
Moses took on Pharaoh and the empire of Egypt with God as his only resource and liberated three million Israelites and led them to the brink of Canaan. Through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, through grumblings, through lack of food and water, God provided and blessed and led and guided. God was ALL Moses had and God was sufficient for everything.
John the Baptist went out into the wilderness of Judea, without buildings or an organization or wealth or power and called for an entire nation to repent. And they came to him in their thousands and were baptized in the River Jordan. The power of the Holy Spirit was his resource, and the Spirit was sufficient for every aspect of John's ministry.
Throughout church history men and women of God have gone to nations where they were unknown and had no inheritance, without material resources or any human help, and they have brought the transforming gospel of Jesus Christ to that place and to that nation. God has been their only resource and God has always been sufficient for their need.
All these people believed that God had called them (out of Ur, out of Egypt, to preach repentance, or to the foreign mission field) and that God's calling would be God's enabling.
If God has placed a certain calling on your life then God's calling will be God's enabling and nothing within the scope of that calling will be impossible for you!
Mark 9:23 MKJV Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.
The faith of those who are truly called is a faith that sees mountains and moves them!
Matthew 17:20 MKJV And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief. For truly I say to you, If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there. And it shall move. And nothing shall be impossible to you.
If you are called to evangelize then God will move all the mountains you need to share the Word, and if you are called to pastor then God will move all the mountains needed for you to be a good shepherd to the flock!
God's enabling is totally different to man's enabling. God enabled Jesus by having the Holy Spirit abide upon Him in power at His baptism. God gave His Spirit and that was the enabling and with the anointing came the providing. There was a time of 'starving' (40 days in the Wilderness) and testing. But after that everything was given in abundance and Jesus was free to turn water into wine, and to feed the five thousand and the four thousand!
With the anointing comes the ability to transform people's lives. And as we change lives people give – just like Joanna and the other women that supported Jesus. Jesus didn't have to worry about provision because so many people were blessed that they just kept on giving and they had to have a treasurer and even had enough left over to give to the poor.
Luke 8:1-3 MKJV And it happened afterwards, He traveled in every city and village, proclaiming and announcing the gospel of the kingdom of God. And the Twelve were with Him, (2) and also certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities; Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven demons, (3) and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered to Him of their possessions.
If your aim is to run an institution then you will always be running out of money. But if your aim is to change lives under the anointing of God, then you will never run out of money unless you are a spendthrift. People sense your aim and know your blessing. They know if you are touching their lives or if you are just building your own kingdom. If you are trying to build your own kingdom then its time to repent!
There are a lot of spiritually stale ministries out there running programs and relying on man's resources and on stewardship campaigns. This recession may get even worse, and if it does, they will soon be out of business. However the mustard-seed ministries that operate by faith and by anointing and which really change people's lives for good; those ministries will be the one's that survive!
Are you called? Are you anointed? Are you aiming to really change people's lives? Are you believing that nothing shall be impossible with God? Are you calling on the Lord to move all the mountains that need to be moved for you to accomplish all of God's will? Are you aiming high? Are you going to inherit the land, overthrow Pharaoh, take Jericho, or bring revival to Israel?
Last year (2009) was really tough for me – but I am believing for better things for this year. With God as my resource I am going to achieve all that He wants me to achieve. I am NOT going to look at the bank account and say “I cannot do God's will because there is just no money to do it with!” I am going to be strong and I am going to have courage.
Moses didn't need a bank account to lead Israel out of Egypt. Feeding three million people wasn't Moses' problem, it was God's problem! With God as your resource and my resource we can do everything that we are called to do in 2010. We are going to need to pray for each other and we are going to need to call on God together. It might be a wild ride, but God will see us through because He is faithful!
I don't think that God will resource us by dropping a million dollars into our each of our various bank accounts at the beginning of the year. If Scripture is any guide God will resource us by setting us on fire for Him so that people ring up and say “I heard your preach brother, that was anointed, come to my church and preach as well.”. So when you pray for provision just don't pray for money. Pray for power in your ministry, power that will change so many lives that people will just give and keep on giving because you are always a blessing to them.
God is your spiritual resource before He is your financial resource. It is the anointing that breaks the yoke of bondage:
Isaiah 10:27 MKJV And it shall be, in that day his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
If your ministry is under a 'yoke', under a great restriction and heaviness, then pray for a mighty anointing. Pray for revival power, pray for an unusual ability to transform lives. God has got you to the point of desperation so that He can force you to ask for more. Not more money - but more power, more grace and more joyful harvest results.
Your resource isn't money. Your resource is the power of God, God on your side. Cast yourself on God and ask Him to turn up. When God turns up people will turn up like moths to a flame. If God turns up your church of 200 will become a church of twenty thousand. Ask for more of the Lord and everything else will follow (Matthew 6:33).
Romans 8:31-32 MKJV What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (32) Truly He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
BTW: Pray for me also, that the Lord may fill me with His Spirit and with power so that Eternity-DBS “catches fire” with the Spirit and goes from 600 or so readers to ten thousand plus.
Blessings,
John Edmiston ([email protected])
Pastor – Eternity Christian Fellowship
Chairman/ CEO Cybermissions
http://www.eternitychristian.com
http://www.cybermissions.org
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