January 14, 2006

• Friday’s Bible Study by Pastor Don Moore, In His Name Ministries and Living Word Chapel. Part 1

  
  

  Pastor Don asked the question, what prevents us from receiving what we have prayed for in faith? What blocks us from seeing the miracles we want to see?

  
  

  We can’t blame God because He never fails, He loves us, and no problem is too much for God to deal with. So if a situation does not come to pass, there has to be something in us that causes us to miss what God really wants us to do, mentally or spiritually.

  
  

  As a disciple of Christ we need to examine ourselves, and correct ourselves when we speak negative words, or words without taking God into consideration.

  
  

  Here are some traits that could prevent us from recognizing God’s miracles in our lives.

  
  

  The tendency to always look for the spectacular (spectacular by our definition of what spectacular is.) If we look for the spectacular rather than what God wants to do, we can miss God’s work in our lives. Often, when we pray we anticipate what we think God is going to do and how He is going to solve our problem. We have our plan based on our limited understanding of how we think God should proceed, but that just boxes God in. When God moves outside of our expectations we may miss the supernatural move of God. When we pray we are to pray the prayer of faith, and then get out of God’s way so the Holy Spirit can change things. The sad point is that when we come to God with our expectations we miss the most profound miracle of all—where God and us get to participate together in a miracle directed by God. We have the sin of presupposing God, who has a plan way beyond what we can think or do.

  
  

  One example of this is the woman who was planning to give up her sons to pay a debt, but Elijah came and told the woman to gather empty vessels. She gathered some, Elijah told her to get more, she borrowed some from neighbors, but didn’t go the extra mile and get lots of them. God filled the vessels with oil which she sold to pay off her debt and had money to live from. But by not throwing herself fully into this plan (which to her senses might have seemed foolish to gather empty vessels), she might have missed God setting her up in the oil business.

  
  

  Sometimes the things that God asks us to do seem strange, and we have to act in obedience. Moses being told to lift up his rod (what if Moses had said to God, what good will that do and refused to obey?), or the paraplegic who was told to pick up his cot (if he had said but I have been crippled all my life, how can I do that?)

  
  

  Or the man with leprosy who was told to bathe in the Jordan, there were many other rivers in the area, but the Jordan was a muddy river. It took the servant girl to convince the king to bathe in the muddy water (something anyone with open sores would be hesitant to do).

  
  

  Sometimes we expect a spectacular miracle because of our personality, our low self esteem, or our lack of belief.

  
  

  In John 2, the Wedding at Canna, Mary told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them to do. God knows our needs before we even ask for what we need. Just bring our problems to God, and let Him solve it. Sometimes God has already set up the solution to our problem before we even ask. The servants were told to fill the water jugs – now this is not a logical thing to do, serve water at a wedding. It would be an embarrassment and could possibly get them in trouble. But to their credit they not only filled the water jugs, but they filled them TO THE BRIM. Even though the servants had no faith, they obeyed to the max. Then Jesus told them to take the jugs and pour out. It made no sense, but the end result was the best wine served at the wedding.

  
  

  Sometimes when God tells us to do something we do it to a minimum. For example, if God tells us to fast, and we give up our piece of toast at breakfast, instead of fasting the whole day, it is a fast, but perhaps not to the extent God had suggested.

  
  

  The first law of receiving a miracle: Do what you are told to do by God. To hear from God you have to believe that you can hear from God, have the faith and believe you will receive a Word from God, clear your head and expect to hear an answer in the Spirit, your inner witness.

  
  

  Psalm 37:4 states that God gives us the desires of our heart (that doesn’t mean that He gives us everything we desire, it means that not only does He give us the desires of our heart, but He gives our hearts the desires we have.) Pastor Don pointed out that sometimes our shortsighted thinking causes us to stop God’s abundance for us, that sometimes we want what isn’t right for us, and a loving God, just like a loving parent, will also say no. (Heather’s example: If my kids want to eat candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner I would not let them, for there would be no nutritional benefit. They would see my “no” as mean and not loving, but it actually is the most loving action I could do for them. Likewise, if they whine and beg, and demand things, sometimes a “no” is what they need to not be spoiled and have a false sense of themselves as the center of the world, etc.)

  
  

  God will never ask us to do something we can’t do. He gives us the power to do what we need to do.

  
  

  Sometimes we miss a move of God because what God is asking us to do seems too simple. We are looking for something spectacular, but God only asks a simple action.

  
  

  For example, Joshua was told to walk silently around the walls of Jericho and then give a shout. The walls were huge, and “common-sense” would tell him that that will not budge the walls, yet God used the faith of the men doing that simple action to do a marvelous miracle.

  
  

  The ingredient that mobilizes the supernatural is faith. Hebrews 11:6 states that without faith it is impossible to please God and that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. One of the key words in the verse is diligently. How often we pray, look around and see no sign of an answer, then assume God isn’t answering. We let go too soon, instead of continuing in prayer.

  
  

  Faith is an action word.

  
  

  I will continue this study tomorrow with other ways that we block the working of faith in our lives.

  
  

  These notes are from our discipleship class, and they are very convicting to me, in my struggles with faith. All of this is a process, and we grow gradually in this as we exercise our faith. The more we apply these principles to our lives, the stronger our faith will become. No one is perfect in this, except Jesus. But faith is the currency in Heaven, so we are learning now how to speak that language of faith.

  
  

  Have a blessed night.

  
  

  Heather

  • 12:02 am
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