Wednesday, August 9, 2017

GOD IS BIGGER THAN YOU THINK (Part II)

GOD IS BIGGER THAN YOU THINK! (Part II)

There can be no doubt.  No matter HOW LONG you have known God, or HOW WELL you have known God, or HOW GREAT you perceive Him to be, GOD IS MUCH BIGGER THAN YOU THINK!  In fact, OUR GOD “is able to do EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV) 

Positionally speaking, we are IN CHRIST and in full command of THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM. (John 14:6 and Matthew 16:19) Our spiritual authority in Christ is a clear demonstration of the largeness and largess of GOD.  God’s supreme love motivates Him to always be ‘up to something’ behind the scenes to enlarge and empower us.  Here is the grace part: Unquestionably, we are undeserving of His “manifold mercies,” His “manifold wisdom” and His “manifold works.” (Nehemiah 9:19; Ephesians 3:10; Psalm 104:24) Nevertheless, GOD continually invests love and trust in us.

Although we revere ABRAHAM as ‘the father of faith,’ just like our own lives, Abraham’s life is a portrait of the grace and goodness of a great God who mercifully elects undeserving human vessels to enact His sovereign will in the earth.  After God summoned Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees and dispatched him to walk westward (by blind faith) toward the Promised Land, He changed his name and destiny via a series of divine promises. (Genesis, chapter 12) 

God declared to Abraham…
-I will make you a great nation.
-I will bless you, make your name great and cause you to be a blessing.
-I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curse you.
-I will bless all families of the earth through your seed.
-I will multiply you and make your seed like the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea.
-I will be your shield and exceeding great reward.

However, after the endowment of such precious promises, it is fascinating to note that (due solely to sin) a much darker and more troubled future would also lie ahead for Abraham’s descendants.  The same God who promised a grand and glorious future declared that a time would come when Abraham’s seed would become servants and strangers in a strange land for four centuries.  Nevertheless, in the midst of a divine decree of judgment, God always reserves a ‘footnote’ of future blessing for those who are His own.  According to the Word, “and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and AFTERWARD SHALL THEY COME OUT WITH GREAT SUBSTANCE.” (Genesis 15:12-14)

The sovereign will of God must and shall be accomplished, one way or another.  One proof that GOD IS BIGGER THAN WE THINK is His ability to carve out favor, blessings and miracles in the middle of our mess!

Here’s another example.  Without knowing it, JOSEPH would be instrumental in fulfilling God’s promises to Abraham.  But he had to go through extraordinary challenges to arrive at the center of God’s perfect will, the place of His power and provision.  Father Jacob endowed him with a coat of many colors after perceiving a special grace and anointing on young Joseph’s life. 

Would you permit me to hypothetically ‘speak’ to Joseph for a few moments? 

Joseph, you probably felt that you were headed nowhere – fast.  Your technicolor coat-of-destiny (a.k.a., your early ability and anointing) did not seem to be taking you where you thought it would.  But I beg to differ.  If God had never given you a dream, Joseph, and if you had never shared your dream, your brothers would never have despised you and planted you in a pit.  And if your brothers had never despised you and placed you in that pit, you would never have been discovered by a caravan of Midianites.  And if the Midianites had never kidnapped you and carried you away from your homeland, you never have landed in Egypt. 

And if you had never arrived in Egypt, you would never have been employed in Potiphar’s house.  And if you had never gotten a gig in Potiphar’s house, you would never have met Mrs. Potiphar, who tried to make a move on you.  And if Mrs. Potiphar had not tried to make her move, you would never have wound up in prison.  And if you never were an inmate in prison, you would never have met Pharaoh’s chief baker and butler.  And if you had never met the baker and butler, you would never have had the opportunity to interpret their dreams.  And if you never interpreted their dreams, you would never have had the opportunity to interpret Pharaoh’s dream.  And if you never interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, you would never have risen to power in Egypt.  And if you never had such elevated political power in Egypt, you would never have been able to feed your starving family and nation.  And if the Israelites had never been fed in famine and had perished, then the lineage that brought JESUS CHRIST into this world would have been cut off BEFORE the whole world had the opportunity to be saved!  I’m talking about THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD!  From PIT to PRISON to PALACE to PROVISION to PARADISE – for all of us who would believe!

GOD IS BIGGER THAN YOU THINK!  Stay tuned…more to come tomorrow.

Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed, and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO MEET OUR SOON COMING KING.  Maranatha!

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