His Promise of Provision - Pastor’s Heart

Hi Folks!

I am excited about the year 2008. I believe it is a year where we can see many souls come to a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and be set free by His mighty power. Praise the Lord!! I just wish that I had more time to sit down and write letters to you precious ones on this Pastors Heart list. You are in my heart and I pray for you often, but to find the time to get the many revelations from my heart and into this laptop seems to be very limited of late. Please agree with me for the Lord to grant His grace to me to get the job done for Him. Those of you who are in the ministry and walking with Jesus would surely agree with me, that revelation is flowing like a river and the Lord is giving words of eternal life to equip His Church for the days to come. These certainly are the last days so lets keep working together for the common cause of seeking and saving those that are lost while we still have time.

God our Father has promised in His covenant to meet our every need while on this Earth. This not only includes the personal needs of our own life and family, but those needs of our ministries and callings also. God has already set aside whatever it is we need to get the job done for Him. He has more than enough resources, and we as His children have a covenant right to them as we have need. Let me get this straight before we even set out trying to teach on such a vast subject as this - that if we ever find ourselves short or in want of something, it is not God's fault, nor is it the Lord trying to humble us with some kind of poverty. The problem always lies with us, not Him. Jesus proved the perfect will of the Father to us in His Earthly ministry. He never lacking anything. His Father always provided His every need and more. Not only were His personal and ministry needs met, but so were the needs of His family, disciples and staff.

Remember, Jesus was and still is the most humble of us all. He stooped the lowest as a servant to all mankind - but He was not without provision from His Father. There is a key there that you may have just missed? Jesus was humble. He never lived for Himself but for His Father and for the people of this World. He always did those things that pleased His Father which means He was always walking in faith. We know this because the Word tells us in Hebrews 11:6 that, it is impossible to please God without faith. Faith in its most simplest explanation that I can think of is, "believing and trusting in God and His Word." It is an active force that is produced by hearing and understanding the Words of God, and then activated by complete obedience to them.

This is a perfect picture of Jesus on the Earth. He completely trusted His Father's Words by believing them and obeying them. This should be no different with you and I as Christians. We are to completely trust the Lord in our Earth walk by believing His words and obeying them. The proof of our faith and trust in the Lord is evidenced by our obedience to His words. You cannot trust somebody that you are not willing to follow and obey. Jesus only did those things which He saw His Father do and said those things which He heard His Father say.

This is humility... walking in the truth of God's words. Humility is aligning our will with the will of the Creator of the universe and doing those things that He tells us to do.

“ God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you 1Peter 5(b) - 6

The humble one doesn't worry about his or her own life, because their life is not there own to worry about. It belongs to Another! They recognize their lives were bought with a price and they have chosen to love and obey the One who purchased them with His own blood. Jesus didn't live His life for Himself but for the One who sent Him and for the people that his Father so loved. He humbled Himself under the mighty hand of God in full obedience and trust. Jesus fully understood His place as God's Son. He was to do His part of the deal (which was to trust and obey), and His Father did the rest (which was to take care of Him and meet His every need). His needs were met as He trusted and obeyed God. It is no different with you and I. We are to trust and obey our Master Jesus and as we do He will do the rest - which includes meeting "our" every need.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths Proverbs 3:5-6

Trusting in the Lord with "all" of our heart, requires nothing less than obeying Him with "all" of our life. To lean on our own understanding would mean to think that we can do things our own way. This is revealed by those that are only partially obeying Him. The Lord desires nothing less than "all" of our life in love and service to Him. His requirement is that He be made first place in our life...

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you Matt 6:33

The "things" we need, God can easily add to us if He is number One. You may be thinking right now; "Why is David going on so much about this obedience and trust thing? I thought this was about the promises of God's provision?" Yes, I "am" talking about receiving His promises. There are many of them and they are a great cause for rejoicing as we discover each and every one of them as they are scattered throughout the entire Bible. God so much desires to bless His people but it's all wrapped up in how "He" has pre-determined it will be done. God is a covenant keeper... He makes the promise of meeting our every need, and we receive it through faith and patience. There is a receiving end to all of the Lord's promises, let me give you an illustration of how it is possible to not receive a promised gift in the natural realm.

Suppose I ask one of my sons if he would like a special gift today? He is all excited about it and says, yes please! We jump in the car and go down town to the shop and buy what his heart desires. I have the shop assistant wrap it up in nice paper, I pay for it, and we walk outside. Before we get back into the car I attempt several times to give the gift to my excited son, but each time that I am about to hand it over he folds his arms. I am having difficulty getting the gift into his hands because he keeps folding his arms. Eventually after the third attempt of trying to convince him that he must unfold his arms and reach forth his hands to receive, he fumbles when trying to grab it and the gift falls to the ground breaking in a hundred pieces. We get back into the car to drive home and tears are filling his eyes as he can't believe how I would allow something like that to happen to him.

You may be thinking how silly that would be of my son to not have just opened out his hands and receive what I had bought him. But folks, we can be the same way spiritually. God our Father extends His hands of love toward us with a promise from His Word, and we with disobedient hands keep our arms folded and fail to receive what He has offered. A gift can be offered (which is God's part), but it also needs to be received (which is our part). As we have afore mentioned in previous articles....

Through faith and patience we inherit the promises Hebrews 6:12

Faith is all wrapped up in our obedience to the Lord and His Word, and Patience will require us to do things His way and maybe even have to wait for a while, which means we will have to just keep on trusting God. :-)

I am believing for God's provision and great blessing in your life, family and ministry. To Him be the glory for all the good that He is about to bestow upon you!

to be continued...

love

David

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