Spot On With The Word

Psalms 118 vs 24 declares,” This is the day that the lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Previously in Spot On segments, we discussed what our part is in the Christian walk. What can we do to cause God’s word to be activated and accelerated in our lives? God has the biggest part obviously, but we also have a part to play. In the aforementioned verse we see this in action. This is the day that God made. He made it. Our part is too rejoice and be glad in it. We must make the choice to do our part. WE WILL REJOICE! If God is faithful to give us another twenty-four hours to live then shouldn’t we be faithful to have praise be our response? We can choose to complain about everything that is wrong in this day or we can choose to rejoice! Sometimes when the pressure is turned up, we think that praise will be what we do when there is relief. The Psalmist didn’t say we will rejoice and be glad AFTER it, or at the end of it. He said we will rejoice and be glad IN it! Things may not be going in your life the way that you hoped it would go or thought it would go. The trajectory of your life can change if you choose to rejoice regardless of your circumstances. We can rejoice, simply because it is the day that God made. In the midst of whatever is occurring in your life, find time to take a praise break! If I am in the day, I am still alive and breathing. Let everything that hath breath PRAISE THE LORD!!!

We don’t just revelation we want application! How does the word of God apply to my life? Andrew was a divine connector. He brought the boy and the fish to Jesus. Sometimes you don’t have to be the great miracle worker, you can be a networker. Never underestimate your gifts. The true demonstration of the miraculous in this story, is in what was left over. There were twelve baskets full. Each disciple had a basket full. If you ever find yourself in a situation, where you think you will not have enough or be enough, remember your basket full of blessings. Encourage yourself in The Lord. Remind yourself of all the times God was faithful. Take out your basket and look at it. If he did it before, He will do it again. God is the God of more than enough. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Trust Him to break you and bless you.

Until you can bless what is not enough, you may not receive what is more than enough. The Bible tells us to give thanks with a grateful heart. In other words, it doesn’t just tell us to give thanks; it tells us how to do it. Sometimes it is good to take inventory of what have rather than what we lack. It may not be everything you would have chosen, however, with the right attitude; it will be a significant step toward experiencing what is more than enough. Be thankful right where you are! Jesus fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes. They sat in groups of fifty. These are absolute and specific numbers. It is when He blessed the bread and broke it, that we lose count. It is no longer specific. When He multiplies it, there is no count. That is the, “more than enough” God we serve. We can give an absolute count of our deficiencies, but when God starts blessing us, you can’t tell all that He will multiply from them! He is so good. He is not afraid or threatened by our limitations. He will take us and use us beyond our wildest imaginations, even in our weakened state. It was never about us. It was always about Him, anyway.

It is amazing to see the revelation in the story of the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus used the obedience of a young boy for the miracle, when only the men had been counted. God used what the rest overlooked and deemed unimportant. Jesus has a way of making us feel like we count when others deem us unimportant. That means He fed five thousand me plus the women and the children. In the Gospels, it is recounted that Jesus made them sit down in groups of fifty. There was plenty for everyone and twelve baskets full, left over for the disciples. He blessed what was obviously not enough by itself and then the miracle occurred. The lesson for us today is that there is a danger when as gifted and creative people we have great ideas, but we believe we must have everything, in order to do anything. God encourages us to use what we have. Outgrow where we are. Be diligent with what is in our hands to do. Learn how to bless what we have. Give thanks for what we have already been given and God will supernaturally give us increase!

It is important that we bless what seems to be insufficient in our own lives. Jesus fed five thousand men plus women and children. Only the men were counted. It would have taken years of salaries to feed this mass of people. We are very need conscious when we present our requests to God. He, on the other hand, is not overly concerned with our needs, because He has already promised to supply them. He often asks us for what have. Chances are, what we have, is probably what we have overlooked or marginalized. Isn’t it strange that God will often take what we want to eliminate or believe has no value, and asks us for it. He doesn’t need it obviously. He wants it so that He can use it. He wants our participation in the miracle. How often do we talk ourselves out of an opportunity because God has requested the seed of our miracle but we have determined it to be of no value? It may be worthless when we are in charge of it, but when we surrender it to God, it becomes more than enough!

There is a story in the bible where Jesus fed the five thousand. It is one of the few stories that can be found in all four of the Gospels, therefore it must be very significant. Jesus had been teaching and the crowd was hungry. The disciples wanted to send them home. Jesus said,” What do we have?” God rarely asks us to tell Him what we need? Sometimes He asks, “What would you have me do?” He does ask us to take an inventory to determine what we have. Andrew found a young boy who had five loaves and two fish. This was enough for a boy’s lunch. When Jesus received it, the first thing He did was bless it. God is able to supernaturally increase what we believe is insufficient in our own lives and multiply it. It never had anything to do with our lack. It had everything to do with His abundance. Will you have the faith to offer Him what you have?

Our steadfast obedience is a testimony to how valuable an authority is in our lives. It is important to God that He can trust you. In the Bible, there is the story of the wedding feast in Canaan. Three days into a seven day feast, where Jesus and His mother were in attendance, they ran out of wine. Mary said to the disciples,” Whatsoever he says to you do it!” As the story goes, Jesus turns the water into wine. Wouldn’t it be amazing if that same spirit of obedience was pervasive in the church today? Do you wonder what miracles we might see? When we fail to obey, we break down the communication between heaven and earth. It is a sign of dishonor and disrespect. It causes our relationship to become misaligned. Once everything is in proper alignment, the power and purpose of God will begin to flow in your life. If you feel as though you are stagnant and the flow has stopped, you may need to go back to the last instruction that The Lord gave you. Always go back to the last place of broken instruction. Fix the alignment there. God delights to reward us with all that He is and all He can do in us and through us.

There is power in obedience. It is one of the most profound and measurable ways we can assess our growth. Measurement of our maturity in Christ can be hard to determine at times, because so much of our walk is done by faith and not by sight. Catastrophic illness may take you by surprise. It can be accompanied by a list of instructions that may require life style changes. There is wisdom in those instructions that may save your life, if you follow them. While you may recognize the wisdom in the necessary adjustments, until you put them into practice there will be no reward. God rewards those who diligently seek Him. You can recognize the greatness and wisdom of God and still not submit to His Sovereignty in your life. Do you really want God’s intervention in your daily life? Recognition of God as The King of Kings and The Lord of Lords is not the same as allowing Him to be that in a practical sense, in your life. If He is not allowed to assume that role in your life, then He is under no obligation to reward you with His presence. The way that you endear yourself to God is to become so submitted to His will that He knows you will do whatever he says for you to do. If you have been tested in the place of obedience, you can be trusted with access.

In the book of 1st Samuel, the Bible teaches us that obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience is one of the most valuable assets in the Kingdom. If you have someone in your life that will follow your instruction, it means that they are looking to you, they are paying attention and they are following you. There is a responsibility you have. The more you lean into the counsel of your leaders and your mentors, the more they will pour out to you. There is a familiar story in the early part of Genesis, God decided that He would send a flood because man had become exceedingly wicked and sinful. In the midst of this evil, He found one man named Noah who was righteous. God decided to spare him and his family but it would require Noah to do something that had never been done before. He asked Noah to build something that looked ridiculous. Noah could have refused because it looked insane. Prior to this point, the earth had never seen rain. Can you imagine the internal frustration? He was to build something he had never seen because God was going to send something the world had never seen. It was the obedience of Noah that activated the movement of God. Anytime you have experienced a breakdown or screeching halt in your life, it can more than likely be traced to an ignored instruction. In Noah’s case, obedience proved to be the salvation for him and his entire family. No matter how insignificant or extraordinary your instruction appears to be, if God gives you a preceding word, a dream or a desire, TRUST AND OBEY!

There is no substitute for obedience and there is no exception made for ignoring it. We cannot circumvent it when it comes to an intimate relationship with God. Every voice does not require obedience on our part. When you have recognized a leader or mentor, there is value in honoring their instructions. Obedience is the outward manifestation of an inward honor and this is the seed for access. The only way it will be clear that you hold a particular authority figure in high regard, is that you will obey and follow their instruction. There is a consequence to disobedience. There will likewise be a reward for obedience. You may not even understand the instruction. The person, who is capable of following the most basic instruction, is typically the one who can be trusted with greater investment. How can I assume that God will invest His wisdom and power in me if I am not willing to follow His counsel? If someone has to be told to do the same thing multiple times and they do not respond it is clear that they do not agree or their behavior indicates a lack of respect. Blind loyalty is not the point here. Rather it is an understanding of the Sovereignty of God and that there is nothing that God has told me to do that is worth not obeying. Let’s be quick to obey. Let Him see that we are willing to do whatever we He desires, in order that we may access His best for us.