I Chronicles 4:9-11 (NLT)
There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request.
Do you ever wake up and think that there has to be more to life than this? Stuck in a rut? It happens to everyone. It is the destiny in your heart calling your eternal being into action knowing that life is not be fragile and feared but expansive and large. God placed Eternity in your heart. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Human inability to see the scope of God’s Work from beginning to end leads us to compartmentalize life. The problem with system of routine, schedule and organization limit the parameters according to God’s Plan which is much larger than what we see or know to be true. How do we expand our life to accommodate all of God’s Plan? For the Lord to bless you, it is a requirement. It means tearing down the carefully constructed walls and borders of one’s heart and allowing faith to flow through you as a moving force without restriction which creates the limitless possibility and blessing of God to spread through your entire existence. The notion of “you only live once” or “YOLO” is a lie. According to God’s Plan you are an eternal being that has the potential to live in the Kingdom of God forever, our outlook seems to be stuck on the here and now everyday events of life rather going a level greater to see God’s Perspective and know that faith is not risky behavior. It is how we expand our life to make room for all of the Lord’s Blessings and Promises according to His Word.
Psalm 119:29-32 (NLT)
Keep me from lying to myself; give me the privilege of knowing your instructions. I have chosen to be faithful; I have determined to live by your regulations. I cling to your laws. LORD, don’t let me be put to shame! I will pursue your commands, for you expand my understanding.
The enemy is a liar. In fact, the truth is not in him. He never ever tells the truth. Think about that for a moment. If you listen to anything that the adversary of your soul is telling you and believe it – you have been deceived. This has occurred over and over in the Body of Christ binding the Power of God and His Spirit ready to move through His People and expand their influence and prosperity. Many people make a commitment to Jesus Christ and decide to be faithful but fail when “reality” sets in. Choosing to live by the regulations of God but not really knowing them God’s People are easily deceived and led away. To cling to God’s Way (or His Law) believers must make an effort to know the Word of God. Study it. Becoming an approved worker who is skilled by putting His Word into practice in their life takes practice. It is not always an overnight transformation as sin is discovered and removed. Learning the Word of God, obtaining Knowledge of God, applying it to your life and developing Godly Wisdom take time. How much time do you spend discovering the empty philosophies in your life that have been restricting your blessing and prosperity?
John 8:43-45 (NLT)
Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me! For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me!
Life is limited without Knowledge of God. It is not enough to just believe God exists. In order to live out the powerful potential God has hidden in your creation requires that you know God intimately beginning with His Word. You have to know what you believe in order for it to impact your life. Once you begin to discover the Great Truths concerning your life delineated in His Word, you will recognize His Voice that has been speaking to you all along. His Spirit will guide you to the divine opportunities that God has hidden in the footsteps He has ordered for you. The devil hates the truth. The Truth is that God is a Good Father who loves His Children dearly and will stop at nothing to apprehend their heart and soul to usher them home for Eternity. Life begins for a believer by understanding the Love of God displayed in His Word and lived out by His Son, Jesus Christ. It will expand your thinking from the earthly realm to the supernatural heights of God’s Thinking and the Endless Perspective that He has for your life. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Acts 3:4-6 (NLT)
Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!” The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”
The encounter of Peter and John with the lame man describes most people’s expectation of God. Rather than expecting and believing the Lord can completely restore their broken life, people approach God for a temporary solution. God is not a temporary fix but an Eternal Solution. It is so true that we have not because we ask not! (John 14:14) We barely expect God to rescue us from light and momentary troubles much less perform a miracle in our life. To experience the life God has planned for us requires releasing human expectation for divine revelation. God does not want to get you through this illness, but He wants to heal you and fully restore you. We want to prosper in this life to be comfortable, but never consider prosperity of our soul which leads to complete contentment. We are satisfied with just getting by when God has so much more in store for us. If only we could release human expectation that clings to the American Dream and grab hold of Eternity for just a moment. The Kingdom of God and all of its power is available on earth and it is time to release human expectation for the things that we think we need and grab hold of what God is offering. He is willing to loose heaven on earth if we are willing to expand our expectation by faith to receive it. (Matthew 16:19)
Psalm 62:5-6 (NKJV)
My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved.
The psalmist instructs his soul to wait silently for God ALONE and place expectation in Him. Believers must learn to expect God and wait until He comes. I will not be moved. You have to tell yourself this over and over sometimes until you stop trying to work out the details of your life and quit telling God what you need when you need it so the Lord can tell you what He’s doing and how to receive it. Whiny children will arouse the anger of any parent. When my little ones would begin to whine, cry and complain it would signal the need for a nap or quiet time to rest and calm down. Here’s a note to all of you who hate to wait even on God: Stop whining and complaining and start praising then maybe God will decrease your wait time as you demonstrate faith and trust in Him. Whining is a sign of unmet needs, complaining shows discontentment, grumbling means you think that there is a better way. God is waiting for you to place your faith and expectation fully in Him.
Psalm 145:15-16 (NKJV)
The eyes of all look expectantly to You and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
When driving it is imperative to keep one’s eyes on the road, believers need to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus Christ to remain faithful. When we begin to look around at others, we tend to become diverted and sidetracked as our perception is limited to the here and now. Envy builds a barrier that hinders our ability to receive all God has promised. Jealously leads to bitterness that immobilizes our faith leaving us barricaded in sin halting our expansion into the supernatural. Fix your eyes on Jesus Christ and you will be satisfied.
Psalm 5:3 (NLT)
Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.
Prayer is more than telling God all that you want. It is listening and waiting expectantly for His Voice to lead you to it. We tell God our list of demands and head out to get it. Speak to the Lord. Wait expectantly for Him to speak to you. Expansion comes in such a place.
Philippians 3:12-14 (NLT)
I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
God created you with purpose. He has a plan for your life that is far greater than what you are doing right now. It will take your whole life for God to do all that He has planned for you. It will all culminate in a great love affair that reaches across death and the grave into Eternity taking as many other people with as you can. The problem is once we are comfortable in the Provision of God many people stop pressing for the Perfection of God. His Plan for your life is perfect. It is prosperous. You will be completely satisfied and content lacking nothing. (James 1:4) It is time to take hold of one thing – Jesus Christ. Hold on to Him – leaving the past behind. You must look forward. Stop trying to pull Jesus into your past to have those past desires. Let God mold and shape the way that you think so you will have His Very Best. Press to reach the end of the race of faith and have your Heavenly Prize. It is waiting for those who by faith decide to have it and wait until it comes settling for nothing less than God’s Very Best. There is more to life than this and I intend to have it. What about you?
Psalm 27:4 (NLT)
The one thing I ask of the LORD—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, delighting in the LORD’s perfections and meditating in his Temple.
Expanding this life means moving it from temporary residence to the Presence of God. We cannot take God’s Glorious Plan and cram it into our sin-filled life expecting to thrive and prosper. It will die with shallow roots, no faith and no water from His Word. However, when we choose to move our small limited potential into the Presence of God and live there our true potential is released without being limited by our sinful nature. Because our faith and trust is in God, we no longer feel the need to control everything and can concentrate on self-control as wait on God to perfect every detail of our life. (Romans 8:28) A great expansion plan for your life is hidden in 2 Peter 1:4-12, I encourage you to read it. Think about it. Commit your life to it in the revelation of God’s Glory and Excellence that He now makes available to us in His Great and Precious Promises. These instructions guide us in our response to these promises and receivership of all that the Lord has promised according to His Word. You can have it all. You can have it now. God will grow you to be productive and useful in His Kingdom able to receive all the benefits associated with residency.
Jabez did not settle for his lot in life as a distressing pain, but chose to seek the Lord and His Potential and Promises. Jabez let go of his expectation in the things of this world letting go of his past including disappointment and discouragement. Jabez did not ask for his mother’s love or money. He simply asked the Lord to bless Him. Is your faith big enough to ask the Lord to bless you and not fill in the blank? Jabez knew there was more to life than this so he asked the Lord to expand his territory. Your territory includes every aspect of your life. I believe that Jabez was asking God to make his life big enough to contain all of God’s Promises. Are you willing to let God change your life, break your heart, and reposition you for His Glory? Jabez knew he would make mistakes and asked the Lord to be his constant companion that he would not get in trouble or cause pain. Sin will get you in trouble and breaks the heart of God. Grace is not an excuse. It is a pardon for those times that you fail and you will. But if God is your partner, friend and constant companion, He will pick you up again. Expansion is not for the weak. It is not for the faithless. It will change your life include turning it upside down, rearranging everything, and causing chaos as God fulfills His Plan releasing your full potential. Yes, there is more to life than this. Yes, you can have it because God made it part of your plan. Are you ready to receive it?
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