Tuesday, January 13, 2009

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches

Dear friends,
I pray that your are prospering spirit, soul, and body. The Lord gave me several words for the New Year which I have been preaching at our church. One of the words He gave was from Genesis 26 about "sowing in the time of famine". In difficult financial times the tendency is to hoard what we have, but scripture indicates it is a time to be sowing. Isaac sowed in the land and reaped 100 fold and that was during a time of famine and the scripture says the Lord blessed him. He was in covenant with the Lord. He was receiving the blessings of his father Abraham. According to Galatians we, too are Abraham's offspring and receive God's blessing by faith. I want to encourage you today in the fact that our God is able to bless us in the time of famine. His promises are not contingent on the world's economy. May you be encouraged by His love for you today.

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians
4:19

Notice in the verse above it does not say according to the churches' riches, or according to the nation's riches, the GNP, the stock market, your company, your relatives, but according to His riches. I've heard Bill Johnson say that Jesus was able to sleep through the storm on the boat because His internal reality was the kingdom of God and there are no storms in the kingdom. In order to change our external reality our internal reality must be the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God there is no lack; there is no depression. How many times did God bring the unseen into the seen world. I want briefly walk through scripture and look at a few of those today.

1. Exodus 16:4a then the Lord says to Moses, " I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day." For many days the children of Israel ate the manna from heaven. God provided for His people in a desert place.

2. 1 Kings 17:8-16 We have the story of God sending Elijah to the widow at Zarephath. You know the story I'm sure. The widow was about to cook her last meal when Elijah showed up and requested that she give him a cake first. Vs. 14 The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain upon the earth.

3. Elisha and the poor widow- 2 Kings 4:1-6 She was to pour oil from her little container of oil into as many vessels as she could find. The oil did not run out until she ran out of vessels to pour it in.

4. Jesus feeding the 5000- Matthew 14:13-21 Not only were over 5000 people fed, but 12 baskets were left over. Twelve is the number of government and what is the government of God? His Kingdom

5. Jesus feeding the 4000 men besides women and children- Matthew 15:32-39 This time over 7 large baskets remained.

The extra oil, the extra bread, and fishes were from the kingdom of God. We can look at our world today and say there are Christians starving to death in other lands. Don't you think we may have to go through difficult times? We may, but I cannot base my faith on what I see, but on the "rhema" word of God. My focus cannot be on lack, but on Him who is my source, the God who calls those things that be not as though they are. When He says they are, then they no longer be not. He said let there be and it was. We cannot let the external reality shape our internal reality. The Kingdom of God is within you and the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit and is not in word, but power. Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world. If we operate out of kingdom reality we will impact the external reality. Be encouraged; the coffers of heaven are not diminished. The God who spoke the worlds into existence is your Daddy and He delights to give you that which is better than any stimulus package. It is His good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

May the Lord supply your need according to His riches.
In His love,
Herb Dean