Deposits

On January 7, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Ephesians 3: 16        NLT

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.

As you can tell, I am still hanging out in Ephesians. It is such a rich book that I sometimes hardly get past one verse before I have to stop and contemplate. When Paul stopped and considered all the great works of God’s hands, he fell to his knees and prayed. Undoubtedly, he praised God for all the glorious things He has done. That isn’t all though. Paul’s pastor’s heart shows here. All that awe and wonder turned into a prayer for the people Paul served. Paul prayed an intense prayer. This is my prayer for you today.

We cannot fathom the quantity of glory and resources God has. It boggles the imagination even trying. Take that imagination, that image, however you see it and try to picture God filling you with it. Imagine His might filling you, making you strong in your inner self. Paul asked for God’s Holy Spirit to flow into people and leave, within them, deposits of God’s glory and His ability. I cannot even imagine what resources Paul might have been thinking about but God’s wisdom, patience, insightfulness, and resilience might be some of the resources the Holy Spirit has for us.

The question is, what do we need? God has a resource for every need. I pray Paul’s prayer, that the Holy Spirit will fill you with every glorified resource you need for your life. I also pray that He gives you a new and bigger dream so that you need to pull on those resources more and more. May the God of Glory, the Son of Righteousness and the Spirit of Life shine on you today and leave deposits of their essence in your spirit. Amen.

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Runneth Over

On March 3, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 23: 5 – 6

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life, and my dwelling will be in the house of the Lord forever.

Many of you have considered the 23rd Psalm in depth so I don’t want to retrace the same thoughts. None the less, this psalm is popular for good reason. It is packed with good news about our standing with God. I mean, how confident in God’s protection and provision must one be to sit down and have dinner in the midst of enemies?

I really wish, today, to focus on poverty. You can define and categorize poverty as fits your situation. When David wrote about the cup overflowing that means overflowing with friends, finances, health, etc. So, where do you need overflowing provision? It is right here in this psalm.

The language about the overflowing cup stood out to me but so did the idea that goodness and faithfulness are to follow us every day of our lives, every day! How can we be impoverished with those two following along with us daily? The reason these two parts stand out to me is because much of the church likes to enshrine poverty. We even pretend that Jesus was broke which just isn’t true. His garments were so fine that the soldiers gambled over them. You don’t do that over rags. But also, if Father God treated David so magnanimously, would He really let Jesus go around broke and destitute? I mean, really? David’s cup overflowed but Jesus was broke? I don’t buy it.

Sometimes we, church people, put such a high value on poverty that we say we are suffering for Christ or make up other such excuses. It is hard to bless God’s kids when you’re busy being broke. And Lord forbid we actually cause the cups of our pastors to overflow.

I think we need a shake-up from the neck up. We need to revise our thinking and revamp our vision of Christianity. We need to change our image of who God is and what He wants for us. He isn’t destitute so why should His kids be? Cups running over in every area of life, that is a vision I can sink my faith into.

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Being Blessed

On July 20, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 20: 25

And they were three days taking the spoil because there was so much.

For those of you who have been reading the Word of the Day for a while, you know this story from 2 Chronicles is one of my favorites. It shows how God works in our lives as well as showing what our part of the dynamic is. (Go to our website, https://iveyministries.org and select the daily devotional tab. From there you can search 2 Chronicles 20 and read other messages taken from this moving passage.) This chapter is a classic teaching on spiritual warfare but today I want you to see something different. We can see God’s economy working here too.

I understand when I write about us living in God’s economy rather than the world’s it is challenging to put practical legs on it. It seems so nebulous, so farfetched. I agree. It’s hard to wrap your head around God being your source when all you see is a job or a paycheck. We have been trained to work for an income but God is telling us to believe for our income. Use your paycheck as seed and your faith for your income. That is just a little hard for most of us to understand. Here, in 2 Chronicles, we get to see a practical application of God’s economy.

Back in the day, the armies went out to fight and “to the winner went the spoils” of war. In this passage from 2 Chronicles, though, no one drew their sword. Three different nations gathered together against Judah and yet not one soldier fought. King Jehoshaphat had people standing upon the ridge singing and playing their instruments as if there were not three armies ready to annihilate them. Can you picture that. Instead of sharpening their swords or setting an ambush, these guys had a sing-a-long. Not one of them fought, not one of them died and yet they ended up with the spoils of war. There was so much booty that it took them three days to haul it off. What does this say to us about God’s economy? They certainly did not work for it. One can hardly say they were the victors of battle. None the less, they walked away with a bounty.

This is one example of how God can bless your pocketbook. I am not suggesting He is going to slay three armies for you but certainly you have your own situations. He has all kinds of ways figured out to get resources into your hands without you having to earn them. The key, in this case and in our lives, is following His direction. Judah listened to the voice of the Lord and then did what He told them to do. That is the entire secret. We only have to do whatever He says, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, and He will prosper us. So, if you wanted to know the secret, now you do.

Be blessed in all you do. Let God increase you. He is our source and the master of our increase. Set your heart and mind on following this example. Embrace the idea that God can make material goods come into your hands from any source. He is your provision, your job is not. He will make His enemies pour their gold into your hands. Believe it and it is yours.

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Done and Done

On July 3, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

1 Corinthians 2: 9

Just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND WHICH HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

The part of this verse which really grabbed me was that God has already prepared things for us. The verse does not say that once we pray, God will prepare these things which are beyond what eye has seen and ear has heard. It says that He already has prepared all these things for us. That is a pretty big revelation. This substance, these things which God has already prepared for us is beyond what has ever entered our hearts. That is the second part of the revelation, that God has already created things for you that you currently don’t even know you want.

Ephesians 3: 20 says that God is able to do for us beyond all we can think or ask. Before we have even dreamed up the next idea or want, He has already created and stocked it for us. He has already prepared things which are beyond our ability to dream or think. So, ten years ago, for instance, or 20 years ago, God prepared the things that you want and need today. I hope this is a revelation which is sinking in. Take it a step further though.

He has already prepared things for you which no human eye has ever seen, which no human ear has ever heard and which no human heart or mind has ever conceived. There will come a day when an idea, concept or dream will drop into your mind. That idea will require resources. That dream will be an expansion of your former thoughts. Where does it come from? Perhaps God is the source of these ideas and dreams and before they are ever perceived, God is already at work providing the means by which they can and will be realized.

If God has already stocked the storehouse, if He has already prepared the resources, then the only question is, how do you requisition the materials. I believe the answer begins right here. We must first apprehend this simple appreciation of God’s provision. We need to allow this revelation to take root in our hearts so that we know and believe that all we need has already been prepared. This is the beginning of living those dreams.

God has great plans for your tomorrow and your today. He is giving you hopes and ambitions and He has already laid aside the substance of those dreams so that you make walk in success and enjoy all the good things He has prepared for you.

Will knowing this verse change your prayer life? Will it alter the conversation you have with God? Will your prayer ask God to provide when the Bible is telling us He already has or will your begin to look more for distribution than manufacturing? Tomorrow can look very different today because now you know He has already provided.

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