Nothing is too hard for God!

Genesis 18:14 “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Whatever limitations you’ve placed on yourself and others because of your current circumstances and life experiences, they are powerless to deny the truth of God’s nature and power. Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was 90 years old when they conceived God’s promised child, Isaac. This event is an historical fact that was the byproduct of faith in God’s promise. Faith calls those things that are not as if they already were and moves boldly towards God’s promise with assurance and conviction. God’s character is perpetually oriented towards goodness and his power to break natural law knows no boundary. Stop putting a full stop on God’s conversation with you and your situation. It’s not over till God says it’s over. God loves you, is with you and wants the very best for you. By faith, come into agreement with God’s promises over your life and prepare yourself to soon share another testimony of God’s faithfulness to you. Nothing is too hard for God. Selah!

Think Another Thought!

Philippians 4:8 “… think on these things.”

As you think, so you are! What you focus your mind upon determines who you ultimately become. I think we have under-estimated how pivotal our thinking is to our quality of life and contribution to the world around us.

Fleeting thoughts that are out of alignment with the truth of God’s Word can too easily become a mindset that negatively affects our lives. A stronghold is a mindset, embedded in our un-conscious mind that is based on anti-truth and needs to be broken by the power of God’s Word.

If all of your thinking has brought you to a place you don’t like, have another thought.

Having thoughts in your head that don’t take you anywhere, aren’t of God. We have to confront negative patterns of thinking because they are not going to go away all by themselves. We have to decide to think another thought and then feed our minds God’s thoughts that will reprogram the way we live our lives.

We have to make our mind up about our story. Transformation after the new birth is primarily through the renewal of our mind. Our mind’s didn’t get saved when we were born again, our spirits did. After the new birth our minds are still conformed to the pattern of this world and needs to be reprogrammed to God’s way of thinking. His thoughts aren’t our thoughts and his ways aren’t our ways (Isa 55:8-9).

What are you feeding your mind? What thoughts are constantly traveling through your head? What are you permitting in your personal world? Are you discerning and intentional about what thoughts you tolerate or do you just leave the gate of your mind open to any fleeting thought that comes your way?

It’s time to get another thought and think upon those things that will build you up and not tear you down.

The Oracle!

Power of God’s Word

Luke 5:4-6 “And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.’ And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.”

God always speaks on purpose – God doesn’t do random, he only ever does intentional. When Jesus spoke to Simon, he wasn’t suggesting something to do because he thought things were getting boring, teaching the crowd. Jesus asked Simon to do something because he not only wanted to bless him but give him a deeper understanding of Simon’s call. Scripture repeatedly shows us that God never wastes a word, he always speaks with purpose and intention.

Don’t let your past experience dictate your response to God’s Word – Simon was very quick to inform Jesus that he had toiled all night and not caught anything. After all, Simon was the expert, professional fisherman and Jesus was… well… Jesus. Too often, we hear God’s Word and let our personal experience dictate our response to it. Do we really think that God isn’t aware of what our past experience has been? When you let your past experience dictate your response to God, you get caught up in becoming a professional explainer of why that won’t work and this won’t work because supposedly you know better than God. When it comes to God’s word, we need to get over our training, logic and experience and:

Just Obey God’s Word – Simon ultimately responded to Jesus with, “But at your word I will let down the nets”. Just obey what God is asking you to do. What a novel idea. Develop the habit of reading or hearing what God’s saying and just do it. A revolution will start in your life when you act upon what God’s asking you to do.

Obedience is the key to fruitfulness – Simon obeyed and the haul of fish was so great, the nets were breaking under the weight of the catch. Simon had toiled all night and caught nothing but obeying one word from God changed everything. I remember asking God long ago what the secret to great fruitfulness in ministry was and he simply responded with “Obedience.” The prophet Samuel said to Saul, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams” (1 Sam 15:22).

Watching God’s Word in action will humble you – When Simon saw the results of his obedience, he and the other fisherman were astonished and very, very humbled. They realised that compared to Jesus, their expertise, pride and best efforts were as filthy rags. When God shows up in miraculous ways, it casts light on our doubt and unbelief and humbles our expert opinions. God always knows best.

Our obedience to God’s Word opens the door to our true calling – If Simon hadn’t have obeyed Jesus’ word, he wouldn’t have received a revelation of the call of God on his life to be ‘Catching men’ from that point on. Our obedience today positions us for our calling tomorrow. God sees our faithfulness in private and rewards us accordingly. What are you procrastinating on that God has asked you to do? Don’t delay any longer, obey God’s Word and watch the blessing of God follow your life.

Insight!