We all need sources
We all need sources in our lives. A source is supplier of something that we can not produce on our own. For example, in your house, if you want to be warm during the winter, you need a source of energy. Fortunately, most of us have access to gas to run our heaters. That gas line coming into your house is one of your sources. Most of us also have sources for water and electrical power services.
Having access to all these sources enhances our lives making them enjoyable, fulfilling and productive. But what happens when any of our sources are interrupted or disconnected? One time while I was living in Corozal Town, Belize a passing truck pulled down the electrical wires to the house I was living in. It was not till the next day that our electricity was restored. Thus, we can see that when there is a disconnection in our sources life becomes more difficult. We have to do things manually usually with less efficiency and less effectiveness, like washing our clothes by hand or taking a shower with cold water.
And this is why there is so much unrest, war, poverty and discontent in our world today. People have been discounted from their one true source that can fill every one of their needs, wants and desires. God, the creator of the universe, is our one true source. He revealed himself to Abraham as El-Shaddai, the all sufficient one. He is our ultimate source for all our physical and spiritual and emotional needs. That is the way he always meant it to be.
When God created man, he placed him in a garden where all of his needs were taken care of. He was setting up his kingdom on the earth. He gave man dominion over the earth and his blessing, an empowerment to subdue and fill up the earth. But due to disobedience, man lost his dominion and Satan established his own kingdom on the earth. Adam also lost his blessing. Thus mankind became cut off from God, his creator, his Lord and his source.
But God would not be deterred. He began working to redeem mankind to bring him back into a right relationship with him and resume being his source. And the day finally came when God sent his son into the world to show us what the Father and his kingdom are like, to pay the penalty for our sins so that we could share in God’s life, his eternal life and experience an abundant and overflowing life.
When we receive the Lord Jesus and his gift of eternal life then we are able to tap into the resources of God. Jesus himself is our source, as he explains in John 15:
I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you. “In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.” John 15:5-8
Our Lord Jesus is the source for every thing that we need. Our job is to stay connected to him. Thus seeking things should not be the focus of our lives. The Bible teaches us:
…God… is a rewarder of those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6
And Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:
“Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:31-33
The Lord Jesus is our source. And those of us who have received him have him living in side of us. He goes with us where ever we go; he never leaves us or forsakes us. And greater is he who is within us than those who are in the world (1 John 4:4)
So then how do we apply the truth that Jesus is our source to our lives? Let’s look at an example of an appliance that your have in your house, such as a gas stove. Now when we want to cook something, most of us do not go out side and gather pieces of fire wood and lay it on top of the stove and light it with a match. No we just turn a knob and immediately gas begins to flow to the burner that we can light with a match. The stove is connected to a valve and that valve is already connected to the source of gas. But if that valve is turned off; then no gas flows into the stove. And that is the problem with our connection to the Lord Jesus who is our source: the valve is off. The Father has already made his provision available to us. Paul tells us in Romans 8:
He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? Romans 8:32
But our disobedience and our lack of knowledge keeps us from receiving what has been made available for us. How then do we turn on our connection to our source? First by recognizing and living according our position as believers and secondly by bring our lives into obedience to the principles of God’s kingdom.
What is our position as believers? We should recognize that:
- We have a relationship the Father and the Son. Thus we are never alone; we are never without hope.
- The Lord Jesus wants to live his life through us; what he did when he was on the earth he wants to continue though you and me
- We have God’s Holy Spirit as our helper and guide
- That we are blessed – empowered to prosper just as Abraham was blessed by God:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus… Galatians 3:13, 14
- We have access to all that God has promised us through faith in his word
- We can be confident no matter what circumstances we encounter; our task is to believe and obey while the results come from God
When you have God as your source you can live your life from free from care, free from feeling dependent on others because others are not your source. If some one promises to do something for you but they fail to do it, that is OK. They are not your source. This is liberating.
What then are the areas that we must obey the Lord to begin living the abundant, overflowing life he has for us?
1. Mediating on God’s word
First we must be obedient to his command to mediate on the word of God. God’s thoughts and ways are not our ways. But they can be as we renew our minds by meditating on God’s word. The Lord commanded Joshua:
This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate thereon day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. Joshua 1:8
The word is our source handbook. It tells us how to live in order to have God as our source. We need to let the word transform us. It needs to transform our thoughts. We are judge by the thoughts and intents of our heart. This explains why we don’t always receive what we pray for. We have the wrong thoughts and motives. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. But the Bible teaches us to take our thoughts captive:
[We are] throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ… 2 Corinthians 10:5
Let me give you an example of how you can take control your thoughts. When others mistreat us, we often harbor thoughts of ill will and desire to hurt them back. But these thoughts and feelings, while natural, are contrary to God’s will. He wants us to love those who mistreat us and do good to them. As long as we maintain thoughts of paying them back we block the flow of God’s provision into our lives. But when we understand that we do not have to go by our feelings, that God is just and he is our source of vindication. Then we can resist those thoughts by first repenting of them. And if they arise in our minds again we remind ourselves that those thoughts are not our thought as Paul said in Philippians 4:8 are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, admirable, excellence and worthy of praise.
In addition to our thoughts we need to let God’s word transform how we speak. The Bible teaches us that we get what we confess.
Jesus answering said to them, “Have faith in God. For most assuredly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening; he shall have whatever he says. Mark 11:22-23
If we are always speaking about our circumstances and not about our confidence in God our circumstances will not changes. Rather, we need to learn to speak the word of God over our circumstances.
And we need to let the word transform our behavior. The Apostle James tells us:
But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves…But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22, 25
And we accomplish these transformations not just by reading the word but by meditating on it. When we meditate on a passage of scripture, we ponder it meaning, repeat it to ourselves while emphasizing, weighing and considering different portions of it. Through meditation the word speaks to us and makes its impression with in our hearts.
2. Developing our Faith
Thus we can be transformed as we mediate on the word which then helps us to develop in the next area which is living by faith. Faith is our confidence in God that he will do what he promised. Paul said in Romans 1:16, “The righteous will live by faith.” Faith is the lifestyle of the believer. And faith comes as we continue hearing God’s word.
Faith is different than mental assent because when a person has faith then he is willing to act in accordance with what he believes. These are corresponding actions. James tells us that faith without corresponding actions is dead (James 2:17). And this is what we see in Genesis 22 when God tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Now the Lord had already told Abraham in Genesis 15 that he would have a son and in Genesis 17 God told Abraham that he would be a father of many nations. So when God spoke to Abraham saying, take your son and sacrifice him as a burnt offering, Abraham obeyed. How could he do that with his one and only son? It was because he never once doubted the promises God had made to him. Over the years he had come to know that God and his word was faithful. Thus, he had no concern about performing the sacrifice that God had requested.
Back in 2005 Dora and I met down in Esquel where she was living and we became engaged. I was still living in Central America in the country of Belize. Our plan was for Dora to come and join me in Belize where we would be married. Now Dora did not just believe that we would be married; she acted on that belief. What did she do? She resigned from her job as a teacher, she pack her belongs, applied for a visa, purchased an plane ticket and then travel to Buenos Aires where she boarded a plane to Central America. Thus she acted on her belief. If she had stay in Esquel and did not make any preparations then her faith would have been worthless because she did not act on what she believed. And she would still be single today.
In the same manner we can apply the promises of God’s word to our lives. We are able to believe and act on the word as we allow it to fill out hearts and minds. For what is in abundance in our hearts is what we believe. So it is a good practice then not to stay around people who are always talking unbelief and doubt.
And how do we develop our faith? Start by trusting God for the small things in your life. And as you are successful in receiving from the Lord then you can move on to trusting God for greater and greater things in your life.
3. Hearing the Voice of the Lord
And as we obedient in developing our faith we are able to grow in our ability to receive guidance from the Lord through the Holy Spirit. As we read through the Bible we often see God speaking to his people. And it is no different today. God is still speaking to us, but often we are not listening. Jesus told his disciples in John 10, “My sheep hear my voice”. But most of the time we are not listening; we are not expecting the Lord to speak to us. Rather, we ought to expect him to speak. Therefore we need to take time each day to wait quietly in his presence, listening for what he has to say to us. The Lord has instructions and assignments for us. This is important because when we listen to and obey the voice of the Lord, then he will tell us where our provision can be found.
Look at the example of Elijah in 1 Kings 17. There was a famine in the land and the Lord told Elijah to go to the Kerith Ravine. God said: “It shall be, that you shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 1 Kings 17:4. If Elijah had gone to another place, he would have starved because the ravens were only instructed to bring him food at that one location. When the Lord gives us a specific instruction, we have to act on it by faith if we want to receive the blessing the Lord has waiting for us.
Then in 1 Kings 17:7 it says that the brook in the ravine dried up. What do we do when one of our sources runs dry? Listen again for instruction from the Lord. The Lord is not taken by surprise by such circumstances; he already has made provision for us. It goes on to say in 1 Kings 17:
The word of the LORD came to him, saying, Arise, get you to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you. 1 Kings 17:8, 9
4. Learning to not be governed by what we see
Thus by listening to and obeying the voice of the Lord then are able to develop in the next area which is learning to not be governed by what we see. You see we are too often discourage and defeated by our circumstances. Think of the times when we faced discouragement:
- When we lost a job
- When we were reject by someone we loved
- When we suffered loss of health
- When we suffered an accident or financial loss
In these situations we often feel discourage or hopeless. But here is good news for those who are discouraged and anxious about their circumstances: you do not have to be governed by what you see. There is another reality beyond this one; one that is governed by faith. Instead of going by what we see, we go by the word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Earlier in my life I went through many struggled because I was never taught this. I went through rejections, setback, obstacles and losses. I was often defeated and depressed. Why? Because I thought I had to be governed by what I saw. Then I discovered that there was a way to deal with my circumstances. Jesus said in John 16:
…In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world. John 16:33
The truth is that we have spiritual resource available to us that enable us to be more than conquers. We have God’s blessing. We have the promises of his word that we access by faith. And we have the leading of God’s Spirit. God loves us and he has a great future for us. What is important is not what the world says but what the Lord says. And what he says about our circumstances will prevail if we stick to it with faith and patience as the writer of Hebrews tells us:
We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end, that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises. Hebrews 6:11, 12
We do not have to inherit what our circumstances dictate, but what God says about our future. What does his word say about this?
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end. Jeremiah 29:11
Rather than worry about our circumstances we do what Peter tells in 1 Peter 5:
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6, 7
Since we have make God our source we do not have to hold on to our cares. We give our cares to him and let him worry about them. We learn to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.
That is what we can expect when we make God our source. Back before I met Dora in 2004 I began forming an image in my mind of the woman of would marry. I would see us doing things together like riding our bicycles around town. And I had some scriptures that I based my faith on including Proverbs 18:22: “Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of the LORD.” And by the end of 2004 Dora and I met each other over the internet.
5. Resisting the Impulses of the Flesh
Thus, we no longer have to settle for the circumstances that we see; God has given us the power to change our circumstances. And this helps us in the next area which is resisting the impulses of our old sin nature, the flesh, that controlled us before we received God’s gift of eternal life. The Apostle Paul talks about the flesh Galatians 5. Here he lists the works of the flesh and the way we overcome it:
Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit. Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another. Galatians 5:24-26
We recognize that our old sin nature is dead. It not longer has any power over us. But we have a choice. We can follow our old nature or we can follow the new nature God has given us by obeying the leading of God’s Spirit. It is not difficult. If you are meditating on God’s word each day then your spirit will be strong in times when your flesh comes under pressure. If you recognize that Jesus is always with you that he sees everything that you do and that the encouragement and guidance of the God’s Spirit is always available then why would you every want to disappoint the Lord. As long as we maintain our connection to the Lord we will have the encouragement and the guidance of God’s Spirit to help us. And if we are obeying the word and the Spirit, then we are placing ourselves in a position for God to be our source of strength, provision and guidance.
6. Speaking to our Circumstances
Once we learn to recognize the impulses of our flesh and resist them then we can go on to how to leaning how to speak to our circumstances. We understand now that we do not have to be governed by our circumstances. And we mentioned earlier that we should be speaking the word because we get what we say. This is a law the Jesus told us about, the law of confession. He said in Luke 17:
The Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would tell this sycamore tree, ‘Be uprooted, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. Luke 17:6
How then does this law work? When we are suffering lack or dealing with a challenges and obstacles we often focus on the negative and speak the problem. But when you understand the law of confession, when problems come we turn to God’s word and see what it says about our situation and then we start confessing and speaking and expecting what the word says. We keep confessing what we desire instead of what we see and one day our circumstances will change.
7. Walking in Love
And now because of all that we have been able to put into practice: meditating on the word, developing our faith, taking time to listen to the voice of the Lord, not being governed by our circumstances or the impulse of the flesh and leaning to speak to our circumstances then we discover that we have a new freedom and a new capacity to love others and to love them as Christ has loved us as Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 1:
For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:7
God’s love working in our lives causes us to move beyond our own concerns into the area of ministering to the needs of others. And that is what love is: recognizing and taking care of the needs of others unconditionally.
The Lord places so much importance on loving others that he made it his command as he told us in John 13. And remember what Jesus said were the first and second greatest commands of God are: Love God. And love your neighbor as yourself. When we have done these we have fulfilled God’s law. And the scripture shows that when we are obeying his commands, God takes care of our needs:
Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God; and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. 1 John 3:21, 22
And our faith, Paul tells us in Galatians 5:6 works by love. So if our faith is not working, then we need to improve our love walk. Thus it is important to keep strife out of our lives. What is strife? It is pressure or resistance to keep from cooperating with others. If we are holding things against our fellow Christians or if we feel we are in competition with others so that we can prove our superiority over them then we, according the Apostle Paul, are nothing.
8. Giving generosity as the Lord directs us
And finally, that last area we need to develop in our lives to fully make God our source is learning to give generosity as the Lord directs us. While the world’s economy is based on buy and selling, God’s economy is based on sowing and reaping. We sow a seed and later on we receive a harvest from that seed. Jesus said,
Most assuredly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24
Why is giving important? It is important for us to realize that money and possessions are not an end in them selves. They are tools that we can use to bless others to produce fruit that brings glory to God. But we can not produce fruit when we are holding tightly our money and possessions. If we can part with those items that we consider of greatest value then God knows that we can be trusted with his true riches. Through giving we emulate God’s own character when he gave of very best to redeem mankind.
If we want to experience God as our source then we will be ready to sow when the Lord directs us to give of our finances, possessions or time. The Apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians:
Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart; not grudgingly, or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8
Yet often we are reluctant to give because we are need conscience. We think, ‘I do not have much, so I need to keep what I have for my own needs’. Instead we should be seed conscience: we recognize what we have is our seed and by sowing in the manner that God directs then that seed will bring us a harvest that will take care of our needs. This is the life-style of those who acknowledge that God is their source. They do not depend on others to give to them; they live by their own giving. And we can do the same because God provides seed to the sow. Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 9:10
Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness. 2 Corinthians 9:10
If we are sowers, then God will provide us seed. Then it is up to us to obey God when he tells us to sow. So, let us not be weary in doing good, as Paul says in Galatians 6:9, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up.
If we are persistent in developing our capacity in all these areas I guarantee that we will grow in our spiritual lives, in our ministries, in our relationships and in our resources. We will be able to accomplish feats that we never thought were possible. We can as we dedicate ourselves to living according to the principles of God’s kingdom and making him our source.
Copyright © 2009-2011 by Alan Pasho. All rights reserved.
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