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Even in this time of fearful uncertainty, you can move forward, for it could be a time of lock – down in the world system, but God’s word is never chained! It is always and forever an unchained melody, that enables you to turn away from the sickness to the Savior, and from the problem to the promise of God. And the prayer of David is an apt supplication, that you and I can offer unto God, for His promise comes with a procedure, and an enabling that is of the Holy Spirit. Teach me to do your will, for You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground. [Psalm 143:10]
How God leads you forward can be seen beautifully displayed in the life of Isaac, even if it is a time when everything seems to be going backward in your life. For, it was a time of famine; but Isaac was divinely enabled to sow. And in your life and mine it is our lives that we sow, by employing our gifting in a manner in which God is glorified, that sees us blessed and fruitful. It happens all by His grace, an ability that can be yours even in a time of distress, as the apostle Paul testifies about the liberality of the Macedonian church in a time of affliction and poverty saying, For I bear witness that according to their ability, and even beyond their ability, they were freely willing. [2 Corinthians 8:3]
Grace gives you the strength not just to endure, but to endeavor, giving you the power to perform beyond your ability, beyond your limitations. It is what Paul highlights in his letter to the Ephesians, saying, Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly, beyond all that we can ask or think according to His power that works within us.. [Ephesians 3:20] ‘Beyond’ is the key word in the above verse too. And the promise of God has a procedure for it to be manifested in your life.
The power to perform beyond your ability:
The power or the divine enabling to perform beyond your ability, comes in you from knowing the nature of the God who makes it all possible. It is the truth that Isaiah sets forth with clarity, saying Have you not known? Have you not heard ? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak; And to those who have no might, He increases strength. [Isaiah 40:28,29] You hear news all around that is often not true; but it is the reality of life and truth that the prophet goes on to describe and address, saying, how even the youth can become weary, and young men can utterly fall. It is seen even now in the ravaging destruction of a virus that is seeing even the one who is young and sturdy physically falling prey to it.
But those:
Natural strength can often fail you. But when your trust and hope is in the Everlasting God who never grows weary, the sufficiency of His grace, will find His strength being made perfect even in your weakness. His power works in you, to see you soar beyond your natural ability. And it is what the word of God describes, as it paints in your mind’s eye the magnificent picture of an eagle, mounting up on it’s wings, But those who wait upon the Lord, will mount up on wings as an eagle; They will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint. [Isaiah 40:31]
What is waiting on the Lord?
It involves a process, as His power comes to you in a divine exchange, and a transformation takes place in you, by a renewal of your mind through God’s word. A renewal that is vitally important, for His thoughts are higher and greater; His plans for your life are astoundingly larger than what you may have envisioned for yourself. And above all, it is how His strength becomes yours in an exchange that lifts you up beyond your own limitations, to perform beyond your ability. For the strength of God is way beyond yours and mine. He never grows tired. And it is this strength of the Everlasting God that becomes yours. Your strength maybe limited. But it cannot be said so about God’s. It is why, however big the plan that God has for your life is, you can do it all through Christ who strengthens you. It is why therefore, even as you wait upon the Lord, who never grows tired, you too will not grow tired. Rather, you will mount up on wings like an eagle in His strength, fulfilling His call upon your life, that He may be glorified.
It can be seen portrayed in the life of the prophet Elijah, even as he lay tired and discouraged under the broom tree wanting to die. But God who never grows tired, and never gives up on you, stooped down in love, to carry him out of his weariness, and point him towards his godly destiny, strengthening him to run in it, beyond his own human limitations. For after partaking of the bread and water, that the Angel of the Lord set before him, to then rest his tired flesh, Elijah awoke to the call of God upon him, the long distance that still lay ahead in it’s path. And he ran for forty days and forty nights, in the strength of God that came upon him then. It was also not merely his own human energy, that carried him to accomplish something far beyond his ability, as he sowed his life in the path of accomplishing God’s plan and purposes for it to be a blessing to him and to the God’s chosen people.
And to Elijah it was bread and water that refreshed him to set forth in the strength of God, His energy working powerfully within him, over and beyond his own human limitations. Today in your life and mine, the strength of the Everlasting God who never grows weary, comes even as He blesses the food and water that is set before us. And it is in His strength that you and I can mount up on wings as an eagle, renewed and empowered, to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint, which in human reality what could very well be much beyond your ability. It is His power that empowers you.
His word gives supernatural strength, as it was in the life of Elijah. And God’s word is also supernatural and miraculous life, that works in you to do what is beyond your limitations. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. [Deuteronomy 8:18] and it was the word from the mouth of the Eternal word, that brought Lazarus out of the limitation of death and grave clothes, that kept him bound and lifeless, to abound in life, one that was certainly beyond his ability. It was God who made it all possible according to His power that worked within him, to bring life out of death.
In the area of finance too, sowing beyond your ability, by the grace of God, His blessing upon you, is a truth that can never be challenged. And David’s humble acknowledgement of it yields rich lessons that can shape and mold your thinking, to renew your mind, that you too may make it your life’s experience.
‘Who am I, O Lord..’:
David never lost sight of the fact that he was but a shepherd boy when the mercy of God found him, to be by His grace lifted up to reign over His people. And the end of his life found him being able to offer to God towards the building of His temple, a great quantity of gold and all else that was needed for the construction of it, together with the people who also gave willingly and of their own accord. He acknowledged the loving care of God upon them all, that received from Him, to be able to give, saying, ‘Who am I, and who are your people O God, that we should be able to offer willingly as this?’ [1 Chronicles 29:14] It is when you have, that you can give.
And David knew that what he and his people had in their hands, to be able to give willingly, was all by the grace of God. So it is in your life and mine. It could be the riches of a godly inheritance, or a gifting or talent that can be profitably employed in order to gain wealth to be able to give. Since you are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, the good works that you need to walk in have already been prepared. [Ephesians 2:10] Therefore, however gloomy the present economic scenario may appear, God is more than able to give you right opportunities in order to earn that you may also give. It is He who opens the storehouse of heavens to give you enough that you may lend to many nations and not borrow. [Deuteronomy 8:17]
It is a very vital truth when it comes to sowing your life, according to, and even beyond your ability by the grace of God. For, sticking to the plan and purpose of God, is what will see the work of your hand prosper. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders toil in vain, and unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain. And it is here once again that the life of David is an example of transformation. The world speaks of people who have moved from ‘rags to riches’. But in the case of David there was a godly difference, that needs to be what defines your life too.
From rags to righteousness!:
David rose from being a shepherd boy to a ruling monarch; and he knew very well that it was all because of God’s grace, His righteousness, that he was in a position to give to the Lord, what he had also received so generously from Him. And why was it so ? It was because all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags. And what can take you to a position of being able to sow beyond your ability is when an exchange takes place within you of God’s idea instead of your own good idea, of God working in you, instead of depending on your own work and own self effort. It is what will see you move from a place of self centered limitedness, to an abundant unlimitedness that becomes yours by the grace of God working in you.
The promise of grace:
And it is the grace of God through which it all becomes possible in your life, as you are led step by step in it’s empowering and enabling to sow for the glory of God, even beyond your ability. And even as the bible declares about the life of David, it is not an overnight process but a continual one, little by little being led in the upward call of God in the Spirit’s empowering. So David went on and became great, and the Lord of Hosts was with him. [2 Samuel 5:10] The promise of God to Abraham, in giving to him the land of Canaan, came to pass in the time of David. And even the Messiah’s coming was foretold by the prophets from then on, as the birth of the Son of David.
And David’s humble acknowledgement, ‘Who am I, Lord’, captures the essence of it all. For, he was tending his father’s sheep faithfully, as the Lord lifted him up from the sheepfolds, to ultimately guide His people, skillfully with integrity of heart. [Psalm 78] Nothing misses the eye of the Father, even your faithfulness in small things, while you are hidden from the eyes of other people. David was playing the harp, as he was tending the sheep. And it was what proved to be his entry point into the king’s palace, to move then from being a musician, be the armor bearer for the king, and rise to be an army officer. From a harp player to becoming an army officer is how the grace of God worked in David’s life, beyond his human ability, to take him to the place God wanted him to be, in order to be blessed in fulfilling God’s wish and plan for his life, to establish the preparation for building of the temple of God, by his son, Solomon.
It is what God can do in your life and mine too, as we lay aside our self made plans, to receive from Him, something that may seem initially way beyond our ability, to indeed make us say in awe, ‘Who am I Lord?’, at the end of it all, in awestruck gratitude. The sure mercies of David are God’s covenant promise to the no who takes up His invitation, no matter what your situation is in the midst of the economic crisis right now. The God who has blessed you with a gifting and talent will surely as you incline your ears to draw near to Him, to heed His voice, will surely open doors miraculously, unveiling opportunities that will see you prosper beyond your ability, as you offer your life to be a living offering, holy and acceptable unto Him.
HIS invitation that empowers you:
Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and buy milk; Without money and without price. Why do you spend your money on what is not bread And your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good; And let your soul delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me, Hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. [Isaiah 55:1-3] May it be your blessed experience in life, as in a covenant relationship with the Everlasting God, who never grows weary or tired, His strength comes to you, that you may be energized and empowered to thrive and abound beyond your ability.
The Lord has promised good to you; His word your hope secures; He will your shield and portion be, As long as life endures. And may His amazing grace set you free from your chains of limitations that pulls you down, to see you soar high on eagle’s wings, in the power and unlimitedness of the unlimited God, that you may run and not be weary, walk and not be faint, but be blessed instead, to be fulfilled and satisfied in life, and be a blessing in the lives of others, not merely according to your ability, but beyond your ability.
In the Name of Christ Jesus Amen.
