Why Some Christians Never See God Move in Their Lives (And How to Fix It)

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Success by the Book Podcast, the place where Christians who want to experience the extravagant goodness of God in all areas of their lives come from mentorship. I am your host, Dr. Una, and I'll be unpacking the secrets I have learned from the Word of God over the last two decades. Let's dive in. So can you limit God? You may think this is a little like heresy, like He's a sovereign God. Of course, you can't limit him, but you can, but hear me out, okay? And remember, this is a success by the book podcast. It's not about my opinions. And so if you cannot see it in the Word of God as we go through these scriptures, you can absolutely throw it away. But if you do see it, I want you to pay attention to it, okay? So when did I first learn about this? This was a long time ago. I was in medical school. So this was, you know, like um the early, the late 90s. Um, I was in medical school at the time. And I remember I had just started learning about, you know, giving to sponsor the work of God and trusting God for a harvest and things like that. Okay. And so I had started giving. And I said, oh, like, what's the hundredfold of that? You know, the Bible says give and it'll be given back to you, good measure, measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. And so I'm like, oh, what you know, what's the return on that and all of that? And I remember waiting for somebody to knock on my door and say, Oh, you know, God told me to give you this and all of that stuff. Okay. So this is, I don't know, 20, 24, 25 years ago. And I remember waiting, and I would wait in anticipation. Who's gonna knock on my door? It's so silly thinking about it now. And, you know, nobody would knock on my door. But then I got this idea, okay. And this was okay, so this is late 90s in Nigeria, so this is a long time ago. And I remember I got this idea, like, you know what, there are a lot of students here, and the students like to be the coolest, right? And then back in those days, we had like regular notebooks, not fancy, no designs, nothing, just a regular functional notebook. And I had this idea, and it was like, you know, you have an you have an aunt who lives like in a complete, like almost like the the capital city of the country, and you know, over there you can get these fancy journals, and this is a prime market. Every student will want it because they get to be cool. So why don't you call her, have her get you a batch, send it over, sell it, make your profit, and all of that. To me, I'm going like, oh, that's just an idea. But I didn't do anything with the idea, right? Oh, I have to call my auntie, then she needs to ship it, then what if that? What if that? So I never did anything with it. And day by day, I kept getting more and more disappointed that nobody knocked on my door to give me all this money because I had started giving. And so fast forward a whole year later, God is very patient, a whole year later, there was this fancy upscale supermarket type place that opened up in the city where my school was. And guess one of the things that they, you know, one of the things they had in stock, these same fancy journals that a year ago I had the opportunity of getting. And I'm telling you, these things were flying off the shelves. Everybody in school had to have one because they had to be cool. And when I saw that, it dawned on me what happened. That idea was God's answer to the harvest I was waiting for. Like I was trusting that I would be this person who funds his missions and all of those things. And, you know, according to the scriptures, I would get a return and all of that. His return is not raining money from heaven or doing anything like that. It's literally ideas he gives us to act on, like things like that. And so it dawned on me how much money I gave up. It dawned on me that God was faithful and he gave me the harvest, but I limited him. He wanted to show up in my life and he wanted to bring all this, you know, all these resources to me, but I limited what he wanted to do in my life. Now I can't limit him like what he wants to do with the universe and all of those things, but in my life, in my the where my sphere of influence, I can stop him, and I did. And I did because I didn't realize that I am called to be in partnership with him. There is a part he will do, and there's a part I will do. So I had this thing of, won't he do it? And he didn't because he did. You see what I'm saying? So you can limit him. So the question becomes how many of things, how many things has he tried to get into our lives? Whether because of disobedience or, you know, like in my case, because of ignorance and things like that, we just let those things go. But that's gonna end today because you're gonna get a real concept for this and you're gonna realize I am in partnership with God. I'm in partnership with God. And the way a partnership works is he's gonna do his part, I'm gonna do my part. He's always faithful to do his part. The variable is me, not him, right? And so the better I get at engaging my partnership with him, the better everything is. I could have been a very, I could have been a wealthy student. But, you know, I crushed it because I didn't know. Okay. All right. So what I want to do is I want to play a few scenarios and then we're gonna read some scriptures. Okay. I'm gonna tell you a few stories from the Bible to show you that yes, you can limit him. All right. So the first story we're gonna look at is the story of David and Goliath, very popular story. You can find in 1 Samuel chapter 17, one of my favorite stories of all time. Now, so the Philistine army came to fight the Israel, the Israelite army. And when they came, you know, Goliath, who's a giant, they say nine feet nine inches tall, just showed up and said, Hey, we don't we don't all need to fight. Like I'm the champion from from the the Philistine nation. You bring a champion from you know your nation, let us fight. And whoever wins wins, right? And so they he did this, he taunted them for 40 days. They would come out, um, hear Goliath talk, and they'll all run away and all of that, right? Now, after a while, here comes David. David was not part of the army. David was sent by his father to deliver food, okay? He he came to deliver food, find out how his brothers are doing, and go report back to his dad. So he comes there and he hears Goliath do this stuff, and he's like, Who who is this uncircumcised Philistine to defy the armies of the living God? Like, who is this person, right? And he says, Nobody should worry about him, I will go fight him. The king tells him, Don't be ridiculous. You can't possibly fight him and win. And then he starts telling him, you know, I I you know, I I I I killed a lion, I killed a bear, and the God who helped me do that will help me do this too. So eventually he fights, he wins, and Israel wanna won the Philistines. My question to you is this where was God when the Israelites were running away? Where was God when for 40 days the you know Goliath came and was taunting them and defying God's name and all of that? Like, where was he? He was right where he was when David showed up. He was in the same spot, he was ready, but there was nobody to partner with him. The people who were supposed to partner with him ran away. And the second somebody who was willing to partner with him showed up, they won the victory. So were they defeated, quote unquote, when before David showed up because of God? Is it that he wasn't willing? He was willing, he's always willing, but there was nobody. So, what did the Israelite army do? They limited him. They limited him. Okay, so that's one example. I want to give you another example. Um, you know, Moses, they had gone, they had come to the border of the promised land, the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. They've been walking the wilderness trying to get to this place, and then they send spies. They're like, go take a look, go take a look at the land, come back, give report, and then we're gonna go take over the land. So they go, they come back. And then ten people say, and so so the the spies show up, and most of them say, Oh, we got there, and God was right, it is a land that flows with milk and honey. It's amazing. We even brought some of the fruit from the land, so you can see it. Exciting. He's like, This is it's amazing. Then they said, But but we can't take it though. Uh, they're there giants there, and you know, like we were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and we were like in in their eyes, we were like grasshoppers too. We can't take it. They said that. But there were two people who said, Hush, guys, let us go up at once to take the land. We are well able to take it. These people are prey to us because God is with us. Now, same land, same place they went to, same fruit they saw. They both saw the giants. God had given the instruction, go take the land. So, what was going on? There were spies that were limiting God, and there were there were two others, Joshua and Caleb, who are like, let's go now. So, can we limit what God is trying to do? The answer to that is yes. Okay, all right. Now, that's a lot of storytelling, but let's look at a scripture here. So, this is Deuteronomy chapter two, verse 24. It is so beautiful how it demonstrates this partnership. Okay, so I am going to read it from the New International Version. It says, Set out now and cross the Arnon George. See, I have given into your hands past tense. I've already done this, I've already given this, I have given into your hands Siahan the Amorite, king of Heshburn and his country. I have given it to you. And there are many promises in the Bible where you'll see things that God is like, I have done, I have done, right? But when you also see what he said you should do, I want you to understand that for that thing to happen, God will do his part, but we have to do ours, or we will limit him. So he said, Set out now across the Arnold George. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his country. Now that's God's part. I have done this, I have given them to you. Then he tells them, he says, begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle. Okay. So I have given him to you. Basically, that means I've sent forces ahead of you, I'm guaranteeing the victory and all of that. Now your job is, you know, begin to take possession of it, engage him in battle. So the question is this if God says I've given to you, go engage him in battle, and you don't engage in battle, guess what happens? Nothing. Why? Because you just limited God. Okay. So as we think about this, what I want to invite you to do is I want you to decide to become this person who takes the limits off God. I know it may be a little much for you to go like, I can't possibly put limits on God. But this is the thing: God has made you so powerful. God made you his image after his likeness, he calls you his child, and he has given you the authority to allow or stop him, like in your life, like the goodness he wants to do and all like you can stop it. So the question I want you to walk away with today is where am I limiting God? Where am I limiting God? Where have I rolled over, played dead, and I'm just like, won't he do it? And I'm not willing to do anything. Where is it that I've left 100% of the responsibility of an outcome to God where God clearly said what He what He wants me to do? Right. And so I want you to think about it. I want you to run an audit. And I will say here, you know, when you're running audits on your life, especially when you're using the Word of God, you have options. Um, you can run audit as judgment or you can run it as observation. The idea behind this is not judgment at all, it's observation. So you can go like, huh? I guess I shouldn't do that anymore. That's it. There's no you're bad, you suck, you've wasted time. All day, it's none of that. That's Satan stuff. Like, let's not even go there. Okay. So this is like, huh, don't do this this way anymore. It doesn't help you. Okay, let's move on. Okay. So observe where have I limited him? Um, maybe you're a minister and you want to function in the power of God, but you don't have a prayer life, right? Like, see, those two, they don't go together. Maybe you're trusting God that, you know, financially you'll be stable and you know, wealthy and all of those kind of things. But there are things that he talks about. There's things he talks about, tithing, about giving, the things he talks about saving. Like the Bible says, wealth and luxury is in the house of the wise, but a fool spends everything he earns, right? And so it's like, okay, then now I have to start, I have to start, you know, saving, I have to start investing. Like there, and there's so many principles in the word, but you want to start asking yourself for these things I'm trusting God for, what is my part? So you can start playing it, right? So you can stop limiting him, so you can take those things off, and you just become this person that God has free course to work in your life, to to change things in your life and all of that. So if you walk away with this mindset of, I'm in partnership with God, and as I engage my partnership with God, I set myself up for unprecedented victory, everything in your life will change. Okay. So I'm glad you tuned into this episode. Go ask yourself the question, run an audit. Remember, it's observation over judgment. And I want to invite you to take this episode, go share it with the people in your world and say, you need to listen to this because once we as Christians can start taking a look at a book and a really the book and our relationship with God differently and owning our part, everything changes. You could be responsible for the changes in thousands and thousands of lives. So I invite you to do that, and I'll see you on the next episode of the Success by the Book podcast. If this has helped you in any way, I would love for you to join the movement and share this episode with your friends, family, and the Christians in your world. By doing this simple thing, you could be changing the trajectory of someone's lives, their family, and their community. That makes you a world changer and they will love you forever.