God is gracious to those who trust and delight in Him.  He cannot provide for those who doubt in His provision because when people believe a lie, they empower the liar.  It has become my firm belief that God is the one longing for breakthrough for His people…but that the devil has come and stolen hope from the people in the church.   We call Him God, and yet as a people we have allowed others to tell us what He can and cannot do.

“When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” – Luke 18:8

I can see now how Jesus could ask such a question in the midst of the great miracles that followed Him everywhere He went.   I remember when I first read this, it struck me as odd—with such a gospel being preached where the dead were raised, demons fled from people’s bodies, and the cancerous effects of leprosy being reversed before the eyes of hundreds—how could people not have faith after this?

And day after day now, I hear and see people who claim to be followers of Christ who blatantly ignore the instructions and methodology of the very one they suppose they are learning from.   It has done something within my heart—bringing me to a place of holy discontent with the way things are taught and done in our Western churches.   I say ‘our Western churches’ because of the stories of what I have heard and read about churches in other countries who are not nearly as domesticated and comfortable as we as Americans are.

There is less emphasis on what-God-can-do-for-me (humanism) and more emphasis placed upon the true Biblical model of what-I-get-to-do-for-God (New Testament Christianity).   As such, without all the flashing lights and multi-million dollar church buildings, God’s power is much more commonly released and undeniable.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.   He does not change.   As with Moses’ outrage upon seeing the Israelites worshiping a god they had created with their own hands (the golden calf in Exodus 32), I have felt a strong indignation at the fact that many of the people in our churches have followed suit in fashioning God in whatever form they see fits their comfort level.

What I am finding also is that even the keenest intellect coupled with the most profound revelation of what God is truly like is about as effective as having an ant try to figure out the human emotions of love, anger, joy, etc.   These concepts are so astronomically off the grid of the ant whose sole purpose is feed, gather, reproduce.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  The same can be said of our asinine attempts to explain, as created beings, our Creator.

When I was  in my first semester of seminary pursuing a master’s of divinity degree in urban ministry (no longer doing so), the books that I was exposed to were somewhat laughable to me in the vain human endeavors that are made to explain God and His ways.

Surrender is so much easier than rationalism.

Humbly saying, “I don’t know” is a lot less stressful than trying to invent doctrines and theologies as to why some things seem to happen and others do not.   Again, God opposes (fights against) the proud, and gives grace (unmerited favor) to the humble (James 4:6).

I’d much rather side with those who God grants favor to than those whom He fights against.  The problem with fighting against God is that you will always lose.  I will give a few examples of what I am trying to say.

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(The following was written on October 21, 2008)

As I write this, for the past several weeks and months, I had been feeling quite overwhelmed and, well, fearful, about the state of my finances.  I had received several powerful and specific prophetic words about how provision was on the way, abundance was coming, etc.

However, as with the disciples’ reaction on the boat when Jesus was sleeping (WAKE UP! Don’t you care that we’re dying?!), I was quite a bit stressed out by all of this.   God was mostly silent about the subject aside from saying things like, “Trust me. Don’t stress out.  I’ve got it covered.”  I did my best, and I am quite sure that He is pleased with that.  He knows our feebleness as humans, as He was one.

I have heard God described as “the God of the eleventh hour”, meaning that if something is due at midnight, God usually shows up sometime between 11:00 and 12:00.   In this case, He showed up at about 11:58.   A few days ago, a close friend of mine called me and began to explain to me the state of her finances.  I realized quickly that my problems were nothing in comparison to what she was dealing with.  I heard the Lord speak to me to give her a check for $100.  With the state of my finances, and with several large bills due within a few days, I struggled with this but I knew it was the Lord’s will.

To make a long story short, the day after I gave my friend that check, someone came along who gave me enough money to pay off my rent for the next two months. God is good.  And so begins another waiting and trusting test.
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The heart of our Father is to release good things for His children.  As I look back over the last few years of my life, I have seen time and time again the providing hand of God sweep in and make a way where there seemed to be no way.  As I mentioned earlier, if you do not seem to be seeing this kind of miraculous provision in your life, it could be that you have bought into the lie that God can’t do it for you.

It is my firm belief that God wants us to be walking into a kind of abundance the likes of which many of us have never seen…but how would we steward abundance if we can not be trusted to faithfully steward what we do have already?  This all goes back to the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30).

I know a lot of Christians don’t like reading or hearing about money because they’ve been burned or jaded by greedy televangelists that have exploited and manipulated the minds and hearts of so many people…but the fact is that for us to accomplish the things that God wants us to accomplish in this lifetime, we need to learn how to rely on the Lord to provide for us not just for our needs, but also for the good things that God wants to give us because He is a loving Father.

Trust God!  We have learned that one of the major pitfalls in the life of a believer is to keep seeking God for ‘clarity about the future’…as if God is some kind of carnival fortune teller.  If we had clarity about the future, we wouldn’t need to trust Him.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33

Perhaps if you’re not seeing the inflow of “all these things”, there is a good chance you’re not seeking His Kingdom first.