In today’s Word for Wednesday, I want to help you receive all God wants you to have.
For most of us, the believing God part seems to be understood. The receiving part, not so much. How many of you in your prayer time express frustration with your situation? How many of you pray essentially pleading, begging or bartering with God? How many of you are faithful in your giving? How many of you are proper stewards with what God has already entrusted to you? How many of you seek wise counsel when it comes to the stewardship of your personal money or the money that’s received by your church or ministry?
When I owned my property management company, one of our services was to manage the money for the Homeowner’s Associations we managed. We collected the HOA assessments from the members and paid their bills. To do this the law required we establish bank accounts under my company name, In Trust For, the name of the HOA. We managed the money in trust for the Homeowners Association. That’s how we are to manage any assets the Lord gives us with an understanding it all belongs to Him. I can’t tell you the number of churches who’ve collected donations and gifts from their members, who trusted their leadership to properly manage the money, only to discover hundreds of thousands of dollars were wasted or lost through bad business decisions. Rev. Samuel Rodriguquez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference addresses the need for the Church to better steward finances in his article “Why the Church Must Get It’s Financial House in Order.” (Charisma Magazine, March 2019).
We need to position ourselves to be blessed by being proper stewards with what we have, and we need to know how to secure what God has already promised us. If you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has called you to the ministry, then when you experience opposition, it ought to anger you. It ought to fill you with outrage that the enemy of God would have the audacity to oppose God’s will. It ought to raise you up to fight the fight to win! the Promised Land wasn’t handed over to the Israelite–they had to subdue it.
John Burton, a well-respected leader in Christian ministry (John Burton Ministries) shared he was in a position of frustration because things were not trending the way he needed and how he believed God intended.1 He says, “I was crying out for needs to be met. I was banging on the doors of Heaven in passionate prayer for finances, among other things. “God, oh God, please grow the church! Let the finances increase! Please God!” That was when, as clear as a bell, I heard God say, ‘Stop! You’re praying wrong!’ What? How could that be? I was praying so hard. As I walked around the 1,000 square feet of sanctuary space in the early days of Revolution Church, I really felt like I was doing well. Didn’t God want the church to grow? Then, I heard the voice of God deep within my spirit ‘Stop! Your prayer is hindering you. You are praying as if I’m resisting you. Don’t you realize I put those desires in your heart? Why are you begging Me for a desire that I initiated? I gave you the desire in the first place! There is one who IS resisting you though. The enemy doesn’t want these desires I placed in your heart to come to pass. It is the enemy whom you must fight. Without faith it is impossible to please Me. Doubt in prayer will ensure that prayer goes unanswered.'”
John admits to feeling perplexed and alone in that moment because God told him to stop praying, yet he still had unresolved issues that demanded a miracle.
John writes, “So, I launched into a new dimension of faith-filled and violent prayer! I felt impressed that God wanted me to practice this new revelation He gave me. He told me He wanted me to have more time to pray and initiate revival in the city. He wanted me to quit my job at the call center. I had captured the heart of God and I knew it was my turn to enforce His will. The enemy must move! I then said, ‘In the powerful name of Jesus Christ, I command you, devil, to release! Get off of my schedule! I declare the heart of God is for me to quit my job and to advance His Kingdom full-time in Manitou Springs! How dare you touch the plans of God!’ I prayed according to God’s will. He wanted me to work full-time in the ministry. One week later, as a church of about 35 people, we received a check in the Sunday offering for $50,000. The following week we received $25,000. I was working full-time two weeks later. That money was more than enough. We also used it to move into a 27,000 square foot building. God wanted us to have that all along. The enemy didn’t. I was praying wrong. I was praying as if the provision had to be coaxed away from God. In reality, God had already released it and I just had to go get it—and blast through the enemy’s resistance on the way.”
As an Apostle—a messenger—for the Church, I want the Church to get herself ready. I want you to get your faith in order and I want you to get your finances in order so you can receive all the provisions God knows you need. Let’s stop asking God for what He’s already provided, and use our authority in Christ to cause the enemy to release what is rightfully ours.
- John Burton, “‘God Said, ‘Stop! You’re Praying Wrong!'”
All of my books, messages, blogs and broadcasts are geared to come along side the Church. My most recent book, Prepare for the Harvest Confidence in God’s End-Time Promises is written to help the Church prepare for the great numbers of people who are prophesied to come to Christ in these last days. If even just a hundred or fifty new believers came to your church, would you and your team be able to disciple them? It’s one thing to get excited and believe about a prophesied move of God, it’s another thing to be prepared to receive. If you like what you’ve heard from me today, I invite you to subscribe to my bi-monthly Enewsletter, and learn of the books in my “Faith to Live By” series.
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