Everybody needs something. But we often forget to ask!
James 4:2 says: “You have not because you ask not”.
In other words, the reason why you need is because you haven’t asked for what you need yet.
Years ago, I dreamed of a hidden store stuffed with merchandise and goods.
When I woke up, the Lord spoke to me.
“That store represented the storehouse of everything that’s available to the children of God. It has everything you need. But so few people ask for it.:”
John Wesley, a minister of yesteryear, once said:
“It seems God is limited by our prayer life. He can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks Him.”
My friends challenge me to ask God for more as I hear their testimonies.
“Oh yes, we asked for an extra chair to sit on, and God provided!” They crow. “Suddenly, someone dropped off an extra chair off just out of the blue!”
Or: “We asked God to bring us a buyer for our truck, and God brought him!”
One time, I was working in the weather. Or, at least, I was supposed to be working.
Thing was, it kept raining all day.
Finally, a friend, Newman, came to me and said:
“What’s the matter? Why isn’t anything happening?”
“Well, look at the weather,” I told Newman.
“You know what you should do?” Newman asked me.
In my head, I thought: “oh boy, here it goes again.”
There’s a lot of unbelief in this, but I thought: “he’s always going on about prayer and stuff. I don’t know if that actually works or not.”
Actually, what Newman said was:
“You should rebuke the weather and tell it that God told you to be working right now.”
Jesus rebuked the raging sea in Mark 4:35.
It also says in the Bible: “verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father” (John 14:12).
Again, there’s not a lot of belief in this, but in that moment, I thought: “well, can’t hurt anything to try.”
This sort of thing doesn’t work unless God inspires it. When God speaks, and we agree with God’s direction and what He is moving, there is a lot of power in it.
Because Jesus was tuned into what God said: “Hey, how about walking on the water this time? Put mud on that guy’s eyes to heal him. Hey, how about just laying your hands on that guy’s eyes instead?” –He walked in a lot of miracles.
Jesus was tuned into the Father.
And Jesus was continually agreeing with His Father God. Boom. Boom. Boom. Miraculous results. Constantly.
We often aren’t tuned in to our Father God. That’s why we struggle in life and don’t see Him moving as much.
Our sensitivity to the Lord’s leading and voice have been damaged. Life has taken a wrecking ball to our spiritual antennae. God CAN repair it, but we have to choose to allow God to. And we have to choose to continue to tune in.
That’s a lot of focus. Believe me, I know! It’s worth it, though.
Newman was inspired by God.
I say that because all I did was choose to agree with Newman in that moment.
It’s not as though I felt the inspiration by God.
I rebuked the weather as Newman requested. Have you ever tried rebuking something by the power of the Name of Jesus?
It’s easy to curse the weather.
“Ah, this foul, cursed downpour… I fancied meself to be playing polo today in Bedfordshire… At least, I was supposed to be figuring out what polo is….”
But rebuking it?
Anyways, I did it. To my astonishment, instantly the rain stopped.
It had been raining off and on all day. The moment I spoke, it was drizzling, but it instantly let up.
No lie: in a moment or two, the clouds moved away from the sun and suddenly the sun was shining.
WOW! I was in shock.
It makes me laugh now because I had so little faith in what I was doing then. Faith is acting in confidence in what God said. That’s what faith is.
I didn’t have that. I just had: “well, here goes nothing.”
But agreement–that consent–is a spiritual law of authority that still works. So because I was agreeing with God–and Newman, who obviously was inspired by God in that moment–boom. Results.
But back to what I saying:
Making our request known to God gives God authority to move in our lives.
Often, rich people have a harder time finding God.
Why?
They don’t have as much need. Want an Xbox? Buy it. Want a steak dinner? Buy it. Want a new Bugatti?
But poorer folks have a better chance of finding God. Push comes to shove, we need God just for the Chevy, let alone the Bugatti.
A poor girl in communist Romania needed God simply for a pair of shoes, a sweater, and a coat. These were crazy requests. Her family didn’t have that much money.
Yet the items came! She was astonished to find the shoes fit her perfectly!
God even knew her size!!
The more you need, the more opportunities God has of showing up.
What do you need? Sometimes, we even need God to show us what we have need of!
After all, the Bible says He knows our needs before we even ask Him.
I felt antsy to find an alternate source of income. I HAD to figure it out.
First, I started stressing. I didn’t go to God first. I went into panic mode instead. Augh!!
Finally, I had to stop that. It wasn’t going anywhere.
“My Spirit is in peace and joy,” God reminded me, and I stopped and deliberately took a breath.
“Okay, God. YOU know my need. What should I do here?”
In two days, God gave me the first piece of the puzzle.
“You remember how you always wanted to do such-and-such when you were a child..”
I sensed God’s leading in that thought because that memory came to me out of the blue.
So then I had to seek God what it meant to pursue that childhood dream.
Like unwrapping a present or turning the pages in the book, step by step, God kept leading me until I had another income stream.
Best part?
It wasn’t: "look at me! I was such a go-getter and I went and got it!"
No, it was: "look at God! He did this! I couldn’t have done it alone."
I’ll never forget hearing about a man of God who invited friends over.
“Look around you,” he told his friends. “Everything you see in this house, God gave me. I can tell you the testimony behind each one.”
I envy that man. I want that kind of life.
To have a house full of testimonies of God?
That’s more than carnal, empty stuff. Those experiences with the Lord are eternal.
Ask. Seek. Knock. The door will be opened. God is waiting on the other side.
I can’t wait to walk with Him today.
