Sunday 11 May 2014

Living Beyond Your means By John Edwards



Many reading this will see the negative side of living beyond your means, not having a budget, overspending, living according to what’s in your pocket etc. But that is not what I mean today. God in another sense wants us to live beyond our means…
See, we have power to do many things, power to create wealth, power to keep ourselves fit mentally physically and spiritually etc. BUT…..Often we find ourselves with our backs against the wall, unable to find a way out, Like Peter in Acts 12 we find ourselves locked within the inner sanctum of our jailer, the enemy of our souls. Peter was powerless to stop Herod from killing him the next morning, so he lived according to the reality of the Kingdom of God and didn’t get moved by what he saw and touched or experienced. What happened? Well, an angel came and set him free, that’s what happened, it was beyond Peter’s means. By worship and rest Peter entered the reality of the Kingdom of God.
I have experienced miraculous provision, definitely beyond my means, to serve God to reach the lost. This has happened to me hundreds of times, I have experienced peace during times of grief, that too is beyond my means. I’ve experienced healing when I was sick etc etc.
I remember one time when in bible college, my friends and I had no money whatsoever to pay bills, buy food, get books etc, we all (10 of us) met together and declared to God that what was within our means was not sufficient to see us through. We prayed for ages for God’s provision for us all and declared the Word over our situation. The very next day I was in the college when the head teacher came to me and gave me an envelope, I threw it in my bag thinking it was just a form for an exam or something like that. Later that afternoon I remembered the envelope and I opened it, there was a gift cheque in a blue plastic folder, the cheque was for £726.38 pence or some strange figure like that, it was 25 years ago so it was a LOT of money then…I picked up the cheque, ran to my friends to tell them and to share it with them for we were all broke, to my surprise every one of the ten of us that prayed the night before had received a cheque for the same amount, written on the inside page of each gift cheque was a scripture about God’s provision. There was an initial on the cheque, to this day we don’t know who provided it.
God was teaching me that to live beyond our means we have to pray without ceasing, worship always and not give up till we receive what we pray for. Folks some of you are not turning to prayer when you should, you are turning to despair, to antidepressants, to poor me to drink, drugs etc.
Turn to God my friends, live beyond your means and enter into the reality of living in the Kingdom of God.
Love you and praying for you all.
John.



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