TODAY! 21 day devotion by: H.R. Lister
Day 15: “Faith to do the Extraordinary”
We all have plans, we all have dreams…… Even if they’ve been long lost and forgotten, We have at times in our lives desired to do EXTRAORDINARY THINGS!!!!
-That is a God-given desire…. Our God is a God of the Extraordinary….. His life in us is where that vision and desire comes from….
-This is a desire that should not fade away over time but should grow stronger the longer we live!!!
Why do our dreams and our desires grow cold instead of come to pass?
-It’s got to do with our faith and our unwillingness to protect and nurture that God-given dream to focus on REALITY!!!!
-Reality is the #1 Killer of Faith…..
Hebrews 11:1 “Now Faith is the substance of THINGS HOPED FOR, the evidence of THINGS NOT SEEN….”
Anyone who has ever done anything great for God, had to disregard REALITY and believe more in the UNSEEN, than the SEEN!
2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by FAITH and not BY SIGHT….”
Abraham did extraordinary things for God and it was because of this He has been given the title “THE FATHER OF FAITH”…. He’s the Original BELIEVER…. He believed what God said even when He couldn’t see it for YEARS!!!!
Romans 4:16 “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all”
There are so many lessons to learn from Abraham’s Faith….
-The ups and the downs of faith….
-Faith is a journey if you’re going to do extraordinary things for God…
-We have to learn to grow our faith past the point of just managing our household well. As Believers we have to begin to have Faith to do the Extraordinary as a Local Church and the collective Body of Christ!
-We’ve taught: Faith for Healing, Faith for Finances, Faith for Family Members, Jobs, and tough personal situations…. (We’re not making light of those things)
-But this is different, This is us believing God to use us to do things that are much bigger than us…Much bigger than the city and region we live in….
-We’re not talking about believable, common, run of the mill believing….. We’re talking about FAITH TO DO EXTRAORDINARY THINGS!!!!!
-We’ve got to stretch our FAITH, see our lives, and our local churches in a much more significant light!!!!
The young Virgin Mary was standing in a small town with a small town mentality, dreaming small dreams of marriage and a nice family with her fiancé Joseph when The Angel of the Lord came down and revealed the Most EXTRAORDINARY plan to ever happen to any person to ever live…. To be the Vessel and Natural Mother to the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ!!!!! God’s only son!!!
Mary’s Response: “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
The Angel’s Response: “WITH GOD NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!”
Then Mary said: “ Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word…”
-Faith isn’t mental power, or MAN POWER and pure determination….. Faith is a willingness to look in the face of nothingness and proclaim the promises of God!!!!
Jesus said in Matthew 19:26 “With men this is impossible, but with God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE….”
We have to prepare for Greatness, not reserve the mentality: “I’ll believe it when I see it….”
Faith to do the extraordinary starts in our prayer life: Praying out the desires of our Heart….
John 15:7 Jesus said: “If you abide in Me and my Words abide in you, YOU WILL ASK what YOU desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit….”
As a believer in a local church we should always be enlarging our Heart for greatness and building our Faith to do Extraordinary things, breaking out of the statistics, breaking the boundaries and ignoring the limits that we put on what God can do based on what we’ve seen people be able to do….