In praying about many things, I was asking the Lord for wisdom and direction regarding our church. There is one thing that I have learned:
- If things are not happening and prayers seemingly not being answered, the problem is never with God. The problem is with us!
Early in 2018, I had found the book by Andrew Wommack entitled, “Don’t Limit God – Imagine Yourself Successful”. I began to read it and it was registering in my spirit.
Later that summer, I along with six or seven other ministers were able to sit down with Andrew over breakfast and after discussing some other things, I asked him to share about what the Lord showed him regarding limiting God, and that he later wrote about.
But, there were some truths in there that did not register with me until just recently. Either I did not have the capacity to receive them then or I needed them now.
(Psalms 78:41 NKJV) Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.
(Psalms 78:41 TPT) Again and again they limited God, preventing him from blessing them. Continually they turned back from him and provoked the Holy One of Israel!
The Hebrew word for “limited” not only means “restraining someone from what they can do because of one’s own attitudes or actions.” It also means “causing someone discomfort or pain because of one’s behavior or attitude”.
So, I accepted and resolved that somehow, I was limiting God from what He wanted to accomplish, but I did not yet fully understand how I was limiting Him. That is, until within the last few weeks.
When I looked at what God was doing in other churches pastored by great friends of mine, I knew deep down that He wanted to do that for us and our church.
(Acts 10:34 AMPC) And Peter opened his mouth and said: Most certainly and thoroughly I now perceive and understand that God shows no partiality and is no respecter of persons,
(Acts 10:34 NET) Then Peter started speaking: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism in dealing with people,
(Acts 10:34 TPT) Peter said, “Now I know for certain that God doesn’t show favoritism with people but treats everyone on the same basis.
So, what I was seeing God do for these other pastors was not necessarily because they were special or Divinely chosen by God above the rest of us.
- He wants to do absolutely miraculous things in everyone’s life.
God has never made a piece of junk. He has never made an inferior person.
- The truth is that we are all unique and can do something that nobody else can.
We all have something that God wants to accomplish through us, but most of us are ignorant of this and have bought into the lie that there’s nothing special about us.
- Not one of us has exhausted God’s ability, resources, and power for our lives.
God is infinite. God is huge. Our lives ought to reflect that.
He wants us to believe for big things. Yet most of us only believe for small things.
If your life is not an absolute joy and you aren’t excited about it—if you don’t have enthusiasm about your life or where you’re going or what God is doing—you have missed God and are limiting what He wants to do in your life.
- God will call you to do something that is beyond yourself.
He will call you to do something that is bigger than yourself.
If you can say that you’ve achieved everything by your own ability, strength, or power, then you have not yet tapped into God’s will for your life. God will ask you to do something bigger than yourself that requires more than your own ability.
If you can look at your life and say, “Well, I went to school, I did this and that, and I earned the things I have,” you have missed God.
If you can point to your great education, your charisma, or your ability, then you have missed God.
- If your life isn’t supernatural, it’s superficial.
Your life should be such a testimony that when people ask how you’re doing what you’re doing and why you’re so blessed, you should be able to say that there’s no explanation outside of God.
- Life is not a dress rehearsal—this is the real thing.
If you aren’t doing something with your life that winds you up and fulfills you, and makes you feel like, “What a blessing of God this is in my life,” then you have wasted another day of your life.
How Do We Limit God?
- We limit God is through our wrong beliefs.
For example, a culture’s belief system will limit its people and keep them in poverty.
The Hindu people have resources that could end their hunger, but their religious belief system limits them. They also believe that they are born into a caste system, and if they do anything to try to get out of it and improve their well-being, they might be reincarnated as an ant or something worse. Their belief system has impoverished their nation and has limited them.
(Proverbs 23:7 NKJV) For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.
- What we think about the most, we eventually believe.
- What we believe, is what we will say and do.
- What we say and do is what is shaping our lives.
- We limit God by comparing ourselves with others.
(2 Corinthians 10:12 NLT) Oh, don’t worry; we wouldn’t dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!
In the negative sense, we look at our parents, we look at our grandparents, we look at television, and we listen to people’s stories about all the bad things that have happened to them and we begin to believe that is what is in store for my life.
Even when we are doing OK, we compare ourselves to others. “I am doing pretty good compared to where they are…” This will lead to complacency.
- We are not called to be average!
There should be a difference between Christians and those who don’t know God. We’re alive and they’re dead! God made us for more than average.
Believers should be doing better than the average person. After all, Jesus died to deliver us from this present evil world. But sadly, that is not every believer’s experience.
(Galatians 1:3 TPT) (3-4) I pray over you a release of the blessings of God’s undeserved kindness and total well-being that flows from our Father – God and from the Lord Jesus. He’s the Anointed Messiah who offered himself as the sacrifice for our sins! He has taken us out of this evil world system and set us free through our salvation, just as God desired.
(John 17:14-16 NKJV) I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (15) I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. (16) They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
How do we walk in this? By faith!
(1 John 5:4 TPT) You see, every child of God overcomes the world, for our faith is the victorious power that triumphs over the world.
Are you limiting what God wants to do for you or through you by comparing yourself with others? Do you really want to live like everyone else with the same sickness, same financial, relational, and emotional problems?
(Deuteronomy 28:13 NLT) If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.
Some of you want things to be different, but if you don’t change some of the ways you are thinking, you will be back next year in the exact same spot praying and asking God to do the same things. It’s not God who is limiting Himself—it’s you!
There is something that happens in the spiritual realm when you start believing God. You’ve got to see God’s purpose for your life and take the limits off Him. Believe He has something more for you than you are experiencing in your life.