God is a God of expansion. His words, “Let there be…” are still hurtling in every direction extending the bounds of the universe we inhabit.

The same nature lives in you as His child, but there are ways in which we can limit Him if we are not careful to stay connected.

Lift the lid on your limits today, and let God speak into your circumstances.

https://davidleemartin.com/taking-off-the-limits/

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Well, hello, and yeah, I’m glad to be with you again today, trying to do this every day, really, I’ve been kind of convicted in my heart that it’s essential that I’m always telling other people to step out, to have a go, to share their value with the world, to do everything they can to encourage others. And and then the Holy Ghost comes along and does exactly the same thing to me. So do be careful what you ask of other people.

00:00:38.820]
Do be careful of the things that you encourage others to do, because, you know, you may find that the Holy Ghost turns right, right back around and puts it back on you and says, well, yes, go ahead then. So today I want to talk about expansion. One of the words that God has given me for this year, a personal word is the word expansion. And, you know, I God, it really is a god of expansion.

00:01:08.700]
His character is one that is always expanding, always moving forward, always, you know, if you think the universe supposedly is expanding in every direction at some kind of breakneck speed. And it all began with that first utterance from our father’s hard when he said, let there be. And those words are still working today and the universe is hurtling outwards in all directions. God is a God whose nature is to expand. God is a God. His nature is to grow and become bigger, become more.

00:01:56.280]
And I believe that as children of God, as people of God, his thinking is also within us. His nature is also within us. And so it’s understandable that we also want to explore and expand in what we do. We want to expand in our income and in our influence, in our ability to help other people, in our ability to accomplish what we believe God has put in our heart. And I’ve been having this conversation with the Holy Ghost for a few weeks now, particularly coming off this idea that he spoke to me and said, you know, your word for this, your son is expansion.

00:02:42.750]
And I knew immediately that he was talking on a number of levels. But essentially he was talking about my thinking. You know, he was talking about there’s there’s a scripture that says as a man sinks in his heart, so is he as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You know, as we think within that’s what becomes without. It’s so important that we understand the import, the the the key part that how we think affects how we live.

00:03:24.000]
And, you know, I asked in the Holy Ghost, I said, so how does that and that play out in my day? How does that play out in my every day? And he said to me, said, you’ve got to think with me, not just think about me. Sometimes we can come and have this religious idea that if we think about God and think good thoughts about him, it’s somehow going to help change our life. But actually, God wants to engage us in something far more personal than that.

00:03:59.490]
He wants to move us into a place of real personal engagement. So so we are involved in conversation with him. I mean, this is this seems to be my my pet hobby horse, but it’s so powerful and so real and so important, I believe, for us as Christian creatives, as entrepreneurs, authors, artists, you know, whatever, whatever you’re involved in, God wants to take you higher, whatever you’re involved in, God wants to expand the borders of your thinking.

00:04:38.070]
And there’s this there’s this incredibly scary scripture that that I was reminded of in the Book of Psalms. And it says they turned back and they tempted God and limited the holy one of Israel. They limited God in their mind. They limited God in thinking. That he could not accomplish all of the things that he had promised them, I bet today you have promises in your heart that you are looking to see fulfilled. You have ideas. You have creative projects that may be kind of lodged there on the inside, begging to get out and begging to become.

00:05:26.540]
And and your thinking is really going to be the conduit through which that comes. The Bible talks about how hard is like a well of water springing up within us. But like any kind of course of water, it’s going to need some conduit to flow through. And I think that the restrictions sometimes comes in our thinking. Our thinking is like the pipe through which God’s power and wisdom can flow. But if we, like the children of Israel, limit what we believe God can do, if in our thinking we can’t stretch beyond our present experience or we can’t stretch beyond what we’ve already seen or what we’ve already kind of moved our mind and our heart to expect, it kind of restricts the flow.

00:06:21.860]
I want to encourage you today that that, you know, let’s let’s just make sure that we blow the pipes. Yeah. Let’s make sure that we clear the pipes out so God can come in and so God can flow through. God wants to do incredible things in your life. You know that word where talks about limiting the holy one, that word limit means to scratch a mark or to set a boundary. And I think it’s typical of us as as just as people, you know, that we scratch certain marks and we say that this is this is as far as I can go.

00:07:06.590]
This is as much as I can expect. And maybe sometimes we see other people and, you know, if we’re honest, it can make us feel jealous. It can make us feel as though somehow we are lacking or inadequate. And, you know, even the other day I caught myself, I, I heard about someone else’s success in something. And, you know, I was dismayed to to like, recognise and realise that in my heart I could feel a constriction.

00:07:42.920]
I could feel a kind of a like do something in me. Wasn’t happy that someone else was maybe out there doing the things or doing something that I feel that I should have been doing or some of the rewards that I should have been getting. I mean, like, like this is confessional. You know, we’re not I’m I think most of us are like the rest of us. And a lot of these things aren’t talked about.

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A lot of the a lot of the challenges that we face and a lot of the fears that we come up against aren’t often talked about. You know, we we want to present a positive face to the world. We want to present ourselves as maybe someone who’s got it all together and who doesn’t have some of these kind of internal issues and arguments that that do take place. But, you know, honestly, I I caught this at negative reaction to some news that I heard of somebody else’s success.

00:08:51.800]
And and I kind of rolled it back and brought it to the Holy Ghost and said, you know, what is that? What’s the problem here? And, you know, I really felt as though sometimes we we feel that way. It’s almost like we would much prefer someone to fail in what they are stepping into, particularly if it’s outside the boundaries of what we would feel comfortable with and the level that we would feel comfortable with, because basically it challenges us to go beyond our own our own boundary as as we saw in this scripture that they limited the holy one of Israel.

00:09:38.060]
It means to scratch a mark. And so many of us, I think, and I can only well, I can speak for myself. I know that in areas of my thinking, I’ve scratched marks in the ground and said, well, I’ve tried that before and this is as far as it went. I’ve well, I’ve seen that. And it didn’t work for this one or whatever else it may be. And we scratch these marks. That we are then fearful to step beyond in case we fail, and I think sometimes some of the jealousies that we wrestle with, sometimes some of that kind of negative responses we can have to other people’s positive results or that all those that sense of depletion and inadequacy and insecurity or whatever else it may be, I think sometimes a lot of it is, is that we become very comfortable dwelling within the boundaries of our fears, dwelling within the boundaries of our current experience.

00:10:43.880]
But we all know that God wants us to step beyond those fears and step into something more satisfying, more fulfilling, that we could become more helpful and more useful to other people and be used of God to bring good news, to bring value and to lift other people and release other people into their into their destiny. You know, one of one of our roles, I believe, is men and women of God is not so necessarily. So we can just grow, but so we can help others grow as well.

00:11:24.140]
And it reminded me of some of the stupid questions that Jesus asked people. And like that may sound really kind of like, I don’t know what it may sound like. So I don’t even know what the word heretical, like stupid questions that Jesus asked, like, goes up to a blind man and he says to the blind man, Do you want to receive your sight? I mean, like, duh, it goes up to a cripple. And he says, Do you want to walk?

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Well, of course I want to walk. Goes up to a leper and says, like, do you want to be cleansed? And, you know, sometimes I got to wonder, well, why did why did you ask these questions, Lord? And I really believe that sometimes they may be asking you some questions. You know, he may be asking you, do you want to prosper? Do you want to grow? Do you what do you want to step into your destiny?

00:12:25.100]
Do you want to step into and walk in the plans? And the purpose is that I’ve got for you, for your life, for your marriage, for your business, whatever else it may be. And it led me to this scripture in the book of Ezekiel. And I’ve often applied this to in prayer. It says, I, the Lord have spoken it and I will do it. Thus says the Lord God, I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them.

00:12:57.290]
I will increase them. And like we’ve been talking today, God wants to bring increased to our life. God wants to bring increased to our ministry, to our business, to our finances. He is a God of expansion. And he has spoken that increase and he has spoken that that expansion over us, I believe. And he’s even said, man, I’m ready to do it. I want to do it. I want to release my children into this place of influence, this place of income, this place of impact.

00:13:35.960]
But I will yet for this be enquired of to do it for them, that I might increase them. And like the like the blind guy, you know, like, hey, do you want to see, like, the cripple? Hey, do you want to walk like the leper. Do you want to be cleansed. Maybe is asking us hey do you want your business to grow. Hey do you want to experience more of my presence in my power?

00:14:02.630]
HADEED And I am certain that the reason that he says I’ve done it, I’ve said it, I’ll do it, but I’m waiting for you to ask. He is ready to and he is ready to act on our behalf, on your behalf, but is waiting for that conversation to be opened. And and that’s because God is building the man. He’s not building the ministry. Okay. That’s because God is building the girl. He’s not just growing her business or whatever it may be.

00:14:39.440]
He is interested in engaging in a journey together where he he and you walk as one. It’s in hearing his voice and following his lead that you will see the greatest results and the greatest satisfaction, the greatest delight in as the script. Just say delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. God wants that conversation with you. He has spoken in. He’s declared that he will do it, but he will yet be enquired of by you before you see the increase and in that conversation he will give you the directions that are necessary for you to make whatever your next move may be, whatever your next breakthrough action is.

00:15:42.680]
He is there to help and direct you toward that. You know, I really believe that this this year, 2021, is going to be a year of incredible increase and expansion for many, many people. Even in I mean, it’s it would be it would be just like the Holy Ghost to take a time of such restriction and turn it and transform it into a time of massive expansion for his people and for his gospel and for his body and for your business and for your family and for your marriage, whatever it may be, and say, go to the Lord, enquire of him, find out what he has said, find out what he wants to do, Lee your requests before him and then expect to see the increase.

00:16:44.480]
Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today. If you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.