The universe is hurtling in every direction at breakneck speed, never having ceased for one moment following the words, “Let there be!”
Expansion!
It’s the nature of God, and the nature that he placed with people. We are wired for growth and fruitfulness. Anything less runs contrary to our design.
But how do we become bigger people? How do we access the vast inner resources that have been deposited with us?
Think!
Jesus spoke about the human heart as being like a well that springs up from the inside, spilling wisdom and worth in every direction.
Like any watercourse, the avenue of entrance requires a conduit? What’s the pipeline this wisdom flows through?
Does it result from as a man striveth? As a woman worketh?
No, as a person thinks, so they will be and become.
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)
Our thinking determines the boundaries of our life. You’ll live by what you believe.
That’s true regardless of whether what you believe is true or not.
The key to expansion is learning to think beyond your current situation.
So how do I expand? That was my question to the Lord a few weeks ago.
He addressed it in the thought realm, and told me that the key to expansion is learning to “think WITH Him, not just about Him”.
Our lives, business, and ministry will grow in accordance with our thoughts and the expansion of our heart to engage and accommodate more of God’s thoughts.
Lift the limits
The following verse is a scary one…
“Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” (Psalm 78:41 KJV
The word “limited” means to “scratch a mark or set a boundary”. It also means to “grieve”, in the sense that it does not believe in who a person is and what they can accomplish.
What marks have you scratched over the years? What boundaries have you set that you fear crossing in case you are proven wrong?
Sometimes sitting inside our insecurities feels like a safer way to view the world than stepping outside of them and believing for more.
Safe inside your fears
My heart was convicted the other day when I noted a negative reaction to another person’s success. A pang of negativity, a sense of grievance that someone else was proving my own limitations wrong.
Seeing someone soar beyond the marks I have scratched challenges me to reach beyond my own fears, and that’s uncomfortable. I want to justify where I am at, blame external circumstance or something (or someone) outside myself, and stay within the enclave of my own errors.
And while I barricade my thoughts to shut out new possibilities God is patiently waiting to engage in my own uniquely crafted program of expansion.
So why doesn’t He jolly well just do it?
Because God is interested in the man not the ministry.
He is concerned with the girl not the growth of her business.
Jesus asks stupid questions
Remember how Jesus asked stupid questions?
“Do you want to receive you sight?” To a blind man.
“Do you want to walk?” To a cripple.
What’s He asking you?
“Do you want your business to grow? Do you want to make more, do more, be more?”
It is in the process of becoming God reveals the person. That’s why He asks, even though His will is already declared.
Essentially He says, “I’ve done this already for you, do you want it?”
“I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.” (Ezekiel 36:36-37 KJV)
I’ve spoken it.
I’ll do it.
But I will yet for this be inquired of.
God wants to engage in a conversation. He is ready to act, but He is waiting for you to ask. He will then direct your steps, and on the journey you will learn to think with Him, act with Him, take pleasure in His company.
And as you delight in Him, you’ll begin to see the desires of your heart realized, and you’ll expand your experience far beyond your present reality. All the while staying in step with the only One who holds the blueprint.
