What Do You Have? with Pst. iDeal Iyawe
Hello there. Thank you for visiting again. Today, i just want to encourage us from the word.
Please turn your Bible to Hebrews 11:6.
In line with the things we’ve been saying about money, vision, purpose, it’s important to look at this.
There are many of us we are in church but we really do not believe. So many things have happened to us and we’ve been frustrated and disappointed. We’ve been believing for too long and it seems like nothing has come.
We are in that place where it’s safer to be hopeless or have no expectations and just take life as it comes. We don’t even want to have dreams or outline any goals and you are kind of marking time, you go to church, read your bible and pray.
You believe God can do great things but you don’t know if He can for you or if He will show up for you.
But I just want to tell you to still believe. That’s the essence why we are called believers because we have faith.
Look at verse 6. First of all, we must believe that He is.
One would have thought it would be “without purity or right living”, it is impossible to please Him but it says it is impossible to please Him “without faith.”
In this our walk, you can’t really function without faith. The S.I unit of what we are doing here is belief. You came in by belief, you believed that He became a propitiation for your sins and that he died and resurrected. You were not there when it happened but you believed that when He died, you died with Him, when He was buried, you were buried with Him and when He resurrected, you resurrected with Him.
It’s too late to stop believing.
I just want to set this foundation. In Romans 10:17; scripture says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. This is important for us because if you understand who we are as believers, you’ll understand that we were saved by grace through faith so no matter what happens to us, we have faith because we hear our situations through faith, by the word of God.
So when things are happening to you, challenges on the job, family front, etc, you hear those situations by the word of God.
This is how we grow in faith, i’m referring to the manifestation of our faith. Scripture says, “These things we believe and therefore speak.”
What is faith? It’s acting on your belief. You’re not just saying you believe if you don’t take actions. It’s as simple as that, just like roots and fruit. If you believe, you’ll act and speak differently. That’s the show of faith.
Faith is not just heard, faith is seen.
So we encourage you to keep on believing. Scripture says in Romans 8 that nothing can separate us from the love of God, it speaks to so many things.
Many things can happen, many things will happen but none of them are strong enough to separate us from the love of God.
And that’s why hearing the word of God is important because regardless of what happens, you do not allow the devil to get a foothold.
You must come to a place where you are submerged in His love for you and nothing can shake you, where you know you are the apple of His eye. When you begin to see yourself and circumstance from that point of view, you can stand.
This whole conversation began from His love. Scripture says, “For God so loved that He gave….” John 3:16.
You must always find yourself in that realm and then you can begin to function from there.
James 1:3; I don’t know what challenge or issues you’ve had but you must never allow the devil to exploit it.
The same situation the devil is using to tempt you, God is using to build you up. Look at the situation of Job, the same situation the devil was using to attack his faith and test his belief in God was the same situation God was using to show that “This my guy eh, no shaking, i can vouch for him”
Your perspective or goggle of your situation is as important as anything in life.
It was the same thing with Jesus. Scripture says, “If they had known they would not have crucified Him”, because it was the same situation God used as a sacrifice for what He wanted.
You must have settled in your heart that He loves me too much to allow anything happen to you.
Many of us just look at the Bible but we do not really believe.
James 1:2; says to count it all joy. Counting is deliberate, so you look at that situation and count it as joy not because it is sweet or palatable but you count with revelation knowing that the trial is producing patience for me and making me complete, lacking nothing.
It’s important for us to be stable in our belief. Unshakable.
See Verse 8.
I don’t know how many of us know how important we are to God.
He so loved you!
Keep believing!
All the trials are an attack on your faith, on your belief. Nothing more.
But God is using those situations to build you. The Bible tells us clearly that He will not give us more than He can bear.
The next thing I want to talk to you about begins with a question.
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
It’s a question of vision.
2 Kings 4:1; This is the story of the widow of the prophet whose husband left them in debt and she was in a sad situation. It’s possible to fear the Lord and not have bread i.e money but thank God this is the old testament. We dodge it. Lol
So Elisha asks her, “What shall I do for You?” And it doesn’t seem like a fitting question after hearing her story. And that’s where many of us want to stay, because of the trials we don’t want to have any visions again.
It was important that this woman knew what she wanted as well as aware of what she had.
Many of us are so aware of our situations we no longer know what we want in life or look towards a bright future that is full of God’s purpose for our lives.
Habakkuk 2:1; there’s a wonderful revelation here. Seeing what He says not just hearing what He says.
It’s important that you have that vision, that dream for your life, that thing you are pressing into God for. I’m not just talking about an ambition or something you are manufacturing for yourself but it’s important that you write a vision, something you’re trusting God for. Many of you will begin to see people come together for you when you write your vision..
In Verse 2; It says they that read it will run. Many of the people coming into your life are meant to be running with you but because there’s no vision, they are running away from you.
Men generally like a leader, they want someone to lead the vision but some of us want it to be all settled and everything to fall in place before we launch out. TSP is an example of this. None of us were promised Pastor Phil before he began.
And the vision doesn’t have to be magnificent or high and mighty.
You can have a generic vision but we’ve been encouraged us to break them down in the five key areas of our lives;
1. Personal: Self development.
2. Family
3. Spiritual.
4. Financial or economic.
5. Career or profession or business
Keep on believing. Everything is designed to affect your belief but know that every of those designs enhances your belief if you stand in view of the gospel.
Speaking about purpose, I want you to understand your core purpose as a believer.
1. Worship: We magnify God in worship
2. Evangelism: We’ve all been given the ministry of reconciliation to witness Christ.
3. Discipleship: We equip the saints. Ephesians 4:11-12
4. Fellowship: No believer or pastor is an island. We were made for fellowship. Hebrews 10:25
5. Ministry: We’ve been called to ministry and to serve.
Now the next question to focus on is “WHAT DO YOU HAVE?”
Many times when we are in pain or challenging situations, it’s like we are asking God for empathy and pity. The first scripture we read in Hebrews says faith not tears..We are not saying God is not touched by your infirmities but what is important is your response of faith.
The widow couldn’t respond to the first question, she didn’t know what she wanted and then she was asked, “What do you have?”
She said nothing but a jar of oil.
Many times because of what we have gone through, we don’t even know we have anything. We define ourselves as deficit by the circumstance. Never make the mistake of defining yourself by a temporary situation.
That’s where the devil will love you to be. And then you now move on with that, so you think you’re healed but you’ve not healed properly. There’s a way to heal. When we heal we know that God is forever faithful. We heal without our perception and revelation of God ever changing.
I thank God that this woman had a jar of oil. I don’t know what it is you have, it may be a broken jar or disappointments or a mix; skills, talents, experiences, or situations that were meant to kill you, it many be a sinful life, something you’re ashamed that He wants to use.
Matthew 25:14-30.
What do you have?
When you come to the realisation that it’s not about you but the agenda of the king on the earth through you, you’ll calm down.
In Matthew 25:14-30, the story of the parable of talents, I want to draw out some lessons.
1. Verse 14; Availability: They were there. Some of you may not know what you have because you haven’t availed yourself to serve. When you avail, ability shows up.
Don’t say you don’t have anything, that’s not acceptable.
2. Verse 15; Everybody has ability, there’s something you can do,
3. Verse 16; Response-ability. It’s not enough to have ability, you must respond to the ability and trade it to get more. It speaks about attitude. Pastor Phil spoke about the economy of nature and the economy of man. When the servants were given the talents, it was the economy of nature but to trade and raise the value of the talents given is the economy of man.
4. Verse 19; It talks about Account-ability. We will give account of what we have been given. It’s never about the quantity of what you are given, it’s about the results and your reward.
Verse 21,22: Many people are frustrated because they are looking at the lives of other people and comparing. I’m sure that’s what happened to the servant with one talent.
Focus on that one jar of oil in your house. God is bespoke about you. His design for your life cant be compared to anyone else..
Pastor Phil told us that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard what God is about to do with our lives.
What God wants to do with our lives, no man has seen it. That’s why mentors are really only to guide you but your unique shape and bent is divine. This is why you mustn’t be limited by those situations but see them as stepping stones to where God is taking you.
5. Verse 18; Profit-ability: You can make a profit with that gift. But the servant with one talent did not. He decided to hide his talent; abuse, misuse and refuse. Another example of abuse is excuse.
Many of us, because of excuses, can’t see what God has given us.
We are overly cautious and afraid of failure. Faith is not just shouting and praying without stepping out. Faith is stepping out.
What you refuse to use, you lose.
There are several definitions of excuse;
-Excuses are the tools of the incompetent which create monuments of nothingness.
Those who specialize in them are seldom good in anything
-Love will find a way but indifference will find an excuse.
-Excuses are good reasons for bad results.
-Excuses separate you from the outcome of that bad situation and because of this, the situation will happen again.
-Excuse is the S.I. unit of irresponsibility.
Run away from excuses.
There will.never be a time in your life where you have nothing. Never.
But there could always be a time where you are not aware or conscious of what you have. The challenge is not what we don’t have but what we have that we are not taking advantage of.
Matthew 25:29; shows that abundance and advancement comes from faithful use of what one has been given. It sets the stage. Abundance means to super abound, it shows the generosity of God’s grace.
That scripture says, “Even he who does not have, loses what he has.” That is, what he has not recognized or what he’s taken for granted will be taken from him.
You need to understand that God is making a message out of your mess and a testimony out of your test. And it’s not motivational lines. It’s the truth.
The same water a boat floats on is the same water that can get into the boat and it capsizes. The same waves people run away from is what others surf on.
God is giving you waves to surf. Find your surfboard.
God does not do bad things. He doesn’t have bad thoughts towards us, but in His sovereignty, He sometimes allows situations for our good.
No matter how small it is, use it diligently and on an increasing scale.
Set goals to increase whatever you do
It’s called “The law of use.”
Look for what you have!
Many of us are crying to God, whereas God is crying to us. Lol.
Moses was crying to God at the pursuit of the Egyptians and God’s reply was, “What’s in your hand?”
Even when God wanted to get us; You and I, He asked what do i have? I’ll send my son Jesus to buy these ones back.
Everyone of us is shaped for purpose. Before i round up, i’d like to share something about the acronym: S-H-A-P-E
S-Spiritual gifts
H-Your heart and passions
A-Your abilities
P- Your personalities
E- Your experiences, good or bad.
And one more;
N- New experiences. So you can borrow experiences. The woman went to borrow and borrow and oil continued to flow till the vessels finished.
It’s left to you to see how large or how much the vision in your hand can go. As far as the clarity of the call for you comes, set those goals as big and as far, He will give it to you.
Lastly,
1. Don’t just look at the big picture, seek God’s face. To know God’s will you have to know Him.
2. Pray boldly: Pray big Pray hard. Pray often. Recognize that these things are supernatural and can’t be worked out by your strength.
