Part Five – What Does God Want for You?

Fresh Manna© by Pastor Tim Burt
http://www.freshmanna.org

Part Five – What Does God Want for You?

3 John 1:2 “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as you soul (your mind and emotions) prospers.

I have a question for you? How is your walk with God today? Is it better today than it was last year? Do you experience the working of God’s Spirit strengthening you and helping you live what you would honestly call a victorious Christian walk? Are you saying no to sin and yes to the godly desires you wanted to be present and evident in your life? Would people around you say you are one of the people they look to when they think of being more Christ-like?

Unless the answer is yes to all these, why are you skimming through what you are reading here this morning? Do you already know all this? Do you have victory in your life already? Are you in too big a hurry to methodically spend five minutes reading and thinking through something God wants to impart to your heart today? You might be in the trap my mother used to describe as, “in a hurry to go nowhere fast!”

God wants you to increase in knowledge, in spiritual and natural maturity, and in tangible blessing in every area of your life. You need to absolutely know and believe that so that you can exercise faith for it in your life. Colossians 1:10 says, “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” You walk worthy by learning God’s desire and will for you and applying your faith to it and pressing toward it in your walk with HIM.

God wants you to increase. Jesus paid the price so that you could. He put a robe of righteousness on you so that you’d be clean in His eyes while you worked at developing godly attitude, motivation, and conduct. He wants you to see yourself through His eyes instead the inadequacy, failure, and condemnation that can come when you look in the mirror.

When we stand before God with requests for help in every area of our life in strong faith, it’s not because we deserve it or because we’ve earned it. It’s because He is allowing us to out of love. Jesus paved that way for us. Hebrews 4:16 emboldens us saying, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

It is critical that you know God loves you, what He has done for you, what He is willing to do for you, and His purpose in helping you! His purpose is that of a Father. He loves you, He wants you to grow up to be like Him. He wants to help you mature and then as you grow, help others become released from Satan’s grip and into the arms of God’s love.

God wants you to have resources! We live in a material world. You have a material home. You have material furniture. You possibly drive a material car. You have material bills. In God there is a spiritual side of life and a natural side of life and in God they work together. They are not separate and distinct but united in His plan to accomplish much. He doesn’t want you poor and broke. He wants to meet your needs. If you don’t believe that you won’t approach Him in faith asking and expecting His supernatural help. Adam and Eve lacked nothing until they separated themselves from God through sin. Jesus has fixed that for you. You are not separate from God.

As I have said many times, to know God’s will you must know His original intent and His future intent. There was no lack in the Garden of Eden. There will be no lack in Heaven. Here is God and our future. Rev. 21:3-5 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Understand that lack and poverty is Satan’s curse in this earth and not God’s will. If you struggle with this truth, your own heart can help shed light. Have you ever been to a third world country or seen someone steeped in poverty? What did your heart want to do? Did you want to do something to help them? Did you want to bring increase and blessing and resources to them? Of course you did! Why? Because that is God’s heart in you. You wanted to help them. He wants to help you. God lacks nothing and he wants you to be equipped with the material resources for everything He has called you to do in this life. You aren’t called to live exactly as Jesus did. That was God’s plan for Him. Even then He had real gold, frankincense and myrrh brought to Him as a baby. These were riches that I am sure enabled Mary and Joseph to survive their trip to Egypt and back.

When I pick up here next week, I am going to show you just how powerfully God wanted to bless and equip His children so that hopefully you will believe it for yourself. Your equipping from God of material resources is His will for you. Of course He does not want to give it to you so you can consume them on your own lusts, but so that you can affect lives for the Lord as you yourself are blessed. If you will align your heart and will with His, you will see Him manifest increase in every area of you life. As the Lord said in today’s Fresh manna verse – He wants something for you ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE! John 1:2 “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as you soul (your mind and emotions) prospers. More next week…

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://www.freshmanna.org

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright©All rights reserved.

What is Fresh Manna? God’s Word – the Bible, should be exciting and alive to us. God wants to speak to us through His Holy Spirit and give us a fresh word from heaven every day. Fresh Manna is a daily devotional – that nourishment of daily bread from His heart to ours!

Part Four What Does God Want for You? Our Help from Trouble

Fresh Manna© by Pastor Tim Burt
http://www.freshmanna.org

Part Four What Does God Want for You? Our Help from Trouble

Psalm 34:7 “For the angel of the Lord guards all who fear Him, and He rescues them.”

Are you safe? Do you feel safe? Are you under attack? Does you life feel under attack in some area? Are you in trouble? Do you believe that God wants to protect you? Should you believe that? Whatever your answers are to any of these questions, know this as a truth: You desire to be safe. You want to be protected. You desire for God to protect you. How can I say that? It’s easy; God has put that desire within us. There are hundreds of scriptures revolving around man’s desire for protection and God willingness to be our refuge and help in times of trouble. God is the only one and I mean thee only one who can fulfill that desire. And, that desire can only be fulfilled through the realm of faith.

People hear of tragedy of every kind every day and don’t want to be a victim of it. Consequently, you may have prayed for God to help you out of trouble at some time in your life. You may have prayed for His protection over you or your children or perhaps over your travels. In praying for His protection, it is possible that you may have prayed a wishbone prayer? Do you know what a wishbone prayer is? It’s a prayer requesting something but having no real faith that God will do it. It is a prayer that isn’t really rooted in knowing what God wants. It’s a prayer not rooted in faith. It’s rooted in the equivalent of the expectation you would have for a wish to come true when you break a wishbone. It’s really a prayer of unbelief.

Unbelief hinders God answering prayers. We read in Mark 6:5-6 that Jesus could do few miracles within His own home town because of the unbelief of the people there. “And because of their unbelief, Jesus couldn’t do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their unbelief.”

God’s Word is full of secrets. They are truths and promises that the world thinks are just words, fables, myths, or whatever – anything but truth. The Apostle Paul he along with others were being used of God to help those that believed in Jesus to understand the secrets of God “… as mere servants of Christ we have been put in charge of explaining God’s secrets.” (1 Cor. 4:1) It isn’t that God wants His ways to be secret. It is just that He won’t reveal His truths to those that would mock and trample them in unbelief and greed. As Jesus said, “Don’t give what is holy to unholy people. Don’t give pearls to swine! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.” (Matthew 7:6)

So, now that you understand this, let’s take a deeper look into the original intent of what God has always wanted for His people – something that is really a secret only revealed by scripture and the Holy Spirit. Why is that important to know? Because, as I have said and will continue to say – when you understand what God wants for you – His Will – then you will apply your faith to what you know He wants for you. Your faith will change the very trouble-filled circumstances that are contrary to His will for you. As 1 John 5:14-15 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of Him.”

What a powerful secret to learn! This is what brings God’s life changing power into our lives. It not only changes our circumstances, it changes us! It changes our way of thinking and our character. It turns us into people that truly trust God and have great faith!

So again, what is it that God wants for us? What is His will toward us? What did God declare He wanted for His children? Well first He promised to help them out of the troubled place they were in, and then to protect them.

When they cried out to God for help, God brought help through the person of Moses. God promised to deliver them from trouble, prosper them, and protect them if they’d trust in Him. We read it in Deut. 6:22-25. “Before our eyes the Lord sent miraculous signs and wonders… But He brought us out from there (their place of trouble,) to bring us in and give us the land that He promised on oath to our forefathers. The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive (protected,) as is the case today…”

The key to these promises manifesting in the lives of the Israelites coming out of Egypt was that they had to believe in and trust in Him. That is also our key. God promises that if we obey Him in our life style and have faith and trust in Him, faith in what He promises us will protect us. We see these promises over and over in God’s Word. Psalm 9:9-10 says, “The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Those who know Your name trust in You, for You, O Lord, have never abandoned anyone who searches for You.” We see this again in Psalm 37:39 “The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; He is their stronghold in time of trouble.” And again in Psalm 34:7 “For the angel of the Lord guards all who fear Him, and He rescues them.”

The Bible tells us that God is not a respecter of persons. That means His promises apply to us all. We are also told that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That means He still feels the same about us today as He has toward all His children always. He loves us and wants His best for us! Tomorrow – God desires to empower our ability to prosper…

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://www.freshmanna.org

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright©
All rights reserved.

What is Fresh Manna? God’s Word – the Bible, should be exciting and alive to us. God wants to speak to us through His Holy Spirit and give us a fresh word from heaven every day. Fresh Manna is a daily devotional – that nourishment of daily bread from His heart to ours!

Part Three – What Does God Want for You?

Fresh Manna© by Pastor Tim Burt
http://www.freshmanna.org

Part Three – What Does God Want for You?

Galatians 3:29. “And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you.”

Does God positively want good for you? Because if He does and He is God, then we should have great expectation which is exactly what faith is. Faith is expectation – you believe or expect something is or will be.

As Christians, we are often considered weird for having faith. “Why would you believe in something you can’t see” says the atheist. Says the little girl, “When was the last time you actually saw your brain? I guess that must not exist either!” Yes we do believe in what we can’t see. Why? Because God tells us that the things that we can see did not originate from this earthly realm we live in. They actually came from a place and source we can’t see. They come from God’s realm and were birthed or originated there by the faith filled spoken words of God. Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. Genesis 1:3 “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light…”

Jesus commended those that had faith and admonished those who let their minds of unbelief, override their hearts desire to have childlike faith. He even admonished His own disciples at various times. After Jesus’ resurrection, Thomas had boastfully declared his unbelief saying he wouldn’t believe Jesus was alive until he could see Him and put his fingers into Jesus wounds himself. A short time later Jesus appeared to Thomas and the disciples… John 20:27-29 “Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who haven’t seen me and believe anyway.”

When we read the Bible and believe what it says and live accordingly, we are often thought of as crazy or weird but we’re not! We are and will be blessed for having faith in the Lord and His Word. Matthew 5:10 “God blesses those who are persecuted because they live for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”

So then, what is it we believe that helps us know what God wants for us? We believe His promises! Romans 15:8-9 helps us take a hold of this truth. “Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises He made to their ancestors. And He came so the Gentiles might also give glory to God for His mercies to them…” These promises were a part of God’s covenant with His children. When you think of covenant, think of two things – an agreement and a will. That means what is agreed upon (the promises of God) are true in the agreement and are passed on through inheritance when someone dies. When Jesus died for us, that inheritance of promises was willed to us. Through Jesus Christ they reach into our lives to be taken a hold of by faith today! We see that in today’s Fresh Manna verses, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians—you are one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you.”

So, as we just read, “…now all the promises God gave to Abraham belong to you.” If that is the case, we better know two things, what are those promises and how do we take hold of them.

The promises are expressed throughout the Bible. If you ask the Holy Spirit to reveal them to you as you read, you will see them often. As you do, then you need to remember that they only move from the realm of God into our lives through faith. That is why Hebrews 11:6 says to us, “So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that there is a God and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.” Hebrews 11:1 gives us a review of what faith is supposed to accomplish saying, “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.”

As each of us read through the Bible, we read with different challenges and obstacles at work in our lives. We have a diversity of needs and requests for help from God. Therefore God is going to speak the promise to your heart that builds your faith and expectation. As you grow in your faith, you will learn that His promises become more real than any circumstance and you learn to stand strong in faith in His promise to you in the face of circumstances.

Noah was mocked for over 100 years while building an Ark. It has never even rained in the earth yet. People thought He was crazy. Moses stood with all the Israelites that had faith and followed him out of Egypt to the edge of the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army coming after close behind them. Jesus told Peter to go fish to get tax money from the fish of a month. Only “weird faith people” put themselves in this position because THEY DO believe God. Noah saw the rain come. Moses saw the Red Sea part. Peter got the money from the mouth of a fish.

It is important to know that God wants good for you. He wants you to believe in His promises so you will believe that He wants to make a way to meet your needs no matter what they are. If you see the promise, you have the opportunity to learn to walk by faith. You have the chance to walk on water like Peter did. Some will mock you. God will bless you! More tomorrow about what God wants for You!

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://www.freshmanna.org

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright©
All rights reserved.

What is Fresh Manna? God’s Word – the Bible, should be exciting and alive to us. God wants to speak to us through His Holy Spirit and give us a fresh word from heaven every day. Fresh Manna is a daily devotional – that nourishment of daily bread from His heart to ours!