What limits us in our walk with Jesus? For each of us, the answer may be vastly
different but the following ideas may be common ones that we all face.
1.
We have a wrong view of God.
We make God small in our own minds and put Him in a box, confined to our small minded thinking. The heavens cannot contain the Almighty God, our Father and His hand created everything visible and invisible. He is the God that splits seas, raises the dead and lets the rain fall on the just and the unjust.
Isa 40:26 Lift
up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out
their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might
And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.
Jesus told the story of the Master who went
away on a long journey and before leaving gave to his servants, according to
their ability, talents. One he gave 5,
to another 2 and to the final one 1. On
his return he summoned the servants to see what they had done with the talents
he gave them. The first two servants
doubled their talents whereas the last had an issue with the character of his
Master.
Mat 25:24
"Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I
knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where
you have not scattered seed.
Mat 25:25 And I
was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have
what is yours.'
The scripture is not clear as to how this
servant had such a bad report on the character of his master yet even today
there are people who think of God as a vengeful God waiting to send a bolt of
lightning to fry them. Many people do
not understand the unconditional Love of the Father heart of God. The
master in this account did not need to give his servants anything. He owed them nothing, yet he gifted them and
trusted them to use what he had given them to the best advantage. We often do get a wrong picture of God,
fashioning Him in the image of man instead of us being fashioned in His image. God has gifted all of us and yet when He
wants us to use the gift, we come up with all kinds of excuses, looking instead
and our inadequacies instead of looking at His adequacy. The master did not defend his character yet
brought a huge indictment upon the lazy servant, informing him that if he
believed so bad a report, it should have compelled him to do the best he could
with the talent he had been given.
2.
Doubt and unbelief
Jesus could not do any mighty miracles
among his home town in Nazareth because of their unbelief. They refused to recognise Him as the Messiah
and so did not recognise His authority in the spiritual realm and were in fact
offended by Him. They were offended
because He was the kid that grew up and played with their kids in the
town. They were familiar with Him and
His family and because they were familiar with His humanness they could not
believe that He was also divine. In
fact, they were so offended by Him and His claim to be the Messiah they wanted
to throw Him off a cliff.
Jesus has given us a blank cheque on Heaven’s
account with this scripture:-
Mar 11:23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to
this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in
his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will
have whatever he says.
What stops us receiving is the doubt we
have in our hearts. What we can see with
the “eye of faith” we can speak into being.
In fact scripture clearly teaches us that we must call those things that
are not as though they are.
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.
Heb 11:2 For by it the elders obtained a good
testimony.
Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of
things which are visible.
Everything
that we see around us was first of all seen in someone’s imagination before it
was physically brought into reality. God
created this way too. He imagined
creation and He spoke it forth. When we
do not have the faith in God, we will not step out boldly to declare, to share
or to touch the needs of humanity. This
will definitely limit us in our walk with God.
Jesus gives us a provocative insight into unforgiveness with the parable of the master who calls his servants in to pay back the debts they owe him. One servant owed a large fortune and the master calls for him, his family and all their belongings to be sold to pay off the debt. This debt was large and the servant fell on his knees to beg for mercy and patience. The master had compassion on him and wiped his debt clear. You would think that this servant would have left rejoicing but he went and found someone who owed him a small amount and demanded immediate payment. His debtor immediately fell to his knees begging him for mercy and patience but instead of giving the same compassion he had received, the servant ordered that he be thrown into prison until the debt was paid. Jesus continued the story with:-
Mat 18:34 And his master was angry, and delivered him
to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
Mat 18:35 "So My heavenly Father also will do to
you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his
trespasses."
God has an awesome plan for all our
lives. We need to keep our hearts sweet
in His presence and grow in the grace and knowledge of Him. Those who know their God will be strong and
do exploits, as the scripture exhorts us.
We need to make the decision to just believe and trust. God will never let us down and He will allow
us to bring His Kingdom to earth as we co-labour with Jesus Christ. What an
awesome privilege He has given to us.
Step out and step up in faith, amen!
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