Gen 18:14
Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. KJV
Num 11:23
And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD’s hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not. KJV
Job 42:2
I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. KJV
Jeremiah 32:27
Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? KJV
Luke 1:37
For with God nothing shall be impossible. KJV
Luke 18:27
And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. KJV
Matt 19:26
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
I ask you again this morning, what is it that God can’t do for you? We see from the Old Testament to the New Testament that God is capable of doing any thing that God wants to do. Nothing is impossible!
If nothing is impossible to God, then we must ask ourselves a question, why do we panic, and why do we worry when bad things seem to happen. If God really is able to do anything, if nothing is truly impossible, then what’s wrong? The problem doesn’t lie with God. It’s not because He can’t do it. It’s because we don’t place ourselves in a position to receive from Him.
Why do we throw our belief in God out the window as soon as problems come our way? Why do we in a moments notice get so frustrated and so discouraged when problems come, if God is truly able to do anything?
Let me assure you of something, the problem doesn’t lie in God’s ability to meet your needs. The answer is lies in our ability to trust God in everything we face.
So many times we are guilty of shutting down God’s ability to work in our life.
I want us to look at this morning some of the hindrances in our lives that keeps us from receiving what we need from the Lord. As we do this, then we’re going to see what needs to be in place for us to be on the receiving end of God’s blessings.
First you need to realize that we can tie the hands of God – I want you to see this morning a couple of ways that you can tie the hands of God.
First, we tie the hands of God when we don’t operate by faith.
Matthew 13:58 says this of Jesus … “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”
Heb 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
There’s two powerful things that come out of these verses. First, unbelief limits God’s ability to do mighty works and second, we can’t even begin to please God or receive anything from Him without faith.
What causes us not to operate in faith? People like to speculate, but if you want to get down to the root cause of things, you need to go to the Word of God and see what it says. So let’s see what the Word says:
Turn to Matt 22:29 in the verses previous to this one, the Pharisees are having a talk with Jesus and they are trying to trap Him in His answers. But in the 29th verse Jesus lays a very important spiritual principal out, look at what He says… “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”
This addresses the very core of our lack of faith. There’s a difference in knowing what the scriptures say and knowing the scriptures.
For example, I can read a book on a famous person, I could recite to you all the major achievements of that person’s life, all their failures and if you didn’t know much about me, you might think that the person I was talking about was a friend of mine. The truth is, I just know about them. I really don’t know them.
There’s a lot of that going on in the body of Christ. People know about the scriptures, I hear it when I counsel people, they’ll tell me, I know that’s what the scriptures say, but!
What they’re telling me is when it comes to knowing the truth of the scriptures and experiencing them for their selves, they’re clueless.
The question you need to ask yourself this morning, which person side of the fence am I on? If you want to operate in faith, you must go from the Logos word (the written word) to the Rhema word (the living word).
You’ll never really ever know the power of God unless you experience the power of the Word! Jesus said it himself, “you do err not knowing the scripture, nor the power of God”
You can’t have a casual attitude about the Word and expect to experience the power of the Word! It just won’t happen. It’s got to get into your mind and it must get into your spirit.
Faith and the Word of God are inseparable. Rom 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
It is the Word of God that the Holy Spirit uses to awaken a response of faith in us. If you have a faith problem, then more than likely you have a hearing problem too.
How many times have you sat through a church service and you didn’t really hear what was being preached. Don’t sit there trying to act spiritual. I think we’re all guilty of that one time or another.
You were there in body but your mind was off somewhere else. You were thinking about your problems, how am I going to get through this crisis? I don’t know where the money is going to come from. Or I wonder where we’re going to go for lunch.
There are believers that go to church every week and when they leave that service they say, I’m not any better than I was. But my question to them is did they “hear” the word so it could produce faith in your life?
Be a person of the Word and ask God to open the scriptures up to you.
Another reason God can’t move is due to sin present
Satan has a lot of people fooled into believing that once they go to an alter and pray, then they’re okay for the rest of their life. But then problems arise and they wonder where’s God at in all of this.
You need to understand something. God is not going to be mocked, you can’t live any way that you want and still expect God’s blessings upon your life. Listen to what the Word says in Galatians 6:
Gal 6:7-9 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
Every one sitting here this morning is producing some kind of harvest in your life. There may be some of you that it seems all you seem to reap is misery and problems and heartaches. There are others that are reaping blessings in their life.
Your harvest is determined by the seed you plant. If you want a harvest of blessings upon your life, then you can’t be sowing in sin. Listen to what the Psalmist said:
Ps 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”
Sin shuts down the communication process between you and God. Actually what that verse is saying, if I have sin in my heart, God chooses not to listen to me until I come to Him with a prayer of repentance. He hears you, but He chooses to resist you or ignore you because you’re coming before Him with sin, and He can not stand sin.
I’ve always been puzzled about people who keep resisting the voice of God, who keeps on sinning if after that the Lord has dealt with them about it and then they get mad at God when they don’t get a prayer answered.
It’s time that we realize that God isn’t our honey pot. He’s not just a blessing machine. He’s the only one and true Holy God, that resists sin and will judge sin when it’s in our life.
There’re too many Christians that are playing games with God and the refuse to deal with the sin question in their life.
You need to realize something, not everyone that’s in the body of Christ will be part of the Bride of Christ. Jesus is coming back after a Bride that’s without spot or blemish. Not everyone that says Lord, Lord is going to enter into heaven.
For years we’ve always looked at getting to heaven as a one step process, but it’s not. The first step is Christ forgiving you of your sins, that’s God’s part. Then step two is our part. We must do the will of the father.
Matt 7:21-23 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Can I share something with you out of love church? I’m afraid for some of you. I don’t have any doubt that you’ve asked Christ into your heart, but I look at some of your lives and I don’t see you entering into the second step. You’re not doing the will of the Father, you’re not actively working for the Kingdom of God. And the part that bothers me is that it don’t seem to bother you.
Why do you come to church? Is it out of duty or is it because your love for Christ? If your relationship with God has gotten to the place where you’re just operating out of duty, then you need to do some serious soul searching and ask God to renew a right Spirit in you. You’re in danger of missing heaven.
When your fleshly appetites out weigh your Spiritual appetite, you’re in danger of missing heaven.
I’m telling you these things out of love this morning. Jesus is coming back after a church that’s on fire for Him. He’s coming after a people who are hungry for Him. He’s coming back after people who are doing the will of the Father.
You might be saying to yourself, I don’t believe it preacher. God’s moving in my life. Listen, because you’ve asked Christ to come into your life, God’s obligated by His word to take care of you, and He’s doing that. He’s given you a roof over your head and a car. Food on your table. But deep inside of you, you know you’re lacking something.
You will never enter into the fullness of the relationship God intended for to have as long as you keep pushing Him away. God is looking for a reason to bless you, the Word tells us if we delight ourselves in the Lord that He will give us the desires of our life, but you keep pushing Him away.
Sin is not something we can afford in our life. Sin keeps God from blessing you like He wants too.
Conclusion:
There’s nothing that you’re facing this morning that God can’t take care of. God doesn’t have a Y2K problem, His Word still works, God has not retired, but He’s waiting for your life line up to His requirements.
What’s your need this morning. Do feel like your prayers have been hindered? Do you feel like your relationship with God is not what it needs to be?
I challenge you this morning to look deep inside yourself. Quit giving up so easy. Quit trusting everything else as your source instead of God.
