The God Of The Extra

Three Kings not to mention all their armies, and animals found themselves in a desperate situation (they had went seven days in the wilderness and they had no water).

This is a dilemma: water is a necessity of life, it’s not an extra or luxury it’s necessary to sustain life. Without it you die.

*The King of Israel starts blaming God for their dilemma. (it was his fault not God's).

This King was a bad influence.

Sometimes the biggest problem we have is our friendship circle, (wrong associations).

You need to refine your friendship circle and eliminate all the whiners and complainers, sift out all the doubters and pouters.

Have a deliverance service and deliver yourself from people with no vision, and no passion, who spend all their time wallowing in self-pity.

*Wrong associations will kill you, they will kill your joy, kill your vision, kill your passion, and kill your faith.

*If it hadn’t been for King Jehoshaphat who knew the power of a word from God they would have all died in the wilderness.

He asked, is there not a prophet here that we may inquire of the Lord?

*Jehoshaphat knew: one word from God can change everything.

Now I have preached on this subject before, but I’m getting some more light on the subject that I feel the Holy Spirit wants us to know.

Make this valley full of ditches, not exactly the word you want to hear when you're in the middle of a desert dying of thirst.

Make this valley full of ditches. If you have ever dug ditches then you know it’s hard work. And it’s especially difficult when the ground is hard and dry.

Here they were in a wilderness, a dry, desert valley place, a low place. And in this place, this low, dry, desert place, the word of the Lord says dig ditches.

It was hard slow and difficult work, no doubt their hands were bleeding, their backs were sore, their arms were aching, their shoulders were aching, and to top it all off, their thirst was becoming unbearable.

Maybe that describes what you're feeling right now.

-You have to force yourself to praise the Lord.

-You have to force yourself to pray.

-You have to force yourself to read the Bible.

-You have to force yourself to go to church.

I think if we’re honest about it, we have all experienced that at one time or another. But the important thing to understand is this…

It’s not supposed to be a permanent condition. Yes we may pass through the wilderness, but it’s supposed to be a temporary inconvenience, not a life time condition.

*David said yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He didn't say he was going to build his house there and retire there.

But the only way to get through these dry times is to keep on moving, keep on digging, keep on praying, keep on praising, keep on sowing, keep on coming to church.

What do you do when you’re going through the fire? You keep on walking.

What do you do when you’re going through the Red Sea and the Egyptian army is closing in on you? You keep on walking.

What do you do when you find yourself in the Valley of the shadow of death? You keep on walking.

So these kings got a word from God. But what is so amazing to me is that when God gave them the word, he gave them extra. Why? Because he’s the God of the extra.

Extra means… more than what is usual, more than necessary, more than what is expected.

They just came for water. They were fearful for their lives. They thought they were going to die. They didn't come to the prophet with great faith expecting great miracles.

Their greatest hope or expectation was that somehow and someway, God could get enough water to them to survive, and crawl their way out of the desert.

*So all that was on their minds was survival. If I can just get through this sickness, if I can just get through this divorce, if I can just get through this financial problem. If I can just get a drink. I’m not asking for much Lord… I just want a drink. Just enough to get me through this.

We deal with the very same thing today.

So many in the body of Christ have come out of the Egypt of never enough, but they got stuck in the wilderness of just enough.

And the sad thing is that so many of God's children are satisfied to remain in the wilderness of just enough, when the Spirit of God is beckoning them to push through to the land of more than enough.