Until You Die?
Loving security keeps us from receiving God’s best. We don’t want to take any risks. We play it way too safe.
And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.
2 Kings 7:3-4
The Syrians had come and besieged Israel. The famine became so bad in the city that in the previous chapter, the Israelites were selling animal dung for outrageous prices, and people were even eating their own children (2 Kings 6:24-29).
These four lepers were discussing their situation at the gate of the city. They said, “Let’s go out and ask our enemies for help. The worst they can do is kill us. We’re going to die if we sit here. If we go into the city, we’ll die by famine. The only chance we have is to go out to our enemies. If they kill us, we die. But if they help us, we’ll live. Let’s do it!”
And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.
2 Kings 7:5-8
Zeros to Heroes
Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household. So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. And he called the porters; and they told it to the king’s house within.
2 Kings 7:9-11
The Lord made the Syrians hear a sound and they became so afraid that they fled. They left their food still cooking in the pots and all of their gold, silver, and fine clothes in their tents. Their animals—both horses and donkeys—were still tied up. They didn’t even bother to try to saddle up and ride them away, such was their haste to escape. When these lepers arrived at the Syrian camp, there was this abundance waiting for them. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian soldiers had fled and left all their stuff behind.
The four lepers started eating and drinking. They went into a tent and took all they could possibly take, then they went and hid their loot and came back for more. It dawned on them, “We aren’t doing well. This is a day of rejoicing. We must go and tell the starving people in the besieged city what has happened!” So, they went back and told them. These four lepers went from zeros to heroes in a matter of hours because they were willing to take a risk. They asked themselves, “How long are we just going to sit here? Until we die?”
Maybe you’re not content where you are, but you aren’t doing anything about it because you’re afraid that it might not work out. You need to understand that you’ll never see a change in your situation if you’re not willing to take a risk.
Personally, I’m taking a huge risk right now. This $60 million building project that I was sharing about earlier is just the tip of the iceberg. The Lord has told me to raise up a Bible college campus that has student housing, activity centers, and more. We’ll be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to do it, and I haven’t got any of it. I’m taking a risk. It would be easy to just sit down and stop. Right now, we have approximately 6,000 people worldwide receiving training through our various Charis Bible College campuses, our correspondence program, and online distance learning programs. We are impacting nations! We’ve met with presidents and first ladies of different countries. We’re seeing miracles happen. I’m experiencing some of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in my life regarding outreach and ministry. I could just stop, sit down, and camp right here. I could play it safe, but God’s given me a bigger vision.
How Long Are You Going to Sit There?
I’m believing for more than I’ve ever believed for in my life! It’s risky. Some people think, Well, you could fail. Well, I might. But so what? I believe that even if I fail, God will look at me and say, “At least you tried.”
Remember when your child started to learn how to ride a bike? They didn’t do everything right immediately. They made mistakes and fell a few times. They’d get on and wobble a bit, then they’d fall off and skin their knees. But what parent would go up to their child after a fall and say, “You sorry thing! If you had done what I told you, this wouldn’t have happened. You’re a failure!” That’s not how you would talk to your child. You would say, “Hey, you went ten feet. See, you can do it! Get up and try again.” That’s the way God is with us.
God encourages us. Yes, some might die trying to believe God. But when they stand before the Lord, He’ll say, “That’s My child. You believed Me. You didn’t receive the full manifestation of what I had for you before you came home, but you believed!”
Are you a person who has never failed because you’ve never done anything? Anybody can live like that. Your lost neighbor can live like that, because that type of living doesn’t take any faith. I’m not pointing this out to condemn you; I’m just trying to stir you up. How long are you going to sit there? Until you die? Time is ticking. You might not be a spring chicken anymore, and perhaps you’re over halfway home. What have you done? What’s going to change? What will make things different in the future? You’re going to have to get up and do something!
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. Are you praying for different results? Are you hoping for everything to change, yet you’re afraid to do anything differently? Maybe you love security so much that you won’t take a chance. You’d rather be secure and miserable than make a change. You’d rather stay a slave in Egypt, eating leeks and garlic, than follow God out through the wilderness toward your promised land. Are you on the edge looking in but afraid to enter because it might mean having to fight some giant? Get up and go take your land!
The Lord spoke to me on January 31, 2002, and told me that I was limiting Him by my small thinking. I had started broadcasting on television two years before that and from January 2000 to January 2002, our ministry had doubled. I thought that was pretty good, but then the Lord spoke to me about how I was limiting Him. You can read more about this in my book entitled Don’t Limit God, but the point is that I decided I wasn’t going to keep limiting Him that way. I started to think differently—to think bigger. That was just fourteen years ago, and our ministry has grown at least twenty times larger since then. Everything has been totally transformed. I’ve been living on the edge. Every time it looks like we have our feet under us and we’re just about to make it, God increases my vision and I just lean a little further. Amen!
ALL Used Up
This really challenges my staff and family sometimes. Jamie and I were at church one day, and the minister was preaching along the lines of needing to stir ourselves up and believe God. He said, “If you need to increase your vision, stand up, and I’m going to pray for you.” My wife put her hand on my knee, leaned over, and said, “Don’t you dare stand up! We’re believing big enough right now.” This kind of living terrifies some people, but I’m going for it!
When I die, I don’t want there to be any juice left in me. I want to give everything I’ve got for God’s kingdom—to have it ALL used up. I don’t want to stand before the Lord and have to hear Him say, “I asked you to do this and that, but you didn’t do it because you were afraid that it wouldn’t work out.” I’d rather try and trust God and risk failing and falling flat on my face, than do nothing at all and be a success at it.
I believe this is ringing your bell. Before you can receive God’s best, you must understand that the eyes of the Lord are looking at your heart right now. Is it fully committed to Him, or is it just embracing life the way everybody else does it? Are you choosing to aim high, or just shooting for nothing and hitting it every time? Are various fears and small thinking limiting what He can do in your life? Have you not been shooting for God’s best?
The first step toward receiving God’s best for you is to quit accepting less than His best. You need to raise the standard, but not through guilt and condemnation. Don’t say, “O God, I’m a terrible person because I’ve not stepped out in faith.” No, the Lord loves you just like you are, but He loves you so much that He doesn’t want to leave you where you are. He wants to raise you up to a higher level. God wants you to believe for His best, but it’s not going to come to pass for you accidentally. You’re going to have to set God’s best as your goal and pursue it.
Just like those lepers, you’re going to have to stir yourself up and say, “How long am I going to sit here? Until I die?” How long are you just going to keep wishing and hoping instead of taking a step of faith? You need to do something. You need to stir yourself up, or you’ll just settle back down again to the bottom.
Believe for Something Bigger
I know this isn’t comfortable. You probably weren’t expecting this kind of a message; maybe you don’t even like it. But I’m trying to provoke you to do the right thing and take the step of faith that God is showing you.
Before you can go any further in learning about how to receive God’s best, you must change your expectancy. You have to change your aim and begin looking for something more. Don’t get condemned, and don’t do something stupid, but don’t stay where you are. Say, “God, I want Your best. I want to accomplish everything You have for me!” We serve a big God! He thinks big. There’s not a person alive who has tapped into everything the Lord has for him. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve gone, how much you’ve believed, or how much you’ve received—God has more! He’s huge. He’s supernatural!
If your life isn’t supernatural, then it’s superficial. If somebody looks at you and says, “Well, how did you do that,” and you can explain how you did it, then you haven’t tapped into God yet. If you can point to yourself and take pride in everything you’ve done, then you haven’t come into God. He will bring you beyond yourself. He’ll ask you to do something that’s bigger than you so that you’ll have to depend on Him. Then the only answer you can give will be, “It’s not me. It’s the Lord. He did it. Only the blessing of God could make these things work out this way.”
Most Christians haven’t stretched themselves very far. They aren’t believing for much. They just want to get over this little hump so that they can go back to watching television or whatever it was they were doing. I’m telling you, there’s more to life than that. You ought to be living for something that’s bigger than you. You ought to be living for something worth dying for. When you wake up in the morning, you should be excited. You’ve got more to do than what you can accomplish in a lifetime. Every day should be exciting because you’re just so busy out there, stretching forward in faith to fulfill what God has led you to do.
For me, it’s like I’m on a roller coaster and hanging on for dear life. I’m not in control. God tells me to do things, and I say, “Okay, here we go!” Man, that’s exciting!
Have you been wondering why your life isn’t exciting? It’s because God can’t give you a sense of satisfaction, joy, and peace over what you’re doing because He made you for more than that. He wants to raise your vision and lift up your head. Are you ready to believe for something bigger?