8 Were not the Cushites[b] and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen[c]? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. 9 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…”
While I loved the Lord dearly, and constantly tried my best to follow His commands and precepts, I seemed to come up “short” much more often than I felt I should have. There were still far too many aborted dreams, to many incomplete assignments, to many unfulfilled desires. In short, there were some things promised to us as believers that I was just not seeing manifest in my life, and those that did, seemed to take an inordinate amount of time. You know, like the children of Israel, I seemed to be spending too much time in the wilderness. Its one thing if that is the place God has you to be for a season, but it is an entirely different thing if we are remaining in the wilderness, because of our own doing. If we have what we need to progress right in the midst of us, what is preventing us from taking hold of it?
The answer, I found, was that I still trying to accomplish far too much on my own, in my own limited secular power; the keywords here being “my” and “secular.” You see, what I wanted was the manifestations and fruit of a life lived in the Spirit, in the Supernatural realm of Christ, but I was trying to obtain it by secular or natural means. How bad did I want change? What was I willing to do? What would this change require of me? There are many things in terms of Christian living and many testimonies we read of others who have experienced miraculous things – when we read them, we can easily say, nothing like that is happening in my life, but then when we read further, and discover the events leading up to this, we discover the life of prayer these persons had – we can also easily say, nothing in my life is happening like this. You see, I found that we simply don’t have much of what we desire in God, because we are really not willing to do what it takes to have it. Namely, first and foremost – develop a lifestyle of prayer.
We simply do not pray enough. We pray on Sundays during worship, and before we eat. Maybe, when we get up in the morning; for a few moments, or a few moments before we go to bed a night. We fail to realize how often the word of God tells us that Prayer is the vehicle through which we communicate with the Father. And if we are working to develop a relationship with Him, then certainly we cannot forego the one act in which we participate and fellowship with Him in. Prayer.
Through prayer, we begin to learn how to engage intimately the Father and the Holy Spirit, so that we are able to tap into the realm of prosperous living – we are promised as a believer.
Let me pause for a moment, to make clear what I mean by prosperity. In short, I am not talking primarily about getting the “stuff and things” of this world; but I am talking about seeing manifestation and answers to my prayers concerning the health and wellness of my family, the breaking of generational curses, including those of poverty and a lack of stewardship in the area of financial management. I’m speaking of walking in such a way that no matter how much God increases what I need to fulfill His purposes in the Kingdom or what I need to care for my family, I constantly see these needs met and exceeded.
I never wanted my testimony to be one that talked about how I had lived a life of trouble and pain, toiling my way through. Sure, this is a part of living a Christian life, but it is not the entire part – these are the persecutions the Lord promised we would face. But lets not forget the Blessings. I wanted a relationship with God like the prophets of old – so in touch with Him, that I could call on Him in a moments notice, and be sure He would hear and answer my prayer. I wanted to be able to testify daily of how the Lord had come through in Power – in the “situations” of my life.
Living beyond your means; this is not just something that is available to us but something that is required of us if we are going to walk out our destiny, God’s will for our lives. Let us purpose ourselves to MAKE the time to build our relationship with Christ, and we will then marvel as His presence in our life manifests in the miracles, signs, and wonders He desires to do through us for the purpose of building the Kingdom of God.
Copyright 2011 - Victoria L. Burse
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