You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures. James 4:3
When we went from word of faith / name it and claim it Christianity, to simple obedience and surrender, everything changed.
If worldly success and influence with a side of “I'll use my platform to talk about Jesus” is the goal, you may want to start reading your whole Bible more, and not just cherry-picking verses like we were.
There is nothing wrong with prospering, and nothing wrong with confessing scripture and building your faith. However, when we use scripture to twist Yah's arm into giving us what we want instead of asking Him what His will is, we’ve got it backwards. When we are visualizing and manifesting things that He never meant for us to have, then we are walking in dangerous territory.
Many times, what my husband and I truly thought was the will of God for our lives actually wasn’t. Sometimes he would allow some success or some healing, and yes, even use it for His glory, but most of the time we were working our butts off and left wondering why isn’t God moving in this like we thought He would? Is our faith not strong enough? Did we not visualize it enough? Do we just need to work harder?
Sometimes we can be disappointed with God for not helping us climb the ladder of success, or angry with Him when he lets us completely fall off of it. Meanwhile, we fail to see that all along, we’ve had our ladder leaned up against the wrong building to begin with!
I don’t think it was a coincidence that after working so hard to get out of debt for so many years, breakthrough happened when we finally died to ourselves and gave it all to the Father. It was no longer "Lord, this is what we want to do and we're expecting you to bless it." but "Lord, your will be done. Tell us what to do." It was no longer "Lord, when we get out of debt and we get this or that, we will use it for your glory." but "Lord everything we have is yours and we will use it for your kingdom right now and if you want to bless us with a bigger house to pack more people in then so be it."
So He tested us to see if we would choose obedience over our dreams.
Even when it meant giving up the business that we thought would be our means to get out of debt.
Even when it meant getting rid of nearly everything we owned, and leaving friends and family to move across the country.
Even when the 3 months of renting while we look for property, turned into 3+ years.
It's amazing how after that surrender and simple obedience, He broke generational chains, and we became debt free at a supernatural pace that only the Lord could take the glory for.
For years, I did everything I could physically do to heal, confessed all the scriptures and renewed my mind, but it wasn’t until I finally died to my own ambitions and surrendered completely to the Lord that He delivered me from so much spiritual bondage and my healing excelled miraculously.
It's not a coincidence that this is when He finally revealed who I really was and entrusted me with His true purpose for my life.
Looking back, I see that sometimes we weren’t seriously asking Him what His will was out of fear of the answer we might receive. Other times our ability to clearly hear His will was hindered by idols we didn’t even know we had.
Don’t get me wrong, a bigger house/ property is definitely still on our prayer list, and I am still standing in faith for complete wholeness in my body, but it’s not so that we can "achieve our dreams" and “live our best life.” It’s so we can be even more effective in doing the will of our Heavenly Father; that HIS glory may be revealed.
Not our will Lord, but yours be done, and in Your perfect timing.
In the meantime, we will use the health and resources you’ve already given to us to advance your Kingdom, for your glory.
Everything is His. Give me Jesus.
