I hoped to have written this before we entered 2014. But as it can be for each of us from time to time, I was so consumed with meeting other's needs at work, home and community, that I did not take time to get this done. My apologies. Here is part II of this blog post.
We last spoke about expecting and what to expect from God. Once you make up your mind to change your mind to expecting the "right" things of God, you can move to Declaring and Proclaiming. "Name it and Claim it" only works if your declarations line up with the will and wisdom of God. Matthew 7:7 says, "ask and you shall receive..." and then a couple of verses later Jesus relates this to a parent giving good gifts to their children. If you are a parent or can relate to being a child with expectations of a parent you can better understand how the principle of asking and receiving works. A loving parent will give "good" gifts to their children, that being the best they can give and only things that will bless and not harm them. If your child asks for a Maserati at the age of 12, most parents that can afford that vehicle would not give it at that time since the child would have no driver's license and more than likely lack the maturity to manage such an expensive gift. The parent would consider that if they did give that particular gift there would be great risk to the child's life at this time, even the risk of death due to an accident. So as much as the child may admire the Maserati, can imagine themselves driving it and have picked the perfect color, the wise parent would not give it as their life is more valuable than that particular gift. Not only that car, but any car would be off the table for this time.
However, when the child matures, graduates college, starts work and can handle responsibilities-say in their late-20"s or 30"s, the parent may remember their childhood request and give them that Maserati even without their asking again. For the parent recognizes the growth and readiness of the child to receive the gift and remembers the desire to have it. Likewise, God does us the same way. He may have everything but He won't give us anything we are not ready for even if we do ask. But once we are ready and it is good for us, He will do it. This is most often the reason we ask repeatedly for something and it does not manifest when we want. We must prepare in whichever way God needs for us to in order to receive and retain the gifts He gives without losing ourselves.
Therefore, we expect only the best from God; we expect Him to only give what we are ready for that will not harm or hinder us and THEN we declare those things shall come to pass. We proclaim the faithfulness and love of God in order to encourage us as we wait in preparation. We proclaim in a position of worship those things that will glorify Him whether we have received or not, and we continually affirm our unwavering faith through declaring that He will do it. Again, in James 1:17, the scripture declares that every good and perfect gift comes from The Father. The same analogy in Matthew to help us understand how to ask, what to expect, what to declare and what to proclaim. This is going to be a phenomenal year as we work to prepare our minds for action (I Peter 1:13) and live out the destinies for which we were born into the earth. Only the best belongs to you.
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