Increase Me?

Increase Me?

    I was sitting here at work and I was listening to Donald Lawrence Bless Me Indeed. As I was listening to it I was hearing in my spirit all that God has and had been saying to me concerning the next level of my life and spiritual walk. Then I began to think about the prayer of Jabez (the prayer the song comes from) that was so popular back in the day to the point that a book was written about the prayer which is only a few lines biblically and after that even Jabez himself (to my recollection) isn't mention. While thinking about all of this I came to the realization that while everyone in the body of Christ enjoys that song and that scripture and that book and even more pray that type of prayer most don't know what that actually entails for them. So much so that when the enlargement process starts they themselves fall. Understand that being enlarged means that you are being increased in size, amount, strength, or quality. To augment. This means that at some point in time you are being stretched. This stretching is more than just a slight pull. But a full stretching. When one goes to stretch their natural muscles what happens is they are pulling them in order to prepare them for work (hint hint). Another type of stretching is to extend something and make it longer to be able to hold more or encompass more. Now while that may sound enticing the fact remains that the thing being stretched whether it's muscles or something else is being pulled beyond it's normal position which I bet if those things could talk they would tell you it hurts. Now the song and the prayer asks God to enlarge the territory but one must understand before God can or will enlarge your territory HE is going to have to first enlarge (increase) your vision and your mind. That means you must first be stretched before your territory can be stretched because in order to get bigger you must first be bigger. This prayer and expression of Oh God that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory has become so cliché that we often say it without thought to what it actually means for our lives. You are asking God to increase things around you but yet aren't willing to increase yourself. The bible teaches us that you can't pour new wine into old wineskins. The reason is because the old wineskin or container will explode and spill the new wine all over the floor and make it useless. Now let's relate that another way. What good does it do you or God for HIM to stretch and increase your territory and you have yet to learn how to or even prepare to learn how to handle that increase. You will go in it with an old mentality, which is one that won't work in the new territory and what will happen is you will mess it up and thus taint the land that has been given to you. That blood is on your hands.  

   Today is the national day of prayer and my wife sent me an article she saw dealing with it. That article was so clear it's ridiculous. The article basically said we waste a lot of time praying and asking God to do things HE has already given us the power and the authority to do, HE's made it within the realm of human possibility. Let me make that practical, how many of you pray when you get up and ask God to dress you (not what you should wear but actually dress you)? My hope is that none of you are that foolish to ask God that. Now, why is that foolish? It's foolish because you can very well dress yourself so there is no need to ask God to dress you. We do the same thing in our prayer life. We ask God to do things HE has already commanded us and given us the authority and ability to do yet we ask HIM because we are lazy and use HIM as a genie and a crutch to do what we should be doing.  Preparing for our next level when we ask for increase is one of those things we are to be doing ourselves. How dare we ask God to increase us and we aren't making preparation for the increase! How dare we ask God for the next level then complain because we are being stretched passed our comfort zone! How dare we ask God for increase and we aren't willing to do the work once the increase comes! You wanted more territory, you wanted the next level, you wanted the blessing, now you must do the work.

  To whom much is given much is required. So now the much is coming now you are responsible for it. That's a big part of the reason a lot of us aren't given anything because God knows we won't put in the work to make sure that its kept right, treated right, done right. Our increase won't ever come until we learn how to do for ourselves as God instructs us to do. Until we stop complaining about the stretching because we know that it is God doing it and HIS purpose is to build you not destroy you. Until we learn that while the stretching is going on, yes it is going to hurt, yes it's painful but it's necessary to equip you for what God has planned for you. Learn the lessons now so that you are better prepared then. Bless me and enlarge my territory God, no how about God prepare me first that I might be able to handle the blessing and the increase. It's not a comfortable process as I am learning. I am being stretched and pulled in ways I never thought I would be. I am going through things I have never had to face. I am dealing with issues I never had to deal with. I am finding out more about me in this process than I thought possible because I thought I knew myself. However, it has been worth it. So Lord continue to do what you are doing in me that I may be prepared to walk into my season as I take the limits off you and allow you to increase my territory which means first increasing and stretching me. Help me not to fight it but to go with it, help me not to complain about it but praise through it. And even in my fleshy moments God allow grace to cover me and your wisdom to guide me that I may see it, repent of it, and turn from it. Bless me oh God and enlarge my territory, that YOUR hand would be with me, and that YOU would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!
(I Chronicles 4:10). Remember to grow in God's grace and abide in HIS love.