Your Miracle Is In Your Mouth (2 page)

How You See Determines How You’ll Receive

There was a young man in our church who was having a tough time with his business partner. He finally gave up his share of the business to his partner. As a result, he was without a job for a while. During that time, I had been preaching a series of messages on how our heavenly Father takes care of everything, and how all we need to do is trust Him.

The young man applied this message to his work life and prayed for a better job. He saw God as a powerful and loving Father, and simply left the matter in God’s hands. It wasn’t long before he was offered a great job. He was given the role of business manager for an engineering company in the oil and gas industry, even though he didn’t have an engineering background and was only 25 years old!

This new role basically is to run the company’s local subsidiary with another manager. He works from home and his hours are flexible. He also gets along well with the sales development manager and he says the salary is “pretty good”. Not bad for someone who needed a new job! When you see God as a giving and gracious Father, it becomes easy to receive what you need from Him, whether it is a new job, healing or a financial breakthrough.

Now, some of you may say, “Pastor Prince, we can’t always expect God to deliver us from our troubles because He may use difficult circumstances to teach us important lessons.”

Listen to me, if you are drowning and you call out to God to save you, God is not going to take the opportunity to give you a 10-lesson swimming course. He is not going to say, “Okay, step one: Kick. Now, progress to step two: Move your hands. Step three: Breathe… ”Anyone who does that is cruel!

No, God would not do that! He will save you straightaway! He will grab you and bring you to shore. Remember when Peter decided he wanted to walk out on the water to meet Jesus? When he began to doubt and sink, he cried, “
Lord, save me!”
Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him. (Matthew 14:30–31) He didn’t use the opportunity to give Peter a 10-point faith course! He saved Peter immediately.

Faith Works Best When You Know God’s Love For You

Beloved, in your time of need, receiving from God becomes easy if you will see Him as a gracious Father who responds immediately to your cries. You will then expect a miracle from a God of mercy, not some painful, lengthy lesson from a God of judgment.

Don’t get me wrong, God does teach us, but He doesn’t teach us
with
accidents, tragedies or sicknesses.

So how does God teach us? He uses His Word to discipline or train us. If there is an area of your life that needs to be corrected, God will speak to your heart about it, perhaps through a sermon or even through your spouse! You may not like what you hear, but you need to know that He is doing it for your benefit because you are His son or daughter and He loves you. (Hebrews 12:5–11)

I want to challenge you: What kind of God do you really see? Do you still see an angry God who likes to point out your mistakes and knock you on your head? Or do you see a gracious, giving Father?

chapter
2

The Reason You Can Receive

chapter 2

The Reason You Can Receive

Two Pictures Of Christ That Demonstrate How Much God Loves You

L
et me show you two pictures of Christ in the Old Testament that demonstrate how gracious God is to His people, in spite of all their complaints. When you see Him as He really is — a gracious, giving Father — it will put so much faith in your heart to receive from Him that if it’s a miracle you need, it’s a miracle you’ll get!

The first picture is in Exodus 17. The second one is in Numbers 20. In both passages, Jesus is typified as a rock from which water flows to provide refreshment to the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness.

How do we know that the rock represents Jesus? In 1 Corinthians 10:4, Paul tells us that the rock was Christ:

⁴
and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ
.

Jesus is the supplier of all our needs. The waters that flowed from the rock typify all that we need in life, be it health, prosperity, a better relationship with a loved one, a new job, a new house… Whatever we need flows from Jesus our Rock.

So when you see these two pictures of Christ in the two passages, and how God loves you so much that He gave His Son to be beaten so that you can be blessed, you will catch the heart of God towards you and receiving from Him then becomes easy. You will begin to expect God to meet your needs because you know the kind of God that He is.

Jesus Is The Source Of Water That Quenches Our Thirst

The first picture of Christ that I want you to see is in Exodus 17:1–6:

¹
Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.
²
Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.” So Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord?”
³
And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
⁴
So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!”
⁵
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go.
⁶
Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel
.

The story speaks of Christ the Rock being smitten on the cross so that rivers of blessings can flow to us.

In the story, the Israelites had just come out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea. They travelled from place to place according to the commandment of the Lord and camped at a place called Rephidim.

But there was no water there for the people to drink, so they told Moses,
“Give us water, that we may drink.”
Moses replied,
“Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord?”

The people continued their aggression. They were thirsty and they accused Moses of bringing them out of Egypt to
“kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst”
. They were so angry with Moses that they wanted to stone him!

Moses’ response was to turn to the Lord. This is the best action to take when we face challenges. Moses cried out to the Lord,
“What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!”

A Grumbling People And A Gracious God

Now, we see here that the thirsty children of Israel were ready to kill Moses! And this was not the first time the children of Israel had stood in opposition to God’s appointed leader. Earlier on, in Exodus 15, when the people arrived at Marah and found the water bitter, they grumbled against Moses. Then, when they reached the Wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16), they grumbled against Moses again, accusing him of bringing them out into the desert to starve to death.

Despite their grumbling, the Lord was gracious to them and He told Moses how to provide water for them. He said,
“Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.”

So Moses did as he was commanded and the people drank the water that flowed from the rock. Isn’t God gracious? He looks beyond His people’s faults and sees their needs! He didn’t scold them. He didn’t send fire down from heaven to fry them! He didn’t say to Moses, “Step aside, I’m going to liquefy them!” Instead, He gave them water to drink.

Only Jesus can satisfy the world’s thirst and hunger!

Even when the Israelites grumbled earlier in Exodus 16 because they were hungry, do you know what God said to Moses? He said,
“Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you.”
(Exodus 16:4) His response was to give them bread to eat every day. And it was no ordinary bread! He gave them more than they had asked for. He gave them bread from heaven!

The bread represents Jesus, who is the true bread from heaven. When Jesus walked on earth, He said,
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
(John 6:35) The water represents His unlimited supply and refreshment. Only Jesus can satisfy the world’s thirst and hunger!

God saw beyond His people’s grumbling. He didn’t just see their physical needs, He saw their need for a Saviour. He gave them water and bread to meet their physical needs, but He also gave them the living water and the bread of life to meet their spiritual needs as well.

God Loves You Despite Your Disobedience

My friend, you may be like the Israelites, complaining to God because of your difficult circumstances. You may not be happy with God. You may be resisting His call on your life. But God still loves you despite your complaints, your disobedience or your wrong behaviour. Be sure of this: It is His goodness, not His judgment, that will lead you to repentance. (Romans 2:4)

I’m not encouraging you to be bad or to continue in disobedience, but even when you blow it, God doesn’t hold your sin against you. (Romans 4:8) God doesn’t bless you or withhold blessings from you based on what you’ve done right or what you’ve done wrong.

You may wonder about this and ask, “Pastor Prince, has God gone soft then? Has He lowered His standards of holiness?” No, He hasn’t! Despite what you do or don’t do, the reason God blesses you is that Jesus was obedient to the point of death. God blesses you because of His Son’s work on the cross, not because of your good works. His blessings in your life are the result of
His
obedience, not your obedience! It is
His
beating, not your beating, that results in the blessings in your life!

He Was Beaten So That We Can Be Blessed

How do we know that it is Jesus’ beating that brought forth the water for the Israelites in the desert? Well, we know that a rock had to be struck. And we know from 1 Corinthians 10:4 that the rock God told Moses to strike was Christ —
“and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”

In Exodus 17:6, the Lord Himself declared,
“Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.”
Now, this is one of the most remarkable statements in this story. When I first read it, it touched my heart. The Lord told Moses to hit the rock. But who was standing there? The Lord Himself! It is a picture of Christ the Rock being smitten on the cross for our sins!

The nails in the cross did not keep Him on the cross. It was His love for you that kept Him there!

The judgment and punishment of God were meant to fall on us because of our sins, but Jesus stepped in front of us and “boom!” — the beating fell on Him instead! He stepped in and absorbed the blow for us. He was beaten so that we can be blessed!

The water that flowed out of the rock represents the blessings we need, whether it is health, prosperity, protection or peace. Now, it’s up to us whether we drink it or not. God has done His part, so just reach out and receive.

How many of you have seen kids hitting a
piñata
at a party? When they are blindfolded, the kids use sticks or clubs to hit the
piñata
packed with goodies. When the
piñata
breaks open, all the goodies flow out and the kids rush around collecting whatever goodies they can find.

The Bible says that all the fullness of the Godhead is in Jesus. (Colossians 2:9) He is full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) So when God’s rod of judgment struck Jesus — He was like a
piñata
— all the blessings of God burst out for us to receive! He was like the alabaster flask of very costly ointment that was broken so that the ointment of God could flow out for us to receive!

Beloved, Jesus went to the cross so that you can be blessed. He laid down His life willingly for you. The nails in the cross did not keep Him on the cross. It was His love for you that kept Him there!