A Call to Enlarge
/Expect great things from God,
attempt great things for God and
receive great things from God”
William Carey
Needless to say, we’re living in the most unusual of times. The rattling, the shaking, and the unraveling all around are real, and they will possibly get worse. Human agony and suffering are louder than ever heard, and human desperation is at a peak. But, thankfully for us, fear does not and indeed must not drive life and its choices.
The crisis for you and me is whether we continue to listen to the world or we intentionally seek and listen to God's Word for us.
From where our Father sits on the Throne, fear is irrelevant because nothing stands against Him. All through history God has challenged weak and broken people who had either given up or were about to give up while facing their mountains:
“Is anything too difficult for the Lord?”
(Genesis 18:14)He diligently teaches this foundational truth to His children in every generation.
Right in the midst of this fear-driven season, when the world is in paralysis, He - true to His sovereign nature – is quietly advancing His Kingdom! In the midst of the pandemic with all our media-fed eyes on only death and gloom, Heaven is quietly advancing, gaining ground, winning, and conquering the hearts of men, women, children, and families everywhere - even on death beds, in hospitals, in homes, in rural villages as well as in cities.
The King of Kings is depriving hell and populating Heaven in His own inimitable ways, using both very ordinary people and the not so ordinary – whoever is available. It is in this context we are given this verse.
“Enlarge the place of your tent.
Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not.
Lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs.”
(Isaiah 54:2)Though we are sons and daughters of The King, when we look at this world of crises, we are unwittingly taught fear by the world. The world doesn't know God and is reacting out of fear at the depletion of all its possibilities. The crisis for you and me is whether we continue to listen to the world or we intentionally seek and listen to God's Word for us. He operates at a far higher level beyond fear.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
(Isaiah 55:8-9)I believe God wants us to truly grapple and struggle with this call and challenge to expand, enlarge and grow which goes against all the current worldly wisdom which is to just hold on!
I believe God is saying the place or impact that you and I have and have come to accept as sufficient is not sufficient for these times when He is rescuing many, many more. He is saying it is time to stretch out so we can cover more and accommodate more, removing the partitions and divisions to make a bigger place.
God is calling forth a stretching out, an expansion. But He knows we tend to thwart a move of God that comes in new ways, through people we don’t expect. So, He’s asking us not to be the hindrance or the naysayers. God is saying our present cords have been tied too close and far short of the expansion that He is calling forth. Normally smaller tents need short cords and larger tents need longer and thicker cords. The bigger tent He is calling forth with its greater pull needs a thicker and stronger peg that also needs to be longer and driven much deeper. He is calling you and me to the next level!
Let's try to understand what this means for us practically.
A) Prayer: The Under-Utilized Power Tool
So much more could be achieved if only we prayed more. God is asking us to enlarge our prayer circle and to pray for things far away, things not even directly connected to us. We often do not realize the authority that you and I have as sons and daughters of the King to turn the tide of events for individuals, families, ministries, communities, cities and even nations through persistent prayer.
B) Heaven’s Treasure: Hunger for Souls
The recent season has found many of us distracted from the discipline of personal soul-winning. God is calling us to open our eyes for the perishing, people who are seeking firmer ground on which to stand in the midst of all the sinking sand. They are before each of us, willing and waiting for Hope.
C) Open-Hands: Generous Lives
• Financial: God is calling us to increase our financial giving. Leading to an increase in our embrace of the orphan, widow and the destitute. He wants us to increase our planning and provision for those who cannot do this for themselves - calling us to draw larger circle around people, communities and even nations.
• Mercy and Forgiveness: He is also inviting us to grow in our ability to forgive and to be merciful. As we increasingly need more of God mercy, let us also be more merciful to others needing it from us.
D) Resources Transfer: Increased Opportunities
I believe God is looking for men, women, families, businesses, and entities to whom He can entrust even more resources. He is seeking those who are not only good stewards but also openhanded servants who will pour resources back into Kingdom work. I anticipate He will increasingly transfer resources like lands, farms, and other assets to Kingdom-minded people to hold and use for His purposes to shelter, employ, enable, produce, and give refuge to those in need.
We have always stopped short of asking much from God during such open-door moments. Look at even Abraham who stopped with ‘ten righteous’ when interceding on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18:32. Nobody but he saw ten as the limit; he could have gone down to ‘four righteous’ and saved thousands. I wonder if he ever regretted not going down to four!
In II Kings 4 with the widow and her boys, I wonder if later they regretted not having borrowed even more vessels since they were forewarned by Elisha in verse 3 ‘to not get a few!’
Then again, we see King Joash visiting the prophet Elisha in II Kings 13:18. Being asked by Elisha to ‘strike the ground’ with arrows, Joash stops after only three strikes. Later he was scolded for stopping at three, instead of going on to five or six times.
The point in all of this is certainly not to judge any of the above, but realizing that such critical, pivotal open-door God moments are few in every lifetime. One such open–door God moment is now before all believers around the world: For the Bride to ask, and to ask much, of the Groom. Since seeking the lost is His heart’s singular purpose, He will not be found lagging in the provisions for the rescue.
We have a role model with the Apostle Paul in Acts 27. While sailing to Rome as a prisoner, his ship was caught in a severe storm, and Paul’s life was in danger. He asked God for every one of the lives on the ship. He, being a prisoner, was the lowest among all the ship’s passengers. But being a child of God, he asked for the maximum from God and received it! He could have very easily asked only for his own life or for a few people he knew, like we often would. Instead, his claim was for everyone on that ship - 276 souls!
Just remember that it is during crisis times God showcases His champions in whom and through whom He displays His Glory by turning their dead ends into new beginnings! The opportunities are all around us. What has been hidden to others will be revealed to you, His child. What has been denied to others until now, has been kept to be granted to His own.
God is calling us back to our earlier childlike innocent ability to eagerly ask. Let’s ask Him for not only our own needs but others’ needs and more - drawing a much larger circle around us than we do now, just like Paul did on that ship. Remember our Father drew a circle so large it includes the whole world, all of humanity. “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). One day in Heaven we will meet men, women, children, many unassuming people who had likewise drawn large circles around themselves, asking for what seemed impossible - people who had asked much and also received much.
A pivotal open-door God moment is now before every one of us with a chance to see God display His power and glory. May many know Him as their Lord, through our obedience to His call to Enlarge!
Amen!
