New Year's Day | Louis Kotze | 1 January 2017
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We serve a big God who wants us to think big, ask boldly and expect Him to do even bigger than we could imagine!
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New Year's Day | Louis Kotze | 1 January 2017
- 2. We serve a big God We need to ask Him for big things!
- 3. Louis Kotze
- 5. Ask yourself •How big is God to you? •How big can you ask?
- 6. • All powerful – “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; And how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?” Job 26:14 (NASB) • All knowing – Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite. Psalm 147:5 (NASB) • All present – “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 23:24 (NASB) Big God
- 7. Ask big • “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7 (NASB) • And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. Galatians 4:6-7 (NLT)
- 8. Ask boldly • “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 (NASB) • ‘… you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.’ James 4:2-3 (NKJV)
Editor's Notes
- 'Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us …' Ephesians 3:20 (NASB)
- Omnipotent. Omnipresent. Omniscient. He is all-powerful, all-present, and all-knowing. “He spreads the skies over unformed space, hangs the earth out in empty space. He pours water into cumulus cloud-bags and the bags don’t burst. He makes the moon wax and wane, putting it through its phases. He draws the horizon out over the ocean, sets a boundary between light and darkness. Thunder crashes and rumbles in the skies. Listen! It’s God raising his voice! By his power he stills sea storms, by his wisdom he tames sea monsters. With one breath he clears the sky, with one finger he crushes the sea serpent. And this is only the beginning, a mere whisper of his rule. Whatever would we do if he really raised his voice!” Job 26:7-14 (MSG) God is transcendent, but also imminent. He is above all, but also close to all. His bigness is not merely about how powerful He is, but also in how loving He is. How close He is to us and how big He wants to make us!
- I am very aware that God owes me nothing and that He is not my personal Genie that grants me my wishes, but I also know that without His blessing I have nothing. In fact the more He blesses me, the more I have to offer. So I need to ask big and ask boldly. Beware of a slave mentality! A slave mentality is when a free man acts and behaves like a slave. Sometimes we pray the prayers of a slave. We pray that God will help us to be good slaves and that He will help us endure suffering, but God has set us free from being enslaved. We can stay in Egypt and be good slaves or step out to into the promised land. Yes, I am God’s slave in that His will has become my will, but that is the voluntary act of a son. I am God’s son and therefore I know the best place to be is slap bang in the middle of His will. So I settle for nothing less. I want His will in my life, and I want His will for everybody I get in contact with, and for the entire world. A slave has to adjust to reality, while a son has the power to create reality. Romans 12:2 (NASB) says, ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.’
- "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:7-11 (NASB) The word amiss in the original language means sick, weak, miserable. When we ask with a sick mind we ask like slaves would, or we ask with the sick mind of selfishness. We limit God according to our own insecurities or our own sense of importance. Sons know their Father so they know how big He is, and the big things He wants for them. Sons don’t tell God about their big problems, they tell their problems about their big God. I am not afraid to risk and ask big, because when I play it safe and only ask what I feel comfortable with or what I know is with pure motives, I can never grow. I ask God for things that might even be selfish, but then I ask Him to sort me out, to help me become more like a son, and to reveal my sick and broken mind. I like the way Andrew Murray described prevailing in prayer as being on God’s anvil. When I ask and don’t let go, God will work with me shaping me into His image so that His will can be done in me. But this can only happen if I ask boldly. I believe God is telling us as the Hatfield family of churches to ask big in 2017. He is challenging us to step out in faith and trust our big Father for big things. He needs us to do it so that He can change our city, nation and this world. This is the time for the sons of God to be manifest, to step forth and have an expectation for big things. I believe this for individuals as well as for us as a community. I believe we need to ask God what He wants us to ask Him for. Perhaps you’ve been working long hours and have not had time for God, family and other important things. In 2017, ask God to help you not to merely cope with it, but to see it change. Maybe you don’t have a job or feel stuck in the wrong job. Ask God not only to give you strength, but also for His perfect will for you as a son. There is a time to ask for daily bread, but there is also a time to ask for an inheritance for your children. Ask God for the strength you need, but also for strategy on how to change things. Let’s ask big for healing, provision, breakthrough, salvations, righteousness, justice, etc. Let’s ask Him to change and transform us and this world!