What Is Your Capacity?

Friday September 17, 2010

Today's Passage: Psalm 23
Memory Verse: 1 Samuel 17

What is your capacity?  How much of the things of God can you hold or stand?  The reason I ask is because God wants us to be filled with Him.  He wants His presence to run over our borders and into the places that lack His touch.  Remember Psalms 23 when David said "He anoints my head with oil, my cup runs over".  That statement alone reveals what God's spirit should be like within us.  Okay, this analogy/illustration might sound a little unorthodoxed, but my Pastors did it last Sunday and it was powerful.  Picture 2 air mattresses.  Both are 6 foot by 6 foot, of good quality, and worth the same dollar value.  However Mattress A is folded into a 2 foot by 2 foot square.  Mattress B is blown up into its full mattress form.  As we stated earlier, both mattesses are the same size.  They possess the same air capacity.  That being said, which one will be of the most use to you?   Yes!  I chose Mattress B, too. 

The 2 mattresses represent the members of the body.  We are all created with the same capacity.  God's word says He has given to every man a 'measure of faith'.  Not one of us is greater than the other.  However, some of us have settled with where we are.  We've accepted the lie that more of God's presence and/or power is simply not available to us, or not meant for us.  We are so closed off (folded) to the will of God, He is restricted in His ability to breathe fresh life into us.  Also, when our faith is challenged, we lack the strength to stand on God's word because we've not allowed ourselves to grow (unfold) and be proven.  Challenges come into our lives to either kill us, or make us stronger.  If you're reading this devotional, you're not dead.  So, by default, you should be stronger.  Other of us however are the opposite.  Our entire Christian life is a chain faith steps.  We didn't have the experience for the job we got, but by faith, we applied anyway.  We didn't have the medical know-how to heal ourselves, but by faith we believed, and God healed us anyway.  Inasmuch, each time we walked by faith through those trials, God expanded us a little more.  He breathed into us a little more.  Let's look at David for a moment.  He had the hardest and most dangerous job a young boy could ever have.  He was a sheepherder.  As a sheepherder, your duties aren't limited to just keeping the sheep on the farm.  You had to protect them too.  Sometimes, bears and lions would attack the sheep and the herder would have to recover them.  During his time as a herder, David had to do exactly that.  He had to protect his father's sheep from a hungry bear and a huge lion one night.  Some of us would have fled in fear when faced with such a challenge.  David knew he had to fulfill his purpose, even if it cost him his life.  Don't run from challenges folks.  Meet them head-on because there's a greater purpose on the horizon.  Rising to meet those challenges prepared David for his encounter with Goliath.

I challenge you today to allow God to fill you to overflowing.  Meet the challenges in your life with faith in God.  Confront your spiritual fears (serving more, praising freely, worshipping deeper) and you'll begin to expand.  You have the same capacity as the great people of God you see in your churches and/or on TV.  They just decided to do something about it.  They went on a selfless quest for more of God, and were rewarded with just that.  Are you ready?  What is your capacity?   

Prayer:  Father I want to be filled by You.  Breathe fresh life into me.  Cause me to grow and expand in You.  I don't want to limit Your access to me.  If you want to cast out demons through me, go ahead.  If You want to heal the sick through me, I'm available.  Whatever You want, I have the capacity to fulfill.
In Jesus' name, Amen....