Don't Sell God Short!

Yesterday someone asked me what I really needed for the church where I pastor and I responded to them, "we need $250,000." The person started laughing at me and said, "yeah, sure... might as well ask for a million while you are at it!" I told them I was serious, which made them laugh harder. I was serious! Later, after service and lunch, I was sitting in my office and I was praying and asked God if I had actually heard from him or was this just all in my head. You know, you can have your faith shaken and start questioning... even doubting God, his plan and the vision he has put into your heart. I was seriously beginning to question. About an hour later I was heading for the door to leave when my phone rang. I had forgotten it on my desk so I went back to get it. I answered and the voice on the other end said, "well, you answered, so I guess I'm supposed to tell you." I was a bit confused, and I asked the woman on the other end what she had said, just to make sure I had heard her correctly. She went on to explain that she had been in prayer and that God had spoken something to her and she kept feeling like she was supposed to call me and tell me, but she felt kind of awkward, so she decided that if she called and she got my voice mail that she was not supposed to tell me, but if I answered, she'd take that as a confirmation that she was supposed to tell me. I asked her what she had heard and she said that God had spoken to her, "Don't you think I am able to dip into my little bag of resources and provide everything you have need of?" I had to just crack up laughing.

So, when she called I was actually on my way out the door to prayer meeting at church. There was only 3 of us there, but we had an awesome time of sharing and praying together. I had not shared with anyone other than my wife and son what God was speaking into my heart for our mission in Galesburg, but I felt led to tell these two. I told them the vision I was seeing and about the conversation that morning and the phone call that afternoon. As we were praying about this whole thing, the Lord brought to mind a passage of scripture, that I could not even think where it was located at the time, but it was in 2 Kings 13. In this passage Elisha told King Jehoash to take his bow and arrow and shoot out the window. When he did so, Elisha decreed,  "Behold, the arrow of victory!" He then told him to take the arrows and strike the ground. Jehoash took the arrows and struck the ground three times and stopped. Elisha became angry and told him that he should have struck the ground 5 or six times, and that because he had not, he would not totally defeat his enemy. When the Lord brought this to remembrance I stopped praying and said to the others there, "I've got to correct this!" I told them what I'd just heard and I said that I was asking for the minimum amount, but it would not be enough to carry out what God was showing me for our church and that we actually needed half a million dollars. I remembered the guy laughing and saying that I might as well ask for a million. In a weird sense, he was right! To do what God has birthed in my spirit, it is going to take $500,000, and that is before the ministry even begins! But as God spoke into that woman's spirit yesterday, that is a SMALL thing for the Lord! Half a million dollars is nothing to my God! It's there! It's His, and he is not a stingy God and He is more than willing to pour it into our church and ministry... the GRAPES are there waiting... we've just got to push past the giants! (My church will get it!) I'm not measuring giants, I'm weighing the grapes! My God has already promised us the land!