GOD HAS MADE A COVENANT WITH YOU

God made a covenant with Abraham. In so doing, He placed at Abraham's disposal all that He had and was able to do. Through Christ Jesus, you too have become a part of this covenant. When you are in need, as you often are, you know that He is greater than your needs and that He has bound Himself to meet every one of them.

God is bound by His Word. Some people say, "But you cannot force God to do something." Yes, you can. This may sound extreme, but it is exactly what God has said. This is the nature of a covenant; but it must not be confused with a carnal and demanding attitude.

Let us look at Mark 11:24: Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. The word "ask" here is aiteo, which means "demand" in the original text. It is a very strong word and therefore it is interesting to note that Jesus used it.

To "demand," as the Bible uses the word, is different from jumping up and down and shouting out demands. It is boldly knowing what God has said and that He has made a covenant with us in which He has placed everything at our disposal. God has taken the initiative, not us. How can we know what this actually means? By understanding who He is—the God of abundance.

God could choose to keep His abundance for Himself. After all, He is God and can do whatever He wishes. If He wanted, He could say to us, "You're not getting anything. You should be grateful that I even let you into my Kingdom."

If God had said, "I am not helping you with a thing. I'm not healing a single sickness. You'll just have to stumble your way through life," I would still shout hallelujah! I was not saved in order to get earthly blessings, but rather to escape from going to hell. I want to go to heaven.

Even if God had set up those conditions, I would have been thankful all the same. But, this is not the nature of our God and it would be wrong of us to suggest that He is like this. We should do nothing but gratefully receive what He has already promised. Through His covenant with us, the Almighty God has placed His abundance at our disposal. This is what the covenant means.

But before this covenant blessing can become a manifested reality in your life, you must put yourself at God's disposal. Until you have done this, the covenant will not work for you. God may tell you, "I need your arms. I need your tongue, I need your eyes, your legs, your life, your money and your family. I have a need, and I want to make a covenant with you. Whenever I am in need of something on earth, I want you to put yourself at My disposal. When I need your hands, I want you to give them to Me. When I need your mouth, I want you to give it to Me. I want you to give Me your time when I need it." We must accept this as our part of the covenant.

This is what it means to have Jesus as Lord. It is walking in forgiveness for our sins and in God's righteousness through Christ Jesus. All that He has is available to you, and all that you have is available to Him. When He has a need of your hands, you lay them on the sick for Him.

When you have a need of His abundance, you claim it.

GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES

God is more than willing to meet your every need through the covenant He has made with you. The truth is, He is actually obligated to meet your needs. He has obligated Himself with His covenant. He could just as well have said that He would not give us anything and in that case He would have no obligations. But because He has said the opposite, He has bound Himself to His promises.

When the theological seas run high in a discussion of this sort, I always like to quote what Luther said, "Fill God's ears with His own promise and force Him to do what He has promised." You can remind God of what He has said because He is a covenant-keeping God, and He wants to do what He has promised. He is the God of abundance who abundantly gives us all that we need. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

God has truly blessed us. Some say that this applies only to "spiritual" and not material blessings, but this is only because they have not understood the true meaning of the word "spiritual." The long-term influence of Greek philosophy has twisted their understanding of the scriptures. We see in the Old Testament that whatever comes from God is considered spiritual. The Bible never puts the spiritual in opposition to the material. Anything that comes from God, who is a spirit, is to be considered spiritual.

Unfortunately, Greek philosophy crept into the Church in the form of Gnosticism, which differentiates between the inner, spiritual life and the outward, material one. The outward life was said to be evil and, in order for one to be truly spiritual, it had to be denounced. Cloisters and mon¬asteries arose in which people flagellated themselves and took oaths of poverty in an attempt to win God's acceptance. But it was a doctrine of works.

The Body of Christ is still suffering the aftereffects of this kind of thinking today. This is how the poverty mentality entered the Church. But God does not separate the spiritual from the material. He created the whole man and consequently He always blesses the whole man.

THE LORD-MY PROVIDER

Genesis 22 describes how Abraham did not withhold his only son, Isaac, but was willing to offer him to God. On the way up the mountain in the land of Moriah, Isaac asked Abraham where the offering was. Abraham replied by saying, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering (v 8). Then in verse 14 we read that Abraham named the place "The Lord Will Provide."

The Hebrew word translated in English as "the Lord will provide" is Jehovah Jireh. In English we use the verb "provide," although a more accurate translation would be "the Lord is the provider." This is a proper name in Hebrew, the Lord my Provider, and is one of the seven covenant names in the Old Testament which reveal the character of God.

It is interesting to notice that the name of God that follows "El Shaddai," the God of Abundance, is "Jehovah Jireh," the Lord my Provider. In other words, this is the second name God uses to reveal Himself.

Look what happened when the children of Israel were about to leave Egypt. The first thing God did as He led them out, was to make sure they took the gold and silver belonging to the Egyptians. He provided for them.

This is one of the first and most important revelations of God's character. While leaving Egypt He also said, I am the Lord who heals you (Ex. 15:26).

Here we can see provision and healing as the primary revelations of the true nature of God. The devil, probably more than anything else, has tried desperately to hide these aspects of God's character from the Body of Christ. The fact is, though, that the Lord is our provider. He is the God of abundance. God is a rich God and He is a cheerful giver.

These truths are revealed to us through God's names. Because His name is the God who Heals, He does heal, cure and restore. Because His name is the Lord your Provider, He does provide for you, in accordance with His abundance and glorious riches in Christ Jesus. This is the eternal and unchanging nature of God.

GET TO KNOW GOD!

It is important that you receive a revelation of the character of God from His Word. Through understanding God's character and covenant, you will begin to understand how He thinks. And this understanding is important.

There may be situations in your everyday life when you need to know the will of God, but are unable to find a scripture that applies to your specific situation. However, if you know God's Word and are acquainted with His character, you will always know His will. This knowledge will produce a boldness and freedom from condemnation in your life.

We need" to declare war on the condemnation that torments the lives of so many Christians. God's will is that we walk in His every promise, full of boldness, confidence and love. By bearing much fruit and receiving His promises, God is glorified. We need to understand this. It is not humility to refuse to accept what God has provided for us. Although it may appear to be an attitude of true humility, it is nothing more than pride, foolishness and false humility.

What the world calls pride is often what the Bible calls humility and boldness. Humility is simply submitting one's thoughts to God's way of thinking, while pride refuses to do so. It is one thing to refuse God's promises due to ignorance; but to refuse them even after the truth is revealed, is nothing but pride, in spite of how "humble" and meek it may appear.

Some of the proudest people can have an appearance of humility. But what counts is not our appearance, it is our attitude toward the Word of God. Jesus said, He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me (John 14:21).