Your Provision Is Hidden Until You Act on Your Vision

Sermon outline

God has already prepared everything you need, but provision is tied to your own assignment and shows up as you act on your vision, so stop worrying, stop hoarding and stop competing, and trust Him for today's need.

1. Put fear and unbelief out of the house

   Do not sit with unbelievers, and that can include Christian friends. Before Jesus raised the little girl He put out everyone who was wailing and shut the door, and the prophet in Kings shut the door too. Where fear and unbelief are present nothing miraculous can happen, so chisel them out of your life and then watch the miraculous begin.

   Illustration: In one town Jesus could do no miracle except lay hands on a few sick people, because of their unbelief. Some people outside the church have more faith than people inside it.

   “When fear and unbelief is present, no miraculous thing can happen.”

   • Hebrews 1:3
   • Mark 5:38-42
   • 2 Kings 4:33
   • Mark 6:5-6
   • Mark 9:24

2. Your provision is hidden until you act on your vision

   Ephesians 1:3 is past tense: God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ and has already prepared everything you need. Worry is the greatest sign of doubt in God, so deal with it. He repeats a line from earlier in the series: if God could put Pharaoh's money into the pockets of the Israelites, He can do the same for you.

   “Your provision is normally hidden until you act on your vision.”

   • Ephesians 1:3
   • Exodus 12:35-36

3. Prosperity is today's need met today

   Prosperity is not excess, not hoarding and not tomorrow's need met today. Anything above what you need is seed: give it away and your capacity to receive will grow. True prosperity is to be free of worry and fear, content that everything necessary is being taken care of. The Hebrew word shalev means tranquil, at ease and quietly assured that God will come through, and shalom means peace, safety, wellness, harmony and being well balanced.

   Illustration: He has seen people receive a large sum of money, hoard it, sow nothing from it and lose it all. He also says the captain sees differently from the passengers on the plane: they have their opinion, but the captain knows where he is taking it.

   “Do not become a dam that just receives but never gives out.”

   • Psalm 30:6
   • Colossians 2:10

4. God feeds the birds, but not by Mr Delivery

   He reads Matthew 6:24-34. Jesus taught simply, using everyday things: the birds do not sow or reap, yet the Father feeds them, and you are worth much more than they are. Your Father knows what you need, whether a car, a home or a suit of clothes, and it is coming by His Spirit and on time. But the birds still have to go out and find their food, so be active and activate your miracle.

   Illustration: Mr Delivery is the service you phone and within 15 minutes they are at your gate with your order. God does not feed the birds that way.

   “God provides for the birds, but he does not use Mr. Delivery.”

   • Matthew 6:24-34
   • Zechariah 4:6

5. Your prosperity is linked with your assignment

   Your purpose has a built-in provision, and God never requires from you what He does not already have in reserve for you. There is no provision for someone else's assignment, so find God's will for your own life and pursue that. Some are not seeing provision because they are in the wrong assignment or are keeping up with the Joneses, which creates a false prosperity. Be happy when God prospers others: your season will come.

   Illustration: If someone buys a two million rand house in an upmarket suburb, do not leave your bond-free house and get yourself into a mess, then cry to God for the bond. God will say He never told you to buy it.

   “Your consignment's on its way if you're functioning in the proper assignment.”

   • Genesis 22:8

6. God provides through people, after you begin

   Sometimes God does not give you all the resources for the vision because He has called other people to bring them to you in the set season. So do not abandon your dream: the provision becomes visible in God's timing once you start pursuing the vision. He is Jehovah Jireh. Your obedience affects everyone who is meant to be connected to you, and a vision you have not started has already cost someone else.

   Illustration: Parents answer a child's big dream with "Do you think money grows on trees?" But the child is not trusting in Dad's or Mom's finance. He is trusting in God, so young people should dream big.

   “He provides after you begin the work of the vision.”

   • Genesis 22:14

7. Ask for what you need, and empty your warehouse

   Prosperity means having everything that is needed, so do not lust for what is not needed, and sow whatever is over instead of storing it for a rainy day. Ask God each day, with confidence, for what you need for that day, and ask according to your own assignment. God will lead you to where your provision is, and He does it by connecting you with people who speak into your life and take you to your next level.

   Illustration: A man of God wrote of being taken to heaven and shown a huge warehouse with his name on it. It was packed with goods, and only one small corner was empty: that was all he had trusted God for. He says he does not want to reach heaven with his warehouse still full.

   “I don't want to go to heaven with my warehouse full. I want to empty it while I'm on earth.”

   • 2 Peter 1:3