God Limits

God Limits

December 5, 2016

Acts 17:26  "From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundary lines of their lands."

Dream Big.  Dream God-sized dreams, they told me as a youth.  Naturally, as a kid, hearing I should dream God-sized dreams, that meant my dreams should be as big as God, limitless.  Oh, how the church, in an effort to be positive, gets it wrong sometimes.  I hear more and more messages about having dreams requiring so much faith only God can bring them about.  With the risk of being banned from the Internet or social media altogether, let me just say there is nothing found in Scripture about dreaming God-sized dreams, dreams as big as God.  That is just a load of humanistic thought entering the church, even if well-intended.

The Lord never taught us to have any other dream or vision that does not come straight from Him.  If you just simply thought it up, then it didn't come from Him and no amount of faith will bring it about.  If there is something burning in your heart, that you cannot deny or quench, that you didn't invent, and you feel empowered by the Holy Spirit to step out in faith, then that is certainly from the Lord.  Those dreams however, based on the history found in the Bible, require sacrifice and hardship without glory for the individual.  Those dreams aren't the ones you and I come up with.  Our own personal dreams always end up with us being the hero of the story, not God.  Coming up with your own hair-brained concoctions does not justify or allow you to force God into being involved in your plans.  God is only involved in HIS plans.  A God-sized dream should be measured in the proportion of the size God intended, not the size you intended.  God sometimes puts limits on things, purposefully.  No one wants to hear that God might need your specific church to remain a certain membership size, or that He might want your specific income to be limited.  After all, He came so we could have life more abundantly, correct?  If we just have faith big enough we can do anything we set our heart on doing?

The fact of the matter is the Lord determines our place and time, and sets our boundary lines.  These boundary lines are for PLACE and TIME.  Place and time are with respect to every place in your life and ever time period in your life.  Your place at work is limited by God.  Your place in your family is limited by God.  Your time for expiry is limited by God.  Your time for moving, birthing, planting, harvesting...is all limited by God.  No one likes to have limits set for them.  WE like to determine our limits.  We want the sky as the limit when it comes to what we want.  We also want to limit our pain and discomfort, but the Lord sets those limits too, which may end up in the opposite direction we hope.  We don't get to determine our limits.  Our cup is full when the Lord says its full.  Our family is full when the Lord says its full.  Our job growth is set when the Lord says its set.  Our profitability or success is determined when and where God has determined it.  We cannot push beyond the Lords limits; He has put them in place.

 The Lord has set limits on what you can do, most likely for your benefit.  He works all things out for your good, Scripture says so...this means He works out your limits and boundary lines as well.  It is for your benefit, per Scripture to force you to call out to Him.  Read the Scripture carefully.  The very next verse, Acts 17:27 reads, "God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us."  God put your limits in place so you would be forced to seek Him.  If you had no limit, you would become arrogant and think you didn't need a God.  If your personal dream was fulfilled to the size of a God, then it might become your God.  You would end up the hero of your own story instead of the Lord.  If you find yourself at a limit, then it's because anything further than that and you'd not need to focus on Him.  the Lord knew you and understands the human desire to be the hero of the story.  Make God the hero of your story and He just might move those limits.

Don't take my word for it; look it up:  Ps 16:5-6, Ps 75:1-3, Pr 8:15-35, Pr 16:1, Matt 26:18, Acts 17:25-27, Romans 8:28