044 ~ When God Guides He Provides

WHEN GOD GUIDES, HE PROVIDES

By Rodney W. Francis

The above words came to me as I was meditating upon the challenges we have in today’s world to get the Gospel Message out to all the nations. It applies to every one of us who are involved in the work of the Lord. Whatever God has called you to accomplish it is important that you know that He provides for that which He has asked you to do for Him. This is a truth that many Christians need to learn. Every day we are receiving requests from around the world for money to help others in their ministries. I do not believe we are meant to be operating that way. Our eyes, faith and trust should be on a Faithful God ~ not on God’s faithful. He is so much bigger than any and every problem that we face when we are doing His will.

This brings home the absolute importance it is for Christians to hear and know the voice of God to us personally. When we know that we are hearing His voice, then our faith is activated more and more. The Bible is clear: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). That is a present-tense NOW word of God that we need to be hearing. Faith can only be activated after we hear personally from God. Consider this verse: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently (“seek out, search out”) seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Notice it is present-tense wording.

God responds to our faith after that we have heard personally from Him.
If we do not hear personally from God, then we are moving in presumption, and God does not respond to presumption.
God’s ways are so much different to our ways.
That is why it is vital that we personally know Him and His voice.
When He asks us to do something for Him, it is usually bigger than we can accomplish ourselves and it takes faith activated in what He says to us to enable us to rise up and do things we have never done before.

The Gospel Faith Messenger Ministry is a testimony of this principle. When God spoke to me near the end of 1999 to resign all my church positions and to live totally by faith, it was a huge challenge, because it meant giving up the ‘security’ of a Pastor’s salary, etc. He asked me to step out full-time in faith with The GFM Ministry, not to ask people to support us financially, and He would show us what He could do for us. I obeyed (even though other well-meaning Christians did not believe it was God speaking to me), and the moment I crossed the line of ‘no return’ I literally felt something snap right across my chest, and I stepped into a whole new realm with God from that point on. We started our journey of total faith with Jesus on 1^st January 2000 and we have not looked back since. At the time of stepping out into full-time faith, The GFM Ministry was going into 55 nations of the world. Today we are touching multiplied thousands in over 225 nations (through our mails, writings and Website). The Ministry costs thousands of dollars to keep going and we do not know where our next dollar is coming from. Yet every month every bill is paid and we have no debts or mortgages. All praise to Jesus! He certainly has been true to His promises to us. I can honestly say that I feel more secure living this way than I did when I was receiving a weekly salary! We have been living this way now long enough to know whether faith in what Jesus asks us works or not! It works! Hallelujah!

I am sharing this with you because it is a testimony and proof that the hearing and knowing the voice of God ~ and obeying it ~ far surpasses any other way of living. My heart’s desire is that all Christian Ministers would learn this principle so that they can live in the sure knowledge that God does supply for that which He asks of us to do for Him. The Bible tells us: “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Did you notice it says “all your need” and “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”? Can you comprehend what that means? His riches in glory far surpass any and every need that we will ever have in this life. Does your faith believe that? Faith is an action; a show of obedience to God that we believe what He says to us. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-25).

Let me remind you that every great man and woman in the Bible all started out as ‘unknown nobodies’ until one event happened in the life of them all:

They heard the voice of God and obeyed that voice ~ and they changed from ‘unknown nobodies’ into ‘great somebodies’ for God.
They had faith in the voice of God which they heard (read Hebrews Chapter 11 to see the testimonies of those men and women of faith ~ all individuals trusting what God spoke to them)!
The principle still applies today.
True Christianity is hearing, knowing and following the voice of God in order that His will can be done in and through our lives.
Trying to serve God according to our own theological ideas is religion, not reality with Jesus Christ.
Know also that the voice of God to us will always be confirmed by the principles of Scripture.
God does not violate His Word.

What a great privilege is ours to personally know and hear God’s voice. That is why it is necessary that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, for He has been sent by Jesus Christ “to teach you all things, and to bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26) . . . “He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears that He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me (Jesus), for He will take of what is Mine and declare (“show”) it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-15).

These verses all reveal how personal our relationship should be with God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Blessed Holy Spirit ~ and how personal their (but all one God) relationship is to us. When we are walking and living in that personal relationship the benefits are enormous. There is provision, peace and security available to us! Let us be people in these times who are proving that the way of the Lord is right and that He provides our every need when we do things His way. God bless you.

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