Keys to Receiving More from God

If you're going to pray the prayer of Jabez and I encourage you to do it, do it understanding that Jabez wasn't saying, Lord, what I want you to do is just make me healthy, wealthy, sexy and wise. Amen.

It wasn't about stuff. He said, I want to be honorable. Hello and welcome to this Tuesday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Wherever you are and however you may be listening, thanks for making us part of your day. In 1 Chronicles Chapter 4, we meet a man who made the decision to break free from his past and move forward into the abundant, joyful Christian life God wanted to give him.

His name was Jabez. His story and his prayer come your way next. Stay with us now or stop by pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. And here is Pastor Paul today's Destined for Victory message, keys to receiving more from God.

If you and I are going to pray the prayer of Jabez and say, Lord, enlarge my territory, please understand that it means you're saying, God, I want to make a difference for you. Now we've got to talk then about Kingdom First Living. I have used that phrase for decades in my preaching, Kingdom First Christians. We need to be Kingdom First Christians.

You know why I say that? Because there are a whole lot of people in this world who call themselves Christians. It is the largest religion, if you want to look at just that term, it's the largest religion on earth, Christianity.

But I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that there's a good number of those folk. I'm not going to venture a guess at a percentage, but there is a troubling number of people who call themselves Christian who are anything but Kingdom First followers of Jesus. What do I mean when I say Kingdom First? I'm referring to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter six, verse 33, when he said, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything you need will be added to you.

Seek ye first. Jesus said, I'm looking for folk who are going to put the kingdom of God ahead of everything else. I'm looking for folk who realize that they are born to serve the Lord. They're not born to get thrills and to make themselves happy. They are born to do the will of God. God will bless you with happiness and thrilling opportunities along the way. But the cause, the reason of your living has got to be, I'm on this earth to make a difference for the kingdom of God. And I declare to you, there aren't enough of us who are Kingdom First.

There are a whole lot of Christians, in fact, who treat God like Santa Claus. His job is to give me what I want. Treat him like a bell hop. I use prayer, that's the bell, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Give me a car, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Give me a house, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Give me some money, ding, ding, ding, ding. No, that's not what prayer is about. The kingdom is about making a difference for God, glorifying him and being a blessing to others in his name. And so if you're going to pray the prayer of Jabez, and I encourage you to do it, do it understanding that Jabez wasn't saying, Lord, what I want you to do is just make me healthy, wealthy, sexy and wise, amen.

It wasn't about stuff. He said, I want to be honorable. I want to be noble. I want to live right. I want to make a difference for eternity.

I want to leave people better than I find them. I want to make a difference for your name's sake. So we've got to get back, brothers and sisters in the 21st century church, we've got to get back to kingdom first priorities.

Enough of this. It's about me. No, it's not about you. It's about the kingdom.

Who cares what you want? It's what God wants. And Jesus promised if you seek first the kingdom, there's a whole lot you'll have access to. That's what this prayer points to.

He's saying, Lord, enlarge my territory. Give me more responsibility. Give me more to do in your name. Give me the opportunity to make a difference.

Give me the opportunity to be noble and bless me with any and everything in the process that will lead to that end. So we've got to make up in our minds. We're going to be kingdom first Christians. We've got to make up in our minds that God has worked some things into us and we've got to work them out of us. I'm referring when I say that to Philippians chapter two, you remember Philippians chapter two, Paul said in verse 12. So then I want you to work out your salvation and fear and trembling. Then he said in verse 13 for it is God who is at work in you both to willing to do of his good pleasure.

What's that mean? I've said over the years that means that God has worked some things into you. It's your job now to work them out of you for his glory.

Kingdom first living. Let's talk a little bit about what God has worked into you. Years ago I created what I call the ABCs of discovering God's will.

I just use the first seven letters in the alphabet to give you seven principles. Let's revisit those principles and plug them into this prayer of JBES. The A stands for ask, ask what are you asking God for that fits the kingdom first agenda? What are you asking God for that will glorify him and bless other people in his name? What are you asking God for?

That's what you have the right to pray for if you're going to truly fulfill what God's will is for your life. The B stands for the word burden, burden. The question is what burdens has God placed on your heart that you need to seek to live out for his glory for the sake of the kingdom of God? What burdens? You know what a burden is?

That means something troubles you so deeply that it's often on your mind. See a lot of people see trouble in the world and they say oh wow that's a shame and then they move on. But when God gives you a burden you have to do something about what you see.

That's the difference. Everybody cares when you see trouble, you see an accident, see something, oh what a shame. You know maybe shoot up a quick prayer or extend a verbal wish and you move on. But a burden is something that you can hardly get away from. It never gets far from you.

It's always there. Some of the best organizations, some of the best charities in the world were started with somebody having a burden. About some population that was underserved and somebody said I got to do something. See a lot of folk typically say somebody needs to do something about that. People with a burden don't say somebody.

They say what can I do? People who have burdens are people like Nehemiah. He saw the exiles returning from captivity to a city that had a torn broken wall, burned wall.

The people were unsafe and Nehemiah couldn't just say oh what a shame. He had a burden and had to do something about it. Conferral, see what has been conferred upon you that you need to do in Jesus name. Sometimes God confers his will upon you. People speak his will into your life. Sometimes people see God moving in your life before you see it. They see God's hand on you and I'm going to talk about his hand in a moment before you see it. Timothy had Paul and other presbyters lay hands upon him.

Paul talks about it in both letters to Timothy. He says stir up the gift that was laid on you how? Through the laying on of our hands.

We put some things in you. We spoke the word of God over you. Some leaders looked at Timothy's life.

He was a young shy man but they saw beyond his shy demeanor. They said God is going to use you as a leader and you got to stir up your gifts. And young shy Timothy who had to be told God didn't give you a spirit of timidity. He gave you a spirit of love and power and of a sound mind. That timid young man ended up being the bishop of the church at Ephesus.

Why? Because it was conferred upon him. The elders saw God's hand on him. And said it doesn't matter what your temperament is you don't look like you're likely to be a leader but God's hand is on you to be a leader. I often say when praying people talk to you listen to them.

Because sometimes they've been talking to God and God's been talking back to them about you. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Sheppard. To listen to any of Pastor Paul's recent broadcasts be sure to stop by pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. And stay with us after today's message when Pastor Paul joins me to talk about his new booklet.

Yours this month for a generous gift to Destined for Victory. But first let's find out how to discover God's will for our lives in the second half of Pastor Paul's message keys to receiving more from God. Look at what's been conferred upon you. What has been bestowed on you that you need to execute work out in the name of the Lord. That's the C. What's A stand for?

Ask. What's B? Burdens. What's C? Conferral. D is dreams.

Here's the question. What dreams has God given you? A God given dream is different from a personal fantasy. Personal fantasies are fine but don't expect it to come to pass necessarily. That's just you and your fantasies. If you can make it happen and glorify God. Cool.

Go for it. I'm not talking about your fantasies. I'm talking about God's dream for your life. The Bible said in the last days he would pour out his spirit upon all flesh. And it says young men would dream dreams.

Old men would see visions. God gives you dreams and visions that come from heaven. They don't come from you.

You didn't work them up. You didn't come because you saw some movie or read some story and you say, oh, I want that to happen. Everybody wants a fantasy, but that's just, you know, you just need to wake up. You know, come on, just get real. Welcome to Earth. You know what I'm saying?

Earth with an F. Welcome to Earth. God's not in the business of fulfilling your fantasies. Here you are, no plans, no life, no dreams, no goals. And you want to meet the most fascinating person on Earth and spend the rest of your life with them.

Why? What would they want to do with you? So your fantasies are, that's fine. Nothing wrong with fantasies. It's a nice little respite, nice little change of pace every now and then. But then come on back to reality and say, what can I do in my life here and now that I can make happen by my proactivity? I'm not waiting or depending on somebody else to make it happen. What dreams has God put in your heart that will bring him glory and bless others?

E stands for exposure, exposure. Here's the question. What has God exposed you to for his own purposes? I declare to you that you've been living divine appointments all along the way. The reason why you're listening to me right now is because God ordained it so. God put you in touch with this ministry so that it could touch and change and transform your life.

I'm hearing from people all over the country. I'm getting letters from people in prison regularly saying, I'm in prison. I'm locked up. But God's using you to change my life, to set my priorities.

So when I get out of here, I'm going to live a life that glorifies him. God set it up, orchestrated it. It's not haphazard.

Get haphazard out of your brain. You are a child of God and you are called according to purpose. The people you meet, you were supposed to meet. Places you go and you run into somebody you were supposed to.

Why? Because you're God's agent there. When you belong to God, he says, you're my property. I want to use you for my glory.

And he sets you up with divine appointments. The other day I was flying home and a lady sat in the seat next to me. I don't know what the nationality, but she was on her cell phone before they closed the door and you had to turn your cell phone off.

She was talking in another language very quietly and she was just very sort of sober and what have you. But I always make it a point when I'm on a plane or whatever to speak to folks. Make it a point to speak to people. Don't ignore folks.

The world is easy. People just ignore each other. I'm going to fly three hours with you right here and I don't say hello.

Makes no sense. So I just looked at her and she got off the phone and I said, hello. She said, hi. And so we had made that connection. I didn't know how much more talking we could do, but I said, okay, got that one done. And then as we took off, I pulled out my iPad and started looking at my message or something like that.

And she saw something, I guess, that caught her attention. And she said, what do you do? I said, I'm a pastor. She says, that what had you in San Antonio? Which is where I was flying from. I said, yes, actually. I just spoke there and I was there in a convention.

And I said, what about yourself? Where are you going? She said, I'm headed to, she named some country.

She said, my brother was killed yesterday. Instantly, I knew that was a divine appointment. They didn't just assign her that seat.

God assigned her that seat so I could pray for her and encourage her and help her through that crisis. The exposure principle is powerful. Sometimes you catch some things, some things are caught, not taught. Some things are caught, not taught.

You catch it by exposure, by proximity, by allowing your heart to be there and engaged in what's going on. Sometimes there's a blessing in a certain atmosphere. There's blessing associated with a certain ministry. That's why you want to get into a church where God wants you, where there's anointing, where there's blessing from him.

Because you'll catch the blessing associated with that ministry. There are some things ahead of us and you've got to be here and be exposed to it to catch it. And God will expose you to certain things and certain people. Listen, you don't just show up somewhere. You show up as God's agent and you've got to be ready. Speak to people because God might need you to talk to him. So quit looking at folk and determining who they are and don't even, haven't even opened your mouth.

Sometimes the devil will put the wrong thing in your mind. I told you years ago, Bishop Reed, he's now going on to be with the Lord. He was a big guy. Bishop Reed was about 350 pounds, big guy. So he always flew first class just for the size seat.

And he was in first class decades ago. And he said, I was there, big black preacher, and he didn't have his clergy shirt on or anything though. And he said, the man got on, tall white gentleman with no big Texas hats, you know.

What they call those? Ten gallon hat. Got on a ten gallon hat. He took off a hat, threw it up top and slid in.

There's only two seats together in first class. And the man said, we looked at it and just kind of grunted. You know, not a real hello, just a sup. And he said, we didn't say anything to each other. And Bishop said, I looked at him, I thought he doesn't look like he liked black folk. Just in his head, just, you know, just didn't appear. Plus, he had seen that ten gallon hat. He's like, oh, he probably old, prejudice, redneck.

You can size people up wrong if you're in your flesh. He said, so we took off, and it was one of those flights where we took off and it was rough. You know, the turbulence as you went up every now and then, you know, just the air is like that. And so it can take you a while sometimes to settle in the smooth air. And Bishop said it was just one of those rough takeoffs, we just bouncing around, getting up to, cruising out to it.

Finally, we got up there and settled down. He said, as soon as we settled down, I just sighed, thank you, Jesus. He said, when I said that, the man said, what'd you say? And Bishop said, I said, I said, thank you, Jesus.

Like, you got a problem with that? Because now he's thinking, not only is he prejudiced, now he's a prejudiced atheist. He said, but when I said, I said, thank you, Jesus, the man said, well, hallelujah. He said, he stuck out his hand and said, hi, I'm pastor so and so. I pastor such and such a church in Houston, Texas. Bishop says, say what?

I said, well, I'm Bishop Benjamin Reed, not pastor. He said, we started fellowshipping, talking about the Lord and what he was doing in our ministries and our churches. And, and all he said, the fellowship got so good, we started weeping. He said he was a big, tall, white fellow.

Here I am, big 300 and some pound black guy. We sitting there, oh, thank you, Lord. He said, master flight attendant up, she came by, said, is everything OK? Said, didn't the white brother spoke up, said, oh, yeah, lady, this is just a long lost brother of mine. He said, and the lady looked at him, looked at me, long lost brother, one chocolate, one vanilla. Said, didn't the man figure he had her going? So he would twist a knife, a little boy said, yeah, that's my long lost brother. And we both had the same daddy. One of the greatest lessons we can learn as believers in Christ is to let go of the past.

If you are still looking forward to the things that are behind you, maybe it's time you turn around. Right now, I'm pleased to welcome Pastor Paul Shepherd from his studio in California. Pastor, I want everyone to know that you've written a great booklet that we want to provide for those who are able to give a generous gift this month. It's called Turning Your Test Into a Testimony. Now, most of us don't go through life thinking that tests are a great way to have a testimony, but God specializes in taking the tough times and turning them into something good, doesn't he? So tell us about this offer, this booklet that you've written.

Absolutely. J. Bez is a guy who, as I mentioned in times past, you only have two verses in the entire Bible that tell you about the guy, two verses. Yet, those two verses teach us a lot if we read between the lines and just let the Lord cause us to get the truth, the revelation, if you will.

Yeah, these are not just words on a page, are they? God wants us to know this. That's right. And here's a guy who started, I mean, talk about starting out behind the eight ball. His mama named him after the pain of childbirth. Like, what in the world was she thinking when she and her husband gave this boy the name causes pain?

And yet, that's what happened. And he had to live all of his early life. He had to go to school, first day of school, and the teacher is calling names. And she said, cause pain, where are you? Cause pain, raise your hand.

This is ridiculous. But the fact is, God helped this boy grow up and understand, I may not be able to change what they labeled me, but I can change whether I continue to live up to the label. And so this booklet is my way of helping people understand, you might not like where you are, you might not like what you've had to go through, but God can help you to be an overcomer.

And at the end of the day, we are told in those two verses, this young man became more honorable than all of his brothers who were not so named. And so we've got to learn that God can get you from where you are to a much, much better place if you just walk with Him. This booklet will encourage people and give them some practical handles on how to do just that. Well, again, the booklet is called Turning Your Test Into a Testimony, and it's our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destin for Victory. Today is the final day of this special offer, so contact us right away. Call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destin for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538.

Again, that address is Destin for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538. When your faith pushes you, quit pushing back. Say, Lord, lead me as I move in this direction. Lead me, give me clarity as I move in this direction.

But you know what? Faith can't act until you give it something to act on. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Keys to Receiving More from God. Until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.