A Message for God's Faithful: Increase! | Elijah List

"A Message for God's Faithful: Increase!"

Phyllis Ford, Arlington, TX

We cannot say we know God without having a real relationship with Him. I say this because we have entered into a season for prayer and consecration. "Knowing God" is the most valuable and irreplaceable thing that we could ever obtain in this time is an understatement. We should introspectively look at ourselves and ask, "How well do I know God? What has God been trying to communicate to me?" Having trust in God and walking in it can help us to get from one level of understanding to another. Our ability to hold to this during difficult times can add interest to the principal of that which is stored up in our hearts as treasures.

Spiritual Whac-a-Mole and the "ITES" in Our Lives

The Lord began to speak to me while I was reading the book of Joshua. He showed me how the children of Israel had been given a land, flowing with milk and honey. At the same time, it was occupied by the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. I began to see us as that land of Canaan: full of promise, prosperity and great potential. Yet, within that land some of us are fighting within ourselves to get things out that need to be removed. It is much like we have come into a deep understanding that we belong to the Lord, only to see the "ITES" in our lives rearing their ugly heads.

Have you ever gone to an arcade and played the game Whac-a-Mole? It's a game where you use a mallet to hit the heads of moles that keep popping up from the holes to try to knock them back down. Well often, this is what it is like when we are dealing with inner attitudes, feelings, depression, and the like. We even encounter this while helping others, our loved ones and family members, who are going through deep struggles. We take our mallets and knock down those heads, only to see others pop up, one after the next.

God's Promise to His People—the Common, Gold Thread

While the Israelites were subduing their enemies as well as occupying the land, there were times when the land was at rest from their enemies. They were given detailed plans and instructions in order to stay the course and prevail in the fight. In the very midst of everything I began to see there was a common, gold thread that was woven throughout the fabric of this word and it declared the Lord's promise to His people. As the Lord spoke, they fought and began to see, with their own eyes, victory through the fulfilled Word of the Lord.

Sometimes the battle is so ingrained in us that we are constantly walking in war-mode, even before the presence of the Lord. Tucked away in the faith of God's promises there is rest, power and strategy. The more deeply we seek God in our times with Him, the more we begin to see solutions and the scales of unbelief begin to fall from our eyes. We truly begin to understand that surely there are more for us than those who are against us. The reality of "greater is He who is within us than he who is in the world" comes alive. Light begins to shine into the darkness and we begin to see the morning sun as it crests with in us.

Increase!

I want to leave you with this word that He spoke to me: Increase! Grow and wax strong in the things of the Lord. Fill your heart with His wisdom and His Word and His promises – ever searching and ever learning more about Him. We become what we gaze and focus upon. We cannot allow the dictates of the enemy to overcome us.

In John 3:30 John the Baptist said, "He (the Lord) must increase while I must decrease" (emphasis mine).

Luke 2:52 says, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men."

In 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul says, "I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase."

Isaiah 9:7 tells us that the government of God will increase upon the land.

I can hear Him calling us out of the night season of time saying: "My sons, My daughters, arise and come close to Me, for in the depth of your abiding in Me, I shall increase you mightily. Understand that what you've tried to battle and overcome in times past you must walk out of. For I am calling you into My presence to reveal to you the deep things of My Word, and My very plan for your life. You will see it in Me, as you will see it in My Word. For within it is My counsel and you will possess it even as it is yours this very day."

During this very key time, there must be a walking away from the mixture and rudiments of men and follow the Lord God in His fullness.

Proverbs 19:21 (ISV), "Many plans occupy the mind of a man, but the Lord's purposes will prevail."

Proverbs 19:21 (KJV), "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand."

Source: Elijah List