Enlarge Your Capacity

Last week I was lying on my bed about 11pm at night in my hotel room in Bungoma, Kenya, praying and meditating on what I was going to share on Community Transformation the next morning at the Leadership Conference, and the Lord dropped two Scriptures in my heart defining two essential elements to community transformation.

The first Scripture was Isaiah 54:2-3: "Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.”

The first essential element to community transformation is to enlarge your personal capacity. The command is for you to enlarge the place of your tent. It goes on to say, do not spare, don’t hold back, go all out, and allow the Holy Spirit to stretch you and lengthen your cords. Do not settle for the status quo, but allow the Spirit to stretch your faith, your capacity to love, forgive, and to serve. Allow the Spirit to nurture, develop and sharpen your God-given gifts and talents. As you grow, drive down your stakes deep into God so that you will not be blown away by the tempests of life.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” Do not allow the temptations and cares of life to rob you of your potential in Christ. Your ability to resist spiritual mediocrity will not only enlarge your capacity, but also affect your descendents and their place of habitation.

The second essential element to community transformation is found in Genesis 5:5:

“Then He (the Lord) brought him (Abraham) outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him,” So shall your descendants be.”  What did the Lord bring Abraham outside of? His tent. For community transformation God not only needs to enlarge your capacity but also your vision. Because Abraham had left his country and laid down everything in his pursuit and obedience, God blessed Abraham beyond his wildest imagination. God had enlarged his tent so that he had over 800 servants who could fight and livestock beyond numbering.

However, at one hundred years of age Abraham had not received the son of promise, and God called him out of his tent to look at the stars and believe for the impossible, that he would be the father of nations. I don’t know where you are today, but God wants to do the impossible through you. First of all, you need to resist complacency, allow Him to enlarge your capacity, then step out of your limitations into His limitlessness and believe Him for the impossible.

Andy Clark

Everlasting Destiny

In Genesis 17:4-6, God appeared to Abraham and said, "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.” God goes on to tell Abraham that this was an everlasting covenant and that the land of Canaan was an everlasting possession.

This everlasting covenant and possession was established by God through the giving of a new name, for a new name brings a new destiny. When we are born again, we are given a new name, a new identity, and a new destiny. Our identity is no longer defined by the name of our earthly parents, lineage and nationality. People, circumstances, position and possessions no longer define who we are.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” We have to begin to see ourselves as God sees us, if we are going to be able to manifest His glory in the earth. Abram was ninety-nine years old when God gave him his new name. He had no son, no land, and no inheritance. However, when God gave him a new name, God set in motion an everlasting covenant and possession that no force on earth or demon in hell could rob from him.

1 Peter 1:23 says we have “been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” We have an everlasting covenant through the blood of Christ and an eternal possession through His resurrection. When we were born again, God gave us a new identity and set in motion in us an everlasting covenant, purpose and destiny that no person or circumstances can eradicate as we abide in Him.

Revelations 2:17 says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it."' We live in a world that is attempting to rob us of our identity, everlasting covenant, and destiny as defined by the incorruptible word of God that lives and abides forever.

It is time to take a stand for who we are as children of God, so that His glory may be revealed through us in the earth and we come into the fullness of our destiny. “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (I John 3:2-3)

Andy Clark