One day about ten years ago I was sitting at a stoplight. I remember exactly which
stoplight it was in Olathe, KS on 151st Street right near Interstate 35. I was sitting there, not really thinking about
anything when the Lord spoke distinctly to my heart. I didn't hear an
audible voice, but just inside, in my spirit, I heard this, "My very name is the opposite of lack."
I
knew if He said it, it must be true. So, I just said, "That's right,
Lord! Thank you! That is so good!" I really didn't know what He meant,
but I am smart enough to know if God tells me something, it's the truth,
whether I understand it or not. Of course, I am also wise enough to
check in out in His Word later, but I was very certain this was the Lord
speaking to my heart.
Anyway, He spoke to me again and explained, "My name, El Shaddai, is the exact opposite of lack."
I
knew that El Shaddai is a name of God, and that it means "The God who
is MORE THAN ENOUGH." When I got home, I looked up lack in the
dictionary and saw that one of the definitions of lack is NOT ENOUGH.
God's name truly is the opposite of LACK or POVERTY. He
is the God who is more than enough. His very name means that! If you have lack in your life, know
that it is not what God wants for you. He is the God who is MORE THAN
ENOUGH. He has good things for you, and if you will seek Him, He will
help you out of any situation, because He cares about you so very much. Just ask Him for His help, and
He will be the God who is more than enough in your life, just like He is in mine!
Which reminds me of another story, of course. The year was 1998 and I was pregnant with our second child, Daniel. Jeremy, Diane and I lived in a rental house in Broken Arrow, OK, and Jeremy had just graduated from Rhema Bible Training Center that May. We were so thankful for our rental house: the price, the space, the garage, the backyard, the washer and dryer. There were so many things we liked about that house, but there were also some major problems: termites and the heating and air conditioning being the main ones. Oh my, the summer of 1998 was a long, hot summer for me, because our air conditioning didn't work very well, and I was pregnant with Daniel, who was due November 1, 1998.
So, Jeremy and I began thinking about moving from that rental house into another rental house. We didn't want to spend another winter in that house, since the heat didn't work very well. A little side note about Jeremy and me: Unlike a lot of people, we never wanted to own a house. We didn't want to buy a home, we only wanted to rent. We never wanted the hassle of having to sell a house, and we wanted to be free to move or go wherever the Lord wanted us to move or go on very short notice. So, we were pretty settled about not buying a home, but just renting our whole entire life. That was our plan, but not God's, as we soon found out.
We began looking for a rental house, but we kept coming up with nothing. Nada. Zip. We didn't even look at one rental house, because we didn't find anything to even go see. Now, the house we were currently renting was on Ithica Street in Broken Arrow, and to get out to a main road, we would drive down Ithica Street, turn right, and then turn left back onto Ithica Street. At the end of that street on the corner was a beautiful, red-roofed home that was for sale, not for rent. One day I drove by that house on my way out to the main street, and the Lord spoke the most surprising thing to my heart.
"That's your house."
That caught me so off guard, and I really didn't know what to think. First of all, I kind of felt bad about it, because that wasn't our house, and I certainly didn't want to be coveting another person's house, even if they did have it for sale. Second of all, that house was for sale and not for rent, and Jeremy and I had been pretty settled on renting our entire life. So, I just pushed it aside, and didn't say anything about it to Jeremy.
But, it kept happening. When I would drive by that house, I would hear this come up in my spirit:
"That's your house."
After several times of that happening, I finally mentioned it to Jeremy. He said that the exact same house had also been standing out to him, but it was for sale and not for rent, so he had just dismissed the thought. Hmmm, interesting. I told him maybe we should just go look at it. That wouldn't hurt anything. Just because you look at a house doesn't mean you have to buy it.
After much discussion, we decided we would look at it, and Jeremy called and set up an appointment for us to go see it. I am not even kidding you when I say that the second we walked into that house, we knew the Lord wanted us to buy it! We both were 100% convinced that the red-roofed house was indeed the house the Lord wanted us to, amazingly enough, not rent, but buy!
We were very committed to finding out what God wanted us to do and doing that, but I must say, this did take us by surprise. He wanted us to buy a house? What? And, there was one small problem with that idea, and that was the fact that we had absolutely no money to buy a home. We seriously had just given our last $200 to a guest speaker that had spoken at our church, Rhema Bible Church, just the week before. We had all that we needed, all our bills paid, plenty of groceries, and maybe $5 in our checking account. We had no savings account at this time in our lives.
So, if God wanted us to buy a house, He was going to have to give us the money to do it. We got home from seeing that house, joined our hands together, and told God that we were always opened to do His will. We told Him that we never thought we would buy a house, but if that was His plan, we would do it. (By the way, I said this with much trepidation, because I was very nervous about the idea of owning a home!) We asked Him to provide the money if that was what He wanted us to do. And that was that. The whole prayer probably took less than three minutes.
Within a weeks' time we had over $5000 in our checking account to buy that home! I am not kidding you one bit! Yes, when God wants you to do something, He more than provides for you to do it! What happened, you ask? Because, of course, you're like me and you want to know the details, right? Well, Jeremy remembered that his boss at Name Brand Clothing had told him if we ever wanted to buy a house in the Tulsa area to let him know before we bought it. Jeremy had assured Rusty, his boss, that we didn't want to buy a house in the area, and that we were content to just rent.
So, since his boss had said that, Jeremy went to Rusty and told him we had found a house in the area that we would like to buy. Rusty was not just the boss at Name Brand Clothing, by the way, he owned the entire company. Rusty asked Jeremy how much it would cost for us to get into that house, and Jeremy replied $5000. Rusty said he would have accounting cut Jeremy a check for $5000, after taxes, as a extra bonus for us. And, that, my friend, was that!
After tithe and closing on our beautiful new 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom home, we still had a huge chunk of money left! We were able to buy ceiling fans, a new hot water heater, et cetera, and we still had extra! It was glorious, just glorious! Yes, my friend, God is El Shaddai, the God who is MORE THAN ENOUGH!
Which reminds me of another story, of course. The year was 1998 and I was pregnant with our second child, Daniel. Jeremy, Diane and I lived in a rental house in Broken Arrow, OK, and Jeremy had just graduated from Rhema Bible Training Center that May. We were so thankful for our rental house: the price, the space, the garage, the backyard, the washer and dryer. There were so many things we liked about that house, but there were also some major problems: termites and the heating and air conditioning being the main ones. Oh my, the summer of 1998 was a long, hot summer for me, because our air conditioning didn't work very well, and I was pregnant with Daniel, who was due November 1, 1998.
So, Jeremy and I began thinking about moving from that rental house into another rental house. We didn't want to spend another winter in that house, since the heat didn't work very well. A little side note about Jeremy and me: Unlike a lot of people, we never wanted to own a house. We didn't want to buy a home, we only wanted to rent. We never wanted the hassle of having to sell a house, and we wanted to be free to move or go wherever the Lord wanted us to move or go on very short notice. So, we were pretty settled about not buying a home, but just renting our whole entire life. That was our plan, but not God's, as we soon found out.
We began looking for a rental house, but we kept coming up with nothing. Nada. Zip. We didn't even look at one rental house, because we didn't find anything to even go see. Now, the house we were currently renting was on Ithica Street in Broken Arrow, and to get out to a main road, we would drive down Ithica Street, turn right, and then turn left back onto Ithica Street. At the end of that street on the corner was a beautiful, red-roofed home that was for sale, not for rent. One day I drove by that house on my way out to the main street, and the Lord spoke the most surprising thing to my heart.
"That's your house."
That caught me so off guard, and I really didn't know what to think. First of all, I kind of felt bad about it, because that wasn't our house, and I certainly didn't want to be coveting another person's house, even if they did have it for sale. Second of all, that house was for sale and not for rent, and Jeremy and I had been pretty settled on renting our entire life. So, I just pushed it aside, and didn't say anything about it to Jeremy.
But, it kept happening. When I would drive by that house, I would hear this come up in my spirit:
"That's your house."
After several times of that happening, I finally mentioned it to Jeremy. He said that the exact same house had also been standing out to him, but it was for sale and not for rent, so he had just dismissed the thought. Hmmm, interesting. I told him maybe we should just go look at it. That wouldn't hurt anything. Just because you look at a house doesn't mean you have to buy it.
After much discussion, we decided we would look at it, and Jeremy called and set up an appointment for us to go see it. I am not even kidding you when I say that the second we walked into that house, we knew the Lord wanted us to buy it! We both were 100% convinced that the red-roofed house was indeed the house the Lord wanted us to, amazingly enough, not rent, but buy!
We were very committed to finding out what God wanted us to do and doing that, but I must say, this did take us by surprise. He wanted us to buy a house? What? And, there was one small problem with that idea, and that was the fact that we had absolutely no money to buy a home. We seriously had just given our last $200 to a guest speaker that had spoken at our church, Rhema Bible Church, just the week before. We had all that we needed, all our bills paid, plenty of groceries, and maybe $5 in our checking account. We had no savings account at this time in our lives.
So, if God wanted us to buy a house, He was going to have to give us the money to do it. We got home from seeing that house, joined our hands together, and told God that we were always opened to do His will. We told Him that we never thought we would buy a house, but if that was His plan, we would do it. (By the way, I said this with much trepidation, because I was very nervous about the idea of owning a home!) We asked Him to provide the money if that was what He wanted us to do. And that was that. The whole prayer probably took less than three minutes.
Within a weeks' time we had over $5000 in our checking account to buy that home! I am not kidding you one bit! Yes, when God wants you to do something, He more than provides for you to do it! What happened, you ask? Because, of course, you're like me and you want to know the details, right? Well, Jeremy remembered that his boss at Name Brand Clothing had told him if we ever wanted to buy a house in the Tulsa area to let him know before we bought it. Jeremy had assured Rusty, his boss, that we didn't want to buy a house in the area, and that we were content to just rent.
So, since his boss had said that, Jeremy went to Rusty and told him we had found a house in the area that we would like to buy. Rusty was not just the boss at Name Brand Clothing, by the way, he owned the entire company. Rusty asked Jeremy how much it would cost for us to get into that house, and Jeremy replied $5000. Rusty said he would have accounting cut Jeremy a check for $5000, after taxes, as a extra bonus for us. And, that, my friend, was that!
After tithe and closing on our beautiful new 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom home, we still had a huge chunk of money left! We were able to buy ceiling fans, a new hot water heater, et cetera, and we still had extra! It was glorious, just glorious! Yes, my friend, God is El Shaddai, the God who is MORE THAN ENOUGH!
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