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What on Earth Am I Here For?

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Wednesday, October 8, 2003

My Prayer Today

Heavenly Father, I know that Your word tells me that You desire to do far more for us that we can even ask or imagine. I claim that promise in my life today, and ask that You will fill me with the Holy Spirit to overflowing. I pray that I will be so empowered by Your life in me that I may impact others in ways that they can’t imagine. I pray that you will surprise me with “Godincidences” throughout the day, that will make it clear that You are, indeed, at work in and through me. I pray that all that I am and all that I know may be multiplied to Your glory and honor. This I pray in the strong name of Jesus Christ, my risen and living, Savior and Lord. Amen.

Bible Verses

Selected Readings

Today’s devotion is going to follow a slightly different format than usual as we will consider the principle of “exponential thinking.” Exponential thinking is simply thinking about things the way God does. God is not limited by any boundary that limits human beings—time, resources, intellect. Therefore, whatever God imagines ultimately occurs. In our lives, we must learn to let God’s way of thinking permeate our minds, hearts, spirits and being. Let’s look at ten Scriptures and ten principles of exponential thinking that we may apply in our individual lives, and in our life together as New Life Christian Ministries to see God’s great plan for every person to have the opportunity to know His Son, Jesus as Savior and Lord become a reality.

Exponential Growth is Possible.

“But their descendants had many children and grandchildren. In fact they multiplied so quickly that they soon filled the land.” (Exodus 1:7 NLT) This example shows us that even in the physical realm God makes exponential growth possible. The Israelites entered the land of Egypt as a small extended family group of 70 people. When they left Egypt there were more than a million! That’s exponential growth!

Exponential Growth is the New Testament Model.

“The word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.” (Acts 6:7 KJV*) In the early days of the church folks weren’t just “added” to the fellowship of disciples, the number “multiplied.” The church of Jesus Christ, grew so rapidly that no human resource could have been responsible for it. This continued throughout the New Testament era, and is obviously God’s design for the church in every era!

Exponential Growth Brings Honor to God - because He's the only one who could have done it.

“Lord, you multiplied the number of your people; you multiplied them and brought honor to yourself.” (Isaiah 26:15 NCV**) As we proceed through the 40 Days of Purpose, outsiders may notice and say, “That’s an interesting program,” but if God works in their hearts and lives as we are praying and believing He will, the result will be that they will become followers of Jesus Christ and they will give Him the credit for that transformation.

Exponential growth captures the attention of an unbelieving world.

“But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more quickly the Israelites multiplied! The Egyptians soon became alarmed.” (Exodus 1:12 NLT) Just as the Egyptians became alarmed by the Israelites rapid growth rate, the leaders of the Jews and Romans complained that the Christians were “turning the world upside down” as Christianity spread like wildfire throughout the known world of the day. In the same way, God has poured out His Holy Spirit upon us that we may be that same kind of “leaven” in our day that the church and people of God have been in every era. As the results of the 40 Days of Purpose begin to be seen as deeper transformation in our lives, and new folks being added to our fellowship, and LIFE groups popping up all over Butler and Allegheny Counties, the people in our communities will begin to see that we serve the one true God!

Exponential growth is caused by God and cannot be programmed or predicted.

“The Lord you God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day as the stars of the heaven for multitude.” Deuteronomy 1:10 NASB) No one knows for sure what the ultimate outcome of the 40 Days of Purpose will be. We have been praying and planning for months to prepare for this season of spiritual growth, renewal and outreach, but only God knows exactly what will happen. We are trusting Him for miracles, and are seeing them already in our midst!

Exponential growth is the result of God's Blessing.

“That year Isaac’s crops were tremendous! He harvested a hundred times more grain than he planted, for the Lord blessed him.” (Genesis 26:12 NLT) God is the source of all blessing, and sometimes His blessing is exponential!

Exponential growth makes God smile.

“The first servant reported a tremendous gain—ten times as much as the original amount! ‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a trustworthy servant.’” (Luke 19:16 NLT) One of the greatest joys of any follower of Jesus is to make Jesus smile! We do that through two simple means: faith and obedience. As we live out our faith and obedience to Jesus, growth takes place, and Jesus rejoices with us!

The only barrier to exponential growth is our own unbelief.

“Because of their unbelief, He (Jesus) couldn’t do any mighty miracles among them except to place His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.” (Mark 6:5-6 NLT) Even Jesus’ amazing power was limited in the presence of unbelief. We must believe that God is present among us and has the power to do far more than we can ask or imagine—and He will!

The secret of exponential growth is believing God for big things.

“According to your faith it will be done to you.” (Matthew 9:29 NIV***) “When a believing person prays, great things happen.” (James 5:16 NCV) Faith is always at the center of any great work of God!

Exponential growth begins with exponential thinking.

“Enlarge the place of your ten, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left.” (Isaiah 4:2-3 NIV) Prepare now, for what God is going to do in your life and in our life together through 40 Days of Purpose—Miracles are going to happen! Let’s be ready!

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* Public Domain
** Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
*** Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.