Kingdom Foundations - Principles for Living in Line with God's Word

CHAPTER TWO:
God Is My Source

This chapter examines what it means for God to be our provider. Too many people rely on their jobs, their parents, the government, or some other source to provide what they need to live, but that is a grave mistake. God wants to be our everything. He wants to be the One we look to as our source of supply.

Placing their trust in God to supply all their needs is one of the hardest things to learn for many Christians. That was the case for me, but once I took the leap of faith and experienced the results, I’ve never gone back. I can honestly say that God has never let me down.

Throughout this chapter, I’ll explain how it worked for me so you can achieve similar results.

Before we begin, I’d like us to look at a key verse of Scripture found in Proverbs 3:5,6.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
(Proverbs 3:5–6, ESV)

Trusting the Lord with every fiber of your being is not for the faint of heart, because it will challenge everything you’ve ever known. Many of us have been taught to depend on ourselves because we could trust nobody else. But God is not like any human: He is always worthy of our trust, and He cannot lie under any set of circumstances.

“God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
(Numbers 23:19, KJV 1900)

However, the question remains: How do I learn to trust God as my source for everything, especially when I cannot see Him? The first thing I did was to read Scriptures on the subject. There are so many that it would occupy a lot of space to include them all here, so I’ve listed the main ones I use.

Read these several times a day. Read them aloud whenever you can because faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17).

“Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.”
(Jeremiah 17:5, KJV 1900)

“But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto
thy fathers, as it is this day.”
(Deuteronomy 8:18, KJV 1900)

“But my God shall supply your every need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 4:19, MEV)

“Yahweh is my shepherd; I will
not lack for anything.”
(Psalm 23:1, LEB)

“Command those who are rich in this present age
not to be proud and not to put their hope in the
uncertainty of riches, but in God, who
provides us all things richly for enjoyment,”
(1 Timothy 6:17, LEB)

“The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”
(Psalm 34:10, NKJV)

“He hath given meat unto them that fear him:
He will ever be mindful of his covenant.”
(Psalm 111:5, KJV 1900)

I absorbed these verses into my heart. What do I mean by this? I mean I could eventually quote them from memory. I meditated on them continually.

I went to the Lord for my answer from that point forward whenever a need arose. I prayed about the situation and let the Holy Spirit guide me, according to Proverbs 3:5,6. People often ask how to tell if you’re being led by the Holy Spirit. It’s not as difficult as it sounds.

After I’ve prayed, I wait on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord means I sit before Him to hear what He has to say about the situation. This isn’t necessarily a five-minute proposition. Sometimes, I’ll sit quietly for ten or twenty minutes before I hear something. As I wait, I might get an impression that I need to do something, or He might give me a verse of Scripture to follow. From that point, I take action on what I heard. Remember: faith without works is dead (James 2:17).

The following story is a real-life example of how it worked for me.

Many years ago, my husband and I wanted to build a house. Deep down, I wanted to avoid the hassle of building the house, but I thought it was the only way to ensure we got what we wanted. We also thought we had identified a perfect piece of property that a relative owned. The lot was across the street from that relative, and my husband and I thought that was a good thing.

I prayed and asked God for that property, according to Mark 11:24,25, and I believed I had received. I asked Him for the specific house I wanted, which was a certain amount of square footage, on a large lot, with granite countertops and an open floor plan. I wanted the house to be in a suitable area, with high property values and low crime. The lot across from my relative seemed to fit the bill.

From the moment I prayed that prayer, I felt uneasy but couldn’t tie it to anything in particular. I just knew that something didn’t feel right, but I made an offer for the property to put my faith into action. My relative agreed to sell it, but I couldn’t get rid of the uneasiness I felt. The feeling wouldn’t go away, so we retracted the offer.

Right after that happened, my husband decided we should go house hunting just to see what was on the market. We got in our truck and drove around. There was one area my husband wanted to check out, but I said that I didn’t want to bother. He said that he saw some balloons on a sign showing an open house and we should go look.

We drove down the street to see the house, and it was gorgeous. It was everything we wanted. When we stepped inside the house, my husband got excited because it even had the granite countertops and the open floor plan we desired. He wanted to make an offer right away, but I wanted to ensure I had the Lord’s blessing on it before we moved forward with an offer.

I stepped outside to pray, but the moment I did, I could hear the Lord say, deep down in my spirit, “This is the house.” We made the offer, but I dropped the offer price because I didn’t want to pay what the owner was asking. I didn’t even consult my husband before doing this, though I thought I was doing the right thing. Our offer was rejected, and my husband was heartbroken.

I had that uneasy feeling again after we went home. I prayed about it, and the Lord’s reply was a stunning rebuke. He said, “I never told you to drop the price.” I asked Him to help me correct the situation, and here’s what He did.

The next day was a workday, so I didn’t have any plans to contact the real estate agent until my lunch break. But before I could do that, I received a call from a friend who said that he found a house he thought we’d like. I asked him where it was. It was the same house. I explained to him what I’d done. He laughed and said he could take care of it with a phone call because he knew the owners. He asked what we intended to offer, and I replied we would offer the full price. We received a call back within a few hours that they accepted our offer. Our real estate agent replied that we almost lost the house. Two other couples had made offers, and the owner was getting ready to accept one of them.

The end of the story is that we bought the house we wanted, and it was perfect for us in every way. It is a sanctuary for us and we have the best neighbors anyone could want, so we got the best end of the deal. I’ve never regretted that God gave me that uneasy feeling about my relative’s property because I know it would have been a mistake. I’m so grateful that He took me on a detour to the place that I really wanted.

If you encounter situations when your prayers aren’t being answered exactly as you think they should, take the situation before the Lord. If He tells you to trust Him, that’s exactly what you should do. Give Him credit for knowing what the right answer should be. If you’ll stand in faith, God will give you better than what you asked for, but that’s only if you’ll let Him lead you. Take Proverbs 3:5,6 to heart and let Him lead you in the way you should go. We don’t know the future, but we know the God who does. Trust Him to give you His best.

I also recommend that you trust God to answer your prayers at the time that’s best for you. There will be times when it seems the answer isn’t coming, but God is never late. He supplies the answer when it is needed.

Never tell God how you want your prayer answered. Yes, we are to ask God specifically for what we want, but we don’t have the option of determining how He answers. That’s within His jurisdiction, not ours. Don’t limit Him to your plans and purposes, because that never works. He is in charge, and we should trust His methods. We see examples of weird methods throughout the entire Bible. God loves to surprise people.

In John 9, we read the miracle of Jesus healing a blind man.

“And as he went away, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” Jesus replied, “Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but it happened so that the works of God could be revealed in him. It is necessary...