Your Capacity

Here is an outstanding article from FCCI Elder, Dr. Laurie Vervaecke, about our need to continually increase our capacity for more: more love, more ministry, more responsibility. I am also attaching it as a document for easy download.

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To Lead in a Brave New World - Enlarge Your Capacity

Dr. Laurie Vervaecke

Life is a continual movement, always progressing. The law of all created life is growth and increase. To increase requires us to enlarge our relationship with God.

Just as a seed contains life and the power of growth is in itself, the seed draws from the earth the nutrients it needs to impel the plant to achieve its full height and fruit, so is the seed of the eternal life an impelling force by which that life always increases and grows.

Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God who works in you to will and act according to His good purpose.”

Part of the increase and growth is enlarging our capacity. God promised enlargement to each of us.

Isaiah 54:2-3 speaks of growth, enlargement, fruitfulness. In order to keep what God gives us, that is, to keep growing both in maturity and effectiveness; the stakes in the ground must be able to cope with, hold, and accommodate that growth in each of us.

Part of enlarging our capacity is being open to God developing and changing our lifestyle and character; to conform us to our destiny in Him.

God will develop and do what is needed as we surrender to Him.

2 Corinthians 6:12-13 (MSG)

The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way…Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

Within each of us is an enormous capacity to fulfill our God-given destiny.

There is one area that I sensed God wanted me to focus on today as I write this blog:

Many of us live below our potential, limited by our ability to MANAGE PRESSURE & LEVELS OF STRESS.

There is no shame in facing challenges – everyone does! Pressure and stress are a regular part of life. Quite simply, there is no such thing as a stress-free life!

The first step is to decide that you do not want to stay where you are. But that doesn’t mean trying to get rid of stress by running from it. It means becoming better at how you handle stress.

Believe it or not, when you approach stress & pressure in the right way, it can motivate you toward growth, reaching your dreams and goals. I would also like to include; stress & pressure can increase your CAPACITY of Power & Strength

Scholars believe Psalm 3 and 4 were written by David on the same day.

Psalm 3 was written in the morning, and Psalm 4 in the evening when David was fleeing Jerusalem for his life as his own son, Absalom, and his cohorts pursued him. In David’s distress, he turned to the Lord Who “enlarged” him through this pressure.

Psalm 4:1 (TPT)

God, you are my righteousness, my champion defender.

Answer me when I cry for help!

Whenever I was in distress, you enlarged me.

I’m being squeezed again—I need your kindness right away!

Grant me your grace, hear my prayer, and set me free!

Just like when you add air pressure into a balloon, only then will this balloon fulfill its created purpose and reach its capacity.

I would like to say, You don’t have a STRESS ISSUE - you have a CAPACITY ISSUE.

If you run from the things that are applying pressure on you, you’ll step away from the path of purpose and live an unfulfilled and dissatisfied life.

The key to increasing your CAPACITY is to DECIDE you will allow God to work in your life, to stretch you beyond your comfort zone and enlarge your CAPACITY to overcome challenges.

Just as He did for David, God has answers for you amid your stress / pressure - He wants to increase your CAPACITY!

PRAYER:

Lord, help me to remember to trust You when I am facing pressure and stress. You have promised to strengthen and enlarge me, not only when I am in distress, but also in every season and area of my life. I choose today, to rely on Your grace to guide me and increase my capacity, in Jesus Name.

Growing in Capacity – 5 areas

Here are some keys to help us increase our capacity, so that we might fulfill our full potential in God, His purposes in us, and His destiny for us.

1. Take time

Invest time in prayer, time in His word, time in communion with God, time in a

continuous exercise of Fatih. The divine inner growth with which the life of God

perfects man in Christ is little by little but sure, hidden but real. weak but endowed

with heavenly power.

2. Stay focused

We easily loose focus. Jesus was never distracted, not even by important and good

things. Jesus saw some desperate needs but remained focused. Likewise, we

should endeavor in the midst of a world of distraction to try and keep our focus on

Jesus, His Kingdom, His life within us reflecting the image of Christ.

3. Remain thankful

Remember God’s faithfulness in the past:

“my soul is downcast within me: I will remember You…” (Psalm 42:6).

The children of God were continually reminded to ‘remember’ – to look back and

reflect on God’s faithfulness, which gives hope and expectation for the future.

Gratitude rises up within us and we consider God’s constant kindness, love,

faithfulness…

It is vision of his future victory, a heart that sees the goodness of our God, a thankful

heart that motivates us, not focusing on past failures.

4. Remain humble and flexible

Change is constant, and in all changes and adjustments, we need to remain humble and flexible – not for the sake of change, but for the sake of the Kingdom and others.

God’s people have always had to deal with change. How we view and react to it, makes all the difference. Change usually brings its it both the good and the bad, the convenient and the inconvenient, the exhilaration of discovery and the new experience and the discomfort of the unknown and unfamiliar. Rarely, if ever, does change bring one without the other. But in it, as we remain humble and flexible, our capacity grows.

5. Remain faithful

Faithful to what we know and have. Our Lord Jesus said that if we are faithful in the small things, more will be given to us to care for and to steward in God’s vineyard.

Enlargement and increase will come as we are faithful in prayer, reading the word, in corporate gatherings, with our time, our money, and so on. Caring diligently and faithfully for other people’s things will please God and allow us to be entrusted with greater responsibility

Enlarge us, God:

In our knowledge of You

In our dependence of the Holy Spirit

In our hearts, to cope with those that don’t fit ‘our’ mold

In our sphere of influence

In our vision

In our prayer life

In our anointing

In our ability to cope with pressure and stress / demands

In dealing with opposition and obstacles

In our discernment and wisdom

In our capacity for more of You.

FCCILaurieCapacity

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