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Is there something in your life that has taken too long to manifest and you've wondered why? Could it be something that you're doing, or perhaps not doing, that is prolonging the answer to your prayers? Let's look at three reasons for not enjoying God's best. Perhaps they will be the answer you've been looking for.

What's stopping your breakthrough from manifesting?

1. A lack of knowledge
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hos. 4:6).

You can't enjoy something that you don't even know exists. Do you remember the first time you discovered, "By His stripes we are healed"? Did that change the way you lived? Or what about the day you found out that you have authority as a believer? Did that change your life?

I'll never forget the day I read Brother Kenneth Hagin's book, "Right and Wrong Thinking." What a revelation! It transformed my thinking about everything.

I didn't see an immediate outward change as far as my financial situation was concerned; I still had the same problems as I did before I read the book, but my perspective about them changed!

Carolyn and I began acting on everything we read and heard, and things started changing. With God, it's not if it happens, it's when it happens. If you stick to it, then it's just a matter of time.

Prior to this, we had no knowledge of God's will for our lives. We didn't know we had a right to live in health. We didn't know we had a right to be blessed. We didn't know that God would take care of us financially. Our lack of knowledge was keeping us from enjoying something that God had already pre-planned for us to have.

But once we began to gain knowledge, then we began to pursue what God said belonged to us, and it began to happen.

"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success" (Josh. 1:8).

To gain knowledge, you have to meditate the Word of God day and night. You have to discover exactly who you are and what you are entitled to as a child of God. Your knowledge will increase, and you'll begin walking in the revelations that you've received.

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17).

Your faith will develop and grow according to the amount of God's Word that you deposit into your spirit. Your knowledge will increase and so will your blessings. You'll begin to enjoy God's best as never before.

2. A failure to correctly appropriate the laws of faith
Did you know that there are laws that govern faith? The Bible says that God knows your needs even before you ask. However, He still requires that we ask; according to James 4:2: "Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not."

Asking, you could say, is the first step to appropriating the law of faith. God requires that we ask. Verse three continues to say, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss...."

In other words, even though you're asking, you could be asking improperly or with wrong motives. Jesus said, "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it" (John 14:14).

The Bible also says, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matt. 7:7). So what does asking amiss mean? Let's find out and see if it applies to you.

"And Jesus answering saith unto them, 'Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them'" (Mark 11:22-24).

One example of asking amiss is found in this verse. If you prayed, but you didn't believe you received when you prayed, then you are really doubting God's ability to perform His Word, with signs following, in your life. That's asking amiss.

"Well, we're just hoping and praying, but you never know what God's going to do."

Wait a minute. Didn't you just pray? Then why didn't you believe that He would do it?

If you wait until you see the results before you believe, then it's highly unlikely that you'll ever have victory in your prayer life. Jesus indicated in His teachings that if you have to see it or feel it first, then that's being "faithless."

Verse 25 reveals another way we ask amiss: "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."

You may be saying all the right things: "I'm more than a conqueror. I'm a world overcomer. My God supplies all my needs. I believe I receive when I pray," and then somebody says to you, "How's your wife?"

"Well, she and I don't get along. She really hurt me, and I'll never forgive her for it."

Then you've asked amiss.

You've got aught against someone. That violates the law of faith. You can confess all the right things, you can even believe you received when you prayed, but if you've got aught in your heart against someone, then you've asked amiss. They are now controlling your prayer life and your destiny.

You have to forgive.

Is hanging onto that unforgiveness worth being robbed of God's best? No. Then why not let go of it?

I encourage you right now, this very minute, to say, "God, I forgive. I release any and all offenses that have come against me. I let it go. I am not going to allow unforgiveness or aught against anyone to hinder my prayer life or control my destiny. I forgive that person. I forgive those people. I release them in Jesus' name."

Now give the Lord a shout of praise. Don't carry that junk around with you. That's excess baggage. Those are weights. You can't run this race with all those weights on you. Let them go once and for all.

3. No revelation of the fear of the Lord
A few years ago while hosting our annual Revival Fires Conference, Gloria Copeland was one of our guest speakers. During her session, she made a statement that I have never forgotten. She said, "They've called us Word people, and they've called us Faith people. But nobody's ever called us Holy people."

Now for you to receive what I have to say to you by the Spirit of God, you're going to have to put all the religious preconceptions you may have had about holiness on the shelf for a moment. Don't put up a wall right now. Open your heart and receive what the Lord has given me because it will change your life forever.

So many of God's people today have no insight whatsoever as to what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord. I call it the Last Frontier. It should have been the first thing we learned as believers, but it looks as though it's going to be the last.

A Spirit of Fear vs. the Fear of the Lord
The fear of the Lord is not to be confused with a spirit of fear. Many times, that's why people put up walls when they even hear the phrase, the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is not referring to being afraid of God. We're talking about reverence for God. We're talking about worshiping God and being amazed at His greatness. We're talking about being in awe of His magnificence. But it also means not wanting to do anything that would displease Him because you love Him so much. It doesn't mean pleasing Him just because you're afraid He might kill you if you don't.

Somebody may say, "Doesn't the Bible talk about the wrath of God?"

Yes, it does. But you will never see it. You're His child. There will be people who reject Jesus and will find out that there is a side of God called wrath, but you and I will never witness the wrath of God.

I would never do anything to harm my own children. They've done things that have displeased me, but it certainly didn't change my love for them. I still loved them just the same. I didn't start trying to figure out a way I could harm them. Well, God is no different with His children.

In the Old Testament, they saw the wrath of God from time to time because they weren't born again people. The Blood of Jesus hadn't been shed at that point. God told them, "If you obey, these blessings will come on you. If you don't, these curses will come on you." It wasn't enjoyable to Him for those curses to come on His people. It broke His heart because that wasn't His best. But, He was obligated to His own Word. He is a Sovereign God.

A simple definition of holiness is: you love what God loves and you hate what God hates. To walk in the fear of the Lord simply means you don't want to do anything to displease Him. You don't want to do anything that you think might dishonor Him.

Most of the teaching I've heard over the years on the fear of the Lord was condemning. But a true revelation of the fear of the Lord will not condemn you; it will set you free.

Source: The Last Frontier by Jerry Savelle
Excerpt permission granted by Jerry Savelle Ministries International

Author Biography

Jerry Savelle
Web site: Jerry Savelle Ministries International
 
Dr. Jerry Savelle was an average, blue-collar man who was struggling and needed God's help. While he considered himself a "nobody," when he became a believer God told him not to worry about it because He was a master at making champions out of nobodies. God has since taken Dr. Savelle from being a constant quitter to a man who knows how to stand on the Word of God until victory is experienced. Because of the life-changing combination of God's faithfulness and Dr. Savelle's "no quit" attitude, his life is totally different than it was thirty-eight years ago.
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