The Power Of Provision

Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message now going over in your Bible the Second King's thirteen fourteen through twenty. Yes, we're still in the same passage we started in and I'm gonna read it again Verses fourteen through twenty. Part A. Week one our study was on the power of precision.

Was kind of a.

Double meaning to that. We were saying aim at something. Don't just waste all of your arrows and ammunition fighting worthless battles that don't matter anyway.

Have you ever just warned yourself out fighting over stuff that was imagined.

It either wasn't going to happen or was going to happen no matter what you did about it. You were so worn out by the time you actually fought it that you lost because.

You were swinging, just wasting your energy. So we were.

Saying aim at the thing that God shows you, and that was Week one, But we were also saying, precide, don't wait till you get discouraged to decide whether or not you're going to continue. Make a decision about it a precision amen, decide before the battle begins that I'm still going to be standing at the end of it.

And I might be.

Bloody, and I might be bruised, and my body might be sore, but I won't stop. And that's what we were talking about in week one. We talked in week two about preparation, and we talked about those plowing seasons that prepare the ground for the great things that God wants to do in your life. And then we talked about the power of potential. And that a really powerful message for me because I discovered that the pain of falling short is nothing compared to the shame of stopping short.

And so we've had a lot to think about.

In this fourth installment, I want to speak about the power of provision, declaring over your life that God's got what you need and it's a matter of you receiving it and opening yourself to it. Because in the scripture, the image of a window symbolizes both perspective because it's what you look through, and sometimes what you're looking through is just as in is what you're looking at.

Okay, I can prove this.

I don't even need the Bible, and I will read the Bible in a minute. But those are not my glasses. If you give them to me right now, WHOA You got problems? We need to pray for her miracles of recovery of sight to the blind man. You look funny now before I put these on you look, you looked awesome.

But what I was looking through.

Changed the dimensions of what I'm looking at because it wasn't meant for me.

Amen, I'm preaching all my recap.

But another thing that a window represents is provision. Like in Malachi three, where God challenges his people if you will release what's in your hand. I will release what's in my heart. I want to bless you. But the windows are close. And that's why we have these power windows. Okay, the power of preparation. It opens the window of provision.

There are people lined up to get to church.

And I always get excited when I see that, just amazed at all the people who are coming. And I also get kind of terrified by it because my.

Greatest fear in life is disappointing people.

I'm always scared I'm gonna be a disappointment, and then people put a complex on me because when they meet me, they say, you look coller on, like they're disappointed that I'm short or something like that.

So I stay in my house till Sunday, and.

But I see the people lining up, and I always go through this conversation with God. God, you got to speak to these people that you sent because they need something that I don't have. And furthermore, I don't even know exactly what they need. You do, God has a surveillance system on your situation. How many believe he can speak the specific thing.

That you need today.

I mean from the front of the room to the back of the room to the overflow.

God has got what you need.

And I don't even worry about it anymore because I look at myself like an Amazon dot Com drone that just drops it off at your doorstep and flies away, all right. So I always pray that God, they need something that I don't have. I feel like the disciples who had five thousand men and women and children to feed and no bread, and yet God said, bring what you have to me, even if it seems to be too little, and.

Watch what I will do through you.

It's interesting, isn't it that to provide for the people, Jesus did not bypass the meager supply of the disciples.

He multiplied it.

So the whole process of provision starts when you offer what you have, regardless of whether or not it seems to be enough to you. The little bit of time that you do have, that's the window the perspective of provision. I wonder if provision is a matter of perspective. Elisha seems to think. So, this great prophet is dying, and this new king has one chance to get what he needs from the mouth of the man of God. Let's see what happens. Tewod King's thirteen fourteen. Now Elisha had

It's one thing about pressure.

Pressure will cause you to seek provision and get.

Your priorities in order.

There was no seeking of Elisha's advice until the Aramians started to oppress the people of God. And when it got to that point, the king went down to see the prophet. I don't know what brought you to church today, but I sure am glad you're here.

Tush.

Your neighbors say, I'm glad you're here. Don't even care what brought you here. You might have heard there were pretty girls of elevation. But I'm glad you came. Might get a valentine and a word from God.

Amen.

All at the same time, God is good, supplies all my needs according to his glorious riches. That's not a pickup line, that's a scripture, all right. So he went down and he wept over him, and I understand why he's weeping. He's weeping because what he's losing is so significant.

Elisha was more than just a preacher.

Elisha represented the entire defense system of the nation of Israel.

He was their win, not only the window through.

Which they saw the activity of God, but the window through which God would give them many times the protection from their enemies.

He had a unique.

Ability to strategically cut off the enemy's advances, and he would tell the kings where the enemy was going to attack so that they could be ready for it. Note that it did not prevent the attack from happening. It provided the strength to withstand the attack.

Sometimes we get.

Confused about the provision of God because we mistakenly believe that the provision of God will mean the prevention of problems. And when we ask God to provide for us what we're actually asking him to do, truth be told, is to eliminate the need. In other words, God create a life for me that will make you unnecessary, and.

He won't do it.

He's weeping over what's leaving, and Elisha is pointing to what's left in every season.

Of my life, I have the choice.

Watch this, my father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel. Elisha is about to leave the building, but before he goes, he points to the provision. He points.

To the provision.

I believe God wants to point out the provision that He's placed in front of you in your life today, and I've been asking him to do that. Watch this, Elishah said, verse fifteen, get.

A bow and some arrows.

Now, the arrows did not magically appear at this point. The bow didn't fall down out of the sky. It had been there all along. He is simply instructing the king to locate what has been there all along, what was in the house when he came. Now he instructs

He did so.

Just dude, take the boat in your hands, he said to the King of Israel. And when he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. This message is for somebody at gassed and today. Get ready, it's gonna come. And then verse seventeen is our theme verse where he says, open the east window, and he opened it, shoot, Elisha said, and he shot, and then he declared, Wat's his promise, the Lord's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aer.

If Paul were writing, he.

Would say that I am more than a conqueror through him who loved me.

Yeah, if John were writing, he.

Would say, this is a victory that overcomes the world. The arrow of victory, the Lord's arrow of victory. God is the source of my supply. God is the source of my strength. It's the Lord's arrow of victory.

But he put it in your hands.

God gave the victory, but you must take the shot.

Now.

Feel the spirit of Wayne Gretzky coming on me. I don't even like hockey. But he said, you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take, and he shot the arrow. But what happened next This tragic because he had the opportunity of a lifetime to completely defeat the enemy that was oppressing him, and he missed it. He missed it. He missed it because he didn't do Watch this verse eighteen. The prophet said, take the arrows, and the king took them. Strike the ground, and he

Power of provision.

God has given me what I need for the season that I'm in, and I have a choice to make today and every day. Will I weep over what I'm losing, or will I wield the weapons that are left provision perspective.

The two are connected.

I'll tell you a story I didn't tell any of the other worship experiences because I'm kind of partial to you guys, because after you I'm done.

Were a vacation this summer.

I turned on the windshield wipers and Graham was sitting in the passenger seat.

The windshield was dirty.

That's what I noticed, he said, Daddy, when you turn on the windshield wipers, I pretend there's.

A race, he said.

The dirty triangle that the windshield wipers don't get to.

That's the shark's fin.

The part of the windshield that the wipers clean, that's a whale. The wipers are the dolphin, and when you turn them on they're jumping.

Here's why I told you that story.

I was looking at a dirty windshield. He was looking into the windshield. I saw a dirty window. He saw SeaWorld. And here's my premise. It's about perspective. Repeat after me. What I see is up to me. Elisha was a seer, and when he saw something, he spoke, and he spoke something and he saw something and the needs of the people materialized because of Elisha's ability to see and to speak. There is a connection between your vision and your victory.

It on the screen.

My brain is constantly asking the question walking into any situation flow with me.

What am I missing? What am I missing.

I'm really good at weeping over what isn't there or worrying over what isn't there. My brain is trained to do it. It's almost as if I feel like somewhere along in my life, I took a class on how to walk into any situation and notice what I'm missing, what I don't have, what I can't do, what I can't control. Now, I'll give myself a little credit, because some people don't even notice the need.

They just walk by it.

It amazes me sometimes what my children will not even see that needs to be done.

It's not that they didn't.

Do it, it's that they didn't even see that it needed to be done. One of my children asked Holly the other day, you mean I have to take a bath every day? He doesn't see the need because he doesn't smell the stitch. You know, you can get to a place in your life where you've been in a situation and condition so long that everybody else smells it, but you, I mean, you can get to the place

Take it out? Or did you not notice?

And you know what, honest to God, they didn't even notice the need, or at least that's what they told me.

And some people don't even notice.

Worse yet, sometime don't see the need because all we see is the symptom. Can I preach a little bit in your body? This is called referred pain. It's when you have something wrong in your chest, but you feel it in your neck, so you're trying to fix it in a place that it is not coming from. And when David said the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he is also implying that God is the only one who knows what I really need, what I really need when I pray, give me this day my

See.

There are some things in life that are nice to have, but I don't really need them to survive. I love when Holly says this to me. And Valentine's Day is coming up, so maybe she'll say this to me on Tuesday. She'll say, I appreciate everything you've given me because I try to take care of her. I really do, and always the best of my ability. Sometimes that meant water and we eat chips at the Mexican and share a speedy Gonzales.

But sometimes that meant I.

Could take her to Mortons, But whether it was Mexican or Mortons, it didn't matter. I was always giving her what I could. But every once in a while she'll tell me. She'll tell me something like this, it's not the things that you gave me, and I think she means it. It's not the things, because she was there with me when there weren't any things.

It's not the things.

She loved me in Juniper Terrorists Apartment C fifteen. She loved me in the Duplex. I don't love you for the Dnali, I love you in the duplex. It's not what you gave me. Our love is not contingent upon a material possession.

And I wonder.

Have I come to that place in my relationship with God that I really believe that if He didn't give it, I don't need it. My brain tells me differently. My brain tells me, even while I'm preaching this sermon, that I am not intelligent enough, articulate enough. When I go to tell my little jokes, I'm not comical enough because my brain picks out the people.

Who look hateful in the crowd every time.

I don't know how I find y'all, but I find you somehow. And my brain will pick out what's missing. There could be a thousand people standing.

Up preach, pastor, but my little brain.

You too.

I mean, I can walk in a.

Situation and find what's wrong in a minute. Notice who wasn't nice to me?

In a minute.

Always notice what I'm missing, Always notice what I lack, Always notice what I've lost. But if I only notice what I lack and what I've lost, I won't use what I have left. And what God wants to do through my life next is not contingent upon.

What I lack or what I've lost.

Come on, you better help me preach, Get a bow, get some arrows, punch your neighbor in the arm, and say, what you have is what you need. What you have is what you need. What you have is what you need. What you have is what you need. What you have is what you need. God should have made me taller. I didn't choose to be five foot nine. Five foot nine is all I need. That's all I need. I don't need any extra inches. Praise the Lord. One time I called a guid to thank him forgid contributing to

Call from the headman.

He said, I appreciate it, and it's nice to hear from you, but it's not needed.

I never forgot what he said.

This was years ago, and this week I was reminded of one time when Paul he was in prison.

Right he's writing to the church.

At Philippi who just contributed toward his legal defense. And so Paul writes to them to thank them and express his gratitude. He says, hey, I got your gift, and I was happy for it. In fact, I rejoiced greatly. This is Philippians four, verse ten. That you renewed your concern for me at last. It took a while, but I know that you were concerned but had no opportunity to show it. Now that's important too, because Paul's problem

A problem, and we.

Don't receive the provision because it's wrapped in a package that looks like a problem, and we keep sending back the gift that God is trying to bestow upon us because it doesn't feel good. Sometimes God will send correction into your life to make you better. You've been praying for God to make you better, but he didn't do it through somebody telling you how good you are. He sends somebody to correct you. But you don't like the

I received it.

I was happy about it, and I appreciate it. But watch what he says in the next verse. He said, I'm not saying this because I'm in need for I have learned this is something that you are not born with. You don't know what you need. I mean, you are born just screaming. You don't know what you need. You just know that you need to eat. You don't understand the process. But life is the process of God teaching

Or what shall we wear?

For your father knows you need these things.

He knows what I need.

Paul says, it's nice, but I don't need it.

It's nice, but I don't need it.

I appreciate what you bought for me. Holly said, it's nice, but I don't need it. I like it, but I don't need it. Even let me tell you something right right here, to stay my cough. I appreciate your passion. I was watching you in worship and here I am preach it and you are standing up like you are ready to charge the devil with a nurse bow and arrow.

And I love it. I love it.

I love your response to the word to God. It's nice, but I want you to know I don't need it. Okay, I'm gonna preach this if you stand up and shout me down. I'm gonna preach it if you sit there and sleep, because I can't hold it in.

It's my calling, it's my assignment.

See if you want to respond, that's nice. But even if you don't respond, I gotta word from God and I gotta get it out. This is for all of you who have been underappreciated in the position you're in. You gotta come to the place where you say, you know.

It's nice when.

People think me, it's nice when people notice me.

But God is my rewarder.

God is my source.

God is my supply.

I don't need it. It'd be nice to have a date on Valentine's Day, but I don't need it. I'll take myself out of Bosta, buy my own shrimp. Okay, I find somebody to say I don't need it. If God didn't give it, I don't need it.

If it's not in my reach, it's not for this season.

And if he let it go, I will too, because I find out.

The deeper the valley, the greener the grass, and He.

Will never lead me to a place that he will not feed me, and he will never send me into a situation that he does not supply for so Elisha had the unique ability to go into the same situation that others had walked into and seen only.

Shortage and see God's supply. Who is this for today?

You know who I'm worried about.

The one who pretends like they have no need, or the one who has become so calloused in your heart, the one who has become so dependent on dysfunctional systems that cannot feed you in a sustainable way that you have lost your ability to.

Come before God and say I need you a broken in a contrite heart.

He will not despise, but the arrogant and the proud he will cast down.

The prerequisite for supply is that you know your need.

I need you, God, I need you if I see you, if I seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness, all these things, these things, see, they're not needs, their things. All I need is Him and He will supply.

Oh my needs.

So I've been I've been switching my question a little bit instead of asking the question what am I missing? Because I can stay stuck there forever. I'm a broken person. There are skills I do not have, there are talents I cannot employ, there are resources I cannot access, and if I focus on that my whole life, it will feed my fear and starve my faith, and I will not receive what Jesus died to give me for every needy person in the place today, let me give you

What am I not seeing?

What is it that God has put in front of me? What are the weapons that are within my reach that I am not.

Seeing? Pro vision in this.

Message freedom, I'm telling you man, because you have been so stuck in what was weeping at the feet of Elisha.

He's gone.

Now you have been so stuck in what's not what you don't have, what you can't do.

Sweetheart, If I would have made a list.

Of everything I can't do and everything I'm bad at, there would not be an elevation Church.

I'm serious, I'm serious.

The Devil's gonna beat me up for preaching to you like this, because when it gets real like this, I open myself and sometimes it feels like I'm just opening myself. But there is so much I wish I could take some time and talk to you about my weaknesses. I mean, there are so many weaknesses that I have, but I have never allowed my weaknesses to prevent me from using my weapons. Who am I preaching to? I got a bow, I got an arrow. I intend to use every arrow in my quimper.

I'm sorry.

So Peter and John are going to the gate called Beautiful. They're just going to church one day, and along the way to church, because destiny will all often disguise itself as a distraction, that was too quick, they were walking to church and there was a beggar at the gate called Beautiful asking them for alms. He was shaking a cup in their face, asking them for some spare change.

But how many.

No, God doesn't always give you the kind of change that you ask for. See, God knows the need beneath the need, beneath the need, beneath the need, beneath the need, beneath the need. So this man has been lame since birth. He's never been able to walk. He's doing the best that he can. He's in the only place that he thinks he can get any kind of provision or assistance at all. And here comes Peter and here comes John, and apparently they look like the kind.

Of people who would.

Be willing to help a little bit, And so he asks him boldly. In fact, the Bible says in verse two that he saw Peter and John going up to the temple. Now, if he hadn't in the right place, he wouldn't have seen his provision. That's why I gotta come to church, because if I don't get in the right place, I might miss the provision. I might miss the word that God wants to give me to fight the battle that I don't even know about yet. So

He sees provision vision.

I'm gonna stay right here, provision. And the wipers are the dolphins, and the dirt is the shark. What do you mean, boy, it's a dirty windshield. No, I see something in it. I see something. I see something. Maybe that's why he said we need to have faith like a child. I stopped being so blind to our supply.

The enemy.

If he can't keep you from seeing the need, then he will keep you blind to the supply. And when he saw Peter come and he said, hook a brother up. And Peter said, I got good news and bad news. The good news is I see you look at it. It says that not only did the man see Peter and John, but Peter looked straight at him. I wonder how many people had passed by him. I wonder how many people had stepped over him. I'm not saying that

That's not my point. My point is.

That in this particular passage, the miracle was sitting there in the form of something that everyone else walked past, and Peter looked.

At him, and he was there.

I don't think Peter was the first one to church, nor was he the last one. But he looked at him and he saw something. He saw an opportunity disguised. That's a problem. God is an optometrist. He wants to fix the way. You see. You've been asking will I have what it takes? And God is asking will you take what you've got? Get a bow, get some arrows. It's right there, it's right there. I mean, God will hide your provision in plain sight to cause you to

If we'll listen.

I thought I would get some female support and endorsement. Hidden provision, something you've been walking past. That's what Elisha was able to do. That's what the window is for, to see God is working. To see God at work beneath the surface. God, show me where you're working in this situation. That's my prayer. I assume that you are. You're always working. Now open my eyes to see the

I've never preached a more annointed sermon than this one.

Right now, God is doing corrective eye surge. This is like lasick for the soul. Right now, God is trying to get you back. You've been looking at situations through the lens of limitation. But God said today, I'm not gonna change your situation.

I'm gonna take off.

Your spectacles so you can see your situation through the lens of my provision. I would have despaired unless I believe that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the Living.

You're looking at it wrong.

It's not a dirty windshield of sheam MoU. You've been praying for patience God sent you preschoolers. Is provision wrapped in pampers. Y'all better talk to me. I'll preach all day. There ain't no parking lot for me to clear. Right now, I feel on fire with the word of God. Peter looked at the man, and where others saw an inconvenience, he an opportunity. And he looks straight at him. Open the east window, looks straight at the thing that's in your way.

Don't divert your.

Attention, don't distract yourself. Look at it, see it for what it is, see it for what it can be. And then he spoke to it. First he saw it, and then he spoke to it. And Peter looked at the man, and then Peter told the man, look at us. You see a common theme in this passage. Every good thing that happened happened by virtue of perspective provision for the vision, pro vision vocabulary lesson pro for vision sight. I want to see how God is working this for

Could that be you notice what happened? Man?

This part got good to me when I was preaching it over at the nine point thirty.

And I hope I can do it right now. I'm closing.

I really am closing kind of, that's sort of in my own little way.

Oh man, if I could get you.

To see this, God, help me say it like I see it, because I see it.

I see it.

I see that he wanted to get something, but first he had to give something. Look at verse five, the man gave them his attention. What if it's not about what you're not getting that is causing you to live in a state of shortage. What if the windows are closed because you wouldn't open them.

And God will test you on this.

He will test you on this because He does not want you dependent on sources of energy or affirmation that are.

Not connected to his heart.

And he will let a brook dry up so that you'll move on and realize it wasn't the birds that were feeding you to begin with.

It was him.

It was him. He is my supply in every season for whoever the three people are that I'm preaching this to. When he gave them his attention, God exceeded his expectation. He expected to get something from them. And I don't know what you're expecting God to do in the season of your life that he won't do yet, because usually when we ask God for change, what we really want him to change is the situation, not ourselves. Sometimes when I preach, I don't feel anything. Sometimes I feel something.

What you want.

To give you what you need now in Him who's able to do measurably more.

Than we ask or imagine.

We always think that that versus pointing upward, he's able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all we ask or imagine.

And I believe it is that the aral victory is flying over Aaron. But what if that verse works both ways?

What if he wants to do something deeper than what I'm asking him to do? Deep work? I want to do a deeper work. I don't just want to give you people in your life to encourage you. I want to teach you how to encourage others.

I learned how to fight the devil. If nobody texts.

Me to encourage, I go to work on my own contacts and I start finding people. See I'm teaching the devil. Don't mess with me, because I'll cut off your head with your own sword. You discourage me, and I'll encourage them.

And Peter said, I'm not going to give you what you want. I don't have it.

I don't have what you think you need. But such as I have, I give unto you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Get a bow, get some arrows, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The name above every name, the name above every need.

Who's this message?

For God is reaching his hand.

Out to you.

God is reaching his hand out to you.

Will you receive it?

Right now? In the name of Jesus Christ, the Master.

Get up and walked.

The man wanted a meal, but he got a miracle. Now unto him who is able to do impassably walk it shall provide, shall supply all my needs, the ones I see, the ones I don't see. The Spirit of the Lord is in this place today to meet every need.

I said.

The Spirit of the Lord is in this place today.

Rock Hill, the spirit of the Lord.

Blaytney Balentide Matthews.

The Spirit of the Lord is in this place.

God's hand cannot bless your clenched fist.

God, What am I walking past? What am I walking past?

I keep talking about my limitation? What am I walking past?

Silver and gold? Have I none? I keep weeping over the season that is behind me? What am I missing that's right in front of me? Can we flip it? This week?

Faith flips the question to know that God has placed his provision.

That's what it means, provision for before you even got there.

He put the supply in the situation, and you have.

To see it. I got a close.

If you receive this message today, lift both your hands in the air. Just lift your hands to your Father, our Father who art in heaven. Halloween, be your name, your Kingdom. Come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And give us this stay, our daily bread. Give us this stay, our daily bread. We believe that you will feed us what we need for the season that we're in. Pray that after me, feed me what I need for the season that I'm in.

God, we trust you in this moment.

We receive in this moment the grace that we need for the calling that we have received.

Thank you for joining us.

Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button. Take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church.

Thanks again for listening. God bless you.