Dr. John Lucas, Elder Emeritus of FCA Canada, gave a recap of the 2012 Convention before introducing his son as Keynote Speaker for the closing night. John W. Lucas III, Senior Pastor of Immanuel Church, addressed the FCA Canada Convention with a message on Isaiah 54, exhorting his audience to expand their faith for greater things.
Lucas shared that stretching is the ability to expand without tearing apart. It allows us to bring forth what is growing inside of us. When God wants to do something in our lives, He demands that we begin to stretch. There will be an elasticity in our life that we will be able to accommodate that which is brand new in our life.
Isaiah’s text speaks to the barren and those who are desolate, devastated by their situations and with little to no hope for their future. He promises them they will be blessed and restored – they will have not just enough for themselves, but for those around them as well. God is speaking to us and saying that there is coming a season wherein we will break forth into singing and there will come an abundance of that which is provided to us by God.
Isaiah’s prophecy is brought forth in a season of scarcity and lack, but God was declaring that He was about to bring a brand new future. This prophecy was in direct opposition to their reality. The obvious question arises, “How can this be?” We need to stop asking how and just believe that God is able to do what He said He will do. As we begin to trust God, then He will begin to move us beyond our current reality. We need to doubt our doubts and see those things which are not as though they are.
This passage of Scripture in Isaiah doesn’t talk as much about the tent as it does about the place where the tent is situated. God says He wants us to enlarge the place of your tent. He wants us to embrace a new season of abundance. The place of our tent is the ground we have built our tent upon. If you want to expand your house dramatically, you must change the premise. You don’t necessarily have to build bigger buildings – you may have to change the site. The premises of our life are very important. We must expand our premise in order to accommodate what God has for us. But first and foremost, we need to expand the premise of our thinking.
What is the premise of your life and ministry? God is saying to Israel, “I cannot grow your tent because I must first touch the place where your tent is.” He is saying, The problem is not the enemy – the problem is the premise on which I am building. The premise determines the limits of our lives and ministries. What is the square footage of your faith that you are choosing to operate in?
Do you believe that you have more than enough or do you believe it is your lot in life to operate in problems? We need to expand the horizons of our life. What are the limitations you have placed upon yourself? God wants us to begin to enlarge that place.
God wants to change your structure, your system, the substance of your life – but before He can do that, He must change the premise. It could be your marriage, your life or your church. There are limitations, yet we go about doing business the same way that we did yesterday and somehow hope for a miracle without having to change anything. But that is not God’s way.
Many of our limitations are self-imposed by our thought patterns. Enlarging the place of our tent involves believing that God is going to expand us. What are you believing for tonight?
Some people will try to hold you back and keep you in the past where you used to be. You can’t live back there. You have to live in the now. The people you surround yourself with can keep you from moving into what God has for you. What you believe about your life will be fulfilled. Sometimes it involves making changes in our relationships and forming new relationships that will support us where we want to go.
Some of us have thinking that will not allow us to receive what God has for us. In Zimbabwe, people are sitting on diamond mines, but they do not have enough to eat. Often in our lives and situations, it’s not a resource problem. Lucas’ grandfather was denied a church because he was deemed “too old” so he went out and bought a church because he believed there was a dream in his heart that was to be fulfilled.
Has someone said no to you for too long? Ask God to open up something in your life and reassess your responses. Your responses determine your results. Only you can choose your response, therefore you can open yourself up to a brand new start. Tommy Barnett listened to a tape about a large ministry and it expanding his vision and way of thinking. Hearing that testimony increased his faith to believe that if God could do it there, He could do it in Phoenix. He went on to build one of the largest churches in America.
If you live by the assumption that it cannot be done, it won’t be done. You need to live by the calling of God. The challenge is to enlarge your thinking to receive what God has for you in this new season.
Lucas finished by opening the altars to those who want to expand their thinking and vision to believe God for greater things. FCA Canada elders prayed for many who came forward and the evening ended in prayer and worship.
