I pulled a rock from my pocket and turned it over in my fingers, examining its smooth surface and various colors. I had gotten it at a local “Rock Swap.”  The vendor, handing it over with a string and a small paper tied to it said, “Here. It’s free. It’s a prayer rock.” I took the token and tucked it deep into the pocket of my blue jeans — like tucking away a special promise that I wanted to hold onto.

God had been speaking to me a lot about rocks and gems from the scripture. For me, this free rock that was mine just for the taking was a symbolic reminder of all the plans and promises of God: from Christ the Cornerstone, to His church as living stones. All these I seemed to hold in my hand as I brought it back out in the sunlight to inspect it again. His promises were mine for the claiming. My fingers closed tightly around the small stone. I wanted all of it — all that God had for me.

That God has a plan is evident throughout all of scripture. And God wants His people to participate in His plan by obeying and believing in Him to accomplish the things they can’t. When they obey Him, He moves supernaturally on their behalf. When they disobey Him, they not only fail to fulfill the purpose He had for them, but they also do not receive the good things He had planned to give them. Over and over the same pattern is evident — faith and obedience equals fulfilling God’s purpose and receiving His blessing; disbelief, disobedience, or failure to act to move towards His promises is synonymous with operating outside of God’s purpose and plan the result of which is not receiving the fullness of the things He had in store and wanted to give.

Paul says in one of his letters to the Corinthians that these stories were recorded as examples for us. If we pay attention to the lessons God wants to reveal to us through the successes and failings of others in His word, we can understand God better and avoid falling short of God’s promises to us. Do you want all that God has for you? All of His gracious abundance? All of the participation in His good plans for His Kingdom? I know I do!

There are two warnings from scripture that have replayed in my mind recently as I go on my own journey of faith and obedience with the Lord — one is the Israelites failing to enter the Promised Land, the other is Joash the king of Israel failing to fully defeat the Arameans much later in Israel’s history. Both stories highlight people who failed to believe God and did not fulfill His purpose and plan for their lives. The result? The generation of Israelites died in the wilderness instead of receiving the abundance and blessing of the promised land. Later in history, king Joash did not receive the full victory that God promised him.

In 2 Kings 13, the king of Israel, Joash, visits a sick and dying prophet Elisha. Elisha uses the opportunity to deliver a message to the king from the Lord. It is a prophecy that requires the king’s participation. He instructs him to take a bow and arrows and shoot one of the arrows out of the open window. The king does so. Elisha calls the arrow “the Lord’s arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Aram,” and goes on to say, “for you will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you have destroyed them.” (2 Kings 13:17)

The arrow was representing the promise of God that He would be with the king of Israel in battle to give the victory over this enemy until they were destroyed. This was quite a promise since Israel had a long history of warring with the Arameans and had lost both territory and manpower to them. Would he truly receive this promise? The verses that follow unveil the king’s heart about God’s word to Him through his response to further instruction.

After Elisha has revealed the Lord’s promise of victory over Aram, he tells the king to take the remaining arrows and strike the ground with them. (2 Kings 13:18) The king obeys, but halfheartedly. He strikes the ground three times and stops. Elisha becomes angry and says, “you should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have destroyed it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times.” (2 Kings 13:19)

Wait. Didn’t the king obey? He struck the ground with the arrows, right? So, why does Elisha now say will he not receive the full victory that God had promised? Reading carefully, his half-hearted obedience showed his lack of belief. If he had truly believed God’s promise — that the arrows represented his victory in battle like the prophet said, he would have put all his might into the command that Elisha had given to strike the ground. But his actions revealed his heart and lack of faith in how God wanted to work through him. His partial obedience resulted in partial fulfillment of the promise. He did have some measure of victory over Aram – but he did not fully destroy them as the Lord had initially promised.

Likewise, if we lack the faith to fully follow through on the things the Lord has spoken over us, we also will fail to receive the fullness of His plans and purpose for us. He calls, but we must answer. He provides the way, but we must step out onto the way and follow. Those who will not step out in faith and obedience will not receive all that He has for them.

The Israelites leaving Egypt for the promised land are a perfect example. When they reached the edge of the new land God told them He would give them, they refused to believe God (see Numbers 13-14). They failed to enter in because they saw the obstacles and did not believe His promise to them. As a result, that generation died in the desert, and it was not until another forty years had passed that the opportunity to enter in was given to the nation again under the new leadership of Joshua who led that believing generation into all that God had for them.

In the very same way, we also will not receive the fullness of the promises of God if we stop short because we fail to trust Him to provide the way forward. The fault then, lies not with the Lord, but with us. Has God given you a promise that requires you to step out in faith? What area has He asked you for obedience in? Are you “all in” or are you giving a half-hearted obedience? Has He called you to do something for His glory that you have been unwilling to step into because you don’t believe He can make it happen?

Sometimes we fail to believe because it doesn’t make sense to us in the natural world. We can’t imagine how He can make something happen. But God doesn’t want to place the whole burden of “making things happen” on your shoulders. He wants us to trust Him that HE can make the impossible happen and to obey by giving him what we do have, trusting Him to provide what we can’t. God wants us to partner with Him in the building of the Kingdom, and “He calls into being that which does not exist.” (Romans 4:17) Is anything too hard for the Creator of the universe?

Friend, I encourage you to reach out in faith to Him. Step into the good things He has for you. Step into His purpose for your life. His purpose for you is three-fold in this life – your salvation, sanctification, and service (good works/ministry by the Spirit.) Salvation must come first before the other two can follow.

God’s purpose for you is your salvation — that is, to accept the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross to pay for your sins and pave the way for you to be forgiven of your rebellion and know God.

Then His will for your life is sanctification — that is, the process of being made more like Him as you learn from Him and grow and submit to the ways He wants to work in your heart and life to make lasting changes in your character and actions. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3)

 As God works His perfect will in us, sanctifying us as we surrender to Him, the word tells us that He has a unique plan for us — that is, that He created us in Christ Jesus “for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:9) The more we allow God to change us, the better vessel we will be for Him to reside in and pour out His Spirit through us to others in the good works that He has waiting for us to do.

He has fitted you perfectly for the works that He has in store for you to do through the power of His Holy Spirit. You are unique and He made you for His specific purposes. You are not perfect but you are the perfect person to reach the people He has waiting for you to interact with for His Kingdom and glory.

All these things lie in wait for the one who will have the faith to believe, to submit, to step out in obedience with all their heart. Do you want the promises of God? Do you want to fulfill His plan for your life? Don’t stop short. Don’t give Him half-hearted obedience like the king of Israel did in 2 Kings 13 and fail to receive all that He has for you.

As you go along the road of life, believing and trusting in Him, fulfilling His calling to you, walking in the good works He has for you, stay strong and remember His promises which will come to pass. Paul says, “let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

There is a harvest coming for those of us who have believed and have been walking in the good works God has given us to do for the building up of God’s people and for the evangelism of the lost. Are you sowing in faith in the fields that God has placed you in? Will you be there at harvest time to share in the crops with the rest of God’s fellow workers? Will we rejoice together over the abundance that the growth that God gifts have produced through our obedience and the power of His Spirit?

I look again at the little stone that was given to me. Each time I see it I remember that Jesus Christ is the Cornerstone and those of us who follow Him are participating in His plan to build His church, His people — as “living stones…being built up as a spiritual house…through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5). I tuck the rock back in my pocket — it’s my promise from God that He will use me in some way in the building up of His people. And I’m all in. I don’t want to miss a single work that God has for me to complete; nor a single person that He has for me to impact in some way.  How about you? What is the Lord calling you to? Sow in faith and then, when the time comes, step into the promise. Take the land. Receive the victory. Build up His people. Keep advancing. Keep walking in faith towards all that God has in store for you.

“Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:14)

Emily