How to Limit God

Notes from Sunday, April 11, 2010
Speaker: John Reynolds

Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.  Psalm 78:41


Whoa! Wait minute! They limited God? How?


Have you ever driven a car that had a "governor"? If so, you know that the governor is designed to limit the speed. The governor doesn't reduce the power of the engine, but it does limit the "outworking" of the power that was originally built into the engine.


Sometimes we limit the "outworking" of the power of God in our lives.


(1) By forgetting what He's done for us.


They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. Psalm 78:42


It's important to keep remembering and reciting what God has done for me. I need to keep a journal of God's provision and read it, especially when I find myself among giants and fortresses.


(2) By being lazy.


But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22


When we don't put into practice what we've heard, we lose that knowledge. It's important to USE what we LEARN each week.


Last week, I heard over 20 sermons and attended about 8 seminar sessions at a conference. And in all those sermons and seminar sessions, some common themes emerged. If I haven't found ways to weave those common themes into my everyday life over the course of the next few weeks, I'll forget about them within the month. God also used the sermons and sessions to impress upon me some specific steps I need to take. If I don't begin to take action on those specific steps in the course of the next few weeks, I'll forget about them within the month.


(3) By misplaced loyalties.


And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. I Samuel 16:1


God is rebuking Samuel for his misplaced loyalty in Saul. Sometimes we continue to place our loyalty in a person or an institution even after it has gone wrong. We must place our loyalty in the Lord, and not in man or institutions.


(4) By unbelief.


Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. Hebrews 3:7-11


And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:58


Unbelief provokes God to wrath and grieves God. He chooses not to perform mighty works because of our unbelief. It's so important to believe God's promises. When my heart believes God, that belief will work its way out into my actions and words. My words and actions will always reflect either belief or unbelief, whatever is in my heart.


(5) By prayerlessness.


...ye have not, because ye ask not. James 4:2


Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3


Lack of prayer brings lack of power. I would love to convert my weaknesses to strengths through prayer this year. I'd love to convert worry to prayer this year. I'd love to convert "fretting" uncertainty to prayer this year. I'd love to convert hurt to prayer this year. I'd love to convert inadequacies to prayer this year.


I see evidence of these five governors in my life. And the sad thing is, I've installed every one of them myself! May 2010 be the year I remove the governors... and remove the limits.