HE IS OUR SUFFICIENCY

HE IS OUR SUFFICIENCY –The first scripture I want us to look at is Genesis 17:1

“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.”

This is where we find God calling I Himself El-Shaddai, the Almighty One. If God is the Almighty, then nothing can be mightier than Him. No matter how strong anything can be, it is not going to be as strong as the Almighty. No matter how complex anything is, it is not more than what the Almighty God can handle.

When this Almighty One is your Sufficiency, then there is no problem you have that He cannot handle for you. If the Almighty One can handle your problem for you, then you have all the reasons to take life easy.

He is Our Sufficiency, and He is sufficient to give us total victory over all our enemies. No matter how little your progress is, the enemy is not happy with it and there is nothing you can do to progress unless you overcome the enemy. How far you are able to move forward depends on how well you are able to attain total victory over this enemy of your progress.

There is no one who can help you to overcome except the Almighty God When you allow the All-Sufficient One to be your sufficiency, your victory is certain In Daniel 3, we find the story of three Hebrew men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego standing before Nebuchadnezzar, a very powerful king. The king wanted people to bow down for the idols he made and the punishment for refusal was to be cast into the fire. Very soon, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were accused of not bowing to the idols. They were the people that the king loved and promoted but some people hated them. When the enemy is set to accuse a man, there is no length they would not go to find a reason to accuse him. The king said in Daniel 3:15:

“Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made, well, but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?”

That is a very serious statement that the king made

In verse 17 the Hebrew men said they were not going do how down to idols and that their God is able to deliver them.

There are three kinds of enemies that can confront you The first group comprises those that will see the glory of God upon your life and leave you alone It is not that they will not attempt to come at you but when they come and they see the glory of God upon your life they will leave you alone. You may not even know them because as soon as they begin to attempt to come against you and the begin to see the hand of God upon your life, on the one they would withdraw.

In Daniel Chapter 6, we have the story of Daniel in the lions’ den. The glory of God was around Daniel Eres ben men could not see it, the lions saw it Though the were hungry, there was nothing they could do to him because God was with him. The glory of God showed around Daniel and even the king withdrew from fighting against him. The king then made a decree that his people should serve the God of Daniel

The second kind of enemy that can confront you are the ones who will see the glory of God in you but they will not withdraw. They know that God is with you but stubbornly they will still want to resist God is sufficient to deliver you from them. The way God does it is to subdue them before you. In 1 Samuel 7:13 we see how God subdued the Philistines, and that was the way that Israel was able to overcome them.

The third type of enemies are the ones who still go on fighting even after they have been subdued. When God subdue them and they refuse, He knows how to deal with them A good example is that of Pharaoh. There was no miracle that Pharaoh did not see, until his child died When his child died, he succumbed but as soon as Israel was going, he changed his mind again. He followed them and walked into his doom.

You will find the story of David and his son, Absalom, in 2 Samuel 18 9.17. Absalom was pursuing his father so as to claim his throne. As he was pursuing the king, the Lord set a trap for him. His donkey went under a tree and before he knew what was happening, a branch of the tree caught his hair The man was hanging there until somebody came to save him by killing him. It was God that fought the battle. God is sufficient to fight your battles for you.

God will not stop at anything if He is set to deliver you God is sufficient to give you total victory even if it needs wiping everybody off, to clear a way for you. Those that will not go back, He will subdue. Those that will not allow themselves to be subdued, He will kill.

Isaiah 43:4 says:

“Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.”

The One who is All-Sufficient says you are precious in His sight. Because you are precious in His sight, He will not allow you to go on suffering. Because He loves you, He will give men for you.

Throughout Genesis 16, we find the story of how Abraham’s wife persuaded him to look for an alternative to the promise of God. She wanted to help God to fall His promise She felt that God was not able to bring the promise to pass. Abraham agreed and married the maid of his wife. As soon as the maid discovered she was pregnant, she began to despise Abraham’s wife. Sarah was annoyed and she told Abraham to send the maid away Abraham said that since she brought the alternative, anything she wanted would be done. The woman and her child were sent away

Abraham waited for many years and for a long time, God did not appear to him. God did not speak to him even when he was looking for an alternative. God was silent when he sent the alternative away. May be you have been waiting like Abraham did. After many years, God appeared to Abraham and said, “I am the Almighty God.” (Genesis 17:1)

No matter where you are, God is present there. He is your Sufficiency. What He did yesterday He is able to do today There is no yesterday with God. There is no tomorrow with God. God was telling Abraham that He is mighty and He can do anything mighty. When you combine your economic might, political might, financial might and military might, God will still be mightier than them

When talking about sufficiency, we are talking about having enough for yourself, to satisfy all your needs and having enough to give to other people. When you have what you can spare to other people then you can begin to talk about sufficiency. If you are going to have this kind of sufficiency you need wealth and the good thing about God is that He is the One that gives power to make wealth

Deuteronomy S.IS: “But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: forum is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he stare unto thy fathers, as it is this dan When God is our God, you are close to the source of power to get wealth. Some people can be very close to i and can not get it.

This is the situation with many of us We are so close to the power to get wealth. We can see other people enjoying the wealth but we are not enjoying it. We are not partaking out of it We complain, we murmur, we grumble and yet it is like the power is not reaching us To get wealth is not a sin. If it were a sin, then God will not give us the power to get wealth. To become wealthy therefore is not a sin. There are those who commit sin to get their wealth but the truth is that God is the One that gives power to get genuine wealth When God gives you wealth, it will stay with you.

When you have God and you are able to tap into His resources, you will have sufficiency so much so that you will become a source of blessing to others. The desire of God for you is that you will become a channel of blessing to others. God does not want you to be waiting and begging before you will get.

How wealthy is God?

Let us look at few scriptures that talk to us about the wealth of God.

Psalm 24:1 says:

“The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

It is not only that God owns the earth but also everything in it belongs to Him. Men belong to God. Money belongs to God. Political might belongs to God. Financial might belongs to God. The world and everything that dwells there are under the control of the Almighty God Everything submits to Him and He is not submitting to anything. Everything is under Him and He is under nothing. He is over and above everything.

Haggai 2:8:

“The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.”

Silver and gold are two precious stones bought with money. There is no where you take gold to that it will not turn to money. God is saying that He has something that can be converted to any currency in the world. In other words, all the money in the world is His.

Psalm 50:10-11:

“For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.”

You may not appreciate what God is saying in this passage but there are so many people in the world today whose wealth is determined by the amount of animals they have. Every beast belongs to God. God is therefore wealthy

When we say God is our sufficiency even in the area of giving us power to make wealth, you will see that there is nothing God can not do. He can give silver, gold, animals, men and materials There is nothing that God can nor give to make you sufficient. God knows what you need more than what you know

When He becomes your sufficiency and you know how to tap into His resources, do you know He can choose just anything to give you? Whether He gives you silver, gold or animal wealth, these are things you can convert to meet your needs. You will meet your own needs and be able to meet the needs of others. You now become like a city that is set on a hill that can not be hid. God is wealthy and He has the power to give wealth.

Who can get this power from God?

Psalm 1:1-3:

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful

But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in his lato doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not withers and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper

The one that will enjoy the sufficiency of God is the one that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, who does not stand in the way of sinners and does not sit in the si of the scornful but delights in the law of God. That person will be like a tree by the waterside. A tree that is planted close to the water does not get dry at all because all year round, the roots are getting something to draw from When other trees are drying, it will always be fresh

The Bible says whatsoever such a fellow does shall prosper Whatsoever does not exclude anything. If you are pushing truck or selling water you will prosper Many of us have been changing work and sometimes we even change from where our prosperity is to where our prosperity is not. It is not how many places you have worked that matter Many people work all day and have nothing to show for it. God is the One that prospers people and the Lord will prosper you

Who are those that will enjoy the prosperity of God?

Let us see Job 36:11:

“If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.”

God will prosper those who obey and serve Him Obedience to God is a key that will help you. As you serve God joyfully, you are clearing your way into the resources of God. You are paving your way to the sufficiency of God. Those who are close to God but who do not obey Him and do not serve Him, will not enjoy Him. They would see others who are obeying and serving Him enjoying the prosperity of God, but they would be left out. To them it would be as if God is partial God is not partial and He is also not a respecter of persons

Let us look at Psalm 92:12-14:

“The righteous shall flourish like the  palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they Shall be fat and flourishing; “

Righteousness is not what will bring poverty but whar will make a man to flourish. In fact, the Bible says in old age the righteous will be bringing forth fruit Because God is alive and He can not change, I know even in my old age I will still be flourishing The righteous are those that will tap into the resources of God. As you serve God faithfully, with all your heart, and as you obey Him in righteousness, you are marching yourself into the wealth of God.

How will God make this thing possible?

Deuteronomy 28:1 says the Lord will set you high It does not matter where you are today, if there is hierarchy of wealth and your own is somewhere, because He is mightier than the mighty, He said He will set you on high He is the One that will set you on high Also Deuteronomy 28:13 says God will make you. What men can not make you, God will make you. What men have refused to make you, God will make you. He said He will make you the head and not the tail What God is saying is that even if you are tail today, He will make you the head. God is going to transform you. He is not taking you to the middle but to the top.

The reason some of us are not progressing is not because God does not want us to progress but we have believed that where we are is good enough. God is saying you can still be the head and you are saying nobody in your family has ever been the head You tell Him that your head can not fit that cap. I tell you, change your mind today. Since He will make you the head, He knows how to make your head fit. God who brought Saul from the last to the first is your God and He will make you the first. Those who despise you will look for you.

How will God do it?

Isaiah 45:1-3

“Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the lord of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut

I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”

God knows all the secret places where wealth is kept He will give to us the treasure of darkness and riches that are kept in secret places. Why will God do this? It is so that we will know that He is God, the One who has called us, and the One who is our sufficiency. He will give to me the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places so that I may know that He is my sufficiency and so that others may know too that He is my God.

Genesis 8:20-22:

“And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

There was something Noah did here contrary to what should be his concern Before this time, Noah had been in the ark with some animals and few people for many days. They were there and then after the rain and the flood went off, what should normally be the concern of Noah was how they were going to settle down and rebuild their lives. However, Noah realised that what he needed was more than what he could afford Out of the few animals he had, he took some and began to offer sacrifices to God He was concerned with how to please God God saw the sacrifice of Noah and was pleased and He made a new covenant with Noah

In Genesis 22:2, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham did not argue He could have asked God about the promise of making him the father of nations, Abraham did not ask God at all. He took that child even though it was not a convenient thing for him. Like Noah, Abraham was willing to sacrifice. The result of his obedience is seen in Genesis 22:15-18. You can see that God renewed His blessing for him.

Anyone that wants to tap into God’s resources must be willing to become a sacrificial giver

What is a sacrifice?

From the two examples we have given, a sacrifice is what is not normal and convenient to do. As you become a sacrificial giver, and serve God in obedience and sacrificially, His resources will open up for you.

HE IS SUFFICIENT TO PROTECT

One of the problems that human beings have is anxiety The Bible says you should be anxious for nothing When your mind is calm, the peace of God will find place there

We all know that there is nothing people cannot do to seek protection Some people out of the fear of death, they went to kill themselves. There are some people today who cannot sleep in their homes because of fear One of the problems of the rich people, especially if they do not have God, is how to keep their treasures. The fear of protection grips their hearts Isaiah 43:1-2) God has given us the guarantee that He is with us. He said if you are passing through rivers or through fire, you are secured. The last thing Jesus said before He left the earth was that He would be with you His Name Emmanuel means “God is with us”. Now if God is with us, then we are secured He is more than able to keep you

On what basis will God be with a man?

Who can we say is qualified to enjoy the presence of God?

Isaiah 43:1 tells us the basis

 “But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.”

The first basis by which God will be with a person is that the fellow is redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb If you have been redeemed, you qualify for God’s presence and divine protection.

The second basis is if He can call you by your name He said, “I have called thee by thy name.” As many people who have their names written in God’s Book of Life, are qualities for His presence The third basis is that because you belong to God, you are His property God is assuming the responsibility to keep you because you are His. If I know that I belong God then I should be rest assured that He is keeping me Now I can rely on God to keep me because Psalm 121:4 and 6 say

“Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep “

“ My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace.”

The One that is keeping me is neither sleeping nor slumbering This is so that I can sleep. Because God is my Keeper, I can go to sleep

Psalm 127:1-2 says:

 “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.”

Isaiah 54:13-17:

“And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD 3B and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror, for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by  me: whosoever shall gather together against the shall fall for thy sake

Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

God says your children shall be in peace. Do not be surprised that Jesus gives peace, because His Name is Prince of Peace. When God is with you, to keep you, one of the things you can be sure of is that His peace will operate upon your life When people are running around, you will be experiencing peace God says in righteousness you shall be established When God is your Keeper, you will be established, so you can be rest assured. He says also that you shall be far from oppression Fear is oppression Fear and oppression go hand in hand. When a man is living in fear, that man is living in oppression and once a man is oppressed, he will live in fear A man who is in fear is really in trouble.

God also says that your enemies will gather but they shall fall for your sake. That is one of the benefits you get when God is with you. God goes on to say that no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper and every tongue that will rise against you in judgement you will condemn. Even when they accuse you falsely and you do not know what to say, because God is with you, the moment you open your mouth, the wisdom that will come out of your mouth will beat their imagination and make them wonder

When God is with you, blessings will flow. Anywhere God is present, His blessing is also present there At a time of

famine. God told Isaac in Genesis 26:1-3

And there was a famine in the land, beside the fir famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Irage went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thes, and till bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father

Because God was with Isaac in that dry land, he sowed in the land and received in the same year hundred folds. He waxed great until he became very great God’s presence with man carries labour with it. How can we make sure we keep God’s presence especially when it is related to protection? It is by running into the Name of the Lord. The Name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and is safe. What David did against Goliath was to run into the Name of the Lord David carried the Name of the Lord with him so he was protected

Psalm 20:7-9 says:

“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright

Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.

Some are trusting in charms. Some people have their gods

behind their doors. A man who trusts in charms for his protection is open to defeat when the charm gets lost The Name of the Lord cannot get lost because it is inside you. All you need to do is to just call the Name and as you bring the power of the Name to bear on any situation, those warring against you will surrender. In Mark 16:17 Jesus spoke to us about the Name:

“And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues;

Philippians 2:9-11:

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things

under the earth And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The Name of Jesus is above every name. At the mention of the Name, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. When you carry the Name of the Lord with you, because God is with you and you allow that Name to be real to you as it was to David, you can always confront any situation with it.

The Name of the Lord will also set you on high (Ps. 91:14.) The Name would bring deliverance for you. The Name will bring protection for you. The Name will bring favor for you. Those who see the Name as sufficient for them will carry the Name with them.

ALSO, READ CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY