Extra Mile Blessings

It's good to obey in the small things but don't be surprised if God asks you to go the extra mile.

Then the Lord said to Elijah, "Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you." So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, "Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?" As she was going to get it, he called to her, "Bring me a bite of bread, too." But she said, "I swear by the Lord your God that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die." But Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you've said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what's left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!" So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah.

1 Kings 17:8‭-‬16 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/1ki.17.8-16.NLT

Giving Elijah the bread didn't seem to make sense.

Are you missing the great things because you aren't willing to do the hard things?

Joseph's brothers took his freedom. He had a right to be angry but instead he forgave people who didn't deserve it.

John Osteen was believing to raise funds to expand Lakewood. They needed the finances, but he told the congregation, instead of giving money for our building he was going to take up an offering for their building. Lakewood gave the finances, it was enough to finish their auditorium. In the natural that didn't make sense. We needed the funds...over the years my father built building after building, expansion after expansion, he paid cash every time, he never lacked resources, never lacked the funds.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish." "Master," Simon replied, "we worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so, I'll let the nets down again." And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!

Luke 5:4‭-‬6 NLT

Peter could have said, thank you for the suggestion, I'm a professional fisherman so I don't really need the advice but he chose to be obedient.

When Victoria and Joel were first married they lived in this townhome. It's a very beautiful place. A couple of years later they had a desire to buy a house.  They put the townhome on the market. It sold very quickly. A few months later thet found this old, rundown, beat-up house but it was in a nice neighborhood close into the city. It didn't make sense to our mind but in our spirit we felt an incredible peace. Victoria looked at me and said, "Joel, this is the house for us. Let's buy it, fix it up and live in it". They bought the house, fixed it up, lived in it. Six months later a man knocked on their door, unannounced: a builder. He said, "I'd like to buy this property and build two houses on it". Joel said, "I'm sorry. Property is not for sale". He said, "Let me ask you how much did you pay for it"? Joel told him what he paid. He said, "How about I pay you double"? Joel said, "Like I said, we'd love to sell it". They sold that old rundown beat-up house and got a brand new house on the same piece of property.

-Jeniro on the go!
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Pastor Choco De Jesús at Lakewood Church

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Mark 12:28‭-‬31 ESV

God told us to fish but he's going to clean them out.

Understanding can wait obedience cannot. 

Love is the currency of heaare.

We are here to legislate God's love.

"Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord. "For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:4‭-‬11 ESV

Have a kingdom mindset even in exile.

We can't have an identity crisis and allow something other than the word of God to tell us who we are.

Affirm humanity.

"In spite" of vs "Because of"

the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Jeremiah 31:3 ESV

and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:5 ESV

There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

Romans 5:3‭-‬5 MSG

Luke 15

-Jeniro on the go!
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I Declare

Pastor Joel @ Lakewood 

Words have power.  

"The Spirit of the Lord God  is upon Me, Because the Lord  has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those  who  are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord , And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,

Isaiah 61:1‭-‬2 NKJV

The negativity can overpower  what was spoken over you so it has to be spoken again.

Those words can ignite something in your spirit.

Your reasoning can say that someone has the wrong person but you have to choose to receive it and agree then you'll see it come to pass.

The blessing isn't canceled our by the past.

The right people are noticing you. 

One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, "Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it." Naomi replied, "All right, my daughter, go ahead." So Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters. And as it happened, she found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz, the relative of her father-in-law, Elimelech. While she was there, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. "The Lord be with you!" he said. "The Lord bless you!" the harvesters replied. Then Boaz asked his foreman, "Who is that young woman over there? Who does she belong to?" And the foreman replied, "She is the young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi. She asked me this morning if she could gather grain behind the harvesters. She has been hard at work ever since, except for a few minutes' rest in the shelter." Boaz went over and said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter. Stay right here with us when you gather grain; don't go to any other fields. Stay right behind the young women working in my field. See which part of the field they are harvesting, and then follow them. I have warned the young men not to treat you roughly. And when you are thirsty, help yourself to the water they have drawn from the well." When Ruth went back to work again, Boaz ordered his young men, "Let her gather grain right among the sheaves without stopping her. And pull out some heads of barley from the bundles and drop them on purpose for her. Let her pick them up, and don't give her a hard time!"

Ruth 2:2‭-‬9‭, ‬15‭-‬16 NLT

Through Gehazi Elisha said, "You've gone far beyond the call of duty in taking care of us; what can we do for you? Do you have a request we can bring to the king or to the commander of the army?" She replied, "Nothing. I'm secure and satisfied in my family." Elisha conferred with Gehazi: "There's got to be something we can do for her. But what?" Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man." "Call her in," said Elisha. He called her and she stood at the open door. Elisha said to her, "This time next year you're going to be nursing an infant son." "O my master, O Holy Man," she said, "don't play games with me, teasing me with such fantasies!"

2 Kings 4:13‭-‬16 MSG

The woman conceived. A year later, just as Elisha had said, she had a son.

2 Kings 4:17 MSG

What looks permanent is only temporary.

He will yet fill your mouth with laughing, And your lips with rejoicing.

Job 8:21 NKJV

For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth;

Job 19:25 NKJV

For God says, "I will break the strength of the wicked, but I will increase the power of the godly."

Psalms 75:10 NLT

Some negative things may have been in your family line for years.

Get rid of the negative things people have spoken over you. Don't let that limit your future. 

Alvin Dark said,  "Mark my words," he said, "a man will land on the moon before Gaylord Perry hits a home run." At 1:17 p.m. PT, Apollo 11 landed. Some 238,900 miles away at Candlestick Park, Perry stepped to the plate in the top of the third inning -- and, wouldn't you know it, he hit the first home run of his Major League career. As the righty told MLB.com back in 2009: "Well, about the top of the third, over the loudspeaker, they were telling everybody to stand and give a moment of silent thanks for the astronauts who landed on the moon. And I'd say 30 minutes later, Claude Osteen grooved me a fastball, and I hit it out of the park."

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/gaylord-perry-hits-home-run-just-minutes-after-neil-armstrong-moon-landing-c2433

As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and almost before Jacob had left his father, Esau returned from his hunt. When Esau heard his father's words, he let out a loud and bitter cry. "Oh my father, what about me? Bless me, too!" he begged. But Isaac said, "Your brother was here, and he tricked me. He has taken away your blessing." Esau pleaded, "But do you have only one blessing? Oh my father, bless me, too!" Then Esau broke down and wept. Finally, his father, Isaac, said to him, "You will live away from the richness of the earth, and away from the dew of the heaven above. You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you decide to break free, you will shake his yoke from your neck." From that time on, Esau hated Jacob because their father had given Jacob the blessing. And Esau began to scheme: "I will soon be mourning my father's death. Then I will kill my brother, Jacob."

Genesis 27:30‭, ‬34‭-‬35‭, ‬38‭-‬41 NLT