One of the things we must learn as we live in time is that God has provided.
Today, you can simply browse the internet, pick up a skill, learn it, and boom... People can build businesses, and you submit your CV, you’re hired, and you start paying your bills.
God has provided all that man needs.
Some may think of “provision” as something novel. But when you look all around you, you can see God’s provisions scattered throughout creation. He provided someone with the wisdom that led him to start a company that you are working for now. That is God’s provision.
We can’t fault God for anything. We can’t say he made man and gave him no wisdom to learn or create anything. We take man’s wisdom today for granted because we have not experienced what not having wisdom can mean.
Imagine a world filled with billions of people, but they can’t be productive, can’t think, can’t create anything. Before you say such a world cannot exist, remind yourself that if something exists, then it means it came from something else, and the source has the power to make it as he wishes.
God could have made man without the wisdom to create, and no one would have been able to fault him.
Why?
Because you wouldn’t even have the sensibility to imagine something like “faulting” him. Just the same way, a mobile phone, for instance, cannot think of how to “fault” its manufacturer. A chair cannot conceive the idea of questioning the carpenter that produced it. In its design, it doesn’t possess such critical ability. Poor chair...
So, it could have been possible for God to make us like a chair. No creativity, no power of choice, no thinking. Just there. Serving his purposes. But he gave us a rich mind, and from the richness of our minds, we have been able to make a world of our own. Not entirely God’s plan, but all the same, we were creative.
Don’t you think that’s God’s provision?
Can a chair do anything to preserve itself from decaying? No. If you leave it under the rain and sun, with time, it will disintegrate. But man was provided with the ability to self-preserve.
If you subject yourself to the right things, mindset, etc., you can naturally live very long. If you even tap into the latent power of the soul, you can literally preserve your body and cells from aging for a long time. This has been proven in many people’s lives.
What I’m saying is, God has provided man with all he needs.
So, when you hear the word “God’s provision,” don’t always think of something he will do. Think of it as something he has already done.
Yes, while there are instances God can meet our needs in time, in the present, ultimately, don’t forget that he already met all your needs in men. So even while he sends the helper your way, that’s also his way of providing for you. While you scroll on Facebook and stumble on the online class, that’s him right there, providing your needs. Whatever it is we receive, we do; we have; we acquire... that’s God keeping true to his word of provision.
Don’t limit God’s provision to sudden miracles, unexpected blessings, etc.
Even the expected blessings, like the ability to walk around, breathe, learn a skill, meet and speak with beautiful people, earn from your hard work, etc., are all God’s goodness and provision for you. They only take different forms.
Why is it important to acknowledge God in all of these?
First, we have this mindset of thinking that only believers can enjoy God’s provision. No. God sends the rain to the good and the evil. The sun shines on everyone.
This consciousness helps us put to use our individual creativity.
Knowing that if I learn a skill and earn money, for instance, that is God’s provision, I won’t be so boxed up waiting and doing nothing, hoping that God will suddenly show up when he has shown up and is constantly showing up every day.
Most of our prayer points of pleading with God to give will turn to times of stillness and meditation to receive what he has already given.
The bulk of the time we spend running from pillar to post looking for answers would be spent delving into the riches of what God has deposited in us and solving problems of humanity.
This way, we can’t even be jealous of the unbelievers who are prospering or begin to ask questions like
“He’s not a believer; why is he prospering?”
And of course, a suitable answer will be
“Being an unbeliever does not exclude anyone from financial prosperity in actuality.”
God came as Jesus to reconcile you back to the Father. But even before that reconciliation, He has already provided money for you. Some believers might be stuck with indecision on whether to learn this skill or that, or do this business or that. That you had a dream about what to do is no more of a miracle than when you share with someone and they advise you on what to do.
Many believers don’t have answers yet because they are expecting the answer to come in a certain way, with a certain feeling. The revelation you saw with your eyes wide open about the business to do, for instance, is no greater miracle than the Facebook post you stumbled upon that advertises a skill for you to learn.
All are channels that have been placed for us to experience the goodness of God.
All the skills out there are God’s voice speaking to you loudly (I didn’t say you should learn everything out there). It may even come as a whim of an idea. That it isn’t strong doesn’t mean it was not from God.
Acknowledge God in the big and the small. Tiny and lowly, fat and thin, good and “bad,” etc. See him in all of creation, the birds, the trees, the buildings, etc. He is in everything, and everything consists of him.
So, yea, don’t box yourself into a style or pattern. God’s leading can come from anywhere and anyone.