Limiting God In Your Life

4/23/2017

Don't limit God by small thinking! By faith take the limits off of Him.

Thankfulness to God, if not followed by a commitment to obey Him, will tend to stop the continuous supply of God's blessings in our lives. Satan tries to limit your praying because he knows your praying will limit him.

Psalm 78:40-42 New King James Version (NKJV)

40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness,
And grieved Him in the desert!
41 Yes, again and again they tempted God,
And limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His power:
The day when He redeemed them from the enemy

How Can A Person Limit God?

This should seem impossible when we think of the greatness and power of God.

God is all-powerful
God is God

I. Man Can Limit God

In releasing certain powers and authority to mankind, God willingly restrains or limits himself to the faith, decisions and actions of man.

There have bee individuals, nations and churches that have said "No" to God.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem

In Psalm 78, God wanted to bless Israel but they rejected God's blessings and limited God in their circumstances.

They held God back by their doubt and unbelief

II. Ways We Limit God

We limit God by our:

Negative Thinking

Proverbs 23:7 New King James Version (NKJV)

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
But his heart is not with you.

Unclean and evil thoughts

Genesis 6:5 King James Version (KJV)

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually.

Psalm 94:11 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Lord knows the thoughts of man,
That they are futile.

Matthew 9:4 New International Version (NIV)

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said,
“Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

Bad or Negative Attitudes

Our thoughts affect our attitude.

Negative Confession

Luke 6:45 New International Version (NIV)

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.
For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Psalm 78:19 King James Version (KJV)

Yea, they spake against God; they said,
Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

We say what we believe. You can know your attitude and thinking by what you say.

Philippians 2:14 New International Version (NIV)

14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing,
15 so that you may become blameless and pure,
“children of God without fault
in a warped and crooked generation.
Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky

Lack of Courage

Psalm 78:9 King James Version (KJV)

The children of Ephraim, being armed,
and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

Sin and Disobedience

When we give in to sin we are tying up God's hands.

- When we disobey God.
- When we do not pray.

So What Are We Going To Do Then?

III. Take Off The Things That Limit

How?

Repent and Confess

1 John 1:9 New International Version (NIV)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness.

By the renewing of our minds

Romans 12:2 New International Version (NIV)

Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Change the way we think!

- Do not imitate lifestyle of the world.
- The mind is a constant battleground.

Be persistent and steadfast

1 Corinthians 15:58 New International Version (NIV)

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.
Let nothing move you.
Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord,
because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Psalm 78:37 New International Version (NIV)

their hearts were not loyal to him,
they were not faithful to his covenant.

Speak words of faith

Philippians 4:13 New International Version (NIV)

I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Joshua 1:6-7 New International Version (NIV)

6 Be strong and courageous,
because you will lead these people to inherit the
land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
7 “Be strong and very courageous.
Be careful to obey all the law my servant
Moses gave you;
do not turn from it to the right or to the left,that you may be
successful wherever you go.

Ephesians 3:20 New International Version (NIV)