As For America’s Founding Fathers, It Was A Declaration Of Independence From Their King That Changed Everything. For You, As A Child Of God, It Is Your Declaration Of DEPENDENCE ON YOUR KING That Changes Everything!
Please understand that there is so much more waiting for you if you’ll only learn how powerful it is to recognize your powerlessness before God! Each new morning, in the Presence of Almighty God, you need to sign again – Your Declaration of DEPENDENCE on your King! That Declaration alone makes all the Difference! For the Believer, We Will Look at July 4th as a Holiday, HOWEVER, if anyone asks what Holiday it is For the Believer, tell them you’re simply “Celebrating DEPENDENCE Day!” I promise you it will be a tremendous witnessing tool, after all, who will pass up the opportunity for you to explain what that means?!
Isaiah 30:15-17, “God, the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel: “Your salvation requires you to turn back to Me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete DEPENDENCE ON ME—The very thing you’ve been unwilling to do” (MSG)
They keep it under glass that seals out any air getting to it. When it’s not on display, it’s kept underground in a vault – a bombproof vault. It’s the most important document in the history of the United States. Of course, it’s the Declaration of Independence! The men who signed it that hot July 4th in Philadelphia knew it was very important, but I wonder if they could have possibly conceived what a sacred piece of paper it would become to the nation that it launched.
Here were subjects of the English king daring to declare their Independence from their king! It changed their lives forever. It changed the world forever. And once a year, every Fourth of July, America stops to remember Independence Day.
For America’s Founding Fathers, it was a Declaration of Independence from their king that changed everything. For you, as a child of God, it is your Declaration of DEPENDENCE ON YOUR KING that changes everything! Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track.” (MSG). And yet, we do anything but trust God in everything we do and everywhere we go. I mean can you imagine if we truly relied on God like that?! Where would we be, or better yet, where could we have avoided being, had we only trusted God in this manner, in the first place. The mistakes we never would have made; the bad relationships we would never have entered; the toxic friendships we could’ve avoided being poisoned by; the broken hearts we would have never had to spend most of our adulthood healing. If only we trusted God enough to allow Him to keep us on track as the Scripture says, we would have never crashed, derailed, detoured, driven off the cliff, went the wrong way, crossed lanes, or had to make countless, unnecessary U-turns in life!
So many missteps we would never have stumbled over if only we trusted God to keep our footsteps ordered. Psalm 37:23, “The steps of a [good and righteous] man is directed and established by the Lord, And He delights in his way [and blesses his path].” (AMP) If we walked in God’s ordered steps, our path would’ve been blessed instead of burdened! So many valleys we could’ve been rerouted around; so many mountains we would never have had to unceasingly hike around, if we allowed God to order our steps and remind us to speak to the mountain instead of allowing the mountain to silence us. If we dared to trust God, follow God, obey God, rely on God and depend on God our footing would never have had to stumble, trip, slip and fall. Psalm 18:33, “He makes my feet like hinds’ feet [able to stand firmly and tread safely on paths of testing and trouble]; He sets me [securely] upon my high places.” (AMP) Friends, today is a good day to allow your Christian Walk to be solely directed by the Lord. After all, who else can keep your feet firm, safe and secure, even during times of testing and trouble?! You see when we depend on God to order our steps, we can avoid a lot of pitfalls. But then there are also those times of disobedience where we deliberately chose the wrong path to travel, and yet even in those times of well-deserved testing and trouble, God still loved us so much that He set our feet upon high places, firmly, safely, and securely. Who wouldn’t depend on a God like that? A God that keeps you from falling when you deserved to be knocked down! A God who watches you discard His Word, the road map for your life, and therefore deciding to go your own way. And still, He remains in contact, waiting for the moment you ask Him for yet another U-turn! But far too often we don’t ask. Because then we’d have to be honest that we chose the path we’re on. Which means we would have to stop blaming everyone else for all the bumps in the road, the hard ground, the destination to nowhere that has anything to do with God’s purpose and plans for our lives. Yes, if we did that, it would require us to let humility take over. Which further means letting God lead instead of us, and dare we give up our independence and have such a thing happen! We must take our hands off the wheel and let God drive, even in moments when we don’t know where He’s taking us, He hasn’t shared the map or the destination, and He most definitely does not have the GPS blaring through the speakers dropping us hints along the highway. We simply must learn to trust God, and for many of us that’s not such an easy task to accomplish. But to let God drive, we must depend on Him, trusting that He has somewhere great in mind just for us! Jeremiah 29:10-11, “This is God’s Word on the subject…I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” (MSG) How can we possibly struggle with trust issues with a promise like that from One who cannot lie?! How can we possibly struggle to depend on a God who has a purpose, plan, and future already in place for us, that no one can hinder, but us and our need for independence from Him?!
You know what we need? We need to Develop a Desperate Dependence on God! One in which we don’t do anything in life without consulting Him first. In other words, we don’t marry; we don’t get divorced; get a mortgage; have children; pick out a car; go away to school; open a church; start a ministry; begin a business; accept a job offer; relocate or anything else without His perfect counsel. And if we did, can you imagine the many pitfalls we would never have encountered!
But unfortunately, when it comes to God running our lives, we’ve all declared our Independence at one time or another! Even if our theology compels us to officially trust God, we are, for the most part, “Sinatra-ites“. Yeah, you remember Frank Sinatra’s signature song, “I did it my way “! Now if that’s too outdated for some of you, I’ll just say this is truly a Burger King generation, whether you’re right or wrong, you can still “Have it your way”! Even for us Christians, that’s often how we really live. We’ll figure this out by ourselves, we’ll find a way, we’ll make it happen, we won’t wait, we’ll find a way to get it now. We tend to depend on our own plans, our schemes, our talent, our cleverness, our persuasiveness, our hard work, our connections, even our manipulation. We’ll count on our programs or our own strength. But one of the best quotes I’ve read on this matter is by W.R. Inge, it says, “Christianity promises to make men free; it never promises to make them independent.” That’s why we need to declare our Dependence Daily! Our God desires to free us from our Sin, but not so we can claim Independence from our Savior! Galatians 5:1, “It was for this freedom that Christ set us free [completely liberating us]; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [which you once removed].” (AMP); Romans 8:32, “And you will know the truth [regarding salvation], and the truth will set you free [from the penalty of sin].” (AMP); 2 Corinthians 3:17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom].” (AMP) Yes, God wants us FREE from Sin, but NOT INDEPENDENT of our SAVIOR! We are not free to do what we WANT; we are freed to do His WILL!
In fact, Jesus makes it very clear how anything that matters in our life really happens. He said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” In other words, the fruit of your life doesn’t come from you; it comes from Jesus, through you, like the life of the vine comes through the branch! He goes on to say, “If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me, you can do nothing.” Independent of God, you can accomplish, nothing that matters. Nothing eternal. Nothing significant. Nothing that really works over the long haul into leaving a legacy. You can do Absolutely Nothing Independent of HIM! He doesn’t say, “Without Me, you can’t do much.” He said, You Can Do NOTHING! The word ‘Nothing’ means, ‘Not anything; something of no importance or concern; naught; not at all; to no purpose; there is no prospect of success or agreement; nothing is happening.’ Now tell me, who in their right mind would want to live such a life?! Especially, since God promised, “If a man REMAINS in Me and I in him, HE WILL BEAR MUCH FRUIT” The Contemporary English Version says it like this, “…you will produce LOTS of fruit…” The Amplified Bible says, “Whoever LIVES in Me and I in him bears MUCH (ABUNDANT) fruit…” And The Message Bible says, “When you’re JOINED with me and I with you…the HARVEST is sure to be ABUNDANT.” In a Nutshell: If you make sure you remain Faithful, He’ll make sure you remain Fruitful! You see, the size of your life Depends on how big your Dependency on God is, as opposed to the size of your own efforts! He says just remain in Me; live in Me; be joined to Me, and what do you reap from that relationship? Much Fruit; Lots of Fruit; Much Abundant Fruit; and a Harvest that’s Sure to be Abundant! That word ‘sure’ is defined as, ‘completely confident; certain to receive, get or do; undoubtedly true; completely reliable; not to fail.’ Its Old French ‘sur’, from Latin ‘securus’ literally means, ‘free from care.’ Which means, I don’t have to worry about God’s promise to me about my harvest, because it is SURE! I am free of care, fret, panic, worry, stress, back-up plans, and the like, because when I depend completely on God, remaining in Him, living in Him, joined to Him, my promise of a harvest that bears Much Fruit; Lots of Fruit; Much Abundant Fruit; is a SURE Thing! Therefore, I can be, ‘completely confident and certain that I’ll receive, get and do as He will for me; I can be reassured that what He promised is undoubtedly true concerning me; every promise of His is completely reliable; and it will come to me and not fail.’ I reiterate, how do you not trust, rely on, depend on, a God like that?! These are His promises, and not one of them shall fall short of what He’s said!
Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good and fulfill it?” (AMP);
Isaiah 55:8-11, “…Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, So will the words that come out of My Mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.” (MSG);
Jeremiah 1:12, “The Lord then said, “You are right, for I’m watching over My Word until it is fulfilled.” (CEB)
Even When You Can’t Forget All You SEE, Always Remember What HE SAID! Because what He SAID, is SURE to Happen!
I don’t know about you, but to me, that’s a pretty good trade off! I remain Dependent on God, and He Blesses Me for it! But isn’t that just like God? He doesn’t ask Everything of us. Just a little simple dependent obedience, and when we do, He gives more than we even asked for! For instance, give Him 10 percent, and He increases the 90 percent that’s remaining! What kind of math is that?! Malachi 3:10-12, “Bring all the tithes (the tenth) into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you [so great] a blessing until there is no more room to receive it. Then I will rebuke the devourer (insects, plague) for your sake, and he will not destroy the fruits of the ground, nor will your vine in the field drop its grapes [before harvest],” says the Lord of hosts. “All nations shall call you happy and blessed, for you shall be a land of delight,” says the Lord of hosts.” (AMP) So, we give Him 10 percent, and He not only gives us the 90 percent, but He opens the windows of heaven and pours us out so great a blessing until there is no room to receive it?! Say what you will, but I like the economy rules of heaven! And as a bonus, he rebukes the devourer and commands all nations to call us blessed! Come on here God! And if that’s not enough, if we ask Him to meet a need, He turns around and meets every need! Philippians 4:19, “And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (AMP) And just to show how awesome of a God He is, He even supersedes what we ask, think, hope, pray or dream of! Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us,” (AMP) Which makes we wonder why do we dream so small? Why do we think inside the box, only? Why do we hope so haphazardly? Why do we pray so timidly? Why do we ask as beggars instead of His heirs? He’s just waiting to out-do anything we dare to think, dream, hope, pray or ask, so who wouldn’t trust and depend on a God like that?!
If we dare to depend on Him, He’s waiting for us to just ask, seek and knock, so He can embarrass us by doing above and beyond all that we ask, seek or knock after! Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened.” (AMP) And all of this is granted based on faith. Faith in what? No, faith in Who! Faith in our God! A faith that trusts Him to give what we’ve asked for; to help us find what we’ve been seeking after; and to open the door of opportunity we’ve been knocking on. And none of that comes from our own power, might, and strength. Only by our faith in God and dependence on Him! Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him.” (AMP) Only God rewards people for seeking Him! How do you not trust Him? How do you not depend on Him? How do you not follow Him? He’s waiting with your reward, so when do you plan on having your dependence on Him show up to receive it?!
Joni Eareckson Tada said that when she went to Africa, she was greeted by believers there who said, “Welcome to Africa, where our God is bigger. He is bigger because we need Him so much more!” We need Him every bit as much too! We just have other things and other people we Prefer to Depend on instead. So, our lives are smaller because our view of God is smaller! We don’t Depend on Him Desperately for each day’s needs, choices, strength, and answers. Even though He has already said, “Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things you could never figure out on your own.” (Jeremiah 33:3 MSG). And what I absolutely love about this text is that I’m not left to my own limited mind to figure stuff out! All I have to do is depend on God enough to call out to Him, and He’s waiting to answer, even me! Truthfully, we’ve all had moments when we’ve called out to people for help and clarity, and we ended up worse off. But not with God. It’s like He’s sitting on His throne with the phone in His lap just waiting for it to ring! (Don’t laugh!) And yet with such a tremendous invitation, do we ever accept? Nope! We’d rather talk to everybody except God, and then when that doesn’t work, we use Him as our last resort. Family, this should not be! It’s time we stopped talking to people and started praying to God!
Prayer is our Language of Dependency! Therefore, you can pretty much tell how Dependent you are on God by how often you feel the need to cry out to Him in Prayer! Mark 11:24, “For this reason I am telling you, whatever things you ask for in prayer [in accordance with God’s will], believe [with confident trust] that you have received them, and they will be given to you.” (AMP) God is waiting to give us what we pray for, yet, we haven’t become dependent enough on Him to pray! Saints, God is waiting for us to come to Him as His children dependent on their Father to care for them. So, what are we waiting for? What’s holding us up?
Remember our opening text: Isaiah 30:15-17, “God, the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel: “Your salvation requires you to turn back to Me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete DEPENDENCE ON ME—The very thing you’ve been unwilling to do” (MSG)
Today, Shift from Being the Person Who’s Unwilling to Depend On God, to the One Willing to Depend On God! Your Dependence On God is Your Strength!
“Depending on God isn’t a weakness, it’s acknowledging His strength.” (Author Unknown)
“Trust God, not people. Depend on God, not yourself. Live for God, not this world. God over everything.” (Trent Shelton)
“I may not be able to always depend on people, but I know I can depend on God.”
“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” (Saint Augustine)
“Don’t depend on God to give you strength, depend on God to BE your strength.” (Pastor John Hagee)
“To pray is to accept that we are, and always will be, wholly dependent on God for everything.” (Tim Keller)
“God’s plan for your life is not dependent on the past, His plan is dependent on His promise.”
“You may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God.” (C.S. Lewis)
“God has created us to be dependent upon Him, to bring Him our challenges and allow Him to help us with them.” (Joyce Meyer)
“Prayer is a declaration of dependence upon God.” (Philip Yancey)
Blessings
J.P. Olson
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