Introduction
If you want to expand in any area of life, it’s going to require a change in the way you think.
Do you long to reach higher, do more, give more, achieve more, and become all that you can be? Maybe there’s an area of your life that you’d love to grow, but you just can’t seem to break through to that next level.
If you want to expand in any area of life—whether that’s in your finances, career, health or in bettering your relationships, it’s going to require a change in the way you think.
All too often, our beliefs (and, therefore, our thoughts) limit us and keep us stuck where we are. If we want to expand and grow, we need to think about stabilizing and strengthening, so we can hold more of what God has for us.
In fact, God has a message for you. Enlarge the place of your tent, lengthen the cords and strengthen your stakes. It’s time to expand!
Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited. Isaiah 54:2–3 (NKJV)
When this passage from Isaiah was written, God’s people lived in tents. If they wanted to expand to a bigger tent, they had to lengthen the cords to hold more canvas and strengthen the stakes to hold more weight. But this message still holds true today.
This means different things to different people, but what it comes down to is this: if you want to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that are going to come your way (and they always will), you need to get prepared now. It’s time to expand!
When it comes to significance, it’s not about working harder, longer or more frantically. It’s about believing, recognizing and grabbing hold of the opportunities that come our way. God wants us to expand our thinking and to push past the limits we’ve placed on ourselves.
What do you need to do to expand, stabilize or strengthen? How can you prepare for the increase that’s coming your way?
Here are five keys we need to apply to each area of our lives when we’re aiming to break through to that next level.
Watch Your Mouth
In Mark 4:39, Jesus spoke to the wind and waves that blew against Him.
There’s a very valuable lesson contained in this verse. You see, Jesus didn’t speak about the wind and waves; He spoke to them.
When we’re going through something, we tend to want to talk about it. Now, I’m not saying that we can’t talk out our struggles with others, but we have to be careful. Sometimes we talk about our problems not because we’re searching for solutions or are trying to work through them. Sometimes when we talk about our problems, we’re just fixating on the negative.
The more we keep talking about the problem, the less we tend to deal with it.
When the storm was threatening to sink the boat, Jesus didn’t talk about the storm; He spoke to the storm. In Mark 11:22–24, Jesus teaches us to speak to the mountainous problems we face, telling them to move. The less we fixate on the negative and the more we exercise our authority over the storms we face, the quicker we will overcome!
A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! James 3:3–6 (MSG)
This verse says that our tongues are like the rudder of a ship. When a storm begins to blow, it’s the rudder that steers that ship through the storm. If the ship’s captain loses control of the rudder, that ship is at the mercy of the storm. Whether we speak negatively or positively, our mouths determine the direction of our lives.
As a believer, you have the power to speak God’s promises over your life and see them come to pass. Instead of fixating on the problem when you speak, talk about it from a solution-focused mindset.
I know that we all need to vent about our problems from time to time, but make sure you quickly bring the conversation back to problem-solving, and be sure to fill your mouth with declarations of what God has promised you regarding that area of your life.
Set Your Mind
Meditation is the missing link for so many believers.
We’ve talked about the power of claiming God’’s promises out loud, and watching what you say. Why is this so powerful? Because when you do, you begin to renew your mind to who you really are, and this has a powerful effect on what you will experience in your life.
Another step involves meditating on God’s Word. Meditation is the missing link for so many believers, and it goes hand-in-hand with speaking God’s Word.
You see, when you say something, your brain begins to think in that direction. You can change your train of thought by speaking God’s Word out loud, interrupting any negative thoughts you may be having.
As believers, we have the power to cast off and put on. We can cast off selfishness and self-destructiveness and put on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. But it’s not by sheer willpower. It’s by renewing our minds in God’s Word.
Even after giving our lives to Christ, we’re still going to have old desires, struggles and limiting beliefs to deal with. These are part of our old nature, which was crucified with Christ the moment we gave our lives to Him. The trouble is, our minds need to catch up with this change.
Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. ...put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Roman 13:12,14 (NKJV)
How do we do that? By embracing what God’s Word teaches! Now, it’s not enough to just read the Bible for information. For the rest of our lives, we need to keep meditating on it to realize where we have faulty thinking. That way we’re putting off the old thinking (realizing it’s false) and we’re putting on the new (realizing the truth).
The truth is you are no longer a slave to sin or fear. You’re a child of God (Galatians 4:7). You get to live as Jesus is in this world (1 John 4:17), with his power, authority and provision. Every time you read truths like that, spend some time meditating on them. Read them out loud as well and say, “This is me!”
Know Your Power
There’s no limit to the power believers have in Christ to change and grow...
However we have an enemy who doesn’t want us to realize how limitless we are. Let’s take a look at how Satan tries to stop us from realizing our potential—using a tactic that dates right back to the Garden of Eden.
When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they lacked nothing. They lived without fear, sickness or pain, had purpose in their lives and were in fellowship with God every day. So, how do you tempt someone who has everything?
You convince them they’re missing something. Satan convinced Eve that if she disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit, she would gain what she lacked—she would finally be like God (which, in fact, she already was because she was made in His image).
Satan’s tactics aren’t any different today. He still tries to get us to believe that we’re lacking. He doesn’t want us to realize that we have it all in Christ.
We’ve already been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. We have the power to live morally, with joy and peace, health and prosperity, and be free from sin. We’re not lacking anything; what we have access to in Christ is limitless!
To live out our potential in Christ, we need to put off old beliefs and put on a new way of thinking that’s based on what God’s Word says about us.
You see, we can have everything the Bible promises, and we can align our behaviour with the new creation the Bible says we are by retraining our minds. The Word of God is a manual that is showing you who you are now as a believer. And the more you discover about who are, the more you’ll be empowered to walk in that truth.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1 (NKJV)
Every time you discover a promise in God’s Word about who you are or what you can have, claim those new operating instructions as your own and start acting on them. As you do, the Bible says you’re presenting your body as a living sacrifice. (Romans 12:1) The word “sacrifice” implies difficult. This verse also says that it’s our reasonable service. In other words, it’s achievable. It’s not excessive or extreme. In fact, we’re empowered to do it!
Take Action
Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it is taking action in the face of fear.
This fourth point is vital. It’s wonderful to change the way you think, speak and believe, but if you don’t take action, nothing will change!
All too often, we allow fear to hold us back from taking this step toward change. We think that we need to overcome the fear first before taking action, but let’s think about this. When you do something courageous, do you do it because you aren’t afraid?
Think about the last time you did something daring. Chances are you felt fear. You just didn’t let that fear get in the way of doing the right thing. Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it is taking action in the face of fear.
It’s pointless to try to remove all the fear in our lives before making decisions or taking risks. We need to accept that as long as we’re moving forward, we’re going to face fear. The best way to overcome it is to study the Word of God to remind yourself that you have the strength to overcome any situation put before you. You see, faith is the true antidote to fear.
Never let fear of failure or the fear of what others think stand in your way of pursuing the life of your dreams. Not everyone is going to like you, and even those who do like you won’t always feel that way about you. That’s okay. Even Jesus Christ faced people who didn’t like Him.
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
You can embrace change and uncertainty in your life because, in Christ, you have the strength to overcome any obstacle in your way. God has great plans for you, so even if you fall, get back up and keep persevering, because His incredible power to overcome is in you!
Take Time to Rest
We need to take time to rest.
This last point is also vital because without it, change is not sustainable. We need to take time to rest.
Do you ever do anything to replenish yourself? Or are you just giving it your all, fifty weeks a year, to enjoy only two measly weeks of holidays? If you never take time to recharge, you’re going to burn out. It’s okay to have some fun! Remember, recreation is “re-creation.” What re-creates and re-energizes you?
I was reading an article one day about why most men golf, and they found that the number one reason is to get away from their wives. While that sounds bad at first, it isn’t necessarily. If it replen- ishes him, it’s actually healthy, as long as he’s not doing it at the expense of the relationship.
The same is true of shopping, reading, movies, sports, going for walks, getting together with friends—we all need to find out what replenishes us.
There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and make himself enjoy good in his labor. Even this, I have seen, is from the hand of God.
Ecclesiastes 2:24 (AMPC)
Maybe you love to enjoy a good book. Don’t feel guilty for that! Or maybe you love to sit down with a friend for a coffee, just laughing and joking around. You’re not wasting time. You’re replenishing. You’re re-creating yourself.
The world will survive if you take a break. In fact, the people around you will be happy you did because you’ll be a lot more fun to be around. Give yourself permission to have fun and to do things you enjoy.
God wants you to enjoy this life He’s given you, and taking time to recharge will help you stay balanced so you can keep doing what He has for you to do.
