Hi, everyone! My name is Joaquin Evans and I am the Senior Leader at Bethel Church in Austin, Texas, and welcome to God Today. Today I want to talk about how God does not miss the mark. You know, we know that in the original use of the word “sin”, the Bible meant to “miss the mark” as in an archer shooting at the target, and it goes off target. It misses the mark. But, we know we have a good God, we now we have a Holy God, and He doesn’t sin. This means God doesn’t miss the mark, and He doesn’t miss the mark in our lives.
I want to release some quick keys to you around that topic right now. I first want to start by reading this verse in Matthew 7:7 it says, “Ask and you will be given, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds. To Him who knocks, it will be open. What man is there among you, for if his son asks for bread will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father, who is in Heaven, give good things to those who ask Him?”
It is a great verse, we love that verse. It is full of amazing promise from God. We all love this verse, but if we are going to be honest with ourselves, the reality is we feel like there have probably been times where we have asked and we haven’t found. And we have knocked and we feel like the door has not been opened. It creates a wrestle inside of us. What is God actually saying? Is the word of God really true? We know the Word is true. What is God really saying here? I think it is important to realize that the chapter breaks weren’t in the original writing of the scriptures. Those were added later on. So, we unintentionally break up the flow that Jesus is releasing here. And we, therefore, separate thoughts. It is a continual thought, so just a handful of verses before this, God actually gives us the key. At the end of chapter 6, He says, “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” And of course, He is referencing the birds of the air don’t have to worry about what they have to eat, and the flowers don’t have to worry about what they wear because we have such a good Father. He takes care of all of our needs.
What is the point here? The point is, God doesn’t miss the mark unless we are trying to give God our predetermined, our pre-imposed mark for Him. He is a good Father, but the reality is that God likes to be in control and He likes to be in charge. If we are trying to determine the mark we want God to hit with His goodness, we can actually be missing what God is wanting to do in our lives. We can get so locked into, “God, I want you to do this thing in my life.” Of course, God invites us into partnering with Him. We can ask God to do things, the problem is, if we are waiting to believe how God is, or we are waiting to trust everything else He says until He hits this mark – that’s where we run into trouble. God doesn’t want to yield to our demands, He wants to be in control.
What we need to realize, is that when we take our eyes off of that predetermined mark, we are stuck here asking God, “Show up here, God. Do this one thing in my life, then I’ll know you’re good.” And we are missing everything else He is doing, our faith can be diminishing the whole time. But, when we have the ability to take our eyes off of that and look back up to our good Heavenly Father, and ask ourselves, “God, where are you moving?” Because He is always moving and He is always pouring out. It might not be at the place we are asking or seeking at that moment, but He is moving somewhere else.
The amazing thing about the Kingdom of Heaven is breakthrough releases more breakthroughs. And faith releases more faith. God might skip your priority list, “Here are the things I need you to do God, and here is the order I need you to do it in.” He might skip 1, 2, and 3. He might come down at 10, 15, or even 50. But, when we have eyes to see what He is doing, we come to that place of celebrating on what He is doing at number 50. “God is here! He is in my life!” What we give thanks for increases. That actually creates breakthrough and that celebration creates momentum.
We can get so lost in what God is doing at 50 and number 30 on our list, and number 20. The next thing you know, we are standing on that mark that was so important to us and we are standing in breakthrough there. We don’t even realize that we got there because we took our eyes off of our predetermined mark. We let go of trying to be in control. We moved back to the place of sons and daughters. That is trusting we have a good Father, trusting He knows what is best, trusting that He is in charge. We regain the ability to celebrate all the things He is doing and not getting hung up on what He hasn’t done yet. That kind of celebration releases life and breakthrough for us.
I want to pray for us today, I especially want to ask God to highlight any areas in your life that you have created this mark – the predetermined mark. “God, you have to do this or hit this before I can give you my full yes or my full trust.” I want God to highlight those for you so He can remove it by His goodness and restore that childlike place of faith. Father, I thank you that you are good and I thank you for the tender heart of everybody who is watching this today. God, I pray that you would highlight anywhere that we have reserved a mark that we have determined its importance, God. And where we have told you, “I can only fully trust you when you do this thing.” God, we recognize that is not how your Kingdom works or how you move. We just choose to repent of that today. We say, “We give control back to you.” We receive childlike faith and trust again in its place. God, I pray you would breathe fresh release, fresh wind in that place, fresh breakthrough, God. In us, celebrating all the little things you are doing. God, I thank you that prepares us to receive the big things we’ve been waiting on. I bless you with that today, in Jesus’ name.