Plug In & Stretch

Acts 4:²⁴ “When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them”

Lifting Has To Do With Stretching and stretching sends an invitation to the greater about your willingness to be lifted. There is a saying in the Western part of Nigeria that, it is the child that stretches his hands that the parent will lift. I like hanging around children. Picture this, you enter a room filled with children and all of them greet you. Then one child stretches out his hands upward, towards you and instinctively you carry the child. The others can be jealous, some may even challenge you for carrying only that one. However, that is usually what happens to us.

When it comes to God, if you do not stretch and another person stretches, God will carry that person. That is just how it works. Some will say, we all came to God together, how come she is the one getting carried? God is saying, you have to stretch. You have to stretch even when God makes supernatural provisions. A classic example is when God provided manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness. God did not put the manna in their mouths, instead, He put it within their reach. They had to stretch, they still had to go out and gather the manna. Is it not possible for them to wake up and the manna is already in their stomach? Of course, God can do it.

But God did not feed them with manna by putting it in their mouth, God fed them with manna by putting it within their reach. There are things that you expect God will put on your lap or in your mouth. But God is putting it within your reach even in the remaining days of this year. So, what are you going to do? You stretch! And as you stretch, you will be lifted in the Name of Jesus. Isaiah 1:¹⁹ “If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land” (NKJV). You need to stretch in praise. You need to stretch in prayer. You need to stretch in giving. You need to stretch in faith. You need to stretch because your lifting will require you to stretch.

As God lifts you, the seventh thing is, We Were Made For Community. It never ceases to baffle me how people are promoted, people get connected, God answers people’s prayers, and solves people’s problems in community. How someone gets help because of community and it has nothing to do with Pastor. How one person prays for another person, and God answers, and it has to do with community. The power of community is a multiplier effect. When God wants to lift you up, He puts the answer in someone else, in your community.

Prayer: Father, as I stretch my hands to You and You lift me, help me lift others in my community, in Jesus Mighty Name. Amen