Asking God to Enlarge your Territory

1 Chronicles 4:10

¹⁰And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that it may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.

Many times we find ourselves in a place, when seemingly, out of nowhere a series of self-defeating questions start running across the banner of our minds.

• What is wrong with me?
• Why do I feel this way?
• I’ve changed my ways, I go to church, shouldn’t I feel better?
• Why do the same things seem to always happen to me?
• Everything in my life is fine, but nothing adds up.
• Why is it that my spouse and I do not seem to not agree on core principles?
• Why can’t I hear God?
• Is God even really there?

In many cases we’ve been through that once or twice. We believed once saved and all would go well. If we  followed the formula of going to church, get involved in a bible study and say our daily prayers; life would be peachy.

However, if everything was fixed in our lives once we found Jesus Christ, why would we still need Him? Or is it really the beginning of a relationship. I have never heard of any relationship that had everything disclosed about the other party without regular interaction. When it comes to this topic, relating to God, many want to acknowledge the relationship but not put anything into it and still hope it will blossom.

Conversely, when you finally met your significant other, not one of you I would guess, said the best way for us to get closer would be to stay apart. That makes absolutely no sense, but many people do just that in their walk with Christ.

Many believers don’t actually walk out a relationship with Christ that is a two way street. They walk along a one way street headed in the direction of their choosing.  Give me all your blessings and I will give what and when I can.

After years of trying to get back to that same feeling of when we were first saved, we found that it was only the beginning of the journey not the end. To gain true freedom we had to decide if we were identified by some of the traditions that kept us trapped or defined by our relationship with Him.

We had to call on Jesus Christ directly into our lives and ask for the healing needed to remove the generations of attitudes and behaviors that prevented the influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We needed to develop that relationship with Jesus and that was the problem. When it was all said and done, we were willing but did not know how to develop that relationship. We petitioned the Lord with prayer, but never listened.

To get where we thought we needed to get to, we had to ask God for help, just like Jabez did. This is the reason Enlarging Territories Ministry was formed.

We regularly speak into the lives of men and women, whenever prompted by the Holy Spirit. We will lovingly present the key to freedom from issues that have bound them and provide at times a practical solution to limit the collateral damage our actions might produce until they are ready to develop that intimate relationship with Christ only they can engage.

Christ calls us to have a relationship with him, but many times that relationship does not translate to those around us. Once we start looking at the reason why, and invite Jesus Christ to heal those places, we find that the love of Christ will pulsate from our hearts and all other relationships will enlarge as well as our true destiny in Christ.

Roland & Rita Jutras