Hebron Christian Faith Church - Teaching

Welcome to the Pastor’s Pen, a personal teaching that brings you up-to-date messages from the Pastor’s heart concerning God’s unfolding word ‘in season’ for our church. These are additional, bite-sized extras to our regular, more in-depth Sunday teaching series.

Pastor’s Pen

June 2010

Enlarge and Stretch Out

“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


This is a word the Lord recently spoke to us in a quiet time and we believe that it is not just for us personally but  also for the church. We believe He wants us to expand in the auditorium “to the right & to the left” and in every other area of the ministry - bible school, youth, evangelism, elderly folks ministry, etc. This requires all of us to play a part in what God wants to do and the starting place for that is to get in faith together. That’s the reason God speaks His word (Rom 10:17), to stimulate our faith, without which it is impossible to please Him. So whenever God speaks, it is vital that we trust Him and respond with faith. Notice in verse 2 that the Lord challenges the dweller (those who are settled) to act in faith, to first “ENLARGE” & “STRETCH OUT” before they’ve seen any increase, & then He will make good His  promise: “for you SHALL expand”.


God never wants us to become too settled, too comfortable, or satisfied with where we are (though He will allow us to if we so choose). He is always calling us up higher, challenging us to enlarge ourselves first on the inside & get a bigger picture of our lives, our ministry, our marriages, businesses, etc. THEN we shall expand &   increase. This is a scriptural principle, we first have to ‘see’ it by faith on the inside, then we shall have it on the outside. Not the other way round.  Proverbs 23:7 “As he thinks in his heart, so is he”. The image we have on the inside is what sets the boundaries in our lives. This is the image God always wants to ENLARGE, because “if you can believe, ALL things are possible to him who believes” (Mk 9:23)


Notice there is one thing God says not to do in this scripture and that is not to spare. God wants us to think big, dream big, He doesn’t want our image on the inside to be hindered for any reason. Eph 3:20 says, “He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us”, so whatever we can ask, think or imagine, He is able to do over and above. All things are possible. Do you want change in your life? God says it starts from within, how you see yourself & your life. Abram faced an impossible situation, he saw himself childless, “seeing I go childless” Gen 15:2. Yet God had already told him he would have more children than the stars. But he “saw” that he was old, that Sarai was old, barren and past child-bearing age. How did God get Abram to change that image & become the father of many nations? God asked Abram to AGREE with Him & to say what God said about him. God changed his vision (“LOOK...the stars, so shall your descendents be” Gen 15:5) and changed his name to Abraham. By changing his focus & speaking out the word of God instead of what he “saw” on the outside, it wasn’t long before Isaac was born.


The key to expanding on all sides is to find what God says about you and agree with it, agree by saying it. If you continue to keep your focus stayed on His word & speak out only what He says, God has promised it will come to pass in the physical realm.


V1, “Sing O barren, You who have not borne! Break forth into singing and cry aloud”. Why sing? Because “more are the children of the desolate, than the children of the married woman, says the Lord”. What is God’s instruction to the barren woman? To sing, to cry aloud. Before the seemingly impossible situation will be turned around, God wants the barren (those who don’t yet have it) to sing, to rejoice, to praise Him for what He is able to do and what He has promised He will do. In other words, the barren need to start seeing it on the inside by faith, believing and praising God for the answer before they see it on the outside. You and I must do the same.

As we do this, we will see changes in our lives. We will see ourselves as God sees us and faith will rise to be and to do all that God has called us to. Both as a church & as individuals, we must enlarge, stretch, lengthen and strengthen ourselves ON THE INSIDE first, & then we shall expand! I believe God wants to expand us on all sides to inherit nations and inhabit spiritually desolate cities in the UK, and to do that it requires us to enlarge our thinking. As we “see” His bigger vision, willingly & joyfully we will take our places in the body of Christ and allow the graces God has given to each of us to begin to flow through our lives and touch the lives of others..