Capacity by Design

It is literally impossible to put God in a box of any kind.  God will not be limited to or reduced by our fragile and odd beliefs.  That being said though, you can completely limit and diminish God’s saving, helping, miracle-working effectiveness in your life.  Jesus’ relatives and neighbors from His hometown of Nazareth did it to themselves.  Look at Matthew 13:58.  “And He did not do many works of power there, because of their unbelief.”

With God all things are possible, and with God nothing is impossible.  God is the Creator of heaven and earth.  Everything that exists was made and authored by Him.  So how do we reconcile the reality of an all-powerful intelligent Designer who is the Source of all life, but with such limited access to our life?  This is the question that more Christians should ask.  God’s Word is not breached by deductive reasoning, but instead, only proven to be more of a priceless treasure when searched and examined. 

To understand God’s limitation in your life you must understand two things: your design, and what God has inherently given you.  These two factors establish your God-given capacity for His power and presence in your life.  Let’s look at Scripture.  In Genesis 1:26 we read “God said, Let Us make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority ...”.  God goes on in this assignment to verse 28 saying “And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion ...”.  Let’s summarize a few things here.  First of all, you were made in the image and likeness of God.  Secondly, God gave the species of man a gift, and when God gives a gift, He’s not double-minded like some people.  God gave mankind “complete authority” over all the stuff, not each other, but over everything else God had created.  God made you a ruler over the stuff on earth.    

It’s interesting that when God gave mankind “complete authority” one of the first things God does with Adam is to form every animal and bring it to him to name.  When you name something you give it a destiny.  God let Adam do this.  Why?  Because God was keeping His Word and allowing His son to exercise “complete authority”.  Adam used his God-given intellect, to rule over substance and matter.  We see a few verses later in the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve have complete capacity to make choices, even the choice to abandon relationship with God their Creator.  They could have believed God’s Truth but instead they choose to believe a deceiver.  They had full reign over the Garden of Eden, but even a greater place, the garden of their heart.  They refused God’s voice and accepted a traitor’s words.  Those lying seeds went into their heart and gave birth to a world of sin, sickness, and tragedy. 

Think of it, there was no real human history when Cain and Abel came along.  They were generationally adjacent to original sin and so you’d think we’d start small with our progression into immorality.  Adam and Eve ‘just’ ate an apple, right?  So maybe the sons would ‘just’ start with a little gossip, maybe a ‘white’ lie?  That’s not how sin works.  It’s treason against God.  It doesn’t just diminish our God capacity, it eliminates it.  The vacuum of losing God’s presence doesn’t pull in a little darkness, it is an eclipse of light.  Notice how immediately humanity goes from believing a lie to jumping into full on pride, jealousy, envy, prejudice, hatred, anger, murder, hiding the body thinking that God will never know.  Are we crazy?  Yes!  Without Christ we amount to another Uncle Cain killing our brother and sister, even if it’s with our tongue, and thinking God will somehow look the other way.    

Remember, Cain brought a gift to God.  He obviously didn’t know 1 John 4:20 “If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother [in Christ], he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, Whom he has not seen.”  Cain had zero capacity.  He had religious form but no room for God.  God tried to save Cain, but he had no tolerance for God’s correction or warnings. 

You see this is where capacity kicks in.  Remember the religious crowd of Jesus’ day were offended with His invite to be children of the most high God.  They were too busy being in love with their religious system.  Leaders had become content with their hierarchy of religious control and manipulation of people.  They had gradually replaced God’s Laws with man’s religious laws so that they could even divorce their spouse on a whim and go on their way feeling completely justified.  Convenient, right?  Man’s political correctness was completely dishonoring God by bashing others so they could virtue signal.  Truth had no place within hearts and minds that had eliminated the capacity for it.  Here we are 2,000 years later doing the same thing. 

Let God in today.  It’s as simple as forsaking your thinking.  Be willing to be wrong.  God can help us when we humble ourselves, but He can’t help the stubborn.  Do you want God’s help, advice, direction, and His protection?  Let God in today.  You have the delegated authority to invite Jesus to be Lord of your life today ... now!    

Pray the Word:

Heavenly Father I come to You in the Name of Jesus.  Come into my heart today.  I repent of all my sin and misuse of authority.  Jesus died on the cross in my place and You rose Him up from the grave.  I believe on Jesus and so I make room for Your plan of Salvation in my life.  I confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  I’m a child of God now.  Amen!