Gloria Copeland - Go with the Flow

Go With the Flow!

This world is constantly plagued by shortages. Have you ever noticed that?

It seems everybody is always running short of something. You never hear anyone say, "Oh my, I have more time than I need...I have more money than I can use...I have so many solutions, I'm having to hunt problems just to keep up!"

Such words sound ridiculous in a world ruled by scarcity and lack. Yet, the truth is, those are the kinds of words you and I should be saying all the time.

After all, as born-again children of God, we don't belong to this pitiful world. We're in it, Jesus said, but we're not of it (John 17:15-16). We belong to the kingdom of Godand there are no shortages in that kingdom. It has an abundant supply of any resource you could ever need.

Many believers never tap into those resources because they think God's kingdom is just a religious concept, a theological theory. But it's not.

It's realand we can live in it.

Actually, the word kingdom means "dominion." God's kingdom is where God has dominion. Of course, since God has absolute dominion in heaven, every child of God will ultimately enjoy the blessings of His kingdom. But, praise God, we don't have to wait until we get to heaven! If we'll give God dominion in our lives here and now, we can experience "days of heaven upon the earth" (Deuteronomy 11:21).

"But Gloria, I just don't understand how that's possible. Everything in this world around us is falling apart. There's nothing heavenly about it!"

True. That's why Christians who depend on this world aren't doing very well these days. They're limiting themselves to the world's technology, abilities and answers, and they're getting the world's results.

In other words, they're looking to the outside instead of looking on the inside.

As a believer, everything you will ever need and everything God has ever promised is on the inside of you right now. The extra $500 a month you need for your family is in there. The new car you need is in there. The healing you need, the answers you need, the miracles you needall of them are right there in your heart.

How can I be so sure? Because God Himself lives in you. He came to dwell there the moment you were born againand He is the source of all things.

His Spirit is a wellspring of life, bubbling up continually within you. And unlike the wells of the world, this one never runs dry! Jesus Himself assured us of that in John 4, where He said, "Whosoever drinketh of this [natural world's] water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (verses 13-14).

Just think about that! Through the supernatural spring of His Spirit, God is continually imparting to us strength and power, guidance and counseling . He is providing us with a reservoir that will keep us fully supplied, not according to the meager resources of this earth, but according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

All we have to do is step into the Holy Spirit's flow and we'll have everything we need.

The problem is , most people (Christians included) don't know anything about that divine flow. So they just paddle around in the natural stream of things trying to keep their heads above water as the circumstances and shortages of the world drag them under.

But it's time for us to get wise! It's time to stop going with the flow of the natural, worldly things around us, and to start going with the flow of the Spirit instead.

From the Desert to the River

How do you go about yielding to that supernatural flow? First, you must hear and obey the Word of God. You must put that Word in your heart and bring it out of your mouth, not just once or twice, but consistently. You must follow the instructions God gives in Proverbs 4:20-23:

My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh. Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life (amp).

If you're attending to God's Word, when you have a problem, you won't think of going to the world first. You'll go to the Word. You'll find out what God has promised to do for you.

Once you've found that promise, you'll put it in your heart. You'll believe it. You'll speak it. Then faith will come alive inside you. Once faith comes alive concerning that situation, the power of God will explode in your heart and you'll start walking in victory.

Everything in the natural world may look just as dark as it ever did. Everyone in the world may still be telling you how impossible your situation is. But that won't matter because you'll know you've stepped out of the stream of circumstances and into the river of God.

And once God's river starts to flow from within you, the whole natural realm has to yield to it. Bad situations, poverty, sickness and lack of any kind must bow their knees to His supernatural supply!

I'll never forget how desperate Ken and I were when we first tapped into the supernatural flow. We were so broke and so in debt that it seemed we would never get out. Ken was a student at Oral Roberts University, and the only regular income we had was the $100 a month he received for co-piloting Brother Roberts' airplane.

We lived in a dumpy, old house furnished in early Goodwill. People were threatening to sue us, and we had a history of failing financially at everything we tried to do.

How had we gotten in that terrible shape? Just by flowing with the natural forces of this world. We hadn't set out to mess things up. We had done the best we could, but the defeat and lack (what the Bible calls the "curses") of the world had overtaken us.

Then one day, the Word of God came to me. He didn't speak to me in an audible voice. He just quickened a scripture to my heart as I was reading the Bible. The scripture was 2 Corinthians 9:8:

And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation] (amp).

At that moment, there appeared to be no way Ken and I would ever have an abundance of anything except needs. Yet in the face of that impossible-looking situation, I chose to believe God's Word. I began to say, "God is able to make every earthly blessing come to me in abundance! God is able!"

Ken believed it too, and together we began to tap into the flow of the Spirit. We started talking prosperity instead of poverty. We stopped borrowing money. And we started obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit where our finances were concerned.

Eleven months later, we were completely debt free.

Financially speaking, we had been total failures. Yet simply because we believed God and obeyed His Word, He was able to turn that failure around. He was able to supply us not according to the shortages of this world, but according to His riches in glory.

The Great Equalizer

Since that time, I've never wanted to live any other way. I love knowing that every day as I go about my daily workwhether it's planting flowers, writing letters or taping a television programthere is a flow of the Spirit of God in me to empower and enable me and to provide for me.

If I'll yield to it, that flow will make me a much greater success than I could ever be on my own...and it will do the same for you.

You see, the Spirit of God is the great equalizer. When you're yielding to Him, it doesn't matter which attributes you have or which ones you lack in the natural world. It doesn't matter if you're a person of a high intellect or a low one. You may be dumb as can be on your own, but you're smart when you're flowing in the Spirit, because through Him, you're connected to accurate information.