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Assurance of Abundance
Episode #840
01/15/2023
Walk and talk with John Enslow
He gives us an assurance with His Holy Spirit that we will live in abundance.
Hey guys, so I’m on my way down to Florida. I’m gonna see Charles and my parents. And on my trip I was just thinking about the last podcast I did. How that oppressive situation‘s or difficult situations in our life can really tempt us to push back disciplines to ease the pain. We feel like sometimes it’s easier to just lay things aside or numb out with something…Netflix, Facebook scrolling, whatever. That we can just numb out and we can just pull back a bit. But that’s never truly helpful, actually it’s detrimental. Because with the oppressive or difficult situation the Lord is wanting us to lurch forward not retreat.
So as I’m thinking about that, I was listening to John Eldredge‘s book and he talked about the assurance of abundance. And all of a sudden I realized the assurance of abundance is what the promise is that leads us to continue to follow and continue to seek, and continue to go after the Lord when we are in those situations. When we are in desperate times. When we are in oppression, when we were in depression, when we were in difficulty, my leading is the assurance of abundance. And I thought about what does that really mean? And I know that He is as Source, as the cornucopia of all life, He has everything in Himself to give us. He gives us an assurance with His Holy Spirit that we will live in abundance.
Now does that mean we won’t have difficult situations or will be able to avoid hardship? No, but what it does mean is that we will have abundant life through Him. That He will abundantly provide, that He will abundantly move, that He will abundantly bring solutions. That the adventure of life that we are experiencing and longing to see with Him in it, that’s what we get.
So when we seek Him, not just through devotions, not just through even the reading of the Word, those parts are valid those parts are part of it, but seeking Him as a person, seeking Him as the Source, seeking Him for connection, seeking Him for relationship. That’s the true thing. He can use Word reading, He can use devotions, He can use worshiping, He can use all of that but the end is union. The end is connection. The end is being unified with Him, being connected with Him, seeking Him, finding Him and that’s what I’m looking to do.
In hardship, in suffering, in oppression, and sometimes depression, I look to push towards Him. And I have confessed to you all that I have truly been tempted to lay back, and I have laid back a little bit because it has felt like too much, it’s too hard. When life gets too hard it just says, “Oh there’s no problem, you deserve this. That’s really frightening because that’s really what it says. “You deserve a break. You deserve a little time. Go binge watch this series instead of seeking Him, go do some Facebook flipping and turn up to find three hours are gone of your life. It’s not like those are evil in themselves. It’s just the motivation has to be connection with Him first, first and foremost.
It’s not like He doesn’t want us to relax, it’s not a guilt thing, it’s not a shame thing, there’s no shame in this, it’s relational. It’s a blessing. It’s something that the Lord is wanting to show you, to bring you into and not shame you for not going there. The vital necessity, the required vital necessity, that we need Him, that we need that connection, that we need that relationship, that we need to be connected with our Creator to engage our own divine DNA. The spiritual DNA that we’ve been given with our connection into Him, He gives us the path. He gives us the direction and He is with us. God with us, Emmanuel. That’s beautiful!
So today as I’m sitting here thinking about the assurance of abundance, I know who the Abundant One is and I know what He wants is connection with His children. Relationally He wants us to look to Him, to seek Him, to find Him and I love Him. He doesn’t do that as a taskmaster. He doesn’t shame us to say, “Oh well, you stupid, you didn’t read your Bible again today!” or “Stupid, you didn’t worship today!” It’s not what it’s about. He’s not looking to shame us, He’s looking to connect with us. So that’s what I’m gonna do today and that’s what I’m celebrating because it’s a beautiful thing. The Creator of the universe wants to commune with me, wants to commune with us and wants to be unified with us and show us the assurance of abundance, as being the Abundant One. So I hope y’all are doing well. I love y’all and I will talk to you soon.
Assurance of Abundance – Episode #840 – Shulamite Podcast
The assurance of abundance is what is promised that leads us to continue after the Lord when we are in difficult situations and crises.
