What Limits God?

Psalm 78:41 (YLT) Yea, they turn back, and try God, And the Holy One of Israel have limited.

How can a person limit God? Psalm 78 is all about the miracles that God did for Israel. I encourage you to read the whole chapter. Psalm 78 exhorts us to talk about the testimonies and works of the Lord so we don’t fall into unbelief like Israel did. Even though God worked wonders and delivered Israel again and again, they quickly fell into unbelief and complaining. They forgot so quickly what God had done for them.

Complaining limits God.

Unbelief limits God.

Scripture reveals that God is extremely generous. It says if the Father gave us Jesus, He will also with him give us all things. Jesus, the image of the invisible God, revealed God’s generosity and healed every person who came to him and every person that touched him.

Ephesians 1:18-19 (NIV) I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. 

Do you know that what you have in Christ is riches? There is no limit to God’s great power for us who believe. At least the limit isn’t on God’s end. The only limit is our belief.

Until I was about 20 years old, I only had very few experiences with God that were definitely supernatural. That changed at a conference where I realized how my lack of understanding had been hindering me from really seeing God’s nature and being assured of His will. Since then, I have sometimes seen more people healed in one day than I had previously in years of church. It’s like a whole new world has opened up to me, a reality I had hardly imagined!

About six months ago, someone sent some pictures through WhatsApp of a little boy, about two years old, covered with raw red patches all over his skin. She said she knew the family and their little boy had a severe allergic reaction and was screaming in pain all the time. It was very difficult for the family.

I sent a WhatsApp message. “In Jesus’ name, inflammation go! God thank you for your glory filling this little boy’s body, driving out affliction, putting everything in order!” She forwarded it to the family.

The lady who sent the message visited us on Sunday. She said that she talked to them and after receiving the WhatsApp message, the painful red patches covering his body just went away. I said something like “That’s wonderful. Thank you Jesus!” And she realized that I’m used to hearing reports like that. I was happy, but not so surprised as she thought I might be. I used to only dream of seeing God do things like that. I heard stories from far away, in other times and other places. Now I don’t even remember all the testimonies from the last week. Yet I feel that I’ve only touched the surface of all that God has for me. There is so much more! I have so much to grow, and I’ve only begun to touch the heavenly realities that have been opened up to me Christ!

Ephesians 3:16-20 (NIV) I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…

How would you like to be filled with all the fullness of God? He is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine according to His power at work within us. Why don’t we at least start to ask, and start to imagine? What is the limit? It’s what we see. God sees so much more than we see, and we need to start seeing what God sees. That’s why Paul prayed for the church that the eyes of their hearts be opened.

How Can A Person Limit God?

The very idea of a person limiting God is offensive to religion. However, we don’t imply that God is anything less than all-powerful and all-knowing. He just is not all-controlling. God has a purpose and a way in which he works, and it is through humans. In a way, He has limited himself. He is an invisible Spirit manifested through bodies on earth. Jesus came in a human body,

If I were to name any one belief that works against the manifestation of God’s glory more than any other, I would say it is the belief that God controls everything. In fact, people close to me have started manifesting a demon and been delivered when I explained that God does not control everything but has given authority to mankind. Evil manifesting on earth is due to man abusing his God-given authority and entering in partnership with evil. Not due to God’s will or permission. God’s kingdom manifests on earth when human beings enter communion and partnership with God’s purposes.

For one person, the spirit just left with deep belches as I spoke. Just hearing and understanding the truth drove it out. But on another occasion, the person’s body went limp, fell down, eyes rolled back in the head, and it left when I commanded it to get out. But why would this idea that God controls everything be so dangerous?

If we think God is controlling everything, we look at him through life, through disappointments, through everything but Jesus. To do so is to see a perverted image of God by attempting to look at Him through sinful man who has fallen short of His glory, rather than looking at the perfect image of God through the sinless man and Author of creation, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the image of the invisible God! People who look at God in that way can’t even tell the difference between what is from God and what is from the devil. They can’t even tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and an evil spirit, and they think the work of the devil is actually from God.

God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine according to what? According to His power in heaven? No, according to His power at work within us. If we can’t see who God is or what His will is, we limit His power at work within us. This only limit is our view of Him. It is what we believe. To believe is to see God as He is.

Mark 9:22-23 (NIV) “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

Don’t Rob God Of The Glory Due To His Name Through Your Unbelief!

Ephesians 3:21 (NIV) to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Why is the God glorified in the church and in Christ? Because in the church and in Christ, God takes on flesh. In the church and in Christ, the invisible nature of God is manifest. Through the church and through Christ, God accomplishes his will.

The church is the body of Christ, and if you by faith have clothed yourself with Christ, your members are the members of Christ. Stretch out your hand and touch someone, and it is Jesus touching them. When your feet carry you somewhere to share the gospel, Jesus Christ is coming to that house or city. And when you see God and obey His Word, his glory manifests in power and God is glorified through the church.

In my experience, most Christians by far don’t know this and don’t act according to it. They limit God. I have been teaching other people to minister healing according to Jesus’ commission. I say “You lay your hands on this person and minister healing!” Most people say “Me??”

The other Saturday night I was with a missions group. My friend’s girlfriend had slipped and hurt her back that day. I could pray for her but I told him “Come over here and lay your hands on her back.” He is learning and commanded the pain to leave and the back to be healed. The pain reduced.

Then I saw a young lady nearby. I had never really talked to her before, but I’d seen her at church events and noticed she cried a lot and seemed really broken. I said, “Now you, come over here and pray for her.”

She said “Me??” And I responded, “Yeah, it’s easy. Just come over here, put your hands on her back, and say ‘In Jesus’ name, be healed.'”

I could tell that she felt like she was nothing to pray for somebody. But with our encouragement, she obeyed the command of Jesus and laid her hands on the lady’s back. She prayed. She prayed quite a lot longer than she needed to, but we were patient. It was her first time. She didn’t really command the back to be healed or speak with authority, which is usually much more effective, but it was her first time. I admit I was a little impatient for her to finish so we could ask the lady to test her back again. But it was her first time!

When she finished, I asked the lady “How is it now? Move your back. Is there any more pain?” She moved it and said “It’s completely gone! Actually, the moment she touched my back, my whole back got very hot and all the pain left!”

The girl who prayed for her started weeping. She was more touched than the woman who was healed! While she was praying a somewhat long prayer, God’s glory had already come on the woman’s back the moment she touched her! The girl praying didn’t feel any great faith or expectation. But she obeyed, even though somewhat reluctantly, and laid her hands on the woman’s back.

John 15:8 (NIV) This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

God is glorified through us. His power, love, and goodness is manifest on earth through his body the church, and this brings glory to His Name! Don’t rob God of the glory due to him! The body obeys the head, Christ is the head, and He taught his disciples to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. We limit God when we disobey these commands. When we obey Christ’s commands, we bear much fruit and show that we are his disciples. That is, we have learned from Christ and do the works of Christ.

Right now, I don’t know anybody else in my city who sees miracles regularly. I live in a city of 1.1 million people, with lots of churches. Yet I know all Christians can see miracles regularly. Many of the youth in our Youth group in the US saw miracles happen through them when they prayed or gave words of knowledge. Kids who didn’t limit God. I have taught in churches, everyone prayed for each other, and many miracles happened. It’s not that hard. Just obey Jesus and lay your hands on the sick.

So why don’t I know a single other person in my city, with all these churches, that I see regularly walking in God’s power? Because I don’t know a single other person in my city who will pray for a stranger they meet on the street who has a cast on their arm. Rarely, if ever, will a Christian person say “Let’s do something about that” if another person they know, even in a church context, says “My back hurts” or “I have a headache.”

That’s how people limit God. Many Christians have no idea of the riches they have in Christ or of what could happen if they would just step out and obey God rather than being imprisoned in the past, what they have or haven’t experienced before. But God has a new normal for the church. And we are working to present everyone complete in Christ.

Remove All Limits!

Even if seeing healing and miracles has now become normal for you, you can still have many areas in which you limit God. It’s not about just what you give mental assent to, but it’s about what you see with the eyes of your heart. Are you more impressed with Jesus than with anything else? What you see with the eyes of your heart is what forms your reactions and responses to situations. Do you respond with fear or faith?

How can you remove the limits? Praise and thanksgiving are like spiritual eyes with which you see Jesus. Feed yourself with God’s promises from scripture and with testimonies. I spend a few hours every week watching testimonies on Youtube. I really appreciate John Mellor and Mark Heman’s testimony videos, for example. Talk constantly about the Lord and His goodness. Recount what God has done for you. Read testimony-filled books like the story of YWAM, “Is That Really You, God?” Talk about Jesus and about God’s mighty works until a cloud of God’s glory starts to form over your head. Praise and thanksgiving does that. People can feel it. Just like people can feel it just by being around a person when that person is depressed and constantly griping and complaining, they can feel it when your heart is filled with thanksgiving and praise.

Challenge every limit by your words and your actions, with praise and with declaration. Maybe you have started praying for people and seeing them healed. But you haven’t seen family members healed. Keep laying hands on your spouse and kids if they get a cold or headache. Don’t limit God. Maybe last time you prayed for someone and didn’t see any change. Pray for the next person. Lay hands on that person in a wheelchair in the supermarket and command that their body be restored. Don’t say “I’m not going to pray for that guy, because he only has one leg.” Challenge your unbelief constantly. Challenge every limit. Pray big prayers that go way beyond yourself, and remember, effective prayer is not begging God to do something but it is joining your agreement to what you know He wants to do. Because you know HIm. You know His character. Pray for Russia and Ukraine. Pray big prayers, reminding yourself of what God has done in the past. Pray the kinds of prayers that you can see the answer to in the newspaper. Pray for nations and people groups. Elijah was a man just like us and he changed the course of history.

I’ve heard that a baby elephant is domesticated by chaining it to a post. The baby struggles at first but realizes it can’t go beyond the chain. And the baby grows to become a big elephant that could easily pull up that post, but doesn’t know it. Once the elephant believes he can’t go past that limit, all that is needed is to tie a string to the elephant and the elephant won’t attempt to go past the limit of that string, which is not really strong enough to impose any limitation on the elephant at all. The only limitation is in its mind.

If you are in Christ, you are a new creation, a heavenly person. The Holy Spirit empowers you. You have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of light!

Colossians 2:20 (NIV) Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules

Colossians 2:20 (AMPC) If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world’s crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world?

The limits we once lived under have been removed in Christ. Yet most Christians continue to act as if they are still under them, still subject to the kingdom they once lived in. Nothing more than a thread holds them back, but they act as if they are still chained to that post.

Samson was bound with new ropes, but when the Spirit of the Lord was upon him he snapped those ropes off as if they were threads. (Judges 16:12) Be filled with the Holy Spirit. How?

Ephesians 5:18b-20 … be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s another confirmation! Praise and thanksgiving remove the limitations in your heart and mind. What now seems to be impossible and extraordinary to you can become your new normal in Christ! You can grow in the knowledge of the Lord. You can grow in faith. But you will only grow to the extent that you challenge every limit, step out, take risks, and challenge the unbelief in your own heart so that you bear much fruit and God is glorified through you. Don’t be bound by threads! Let the Holy Spirit reveal to you what you have in Christ, and learn to live in it!