God can provide us everything with his great love. In another episode that brings us more faith than we already have, host Dr. Siohvaughn Funches discusses a very important message about God as our provider. This is vital because it is His will that he has the role of provider and we have the role of the one that is provided for. Dr. Funches explains that getting out of that role allows us to produce literally no fruit. She points out the kinds of provisions that God has been given us and where we can find them in our everyday lives.
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Listen to the podcast here:
Provision In Peculiar Places (Part 1)
Thank you for joining me here on the show. We’re going to be discussing an important message about God as our provider. This is vital because it is the perfect will of God that He has the role of provider and we have the role of the one that is provided for. When we get out of that role, we’re producing no fruit, it’s a barren place. It is the will of God, not only that we not be barren but that He blesses us in such a way, in such a magnitude that we’re able to be a blessing to others. That is the perfect will of God for our life.
Let’s dive right into the crux and the heart of this message, which I do believe will be more than one part and will be a series but before we do that, let’s take a moment and acknowledge God and pray. Heavenly Father, I ask that you give to each and every one of us this day, the spirit of your wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Jesus. I ask you that the eyes of our understanding will be enlightened, that we may know what’s the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.
Jesus, I ask you to expound on the scriptures to us about the things concerning yourself. I ask you, Jesus, that you bless us by causing us to comprehend the scriptures. Lord, I pray you are unveiled to us and reveal to us in ways where we know you more and as a byproduct of that, we trust you more, we rest in you more and we receive more of your goodness and everything that you have for us, nothing less than your best. In your name, Jesus, I pray as we get at your feet and hear your words.
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The title of this episode’s message is Provision in Peculiar Places. I want to start by discussing what I think is an indisputable fact amongst Christians. I know that there are many denominations and different things that people may not always agree about or may see things differently or have a different understanding, but there are certain things that seem to be true for all of us. No matter where you were raised, no matter what denomination, no matter who preached to you when you were younger or where you were raised or located, there are certain things that seem to be across the board in the life of believers, also known as Christians, that we all agree on.
God Is Our Provider
I feel like one of those things God has shown me that’s an indisputable truth, indisputable fact for the believers that God is our provider. If you were to survey and ask Christians, “Is that true or false statement?” The vast majority of them would say true and it’s important that we know that. Knowing is not the only thing God calls us to do, He calls us to believe. You can’t believe what you don’t know. Knowing precedes believing, but knowing without believing is still fruitless, in a sense, because the way that we receive from God as New Covenant believers and we went over this when this show began and it is the foundation of every episode done that will ever come. We as New Covenant believers receive from God by believing.
This is no longer the time we’re under the system of the law where we work in order to obtain what it is that God promised us. We’re in a position where Jesus has fulfilled the law for us so the only part left for us to play in this movie of life, so to speak, is for us to believe because that is the God-ordained way that we receive from God, we believe. We know that faith, belief comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ and we learned that early on. I believe that Christians have heard a lot about God being our provider. They do believe that. They know that and on the surface of that, they believe that.
There are times when we as believers or Christians still fall into having cares as opposed to casting them on Jesus and worried about whether or not God will provide. Let me back up a little bit and tell you that when I say provide and as God is our provider, I want to make it clear for everyone reading. I do not mean when the Holy Spirit showed me this and revealed this to me, He showed me that he’s not just teaching us about God being our provider, in a monetary sense. The provision of our needs like food, clothing and shelter, things like that, which He is a provider for, but God is much more than that, to provide everything we could ever need and even those hearts desires.
God is our provider, not just our provider of monetary things. He won’t help you in marriage. He’s your provider in your marriage with your spouse. If you got an issue, sexually, forget it. God is not going there. No such thing exists. No such animal exists. God is our provider. No matter what needs we have, God is the meter of our needs. He said, “I will supply all of your needs.” Not just your financial needs, all of your needs. If you need emotional help, God supplies the need.
If you need wisdom for any situation, it could be you’re being bullied or you’re being harassed, God provides for that. It could be that you are the bully and you’re like, “I want to stop doing this. I want to stop treating people like this.” God is your provider. He is the way out of that. He is your deliverance. He is the wisdom you need. He is the deliverance and counsel you need. If somebody is sick, God is your healer. He provides the health and wholeness and deliverance from the illness. He has already provided that.
The Bible tells us, “By Jesus’ stripes, we are completely healed.” In that same passage, it talks about Jesus being wounded for our transgressions. We believe that He has already paid the price and suffered the punishment for our sins. In that same passage of scripture in Isaiah, it talks about Jesus also being wounded not only for our transgressions and being crushed for our iniquities, but it also talks about by his stripes, which was also a punishment, which was also being wounded for our health and our wholeness. That’s our portion as well.
I wanted to point out that God is our provider no matter what the need is. If somebody is saying, “God, I want to stop watching pornography.” That’s probably not something God wants to hear. God is holy. That’s the wrong answer. That’s religion. That’s a religious spirit trying to prevent you from being delivered from a God who sees all and knows all. There’s nothing you can do, think or imagine that would shock the conscious of God. He’s been there and he’s done that. If you wore t-shirts and hats, He’d have them to match.
Nothing you can say or do, whatever shocks God’s conscious and God is in it fully and completely when He says, “I will supply all of your needs according to my riches and my glory.” That is all meaning all. That means everything no matter what, no matter how many times you need him, no matter if you’re in a situation where it was your fault or it wasn’t your fault, even you think it’s your fault. It doesn’t make a difference. God doesn’t say, “It all depends on whose fault it is. It all depends on whether I had to deliver you from this.” That’s not the way that God works. He is the supplier of all of our needs and His grace, His undeserved favor. It is sufficient to meet every single one of our needs no matter what, no matter the time, no matter how many times.
As believers on the surface of that, we get that, but we have still fallen into worries and cares for the reason that I believe that God showed me and He wants to reveal in this message so that we can be free from that. God said, “My people know the truth and the truth shall make them free.” Jesus is revealing himself. He is the truth. He’s revealing Himself to us. One of the many things that will provide for us is freedom, freedom from care, freedom from worry. When we have a need, whether or not God will provide that need, no matter what the miracle or the blessing is or the deliverance is, to get out of trouble, whatever it is. God wants to take us to a place where we fully trust in Him as our provider. We understand his ways of providing.
Another thing God showed me is that the enemy has caused people to believe that God isn’t providing for them because it’s not happening. The provision isn’t taking place in a way that they expect it to. It’s not taking place in what you would call a traditional or a common way. It’s coming in an unorthodox way. They are thinking that can’t be God or they’re not even fathoming that that would be God. They’re thinking that they’re lacking, “Where is God? He’s not there.” They’re getting into doubt and not believe, which is contrary to faith. They do not believe so they’re not receiving and they’re blaming it on God when it is not God.
Not only that, but God also showed me another thing that the enemy has done to try to get the believer to not believe that God is their provider. Not only has He tried to do it when God has provided in peculiar places, but he’s also tried to get them to believe that God isn’t providing because God changes up his means of providing. We’re going to go into some scriptures about that. It will be a two-part series, mainly because the scriptures that God has given me are passages of scripture. I am being led by God not just to pull a verse here or verse there, although that’s okay when God is doing that when He’s leading to do that.
I felt, as far as this message is concerned, to read particular passages of scriptures so that you get the context and you understand what was going on and the story behind it. Don’t, for any reason, think that that’s a waste. We could maybe get to the point faster because we learned earlier on all the benefits of hearing the Word of God. Remember, as that word is going forward, as that word is being read, as that word is being taught, God is doing all sorts of things in us, in our lives, and in our generation. We’re at the feet of Jesus and God is somewhere performing the miracle that we’ve been praying for. We simply get at his feet and hear his word and do this one thing that God promised us is needful. Not only will God be doing those things, but I do also believe that we’re going to learn something important.
We keep our eyes on God the provider and take our eyes off the provision. The provision is the means by which God provides. God being the provider is the one who provides but He uses different means and we’re going to see why it’s important to do that. Everybody is going to walk away with that one thing in common. I know we have different prayers and petitions before God and I believe God to answer those as we get at His feet and hear His word. I also believe that there’ll be something common that breaks forth in our lives and we can teach it to our family, our children, and things like that. Share with our friends and our loved ones and that’s the importance and the practice of keeping our eyes on God the provider and not the provision because this is the key to having faith in God as our provider. Everything else changes but God does not.
Keeping Our Eyes On God
I have a key scripture that I wanted to start with sharing with you all, and then we’ll get into the lengthier passages of scripture. It’s from Psalm 121:1-2, it says, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” In this scripture God showed me, keeping your eyes lifted up to the hills is keeping your eyes on God. In the same particular passage of scripture, it talks about, “Where does my help come?” He asked the question. My help comes from the Lord. I keep my eyes on the helper, the provider. If my eyes are kept on him, if I’ve lifted up my eyes and I keep them on him, then my eyes cannot be on the means. It can’t be on the provision. It can’t be on the help that came. It’s on the helper. It’s not on the provision, it’s on the provider. This is important. We’ll get into why as God unfolds this valuable lesson to all of us.
Some of the key lessons we’ll learn are depending on God to provide for us and which goes back to looking at God the provider and not the provision. We’re also going to see that God’s provision always precedes any problem. This is important because when we know this about God, that God is the God who goes before us, God is someone who knows and determines the end of a thing at the beginning of all things. He determines the end in the beginning. He’s the Alpha and He is the Omega. He is the beginning and He is the end.
God’s Greatest Provision
What may come off as a surprise to you, a shock to you, this change that you have to adapt to is no surprise to God and neither is his way of escape and his provision and even the means He chooses to use for that particular season. We can relax, beloved, and rest knowing that God has gone before us. Provision has preceded any problem and Jesus finished these works before the foundation of the world. God gave me this to start in teaching about how God’s provision can come in peculiar places to start with God Himself.
Jesus is God. Jesus is God’s greatest provision. Not only is Jesus God’s greatest provision, because if you have Jesus you have everything you need and could ever desire and could ever need. He is the bread of life. Jesus is the answer. He’s the solution to everything, the sustainer of everything, the giver of everything and the keeper of everything good. He is everything you could ever need and ever want. He is more than enough. Jesus is sufficient. Jesus is sufficiency. Jesus is provision.
The Bible calls Jesus the bread of life. This is not just bread like I was talking about our financial needs and those basic human needs like food, clothing, and shelter, He does provide those as well. Jesus made us. He created all things. Jesus having made us, He knows that our human body is made to need certain things and food is one of them. He knows that. You don’t have to school Jesus, he’s the teacher. He knows that.
I’m not discouraging anyone from telling Him what they feel like. Jesus already knows that. Tell Him everything. He wants to hear from you. You don’t have to tell Him as if He doesn’t know, in a sense like He doesn’t understand what you’re going through or maybe He doesn’t understand what you need. The enemy tries to make us feel like that, too. Trust me, I’ve been there myself more than I would like even to admit how much, but I’ve been harassed like that by hell, too. I understand the importance of remembering that Jesus knows all things and loves you with an everlasting love.
The Bible calls Jesus the bread of life. This isn’t just the bread you eat, although that’s important and Jesus will supply that need. He is the bread of life largely is the Word of God. He is the bread of life. He is the sustainer of all things. It’s important to feed your natural body, but everybody’s a natural body, and I’ve said this before, will be maggot food. God has given out new bodies. In heaven, you won’t have that same body.
You get to heaven and you look down for that stretch mark, ladies, after you have that second child and you simply won’t find it because you’ll have a new body. It’s that simple. You want to turn around and check for that love handle? You won’t have it. Handle the fact that God gave you a new body and there are no love handles and stretch marks, even though those can be marks of beauty, depending on the journey you’ve been on, especially doing something as wonderful as being blessed to be a mom.
Jesus is more than this physical bread of life that we physically eat bread to help sustain us as far as our needs being met as human beings, but He is the Word of God. Our spirit that He feeds, He feeds our spirit with the Word of God is what will live on forever. I say this often, it’s important. I like it. I agree with exercising. I agree with eating the right thing and letting God lead you. I do believe it’s wise to do that to some extent. I also believe God gave you taste buds for a reason and it tastes good. God’s happy for you. Being overindulgent, it’s not God’s. I’m not going to tell you that it is, it’s not. Eating to the point that it hurts, it’s like, “Let’s pray for deliverance.” You shouldn’t do that.
It’s more important taking care of our bodies because that’s the temple of God. It’s more important that you take care of your spirit because that’s what will never perish. Your body will be maggot food. I say that all the time. I was going to tell you earlier. The body turns to maggot food. You can have the six-pack and you can be all ripped up and that’s fine. You can be the person that had love handles, even on your elbows. They reached that place, from the back to the elbows. It doesn’t make a difference at the end of the day because it will all be maggot food. The maggots will eat the six-pack and they’ll eat the love handle that reached all the way to the elbow. They like fat bodies. They like lean bodies. All of it will be their food. We all return to the dust from which we came, but the spirit leaves on and then God gives us a new body. It’s much more important to take care of your spirit even so that it is your body.
Jesus is the bread of life, as the Word of God is taking care of our spirit. That definitely has a positive and lasting effect even on our physical body. I encourage you to do so and I encourage that before I encourage exercise and dieting and getting enough water and sleep. I want to tell you the truth. Jesus is the bread of life, as a provision. God sent Him here, his only begotten son. When God calls something, that’s exactly who you are, nothing you can do or anybody else can do or not do could ever even change that. God himself is calling Jesus, savior. Jesus is the savior of the world. He is the son of the only true and living God, the only begotten son. He comes forth directly from the Father. This is impressive. He is the king of kings. He is the lord of lords. He is the provision that God gave. Without going through the son, you can’t get to the Father. Jesus is the only way by which mankind can be saved. This provision is the most important provision God has ever given and ever we’ll give. Jesus springs forth all things. Without Jesus, you can do nothing. This is the most important of the provision of God, it is provision itself. It is the root of every tree that brings forth fruit. Without them, you can’t do anything, nothing, not even breathe, not even be here, let alone stay here.
This provision of God, this most important provision, we can learn much from. God was showing me that He sent Jesus, the savior of the world, son of God, the only begotten of the Father, king of kings, lord of lords. He sent Him and wise men found Jesus when Mary gave birth to Him in a dirty, filthy, nasty, smelly manger with animals and animal dung. That’s where you found that provision. That is the provision of all provisions. It is provision itself that God gave and it was found in the most peculiar place.
Wouldn’t you think that if God sent the King of Glory to come in, the maker and sustainer of all things that were, are and will ever be, the one that holds the key to life, death, hell, and the grave, wouldn’t you think that the king of kings would come in? This is some spectacular show. We, at least, got to have fireworks. We got to have royal robes and we got to have a red carpet. I’m talking about horses and chariots and private planes. We’re doing everything. We’re coming out. We’re holding no punches. We’d given it everything we got. This is provision. He owns everything.
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Surely, we’re not short on money. We come up with silver and gold. We’re making up stuff as we go because we’re announcing that the king of glory is here, the son of God is here. The Messiah has arrived. Christ is here and on the scene. We think it should look like that. That’s why the Pharisees had such a strong rejection toward Jesus because they made up in their mind that when God provides this, they knew the Messiah was coming.
They made up in their mind, erroneously, that when God does provide this, the king of glory, he’ll come in glory. The king of glory comes in glory, the king of kings like, “Where’s your crown? Where’s your royal robes and apparel?” After all, you’re not just a king, even natural kings’ dress like that. You’re the king of kings. Instead, it’s been announced that you’re in a manger. You’re on a donkey, looking lowly. You have no appearance that no one would want you. You’re not fine, but we think like, “You’re the son of God.” He’s coming to this joker like easy on the eye, but He doesn’t. He comes lowly. He’s a carpenter. He’s born in a manger. His parents aren’t rich. This is contrary to what we think this is going to look like, but it is God’s best and ultimate, everlasting, all-powerful provision. It came in a peculiar place, in a manger with animals and their dung.
Off the bat, we see the best of God’s provision came in a peculiar place. How much more than lesser? I believe that God does this, sometimes people and understand the heart of God. God is not doing this so that you would be confused or have a hard time figuring out what God is providing or is this God or not? A lot of times, God does this in His mercy for us. He hides not only us at times, but even hides His provision, not from us. God has promised to give us an ear to hear what He’s saying. He promised, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go and guide you with my eye.” God wants to lead you. He wants to guide you.
Provision In Peculiar Places
I believe that God hides that provision or puts it in peculiar places sometimes because He hides it from the enemy. Ladies and gentlemen, this just in, you have an adversary, the devil. He has come to steal, kill and destroy. If he could, you and the provision that God gives you. It is that simple. Those are facts. God knowing that in his mercy, that’s one of the main reasons and that came to me. God doesn’t do that. God is not interested in hiding the ball from you. God sent us the glory of a king, of men and women. We’re kings and priests of God to search out a matter, but it’s the glory of God, sometimes, to hide it, to conceal it.
I don’t think that God does that to make this a challenge for us. It does keep us dependent on God. That’s not a challenge. That’s something we need to do anyway because, without Him, we can do nothing. It keeps us humble. God knows we need to be and stay humble because God resists the proud. That’s a scary place to be in. Ask Satan, it’s a scary place to be in to be resisted by God. It’s not good. I’m not at all saying that God will resist you like Satan, but I’m saying God resists the proud. If there’s one thing you want to steer clear of, it would be pride. Me as well, obviously. I’m not just preaching to the choir. I am staring in a mirror and I’m looking at myself saying, “You too, sister. Amen.”
God hides this provision from the enemy and that came to me, but God started with that to show us that provision itself and everything stems from Jesus, it came in a peculiar place. A manger with animals smelly and stinky with their waste laying around is not where you expect to find a king with two parents on the run. This is not what we had in mind, but because it’s not what you envision or what you pictured. Even myself, I say this too, God is protecting us. He’s providing to us even through this message so that we don’t get caught up in what the religious leaders who walked the earth when Jesus did got caught up in and when it didn’t look like what they thought it should look like, Jesus’ provision. When He didn’t look like what they thought He should, when he didn’t fit their bill, when He refused to wear their costume and do what they thought He does, they wanted Him to look a certain way, even look at sinners a certain way and when he didn’t do that. They rejected God himself, although he stood in love, truth, and grace face-to-face with them. Let us not be like them in that regard.
God is teaching us this about himself. He’s unveiling his heart to us so that we will know, without a shadow of a doubt, that God is not only our provider but the way God provides. God teaches us about himself and in doing so He teaches us about his ways. That way, when God comes on the scene, you don’t ban Satan. God opens the door and comes in the room and you’re like, “I banned you, devil.” It’s like, “No. That is not that devil, that’s God.” He does that for a reason.
I know some people may be thinking, “You’re going too far. We’re not going to mistake the two.” The Pharisees did that. Jesus who is God, who is the Messiah, the Christ, he’s there to die for their sins and He did die for their sins, they called Him Beelzebub, which is the name of a demon. I’m telling you that He can be on the scene, Jesus and people are mistaking Him because they don’t know Him. That’s one of the main purposes of this show is to know God. It is to know him. There’s nothing more important you’ll do in your life other than to know God. It’s that simple.
People can have 100 accolades on their wall and they don’t know God, it avails them nothing, except for eternal damnation because they knew everything that didn’t matter and didn’t know the one thing that meant everything. That’s a problem. I’d say that’s a real serious problem. I’m not against accolades. God has blessed me. I got several plaques on the wall. I’m at a room on one wall. To God be the glory. I’ve learned, all of it is nothing, counted as dung. Apostle Paul said, “If I don’t know God, if I don’t have him, I have nothing.” Empty frames, empty life, empty woman if I don’t have God. It is everything to know God. From that, stamps everything else.
We’re learning by looking at Jesus so far that primary, main, most important example that God is a provider but God provides his way of providing, we’re learning about His ways and His will. He reveals to us Him and His heart is that God provides in peculiar places. This is important because if we miss this truth about God, not only that He provides that, it’s an indisputable fact amongst us all as Christians. If we miss this truth that God provides in peculiar places, this is not all the time but sometimes what we consider peculiar, what we consider odd, unorthodox, strange. If we don’t learn that sometimes God is in the strange place, moving in an orthodox way, but being faithful to who He is and what He said and that’s that I’ll supply all your needs, we can miss God.
This is not terrible because you will lack the particular provision that you seek. That’s not the end of the world. That isn’t it. You missed a meal, you may lose some of the weight you wanted to lose, it may turn out for your good and if you’re a Christian, it definitely will turn out for your good. What is bad, what I would call a rock bottom, is not that we would miss the provision but that we would miss the provider, who He is and that He loves us and that he’s faithful. If we don’t know things like God loves us and that He’s faithful and true to do what He said, this whole world is sustained on the Word of God, then we feel like our whole world fell apart because we’re thinking, “We can’t even trust God.” God is perfect.
If you can’t trust perfection, you definitely can’t trust yourself and anyone else and then it gives this feeling and sense of insecurity and rightfully so and life becomes scary. The fear factor has got nothing on you at this point. It is important that we get this understanding. God is who He says He is. He is our provider. God is doing what he’s promised He would do, “I will supply all of your needs according to my riches and glory by Christ Jesus.” We must also know karma. The Lord provides for us, sometimes, maybe even oftentimes, in what we would consider peculiar places.
We’re going to pick up on next episode where we left off, but it was important that we went through that and let God lay that foundation for the passages of scripture that He’s going to give us to go into these upcoming episodes. We’ll go a little bit further and look at different people in the Bible and different times in their life when God did what was provisioned, but nevertheless provisioned in a peculiar place. We can see how they would have gotten into trouble had they not understood the two things we discussed. Not only does God provided peculiar places but also sometimes the way that God has been providing in one season. He will change up and provide in a different way in a new season, which is why it’s important we keep our eyes on the provider and not the provision because in doing so, we know that even if the means change, God remains the same.
What He promised to do and what I’ve witnessed Him do in other seasons in my life as far as providing is concerned and everything else He promised, He will provide in this season and do everything else He promised like He always has. God is faithful. I pray, beloved, that this foundation that the Holy Spirit has laid in you and I will take firm root and will bear much fruit that will surpass us, our house and our generations. I pray that God will be far-reaching in this word He has given us. We will not only talk it but we will walk it, we will believe it and every benefit, every everlasting blessing that God gives from this, I pray that we will receive it effortlessly.
Let every promise God made and has revealed to us so far here in this show and everyone that He’s yet to reveal, manifest in our life because we have got at the feet of Jesus this day and we have heard his word. In Jesus’ name, I pray. God bless you and protect you and keep you and make his face shine upon you. May God surround you with His angels, His favor and His glory. Go before you and be your rear guard and prove to you He is who He says He is and He can do what He said He could do. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen. See you in the next episode, beloved.
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