God’s Treasure Chest: Biblical Tips to Access His Abundance
Sociologists have found that you will influence over 10,000 people in your lifetime.
On the other hand, you will be impacted by thousands of people, too. For better and for worse, each one of us is a part of multiple systems and spheres of influence. It’s like a set of dominoes—we move because someone else moves, and we move someone else because we have been moved.
Despite this reality, it is easy to fixate on our individual purpose and destiny. However, the truth is that our calling is corporate. As the Body of Christ, our calling “to make disciples of all nations” would be impossible alone! (See Matthew 28:19.)
Before He went to the cross, Jesus prayed, “…that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:22-23 ESV). Jesus was talking about us! The world will experience God through the witness of our relationships.
God releases favor through a spirit of association. In other words, relationships pave the path to God’s plans and purposes for your life. The Bible recounts that God will move history for the sake of His people. Isaiah 43:4-6 (NKJV) reveals God’s plan to gather people together:
Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west; I will say to the north, “Give them up!” And to the south, “Do not keep them back!” Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth.
God will bring the right people into your life at the right time. I refer to the right people as divine connections and the right times as kairos moments. Becky and I pray for divine connections from the Lord every morning. Our prayer goes something like this: “Father, thank You that You have people for our lives. We believe there are people in the north. We believe there are people in the south. We believe there are people in the east. We believe there are people in the west. Lord, we speak to the north, we speak to the west, we speak to the east, we speak to the south, and we command it to give up the people who belong in our lives.”
Then as we come across people throughout our day, we believe that God has divine appointments that could lead to divine connections. You will be a divine connection for others, too. Some relationships, such as your spouse and family, will stay with you your whole life. Others will only be with you for a season.
A divine connection can even be a matter of life and death. Two weeks before my grandson was born, a French doctor who was the foremost expert in the infant heart defect TGA briefly moved to Denver. Well, this particular grandson (we have four) happened to be born with TGA. By God’s grace, this doctor saved my grandson, and shortly after, he moved back to France. God may use some divine connections for a moment—and that moment can change the course of history.
Kairos Moments
A small encounter with a divine connection can affect you in a big way. I first learned this from a stranger with a yellow sticky note. I was speaking at a conference, and right before I walked to the stage, I placed my iPad on my seat. When I returned, there was an itty-bitty sticky note on the screen with “Don’t go back” scrawled on it.
At the time, Becky and I were going through one of the most significant transitions of our lives. In the midst of the change, we were considering returning to old responsibilities. The stranger’s timely encouragement gave us the nudge we needed to stick to our season. I’m so glad we did because God had a purpose for our transition. As Proverbs 15:23 (ESV) says, “To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!”
An integral part of walking in God’s favor is submitting to His timeline even when we don’t understand it. Think about it: if your destiny depends on divine connections, the timing of events in your life must make sense for another group of people, too. You may feel like you’ve been waiting forever when the delay is actually representative of God’s favor. He orchestrates people and opportunities at the opportune, or kairos, moment.
The ancient Greeks had two words for time—chronos and kairos. Chronos refers to measurable, quantitative time. In other words, chronos is clock time. It’s chronological and can be measured in hours, days, weeks, months…you get the picture. On the other hand, kairos time is qualitative. It measures moments. And not just any moment—an opportune, or favorable, moment.8
In the Bible, kairos is used to describe the appointed time for the purposes of God, such as when Jesus says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15 NKJV).
Kairos time explains why God can accomplish something in a few months when it would take years for humans to complete the same task. A kairos moment is a critical juncture that God aligns for a particular purpose. It happens whenever God’s plans disrupt your plans.
The Holy Spirit will help you discern kairos time. Jesus says in John 16:13 (ESV), “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but wherever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” Knowing that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth is an encouragement to pray with confidence!
Your Treasure Chest
Did you know that God dreams over you? Sometimes we have a dream and ask God to bless it. Other times, God has a dream and puts it into the hearts of His people. Then His favor draws them together. When you start running and gunning with the vision God has put into your heart, you will begin meeting people who are moving toward the same goal.
Divine connections and kairos moments act as spiritual breadcrumbs that lead you toward the dreams God has for your life. This could materialize in all sorts of ways. Maybe a friend invites you to his or her church. Perhaps someone gives you a job opportunity or becomes a vital business partnership.
Envision a treasure chest. Inside that treasure chest are people you’ve never met and experiences you’ve never had. Rather than jewels and gold, it’s filled to the brim with God’s dreams for your life. God has already prepared the treasure chest. All you have to do is open the lid. However, many people close the lid due to pain and disappointment instead. Past hurt can result in lost hope. You can choose to let the grace of God refine your pain so that it doesn’t define your future.
The Bible says that God shows no partiality (see Acts 10:34 ESV). As mentioned previously, what He does for one, He will do for another. I have seen God’s favor overflow through divine connections and kairos moments in my life. So I know your treasure chest is locked and loaded, too. Unfortunately, many people never walk in the blessings of God—not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t notice them.
Malachi 3:10 (NKJV) provides some guidance on how to activate your spiritual eyes to recognize divine connections and kairos moments:
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”
The purpose of a window is to help you see more. It expands your perspective. When we partner with God through our tithes and offerings, the windows of heaven open wide. When you surrender your time, talent, and treasure to further the kingdom of heaven, God will give you revelation and insight on where to access an abundance of resources.
When 30 Become 30,000
Once you have a revelation of your treasure chest, favor starts to become an attitude. When you are confident that God has unique appointments, people, and opportunities for you every day, you can walk in a spirit of association. While favor anchors you to the present, it also directs your sights toward the abundance of heaven. Even in seasons of scarcity, you know that there are more opportunities for increase inside your treasure chest. The abundance has your name on it, but the kairos moment for its release hasn’t come yet.
One divine connection proved this principle to us. I used to be a pastor in a relatively small church. On Wednesday nights, I’d preach to about thirty adults. At times it was discouraging because God gave us a vision for a much larger congregation.
At that church we turned some of our teachings into cassette tapes and gave them away in visitor packets. One day as I was getting the oil changed in my red Ford Explorer, my phone rang. Back then, I had a giant cell phone with no caller ID. I only gave my phone number to my wife and secretary, so I was curious. If someone had given my number to this guy, it must have been important. I answered the phone.
“Is this Pastor Billy Epperhart?” “It is. How may I help you?”
He replied, “I have a cassette tape of yours. As a matter of fact, I have two cassette tapes of yours, and I’ve given them a listen. We want to publish these.”
Puzzled, I asked, “Uh, how does that work?” “Just send me two sermon tapes every month.
We’ll take a listen, clean out personal details related to the church, and duplicate it,” he explained. “How many tapes do you send out?”
“Well, we send out 30,000 tapes a week. You would get paid royalties per tape. Just send us the message, we produce everything, and then we will send you money per tape sold.”
“So you send out 30,000 tapes, and you’ll pay me a royalty per each tape sold?” I asked, heavily intrigued at this point.
“Yes! We’ll send you a check once a month on the royalties,” the stranger concluded.
I agreed to do this. It just so happened that the royalty checks from those cassette tapes replaced my total pastoral income—and then some.
I later found out that the man and his wife received the tapes after visiting our church for the first time. The woman liked a teaching called “Five Characteristics of a Happy Family,” and the man liked “Seven Steps to Reaching Your Dreams.” Then they sent the tapes to a publishing company on the east coast.
From that little connection, I more than doubled my income. The content on those tapes was initially for a group of thirty adults. Through a divine connection, God amplified the teachings to 30,000 households! When you steward your season faithfully, you never know how God will use you. That’s why the next chapter is about how to put on a posture of expectation.
Activate: Put On a Posture of Partnership
God uses divine connections to help the Body of Christ accomplish far more than any individual could on their own. A posture of partnership is critical to enjoying the fullness of God’s favor!
The first step is choosing to partner with God. Consider the direction of your ambitions—are they oriented toward a kingdom purpose or fueled by visions of individual success?
Next, take stock of the people in your life. Oftentimes, we are only a few degrees of separation away from leaders in every domain of society. Where can you leverage the strengths of others? Who could you bless with your resources and knowledge?
Think about how this applies to business and financial spheres. When we have a kingdom focus, we don’t care about getting the glory for ourselves. The collective mission transcends the individual brand, so we can reach wide to achieve a common good. However, when we seek first the kingdom, all will be added (see Matthew 6:33). Our brand benefits from God-directed partnerships as well.
