Enlarge the Place of Your Tent

Enlarge the Place of Your Tent

By Steve Backlund

Here is a word for you. “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare. Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited” (Isaiah 54:2-3).

What I'm hearing over you in this season is that you are going to do things that you didn't think you could do. 

We see this powerful principle in the story of the man paralyzed for 38 years by the pool of Bethesda in John 5. When Jesus saw him, He asked: “Do you want to be made well?”. The paralyzed man made excuses, saying, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool... but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” He believed his proper relationships were lacking, and that even his attempts always failed. But Jesus didn't address his excuses; He commanded him to “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.” Immediately, the man was made well. Jesus asked him to do something he didn't think he could do. You are in good company if you don't think you can do things, but you're going to have the strength and courage to do them anyway.

Let’s go back to the question, “Do you want to be made well?” It would seem like a “no-brainer” that the answer to Jesus’ question would be “Yes, I want to be made well,” but I have found from experience it’s not a simple answer as one might think. Why is this? Because if I am to get well, I will have to give up my excuses for why I am not consistently responsible, loving, and making a positive influence on those around me. We will have to confront the most common excuses of the victim mindset:

1. I don’t have enough time

2. I don't have enough money

3. I will probably fail

4. I don’t have the proper skills

5. People are holding me back

Those who expand their lives and influence (enlarging the place of their tent) will allow Jesus to make them well from their lack of hope-filled mindsets. Thus, they will find themselves doing things they did not think they could do. 

There is one more key from the story in John 5 that will accelerate the realization of the promises of Isaiah 54. It is connected to how we respond when we are seemingly overlooked and not chosen, which appears to be what the other people at the five porches experienced. “In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water” (John 5:3). It looks like Jesus walked past them to go directly to the paralytic who was healed. There is no record of these others being healed. 

God’s expansion pattern for us is to first expand us inwardly before we expand outwardly, and the key opportunities for inward expansion often come from situations we are not initially excited about:

• When we feel under-appreciated

• When others get the credit for what we did

• When others are thanked for what we have done or are doing

• When we are not promoted, but others are

• When we are not chosen

How we respond and think about these experiences is almost always more important than whatever seems to be causing these feelings. As we release our expectations to God and truly celebrate others, we will grow bigger on the inside and be ready for more. Yes, we may at times need to share our feelings about these types of experiences, but it needs to be done from a place of strength, not victimhood. 

As I pray over the readers of my blogs, I am hearing these words: As you expand your thinking and you are willing to consider doing things you have never done before, you will experience what you never thought you could experience.