Principles of Proper Placement
“Principles of Proper Placement”
by Pastor Kent Munsey
“But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go…” - Deuteronomy 12:5
God calls his people to a specific place and a specific people for a specific purpose. Luke 3:15 tells three stories about proper placement: one about a lost coin, one about a lost sheep and one about a lost son. Places are just as important as the purposes in your life.
Before God created a person he created a place. God created the Garden of Eden before he created Adam and Eve, and then he put them there to steward the place. Places that God has put us are places God is entrusting us with to steward. Are you in the proper place that God has designed for you?
There is a proper place that God has designed for you to steward. You are not where you’re at today by accident--you’ve either lost your place, you’ve been misplaced, you’ve left your place, or you are completely surrendered to the place that God has called you to be.
Don’t let the enemy push you out of the place that God has given you. There is always supernatural provision in the right place.
1. Steward the Place God Has you. One of the ways you know that you are in the right place is that you are receiving God’s provision. In 1 Kings 17, Elijah went into hiding during a famine and God sustained him using the ravens. God always resources us and provides for us in the place that he has called us to. If your brook dries up, don’t panic.That brook is not your supplier; God is your supplier. If God’s provision is no longer in the place that you are in, then it could be that God is calling you to a new place.
2. I will be Thankful. Pride will steal your ability to be thankful. It will lead me away from the place of God’s provision. If you’re going to stay in proper placement, then you have to learn to live in humility. Elijah went before kings, and for him to go hide and be fed by ravens demonstrated his humility and dependence on God. Ravens were considered a “dirty” bird in those times. When God calls you to a place and to a people, he has called you there for a purpose. If he chooses to provide for you in a manner that other people would look down upon or disapprove of, you may want to evaluate what voices of people you allow in your life. If you are surrendered to God’s purpose, plan and place, he’ll often provide for you in a way that causes you to be humbled to the sovereignty of God. He wants to show us that he is God, and he’ll use a dirty bird sometimes to provide. You can trust the purpose of God in your life, the place that God has you in, and you can count on the people that God has brought into your life to steward.
3. Find Comfort in Uncomfortability. Until the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of growth, we will never step into all that God has called us to be. Many times we miss out on all that God has for us because we refuse to leave a place that God has not called us to. If you study eagles you’ll learn that the mother eagle is like no other trainer. When it’s time for her baby to get out of the nest, she’ll stop feeding it, she’ll start taking out the insulation of the nest, so that this little eagle can feel the thorns and thistles in the nest, and she will encourage it to step out of the place that it has been in. God often works the same way. He wants to get us out of the place that we’re in so that we can soar higher than we’ve ever soared before.
We’ll never see the fulfillment of God’s purpose, being around his people, until we understand the proper place that God has called us to. God wants us to know that he is the provider. Until we can fully step into the next place, we have to understand the significance of places. One of our vision grips at City Church is ‘to live planted in community.” That also has to do with being committed to a place. It’s in that place that we will see God’s provision, and soar higher and higher in our relationship with God.
Discussion Questions:
In what places in your life has God provided for you supernaturally?
Has pride ever led you away from God’s place for you? How have you experienced the death of pride in your life?
How has God worked in your life to lead you to new places or to confirm that you are in the right place?
When have you experienced a season of discomfort that led you out of one place and into a new place?
What places, people and purposes do you believe that God is calling you to right now?