Priscilla Shirer - He Goes Beyond Our Beyond

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Summary

Priscilla Shirer lights up the room talking about how Ephesians 3:20–21 isn’t just a nice verse—it’s a game-changer for seeing our trials differently, reminding us that God’s dynamite power is working in us right now, even from Paul’s prison cell. With her hilarious goggles story about helping her boys see clearly underwater, she shows that we’ve already got the Holy Spirit’s «equipment» to shift our perspective in tough times—we just need to open our eyes. Ultimately, she builds this upside-down pyramid from the verse to encourage us that God can do way beyond our biggest prayers, turning our messes into masterpieces for His glory.

Opening Greeting and Connection to Previous Speaker
Well, hi y’all! It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to be with you. From Dallas, my family and I love, love, love this incredible church, and we love this gathering of women together. I am so blessed, encouraged, stirred, and challenged by what Miss Debbie just shared with us because she basically gave us a different vantage point with which to look at our trials. It doesn’t mean that after this conference is over we’ll all be out of our trials; it means that even while we’re yet in them, we can look at them differently and we can be different while we’re in them.

Goggles Story with the Boys
I was thinking about this while Pastor Debbie was speaking. I was thinking about the fact that my three boys travel with me a lot; we hang out together a lot, and when they come on ministry trips with me, I’ll be honest and tell you that the last thing they are really concerned about at this stage in their lives is ministry. What they want to know is whether the hotel has a pool. It’s all they want to know; they love swimming. It’s their thing.

I remember a couple of summers ago, they were swimming. My little one had just learned how to be underwater for an extended period of time, so they were really enjoying being under the water, all three of them being able to swim. I noticed that their eyes were closed while they were under the water, and my husband said to them, «Hey guys, I’m going to get you some goggles so you can feel comfortable opening your eyes underwater.» So we gave them these goggles that we bought on sale at the local Super Walmart down the street. Does anybody believe in the power of Walmart? Can somebody say Amen?

So we gave them the goggles; they put them on, and went under the water. One of them came back up and said, «I still can’t see.» My husband looked at him and said, «Did you open your eyes?» My son said, «Oh, » and went back down underwater, this time with his eyes open. He came up and said, «I can see! I can see!» It wasn’t that he couldn’t have seen underwater before; he had exactly what he needed. He was fitted with the right equipment to be able to see. He just had to open his eyes. Pastor Debbie just helped us open our eyes.

Each and every one of us that have placed faith in Jesus Christ have been given the equipment. You have the power of the Holy Ghost living on the inside of you, and when you are in over your head, when you are in deep waters, when the trials and troubles of life come your way, my friend, all you have to do now is activate the equipment that you’ve been given. Just open your eyes and you’ll be able to see it all from a different vantage point and a different perspective, which is why I could not wait to get up here. I wanted to share with any of you, and that is all of us, who are in trials in our life, by the way.

Everyone Is in a Trial
Every single one of you under the sound of my voice is in one of three places. You need to know that even if you are not in a trial right now, first of all, we would like to tell you we are happy for you.

But every single one of us is in one of three places: you’re either right smack dab in the middle of a trial, on your way into one, or on your way out of one. Because the nature of the world in which we live, Jesus said in John 16:33, «In this world you will have trouble.» You don’t have to go looking for it; just keep living, and the trouble will come find you. Can I get one witness who knows what I’m talking about? But in the midst of that, we can believe in the truth that is told to us in two of my favorite verses in all of Scripture.

Introducing Ephesians 3:20–21
I was sitting there, listening to Pastor Debbie, still mulling over in my mind what I might share with you, and as she started talking, I knew for sure that I wanted to encourage you with these two verses from Ephesians chapter 3, verses 20 and 21: «Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all that you can ask or even think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.» Somebody ought to say Amen to that!

That’s so good; I think I’m going to read it again. «Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all that you can ask or even think according to the power, the Holy Spirit, that is at work on the inside of all of you. To that great God be the glory from generation to generation in the church and in Christ Jesus both now and forever.» Somebody ought to say Amen to that! That means there is no trouble that you are facing; there is no difficulty that you’re in; there is no pit you have dug for yourself; there is no situation, or issue, or drama that is currently unfolding in any of our lives that His power is not greater still. You may feel overwhelmed, but you need to know that your God does not.

Context of the Doxology in Ephesians
I love these two verses so much; they are a doxology. A doxology basically means an outpouring of praise and worship to God. This is one of the pinnacles of all of Paul’s writing. Paul the Apostle gave us the majority of the New Testament. Scholars say that of all Paul gave us, really Ephesians is the crème de la crème of all of his writing, and of all that he gave us in the book of Ephesians, where he talks about the lavishness of God’s grace toward us and all that we have inherited as daughters of the Most High King. They say of all the beautiful language that he gives us in theology, he gives us in Ephesians, really the cherry on top of the cake is this doxology, this outburst of praise and worship to God.

Here’s the thing, y’all: when he wrote the book of Ephesians, he was in prison. He was basically under Roman house arrest; he is in a situation he does not particularly care to be in; he is in a trial. Right there in the midst of the trial, he has an outburst of praise and worship to God. Two verses, a doxology, where he extols and worships just like you did just a few moments ago. Some of you stood to your feet and you said, «I’m just like Paul. I’m in the middle of a trial.» But in the middle of your trial, you did exactly what Paul did; Pastor Debbie had us stand up and worship God anyway. It’s one thing to have a doxology while you’re not in a trial; it’s a whole other thing that captures God’s attention in a whole new way when you are in a trial and yet you choose to have an outburst of praise and worship to our great, amazing God. That’s what Paul did.

He gave us this doxology. It kind of seems like he’s off track a little bit. He’s been talking about so many other things in the book of Ephesians, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he seems to just start talking about how great God is, about His amazing power. He can hardly find the right words. Did you notice that? It’s like he keeps just piling more big words on top of more big words on top of other big words because he can’t seem to find the exact right words that he wants to use. He builds this huge picture for us about how great, grand, and amazing, and magnificent the power of God is to every single one of us in our lives.

The Upside-Down Pyramid Structure
I want to walk with you through these verses because if you can walk out of here, and if I can walk out of here seeing with our eyes open, seeing our trials and tribulations with a brand-new perspective, it will literally change all of our lives. I want you to look at these verses like a pyramid, except the pyramid is turned upside down. So you’ve got the smallest layer on the bottom, then another that builds a foundation for another, and then another, and then another. This is how Paul gives us these verses. At the very beginning, he gives us just a little nugget, and then that little nugget lays a foundation for the next, and then the next, and then the next, until he has built for us a monstrosity about the greatness of God. We’re going to take that journey right up that pyramid.

I want you to see the progression — the journey that Paul takes us on in these two verses. He says, «Now, now unto Him.» «Now unto Him who is able to do it.» «Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond.» «Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all that you can ask.» And if you can’t ask it because your brain can’t even figure out the right words to verbalize what you’re trying to ask, he says, «That’s all right; just think it and I can do past that.» «Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all that you can ask or think, according to some power that’s supposed to be working on the inside of you.» «Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all that you can ask or think, according to the power that’s supposed to be working on the inside of you. To Him be the glory in the church.» That’s us! «And in Christ Jesus, both now and forever.» Somebody say Amen!

All right, we’re going to take every single one of these steps together. Are you guys with me?

Step 1: Now
The very first step in the progression through these two verses that are going to change our perspective — the way that we look at our trials, just like Pastor Debbie described to us a few moments ago — the very first step seems like the most significant, but it really is the hinge on which the rest of it turns, and it is the word «now.» Somebody say «now.»

Now, Paul says, «I want you to start thinking about the greatness and the power and the amazing ability that God has toward you that He wants you to experience in your regular, everyday living.» As a single woman, as a wife, as a mother, as a person working in corporate America, as a person working in full-time ministry, as a volunteer, as a parent at the school, as a teacher, as an accountant, as a lawyer, he says, «I want you to start thinking about God’s power, and I don’t want you to have thought about it yesterday.»

We’re not talking about yesterday. He says, «I don’t even want you to think about it in your tomorrows.» He says, «There is a time to consider how great God’s power is toward you, and that time is when He wants you to think about it right now, while you’re sitting in this room, while you’re at this conference. Exactly what the Lord has allowed to happen in your life in the days leading up to this conference, he says: now is the time for you to make a connection between what’s happening in your life and how God wants to express His power to you in that specific situation.»

Y’all, this is important because if you’re anything like me, sometimes there is a disconnect between my reality and my relationship with God. Sometimes I forget that the stuff I’m learning on Sunday is supposed to apply to Monday. Sometimes I forget that all the stuff I gathered from the Women’s Conference — the encouragement that I gleaned, the Word of God that was spoken over me, the fear that was prayed out of me, the salvation that I received when I came down at the altar — sometimes I forget that this is not supposed to be compartmentalized in some little corner of my life, saved for a rainy day, that He wants to be involved in my Monday, and then at work on my Tuesday, and then at home on my Wednesday, and then while I’m trying to figure out another way to cook chicken on my Thursday, and then on my Friday, and while I’m running errands on my Saturday. That this is supposed to apply to my right now! Paul says, «Would you please make the connection?»

God Works Leftovers into Masterpieces
A woman came and stood up on this platform at the end of the evening — a woman that happened to have a little car accident. That car accident led to there being an extra ticket that was so graciously given by the woman who got hit in the other car. So she gives her a ticket and she ends up here last night, and she comes forward to accept Jesus Christ as her Savior. Paul says, «Would you know that what happened to you yesterday means everything in your today? That it’s connected? That I planned it or I allowed it? That I fully intend, as Pastor Debbie said, to walk with you through it. That the only reason why I allow circumstances in your life is because sometimes when we are flat on our back, that’s the only time we ever take a breath and look up and see Him for who He really is.»

So no, all the circumstances of our lives obviously are not good—a car wreck is not good—but somehow He works all things together for our good. My mom, um, my mom is a Master Chef. Actually, she’s not; she’s just my mom, and she’s a really good cook. There’s just no cooking like your mama’s cooking, right? I admire my mother so much for many reasons. One of them is that she’s a great cook. I remember on Sundays when I was growing up, y’all, there was none of this go-out-to-eat dinner business after church on Sunday. That was like a treat, but I grew up in the kind of house where you ate at home on Sunday. Does anybody know what I’m talking about? Like that was the best meal of the whole week! My mom started planning for it on Saturday. Sometimes she was cooking like the roast all night on Saturday, and we would just smell it all. Then the yeast rolls would be rising. You know, she might do a couple of dishes the night before so she didn’t have to worry about it all during the day. It was all this home-cooked stuff. I mean, we would smell it all night. We would wake up — we hadn’t even been to church yet — we were already ready for Sunday dinner. We were just hungry!

I remember that we would have this huge wonderful dinner on Sunday, and now, as a mother of three, I know how much work that was. I appreciate it even more! I still can’t figure it out, honestly; I cannot figure out how with one oven — ’cause I only have one oven; my mom had one oven — I cannot figure out for the life of me how you get all that stuff on the table hot at the same time. I cannot figure it out for the life of me! So I appreciate her now even more. And now I also understand why on Monday and Tuesday she didn’t cook nothing. This is too much work. But what she did do was go into the refrigerator and see what was left over. So she’d have a little leftover chicken, a little leftover macaroni, a little leftover broccoli. Whatever! She’d pull it all out, she’d start chopping and dicing, put everything together, stir it all up, pour a little cream of mushroom soup in there because you know that makes everything better, right? She’d stir that in there, then sprinkle some grated cheese on top, you know, put it in the oven for about, um, an hour or so, maybe less at 350°, and she would bake it.

She’d stand there, and just at the right time, she’d pull it out, set it on the table, and give it a French-sounding name. We thought it was something brand new and spectacular, but it really wasn’t. It was just leftovers in the hands of a master. Let me tell you what God does with your life. He takes this piece and that piece and this little leftover piece and the part you thought would be valuable for absolutely nothing in this season of your life, that you just wondered why you even went on that detour in the first place, and He takes all of this stuff, and He chops it and dices it and reconfigures it, and He stirs the cream of the Holy Spirit in it.

Then He sprinkles a little grace and mercy on top because grace and mercy make everything better! And then yes, He puts you in the oven of fire and trial for just a little while. But like any good Master Chef, He’s standing there watching, not allowing you to overcook, not for just even one minute. And at just the right time He pulls you out, and listen to me, He gives you a brand-new name, and He serves you to a lost and dying world that needs to see that He is good. So when you’re in the trial, when you’re in the fire, when you find that things are difficult, that you are having issues, that there is a surprise, something that has met you in your year that you were not planning for, when you find that that has happened, just know that the Master Chef has got His eye on you, and He wants you to know that right now is the time. Now is the time that He wants you to begin to consider; don’t disconnect, connect the present tense of God’s ability with your current circumstances. Not for yesterday, not even necessarily for tomorrow.

Paul says, «Today, I want you to think about the fact that now is the time for you to make the connection.»

Step 2: Unto Him — Turn Your Attention
So he says, «There is a time, and the time is now.» And he says, «This is the time for us to do some turning.» And the turning is unto Him! «Now unto Him.» He says, «I’m going to tell you exactly what to do right now in the middle of your trial. I’m going to tell you, ” he says, „to divert your attention, to turn it 180 degrees away from focusing on your trial to focusing on Him.“ He says, „You’ve got to turn your attention. You have got to discipline yourself, instruct yourself not to concentrate on and nurse and pay attention to the issue. You’ve got to pay attention to God! He’s the one that deserves your attention, not the problem.“

If you are anything like me, you know how difficult this is because when you are having a little drama in your life — somebody say drama! I love when I’m speaking to women because if I say drama, everybody in this room knows exactly what I’m talking about, don’t you? When we have drama that unfolds in your life, if you’re like me, your tendency is to stay up a few extra minutes or a couple of hours at night going over the issue that you are facing. Or you walk through the bookstore, and it seems like every single book you are passing on the shelf has to do with your drama. And so you pull those books off and take them to the register to buy them so that you can read more about your drama.

Then you walk through the magazine stand, and there on the magazine stand, every single feature that is on the cover has to do with your drama. And then Dr. Oz is talking about it too, and so is Dr. Phil, and you know Oprah’s not on anymore, but she’s still got that network, and she’s talking about it too. Everywhere you look you are face to face with your issue, so you give it — inadvertently, we don’t mean to — but we give it the attention that is supposed to be given to our God. You know what worship is, don’t you? Worship is attention! And some of us are worshiping our issue instead of worshiping God. We are giving to the drama what’s supposed to be reserved only for our God.

So we do what Miss Debbie just had us do, not just corporately with 7,000 other sisters, but what we do in our bedroom when we wake up in the morning and the tears are about to form in our eyes or the sweat is about to form on our brows. We are just about to get concerned because we feel that discouragement welling up on the inside of us. We do the exact same thing in our bedroom, to an audience of One, that we did in this room with 7,000 other sisters. We stand up to our feet or down on our knees, or prostrate on the floor, or we lay there still in bed. Sometimes, can I tell you, I know once my feet hit the floor it’s over; the boys are going to know I’m up, people are going to know I’m up, it’s over.

So sometimes I lay on that bed and I say, „Lord, today I present myself a living sacrifice to You. This bed is the altar, Lord, and I lay myself upon it. Today, Lord, I fix my eyes on You.“ Paul says, „Now is the time to do some turning. You’ve got to turn your attention unto Him.“ Jesus had to do it. Do you remember when He went to the cross? He wasn’t particularly fond of that idea. He didn’t go to the cross looking at the cross. It says that for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. He didn’t endure the cross looking at it; He was looking past it to the joy of knowing that there would be women gathered in Springfield in the year 2014, and that there would be an opportunity for them to have a relationship with the Father through Him. He looked past the trial to you, and the joy set before Him is what allowed Him to be able to endure the challenge that was on His plate to endure.

And the same is true of you and I. You know when you’re watching a movie and there will be something in the foreground? You’re paying attention to this person or this conversation or this thing, this dynamic that’s happening. And then all of a sudden in cinematography, what they will do sometimes, is not necessarily show you an entirely different screen or a different shot. What they will do is simply blur what was in the foreground, and then all of a sudden something comes to life in your eyes that has always been in the background. You just didn’t see it because your perspective had not been changed. Paul says, „Listen, it’s all about perspective! It’s not that the issue is not there anymore; it’s just you command it to be blurred in Jesus’ name, and you look past it to what the joy is that is set before you.“

Step 3: He Is Able
Now is the time to do some turning unto Him, and he says the reason why you can do this turning is because of that third step, and it’s the truth, and the truth is this: He is able to do it! I’m giving that one a little time to sink into the heart of somebody that is here today, and you’re just about at the end of your rope because you’ve been on your knees a long time about that one, and you have started to wonder whether or not it can be done. The Holy Spirit says to you today through this little simple one phrase in this passage: God can do it!

Listen to me: whether or not He will is a question of His sovereignty; it is not a question of His ability. Believing that He can? That’s our business. Whether or not He will? That’s His business! Pastor Debbie did not come up here on this platform and say, „I prayed for healing, and the next time I went to the doctor, the report said I was free and clear.“ That’s not what she said. She came up here and even said to us at the end of the message, „I’m still walking out my healing. I’m still trusting God with the completion of my healing.“

So whether or not He will do exactly what you’re praying for Him to do? That’s His business! But believing that He can? That’s our business! Putting a stake in the ground and saying to the enemy, who seeks to speak fear and discouragement over our lives, „I’m like David, just encouraging myself in the Lord.“ You know, sometimes you’ve got to just encourage yourself. You’ve got to look in the mirror and say, „You know what? I don’t care what’s going on, sister! Today, you serve a God who’s got your back!“ He can do it!

Y’all, there are not many things that you can count on anymore in this world. There just aren’t. Everything is changing. Everything around us is changing — our bank account statements are going to change, our job positions or status is going to change. Just when you think you know your husband, he goes and changes. Your kids, you’ve got their schedule figured out, then they grow up one more year, and you’ve got to refigure it out again. Everything changes; there’s little you can count on anymore.

Paul says, „I want to give you one thing — that third step — that no matter if there’s anything else in this world you can count on, there is one thing you can take to the bank, and that is that your God can do it! He can do it!“ I’m saying to you that your God can fix your marriage! I’m saying to the one who has the diagnosis: your God can turn that diagnosis around! I’m also saying to you that when you get that diagnosis, your God can come in like a flood and give you such an anchor of peace and hope and His presence with you while He walks you through, and He can do that too!

You need to know that your God can lift the depression, that addiction that you’ve been wondering whether or not you’ll ever be able to be free from — that addiction you have tried everything! You need to know today the Holy Spirit says to you through a man that wrote a passage 2,000 years ago, He wants you to know that your God can loosen those shackles today! He wants you to know, mother, that that adult child of yours that is breaking your heart, He wants you to know He can bring that child back home. He wants you to know for the one who is searching for a job, that you have not, your spouse has not been able to find a source of income, you need to know that He is the God who can cause the right resume to cross the right desk at the exact right moment, that there is the exact right position open. He can do it!

You need to know that your God is a God of masterful miracles, that He is pulling off stuff that your mind cannot even imagine. He can do it! In the original language, there is one word that Paul used that is translated as „able to do“ in our English language. That word is „dunamis.“ Somebody say „dunamis!“ I want you to see how much that sounds like what we derived from it later — our English word „dynamite.“ It’s almost like we need to be clear on what kind of power we are talking about — that it is not some weakling, feeble power. It’s not the same power you have or that the strongest person in your life has; it’s not that kind of power because even their power is not able to get you out of that issue. But you need to know that the power He has is a dynamite power! That in an instant, it can completely change or alter the structure of a thing in one fell swoop. It can make and form and produce and bring about and cause and restructure and flatten and erect and rearrange and accomplish anything in the blink of an eye. That’s the kind of power that our God has!

And you need to know about this dunamis power, y’all — that the way Paul used it in this particular verse, the way it’s used in the sentence implies that it is an inherent power. Let me tell you why this is important! Because then it tells us that power is not something God has; power is who He is! It means that He does not have all power in His hand; He is the all-powerful One!

This is good news because it means when you see your girlfriend who got God’s power released in her life because a miracle came into her circumstances, we don’t have to kind of quietly, internally feel a little insecure that maybe now that God gave some of His power away there’s a little bit left for us. We don’t have to be a little bit jealous or envious that God gave it away over there so there might not be enough left for the 6,999 others of us who were left in this room. We don’t have to worry about that because when He gave the power away, He is now no less powerful than He was before He gave it!

Y’all, God is not just a big, big us — He’s not a big version of us! He doesn’t need a good nap before He can handle all of us! We don’t have the capacity to wear God out. All the power that you will ever need to be dispensed to your life to live the victorious Christian life that He has called you or I to live, all power is always available to every single one of us all the time, and that’s the truth! Paul says you can hang your hat on — take it to the bank — He can do it!

Step 4: Exceedingly Abundantly Above and Beyond
But He doesn’t just do it; He doesn’t just do it in some regular, normal kind of way, nah! He does it exceedingly abundantly above and beyond! He does it big! Go big or go home! That’s the way He does it! He does it beyond your wildest imagination!

I wrote down some different translations of this segment of the verse. The New Living Translation says, „He can accomplish infinitely more than you ask or think.“ The English Standard Version says, „He can do far more abundantly than you ask or think.“ The Amplified Bible says „abundantly“ is not good enough; He can do super abundantly, far over and above, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams. And then the good old Message Bible says, „God can do anything — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!“ Any translation you read, however you slice it, the bottom line is God is able! He does it big!

It’s very interesting to me because didn’t it sound like when we read those different translations and we hear them, it sounds like Paul can’t really find the right words to use? He’s trying! I want you to picture him, those 2,000 or so years ago, as he is sitting there in a Roman prison, and he is over the parchment paper, and he’s there with his quill and ink, and he is trying to figure out when he gets to this segment of the verse how do I describe to people for generations to come the power of God? And he tries one word, that’s not good enough. He writes another word, huh, that one doesn’t cut it either! He gives us another, and I want you to see the sweat pouring down his brow as he gets that writer’s block that any writer always gets when they’re trying to find the right word or the right combination of words to describe something.

And he tries word combination after word combination, but he can’t quite find the right words that are big enough, grand enough, huge enough, lavish enough, extravagant enough to really help us to get how magnanimous the power of God is. So he takes a whole lot of big words and puts them together. When he gets all these huge Greek words that I will not even begin to try to describe or pronounce for you, when he gets them all put together, he stands back, looks at them, and realizes that they are still not doing a good enough job of describing how great the power of God is that is available to believers in Jesus Christ.

So he does one more thing; he takes this little prefix in the Greek language. The prefix is „hyper.“ Somebody say „hyper.“ H-hyper basically means „beyond.“ He takes two „hypers“ and puts them on as a prefix to two of those long words. „Hyper“ basically means, „I’m trying to say this, but that’s not good enough.“ So what I really mean is beyond this! „Hyper“ means beyond. It’s kind of like how you can extend your elbow, or you could need to go to the hospital because you hyper-extended your elbow. Right? You can go to the grocery store; you can buy white light bulbs, or you actually can buy hyper-white light bulbs! That means they’re like for real white! Some of us in the room have active children; others of us have hyperactive children. It means beyond the norm, right?

Paul says, „I want you to know that what your God is capable of doing in your life is not just what you ask because honestly, Paul says, you would be selling yourself short if God just did what you asked! That your brain can’t even come up with a prayer request, a solution! It can’t even devise something that even touches the fringes of God’s capability! So he says, „I want you to know that God does not just do what you ask; He does beyond it. And then just when you thought that God had done more than you could ask or imagine, God doesn’t just do one level of beyond! Remember, he put hyper twice! God does beyond what you would have already thought was beyond! God does way past your way past!

He takes what your brain can’t even begin to imagine, and He does beyond that! And then in His infinite glory and sovereignty and omniscience and omnipresence, looking at the generations that are to come, considering and strategizing His entire Kingdom agenda, He does beyond your beyond, way past your way past! Which is why when we pray, yes, we make our prayer requests known. But let me tell you the smartest prayer we can ever pray: „Lord, yes, here’s what I want. Please do it or do something better!“ It’s relinquishing ourselves to His sovereignty!

Can I just tell you guys that one of the things I’m most grateful for in my life is unanswered prayers? Because if God had given me half the stuff I have begged Him for in my life, I’d be in a world of trouble right now! Can somebody say Amen? I’m so grateful that in His grace and in His sovereignty, He looked beyond all my begging, and all my tears, and all my, „Lord, this is what I really need right now.“ He looked past all of that to what was to come, and He gives us what we don’t even know we need. He does beyond your beyond, way past your way past.

I want to describe this to you because when you get a handle on this, it does change the way you pray. It causes you to stop praying „kids meal snack pack number one McDonald’s“ kind of prayers. It causes you to take God to the best steakhouse in town and say, „Lord, I want this because you know that when someone has what required to take care of it, then it changes what you request; it makes your prayer life bigger!“

So God does beyond the beyond, way past the way past. If you were, when you left here, or when you left home, rather, you came here, let’s say you have a teenager at home, and you told your teenager before you left the house, „Listen, when I come home, I want your room clean.“ That’s the expectation; that’s the request. So when you go home tomorrow night or Sunday night, whenever you’re going home, you go home and you walk into the house. You haven’t gone to their bedroom yet; you just walk into the house. And the smell of cleaning products is assaulting you on every side!

You look over to the kitchen; the kitchen is completely clean, and the dining room is completely clean, and the living room is completely clean! The whole house has been cleaned by your teenager! I’m just saying it could happen — we’re just talking in hypothetical situations; I’m saying it could happen! So now your teenager did not just do what you asked; they did beyond what you asked! You’re already impressed ‘cause they’ve done beyond it!

So you’ve got a smile on your face. You’ve already given him or her a big hug; you’re so excited ‘cause they just did more than what you could have even thought they would do. And so you walk into your bedroom, and you walk into your bathroom just to start unpacking. And when you walk into your bathroom, there is a hot bath that has been drawn for mama! Don’t laugh, it’s possible! It’s what I’m saying — it’s possible! There’s a hot bath, and there’s a note right there by your sink that says, „Mom, enjoy your bath! After you finish, I’m going to have a hot meal for you that I’m going to serve for you in bed tonight!“ I’m saying it could happen!

So now your teenager didn’t just do what she asked; they didn’t just do beyond it — they did beyond the beyond! Okay, I got another one for you! I got a friend named Maria. Her husband’s a great husband but he’s not the most romantic guy ever. It’s just not. She said to me last year, „Priscilla, you know what? For my birthday, if that man can just get me like a really good card, not one he just ran through the drugstore real quick and picked up, but one he read, he knew it means something to me, and he writes in it — that would just be what I want.“

That’s the expectation! She said she came home; there on her pillow there was a card and a box! She didn’t even have to know what’s in the box! Just by the mere fact that there is a box, he has already gone beyond the expectation! Good thing it didn’t matter what was in the box because she opened it up, and it was an umbrella! Wah wah! But it didn’t matter because he has gone beyond!

So she opens up the sweet card, and it was a great card. She read all the things that were printed in there and then read all the things that he wrote, and right at the bottom of what he wrote to her, he said, „Oh, by the way, I hear it rains a lot in Paris!“ Oh, I knew y’all would get that one! Now he hasn’t just done what she asked; he’s done beyond what she would have thought was already beyond!

This is what God does! He hears your request, then He takes into consideration stuff that your brain can’t even imagine, and He does beyond what would have already been your wildest dream.

All That You Ask or Think
So we, as His daughters, in our trial, we trust Him as the God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond. „Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond according to or in regards to all that you ask or think!“

I just got to take a quick second to tell you about this „all“ business. All that you ask or think! We’ve got the truth that He can do it transcendentally above all you ask or think! And it is about the totality, all this power of God that we’re talking about — it’s about the totality! Everything that concerns you, all of it! Because when we start talking about the grandeur and the greatness of God’s power, sometimes we’re thinking about such big issues we forget that He also cares about your little issues!

That, as Pastor Debbie said, if it’s your problem, if it’s your drama, it’s really not little to you, is it? Never compare what you’re going through with somebody else and think, „Well, God’s too busy doing that to be concerned with what I’m going through!“ He cares about everything that is on your plate, everything that’s in your heart, everything that is on your mind!

Personal Story About the Stolen Laptop
I’ll close by telling you guys this: two days ago, we were driving somewhere. I had my laptop with me; I was doing some work. Jerry had his iPad and some other things, his cell phone, things like that. As we do, we got out of the car, and we put our things underneath seats, places where they would not be easily detected. We thought we did a good job. We went and ran our errand, came back to the car to realize someone, a couple of days ago, broke into the car, took my laptop, took his iPad, took whatever was valuable in the car, took everything out.

Actually, it’s unsettling, but it didn’t bother us too much because my husband’s got these codes; he’s locked his computer down so you’ve got to know the code to be able to get to all of that information, our personal information. My computer is the only one that doesn’t have a code, so all of our family pictures or any manuscripts that I’ve been writing, anything is just completely available for anybody to see. Everything! My prayer request yesterday morning at 8:15 was, „Lord, would you help that person? Whoever’s got it, could you just help them at the very least, Lord, to just log on to Wi-Fi?“

Because see, if they connect to Wi-Fi, my husband’s got it set up that immediately the Apple people somewhere will lock the computer down so that now the folks can’t get into all of our personal stuff! That was my request! „Lord, I just need them to log on! Just need them to want to get on Wi-Fi so that at least all of my personal information isn’t exposed! Gosh, I’d feel so much better about that!“ I prayed with the girls in our office and drove back home after praying. I walked in the door into the kitchen, and Jerry said, „Oh, I just got an alert — the computer’s been locked down!“ While you were praying about it, God was already up to doing it!

Y’all, in that moment, can I tell you what I thought? I thought, „I should have prayed bigger!“ So my next prayer was, „Lord, you know that little message that comes up — that when it’s locked down that message comes up that says, ‘Hey, this computer’s been stolen; here’s a phone number you can call to return it? ’ My next prayer was, ‘Lord, would you forgive me for praying so small? ’“

I’m praying that that person who stole it will have a change of heart, call the number, and return it because God can do what you think is the most unbelievable, unreasonable, irrational thing you would never pray because how could that ever happen? God says, „Mhm! Pray that one! I’ve got your back!“

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, I pray over my sisters today. I am praying over every single one that is in a trial, specifically today, but all of us are in the midst of life! And stuff happens!

And God, I pray that you would help us to be women that believe in your power, that know you are able to do beyond what we ask or think! And then, Lord, would you help us to trust you? Would you help us, God, not to be satisfied with a mundane relationship with you that doesn’t trust or believe or have faith or step out on water? Lord, in the midst of the struggles, in the midst of the battles, would you help us to be an army of women that stand firm on the great, grand power that our God has? Lord, we trust you today! Somebody say, „I trust you!“