NEXT | Week 3 | Pastor Ben Pierce
There comes a season when God doesn’t just ask for a little of your time or a small portion of your comfort. He calls you into a place, a specific time and space, where what you thought you had to carry suddenly becomes His responsibility. That’s what I call the place of provision.
We talk a lot about generosity, sacrifice, and priorities. Those are the pathways that lead us to provision, but they are not the whole story. Generosity without understanding can feel like loss. Sacrifice without hope can feel meaningless. The good news is that when God asks for something, when He asks you to reallocate what you steward, He’s not trying to take from you. He is trying to locate your heart and prepare you to receive what only He can give.
Why Place Matters: Time and Space
When God spoke to Abraham, He didn’t say, “Give when it is convenient.” He said, “Go to the place I will show you.” Places in Scripture carry weight because every place is made of two things: time and space.
Think about the Greek words used in the Bible: Chronos is the ticking clock, ordinary time. Kairos is appointed time, the divine season. Provision isn’t only about geography or the location where you give. It is about being in the right space at the right season.
When you align your physical location with what God is doing in time, you enter a different posture. It changes how you act, how you trust, and how you respond when He calls you to surrender what matters most.
Four Principles That Unlock Provision
From Genesis 22, the story of Abraham and Isaac, I pull out four principles that help us enter and stay in the place of provision. These are practical, spiritual steps you can apply whether God is asking you to give financially, to step into a new ministry, or to release something tender in your life.
- The place of testing
- The place of trial
- The place of tenacity
- The place of trust
1. The place of testing
God tested Abraham not because He needed to know but because He wanted Abraham to know himself. Tests reveal where your heart really is. Are you more loyal to the comfortable things you’ve accumulated than to the One who gave them?
When God asked Abraham to take Isaac to the mountain, it was a chrysalis moment, an appointed season. God isn’t surprised by your resistance. He wants to locate your source so you stop relying on your own ability and start relying on Him as your provider.
If you are wrestling with the idea of giving, or the idea of making room so more people can meet Jesus, ask yourself: What is the source of my anxiety? Is it trust, timing, or treasure? Instead of simply reacting, name the test and invite God to show you what He is trying to change in you.
2. The place of trial
Tests become trials, a process over time that stretches and grows you. Abraham didn’t debate for months. The next morning, he got up, saddled his donkey, chopped wood, and took the first steps. There’s a discipline here: obedience before complete understanding.
Slow obedience is disobedience. Sometimes the pathway to provision is immediate obedience, even when the promise has not yet been fully revealed. That obedience creates momentum in your life and places you in a posture where God can act on your behalf.
Trials sculpt character. They teach patience. They teach endurance. The process may wear you down, but the process creates a capacity in you that simple comfort never could.
3. The place of tenacity
Walking in provision requires staying power. On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place. He told the servants to stay with the donkey. He and Isaac would go on to worship and then return. Implicit in that statement was faith that he believed something beyond what he could see.
Faith and patience are not passive. They are tenacious. When God is calling you to expand the reach of His kingdom, and sometimes that looks like a building project, a new campus, or a sacrificial pledge, strong faith will not give up when doubt shows its face.
Galatians 6 reminds us that we reap in the appointed time if we do not give up. That appointed time is not a vague someday; it is a God-appointed chronos. Tenacity holds on until the harvest shows up.
4. The place of trust
“God will provide the sheep for the burnt offering, my son.” Abraham, Genesis 22:8
Trust is the final gatekeeper. Abraham walked up the mountain with Isaac, wood on his son’s shoulders, and fire and knife in his own hands. Isaac noticed. He asked the tricky question: Where is the lamb? Abraham answered with trust: God will provide.
Provision often hides until trust is demonstrated. Until you’re willing to hold nothing back, the provision can remain unseen, like the ram stuck in the thicket. The moment you step into trust, God reveals what He has already prepared.
Trust is not blind; it is rooted in God’s character and in the history of what He has done. Abraham had a promise but no proof. His faith wasn’t wishful thinking; it was a conviction that God keeps His word.
Provision is More Than Money.
When we talk about building funds and pledges, we often assume the conversation is only about dollars. Provision is bigger than economics. There are things money cannot buy: restoration in marriage, the return of a prodigal heart, clear direction for vocation, peace where anxiety has ruled.
An overabundance of finances does not fix relational brokenness. Money cannot substitute for the spiritual healing that only God provides. That is why the call to reallocate what we steward is not primarily an economic ask; it is a call to faith.
Part of our stewardship is recognizing that we are not owners but stewards. Scripture says God gives the seed to the sower and then bread to eat. He supplies both the means to provide and the care while you give. Generosity becomes the training ground for trusting God to provide what you truly need.
Practical Steps for Entering the Place of Provision
Here are practical responses you can take right now if you sense God asking you to step into His place of provision.
- Identify the test: Name what you are resisting and why. Is it fear about resources, timing, or outcomes?
- Obey quickly: Do the next right thing without waiting to understand everything. Small steps of obedience create momentum.
- Practice tenacity: Commit to the long haul. Expect trials and prepare to persevere through them.
- Choose trust: Verbally declare God’s provision. Speak faith into your situation like Abraham did.
- Pray for perspective: Ask God to reveal what provision beyond money He wants to bring into your life.
The Ripple Effect of Faith
What Abraham did on that mountain was not only about him. The place where he was tested later became the site of the temple. That mountain taught future generations about sacrifice and ultimately pointed to the final provision: the Lamb who was slain for us all.
When we step into God’s appointed place, the effects ripple outward. Our obedience makes room for others to meet God. Our willingness to sacrifice can impact generations. The mountain is never just personal; it is communal and eternal in its scope.
How to Prepare in the Weeks Ahead
If you are feeling the nudge to participate in a season of generosity, treat the next few weeks as sacred lead-up time. Use them to seek God, confess any hesitancy, and ask Him specifically what He wants you to do.
Don’t default to the narrative that giving equals loss. Instead, consider that God often sows our giving so that He can multiply what He receives. He provides the seed and the bread to eat. He equips you to give and cares for you through the process.
Hold Nothing Back
There will come moments in our lives when God asks for something costly. The test is not about how clever you are with money or how big your bank account is. The test is whether you will trust God enough to hold nothing back.
When Abraham lifted the knife, the angel stopped him and provided an alternative. That alternative, the ram caught in a thicket, had been there all along, taking the same steps Abraham took. Your provision may already be in motion on the other side of the mountain. Your job is to keep ascending.
Closing Encouragement
Faith grows when it is exercised. If God is calling you to move into a new posture of stewardship, remember these truths: God tests to locate your heart, trials are part of the process, tenacity keeps you climbing, and trust unlocks His provision.
A harvest is waiting at the appointed time. Keep moving. Keep trusting. Bring what you have and step into the place God is calling you to. As you do, you will discover that provision is not only about the resources God supplies for the moment, but also about the legacy, healing, and mission He accomplishes through your obedience.
We have a few weeks to prepare and to pray about the next steps. Whatever God asks you to do, be obedient. He is faithful to provide, not always in the way you expect, but in the way that accomplishes His kingdom purposes through you.