Big Dream or Status Quo? -- Part 2/3

Sometimes in between our calling or promise from God and the waiting for the fulfillment of that promise, we may start to think that God's forgotten us, or that we somehow did something that derailed our qualification in receiving the promise that God had given us so many years ago.

SO WHAT DO YOU DO?

Dig deep. Look back at the original dream , the original plan, God had given you. Are you staying true to what He gave you, or have you detoured away from the root of what He's shown you? Your dream may have many branches, be very diverse, but the root of what God has given you, is the core, the basic foundation to what God wants for you. His plan, His call on your life! His destiny for you. His way, not your way, of fulfilling His plan. 

Let's look at Sarai and Hagar. What happened when Sarai and Abram desired to fulfill God's promise (Genesis 15) themselves. 

Genesis 16:1-4

 "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, 'Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.' And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.”

Here Sarai was so desperate to make God's promise happen, that she tried to make it happen, force God's hand, if you will. But God is not to be manipulated. Faith moves God, not manipulation. You must believe that God can, know that He is working, and that His promises will come.

Hebrews 10:23

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."

It took another 14 years for the promised son to be born. It had to be God's timing, done His way, for the working of the flesh removed from the picture. That in order for the promise to come, flesh had to be unable. Man could not do it in their own earthly abilities. 

Isaac wasn't born till after Abraham was 100 years of age. (Abraham was circumcised at 99 years old, and Sarah was 89 at that time. It was an outward sign of an inward change.) Abraham had to go through a name change--a character change--for the timing of the promise to come. A tempering time does not mean you are out of favor with The Lord or that He's given up on you, or that you blew it so badly that He'll never want to use you.

God is not just merely the God over the day, of joyful times, of everything going peaches 'n cream, although they are good things. He still works even when you are in the night time of your life, during your low times, even when there seems to out. But just because your surroundings and your circumstances may be dark, you don't have to live there. They don't have to affect you. You can rise above it.

Discouragement lives and thrives in the darkness, but we are children of the Light, and our hope rests in Jesus. It's that Hope that is the Light that shines upon you and your dreams.

So shine His Light upon it.

Big Dream or Status Quo? -- Part 1/3

Too many in the Body of Christ have gotten used to the status quo. But the Christian Life is more than this. If we do not dream a BIG dream with God, how can we be where we need to be. Christians who choose to live in the status quo are living out there walk in a rut. God wants more for His people than this.

The prophet, Samuel was birthed via the desperation of his mother, Hannah. She wanted to have a child so deeply that she faced years without any. Scripture says in Proverbs 13:6, that "hope deferred makes the heart sick." Year after year, Hannah, having no child, while Peninnah, her husband's other wife, was having child after child. Penninah would use Hannah's barreness to provoke her to tears, sobshe would not eat.

All Hannah knew to do was to lay her heart bare before the Lord. So she sought the Lord out. It's that type of desperation that often moves the hand of God. Hannah was in position for a miracle to happen. Like her, you must know where to put that desperation. Desperation is often that fertile ground that God uses to propel you forward into the destiny that He has for you.

1 Samuel 3:10-11says, 

"She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, 'O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.' ”

Hannah was willing not to own, lay personal possession of the promise, but to give him unto the Lord God for service. Her dream, her desire, was placed in the hands of God. She wanted God's promise fulfilled His way.

1 Samuel 1:20

"And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, 'I have asked for him from the Lord.' ”

The Word goes on to say that when Samuel was three years of age, Hannah brought him to the temple to serve there, as fulfillment of the promise she gave the Lord, and in turn, the Lord gave her five more children (3 boys and 2 girls).

Like Hannah, we need to be able to release what God has placed within us. Every dream has to start somewhere. All dreams start with faith, faith that God has a plan for you, that you to know and believe He can do it, and to be obedient to His commands.  

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare (your good/peace) and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

First, we need to listen to the Lord and keep His Word--whatever He asks of us to do, for the promise will come.

Habakkuk 2:2-3

 "And the Lord answered me:

 'Write the vision;

make it plain on tablets,

so he may run who reads it.

 For still the vision awaits its appointed time;

it hastens to the end—it will not lie.

If it seems slow, wait for it;

 it will surely come; it will not delay.'"

God will make a way, where there seems to be no way. Just do as He shows you.