Dream - Decision - Delay - Difficulties - Dead Ends - Deliverance
We all have things in our life that we desire, dream or hope. If your like me you know what God wants to do with your life. I believe that if God is going to do something in our life He is going to start the process with a dream. A GREAT DREAM. I know I have a dream of how God wants to use me and where I hope to be when my life is said and done. I know exactly what I want to do with my life and how God wants to use me throughout my life. But we rarely, if ever have a dream and wake up the next morning living that dream. I wish that were the case but it isn't. Unfortunately it is almost the opposite...
I was listening to a message (posted below) from Don Wilson at Christ's Church of the Valley and God really spoke to me about the place where I am right now. And God spoke to me through the life of Abraham.
Like I said earlier it begins with a dream. God gives Abraham a dream that He is going to populate the earth through Abraham and that Abraham would be the father of nations. There was only one problem... Abraham didn't have any children. Plus Abraham was 75 years old and his wife Sarah was 65. So Abraham has a decision to make. Abraham had to ask am I going to trust God in this dream or not. "God's faith begins where man's power ends." So Abraham obeyed God and followed even though he didn't know where he was going or when his dream was going to come to fruition. You can't move forward in faith and hold on to the past, you have to fully commit to the future. In making the decision is where your faith grows. Before your dream comes together you will experience a delay. But the beauty of a delay is that a delay is not God's denial! Abraham's delay was when he moved his entire family because the Lord asked him. They get settled and then they have to move again because a severe famine hit. So their dream was delayed and pushed off even longer. Unfortunately during the process of seeing your dream come to pass you will certainly experience difficulties... Difficulties will always come in circumstances or critiques. Abraham's circumstance was that he didn't have any children to fulfill God's promise. And his biggest critique was Sarah. She got tired of waiting. When we are struggling and amidst difficulties we try to take matters into our own hands and this always leads to trouble and never God's best. When we don't trust God and we play God it usually leads to disaster. But our response to our problems VALIDATES our faith. 24 years pass since God gave Abraham the dream of having Isaac. They have experienced delays and difficulties and now they feel like they are at a dead end. But God always gets the last laugh. When we get to the place of a dead end we have to remember Genesis 18:14. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD. When your at a dead end we have to hang on and wait for deliverance from the Lord. God brought along Isaac at the exact time "He" planned. Then the story of Abraham and Sarah takes a drastic turn doesn't it. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his dream. To sacrifice his only son Isaac. God does this to see if Abraham completely trusts Him.
I was so challenged by this message. I feel like I know and have the DREAM. I also never really have a problem making the decision to follow God. Where I tend to struggle is in the next steps. In the delays and difficulties I often get stressed, overwhelmed and panic. I hate that I take matters into my own hands and act like God needs help or has forgotten me. This is an area of my life that I always feel ashamed of and to be honest it is where I am right now. I am however encouraged to know that even when we take matters into our own hands like Abraham and Sarah did that God's plan was not thwarted. God's plan was still going to happen and did happen. I struggle with loosing heart in the process of waiting for deliverance. And I know the reason that these areas are struggles for me. It's because I have a hard time LAYING MY ISAAC DOWN. I worry all to often that God has forgotten me and that I am running out of time for my dream to happen. I am ready to lay it down and wait on the Lord's timing. I am tired of having Ishmael's running all over the place because of the times I panic in the delays and difficulties.
GOD I AM GIVING YOU MY ISAAC.
The Story: God Builds A Nation from CCV on Vimeo.
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