When we're under attack it seems the entire world is falling apart around us. Nothing makes sense. We get tired of the burden that weighs on our thoughts about it and those thoughts become more of the burden than the attack. What we choose to think about our problem defines the intensity of it and delays the path out of it.The level of warfare over your life tells you how much God has planned for good from your life. The devil will do all he can to put you in a pothole and bury you with grief and misery. Again, we have the choice whether to accept those thoughts as our own, or to choose to stand on Faith and what God's Word says about us and bad circumstances. God sees the beginning and the end so He is always after your good and will use all evil for good if we choose to love him (Ro. 8).
Have you had a dream or vision of something you believe is from God ... but you see no way that you can make that happen. It even appears that even God cannot make "that" happen. As your mind says "I can't" to the vision, your spirit says, "I will." The problem enters in when God gives a vision to a "doer" (somebody who likes to get things done) and that person can't see how he can accomplish it.
Back in 2000 (more than 7 years ago) I believed that God gave me a vision for something in the future. A retreat called "The Heritage" that would be for families to get away into Creation and learn more about who God is, and to get some practical experience in organic gardening, vegetarian cooking, living more simply and being debt free. There would also be workshops on healing from hurts, habits and hang-ups. A place to renew our innermost being -- to connect to Abba Father, our Papa.
I won't bore you with the grueling details of my trying to "find" this place for years, but God is so patient. He uses every moment of our mistakes for good when we seek Him. At some point along the way, I realized this was a God-sized task that I could not create and I let go to allow Him to work the plan on His schedule.
Sometimes we charge out and try to do something that we were never meant to do. Sometimes we retreat because the task overwhelms us. Either way we know that the vision takes us beyond our own competency and we are forced to remind ourselves that God is saying, "Not by might or power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord." (Zec. 4:6)
God wanted Gideon to save Israel. He called him a "mighty warrior." When he appeared unto him while Gideon was threshing wheat, Gideon said that the Lord had abandoned Israel and put them into the hand of the Midianites. God tells that he will deliver Israel from the Midianites and Gideon's responded, "My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." God told him, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites." You know the rest of the story.
Gideon had so little faith in himself that he needed confirmation from the Lord with the wet and dry fleece. Then God stretched him even further by cutting his army. He began with 32,000 men and ended up with 300 to save Israel. With God's might and power, we don't need all we think we do. The only thing we need is to obey.
Gideon was seen by God as a "mighty warrior." That's not how Gideon saw himself. All Gideon needed was to start from what he had, and then let God handle the details. If you aren't willing to move until it all looks exactly as you picture it getting done, you may be waiting forever for that dream to come true.
I always get in the way. I have a busy mind with so many ideas and methods and details and ways to do things. God doesn't need my help to fulfill HIS vision. Maybe that was my turning point ... realizing this was His vision, not mine. If He wanted it done, He could do it. Rather than my attitude of "let's get this done," I needed to say, "Gee, Lord, that's an awesome idea! I know I can't accomplish it, but I'm willing to be part of it if You want to lead the way."
Maybe you've been trying to make things happen that you can't possibly accomplish. It can cause a lot of stress, health problems and heartaches, especially is you're a person who likes to accomplish things and check it off the mental list. God is more interested in who we become in the journey to the vision, than our getting the tasks done. It's God's vision, right? Even if it's a desire for a son, or daughter, or husband or wife, or somebody else you love. It can only be God that will change them. You can't! But letting go and focusing on what you really want to do (love them with all your heart), will give you and them a lot more peace than you've had. You do what you've got the ability to do, and let God do the rest.
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