Be Brave in the When
[quote]"During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." - Acts 16:9-10[/quote]
How many wish God would speak so clearly?
I know I do. Sometimes I pray that God would give me a dream or a vision to show me what direction to go in my life. You know that prayer that you ask, “Lord, what am I supposed to do with my life?” It seems that all you dream about are your to-do lists or things you can’t even remember.
Or maybe we ask God to show us which door to walk through. It’s like we play Let’s Make a Deal with God and ask Him “Is it door #1 or door #2, Lord?”
Can you make it a little clearer for me? Well maybe you can show me in a dream. Then around and around we go again, never moving forward.
One thing I’ve learned is that God isn’t naïve. There are so many of us, myself included, that miss this one piece of the puzzle.
Faith.
Without Faith we can’t see God working. Now that’s a pretty smart God.
Hebrews 11:1 says:
[quote]"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."[/quote]
We can always go start something; a new business, a new book, a new blog, but if you’re a Christ-follower, it’s hard to do it without Faith. Now, it can be done, but the journey may be a little difficult. We need Faith to believe that the right clients will come; we need Faith to believe that our words on paper or on our laptops will get into the right hands of those that need to read it.
So you may ask, “Ok, Michelle, what am I supposed to be doing with my life?” Here is my answer:
[box]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.[/box]
Every new year since 1998, Jose and I have written a list down of our dreams and desires, if you will, of things we need God to do or want Him to do in the coming year. Since that time we have crossed off so many things off our lists. It’s what we call Faith in action.
I dare you to try it this New Year. Take a sheet of paper and dream BIG. Because here’s the cool thing - there are no limits to what God can do!
A vision creates a revelation. Think about it, you don’t think your vision, you see your vision and then you think. Think, “Alright, God, how am I going to do this? How are we going to reach the lost, how am I going to raise some amazing teenagers, how are these debts going to get paid…how, how, how?”
Then he says Romans 12:3:
According as GOD HATH DEALT TO EVERY MAN the measure of faith
Your HOW is in your FAITH.
You see, God gets everyone started off the same way. He doesn’t give one person more faith than He gives another. He gives to every man or woman the same measure of faith. Then your faith grows according to what you do with it.
I’m afraid we have those that either hide this, so to speak, like the guy that was given the one talent (Matthew 25:25) or don’t use it at all.
Our Faith doesn’t grow if we don’t use it.
And when we use it, is when our How then becomes our When.
That’s Faith.
