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Dreaming the Impossible, Seeing the Invisible
What it
meant to pray and to see God do great things
Written by Jack Hayford
For most of his ministry, the Apostle Paul was itinerant
and traveling.
However, he did pastor two churches for a period of time,
one of which was a three-year stint at Ephesus.
The believers at Ephesus had already existed as a small
congregation prior to his arrival, but what God did through Paul’s brief stay
eventually shook the entire city – and propelled the Gospel message throughout
all of Asia Minor (what is now Turkey).
The gospel spread because Ephesus was a trade center where
hosts of people were going in and out. The witness of the Ephesian believers
impacted everyone who came through.
Another dimension of vision
Paul wrote his Ephesian letter to a congregation that already
knew what it meant to pray and to see God do great things.
But his encouragement to them is: I’m praying for
another dimension of vision to come to you. That the eyes of your heart would
see God’s hopes for you.
God’s “hopes” are what He already sees and anticipates ready to be
released in His people. All we need to do is align with what He is already
prepared to do.
At the heart of what Paul writes to the church is: I am
praying that you would see His hopes, not the hopelessness that is around you.
God has things lined up for our generation, but so often we
only see where circumstances appear to be against us, our family, business,
community or nation.
We sometimes feel it’s hard to even getting through to a
deeper level.
Despite the reality of things poisoning the atmosphere of
our culture, our convictions as believers are not to be affected, and our
sensitivities are not to be dulled by what’s going on around us. God gives us
hope.
Dreaming the impossible
While we realize that nothing will get better apart from a
praying church, there are sometimes things we agonize over.
Those are things that God wants to use for His glory. The
way I see it, we have two choices:
- pray
with despair over circumstances
-
OR catch the dream of the impossible and begin praying for that to happen.
It gets easier if you tabulate the good things along with
the bad.
While we should express concern about the negative issues,
we should always take time to look at and recite the good things.
What the Lord has
always wanted to do is give dreams and visions to His people. He wants us to
see the reality of what He’s ready to bring.
When you go through a
tough time, it’s hard to see beyond the pain of the circumstance. But the Lord
is the Creator of time.
The only person who’s
running out of time is the devil (Revelation 12:12).
I don’t just mean that it’s a short time until the Lord
Jesus returns, but rather that the devil’s got a short time in
any situation once people start praying and seeking the face of God.
The devil’s time is specifically measured, and it’s being
reduced all the time by people who pray.
Seeing the invisible
In 2 Kings 6:16-17, Elisha and his servant
are surrounded, and as his servant says to Elisha, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
Elisha answers him, “Do not fear, for those who are with us
are more than those who are with them.”
Then, the scripture says, Elisha prayed
for the Lord to open his servant’s eyes that he might see, and the Lord opened
his eyes and “Behold, the
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
They’re still there. The army of heaven is still fully
functional and organized, and the troops are ready to move at the initiation of
our intercession.
Put your hand out in front of you and say, “The kingdom of God is at hand.”
That means it is within your reach. You can touch the
throne.
God will put in your
hand the scepter of power. You have been entrusted to say, “Your kingdom
come.”
The power is His, and the privilege is
yours.
The
rule of God is ready to move in and transform things.
When
it looks like hell has accomplished a final coup, be assured, it has not.
Scripture says we are
not wrestling against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers,
and every one of those principalities and powers have an answering force.
If there’s anything we understand about the proportion
between the host of the living God and the host of the works of darkness, it is
that, even without God involved, the hosts of heaven outnumber the hosts of
hell two-to-one.
The victory is the Lord’s and the battle secure, but we
must enter into the fray. It does not happen automatically.
Envisioning the irresistible
Jesus said that if He can find people that will agree
together, breakthrough will come.
Wherever two agree, it is irresistible.
Why is it so powerful when just two agree?
Because, there is
never any agreement in the realm of darkness. There is a power in evil, and
though there are times when the hosts of hell marshal together, it never is in
agreement.
Therefore, even if just two of the Lord’s weakest saints
agree, they have a convergence of holy power that hell can’t withstand.
God calls us to see the irresistible, envision the
invisible, and move toward the anticipation of the impossible.
We live in the hour of His divinely appointed visitation. We
will not succumb to doubts or despair.
We lament the sin in our culture and our country, but we
will not be charmed into faithlessness by it.
Rather, we are to be gripped by the conviction that a
turnaround is inevitable, if only we agree in prayer.
Let us continually be moving forward to see with faith and
the eyes of hope.
In this spiritual war,
there are no fence-sitters – you are either with the Lords’ victorious army or
with the wicked “Powers” of Satan.
Be sure you are listed
with the victorious army of the Lord. Settle that sin issue right now by
saying this prayer:
“Father God, I confess I am a sinner and my sins have separated me from You.
I am truly sorry. I now want to turn away from my past sinful life and live a new life pleasing to You.
Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again.
I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer.
I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward.
Please send Your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. Thank you, Lord, that according to Your Word, I am born again. I promise to obey You and study your Word – the Bible.
Use me for Your glory.
In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.”
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