One of the most wonderful things the Lord has given to mankind is the ability to hope and to dream. Hope is an anchor to the soul and keeps us grounded in the midst of the storms of life. Storms have the power to throw us off of our course, and after an especially fierce one, we can often feel lost and disoriented. The year 2011, for many, was a storm that lasted 365 days and on top of the other storms they have endured over the years, it may seem that all hope is gone.
As we have stated, the year 2012 is a year of restoration of hope. For those who embrace the Wisdom of the Lord, this year will grant the wisdom to know what to do to re-kindle and embrace the broken dreams, relationships, hopes, and goals we thought were forever gone. What has seemed strange is that while I have been proclaiming this truth, many that I know seem to be losing what little hope they had in an ever-increasing storm of disappointment and attacks in their health, finances, and relationships. This would indeed be disheartening if we did not understand the “ways of the Lord”. What do I mean by this? Please know that the Prophet of the Lord is a season ahead of everyone else. Someone said that when the people are rejoicing, the Prophet is crying, and when the people are crying, the Prophet is rejoicing.
If we truly embrace the Lord’s message through His Prophets we will also receive what they are declaring. I remember that prior to the World Trade Center collapse, the stock market was the place where people were seemingly getting rich overnight. 401k’s were growing fat and the economy was red-hot. Still, as I would wait on the Lord during these years of economic boom, He would say to me, “What are you going to tell the people when the “famine” comes?” Each day I would open the newspaper and it would declare some stock that had broken all records in growth. Average people were buying homes that only millionaires at one time could afford. Still, the Lord would say, “What are you going to tell them when the famine comes?” Yes, indeed it is true; Prophets are a season ahead.
I said all of that because many of you are saying, “What is this guy talking about? Doesn’t he see what I am going through?” Yes, dear suffering one, I do see, but what I see even more clearly is what the Lord is declaring and what lies ahead for all who will take hold of His promise.
2 Chronicles 20:20
Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. 20
So, then, we might ask, “Why do our hopes and dreams have to die for a season?” Perhaps, we should answer that question with a question of our own. Why does it always have to be our dream? What about the dream of the Lord to have sons and daughters who are in the image of His dear Son, Jesus Christ? Let us never forget that in the process of realizing our dreams, the goal of our heavenly Father is to change us into His likeness. How does our Lord do this? Through the process of death and resurrection. It is a principle throughout the Word of God. Young David receives a promise, and then that promised is dashed to pieces as King Saul becomes his enemy. Joseph dreams, and the fruit of his dreams is that he is thrown into a pit (a grave if you will). What is the Lord after when each of our dreams die.? He is after a “resurrection” that will form us into the likeness of His dear Son. Our focus may be on our broken dreams, but the Lord’s focus is on forming us into the nature and character of Jesus. Now do you see what is going on in your life? Here is one of the most profound scriptures in the Word of God.
2 Peter 1:4
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Is it not true that when something we desire a great deal is taken from us, there is opportunity to do several things? Are we not tempted to blame someone else, or to become depressed, or bitter, or critical and complaining? Sometimes we may feel like giving up or becoming cold and detached. If this is the pattern you have found yourself in, then may the Lord allow us to wake up and to recognize that the loss of our dream is but the opportunity to awaken to an even greater dream. As the above scripture stated, it is through the process of possessing the promises that the intended purpose of our Lord will be realized. That is, to be made partakers of His divine nature.
Let us ask ourselves the question; has the loss of my dream created in me a greater desire to be like Jesus, or has it caused a larger measure of my carnal nature to manifest? Perhaps it would be good for you and I to go to the graveside of our broken and forgotten dreams, kneel down and repent to the Lord for our selfish purposes and then pray, “Lord, I want my dream back, but not if I am not becoming more like you through the resurrection of that dream.” Someone has said, “The Blood of Jesus is for forgiveness of our sins but the Cross is for the destruction of carnal nature.” How true this is! Now do we understand the words of Jesus when He said:
Matthew 16:24
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Dear one, I have written myself into conviction. I want to take all my dreams and lay them at the feet of Jesus and say, “Oh Lord, do not let one of these dreams come alive again until they are filled with your Holy nature and Your beautiful character of Holiness,; your purpose of unconditional love your, persistent determination to bring glory only to the heavenly Father. Lord, I am sorry that I have often seen myself as some great one when I thought on my dreams. How I would receive the honor and admiration of others. How selfish and self-centered I have been. Thank you that you are withholding my dreams from being fulfilled until my purpose is your purpose. Thank you for not allowing me to continue in the deception of thinking my thoughts of greatness are your purpose for my life. May 2012 be the year where the Church is broken from her selfish and self-centered religion and the year that we awaken IN YOUR LIKENESS!”
Let me share a couple of examples of some I have known who have received their dreams and the result of that fulfillment. In the first little mission church that my wife and I pastored, there was a special family who loved to reach others for Christ. Our church only had about twenty people in it and this family was such a blessing. They would go out into their neighborhood and ask the children if they would like to come to Sunday School. Each week I would come by to pick this family up for church and they would have another car-full of children. The reason why I would pick them up is because they did not have a car.
Their dream was to have a car of their own so that they could do the work of the Lord in a greater way. I, too, wanted them to have their dream. So I helped to make it possible for them to find and get a car. The first Sunday I was so excited. I wondered how many children they would bring to the Lord’s house now that their dream had been answered. Would they have to make several trips to their apartment complex to bring them all in? Yet, I waited and waited and they did not appear. I reasoned, “Well, perhaps they are sick, or something else happened.” The next Sunday I was just as excited as the first, expecting them to pull in with a carload of precious children but guess what? They did not appear that Sunday either. Finally I was able to catch up with them and I asked them,” Is everything all right? Have you been sick? You never miss coming to the Lord’s house. What happened?” You will never guess what they said. They said, “Well, we got up the first Sunday and it was such a beautiful summer day and we had our car and so we decided to just go for a nice car ride rather than come to Church.” So I asked them what about the next Sunday and they said, “Well, it was such a beautiful Sunday that we decided we would take our new car, (it was a used one but still nice), and go fishing.” Dear one, I could not believe my ears. This was one of the most faithful families we had, yet when the Lord granted their dream, they could not handle it. They no longer put the Lord first in their lives but rather pursued their own interests.
How many of us would be like that? If the Lord granted us our dream what would we do with it? Are you beginning to see the problem the Lord has? How desperately He wants to grant us our dreams, but He knows that most of His children will not do with their dreams what they think they would do. Oh yes, we make great promises to the Lord of how much we desire these goals and what we would do for the Kingdom when we get them. Yet, dear one, we do not know our own hearts. I have seen far more people receive their dream and it draw them much farther away from the Lord than those who became so grateful they only hungered for more ways they could honor and serve Him.
Indeed, 2012 will be the year the Lord grants us the Wisdom we so desperately need. Yet, the greatest Wisdom we will receive this year is to know our own hearts.
Psalms 139:23-24
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart:try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me,and lead me in the way everlasting.
Some say that the book of Job is the oldest book of the Bible. If this is true, then this precious book must hold the foundational truth we all need to learn. What is that truth? The process that Job and his friends go through is that they are finally confronted with who God really is. The result is that all of their thoughts, ideas, opinions, and imaginations about Him totally missed the mark. Even Job, the most righteous and perhaps wisest of his day had to say this after his dream died.
Job 40:3-5
3 Then Job answered the Lord, and said, 4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. 5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 42:5-6
5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee. 6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Job 42:10
10 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job lost his dream, and then through the death and resurrection process gained it back. Yet, when he got back his dream, he was a changed man. Before his dream died, he had only known the Lord a little; after his dream was resurrected he was more like the Lord than ever before. Oh, and by the way his dream was twice as great as he had hoped for. Indeed, the first order of business for 2012 is to put our hands over our mouth and be silent as the Lord reveals our heart.
Proverbs 17:28
28 Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
MORE TO FOLLOW
Apostle Robert Rogers
