i had a dream several years ago. In the dream i had driven through deep woods, up through the mountains, down into the long view of endless flat land, and eventually to a very arid climate when suddenly the road ended as if that was as far as someone had decided the road needed to go. It was about the middle of the day, not hot, not cold, just middle of the day somewhere. Beyond the end of the road was rocky desert covered in low brush… and, just… no more road. As i sat on the front bumper of the car wondering about all that, i had the big idea to survey where i had come from. i stood up, pushed my hat down on my head to block the sun, and looked back at the 2-lane, long, smooth stretch of blacktop highway i had been on for days which, now, had come to an end. Upon turning around to look at the end of the road again, wondering why it had ended in this exact spot, i was filled with dismay and wonder, because now, the road did not end anymore. Where the road had previously ended, there was a place on the asphalt where the old road had joined to the new, greatly improved road which was previously not there. The new road was far superior to the old and continued on, as best i could tell, into the distance toward immense mountains whose tops were lost in the clouds… bigger, and higher mountains than where i had come from. In the dream i thought to myself, “Ahhh, those are the high places.”
You know, right when you’ve said all the words in your heart, and your mouth is dry because it seems there’s nothing left to say, many times it’s really amazing how, at those moments, God shows up, and you realize He’s not finished.
If you believe Jesus Christ is who He says He is, then friend, we are the people of God, and we are living restored, reconciled, and redeemed lives that bring honor and glory to the Name of Jesus. Our way is Jesus Christ Himself, the singing light, the dazzling King who rains on us. He is the resplendent benefit who lives in us in majesty, He is our living lyric and composition who lifts our heart, and the light who poured Himself out to make us free.
Have you ever felt like you’d come to the end of the road, no ideas, no dreams, and no clue what’s next nor how to get a clue? Well here we are then… stick around, and let yourself breathe.
In the last program, i mentioned that seeing, and understanding God and scripture was like looking at a 3D picture. What is different with 3D pictures as opposed to regular pictures is that 3D pictures have at least 2 focal points, one is at the surface, and the other is just slightly past the surface, giving the impression that we are looking into the picture.
The entire idea was that if God doesn’t open our eyes to see Him, we aren’t going to see Him, and if He doesn’t open our hearts to understand, we will not understand, nor will we have clarity. How are we supposed to do His ideas without those things? As a result, in order to have vision, to understand what we’re looking at, and know what to do with it… requires that we pursue the Lord, He is the key. Prov 2:6, “For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;” What is the point of having a great dream, vision, or great idea from the Lord, if we only clap our hands like little kids, celebrate what just happened to us, but then do nothing with it?
i’m wondering how many of us think we’ve run our course, done all that the Lord has asked of us, and we are seemingly at the end of the road? Like a lead guitarist who, at one time had flowing melodies and lots of notes, and suddenly, he’s out of notes to play… or a writer who is used to God giving them lots of words, and then one day the words that come out of their fingertips just aren’t there like they used to be. After we’ve tried all things we can think of to break through that barrier, of course, we think to ourselves, “Alrighty then, what’s next?”, and “How do i find out what the Lord wants to do?” How many of us have even thought this, “What if i’ve done all God has asked of me and He’s just putting me out to pasture like an old horse?” Does the quote/unquote, “spirit of Eeyore” invade your space? Don’t feel alone, he knocks on my door too.
How far are you willing to go in order to know what is next? … and you KNOW in your heart of hearts your run isn’t over until you’re at your vanishing point and there’s no more breath. We fast and pray, sing, and are silent, read our Bible more, and still, we seem stuck in a waiting room somewhere. How about just being still and stop trying so hard?
i good friend of mine, after many tries, made an appointment with the chief of the First Nations folks in this state. He made the long drive to the chief’s house and was met at the door by his wife, who told him the man was out in the long house. He walked out past the barn to the long house where the chief had set up two chairs. My friend spoke his greeting to the man… the only indication he got was only a nod… no words, not even a grunt from the chief… As they sat, my friend talked a little bit, the chief just nodded some more…but still no words. An hour went by when my friend said he was pretty well talked out from having a one-sided conversation so he fell silent… and they continued to sit in silence… silence for another hour, and another, then several hours as they sat in dead quiet. Finally, after 5-6 hours, my friend stood up and said that he had to go, thinking to himself that this whole encounter was the strangest thing he’d ever done. Before he could walk away, the chief finally spoke, saying, “You’ve lasted longer than most and that’s a good sign. i figure, if a man isn’t willing to sit with me, then why should i share my wisdom with him?”
Are we willing to sit with God as long as necessary in order to hear what He’s got to say?
Many years ago, i had come to a crossroads in life. The former things seemed to have all run their course, and i had no idea what the Lord wanted to do… i didn’t even have any ideas about what to pray or dream about… not even any imaginings of what “might be”… my mind was just a big blank, and for a guy whose mind is virtually NEVER blank, that was a big deal. i went to work, came home, made food, read my Bible, and prayed as i had always done, day after day… and just nothing. Over time i had the idea that what i was looking for was not where i was, yet still had no clue about what to do. The next day while looking at a “Where’s Waldo” picture, there came a spark of a thought like a whisper, “Where’s your appointment? Go find God’s appointment. When you find His presence, you’ll have a direction.” i did what i usually would do, which was my fallback method for discovering the heart of the Lord… praying, fasting, visiting local churches, none of which produced any results. Everywhere i went it was just white noise. On one particular Thursday, i had the idea to just get in my car, Friday after work, and just start driving, looking for Jesus and His appointment. You may think that’s pretty unorthodox, but how far are you willing to go to find out what the Lord wants to do? For weeks and weeks, i would just drive all weekend in ever-widening circles, staying the night in this town, and then in that town. i didn’t know where to go, but i did have the sense i was getting closer. It was my way of pursuing the Lord.
i parked under a huge oak tree which was in the parking lot of a little church way out in the middle of absolutely nowhere Virginia. It was hot, and i’d stopped to pray and think… there was nobody for miles and no cellphone signal either. i wondered if this was all just stupid and i was just being dumb… suddenly, the radio came on… yes… all by itself, and a guy on the radio, instantly, said these words, “Don’t stop what you’re doing. Keep going, you’ll find what you’re looking for.” Then he went on with whatever else he was saying. i was blown away. Then, right on the heels of that miracle, in the middle of my phone, where the name of the carrier is supposed to be on the screen, appeared the words, instead of the phone name or carrier name, it said, “Jesus is Lord! Don’t stop!” The name of the phone is hard coded into the phone’s circuitry, so i knew it had to be God.
About the time i thought i had come to the end of all my possibilities… out of directions, vision, dreams, and was even clueless about what to pray, the Lord spoke to me. When i was willing to pursue Him, when i was interested enough in what God had to say that i moved out of my comfortable place… going beyond my usual habit of fasting and praying… going out of my way, and looking for Jesus, He found me. If you will look for Him, He will find you. The Lord says to you today, “Seek and you shall find, find and you shall have, for I am the Lord your God.”
As we are today, in the course of all our reading, writing, and dreaming, for many at the end of their own pavement, it may seem there’s no one in charge, but if we’ll look a little closer, in fact, someone IS in charge – God is behind it all. In looking back, all our big ideas are not at all random or haphazard, every word from God’s mouth works in harmony with the next. There is nothing accidental about our Big Ideas. When God is in the house, nothing “just happens”, and nothing is merely circumstantial. And with you, as a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord, when you’re at the end of one path, you WILL have ideas while your eyes scan the horizon for the next step… in the moment, you will know they are a “supernatural fortuitous event”. Be willing to sit with the Lord, and not want anything from Him, other than the joy of sitting with Him… and by and by, He will give you His wisdom.
James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
Some intend that they’ll implement kingdom ideas by first going to get some person with a title to approve of them, and THEN they can work on it all. Others think maybe they’ll get their God-ideas moving if they buy a 501(c)3 number, becoming a tax-exempt non-profit calling themselves “a ministry”, then, ahhh yes, then, they’ll get busy on what God has given them. What if… no man gives you any answers, and no one approves and validates you? Will you still chase after Jesus? What if you’re never amazing or great, never to stand on a stage somewhere, wowing the audience? Will you still chase after Jesus? What if the miracle doesn’t happen like you hope and the judge doesn’t seriously shorten your sentence? Will you still follow after Jesus? What if that husband or wife doesn’t come back? Will you still pursue Christ? What if you pursue the Lord in prayer and fasting, and He asks you to get creative in your search for Him? Will you get up and go out intent on finding Jesus, the One who holds all the righteous ideas and dreams? Friends, i believe that in the life of every believer, there comes a time when God doesn’t allow us to be validated by others, and He’ll allow no man to give you the advice you want. Instead, He wants us to go forward solely on what He has spoken to us because He has spoken to us and we believe Him… doing what is in front of us because God said so, not because we are approved of, or are well-advised by other people. It is your responsibility to pursue Him, it is your responsibility to find Him, and to be a good steward of what He says to you. True, God gives us good advisors to help us, but in the end, the responsibility is with each of us. i want to be responsible with all of what the Lord says to me and never take His words and direction for granted.
When we’re out of ideas, rather than do a knee-jerk reaction and figure some dismal thing like, “God doesn’t care about me anymore”, kick it out of gear for a moment, step out of “git ‘er done” mode, and be patient. Yes, i know, easier said than done, but being patient and at peace doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means be at peace where you are, keep going in your work-a-day world until the Lord brightens your imagination. In John 14:18 Jesus said, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” … and He didn’t say that just to put you off for a while so He could think of something else to do while keeping you spinning on your hamster wheel. Every word Jesus said meant something. Every little micro-communication God made was for our benefit… every lift of His eyebrow, every smile, every breath, every story, every step is for us was for our benefit. He is NOT just the “man upstairs”, He has a specific name, Jesus. To call Him “the man upstairs” lowers Him down to us rather than us rising, in Christ, to Him. God is very specific. He has a specific name, doing specific things, for specific reasons… there is no approximation with the Lord.
When you think you’re at the end of the line, it’s not the end of the line… in Christ, there is more, there is always more… even when we’re old and gray, we’ve still got something to say. He is the endlessly faceted revelation, so there is no end of possibilities.
Evil and wickedness will come to the end of their road and go no more, but those in Christ are continuous because God is never-ending and continuous.
Rom 10:4, “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Or as stated in another translation, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
My dream, which i first spoke, was more than just about myself and what i was supposed to do next. The dream was indeed about me, but more exactly, was about law and grace. Where the law had come to the end of its road, grace was a much better road, and picked up the path taking me to high places.
When we move out from the world of legalistic religion, which is a world of do’s and don’t’s, into the Christ-centered life filled with mercy, kindness, and good boundaries, we quickly conclude that Jesus is really really alive, just like He said, just like the word of God states. In our conclusion, we wake up to the fact we are living in a world where, in the end, God calls ALL the shots… has the first and last word on everything, and everything means literally everything… at the end of our old law-road, stepping forward onto the new, greatly improved grace-road, we’ve got tore-center our hearts, re-focus our eyes, re-calibrate our ears… we need to let the Lord show us how to re-imagine and re-think things. We can’t keep being like we are and expect to go forward with God… we can’t expect God-sized-ideas unless we embrace the Lord with a different heart and mind… the old wine skin of our thinking and dreaming will not contain the vision to come which the Lord has for His people. No man who says he does the law actually does the law. Similarly, everyone who does the law will die, and everyone who embraces Christ will live… forever.
We strain forward to see things clearly like we’re squinting to see in a fog, or peering through a mist. 1 Corinthians 13:12, “… But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!”
If we want big God-sized ideas, God-dreams, and God-visions… and that is God as Yahweh, Father, Son, Holy Ghost with Christ alone as our path, we’re going to have to step off the page, so to speak, and take a chance with Him. It’s time to walk on water. Get out of your safe place of cruising in your boat or sitting on the porch swing, and go look for the Lord. Sitting at church hoping someone will just come along and magically give you a word, that’s not pursuing Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, those things happen, but for the majority of folks, life doesn’t happen that way. Everyone, and i mean everyone in the Bible who had a breakthrough or miracle… made a move. They left for work, went out to find a donkey, or left where they were to go to a place they didn’t know… they all got up, called out, stood up, or something… but they all made a move. Just because you have great ideas, no matter how creative they are, if you do nothing with them, what are they? Just things you tell other people so they will be impressed? Your amazing dreams are no better than a colorful vision of a circus somewhere unless you take them to heart, and DO something with them. Oh, and quit telling people how qualified you are, and just do it.
Make a move man! Break out of your place of complacency and move out. You’re not at the end of the road, you’re just waiting for the rest of the road to be opened to you. You’re not done, God is just beginning again! Think about it.
In Isaiah 38 King Hezekiah was so sick he was going to die, Isaiah the prophet even came and said for him to set his affairs in order because the king was going to leave this place. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to God saying, basically, he’d done the best he could as best he knew how, and then he wept bitterly. The Lord heard him and gave him 15 more years. Hezekiah thought he was at the end of his road, but God said there was more.
In Mark 14, Jesus told Peter that before the rooster crowed three times, Peter would deny he knew Jesus. Peter replied, “Never Lord, that’ll never happen!” Sure enough, while Jesus was on trial, being assaulted, and accused, Peter did exactly as Jesus predicted. In vs 72, it says Peter remembered the words of Jesus and wept bitterly. Peter thought he was done for… after all he had been through with Jesus, he was just out. But then in Mark16, at the tomb of the risen Savior, an angel told the three women who discovered Jesus was no longer dead, to go and tell the disciples, and specifically said “… be sure and tell Peter too” that Jesus would meet them all, including Peter in Galilee. Peter wasn’t out… he wasn’t at the end of his road… in fact, where Peter thought the road had ended, there in a dry, desperate place, regardless of how badly he had failed, God had more and suddenly there was a new road which continued on to high places Peter had never imagined.
Right when you think you are out of ideas, your sleep is empty of dreams, and the musical notes and words from your fingertips are done… relax, breathe, and believe, that God has more. If you only see the end of your path, look again, the Lord has more, there is always more in Christ. You say you have looked and seen, but the Lord says, “Look again!”
When you think you’ve come to the end of the road and nothing else is apparent, step out of your comfortable place and get adventurous in your pursuit of the Lord. There is always more with God… more love, more beauty, more life, more vision, and more revelation. Take your time and sit awhile with God without wanting anything from Him, and learn to simply enjoy being with Him… the new road in front of you will be there, you’ll see.
Be strong and courageous this week, trust that God means what He says and that He’ll do exactly what He’s promised. Drive carefully and be kind to your neighbor. Amen!