Dreaming the Impossible, Seeing the Invisible
Written by Jack Hayford
“Therefore I also, after I
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not
cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are
the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the
exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the
working of His mighty power.” – (Ephesians 1:15-19)
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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