Many years ago, there was a time when I was extremely broken. My world was completely shattered. I felt the deepest pain I had ever felt, and I did not know how to recover emotionally. The Lord gave me a dream where I saw myself in a hospital setting, being wheeled into surgery on a gurney. The only person there was myself, but as I looked up at the bright lights, I heard the Godhead speak.
“What shall We do for her?” a male voice asked. Although I could not see anyone, I knew that the voices represented the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Voice answered, “Open her eyes that she may see Us.” I remember thinking, but I can already see! Obviously, God wasn’t referring to natural eyesight, but I didn’t understand what He meant.
The Voice asked again, “And what shall We do for her?”
“Open her heart that she might receive Us.” God wanted to open the eyes of my heart and give me new understanding. They (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) wanted me to understand them, to really know them. All I can remember is looking up at the lights in the operating room and I knew I was there for surgery. Then I woke up.
It took me a while to get a better understanding of what all the Lord meant in that, but what I understand now is that when a person has deep hurt, disappointment, rejection issues, or is listening to critical spirits, it obstructs our view of the cross, and of our future. Those things obstruct our ability to understand God for who He is, which can often be quite different than how we’ve been taught, or a faulty perception of Him. Emotional wounds, doctrinal error or a religious spirit are hindrances to us truly understanding the love of God and His redemptive purposes for our lives. If we haven’t been nurtured in the lovingkindness of God, it is far too easy to internalize self-criticism and negativity towards ourselves and others, and doubt and unbelief towards God. God knew I needed to learn His ways to understand His heart. That is why He showed me the operating room, but also allowed me to hear the dialogue between the Godhead. He didn’t want me to misinterpret His intentions. He wanted to open my eyes so that I could truly see Him and open my heart so that I could receive him in a way I hadn’t experienced before. It meant a long journey through the wilderness so that I could experience the faithfulness of God, one little miracle after another, so that I could learn how to trust Him. Because getting out of the wilderness is all about learning to trust.
There are many things that can cause confusion in our understanding of God, His ways, or the plan He has for our lives. Sometimes the Lord needs to do a bit of divine surgery to heal us from things like disappointment, grief, confusion or resentment when circumstances leave us feeling like things didn’t go the way we had hoped. Sometimes even when we’re doing the will of God, He can take an abrupt turn we didn’t see coming and all of sudden pieces of our lives seem to come unraveled. Any number of situations can leave people feeling confused and somewhat uneasy about their future. A lack of peace can also cause the voices of fear, anxiety and unbelief to get louder in our ears, and that’s when people start listening to the wrong voices. Hopelessness grows stronger when people are blinded by unbelief, or even a lack of understanding of God’s promises for their lives, because they feel they are alone, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.
People that don’t know God cannot trust Him. They don’t know who to turn to, so they try to manage their lives in their own strength. God wants us to experience His tender loving care, and sometimes He allows us to get very, very tired of living in our own strength so that we will turn to Him.
God has been faithful to perform surgery every time I’ve needed it, taking out infection from fiery darts and poisoned arrows, and putting me back together. It’s required a tremendous amount of grace, to keep forgiveness as a top priority so that my heart is not full of bitterness. He is the source of life and healing, and He is true to His word. He restored my soul, as it says in Psalm 23:3. He restores losses and can even restore years that have been lost or wasted. That is how extravagant He loves us. God restored my hope for the future when I felt like everything I hoped for was gone. He can do it for you, too.
That dream encounter I told you about made me aware that that God has conversations about us in the presence of the angels that we know nothing about. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have conversations about each one of us, and their plans for our destiny. They have given angels instructions on how to help us fulfill our mission. I think on some level many of us may be aware of that, but I want you to focus on that point and consider what that means for you.
I have a teenage daughter who says she knows plenty of her peers who have no hope for their future. They feel doomed, as if hope has been taken from them. She makes reference to the economy, how difficult it is to find a decent job and how employers have cut people’s hours so they can’t afford to survive, much less move out of their parent’s home and start a life on their own. She tells of how our political leaders have incurred incredible debt in our nation, how they don’t know what they’re doing, and have sold us out to our enemies. She’s not wrong. Many people are feeling very, very discouraged about the direction of their future.
I know we want to be an encouragement to others, but it’s shortsighted to tell people that Jesus will restore their hope if we don’t tell them HOW to connect with the heart of God and believe in His promises. We need to lead them there and show them how to experience the God of hope.
Perhaps His plan is different than what you have imagined. It often is. Perhaps God is going to give you a miracle or do something that will change the course of your life, but unless you reclaim your hope and channel it into faith, you’ll never know. God responds to faith, not unbelief. God’s word is still true, and He always has a plan, even if His plan is not the one you think you want. When things seem like all your good plans are coming apart, remember: From God’s perspective, He always chooses the higher plan that will result in the greater fruitfulness. I want to encourage you today that you will never see all the fruit from your life this side of heaven. Let God chart your course.
It’s shortsighted to try to sell someone on everything Jesus can do for them without explaining what He has already done. How many times have people told you, well just come to church, your life will get better. Or perhaps they tell you God has a good plan for your life. These well intended responses can fall flat if we leave it at that. While it may be true, that’s not the gospel. The gospel is the good news because it tells what Jesus has already done. Jesus has already proven His love and commitment to mankind, to you, personally. He died to take away our sin. That’s the good news. Whatever it is you’re going through, He’s in it with us. That’s His covenant, and He doesn’t break His promises.
If people are always looking for what Jesus can do for them somewhere in the future, they will live in a constant state of hope deferred, and that releases hopelessness. Hopelessness begets complaining and negativity, because it’s rooted in bitterness in unbelief.
When I first shared this message the other night at a gathering, I did not understand how that very statement would boomerang back to me in only a few days and demand I do something about it! All of a sudden, I felt like my faith and hope were unravelling, and I realized that it was tied into prophetic words and my perception of things I kept hoping would come to pass, and were unfulfilled. I realized that many of those “words” were probably not from God at all, but more so from people with good intentions, but prophesying out of their own soul. I took all my disappointments, unfulfilled desires and dreams and laid them before the Lord. I surrendered them all and told Him I condemned every word that had led to disappointment and a loss of hope. I thanked God for what Jesus had already done and told Him I know He still had a good plan even though I didn’t understand what it was supposed to look like. I let it all go and decided I would try hard not to analyze everything to death, which is difficult for an analytical person like me! Then I renounced the lies, hopelessness, discouragement, and the spirit of divination. Most often you must let go of something in order to make room for God to do something new. I felt much better the following day. We must always discern the source of what our emotions are telling us. Living in a state of hopelessness or discouragement is not normal for those that have Christ!
I can understand why so many people have lost hope if they don’t have Jesus as their lifeline. They begin to believe that life will never be any different, that things won’t get any better. Because unbelief and doubt have obscured the good news that God still does miracles. He is still the Creator and can create the changes that are needed to work out His good plan.
Let me give you a few points on how to recover hope.
The first thing is gratitude. Hope becomes an anchor to our soul when we live with a thankful heart. Psalm 118 verses 19-20 tells us that righteousness (the righteousness that is imputed through the blood of Christ) and thankfulness is the gate of the Lord. This is how we enter God’s presence. How often we approach God by talking at him, rather than having a conversation with him, and we forget there is a protocol for coming in the presence of the King.
Gratitude is speaking it out of our mouths what God has already done. It purifies the heart and it releases honor towards the Lord. Hope begins with thanking God for Jesus Christ and what He endured for our sakes. Thank God that He sent someone to explain the gospel to you so that you could be saved. Jesus already gave His life as a ransom for your soul. That is the greatest gift and the greatest sacrifice He could give anyone. A thankful heart allows us to “SEE,” to receive a revelation of Jesus Christ. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. A thankful heart allows us to experience the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit.
As I was doing this very thing one morning, thanking the Lord for enduring the agony for my sake, I also thanked Him for loving me and my family, for providing for us, protecting us and watching over us. Suddenly, it was like I was transported back in time. I remembered being in the labor and delivery ward where I gave birth to my oldest daughter, at the old Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego. Back then, there were no private rooms after you had your baby. It was like one big hall with various “rooms” but there were only divider curtains, no walls to speak of. Every mom had their newborn next to their bed, so there was a lot of noise from various babies crying. But when my baby cried, even though I had only heard her cry once, instantly I recognized her unique voice. God showed me that having a thankful heart opened the door to communication and revelation. He showed me that just as a parent listens for the cry of their newborn and rushes to their side, so He bends his ear to listen for our voice. He is right there, making sure we are safe.
Scripture says in Psalm 71:3, “You’re the only place of protection for me. I keep coming back to hide myself in you, for you are like a mountain-cliff fortress where I’m kept safe.” When we hide ourselves in Him, we sense His care and protection.
Allow me to return to a previous thought, where I mentioned God’s conversations with the other members of the Godhead and the angels about our destiny. Don’t you want to ask God what his conversations have been about you? Doesn’t it make you curious to find out what God has written about you in your book of destiny? I do! I pray that I will fulfill everything that’s been written about me. I pray that each of my children, grandchildren and my other loved ones would also fulfill the good plans God has established for them.
God has a destiny for us established in what He has already decided, but we will never walk into those plans unless we have a relationship with Him. If we never allow God to lead us, either we lead ourselves or other spirits lead us into paths of compromise. Psalm 139:16 says, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” David is declaring there is a book in heaven that has his destiny and purpose recorded in it. We know through other scriptures that God saw what was unformed before He formed it. He saw every detail of life on earth and how it would play out, BEFORE he even created earth or mankind. When David said God saw his substance, he’s referring to his embryo. An embryo begins with DNA, the very essence of each person’s life coded with instructions. It tells us to be formed according to a certain pattern, which also includes certain physical traits as well as our likes, dislikes, things we will prefer over others. This also includes our natural abilities, things we will be good at, as well as what our spiritual gifts will be. The life of a person, and the structure and meaning of each person’s life, are all established from before we were born. So, it makes sense that our purpose according to God’s plan is also pre-recorded as His perfect will.
The 2nd thing we can do to recover our hope is to recognize that God hasn’t left us alone, and that His word PROVES without a doubt He has plans for a good future.
Jeremiah 1:5 tells us what God spoke directly to Jeremiah, but there’s something in this verse that’s for all of us, too. “Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew you intimately. I had divine plans for you before I gave you life, and I set you apart and chose you to be mine.” God had plans in His heart for this young man named Jeremiah that he was unaware of, but God gave him a peek into his destiny.
We have heard a familiar verse many times from Jeremiah 29:11, but it needs to be read with verses 12-13 also. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Through our union with Christ we have been claimed by God as his own inheritance. Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny; that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart. We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!
When people aren’t aware of this fact, someone needs to tell them – show them in God’s word – that God knows everything about them and has a plan for them to fulfill while they’re here. This information gives people who have lost hope, the ability to have hope resurrected and nurtured into faith. Maybe I’m speaking to you today. You’ve gone through a hard season, an emotional season, and you need a word of encouragement to revive your hope. Psalm 56:8 says, “You’ve kept track of all my wandering and my weeping. You’ve stored my many tears in your bottle—not one will be lost. For they are all recorded in your book of remembrance.” Our Father has books that record the events of our lives, and even the emotions that we’ve felt. Nothing escapes Him! Most certainly He has written things about each one of us pertaining to our future!
When people have lost their compass, and they’re struggling to find their sense of direction, we must show them how to find it so that they don’t wander aimlessly without a sense of purpose. People that feel lost live in survival mode, and that’s not thriving. How often we can become stressed because we feel like we’re carrying all the burdens on our own. Or we feel that somehow, we must come up with all the solutions to our problems on our own. It can be so easy to live from one day to the next, problem solving one thing then another, and lose sight of the fact that our Father already figured out what we need. He’s marked it on his calendar. The provision is already set aside. You are not forgotten, for you have been chosen and destined by Father God! He set aside the provision He knew we would need. He has appointed angels and other people to step in and help when we need assistance.
The third thing a person can do to recover their faith is to SHIFT how you think. Believe that God is in control, and put your trust in Him, rather than thinking you must figure everything out on your own. God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longings, yet he also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, his holy ones, in perfect harmony with God’s plan and our destiny. Proverbs 19:21 says, “A person may have many ideas concerning God’s plan for his life, but only the designs of His purpose will succeed in the end.”
Perhaps you think, “But God, I don’t know what I am supposed to do next!” It’s ok, because God knows, and you can trust Him to lead you. I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling. Always make it your aim to remember just how close He is and place your trust in Him. Focus on the Lord’s faithfulness and He will keep your heart in perfect peace. God needs each one of us to partner with Him because we are each a member of one unit, a team. We each have an assignment to work together with heaven’s army to fulfill God’s will on earth, and you have a valuable contribution to your team. He doesn’t want to do it without you!
Lastly, it’s time to pray differently than perhaps how you’ve prayed before. Start with gratitude. Bless the Lord. Then present your petitions.
There is change in the air. Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you. This is how we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose. Then you will discover all that is just, proper, and fair, and be empowered to make the right decisions as you walk into your destiny. It is the Lord who directs your life, for each step you take is ordained by God to bring you closer to your destiny.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you that you have already prepared an answer to every situation. You marked your calendar and set aside the provision I need. You have chosen someone to help me when I am stuck. Please speak to them now. Please bring forth the answer you know I need. Your word tells me Your favor goes before me like a shield. Let Your favor speak on my behalf to others so that I can walk into the opportunities you have for me. Help me to understand my assignment with every opportunity. Put your words for others in my mouth. Father help me fulfill whatever is written about me in your books of destiny. Every day, let me fulfill Your plan and what you have purposed for me. Lord, you are my inheritance. Thank you for keeping my heart and mind in a place of peace and rest. You are with me, and you are in control. In Jesus’ name, amen.