I had a very interesting dream a few nights ago. I dreamed I was ministering at a church where I have been ministering for the past twenty years. And even though I was dreaming about current events, (2018 at the time of this dream), I suddenly found myself back at that church as if it were the 1990’s. In fact, everyone’s clothes and hair, and even their church building was as they were in the 1990’s.
And in the dream, I was talking to a man in that church who I have known for more than twenty years. And back in the 1990’s, his son was about ten or twelve years old. And while I was talking with him in this dream, I was doing my best to convince him that as strange at it may seem, I don’t live in the 1990’s time frame any longer, but I live twenty years from now! And then I told him, I happen to know that your son is a huge blessing to your pastor, and a clean-living man of God that you and your wife will be very, very proud of.
I was doing my best to impress upon this father that though he couldn’t see it right now in the life of his young boy, he needed to understand that twenty years from now, his son would make a wonderful impact in the gospel ministry and bless and strengthen his pastor in so many ways. I wanted this dad to see that I had been in the future, and that whatever amount of time, effort and sacrifice he may have to make to train up his son in the ways of the Lord and to teach him the Word of God, it was going to be well worth every bit of it.
As I awakened, the dream stayed with me for a while, and I began to ponder how that if people could just see a few years into the future, they wouldn’t be so quick to throw in the towel on their marriage and family, or on their ministry or business, or even on God’s plans and purposes for their own lives. If only they had eyes to see beyond where they are right now.
This is exactly what God does! He sees the end from the beginning, and then declares it as done before it even happens.
“9 ‘Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;” Isaiah 46:9-10 NASU
Whatever God said will come to pass. And everything that God is going to do for you, He has already done! Why? Because He saw the end from the beginning.
In faith, it is already there, but it’s there in a dimension that the natural eyes cannot detect it yet, because it’s still in the spirit realm. But faith can see it. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1).
So, it has got to be there because you have evidence of it. And if it wasn’t there, you wouldn’t have any evidence of it being there, but your faith provides you with the evidence. Because nothing can exist in the realm of the natural unless it first exists in the realm of the spirit.
“17 For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!], 18 Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 AMP
The trouble you are facing today, this “slight distress of the passing hour” as the Amplified Bible describes it, is only temporary. What you are going through today is not going to last. You have a tomorrow. A bright, beautiful tomorrow, if you would only investigate the Bible and see all that God has promised you, and then develop strong faith in those promises.
However, to get through this present distress, you must begin to look through the eyes of faith and into tomorrow, and even well into your future for that matter. And you must build your faith and see the plans that God has for you, for your marriage, for your kids and grandkids, and so on (see Jeremiah 29:11). And you must fortify yourself to not be fooled by the devil into giving up on your faith today. Satan may tell you it’s hopeless, but he is a dirty liar!
Several years ago, the Lord gave me a song titled, *I See Beyond. Some of the lyrics are:
I see beyond where I am right now
Through eyes of faith I can see
I see your promises fulfilled in me
I hear what you say and I believe
This song was recorded on my CD titled, Red Hot. I would highly recommend that you get a copy of this CD and put the song, “I See Beyond,” on repeat. (Red Hot is available through our website: www.kennygatlin.com
*I See Beyond – Words and Music by Kenny Gatlin. © 2002, Established Heart Music Company. Lyrics reprinted by permission.