Some contend that God works in ‘mysterious ways,’ and scripture alludes to this. Our ways are certainly not His. The goal of any Christian is to be conformed to the image of Christ, yet God’s means of transformation is far from logical. Carl begins a new four-part series on the mysterious ‘BDSF’ cycle which is evident in Holy Scripture. We do not always understand why we go through some things, albeit, God uses these trials for His glory, unbeknownst to us. Abraham, Moses, David, Joseph, Paul and Christ, all share similarities in which God allowed a fallow time to forge their character, and these men will serve as case studies for this series. Join Carl now, for the first of four live broadcasts…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast…(below)
Friend, we are introducing the birth, death and supernatural fulfillment cycle, which is revealed in scripture. I want you to get a hold of this. There’s a vision that God gives you individually, but sometimes that vision can die and go into dormancy. But at a time of God’s choosing, he supernaturally revives that vision. In this session, I’m talking to the people about bringing their dreams to fruition, the dreams that God has given you, that you have put aside perhaps because you don’t think you’re qualified to do it. Friend, God wants to fulfill his desire and vision through you. He’s just looking for a willing vessel and that’s it.
You don’t even have to be qualified to do so or have the experience necessary. God will help you through, but we must seek him. We must seek out the vision. We must write it down and then say, Lord, what do you want me to do with this vision? I’m introducing this concept in this next teaching, so please listen now live in session. It’s called birth, death and supernatural fulfillment of God’s vision in each individual. We presented the vision a couple of weeks ago. We had a corporate vision. We set it before you. This is what we desire to do in this city in God’s timing, which is great. But the Lord was prompting me. He’s like, well, you can’t really reach your own vision that I’ve given for you unless you help the people in the congregation attain their own individual visions. Amen? Everybody in this room has something God has told them to do.
I really believe that. I think there’s things that he has told you to do years ago that you may have forgotten about and we’re going to discuss that. Amen? So depending on what age you may be, typically people in their 20s will be discovering the natural gifts and abilities that God has given them. It’s a time of discovery. Can I play golf like Tiger Woods? No. Okay. I might try badminton, maybe squash. We’ll move on to football. I’m kidding. But there’s certain things that you have been given by God to do on this earth. He’s given you natural gifts and natural talents. Amen? As well as supernatural gifts and supernatural talents. But there’s some natural things in your 20s you need to figure out. By the time you reach your 30s, you’re usually going, okay, well, I kind of figure out what I’m good at. Now I’m going to really learn and bring my gifts into a time of sharpening, time of building diligence in an area that you have expertise. And by the time you’re in your 40s and 50s, you’re coming around to a point where you know what God has called you to do. You’re possibly helping other people, assist in discipling others to help them come along, etc. So, the 20s is a time of discovery.
The 30s is a time of sharpening. And the 40s and 50s and so on is a time of mentoring and discipleship. Amen? But we should never stop seeking what God has told us to do. Right? There’s one thing, there’s always one thing he wants us to do specifically on this earth. I believe that. He’s given every one of us a desire to fulfill his vision in our lives. Amen? So it’s time to reignite your vision. What has God told you to do? Like I said, we cannot see the corporate vision come to pass unless I assist you individually. Do not give up on what God wants you to accomplish. Many of us have had setbacks in this room. Okay? I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast. It didn’t work out. Okay? I don’t have the body for it. You know, you got to get over some stuff in life. Amen? But there’s certain things that he has called us to do.
And we probably have encountered some setbacks. And we may have striven in some areas and we encountered a roadblock and thought, oh, well, God’s not interested in that anymore. But it says here in Romans 11:29, “for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” In other words, God’s giving you that calling, but he’s not taking it back. That’s the good news. Amen? However, we can sometimes disqualify ourselves through striving outside of God’s timing or practicing deliberate sin or shipwrecking our faith or murmuring and complaining, etc. There’s certain things we can do which can hinder God’s vision from coming to pass. Right? Because we have our part to play. So we have a corporate vision. And within that corporate vision of God, it’s very important to move in the timing that he wants us to move. So that’s a great question you’d ask. How do I know that? How do I know God’s timing? How do I move in his timing? You know, what do we actually do for that? Well, it’s about following peace in your heart.
Okay? The inner unction of the Holy Spirit will guide you in the direction that he wants you to go. Amen? The inner peace, the inner witness, the thought of, you know what, I’m going to apply for that job. And then all of a sudden you have that feeling, it’s like, no, I don’t feel that’s a good idea to actually apply for that job. So there was a prompting that came probably from your own flesh, but your spirit said, no, it’s not the timing. And what usually happens is when we obey the Lord like that, there’s something better down the road. Amen? How many have experienced that? Sometimes we experience a roadblock and something better came. Okay. So what is vision? What is it? It’s the capacity to create a compelling picture of the desired state of affairs that inspires people to respond. That which is desirable, which could be, which should be, which is attainable. Friends, our vision needs to be attainable. It needs to be realistic. If it’s God’s vision, you’re probably thinking, man, I don’t think I can do that.
Here’s the good news. He’s going to equip you if he calls you, right? He’s going to equip you, right? There’s many things God has asked people to do in the Bible and it didn’t look like they were capable or qualified to do it. Moses is going to give eloquent speeches to Pharaoh, but it says that he stammered or he was not eloquent in speech, right? But God still picked him anyway, right? There’s many examples of people on the surface who didn’t look like they were the right choice, but God gets greater glory, amen, when he works through our weakness. It’s for his glory, it’s not ours. If we did it in our own strength, we could say, hey man, I was pretty good there. Sweet, look at me, I’m awesome. We’re trying to give the glory to God, amen? We’re not trying to give the glory to ourselves. So it starts with a vision. A godly vision is right for the times, right for the church, right for the people. A godly vision promotes faith rather than fear. A godly vision motivates people to action, okay? It’s good to have a vision, okay? This is the vision. It’s time to dream again.
It’s time to dream. My old pastor John Osteen would say, “how great it is to believe the dream as we stand in youth by the starry stream, but a greater thing is to fight life through and say at the end, the dream is true.” Praise God. Edwin Markham said that. He was an American poet, but Pastor John would repeat that often. Notice there’s a little bit of a fight there, right? It’s not just given to us by default. It’s not just handed to us on a plate. There’s a bit of a fight, right? So we start with hope. Hope is where the vision begins. Hope is tied to our desire and imagination, but the key is we have to make sure that our vision is in alignment with God’s vision. We don’t want to be presumptive. We don’t want to go off and start doing our own thing, okay? We don’t want to start doing our own thing and then realize two or three years down the road, you know what? This probably isn’t the Lord’s vision, okay? And so I’m coming back to the day-to-day here.
The day-to-day guidance for you as a believer is to read the Word of God and listen to your spirit on the inside, down in the belly, the unction and promptings of the Holy Spirit, which can bypass the mind. In other words, you could rationalize something in your head and think, this is a great idea. I’m going to step forth in this direction. All the while, your gut is going, don’t do it. Friend, I have wrongly overridden my gut several times. I’m an engineer. Can you forgive me, right? Engineers like to work things out. They like to see things through, rationalize, pontificate, all those other big words. But the Lord knows deep down in the gut, here, the Holy Spirit, Cheryl, that’s where He speaks, and it travels upward to here.
It starts in your spirit, man, and it goes upward, okay? That’s where the rivers of living water live, right? John 7, 37 through 39. Read it later, John 7, 37 through 39. Several times I’ve made mistakes where I overridden my own heart and I noticed later it was the wrong decision, even though it was the right one in my mind. I’m a legend in my own mind, amen? So can I see a show of hands right now in this room? How many believe in God to do something in this coming year? Something specific, I mean, not just something by and by. How many has the Lord actually spoken to you about this? Do you feel like it’s something He has led you to in your quiet time, in your devotional time? Here’s the thing. The more you walk with the Lord, the more your desires become His desires. The more you walk with Him, He is going to guide you into what He wants to accomplish, and you don’t even realize that, okay? I had no desire to pastor whatsoever. I was an engineer. I had all my pencils sharpened. I had my ruler, man. I had my, what is it, my pocket protector. No, I didn’t have one of those, but the point is that’s it. I’m an engineer. I’ve made it. I’m cool. I’m hip. Maybe not, but I fulfilled my vision, right? No, the Lord’s like, no, this is not what I’ve called you to do. We’re going somewhere else with this, and the more I walked with Him and the more I read the Word and studied, my desires changed, amen? Now, there’s some things that are never going to change.
I can’t stand grits. My wife loves grits. I will never like grits. It tastes like wallpaper, amen? The vision should be documented, and it has an appointed time. Look at the parchment here. The parchment says my vision equals God’s vision. That’s the important thing. We’ve got to make sure we align our desires and vision with His. Habakkuk chapter 2, verses 2 through 3 says, “and the Lord answered me, Habakkuk, and said, write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that reads it, for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie.Though it tarries, wait for it, because it shall surely come to pass, it will not tarry.” Okay, it’ll tarry a little bit, friends, because some of these visions can take several years to come to pass, okay? I remember one night this scripture just stood off the page for me, and I was studying in Oklahoma, in Tulsa, and this was like a ‘rhema’ word that night. It just jumped off the page. The next day, my professor walks up to me and goes, you know, the scripture I’ve got for you, brother, its Habakkuk chapter 2, verses 2 through 3! That’s what the Lord told me to tell you. I was like, whoa, okay. That’s confirmation of a word I got the previous evening. So, God was trying to communicate, amen? So there’s a vision that God has given each and every one in this room. I really believe that.
I believe God is calling you to do something. You may not feel like he has called you to do something. In fact, you may not feel like he’s even spoken to you. It’s okay to be honest. But friend, as we seek him out, those who hunger and thirst shall be filled, amen? But friends, it’s so important to write down what God has told you. I really want you to do that. If there’s one takeaway for this evening, write down what God has told you. Document it. Say the date. I have a journal. I have the date and written down when God told me to start this church. I have it there. I know when he spoke to me. It can be referred to in the future. It is a thing of confidence to go back and say, this is what the Lord said. I’m reminded of what he said. Now, if you have independent people coming up to you, confirming that call, that is very powerful. Not that we should need that, but it’s very powerful to have it. So I’m trying to establish vision here. How many people in this room know what you’re called to do? Tough question. Not many hands went up. That’s fair enough. It’s not always obvious. We have to work it out, okay? It’s not always obvious. It took me a good old while and God was patient with me, amen? It’s not always immediate. Sometimes it follows your desires. Sometimes it follows your talents.
But some people have been told to start businesses in this room. Some people have a desire to be successful in business. God can do that, friend. Sometimes we’re thinking, oh, that’s self-indulgent. I don’t want to be rich and give into the kingdom of God. That sounds ridiculous. Why? Why does that sound ridiculous? If you’re funding the kingdom of God, I mean, that’s something that you can do and that’s a noble act, right? Abraham was a generous man. Abraham was generous to people, okay? It’s one of his famous traits in the Bible. He was also very wealthy. And as you sow into other people, as you sow into the gospel, you’re reciprocating back, right? Sowing and reaping, sowing and reaping. So don’t just discount your calling or vision as ministry. You may never be in the ministry. That’s fine, okay? We’re not saying we’re trying to build ministers here necessarily. We’re trying to build what God has called you to do. That’s what we’re building. And if we have 15 people who want to go into business, that’s great. Fantastic, okay? If you want to be a worship person, fantastic. Ministry of health, etc. The list is endless. But what I’m asking you to do is seek God in this next week and write down what he tells you.
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