Some people are following their own vision, yet God desires us to seek His instead. Any fulfillment of a self-aggrandized vision will have no reward in the afterlife. If we do not seek God’s vision, we will perish (Prov 29:18). The birth, death and supernatural fulfillment of God’s vision is how God attains the glory, which He will share with no man. Yet for His vision to come to pass, it must die first and this is where the testing comes in. During this time, our faithfulness comes into question. Join Carl now for an in depth discussion of Abraham’s life and how he saw Gods vision come to pass…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast…(below)
Friend, welcome to part two of the birth, death, and supernatural fulfillment cycle spoken of in scripture. Now I’m going to give credit where credit is due here. I first heard this concept in a Bill Gothard seminar and it just hit me to the bone. I was like, wow, this is such a deep concept that God uses to forge character and fulfill vision in people’s lives. And we’re going to discuss that today. In this session, I’m giving particular examples of the lives of Abraham and Moses where the vision God gave them apparently died or went into dormancy after long periods of time. And at a time of God’s choosing, when those people were stirred back into belief, that is when that vision started to be fulfilled. And friends, when we align ourselves with God’s word and his vision and there are no restrictions, it’s time to fulfill that vision. But in the time of dormancy, when it appears like God’s vision has died, that is when he is working on our character and chipping off those rough edges and refining us to be ready to step into the calling that God has for us. Join me now for session two of this broadcast live.
But what I’m asking you to do is seek God in this next week and write down what he tells you. Because friend, we don’t want to, you know, wait another 10 years and go, you know, I really need to find out what I need to be doing here. Right? I mean, you know, it’s not easy aging. Amen. We’ve all experienced it. We’re all on the clock. Statistics show that one out of one people die. So time is limited. Seek the Lord. Amen. While he is near the importance of seeking God’s vision. Proverbs 29:18, “where there is no vision, the people perish.” Ouch. Pretty stern. Without a target to aim at in life, we can become discouraged. If we don’t have a goal, you know, even the world talks about goal setting and the fulfillment that comes from goal setting and we shouldn’t put them aside. Okay. We just need to make sure that our goals align with the Lord’s goals. Amen. Because you can conjure something up that’s arbitrary and that doesn’t really mean anything. And the glory is not for the Lord. It’s for us. We don’t want to do that. Right? Proverbs 15:13 says, “a merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken.”
Some hearts are broken when we try and we strive to achieve and those things don’t come to pass. We can get hurt by that. Okay. And there may be some times tonight where we release some things in prayer because Jesus heals the brokenhearted. Amen. And we can enter into a time tonight of refreshing where we say, Lord, you know what? I’ve strived on my own behalf. I put that aside. I rededicate myself this evening to your vision. I’d like to do that corporately in prayer. I feel like we need to put some stuff aside and say, Lord, let’s rededicate ourselves to your vision. And he’s going to show us the steps. He’s going to show us the next step. And once we’ve done that step, he’s going to show us the next step. And once we’ve done that step, he’s going to show, right? It goes in sequence and timing, right? It’s almost like dancing. And don’t ask me about dancing, but it’s this way, this way, right, Laura? This way. I don’t know what I’m doing. Is it the waltzes or the tango? I don’t know. But what I’m saying is you’ve got to wait for your partner to move. You make a move, your partner moves. You make a move, your partner moves. Your partner is the Lord, right? So you make a move, then he makes a move. The trouble is we make three moves and he hasn’t moved yet. And that’s when we get into trouble, right? Because we’re down here going, Lord, you know, I’ve done these seven things you told me to do. He’s going, no, I told you to do one and then wait. Oh, okay. So that we can get ourselves in a ‘kerfuffle,’ right? That’s a British word, I guess, ‘kerfuffle.’
I don’t even know if that’s real. But Proverbs 17:22, “a broken spirit dries the bones, but a broken spirit, who can bear?” Who can bear that broken spirit? My dreams are shattered. I’ve tried this so many times. I can’t seem to get anywhere in life. Those are sad words. Okay. Tonight, we’re going to rededicate and those words will not come out of our mouth again because we’re going to realign ourselves. Amen. Okay. So the God’s birth, death and supernatural fulfillment cycle is evident in scripture. There’s a pattern in scripture. God births a vision in a person. The vision dies or appears dormant for a long period of time. Then he supernaturally fulfills the vision through synchronistic events. That’s a posh word for saying everything lined up at the same time. And he delivered that person into the calling that he has given to him. And we’re going to go through specific biblical examples of that. But John chapter 12, verses 24 through 26 says, just is Jesus speaking, “the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified.”
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it. And he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life. That’s pretty strong. Okay. Jesus saw the power of death. When he went into the ground, he went to hell, set the captives free. Amen. Presented the blood before the mercy seat, redeemed man. Okay. Then he gave birth to the church in Acts chapter two. It was expedient for him to go away. He said it himself. It’s expedient for me to go because when I leave, I’m going to deposit the Holy Spirit in each one of you. And then collectively, you will be far more productive than just one man. How many know that one man can’t do it all? I know he’s Jesus, but he lives in one geographic area. The church lives around the world, right? So he poured himself out into other people. Amen. It comes by dying when we choose to lose our life. Now, what that means is really the soul. Okay. When we’re born again, we’ve gone from death into life. We’re in heaven. Amen. We have eternal life right now, but the soul must die. In other words, Father, not my will be done.
Nevertheless, thy will be done, right? That’s where the cross began in the garden of Gethsemane. It started in the soul. Lord, I don’t want to do this. Nevertheless, thy will be done. That’s going to be our attitude, rather. We need to seek his will. Amen. Above our own. We need to die to our own desires and allow the Lord to fulfill his desires and plans in our lives. It’s time to die, cheeky face. Everybody loves dying, right? Friend, dying isn’t fun, but there’s great value in death. I’m talking about our own desires, but here’s the trick. In the old time, 40s, 50s, and 60s, people were like, I do not want to give my life to the Lord because if I do, he’s going to send me to, I don’t know, Indonesia and live in a hut for six months with no food, no burgers, no fries. I am not doing that, dude. I’m just going to play it safe. Some people have that attitude. The truth is though, he has your best interests at heart. Okay.
This is like a myth. Most people are never called to do those things. There is a desire for people in this room to do missions. I know of some people in this room who are like, I want missions. I want them now. I want to fly out tomorrow. Give me the money. Amen. That’s a good attitude, but there’s sometimes a timing of character development that is required to get to where you need to get to. That’s the bit where we’re like, oh no, character development. We’re going to talk more about that. We’re going to talk more about that. I got them off Facebook. These are Abraham and Sarah. The actual photos. Abraham was a Gentile in his seventies when God called him from the Ur of Chaldea. He wasn’t even Jewish, believe it or not. He was a Gentile. He was the first person to receive the gospel, right? Think about it. He was a heathen. His dad was an idol worshiper. He was already 75 years old when God told him ‘your seed would be as numerous as the stars.’ Think about it. He’s in his seventies, never had any children before. We know the story. I’m refreshing your memory. He spoke to him, the Lord, in two separate distinct promises that God would make him a great nation and his seed would be as numerous as the stars.
But the vision died. How did the vision die? Sarah offered the ‘twenty something’ Hagar into Abraham’s 86-year-old bedchamber and Abraham didn’t put up any resistance. And since that occurred, Ishmael began and Ishmael began to persecute Isaac. The arm of the flesh began to persecute the arm of the spirit, right? Because when we do things out of God’s timing and we do things that we’re not supposed to, it can cause complications. But the good news is despite Ishmael, whom God blessed by the way, despite Ishmael, Isaac still happened, right? He still occurred. The promise came 25 years later after the original promise was given. Isaac was born. Great news. But what’s the secret? How did Abraham conceive? The secret to Abraham’s success is within 18 months of God’s decree. Now get this friend. He’s waited for 25 years, but within 18 months of God changing his name from Abraham to Abraham, he was fully convinced. It says in Romans 4:21, “that when Abraham was fully persuaded, he inherited the promise and it was imputed to him for righteousness.” When he finally believed, that’s when he conceived it in his spirit. We know that faith comes by hearing, right? In Romans 10.17. So what does Abraham mean? It means father of many nations. That’s what the name means.
So Abraham’s out in the pasture one day. Someone says, father of many nations, can I take your camel for a spin? Father of many nations, can I borrow your trowel? Father of many nations, can I go to your tent? What did he hear over and over again? Father of many nations, father of many nations, right? He heard it over and over again. Faith rose to the point where he was fully persuaded. And as soon as that name change was given, he conceived with Sarah. Powerful, friends. Faith comes by hearing, right? As we do, our faith rises. Then we really believe it, and that’s when we can conceive. This is a pattern laid out in Scripture. It’s not different for us. It’s not different for us. We look at the Scripture for healing. We build it up in the faith area of healing. Then we come to a point where, you know what, I really believe I’m healed, even though my body tells me I’m not. That’s when we enter into the promise, amen? Moses had a desire to lead his people out of Egypt, right? We know the story. He saw a Hebrew and an Egyptian fighting.
He tried to break it up. Then he ended up murdering one of them, and then he had to flee, right? And he fled for 40 years into the wilderness. So he’s like, you know what, I need to break this up. I need to take charge. I’m called to lead my people out of bondage. I’m going to get rid of this Egyptian guy and take care of business in the physical. Lo and behold, he had to flee. 40 years later, he almost forgot what God called him to do. How many in this room have forgotten what God’s called you to do? It’s possible. We need to reconnect. We need to reignite the vision tonight. So Moses saw the burning bush one day, and the rest is history. But what was his excuse? I’m slow in tongue. I’m not very eloquent. I’m not qualified to do your will, Lord. So what? God is asking you to do something even if you’re not qualified, but he will equip you even if you don’t think you’re qualified, amen? So that the glory can be his, not yours, right? It says that no man can boast in the day of judgment because we can’t say, Lord, you know, you’re pretty good, but I kind of did a lot of really cool stuff down there, amen? It’s not going to go like that.
The glory goes to him, and eventually he did let his people go, and God’s power is manifest in our weakness, amen? He sometimes calls us, probably often, in the very area that we are weak. So that means we have to rely on him even more, right? I was a math person. I grew up loving math, engineering, et cetera. How exciting. You’ve told me 12 times, pastor. Yeah, I know, but I’m going to tell you again. I love numbers, okay? Now, when I started to sort of go into the whole, well, maybe you need to do this sort of master’s in ministry or something, and you’ve got to write papers and stuff, I was like, oh, man, I don’t want to do that, okay? So sometimes he changes our heart because he’s trying to glorify himself through us, amen? But the wonderful thing is that you are going to be so blessed in the process. It’s for your benefit, friends, because your fulfillment in this life is doing what you’re called to do, and that’s where real joy and contentment comes from, knowing that you’re in the right place with God. There’s nothing greater. There’s nothing greater than that. Friend, that’s the end of part two. Join me tomorrow for part three, but remember, in God’s perfect will, when you’re doing it, there is no greater joy or contentment, friend. I urge you to seek it out today.
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