Hello, everyone! I sincerely apologize for the lack of messages in
the past 4 months. I'm a bad moderator! Well, I will do better in
the future, and hopefully this inspirational message makes up for it.

Can I just say how excited I am that we have 103 members? Praise God!

This is the type of message that will really hit home if you're
discouraged. If you ever feel that you've received a promise from
God or a sense of the direction He wants you to go in, but now you
doubt whether you really heard His voice, this will hopefully bring
you hope.

God bless you guys! BK



Hang On To Your Vision
By Maureen D. Eha

Nearly 10 years ago, after having been saved and Spirit-filled for 14
years, I experienced a personal revival. Many truths in God's Word
became revelation to me, and I learned to live more according to the
Spirit than according to the flesh. During this season, I came to
understand that God had created me for a unique destiny.

I was SO excited! For the first time in my life, I had purpose--a
true sense of calling. As I continued to press into God, He began to
speak to me through dreams, visions and prophetic words about the
things He would have me do.

He even began to move me in the direction I would need to go to
fulfill some of the words. Though they had nothing to do with ruling
and reigning, I felt as Joseph must have after he had received
supernatural input about his future.

What I didn't know was that, like Joseph, I too was headed for a pit.
It was a figurative rather than a literal one--but it was
nevertheless a place of betrayal and rejection that caused me much
disillusionment and pain.

I couldn't make sense of my experience or find a resolution for it.
Slowly but surely the dreams began to fade, and the desire I had to
become all God wanted me to be fizzled out.

By His grace, I didn't completely give up at this point; I kept
running to Him. And when I pressed in to study His Word, I saw
something. I wasn't the only one who experienced the death to a
vision on the way to fulfillment! Many characters in the Bible went
through a similar time in their journeys.

Moses was appointed by God to be a leader of His people - to bring
the Israelites out of Egypt. He didn't ask for the job; in fact, he
resisted it. But once God convinced him of his call, he took the
necessary steps to begin walking in it.

What happened? Every time he appealed to Pharaoh to "let God's people
go," Pharaoh said, "No." It's a little difficult to lead a group of
people if you can't get them moving in the right direction! Moses
must have wondered whether he had really heard God about the
appointment in the first place.

Joseph dreamed that he would rule over his own family; then he was
sold by his brothers as a slave. In any society, a slave is a far cry
from a ruler! And his chances of fulfilling his destiny got even
slimmer when he was thrown in prison for something he didn't do.

David was anointed as a young boy to be king over the Israelites, but
he spent the next 15 years trying to stay alive long enough to make
it to the throne. He probably though Saul, the reigning king, would
be the one to train him up and prepare him for the job; instead, Saul
sought to kill him.

David must have felt the prophet Samuel had made a big mistake in
pouring the anointing oil over his head. The way things were going,
he was more likely to become mincemeat at the end of a sword than the
next king!

Paul was called as an apostle to the Gentiles. He traveled all over
Asia preaching the Gospel - until he was apprehended and put in jail.
Suddenly, his ministry travels came to a screeching halt. How was he
supposed to reach the people God had sent him to?

Perhaps you are in the place today that these godly characters once
were, trying to hang on by a thread to a promise or a vision or a
prophetic word and wondering why the realization of it seems so
impossible - or at least far away. Perhaps you are feeling, as I did,
as if you can't go on.

Don't worry. You aren't responsible for putting the wind back in your
own sails. "It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His
good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13, NKJV, emphasis added). He is responsible
for taking you from the promise to the presentation of it. And He
knows that the season in between - the time of preparation - is often
difficult.

But He also knows what it will take for you to carry out the
commission given you, and He wants to be certain you are prepared for
the task. He uses this time of preparation to patiently and carefully
equip you, going so far as to work all things together for your good
so that His purposes ultimately will prevail (see Rom. 8:28).

We don't know for certain all that God had to work into - or out of -
the biblical characters I mentioned to make them ready for their
destinies. But we do know the end result.

Moses led God's people out of the Egypt and through the wilderness to
the brink of the promised land. Joseph was named second in command to
the highest ruler in the nation. David became king over all Israel -
not just over one of the two kingdoms. Paul wrote letters while in
jail, now called "epistles," that have "spoken" to Gentiles and
believers alike for centuries as part of the New Testament.

Did there men fulfill their destinies? You bet they did! And you
will, too. The Bible tells us that "Jesus is the same yesterday,
today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8), so you can rest assured that God
will do for you what He did for them.

Don't let the season of preparation discourage you or dampen your
faith. Don't let it obscure your vision. Hang on! If you have a
promise, you'll see the presentation - just like all the saints who
have gone before.