Do you sometimes long for more? I mean deep hope that the dreams inside your heart will turn into your reality? Are some of those dreams so deeply buried that your minds eye even has difficulty seeing them, the unseen dreams of who you are? I do. I think that sometimes we bury our hopes and dreams in secret little places of the heart, places that only God can see, and then we wait. They become the foundation of our life, the push that keeps us going on the rough days, and the joy that sparks us into walking forward. Walking forward in unseen dreams can feel like walking on a tightrope with crazy high heels, yet without that action, there is no hope of reaching the dream. Each step is a step closer to the reality of purpose.
I feel like I’ve walked that rope a lot, and in my conversations with others, they have too. It’s scary, sometimes. What if I fall? Or, what if the dream that is deep inside never becomes my reality? How can I know that God will truly empower me to see the beauty and power of His Words when it feels like I am hanging in the balance? I’ve asked myself these questions many times, and maybe you have too.
The verse above says that generations before us lived in faith and they were commended for it. Further on, we get to read about that faith. Enoch is one example, because of his faith, he went straight to heaven to be with God. There was nothing in between, no death. “For before he was translated to the heavenly realm his life had become a pleasure to God.” In Genesis 5:22 we read this: “Enoch walked with God…” It does not say that Enoch served diligently in the church, or that Enoch went throughout the earth to be a missionary, or whatever…He simply walked with God. And, on one of those walks “he was not [found among men], because God took him [away to be home with Him]. Please don’t interpret my words as encouragement to stop serving in some way! I’m just pointing out that considering all the things that could’ve been mentioned about Enoch, the thing that was mentioned was his ability to walk with God and the pleasure it produced. God and Enoch were in relationship, they sought to know each other. It was a priority, and because Enoch loved walking with God so much, and God with Enoch, he got a fast pass to heaven. Wow! This is an example of faith that is a little hard to relate to, for me at least. I love to walk with God, I have conversations with Him all the time, I’m still on earth. But, do I have to be? Is there enough faith for me to get that fast pass too?
There are others with this unrelenting faith. Noah, who on faith, built the ark because he had received revelation in his heart that God would flood the earth. Noah had never seen a flood, he had to have faith that God would keep his word, even in the midst of mockery and condemnation. He believed in the dream of a new earth and he lived accordingly.
And then there’s Abraham who is famous for his faith. He was living in his familiar country, doing his own thing when God deposited something new and different in his heart. Abraham believed it was God speaking to him to move in a radical way, so he packed up his stuff and moved toward the promise of new territory, all on faith that he would arrive even though he had no clue where he was going! This is astounding really. I’ve asked myself if I could just pick up and leave my home and family on the sheer faith and belief in my heart that God was asking me to go to a place I did not know? Could you? It’s not just the picking up and moving part that stands out though; it’s the clear fact that Abraham believed he would be the father of nations, and he was! He was an old man, and Sarah his wife was a very old woman, yet the baby they had hoped and dreamed for deep within their hearts did become a reality to them.
The Bible tells us that these amazing hero’s of the faith died still clinging to their faith, believing on their death beds that the dreams inside their hearts would be a reality because God said so. They hadn’t received everything promised to them in their lifetime, but they understood that legacy trumps our time on earth, and they clung to faith for their legacy. Faith in God, faith in the unseen dreams, enabled them to live and belong to another realm. Whoa!
Hebrews 11 continues on with many stories of faith. Moses, Rahab, Gideon, and so on. Really incredible stories of faith, the kind of stories I want for my reality. Faith that the dreams in my heart are dreams God put there and with every step I take He is making them my reality.
What do you want?
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