Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Hebrews 12:1 TLB
Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us.
You have a particular race that God has set before you to run.
It is a spiritual race that has to do with the divine destiny God has planned for you to fulfill.
Running Our Race With Patience
Let’s look at the last part of Hebrews 12:1
Hebrews 12:1 TLB
…and let us run WITH PATIENCE the particular race that God has set before us.
We can also make our way difficult and hinder our spiritual growth if we do not run the race set before us with patience.
Running our race with patience can be a challenge. It is so easy to become impatient in our desire to see God’s plans and purposes fulfilled in our lives.
As people we can be so time conscious. Many times, when we hear from the Lord regarding His plan for us, we want it to be fulfilled immediately. But we need to learn patience as we run our spiritual race.
The Christian race is not a 100m dash. It’s a marathon.
You can’t mix faith and time. Don’t put a time limit on what God promised you.
Time can be an enemy or an opportunity. An enemy that causes you to become discouraged and quit or an opportunity to keep building your faith, watching it grow as you relentlessly refuse to give up.
Faith and patience go together. Faith and patience are the power twins.
Faith opens the door to what you are believing for, patience keeps it open until you get it.
You see, God doesn’t operate in the realm of time. The Bible says that one day is as a thousand years with the Lord.
2 Peter 3:8 NKJV
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
God knows no time, no hours, no days, no years. What may seem like a great length of time to us may be only a fleeting moment from God’s perspective.
That’s why it’s so important to learn to rest in the promises of God’s Word without regard to time limits.
When we learn to enter into the rest of faith, we give the Lord the freedom to bring His plan to pass in our lives.
If you are willing to stand forever, you won’t need to stand very long.
Sometimes when God says something to believers about His plans for their lives, they try to make it come to pass by their own efforts.
Like Abraham and the promise of Isaac.
God promised Abraham that he would have a son from his own flesh. He was eighty-six years old when God gave him that promise.
But then Abraham and Sarah tried to bring God’s promise to pass in the flesh, and they got into trouble.
They tried to help God. Abraham listened to his wife and went with his wife’s maid, Hagar, and Ishmael was born.
Ishmael’s are very easy to get hold of but very difficult to get rid of.
After that incident, God never spoke for 13 years. The next time we see God speaks is when Abraham is ninety-nine years old in Genesis chapter 17.
Abraham possibly delayed God’s plan by 13 years through this act of disobedience.
God doesn’t need your help; he needs your faith.
Your job is believe that God can do His job.
I prayed for provision, for food and then I would make a plan and go sign cheques with no money in my account. I got into trouble with the Lord. I needed to trust Him.
But even though Abraham missed it, God still blessed him after that. God cut covenant with him in Genesis 17 and God fulfilled His promise in Abraham’s life.
Even we miss it and mess up, if we repent, God will still bless us.
So, when people are impatient and step out ahead of God, they can muddy the waters, so to speak of God’s plan for their lives. In other words, they can hinder God’s plan for them, so God isn’t free to do what He wants to do.
I was in such a hurry to fulfill God’s plan for my life. I muddied the waters of God’s plan for me more than once when I was young in the Lord.
Just stay in faith regarding God’s plan and let God bring to pass what He has told you in the Spirit.
If you are not certain of the full plan and purpose of God for your life, then don’t sit around worrying about it, just do whatever is in front of you to do now.
Serve and help another person’s dream come to pass.
My process of serving.
Home cell assistant. Serving another man’s vision.
Home cell leader. Serving another man’s vision.
Area leader. Serving another man’s vision.
Zone leader. Serving another man’s vision.
Zone Pastor. Serving another man’s vision.
Zone Pastor over two zones. Serving another man’s vision.
Then I became the Lead Pastor of our own church after I fulfilled the first part of my ministry.
Acts 12:25 NKJV (The last verse of Acts 12)
And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.
Acts 13:1-4 NKJV
Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
2 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away. 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
You must do your part and begin to prepare yourself according to the Word and the Holy Spirit’s leading.
Time spent in preparation is never wasted time, but when preparation meets opportunity, it equals success.
Joseph served another man’s dream while he was waiting for his dream to come to pass.
Genesis 40:1-23 NKJV
It came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker. 3 So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined. 4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them; so they were in custody for a while.
5 Then the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream, both of them, each man’s dream in one night and each man’s dream with its own interpretation. 6 And Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in the custody of his lord’s house, saying, “Why do you look so sad today?”
Joseph was in prison but prison was not in him.
8 And they said to him, “We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.”
So Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.”
9 Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “Behold, in my dream a vine was before me, 10 and in the vine were three branches; it was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. 11 Then Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”
12 And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. 13 Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler.
The butler has a dream and within three days his dream comes to pass.
14 But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. 15 For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.”
16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream, and there were three white baskets on my head. 17 In the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.”
18 So Joseph answered and said, “This is the interpretation of it: The three baskets are three days. 19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from you.”
20 Now it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. 21 Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. 22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.
23 Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Have you ever helped people in their prison situation and when they were out and in their palace, they forgot all about you.
Joseph still stayed another two full years in prison after that incident.
If that would have been some Christians, they would be so bitter and angry with God and people. They’ll say, “You see, you follow God, you obey Him, and look how things turn out, look at where it lands you.”
No, but you need to wait for God’s timing. His timing is perfect.
And man is not our Source. God is our Source and He knows how to favour us and get us into the places where we need to be.
We find out who your source is when something or someone is taken away.
God gave me a God idea during COVID to sell wood.
The butler and the baker both have a dream and within three days their dreams come to pass. Joseph has a dream, and he waits thirteen years for his dream to come to pass.
The butler had Pharoah’s cup in his hand, but Joseph had Pharoah’s nation in his hand.
Learn to rest in faith in the promises of God.
Jesus told Brother K.E. Hagin once when He appeared to him in a vision, “I’d rather you were too slow than too fast when you are trying to follow My leading. At least when you’re behind Me, you can still see Me out ahead of you. But if you’re too fast and you jump out ahead of Me, you won’t be able to see Me any longer, and you’ll get off track.”
If the devil can’t stop you, then he will try to push you out ahead of God.
Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil.
Those who are in a hurry, always arrive late.
You must not only get the what of God’s plan but continue to pray until you have the when and the how.
Just because the Lord says something to you doesn’t mean He wants you to do it immediately. And it doesn’t mean He wants you to do it next week, next month, or even next year.
God has prepared a plan for your life, but you aren’t always ready to fulfill the next step of that plan. God will take whatever time is needed to develop and train you before He brings to pass what He has spoken to your heart.
Ephesians 2:10 AMPC
For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].
Your paths have been prepared but God has to prepare you for your prepared paths.
When you take His paths and walk in them, you will live the good life.