I wonder if God has ever spoken the impossible to you. If he has given you a word, a picture, a vision, or a verse that was unmistakably from him. Where you were so sure that it was from His mouth and no other you could have bet your very life on it.
But then you look at your life, you look at the circumstances that surround you, and you question your sanity. You question your certainty. You doubt whether God could ever say something like that, to you.
It seems that the Bible is filled with stories of those who God spoke the impossible to. There is Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, David, Mary, and Paul, to name but a few. I remember sitting through many messages discussing the life of Abraham and how he took God’s impossible promise and tried to bring it to life. He took the path that seemed the most obvious and acted. And the devastation that caused in his marriage and family was catastrophic. The consequences of that choice reverberate throughout history. And the lessons we were taught were that we are not to force God’s hand. Just because God says something does not mean we know the way to bring it to life.
But where does that leave us? How should we approach the word of the Lord? What do we do when he speaks? I guess we must start with what we always do when God speaks: we question, we seek to discern, we ask the input of others (particularly those whose discernment we trust), we wait, we wrestle with God (see this post and this post for further discussion on hearing God). I guess we learn to dialogue with God about what he has said, we enter into conversation, we look for his lead. Does this mean we take no initiative? I do not know the answer to that question. Sometimes, I wonder if he is asking us to act courageously. To be willing to look foolish. But how do we know which way is up?
Furthermore, if we look at the lives of Joseph, David and Paul, we see that they had to endure great hardship, and enormous suffering before these words came to pass. What God had spoken had always seemed impossible. But their lives had descended to a point where all hope was slipping through their fingers. Did the things God had said come to them in mocking tones in the depths of the night? Were they taunted by thoughts that asked them who they thought they were, that questioned their faith, belief, and God himself?
Should we even think that God could or would speak to us in this way, today? Does he? Or were such high and lofty plans reserved only for those who traversed the pages of our Bible?
These questions are all very relevant to me, though they may, or may not, be so for you. For of late God has been speaking the impossible to me. He gave me a picture a few weeks ago that I have been unable to shake. It is not out of the blue, it stands on what he has been saying to me for the past couple of years, but it has surprised me, shaken me, challenged me, and confronted me. It has forced me to look at my life, to analyse my feelings of unrest, it has given voice to the disquiet that has sat within me. But, I do not know what to do with it. I do not know where to take it. It seems too ridiculous to voice, even to those who are closest to me.
The funny thing is I can see things I could do, steps I could take which might bring this picture to pass, perhaps, or they might not. There are seemingly endless ways one could turn. But I don’t want to meander down dead ends. I don’t want to get carried away by what is irrelevant, by what is perhaps even destructive. I want to only walk His path, in His time, and in His way.
This morning I asked God what would happen if things didn’t go the way I imagine? If it all doesn’t work out the way I hope? What if I have heard wrong? That what I believe is from him is, in fact, my own suppressed thoughts and longings forcing their way into my prayers and influencing my future? What if I fall on my face? Humiliated? A failure?
How did he respond?
He asked me a question in return: “Would you get up and try again?”
That wasn’t the reassurance I hoped to hear. But it did clarify my thoughts. It made me realise that my trust must rest in him and him alone, and if I walk with my eyes fixed on him, then I am on safe ground. So, in return, I answered, “yes, I will get up and try again until you tell me otherwise”. I will step forward with courage when you make a way, and in the uncertainty, doubt, confusion and frustration, I will trust that my God is good. That I am safe in his hands. And that his plans are greater, higher, and more worthy than my own.
And so to close in prayer for this post, I feel that Paul’s prayer in his letter to the Ephesians gives the words that I, at least, need to hear. So here is Ephesians 3 verses 20-21:
Now to him who is by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen
Has God spoken things to you that you thought were impossible? Have they come to pass? Are you still waiting? What is he saying to you today?
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