Out of the Valley

FACT:  The devil will never present himself to you in the form that you expect.  John 10:10 (NIV) tells us that, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”.  His purpose is stated clearly – to steal, kill and destroy.  He’s referred to as “the thief” and we all know that every good thief wears a mask.

Our problem is that we watch too much TV. We expect the presence of the devil to be obvious and assume that we’ll be able to see what he has stolen from us, but it’s never that simple.

The devil attacks the building blocks of our future. He steals our hope; kills our dreams; and destroys our faith. If you’re staying close to God and stretching toward your purpose in this life, how can you know when the devil has stolen hope from you?  How will you know that your dreams are slipping away before they’re completely outside of your sight?

While we’re keeping an eye out for something as obvious as a red-skinned demon with horns and a pitch fork, he’s attacking us subtly in places we find comfort.  He comes wearing strong arms and broad shoulders. Buried in the voice of the man who, “just wants to spend time with you” but that [insert dream] takes up all of your time.  If you’re lazing on the couch watching a movie, he’s fine to lay next to you, but pick up a pencil and start writing music, or a paint brush that you haven’t touched in weeks, and suddenly…you’re focused on your dream to the detriment of your relationship.

He comes in the voice of your mother when she asks, “why can’t you just get a regular job?  You’re trying too hard to make [insert dream] happen and nobody has ever even done that before”. You start to wonder if you can truly be the first.

He comes as a best friend when they say, “why are you writing a book?  People don’t even read their emails!”  Or when they quote all the negative statistics of small businesses because they “don’t want to see you get hurt”, when the reality is that they don’t have enough faith to support you in your vision and you didn’t have enough wisdom to keep that vision to yourself until you could stomach the backlash of disbelief.

These are the sneaky ways in which the devil comes to you.  Yet, most often, he comes wearing the same mask that you see when you brush your teeth in the morning.  That version of you that smiles wryly to cover the blotches on your skin that have come from the “comfort” of your own doubts, fears, and insecurities.  The same doubts, fears and insecurities that have suppressed your dreams into dormancy.

I learned two very important things last week. While writing last week’s #WednesdayReveal “The Joy of Becoming”, I learned that (to some extent) we control our time in the valley.  If I had cast aside my doubts, fears and leaned not unto my own understanding, perhaps my tears would have dried sooner, clearing my vision enough for me to head in the direction of my mountain.  I wouldn’t have reached it until God knew I was ready, but at least I would’ve been on the right path.

The other thing that I learned is that no dream belongs solely to the dreamer.  I have a dream for this ministry to bless the world, and I believe God for that to happen within His time and design, so selfishly, I’ve kept my dream close to me.  Yet, after allowing a friend to read some of my work, she said to me that HER dream is to live long enough to see me “sit across from Oprah on Super Soul Sunday” … a show that I don’t even watch!

Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV) says God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works IN US”.  I would have never asked God to bless me to be on a show that I can’t watch because it airs during our church service.  There would be no way to ask it because there would be no way for me to think it.

But check this out, it says above all that…according to the power that works WITHIN US.  We have far more power than we give ourselves credit for.  I could have potentially come out of my storm earlier had I realized that my dream isn’t just for me.  It’s not just for the wholeness of my children and grandchildren. It’s for the healing of their brokenness, for their dreams and their children’s dreams, and for the benefit of all those around us whose dreams are reliant on us tapping into our own power.

I’m sure that I’m not the only person who has been caught paraphrasing Isaiah 6:8, being the first to say, “send me Lord, I’ll go!” It wasn’t until the valley of these last 15 months that I truly realized what it means to go first.  My dream is for me, my family, my friends, and any woman who will be touched by my work and comes to the understanding that she can do anything, and go anywhere that she and God are in agreement that she should go!  It doesn’t matter if no one has ever done this thing the way that I seek to do it, because no one else has the same power that works within me.  No one has been given the same dream, to fulfill the same purpose that God has for me on this earth.  So tell me something…

if you knew that there was a nation of people tied to your dream, would you allow the tricks of the devil to keep you stuck? Or would you embrace the promises of God and come out of the valley?

Follow Me as I Follow God

@RevealingRuth