Dominion: Planning for Victory - Part 1

Editor's note:  After a long illness and hospital stay, I'm ready to begin to write this blog again.  I have committed to myself to write something everyday!  That doesn't mean that there'll be a new post everyday.  I have a number of projects that I'm working on, so I will work on one of those every day.  I will say that for the most part I'll be posting once a week.  Thanks for your patience and hanging in there as I recovered.  Following is this week's post:  Planning for Victory

There is an old story of two farmers in the middle of a drought.  They begin to pray for rain.  One farmer sits and waits for God to move, the other farmer prepares his fields for rain!

I believe the second farmer understands something about our part in seeing a miracle.  We all want and need God to move in our circumstances.  We all have times in our lives where we need a move of God to change our circumstances.  So, what do we do?  Do we sit and wait on God or do we prepare for those things to take place?

Jeremiah 29:10-11 (NKJV)
^29:10 For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. ¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Here’s how the Message translation puts it:

Jeremiah 29:10-11 (MSG)
^29:10 This is God's Word on the subject: "As soon as Babylon's seventy years are up and not a day before, I'll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. ¹¹ I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

The Power of Faith

The first thing we need to understand is what faith looks like!  All of us that are Christians say, “I have faith in Jesus!”  Faith in Jesus is the definition of Christian!  We’re not Christians if we don’t have faith in Jesus.  The question is do you really live out your faith?  

Faith is expectation.  The farmer who goes out and prepares for the rain is the farmer who has faith.  He expects God to move in response to his prayers so he acts as if the prayer has already been answered.  Faith isn’t about believing; faith is about acting!  

Faith is making plans for the future.  You have faith that today won’t be the last day of your life.  How do I know that?  Because we all make plans for the future. 

"When I graduate, I’m going to… " 

"When the baby is born, we’ll name him/her… " 

"On my vacation, I’m going to…"

I’m pretty sure that most people aren’t saying, “I don’t have plans, because I may die tonight!”  No one is saying, “We’ll just see if tomorrow comes and do whatever!”  Before any of my leadership ever decided that I would be coming to Taiwan, I had already begun to visualize what would be necessary to get here, and what I wanted to do once I got here!  I was pushing myself into my purpose.

As you begin to push yourself into your purpose, the power of God will come upon you and enable you to do what God has called you to do.

I want to look at Noah for a moment:

Hebrews 11:7 (NKJV)
^11:7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

We all know the story of Noah and the flood.  The world had devolved into wickedness.  People were doing all sorts of evil things.  God got fed up with people and decided to judge the world with a flood.

How many of you reading this have heard from God?  Did you hear a big, loud voice calling you, or did it seem as if a thought came to you?  When you heard that still, small voice did you say, “Oh, God is calling to me.” 

So, God spoke to Moses in that same way that he speaks to us.  He has called Moses through that still, small voice to build an ark.  Let me tell you something, when this happened it had never rained before.  No one had had any experience with floods, but Moses began, by faith to build an ark and saved his family.  Moses took action on God’s plan and God helped him to build an ark.  He’d never built a boat before, but it worked out, because God enabled him to do that!

I’ve witnessed the power of God to heal people, as soon as they took steps toward their purposes and began to do what God had called them to do.  Don’t leave this step of faith out.  Make plans.  Set Goals for your future.  Let God enable you.  Let God equip you for victory!

Think about what you would do if those circumstances were miraculously changed.  What would you do if your finances got better?  What would you do if you were healed from some debilitating disease?  What plans would you make if you thought you had a chance?  Think about it, take a paper and write it down.  Hang it on the refrigerator and begin to make plans as if God had already done it.

Faith is living like you know that God will move.  God moves in the unseen.  Even though you don’t see any evidence of God moving doesn’t mean He isn’t.  Are you planning for your future as if God is already answering your prayers?  Are you living as if you know God will move?

Make God’s Will Your Will

When I was a young man, I had a very different plan for my life.  I was depressed at age 25, because I wasn’t already a millionaire.  I didn’t have the success that I thought I deserved.  My career wasn’t working out as quickly as I had envisioned it would. I hated myself at age 30, because I wasn’t married.  All of that misery and depression was destroying my life.  Look at this scripture:

Proverbs 16:9 (NKJV)
^16:9 A man's heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.

You can’t do one without the other.  I tried making plans for my life but I left out the will of God.  I didn’t even go to God and ask, “What’s your plan?”  Of course, I wasn’t saved at the that time.  I didn’t know to do that, but I know now, that God’s will is essential to seeing my plans come to fruition.

When I finally laid down my dream, my plans and took up God’s will and plan for my life, I was transformed!  That’s when my life changed.  That was the key to the loss of misery and suffering.  I wasn’t trying to force my plan on God.  I began cooperating with His plan and then I found out that God’s plan – God’s dream – was more satisfying that anything I could have imagined.

1 Corinthians 2:9 (NKJV)
^2:9 But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

Are you open to God’s plan for your life?  Are you willing to surrender your dream – to dream God’s dream for you?  Do you know the easiest way for your plans to happen?  Listen to God, hear His plan and make his plan your plan!  Let God direct your steps to breakthrough and victory!

In the Old Testament, there is the story of Jacob as he is about to meet Esau, the one he ripped off and who had threatened to kill him.  He’s afraid.  He knows Esau’s plan and Esau is coming with 400 men.  Jacob’s plan was to take his family home to his father’s house, but it looks to him like that’s all over now!

Then a man comes to him and wrestles with him throughout the night – That man is the Angel of the Lord, which is an Old Testament name for Jesus.  All night long they wrestle until finally God throws Jacob’s hip out of joint.

Finally, Jacob surrenders and God is able to move.  Jacob’s name is changed to Israel, and he begins to live God’s plan for his life.  The promise of the Promised Land is completed through Jacob.  Look at Ephesians 2:10:

Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)
^2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

That scripture tells us that God had a plan for your life, before you were even born!  God has prepared something for you.  Something good that’s beyond your imagination.  Maybe, it’s time to cooperate with God’s plan and move to victory!

God Honors Faith

Here’s the promise:

Philippians 1:6 (NKJV)
^1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

This verse tells us that what God has started in us He will finish, but you need to know this one thing:  God doesn’t just have a plan for your life – You are the plan!  Noah was God’s plan for continuing the human race.  Moses was God’s plan for delivering Israel from bondage in Egypt.  Esther was God’s plan for rescuing the Jews from Haman.  Jesus was the pan for our deliverance from sin, and you are God’s plan for his purpose through you.  By cooperating with God you will see victory!

Finally, God promises that if we seek first the Kingdom of God, then the things we need will be added to us.

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)
^6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

God wants to change your circumstances!  God wants to do a work in your life! Most of all God wants you!

So, how do we live out our faith?  We get ready for God to move in our lives.   We pray and call upon God to move in our lives but we forget to prepare for a move of God.  That’s really what faith is, living our lives like we know that God is already moving!  Prepare your field – THE RAIN IS COMING!

Guarding the Fruit

Editor's Note:  The theme for our church this year is that this is "2015 is the Year of Fruitfulness."  We have a desire to see the church built in Taoyuan City and spreading to the rest of Taiwan.  This sermon was preached on a way to impart the vision to bear fruit, that will be lasting and remain until Christ's return.  I fruit is borne then it is important that we guard the fruit so that it cannot be stolen or slip away.

I used to work with a woman that had a saying when you asked in she was busy.  She would say, “I’m busier than a one-eyed fox watching two hen-houses.”  She had a lot of other colorful phrases but I wouldn't use most of them.  What she was saying is that it was difficult to do a good job at any one thing because there were so many other things to do. 

We all have busy lives, don’t we?  We’re all busier than one-eyed foxes, but there are some things we need to focus on.  Jesus has given us a task.  He has placed a burden on us, and that is that we’re to reach our generation.

John 15:15-16 (NKJV)^15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

It is appointed to us that we should bear fruit and that our fruit should remain.  In order for fruit our fruit to remain we need to protect it.  Today, I want to write about protecting the fruit that we have been.

1 Kings 20:38-40 (NKJV)^20:38 Then the prophet departed and waited for the king by the road, and disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes. ³⁹ Now as the king passed by, he cried out to the king and said, "Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and there, a man came over and brought a man to me, and said, 'Guard this man; if by any means he is missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.' ⁴⁰ While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone." Then the king of Israel said to him, "So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it."

Guard this Man

The context of this is that the King of Syria threatened Israel, and God delivered them over into israel’s hands.  God wanted the King of Syria dead, but Ahab the king of Israel let him go.  He saw an opportunity to make some money, so basically he refused to do what God wanted.  He was disobedient and this prophet let him know what God said.

I think there’s a lesson for us in this warning.  We are called, (The Bible says appointed) to bear fruit and that the fruit we bear should remain.  If that’s the case then we are called to guard the fruit.  To guard the man we are given to guard; to not let the fruit “slip away.”

Let’s look for a moment at the excuse that’s given for the loss of the prisoner, “While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.”  The guard got too busy “here and there” to pay attention to what he was given to do.  Here and there seems to imply that he was busy with many things.  He was jut going about daily life and the man slips away – he’s just gone.  The result is that the guard has to pay with his life for losing the prisoner.

There is a task that is appointed to us:  To bear fruit and that our fruit should remain.  So we have the same task as the guard; to keep the fruit that was given to us.  That fruit should not be allowed to slip away, and that’s the challenge isn't it?  How do we keep people serving God?  How do we inspire people to remain in the will of God?  We are often distracted by our busyness. 

The guard in the text tells the king I was busy here and there, “I had things to do; things that needed my concentration; things that were no doubt important, but that’s why he was lost.  It wasn't me it was all that I had to do that allowed him to slip away.”

That’s what he’s saying, “I had things to do so I couldn't pay enough attention to the man and he escaped while I was busy with all those things.  It’s not my fault…it was my busyness.”  The king called it a decision.

That’s interesting isn't it?  The man decided that the things he was busy with were more important than guarding the man.  You’d think that with his life on the line, making sure the prisoner didn't escape would be his highest priority…but the prisoner was ignored and he got away.  Has that ever happened to you?

Have you ever focused on some trivial task that you ere doing and lost track of the time?  Have you ever been so intent on doing one task that you forgot to do something that was more important?  We've all done that.

The reality of it is that you've made a choice.  You have given priority to the lesser thing.  We often allow the things we’re busy with get in the way of the larger thing, which is obedience to God.  Look at this moment in the lives of Martha and Mary.  They’re friends of Jesus:

Luke 10:38-42 (NKJV)^10:38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." ⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. ⁴² But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."

Martha is busy, she’s trying to serve all of these people who've come to her home.  Her sister Mary has chosen to sit and listen at Jesus’ feet..  Martha was distracted with too much serving.  She was too busy to hear from Jesus.  She was too busy for the word of God.  She was preoccupied with the lesser task.

We are often like this.  I’m too busy for Bible Study.  I have too many other things to do that I can’t go on outreach.  I’m too busy here and there.  I don’t have time to help anyone who is struggling with staying saved.  God should keep them.  Well, He’s given us that job – To guard the fruit.

I think that sometimes we get distracted with all of our church tasks and lose sight of the talks of keeping the fruit.   We’re too busy for new relationships.  One of the concerns in our church is, whether or not people have relationships with people in the church, outside of the church.  Do they spend time with others in the church?  Do they talk to each other?  Do they pray for each other?  Do they have any concern for others in the church and their salvation, or are they too busy here and there?

Am I saying you should put your life on hold to only church things?  Of course not, we all have to work and raise kids, and do what we have to do.  But I believe there’s a balance to do the will of God.  For years, I balanced a full-time job; my family and my church activities, so I know it can all be balanced.

Some people say they’re just too busy, but they have time for a lot of other things.  When it comes to new people coming into the church, you don’t have to invite them to come and live with you, but how about a friendly lunch after church, or a phone call once in a while.  Make them feel cared about.  Make a friend.  Find out what you have in common and invite them to do that, that’s how you made the friends you have now.

The best friends that I have in life started out just like that; someone reached out to me when I first came to church.  Helping people to lock into church is vital for their spiritual well-being.  It’s the way we guard the fruit – not letting it slip away.

It’s Part of Being of One Accord

Look with me again at John 15:16:

John 15:16 (NKJV)^15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

That appointment to bear fruit is attached to a promise: That whatever you ask in my name, He may give you.  Another translation says it like this, “In order that whatever you might ask the father in my name, he may give you.” (Weust Expanded New Testament).  When you say “in order” it means that one thing follows the other.  It’s like saying “If you will bear fruit and that fruit remains, then whatever you may ask of the Father he will give it to you.” 

The context of this statement is telling the disciples, “I no longer call you servants but friends, if you do what I command.”  A friend understands what the master is doing.  With a servant, that’s not necessarily true:  he servant does things because the master ordered them to do it. A friend, on the other hand, does what he does because he’s in agreement.  Your friends don’t do what you tell them to do, just because you told them to, they do what they agree with.  So this context tells us that the disciples are in agreement with Jesus.  When they follow His orders they are of one accord.  They have the same purpose.  They have the same priorities.

What if we’re not in agreement?  What if we’re not of one accord?  Will the people we reach be fruit that remains?  I think if we’re not of one accord then there will be hesitation to make them feel welcome.  People will resist reaching out to others.  People will resist following up on new believers.  Follow-up is essential to having fruit that remains.  They come to church and they expect the pastor to be friendly.  It’s part of his job description – be friendly.  It’s the congregation’s response they’re looking for.  They wan to know what the people in the congregation are like.  Fruit that remains indicates that we are in one accord.

John 17:11 (NKJV)^17:11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.

That they may be one – in thought and purpose

As we are one – in thought and purpose:

That they will remain united in thought and action as the ones that came before them were united, so that they will all be of one accord.

Now look at this prayer of Jesus:

John 17:20-21 (NKJV)^17:20 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Jesus is praying that we as believers will be of one accord so that the world will know that this real:  That this is ordained of God.  I we are all of a different mindset then there’s no real difference between us and the world.

This is often my prayer.  I sometimes wonder why there are things that are visible in people’s lives in our congregation that I wouldn't want in my life.  Why do I feel so strongly about certain spiritual principles and people in the congregation don’t.  If we’re not of one accord it results in confusion for the newcomers, and in confusion that fruit cannot remain.

How to Bear Fruit and Have it Remain

I believe that there are several things that we as a congregation can do to see out church grow.  How many people realize that church growth is more dependent on the congregation than the pastor?  People don’t come to church because the pastor is great.  They come because of the congregation.  They come because of relationships they have or want to have with people in the church. We need to focus on the people we've been given.  We need to include them in our lives, and show them they’re accepted.  There’s a need for us all to come to be of one accord, because we’re not all going in the same direction.  We don’t all participate in the strategy of the church to reach souls.  There is a need for people in the congregation to share in the vision of the church to reach the lost.  People should begin to rise up and take on for themselves a personal vision to reach other people that works together with the church’s vision.

We can’t be afraid to reach out to people who may not be the “type” of people we’re comfortable with.  Those that seem to be the least lovable are often those who most need to be loved.

We can’t be afraid to witness or to share our testimony with people.  We don’t always know what they struggle with in life and your struggle may be the same type of thing they with which they struggle.  The thing that most touched me and brought me to the will of God was a drama about Mexican gangsters, when I had never had any experience at all with them.  The drama touched on an area of struggle in my life, with which other people, regardless of culture or ethnicity, may struggle.

Finally, it is important that we do not neglect those that do come.  Reach out to them.  Make friends with them.  Help them to feel like they are a part of something.  Show them that we care about them, so that they will desire to remain.  This is how we guard the fruit and don’t allow it to slip away.

Dream Rangers

This video is a commercial for a Taiwanese bank. It talks about dreams and living for your dreams. Obviously they are trying to sell loans or banking services. But it can speak to Christians, as well because it is also about vision. These are men who didn’t want to sit out the end of their lives living just to keep alive. They have decided to do something with the end of their lives.


Actually this video is based on a true story. There are three things that this video speaks to us I think.

· We can be motivated to by current crises to risk it all
· Age is not a factor in the completion of vision
· They weren’t limited by circumstances

I think the biggest impediment to living out the will of God, for most Christians is…themselves. We limit ourselves. We think that we are unable to rise above the circumstances in out lives; the disabilities, the difficulties. Today I want to look at different men in the Bible who are “Dream Rangers.” Despite what was happening, or had happened in their lives they overcame the circumstances and triumphed in God. I wan to examine how those things can be applied to our own lives. I want to use a simple text to examine Dream rangers in the Bible.

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)
29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Where there is no vision the people perish. According to Miriam-Webster Dictionary vision can be defined as: the act or power of imagination. If you can imagine it, you can make it happen.

Disneyland is a place where the creative spirit is encouraged. They are true believers in the idea that if it can be imagined it can be built. In fact, they use a staff of civil and mechanical engineers to design and build equipment and rides. Those engineers are called “imaginers.” The people at Disney have vision.

Vision is responsible for all the major success in any form: Literature, Art, Business, even Church planting. All of these things derive from somebody’s ability to imagine it. That’s what vision is: Vision is what will cause you to override your circumstances and move forward.

The Four Beggars – Circumstances Cause Risk and Change

2 Kings 7:1-8 (NKJV)
7:1 Then Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: 'Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.' " 2 So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, "Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?" And he said, "In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it." 3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die? 4 If we say, 'We will enter the city,' the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die." 5 And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise no one was there. 6 For the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses--the noise of a great army; so they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us!" 7 Therefore they arose and fled at twilight, and left the camp intact--their tents, their horses, and their donkeys--and they fled for their lives. 8 And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and carried from it silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them; then they came back and entered another tent, and carried some from there also, and went and hid it.

These four men are lepers, they’re living in a very difficult time in Jerusalem’s history. This moment takes place in the middle of a siege so overwhelming and lasting that women have begun to boil and eat their babies. These are dire circumstances, extremely difficult time. The circumstances have begun to control people’s actions, even their emotions. How desperate do you think a woman has to be to kill and eat her child? But look at the attitude of the lepers:

2 Kings 7:4 (NKJV)
7:4 If we say, 'We will enter the city,' the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die."

Maybe it’s because they have nothing left to lose, but it is the circumstances that have moved these men to action. “If we stay here, we die. If we go into the city, we die. But if we go to the Syrians we might die, but we might not.” Their circumstances were actually the motivation for them to take action.

Look at our world today. These are also desperate time. There is violence and unrest throughout the world. Sickness and disease are increasing, with super bacteria and the like. There is an increase in deaths to do natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and the like. There is even the global economic crisis. These are desperate times for many people. These are times every bit as desperate as the time the lepers in which the lepers lived. Their circumstances caused them to act. But what about the circumstances we’re facing? What are we going to do?

After all, as Christians, we are the ones with an answer to desperation and hopelessness. But often we’re sitting and watching as the world becomes less and less caring, and more and more brutal and dangerous. We have two choices, we can sit here and do nothing or we can answer the call that God has placed on our lives and take a risk.

The thing is that some of you reading this know God has a call on your life, but you are allowing your own dreams to override His vision for you. Some people can sit by and watch people perish, and be fatalistic about it. “Oh well, that’s just the way it is today.” It’s easy to do that so we can sit there like that or we can be like the lepers and say. If we stay here we die…and then take action.

Can you sit and watch or can you be galvanized into action? These are ugly times, but guess what, they’re going to get uglier, especially if Christians sit and do nothing. Don’t let you fear regulate your ability to answer the call of God on your life. The lepers didn’t know what they’d face if they went over to the Syrians, but they went anyway.

In the last month, or fellowship has launched seven couples into international works. Some of those couples were launched right into the middle of the violence and unrest. These couples have answered the call of God to go into the middle of the danger. They don’t know what it’s going to be like; they don’t know what’s going to happen. But they’re going anyway: Like the lepers.

In fact no couple that’s launched out to pioneer a church knows what the future will hold. But they go. They answer the call. It is much easier to do nothing and many make that choice. They want to wait until the circumstances are right. When I have more money. Maybe when the kids are older. Or whatever the circumstance in their lives is that overrules their calling. But I want to tell you something there is no right time to get pregnant. If you wait until the circumstances are perfect, you’ll never have kids, because the fact is there will always be problems and difficulties. That’s how life is. If you wait until your circumstances are perfect to do something for God, then you never will.

When these lepers did this it saved Jerusalem. They took a chance. They took a risk. What about you? Are you willing to risk?

Abraham and David – You’re Never Too Old or Too Young

Genesis 21:1-5 (NKJV)
21:1 And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him--whom Sarah bore to him--Isaac. 4 Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

1 Samuel 16:10-13 (NKJV)
16:10 Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen these." 11 And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?" Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here." 12 So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!" 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

These men in the video were eighty-one years old when they began that trip. But they got it into their minds that even with all the frailties that come with age, their sicknesses and their disabilities, that they could do it. They didn’t allow their age to limit them.

Do you realize that God is not a respecter of age? Abraham is being given the son of promise, Isaac, at one hundred years of age. God isn’t worried that Abraham is too old to do what God has purposed for him. David, on the other hand is anointed king at sixteen years of age. God isn’t worried that he isn’t old enough to carry out God’s plan for Israel.

The problem is that the world limits people based on their age. The elderly are set aside too old to be of any help. The young don’t know anything. What could they possible achieve?

Ronald Reagan was reelected president of the United States at seventy-three years of age. In that term as president he ended the cold war with Russia.

Mark Zuckerberg was twenty-three years old when he created Facebook …he’s a Billionaire.

We don’t have to be limited by age. We are neither too old, nor too young to answer God’s call. Those couples that were launched out some were very young and others were in their fifties or older. An older person with wisdom and experience can serve God. A young person with energy and zeal can serve God. Do you know what’s the perfect age to answer God’s call? How old are you? That’s the perfect age. God calls you by his measure, so if you’re hearing the call you’re old enough, or young enough as the case may be.

Moses – His Circumstances Didn’t Stop His call

Exodus 4:10-17 (NKJV)
4:10 Then Moses said to the Lord, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." 11 So the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say." 13 But he said, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send." 14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. 16 So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. 17 And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs."

So Moses wasn’t perfect to answer God’s call. Moses was concerned that his disability would keep him back. He was slow of speech, do you know that means, he stuttered. He had limitations. He had also tried to do what God was calling him to do once before, on his own. He completely messed it up. He tried to do the whole thing on his own strength and ended up killing a man and thereby making everyone else unwilling to follow him. That’s why in Exodus three he is so concerned about, “who shall I say sent me?” But when God makes the call he goes and God is able to use him in spite of the things he sees as his weaknesses.

I’m not just talking about physical disabilities here, though. This is really about the kind of weakness that we all have. All of us have things that damage our confidence in ourselves. Things that make us think we can’t do it. That’s what Moses said, “I can’t, I’m not good enough. But what was God’s reaction?

"So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses”

I guess God had a different idea. God wouldn’t allow Moses to use his personal circumstances to keep him from answering God’s call. Moses overcame his circumstances, sufficiently, to become one of the greatest leaders in all of history. Maybe God wants to do that in you, as well.

Are You a Dream Ranger?

So, the question before us is this…Are you a Dream ranger? Are you able to put God’s call before everything else? Are you willing to answer God’s call; willing to respond to God’s vision? These are desperate times for the world. So much of prophecy is right before our eyes. I truly believe, that more than ever before, we are hurtling toward the return of Jesus. These are the times for action. These are not the times to sit back and nurse our wounds or worry about the circumstances of our lives. There are so many people whose eternity hangs in the balance.

In the book of Esther, Mordecai is talking about the call on Esther’s life. It was a desperate time for Jews. Haman had gained power and convinced the king that the Jews should die. The decree had gone out, the time was set. Only Esther had access to the king, but even for her it was dangerous. No one could approach the king, if he had not called them. The penalty was death. Esther was hesitant and Mordecai tells her this:

Esther 4:14 (NKJV)
4:14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

She listens and responds, “If I perish, I perish.” She’s going to answer the call. She’s going to put aside her concerns and be about the business of God. She’s a dream ranger. What about you, are you a dream ranger?