Has anyone ever had a dream that was so incredibly vivid that it seemed that it was actually real? It wasn’t the first time, but I recently experienced this in a dream where I was in my house looking at some damage being done by a ferocious thunderstorm. In my dream I could feel my astonishment as I saw water leaking profusely through the drywall ceiling in multiple locations and torrents of rain pouring through every window and door frame in my house. As you would probably expect, in the dream I was moving about frantically trying to figure out what was happening and what could I do to stop it. In the dream I remember feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of the event and also having a genuine sense of helplessness. When I awoke, I pondered the dream and wondered if there was some interpretation of what it meant or was it just a dream. Nonetheless, it was so real, I’ll have to admit that I was a little disturbed by it.
Later that day I was sitting at my computer doing some work and out of nowhere I began to think about how incredibly busy I’ve been over the past several months. It was at that moment that the dream about the rainstorm came back to me. I hesitated from doing my work and felt in my spirit that this dream was representative of me and the actual feelings I had been having of feeling overwhelmed at times with the non-stop cascade of situations, events and responsibilities I was trying to manage and deal with. At that point I could certainly agree with the old saying, “when it rains, it pours.”
But I wasn’t interested in old sayings. I was interested in what God was saying. I wanted to know where in His Word does it speak about the feelings of stress and isolation? I know that sometimes the pain and discomfort of difficult or burdensome circumstances can have us thinking like the Prophet Elijah when he was on the run from Queen Jezebel who had threatened to kill him after he had slain her prophets at the brook below Mount Carmel. In his lament to the Lord he said, “…I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” (1 Kings 19: 10) Elijah was feeling pretty alone right then, but the Lord let him know that he wasn’t the only one going through the challenges he was experiencing. There were others that had not been abandoned to suffer in solitary because God Himself was giving them strength to combat their feelings of oppression and loneliness.
Responding to Elijah’s assertion that he was basically the only one standing for righteousness, God corrected him about his mistaken assumption and said, “Yet I have left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19: 18) Thank God that He always has, and always will reserve a remnant unto Himself no matter what hardships unfold. And He is faithful to us in the same manner as the Apostle Paul records God’s assurance that “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10: 13)
So, leaving Elijah and getting back to me, I was then led to some scriptures that I had been studying and this is what it said: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” (1 Peter 4: 12-13)
I was floored by these wonderful words of wisdom and encouragement and, as surprising as it may seem, I can’t tell you how glad I was reading God’s Word about the intense difficulties and challenges we face. Not particularly about the discomfort I was experiencing like it was some terrible new thing that was happening only to me, but specifically about the fact that I had God on my side and that “…the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8: 18)
Praise God! I didn’t even realize that the Lord was comforting and strengthening me at that very moment. Bless the Lord for the hope that He gives to us, the comfort He supplies to us and the promise He makes to us that, if we can remain faithful and endure until the end, we shall not only be witness to, but be an active part of a spectacular and indescribable ushering into the glorious presence of God for all eternity. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.” (James 1: 12)
At that moment my heart was saying, you have no reason to sing some sad old song. Not today. Today I need to be singing a song of joy and triumph! A song like Moses sang when God drowned Pharoah’s army in the Red Sea! A song of patiently but powerfully suffering through and overcoming tremendous odds! A song that embodies the past success we've realized and the future triumph we are destined to achieve! A song about being more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ our Lord! A good old gospel song like this:
I heard an old, old story
How a Savior came from glory
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me
I heard about His groaning
Of His precious blood’s atoning
Then I repented of my sins
And won the victory!
Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever
He sought me, and bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me 'ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood
YES! GLORY HALLELUJAH!
Now think about this, beloved ones. It is through the voluntary and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ that we have been rescued from eternal torment in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone. By the shedding of His precious blood and His domination over death, we too have been resurrected to walk in the newness of life. It is His mercy that endureth forever and His love that covers a multitude of sin which brings about the grace whereby we are saved. A salvation that doesn’t fade, doesn’t rust, can never be stolen and is guaranteed to be beyond our wildest imagination. And for that, our Creator is greatly to be praised.
Therefore, I focus the remainder of this message on the first chapter of the Apostle Peter’s 1st Epistle who’s inspired writings directly addresses the issues we’ve been discussing. In it he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you…” (1 Peter 1: 3-4)
Now, we can all testify to the fact that we serve a mighty God. He is so mighty that He has power over time, space and dimension. He is so mighty that He occupies yesterday, today and forever concurrently. He is so mighty that He is able to roll the heavens up like a scroll, create a universe out of nothing, cause the sun to stand still, breathe the breath of life into a lifeless body and is in total control of both the natural and the supernatural. Therefore, it should be no surprise that He is able to preserve you through the toughest of times and is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
Oh yes, I’m talking to you, the one who sometimes doubts, the one who sometimes gets entangled in the affairs of this life, the one who has struggles like everyone else, just like me. But I’m also talking to those of you, and all of us, “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1: 5) That is why we can jubilantly say that “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed…” (2 Corinthians 4: 8-9) You see, we have been given a special treasure in these earthen vessels that we possess that it will be evident that the extraordinary greatness of the conquering power that is within and sustaining us will be of God and not of us. And to God be all the glory!
So rejoice, and again I say, rejoice! What you’re going through won’t last forever. Even though you’re feeling the infirmity of your humanity, remember that Jesus felt it also. And He felt it in a manner so horrific that it defies description. And to top it all off, He didn’t have to suffer like He did, but He did it for you because He loves you. He has given us the desire, the will and the ability to make every effort to live holy because He wants you to be prepared and purified, without spot or wrinkle, ready to make the joyful journey home when He returns to earth to get His Father’s children. “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1: 6-7)
We can all acknowledge that the overwhelming pressures of our existence can be debilitating to our mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. And being tired, hungry, cold or hurt only makes it worse. So, how does the feeling of being overwhelmed manifest itself? Well, you may be cranky, irritable, cynical, depressed, discouraged, inconsolable or it can show itself by any of a multitude of negative emotions. But as we just read, it’s all a trial. A fiery trial. And that fiery trial you are going through is all about your faith.
The question is, can you keep the faith? Can you keep the faith when you aren’t feeling good? Can you keep the faith when you don’t understand? Can you keep the faith when others are mocking you? Can you keep the faith when things look like they’re not getting any better? Can you keep the faith when it looks like sinful people are prospering and enjoying the finer things in life? Can you keep the faith when you are being offered the carnally pleasurable things of the world that are contrary to God’s Word? Can you keep the faith when the world is telling you that there are better things to spend your time on than worshipping someone you can’t even see?
But that’s the point. And guess what? Jesus said to rejoice anyway. And though we can’t physically see Him, oh my, we certainly can feel Him! We can feel Him just as sure as the woman with the issue of blood “felt” her healing when virtue flowed from the divine body of our Messiah. We can feel Him just as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus excitedly recollected how they “felt their heart burn within them” as Jesus opened up the scriptures. We can feel Him just like Jeremiah did when he described the Word of God as “a fire shut up in his bones” compelling Him to submit to the Creator of all things, no matter what the cost.
And on the subject of seeing, don’t forget how the author of the Book of Hebrews has told us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11: 1) Paul said in Romans 8: 24-26, “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” As the disciple Thomas would not believe Jesus had been resurrected unless he saw the physical evidence of His crucifixion, Jesus told him, “Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (John 20: 29)
Unlike Thomas, we don’t have to physically see Jesus to believe in Jesus. We walk by faith and not by sight. Our sight is eternal, not temporal. Our sight is spiritual, not physical. And that spiritual sight is more real than physical sight because it gives us a view into things hidden from this natural world. The Spirit is substance, the physical is shadow. That is why when we do spiritually see Jesus, then we become like Thomas when he realized that he had faltered in his faith and said, “MY LORD AND MY GOD.” (John 20: 28)
Rejoice, dear ones, because we have been enlightened. Rejoice because we were blind but now we see. Rejoice because we’ve been translated from dark to light, from death to life and all because we believe in and love the Son of the Living God, “Whom having not seen, ye love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory…” (1 Peter 4: 8)
And that brings us back to the fact that it’s not about our frailty or our failings, but it’s about our faith. Therefore we joyfully look forward to “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1: 3-9) Make no mistake, the saving of the soul is why Jesus came to earth. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3: 16-17)
And so, through the power of God’s Word may we all be encouraged to shift our focus from being obsessed with things that are overwhelming us to being edified by the fact that through these very things that we endure there is a path to paradise. This is the same principle the Apostle Paul was teaching to the brethren on his first missionary journey through Lystra, Iconium and Antioch where he was "…exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." (Acts 14: 22)
He was echoing the same sentiments of our Lord Jesus Who taught His disciples, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16: 33) And where does that leave us? If you’ve been born again it leaves you right here ….. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5: 4-5)
Jesus was the ultimate overcomer. And by the power of the love of Christ we can be overcomers as well. How important is it to be an overcomer? Read the following statements Jesus made to the 7 Revelation churches about the wonderful things that await overcomers, and decide for yourself:
· To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
· He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
· To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
· And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
· He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.
· Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him My new name.
· To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.
· He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.
I pray that whatever is attempting to overwhelm you today, that Almighty God will raise up a holy warrior’s spirit in you to overcome and “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” (Ephesians 3: 16-21)