Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The Desires of Our Heart……


“……..And afterward I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.    Joel 2:28  AMP

Is it wrong for a disciple to long for the “desires of [his] heart”? 

This is what God promises those who “delight” in Him. (Ps 37:4)   I believe that when a man delights in God, the Lord opens his spiritual eyes to “visions” and “dreams” that would be unheard of in his natural state.  (Joel 2:28)

Those desires are not implanted by God for disappointment.    The only time a disciple cannot realize his heart’s desires is when he seeks them by his own efforts.

God has plans for every one of His children that are far beyond the stretch of their imagination.  They are plans for “welfare” and “hope,” not “calamity.”  (Jer. 29:11)

A man’s desires come from within the man himself, while God’s desires for a man come from without.   They are implanted in him by a new relationship with God, but in such a way as to assure the believer that his desires are indeed his own.

God will never allow my divinely planted dreams to be thwarted.  That is why Abraham went back down Moriah’s hill with Isaac, why Nehemiah found favor with the king and why Simeon and Anna were allowed to live so long.  

I must strongly resist the notion that it is wrong to have dreams, wrong to let my heart desire.   A man without divinely implanted longings does not know much about the Spirit of God.

The impediments such as sickness, suffering, imprisonment, fear and death no more affect my desires than a feather can affect Gibraltar!  Who can say no when God says yes and who can deny a dream when God has determined that it will be realized?

“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.   Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.   Jer. 29:11-12 NASB

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