Are you one of those people who do not see God’s plan or purpose for your life any more? Have you simply been coasting for years, convinced that God has bypassed you somehow? Has your enthusiasm and excitement faded and your light become dim? It is probably some past disappointment that is responsible. Or maybe a temporary setback has brought serious discouragement that has unleashed utter hopelessness and snuffed out the zeal you once possessed.
Do not fret, because neither can prevent you from becoming all that God wants you to be. You have not burned out. Your greatest hour is yet to come. You better trim your wick.
One reason that I am so certain is because of my own personal experience and the other is because of the bamboo tree. "What possible connection does a bamboo tree have with my condition?" you ask. Everything! You’ll see!
You will find that if you plant a bamboo tree and you fertilize it and water it day after day and month after month that absolutely nothing happens. The next year you add more fertilizer and more water and still nothing happens. The third year you give it more of this and more of that and for all your effort you just get more disappointment. By the fourth year you are convinced that you’ve planted a dud. The fifth year is no different from those previous unproductive years and you want to pull it out by it’s roots.
Do not fret and do not give up because what happens is that at the end of the fifth year that bamboo tree grows 45 feet in a matter of 30 days. All that water, all that fertilizer, all that sunshine was being assimilated, was being absorbed and stored up for the day of exploit.
Do not let the past affect your present. Simply learn from the past. Absorb the lessons and then move into your divine appointment. Forget your mistakes and your failures. Forget the years that seemed unproductive. Forget the people that have said, ‘This must be God’s will for your life -- to remain stunted.’ Don’t give place to that kind of faith-destroying mentality. The enemy of your soul wants you to believe that you are going to live a mediocre, going nowhere, doing nothing existence and that you have come to the end of the road. That is just not a fact for anyone that is a child of God’s.
After I had been on roller skates for God for over ten years, my wheels suddenly screeched to a complete halt. I spent the next three and one half years believing that I had lost the favor of God in my life and that for some reason God changed His mind and pulled me out of His service. I lost all hope. You can live without an awful lot of things, but you cannot live without hope. I wanted to die.
Suddenly, the Lord sent me a messenger to tell me it was all a lie and that the devil had very subtly and systematically convinced me that the game plan had changed. My simple proclamation, "Get thee behind me satan", ended my many years of torment because I had received revelation knowledge of the power of God behind those words. Yet, for another year and a half I walked around in a daze, licking my wounds, recuperating from the onslaught until God sent another messenger asking, "What are you doing hiding in the cave Mrs. Elijah? Come out of that cave and run with the message." That mere insight of my self-imposed restrictions and the affirmation of God’s decree for my life re-ignited my fire. I’ve never looked back.
I’m certain that after Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and during his 12 years in exile it looked like God’s plan for his life was merely a pipe dream. Especially during the two years when he was cast into a dungeon for something he didn’t even do. But God had a mighty call on Joseph’s life. He was made Governor of all of Egypt. He preserved his entire family and all of Egypt during the years of famine.
Moses hid in the desert 40 years until God commissioned him to go and set the captives free and lead them into the promised land.
It doesn’t matter if you have been in the desert for 40 days or 40 years, God has a divine call for you to fulfill. I bring you the message that God has set you as a ‘beacon upon the top of a hill’.
Copyright Donna Martonfi www.psalm40ministries.com
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