He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Isaiah 40:29.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Another lie of the devil that will hold you in his power is that you are weak and insignificant, that you can do nothing that makes a difference, so why even try? This belittlement of your abilities kept My people from having the confidence to enter the land I had promised them, was making Gideon retreat and hide from the enemy, kept Moses on the backside of the desert and out of leadership for forty years, and made the entire Israelite army run and hide in their tents at the taunts of one man, Goliath.
Disappointments, things not growing to what you thought they would over a period of years, setbacks, roadblocks and delays make many give up and just assume they were not made for greatness and fall back into mediocrity and worse. They give up and just try to deal with all the things that come up each day. And the devil will supply plenty of distractions and frustrations to keep you from ever going forward out of the entanglements and business of daily life. Visions and dreams fade away and then all seems too late and gone. You fall back into the limitations of the goldfish bowl and never get out into the river of life.
You must answer every lie of the devil with the truth of My Word and not let the enemy define you. So what is the answer to this lie?
One seed can change everything. Let Me tell you about Isaac and the hundredfold, then you will understand what I am telling you.
Isaac was the son of the promise. I had promised Abraham a son. It looked impossible but once Abraham was fully persuaded of My ability to do what I promised, and Sarah also became convinced, the promised child was born.
First Sarah died and then Abraham died and Isaac was on his own with his wife Rebekah and their two sons. A famine came on the land, no rain and no crops were growing, it was like the one that came on the land when Abraham went to Egypt for food. But I told Isaac My plan before he repeated what his father had done.
The LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.” Genesis 26:2-5.
I gave him a plan that did not seem like it would be successful for his livelihood was based on the land’s produce and grazing for his herds and flocks, but I gave him instructions for greatness and prosperity for years to come and he caught the vision and followed the plan as I unfolded it to him as he walked in steps of faith.
So Isaac stayed where he was in Gerar and he sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold.
How did he do that? I opened to him the wells his father had dug that over the years the Philistines had filled with dirt, so he had no need of rainfall, he had a hidden source of living water. And I blessed him. Obedience to My plan has great reward, it will make you great, just as I told Abraham. And his obedience made Abraham great and that blessing went down the years to his descendants and now through Christ Jesus it has come to you.
And by sowing that seed in famine, Isaac became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy. I gave him his own market niche that no one else could fill in the time of famine. Everyone had to buy from him. Just like Joseph did with the grain in Egypt, and I showed him how to do that. I gave Pharaoh the dream but to Joseph I gave the interpretation and the plan.
My blessing makes rich and adds no sorrow with it. Isaac was the only one that had a harvest and he had a hundredfold. Not a hundred times, but a hundred folds. That is the doubling double every day. He became the richest man of that age for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him.
Then the leader of the Philistines, Abimelech, approached Isaac and said, “Go away from us, for you are too powerful for us.” And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there.
When the devil meets his match in you by the power of sowing seed as I say, he wants you out of his territory at any cost. Isaac shook the dust from his feet and went into the valley, but there Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the same names which his father had given them.
But then I even gave him more, I opened up a new well in the valley that his servants of living water, and the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So Isaac’s servants dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.” Genesis 26:22. And I made him very fruitful, richer than any other man of his time. And after that his servants dug another well and yet another one. With joy you shall draw water at the springs of Salvation!
No one could take the blessing away from Isaac that I had put upon him because of his father Abraham. The blessing of Abraham.
Let Me now tell you how to go from insignificant to great.
- Get your eyes off yourself and put your eyes on Jesus. If you set greatness before your eyes, you become what you are beholding.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Stop looking in the mirror of the world, the flesh, and the devil to see who you are, for that is a superficial image but look in the mirror of My Word and renew your mind in that mirror and you will be transformed to who you are in Christ. Metamorphosis. For I see not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart. I see who you can be. Great. I have put eternity in each person’s heart and there are no limits there.
For this is My Will, that everyone who beholds My Son Jesus and believes in Him will have eternal life, and Jesus Himself will raise him up on the last day. John 6:40.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Hebrews 12:1-2.
Know where to look and it will take you from weakness and insignificance to strength and greatness. It is true that you can do nothing without Me but with Me you can do all things. Just attach to the vine and you will bear much fruit.
When he looked in the mirror of the world, Gideon saw himself weak and insignificant unable to change his nation or stand up to the oppression of the enemy. But when I came and made him look at himself in the mirror of My Word he found that he was looking at a champion with the strength of an entire army that took down the enemy and chased them out of Israel. He learned battle strategies from Me that were most unusual and quite unique. But he found if he ran with the vision he could reap a hundredfold.
David was hidden in the fields of Bethlehem watching his father’s “few” sheep and was considered so unimportant by his father and brothers that when Samuel invited them to the sacrificial banquet they did not even have David come. But he was the one I had held the banquet for—to anoint him to be the king of Israel. I looked at his heart and I saw a king. I saw a man after My own heart. I saw an overcomer. And in Me, he saw that too.
For You light my lamp; the LORD my God illumines my darkness. For by You I can run upon a troop; and by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is blameless; The Word of the LORD is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God, the God who girds me with strength and makes my way blameless? He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, and sets me upon my high places. He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand upholds me; and You stooped to make me great. You enlarge my steps under me, and my feet have not slipped. I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and I did not turn back until they were consumed. I shattered them, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet. Psalm 18:28-38.
- In prayer with Me get the vision and write down the plan. This will reveal to you the seed you should sow to harvest the hundredfold return the same year.
First go into your place of prayer where you are free from distractions, “go to your room, close your door, and pray to your Father in private,” I am mindful of you and am always with you, but step apart, like Moses on the mountain, where we can talk without all the other distractions.
Then pray in the Spirit and read in My Word, sing songs of the Spirit and songs of your understanding. And when you are in the Spirit and hear My voice of inspiration and revelation, write down the vision and the plan, Habakkuk 2:1-2.
This is what Moses did on Mt. Sinai and I gave him the vision and detailed plans for My dwelling place among the Israelites so I could lead them and guide them through the desert to the land I had promised them. And it was an amazing, beautiful, and magnificent place, full of intricate design, engraving, weaving, furnishings of gold, silver, and bronze which required craftsmen of skill to build it. And it was completed in nine months.
And in a dream I gave Jacob the vision and the plan of how to increase his flocks and wages a hundredfold the same year.
- Run with the vision by implementing the plan.
All of the visions and plans I give you and all believers would never manifest if you do not sow, grow, construct, and do it. You cannot just sit with it and keep it to yourself, you must run with it and I have designated others to run with you.
Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Habakkuk 2:2-3
When Isaac got the vision and direction from Me, he sowed the seed and reaped a hundredfold the SAME YEAR. Barley is ready for harvest in three months from when sown and wheat planted in Spring is four months to harvest. Two bumper crops in the same year, but a hundredfold is really miracle grow.
But he had to plant the seeds and his servants find, open, and dig the wells to make this happen. It came from their involvement in the vision and plan with Me. If you are mindful of Me in faith I can direct your steps in the world.
And I can multiply and fold if you will give Me a seed, just as the five loaves and two fish in the hands of Jesus lifted up to My jurisdiction, that is, transferred to the Kingdom, fed over 5,000 amply with twelve baskets full left over.
And remember the widow’s little bit of oil? It filled as many containers as the widow and her sons could borrow from her neighbors with fine oil that when sold not only paid off her husband’s debts put gave her and her sons plenty to live on for years to come. Hundredfold. She planted the seed of what she had in her house in faith and I gave her a hundredfold return the same year, immediately to pay the debts due on time.
And that is key, the seed must be planted in faith from what you have in hand. But do not worry if you think you have nothing, by My Word I give seed to the sower and bread to the eater and the provision is in the vision and is in the plan as you carry it out step by step. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that gets brighter and brighter as you go along till you reach perfect day.
I gave Jacob the vision and plan of how to recover all the wages that Laban had cheated him out of for twenty years. I showed him to strip rows of bark off branches (rods) of trees so that they were stripped and put them by the watering troughs when the strong sheep mated and take them away when the weak ones mated.
He did this and ewes produced what they beheld and since his wages were the stripped and speckled sheep, his wages increased to very great wealth in flocks and herds the same year. The gestation period for sheep is 138-152 days. But it is I who cause the ewes to birth at My Word.
And consider the plans I gave to Moses. I funded them with the precious jewels, gold, silver, and garments I had the Egyptians give to the Israelites upon their demand as they departed, and I planned this more than four hundred years before when I shared the plan with Abraham. And I shared it with Moses when I gave him the vision and the plan to go to Pharaoh and set My people free from slavery. And then he found out why when I revealed to him the vision so dear to My heart of the tabernacle and its furnishings so I could dwell among My people right in the center of their camp, cover their sins in the sacrifices offered therein and guide them to the promised land. And Moses wrote down the plans in all their exactness so that he and others could run with it. And he implemented the plan immediately.
And it required very skilled craftsmen, weavers, and builders to bring it into physical reality, but I gave the skill to those whose hearts were moved in that direction and they completed all to the exact specifications in nine months. And My glory filled that tabernacle when they erected it.
I could share many other miracles and signs and wonders that came from those who refused to just consider their own physical bodies and characteristics, past disappointments and setbacks, and enter into fellowship in prayer to receive My vision for them, write down the plan and implement it by planting the seed I show them so it can begin to grow. And as it gathers momentum others will join that I direct to come and run with you until it achieves the end for which I sent it.
Joseph’s and David’s dreams took thirteen years to come to pass but “though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay. Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by faith.” Habakkuk 2:3-4.
There’s still time for your dreams, they are not gone as they seem, choose the best part, rest on My heart, we have eternity, we have eternity.
Now faith is, now faith acts, and now faith sees.
So how do you go from weak and insignificant to strong and great? Look, listen, write, and run!
Do not just look at yourself, look at (behold) Jesus and you will become great. You become like the one on whom you are focused. You see Jesus in keeping your eyes on My Word.
You shall therefore impress these Words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and keep them before your eyes as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as days of Heaven upon the earth. Deuteronomy 11:18-21.
See yourself in the mirror of My Word. And speak only what I say about you. “Let the weak say, I am strong (a hero (gibbor)).”
Spend time in prayer in the secret place, and when you are in the Spirit you will see the vision and get the plan. Write them down.
The implement the plan by sowing and growing the seed. Look for wells of living water.
I love you. You may be little in your own eyes, but you are great in Mine. Next time the devil tells you that you are weak and insignificant and your life does not matter, tell him about who I have made you to be in Christ Jesus and that I have a plan for greatness that I am ready to run with you.