Hope Deferred

​The Father showed me something powerful tonight that I believe may speak to a number of you. So, I am led to share it.

Could it be that you are hanging on to something that you know God has already showed you to let go of? Why are you still hanging on? You know the weight of it is crushing. You know that deep down inside it is making you miserable. You know that God has given you little signs here and there that this is not His will for you. But you hang on because you HOPED....

Hope is a powerful word. We all have hopes and dreams that we cling to, believing that one day these desires of our hearts will be fulfilled. But are they God's desire for you? Or are you just hanging on because you can't figure out how to let go and end it graciously.

If you are outside of God's will with these hopes, it is not going to end well for you. I am suffering even now from a very painful condition, which the Father finally showed me was stemming from my refusal to let go of the HOPE that was never part of His will.

Last December I had a very vivid dream, which I knew was a Spirit-given instruction for me to lay down the old so that God could bring me His NEW, His BEST. In this dream my husband and I had a baby, but the baby rather quickly died. A few hours later someone was knocking at our door and when we opened it, the person put a newborn baby into my arms and left! I clearly remember feeling a little anxious about whether or not the baby would be able to take the breast milk I still had; but when I put this newborn to my breast, it ate heartily and thrived! Then I woke up.

Isaiah 43:18-19: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing, do you not perceive it?

I perceived it, from this life-giving dream -- but I continued to hang onto the old. Until today. Today in my prayer time, God spoke to me yet one more time, and this time I got the message loud and clear. I prayed, "Father, this thing I am still holding onto feels like a corpse. I'm carrying around dead weight, aren't I?"

His response: "Yes. It is HOPE DEFERRED. AND HOPE DEFERRED MAKES THE HEART SICK."  (Proverbs 13:12).

Oswald Chambers wrote: "If our hopes are being disappointed right now, it means that they are being purified."

Wow. Hope deferred makes the heart sick - but if I lay down the old hopes and allow God to purify them and transform them into HIS WILL, then my heart shall be revived, my muscles shall be calmed and healed of pain, and my mind shall be at peace. When God restores HIS desires for me, it will be a TREE OF LIFE! (Proverbs 13:12) It will be a newborn that lives and thrives.