Enough With Being Realistic

Matthew 19:26 NIV

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

I can't stand the phrase "I'm just being realistic". The problem with this saying is it doesn't make room for God.

For most people, things only seem realistic ... when what's possible ... doesn't require supernatural intervention from God.

You'll never accomplish much for God if you are keeping things realistic.

Joshua would have never led the children of Israel into the promised land being realistic. The Red Sea and the Jordan would not have been dried up and parted being realistic.

When Joshua got the orders to march around Jericho, that probably didn't seem realistic. They marched around the city for six days straight, and then on the seventh day they marched around seven times. If they were realistic, they might have reasoned this might not work.

But being realistic kept the Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years. And that generation of realistic Israelites died in that desert.

But sure enough, on the seventh day, when they had circled the city seven times, the walls of Jericho fell.

Here's the key. Before the Israelites began the seven days of marching, God declared that Jericho would fall. You know, without a miracle from God, those walls would have never fallen. Joshua expected miracles from God, he resisted being realistic.

In the book of Luke chapter 1 when an angel approached Mary to tell her that she would become pregnant with Jesus through the Holy Spirit, I'm sure that didn't seem realistic. Mary's response to the angel of the Lord was classic.

Luke 1:38 NIV - “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Mary's response didn't leave room for the realistic. She just went all in with faith.

On the other hand when an angel appeared to Zachariah (the future father of John the Baptist) to tell him his wife Elizabeth was going to get pregnant, He questioned the angel because they were much too old to have a baby. It wasn't realistic. What's interesting in this story is the angel had to make him mute until after the baby was born because of his doubt, so Zachariah wouldn't cancel out the baby with his words.

Look, if you are pregnant with a God-planted dream, you'll never have the baby being realistic. Here are the six predictable stages from dream to destiny. You'll never get far being realistic.

1. You have a dream. It's probably not realistic.
2. You make a decision to pursue it. The timing will almost never be perfect.
3. You run into delays.
4. You run into difficulty.
5. You run into dead ends where without a miracle, your dream will die.
6. But because you refused to be realistic, you enter into destiny.

Enough with being realistic, go after your dreams expecting God to do the impossible. Your future's not determined by your present circumstances. It gets determined by your perception of what's possible, the size of your dreams, and God's plan and purpose for your life.

Dream it and do it in 2022!

-Gerald