Encouragement I received for today . . .

I thank you Lord today for those that you have placed in and around my life. We all need each other . . . forgive me Lord for the times when I think I can do it on my own. I was greatly encouraged by this word from John Paul Jackson.
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Out of all the prophetic men and women in Scripture, only two are described as being gifted to understand dreams and visions: Daniel and Joseph. There are many prophetic people in the Bible, but only two who were gifted like this. In other words, we shouldn't be shocked or downhearted when we don't understand all of our dreams, visions or experiences. All of us aren't going to understand our dark knowings, the deep things the Lord has called us to do--the deep things He has told us about. We have to depend on other people to help us.

You Will Always Need Other People

As simple as it sounds, this creates incredible tension. We have a gift--we're supposed to be the ones with the revelation! If we depend on others, what if they see us as weak? Well, I'm the one with the gift, we think. If I don't know, who's gonna know? Yet we often don't know, and the not knowing forces us to go one way or the other: We can choose God and His "family plan," or we can choose to become orphans who have to survive on our own. We are part of the body, and we cannot exist solo, no matter how gifted we are.

Walking in Faith

God will make us walk through life in faith so that we can understand how other people walk through life in faith. Walking in faith involves believing that what God has said about us is true. It means we take Him at His word--which takes a lot of courage, depending on our personality type and our fears. We accept the fact that He did not create us to be loners who know everything. In fact, even though we can prophetically see for others, often we can't see worth a flip for ourselves. If we didn't have to walk in faith, we would have absolutely no comprehension or understanding of the divine dynamic tension that everybody else has to walk under. In essence, God tells us, "I'm going to let you see for everybody else but you. Very seldom will I let you see for yourself. I am going to have others come to you and tell you, 'This is what's going to happen,' so that you have to walk by faith just like they do. You will know, then, how it feels when you go and tell that to them."

All of Us Equal

As we go through this maturing process, we realize that comforting others as we ourselves have been comforted (2 Corinthians 1:4) doesn't just apply to helping others through their pain. It is also a general statement of how God created us to live with one another whether there's pain involved or not. We are not separate from one another. What one goes through, we all experience; and so, we learn to live in deep compassion and humility, realizing that God created all of us as the apple of His eye. All of us are equal in His sight, even if one gifting seems to be spotlighted more than another. His affection does not pertain to gifting. It does not pertain to accomplishments. It pertains to His heart. He has chosen us to be recipients of His compassion. When we realize this, loving people becomes a little easier. Their destiny is just as important as ours, and we cannot make it to ours if they cannot make it to theirs.

by John Paul Jackson
Streams Ministries