God’s timing and our timing rarely match. God is precise and meticulous. We are usually in a hurry, wanting everything right now. God is never in a hurry, but he is always on time. And when the time comes, God moves and he moves rapidly. In every dream there is an optimum moment when God pours out his power and the doors of destiny swing open for anyone willing to exercise faith and step through it.
In Abram’s case when the dream seemed to be as far from being fulfilled as the east is from the west, God moved. And he moved quickly. Repetition is the mother of learning and God is the master teacher. He appeared once again to Abram and step-by-step retraced the incredible dream he had first shared with Abram way back in Haran. Remember God is precise and meticulous and he was intent on Abram understanding that God’s intention was to fulfill his word and that fulfillment would be miraculous, which is domain he alone operates in.
As the Lord moved step by step through his planned fulfillment of the dream, stipulation by stipulation and benefit by benefit, he paused a couple of times to impress the reality of this moment on Abram’s brain. The first occurs when God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. God inserts a “ha” and the man whose original name meant “exalted father” (Abram) now becomes “father of a multitude” (Abraham). If you add two ha’s together (ha-ha) you have the beginning of a laugh. Perhaps, God was laughing at the response he expected with his next pause.
When the Lord paused again, he made it clear to Abraham that his wife Sarai would bear the son who would be the first installment of God’s dream fulfillment. And then God changed her name to Sarah, which means “princess.” It was more than Abraham could handle. He lost it. Falling on his face, he could do nothing but laugh. In his mind, he could not humanly comprehend how a ninety-nine year old man and his ninety year old bride could ever conceive, much less bear a child. In that moment of utter disbelief, Abraham offered God a way out, but God declined and again stipulated in no uncertain terms that it would be Sarah.
A year later, the Lord showed up with a couple of big burly angels and knocked on Abraham’s tent flap, on his way to rub Sodom and Gomorrah off the map. While they were enjoying a meal of veal and cheese, the Lord declared that Sarah would birth a child one year from that exact day. Sarah was eavesdropping and she lost it, giggling to herself. Everyone, it seemed, was laughing—except God. He makes a statement that we all need to tattoo on the inside of our eyelids—“Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” God was working a supernatural miracle—something “wonderful,” which is the literal Hebrew meaning of the word translated “difficult.”
That brings us to another key principle in dreaming God-sized dreams: God-sized dreams are always miraculous. God is the author of the miraculous. If you or I could bring the dream to pass it would not be miraculous. The miraculous transcends the laws of nature, overrides the abilities and capabilities of human beings, and is impossible to achieve through hard work, perseverance, and good luck. A miracle is a God move!
God is able to do whatever he told you he would do. Whatever the dream is—he has the capability to bring it to completion. He caused the sun to stand still, an axe head to float on water, a donkey to talk, and a fish to serve as a lifeguard. Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?
God-sized dreams are always supernatural and usually take place when their fulfillment is least expected. Remember God is a God of miracles and impossible is not in his dictionary.
Abraham waited and God worked. He delighted himself in the Lord and the Lord gave him the desires of his heart—not just “a” son, but “the son of promise.”