Pastor John,
I want to share my dream.
I was standing in the center of a room somewhere near the top of a very tall building. Maybe I was in a tower. There were huge windows that made up most of the walls of the room. A pilot was in front of me wearing a pilot’s jacket and helmet. He pulled off his helmet and it was brother Earl. He placed his keys on the table and immediately began singing the Lord’s praises for delivering him during his flight and giving him a safe landing. Earl was full of confidence and thankfulness in what the Lord had done for him – his joy was contagious! I could sense there had been trouble in the plane during the flight but Jesus had kept brother Earl. I then walked to the window and I was allowed to see the landing that Brother Earl had just achieved. He was piloting a small, single-engine seaplane, there were floats on the bottom for landing gear. I watched as he swooped down and landed smoothly on the water.
That was brother Earl’s landing and that is what he had been thanking Jesus for moments ago – attributing all his success to the Lord’s doing.
The feeling in the room changed and another one of God’s children came in, removing his helmet. He had piloted a plane as well, just as brother Earl had. But this man was upset, disgusted even. It was apparent this man’s landing had gone poorly.
I was then standing at the window again looking out just as I had done before. I was being allowed to see this second man’s landing. As his plane flew by I could see it was missing one of the floats on the bottom, the float was used for the water landing. The plane didn’t descend much further before it started spinning out of control. The plane spun off and out of sight before ever getting to the water. I turned around saddened by what I saw and certain of the tragic outcome.
I then heard the second pilot exclaim aloud in defense of his failed landing, “But I was missing part of my landing gear!”
And I then heard your voice, pastor John, right beside me though you were not in the room. You said, “He could have (landed) too, if God said so.”
I immediately woke up. I was wide awake as if I had not been sleeping. I began to consider what I just saw and realized that I understood what you had just said to me, “He could have (landed) too, if God said so.”
If God says you can do something, it isn’t because of your abilities, it is because of His. If God says you can land a plane with no landing gear, you can land it, not because you’re an extraordinary pilot, thus he chose you, but because he is going to do the work.
At the end of this morning’s live streaming on Youtube, you prayed for us all …. God help us do these things and “to get past all the excuses.”
It made me consider my dream and what you had said – “He could have too, if God said so.”
Jerry