By: Kimberly Troup
Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. Habakkuk 2:2
This verse is often used as a basis for the notion that we should write down our hopes and dreams, record on paper the vision God gives us for our lives. We are encouraged to think about what we want to accomplish in our lives and then write it down, refer to it and continue to strive to reach those goals that we have set for ourselves. It is a Biblical principle that once we have recorded these dreams and aspirations, something supernatural will happen to help us attain them. You begin to see them in your mind, and then they start to come to pass in your life.
I just recently started doing this, and as I was thinking about it I remembered the story of Jacob. In Genesis 30, when Jacob decides that it is time to leave Laban, and return home with his wives and his children, Jacob asks Laban for his wages. Laban responds: “Name your price, what do you want as pay?” Jacob answers him: “Give me all of the speckled and spotted sheep and goats, that way it will be easy to tell what is mine and what is yours, and no one will be able to say that I stole anything from you.” So Laban agrees to this wage, but then Laban takes every speckled, striped, and spotted animal and moves them a three days journey away, leaving Jacob with only the solid colored animals.
Genetically, solid colored animals do not bear stripes, streaks, or spots. So Laban basically said. “good luck with getting your wages. You belong to me, and I don’t want you to leave.” Laban was prospering because of Jacob’s hard work, he was living a very comfy life and he wasn’t about to let that go easily.
However, Jacob had a word from God. He knew it was time for him to return to the land of Israel, “with his wives and children. So what did he do?
Genesis 30:37-40 Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.”
Jacob created a picture of streaks, spots, and stripes by peeling the bark off of tree branches! He planted that picture in front of Laban’s goats and sheep, so that they would conceive while they looked at stripes, spots, and streaks. The babies were then born with stripes, spots, and streaks, which meant that they belonged to Jacob. In this way, he was able to get paid what was owed to him for his work, so that he could provide for his family and be able to return home.
What a statement of faith! Jacob says to himself, if they LOOK at stripes, spots, and streaks, they will bear young that have stripes, spots, and streaks in their fur.
I believe that same principle applies today. We have seen it come to pass in Judea and Samaria. A little over 50 years ago when the Mountains of Israel were liberated during the Six Day War, Jews returned to the area and saw empty barren nothingness. Yet, they looked around and because they had a Word from God, they saw a vision of what could come in the future. Where did they get that vision? Where did they hear that word?
They had been reading the prophecies of Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos. “But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are about to come. After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.” (Ezekiel 36)
So when they came into Judea and Samaria, the Mountains of Israel, they were able to envision the desolate empty places, being filled with life! These regular men and women had faith, and they had a picture painted in their brains, branded on their hearts, seeing cities being built on these mountaintops. Today those visions and dreams are a reality! What looked impossible 50 years ago is a very real reality today. Throughout Judea and Samaria there are vibrant Jewish communities growing on the Mountains of Israel.
When I look at the mountaintops that are still empty in Judea and Samaria, and then I look at a community just across on the next mountaintop, it is easy to see what it must have looked like just 50 years ago. And yet, God made a promise and He kept His word. The pioneers of 50 years ago were audacious enough to look at the desolation before them and see the vision that God had spoken through the prophets. Because they saw that vision, believed it, trusted God and began to build their homes, schools, synagogues, and stores, we are witness today of the incredible miracle of rebuilding the waste places.
I am currently in Israel getting ready to lead a CFOIC Heartland tour. This is my 11th trip to the Promised Land and I love this land more than ever. It is so amazing to see all of the growth and multiplication that has happened over the past 20 years since I first came to visit. I am already working on a tour for March 2020, and if you want to come to Israel and see the Biblical prophecies come to life I encourage you to make plans NOW to join me. Just request a 2020 tour brochure and I’ll send it to you as soon as I get home and get prices, dates, and the itinerary finalized.
Trust me – when you come to Israel, your faith will be strengthened and your dreams fulfilled in ways you can’t even imagine! You’ll be so glad you took your step of faith.