The Tailored Life Sample

It's a Crockpot, Not a Microwave

In tailoring your thoughts, you must remember that some things are better when it takes a long time. Growing up I learned to use one of my favorite kitchen appliances, the microwave. I could have a pizza, popcorn, or leftovers in under three minutes. It doesn't get much better than that, right?

When I got old enough to appreciate good food and good cooking, I learned the value of cooking some things, like roast, slow. Now, even though I knew in theory that slow-cooking meat tastes better, when I first attempted to cook a roast in a Crockpot, it turned out terrible. See, I tried to cook it on high for two hours when the recipe said to cook it on low for nine hours. I tried to use a Crockpot with a microwave mentality. That's the kind of thinking that destroys dreams. You cannot rush God's timing. You have to find peace in your current position instead of trying to rush to the next phase.

I believe that the key to successful thinking is marinating your thoughts in faithfulness. Just as we serve a faithful God, we should aim to be faithful to him.

In Matthew, the 25th chapter, we find a story of the man who called his servants to him and entrusted different amounts of his wealth to them. The story illustrates how they each had different amounts entrusted to them and how the first two servants decided to figure out how to increase what they were given while the third servant allowed fear to replace his faith and hid what he was given so that he could just give back the same thing that he was given.

On the surface, one could argue that at least he didn't waste it, but he did. He wasted the potential. The other two servants or tailored dreamers recognized that what they were given had the ability to become more, while the third servant paralyzed by fear could not see the possibility in what he had. It is what the man said to his two faithful stewards that I received revelation from.

In the 21st verse, he says "you have been faithful over a few things, so I will make you ruler over many." That's the key. If you are faithful where you are, God will make you ruler where you are going. But you must remain faithful. While that sounds simple, faithfulness is hard. We typically don't want to keep working in the mail room after we have a vision of ourselves being a CEO.

We think we are ready when we are called, and we discount the apprenticeship phase of Tailored Dreaming. David was anointed to be the king, but he didn't become the king in the same moment he was anointed. He still had to wait on God's timing. So one day he got anointed king and the next day was back to being a shepherd. We cannot throw away process simply because we think we are ready for the higher heights now.

What does it mean to be ready? Jesus went through 40 and 2 generations, born of a virgin, and then was wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, fled to Egypt, started his ministry at 30 as an emergency bar tender at a wedding, recruited 12, preached to thousands, healed the lame, restored sight to the blind, fed five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, and then once he was betrayed by one, and was in a garden by himself, he was finally ready.

We are ready for God to use us in most cases when we are in a moment of seclusion. We forget that there was a crucifixion before the resurrection. There is almost always pain before promise.

Sometimes you will lose before you gain. In Tailored Dreams I talk about God's mathematics, how He will subtract before he adds and divides before he multiplies.

Brian Acton got denied for a job at Facebook, then created WhatsApp. Four years later, Facebook purchased his app for 19 billion dollars.
What God has set aside for you is for you.

Never judge what God has said about tomorrow by the atmosphere of today.

What ways are you trying to rush God's process? Are you seeing the potential and possibility in what you already have? What can you do to be more faithful in your current position?

Prayer Starter: Father, today we ask that you continue to tailor our thoughts. Help us to embrace the Crockpot blessing and slow-cooking miracle you have waiting for us. Help us to see possibilities where we are, and probability in the promise of where we are going. Help us to serve you faithfully and to never confuse the atmosphere of today with what you said about tomorrow. In Jesus' name, amen.