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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Green Bay Packers and Super Bowl XLV


Dreams from the LORD 2011
7 February 2011

Last night the Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl, 31 to 25. I believe the Green Bay victory was prophetic.

I hitchhike a lot, so I am not able to watch many football games. I wasn't planning on watching the Super Bowl, but a couple of days before the game, several people kept asking me "Where will you be during the Super Bowl?" or "Will you be able to watch the Super Bowl?" I didn't think the Super Bowl was that important, but I believe the Lord was speaking through these people for some reason. ("In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established." For the record: I enjoy college football more than professional football.) I watched the Super Bowl three years ago when the New York Giants won.

Yesterday I hitchhiked from Riverton, Wyoming to Victor, Idaho. I got to my friend's place in Victor just before the second half of the game got under way. I wanted the Packers to win and they won. I really don’t follow the Packers, but I tend to root for NFC teams in the Super Bowl.

This past season, the Packers had 15 players on injured reserve. They lost their starting cornerback (Charles Woodson) and their starting receiver (Donald Driver) in the first half of the Super Bowl. Even though the Packers were broke-down most of the season, they put it all together and won the Big Game.

Green Bay's receiver, Greg Jennings, was interviewed after the game (he scored two touchdowns). He kept saying, "God gets the glory, God gets the glory." Green Bay didn't have any real big stars (though Woodson is outstanding) with gigantic egos--they played as a team.

So if this victory by Green Bay is prophetic, what does it mean? At first glance, I would say that even if a Christian seems to be broke-down, the Spirit of God can still use him to do powerful things for the Kingdom. "When I am weak, then I am strong." The Lord loves to use the foolish things of this world to confound the wise; He loves to use the weak things of the world to defeat the strong. The Lord used Samson and the jawbone of an ass to kill and humiliate one thousand Philistines.

I believe for those who are truly surrendered to Christ, they will see great victories in their personal lives in 2011. The world may come crashing down all around them (the economy, the revolution in Egypt, bad decisions being made in state and federal government, etc.), but they will prevail against the world system in the Power of the Holy Ghost.

The Green Bay Packers were a broke-down team all season (lots of injured players), yet they won the Super Bowl. They lost some battles, but they won the war. If you think you are broken and beyond repair, watch and wait upon the Lord and He will shine brightly through your brokenness and inspire the lives around you.

Before a loaf of bread can be used for food, it needs to be broken first. We are called to be broken bread and poured-out wine to those who are hungering for spiritual food (manna from heaven, Jesus Christ). Take up your cross and let the Lord break you of your self-strength and self-will and watch how He will be glorified in your life. Your life then will nourish others.

4 comments:

  1. When the Lord showed me that He wanted me to watch the Super Bowl, I said something like, "What for? It's just another football game on the planet." But the Lord uses anything and everything to get our attention. The Packer win was very edifying and the Lord was absolutely in it.

    The Lord loves to use broke-down people (and broke-down football teams) to glorify His name in the earth. As Christians, we try to live by faith and obey the Lord, but sometimes the Lord does something so refreshing and so sovereign and so unexpected that we can only say, "Praise the Lord! The Lord did that. God gets the glory."

    Sarah: If you are down in your spirit right now, read some of the Psalms. Even that great man after God's own heart--David--had some real bad days, yet he encouraged himself in the Lord.

    Be still and wait upon the Lord and you will grow new muscle and ride a horse of a different color.

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  2. Wow, I would never have thought of it that way! Good for you for looking deeper into these things.

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  3. Wow! Tim, I'm so glad I ran across this post. I know the Holy Spirit led me to your post. My spirit man needed this brother...
    Thank you for being our Lord's vessel.
    God bless..

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  4. Randy: Maybe the Green Bay victory in the Super Bowl is a foreshadowing of what is going on in the United States today.

    The United States is a broke-down country; there is a lot of sin in this country. This nation has aborted millions of babies, they are teaching homosexuality in public schools, enviro-paganism is rampant in this country (people who worship the creation and not the Creator) among other sins. We are now going through a time of chastening and judgment.

    After all of this God-ordained destruction, America will be broken, but we will shine more brightly because of our brokenness and humility and the Lord will use America more powerfully then He did before. This is what I believe.

    The big question: after all of this destruction, will America truly repent of sin and turn back to God?

    The Lord ALWAYS has the last laugh.

    Psalm 2: 1-5: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
    The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
    Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
    He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
    Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure."

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