Welcome to Day 3 of our 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting and to the third day of our 5 Days of Waiting on God.
If God has notified us that we should take this time out in consecration, it is because greater things lie ahead. 

Many of you reading this have prophecies over your life that this current version of yourself cannot fulfil. You have habits that must die and habits you must build. You have capacity you must build. You need to understand that God has a track record of turning little men into mighty men in Him, and oftentimes when you watch how He does it, He hides them before He announces them.
If you are ever going to achieve much with God, you must learn the simple step of yielding completely to Him in secret, so that He can build you into the person He wants you to be. You must yield, so that He can touch your motives, your character, your heart, your discipline, everything about you! 

God does this to His Servant.
Isaiah 49:2 
New King James Version
2 “And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword;
In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”

See what is happening while He is hidden. Sharpening is the reason for the hiding. An arrow is not stored in the dark because it is unwanted. It is kept in the dark while it is being smoothed, straightened, and polished, because a shaft with a bend in it will not fly true no matter how strong the arm that fires it.
And now look at where He is hidden: In His quiver. A quiver is strapped to the archer’s back. It moves everywhere he moves. It is the launch position. You are not hidden away from your assignment. You are hidden inside the launch position. The hand that is covering you is the same hand that is about to release you.

Looking at the life of Samuel in scripture, he was already serving the Lord and ministering to the Lord in the temple under Eli. And then he was called. The service came before the call. When God called him, Samuel did not know how to answer. But Eli taught him. Eli had the experience to discern the call of God over Samuel even though there was so much evil in Eli’s own household that God was about to raise a prophet in Samuel to replace him.
God will use the experience of the man being judged to teach discernment to the man being raised. Do not despise the process, and do not despise the people God has placed over you in it.

Then God gives this boy the word.
1 Samuel 3:11-13
New King James Version
11 Then the LORD said to Samuel: “Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.
12 In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.
13 For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them.

An explosive prophetic word in the nation was handed to Samuel. The judgement of the house of the man he serves under. A word that, if he ran with it, would put him at the centre of everything. 
He received this word, and in the morning he went and did his chores as normal. Nobody was told. Nothing was announced. The boy who had just been handed the future of Israel got up and did the same small job he did every other morning of his life. This is what it means to be Hidden before Heard.
The reward for this hiddenness was that the LORD was with Samuel and let none of his words fall to the ground.

Now compare that to Joseph.
He had dreams from God that meant something, but Joseph told his dream to the wrong people, at the wrong time, and it cost him the pit and years of slavery, before the same gift that got him into trouble finally got him to Pharaoh’s palace.
It is not shameful for God to put something in you before you are ready to carry it publicly. It is dangerous to hand it to everyone who asks the moment you sense it is there. Talk less about it. Rather, prepare.

Some of you have already done what Joseph did. You already announced yourself. You already moved before God said move, and you have been carrying quiet shame about it ever since. Understand that Joseph’s early speech did not cancel the dream. It lengthened the road. He still got to the palace. God is not finished with you because you were premature. But do not do it again because the road is long enough already.

The mercy in it is that every dream Joseph interpreted in prison prepared him for the one that would make him prime minister. 
Think about that. The gift that got him thrown into the pit was being sharpened in the prison. He interpreted for a butler. He interpreted for a baker. Nobody important. No audience. And when Pharaoh finally dreams, Joseph does not fumble; he has been practising in obscurity for years.

You also need to realise that God’s men do not operate on what they can do. They operate on what God has actually said, and what He has prepared them for. That is the whole difference between Samuel’s timing and Joseph’s timing. Both of them had a genuine word from God. It was the discipline to wait for the word before acting on the dream. Yes, God still turned Joseph’s life around, but you can truncate a destiny by moving too fast and unprepared.

While God is preparing you, start building yourself.
Practically, for these forty days:
1. Read your Bible like never before in this season. Not devotionally only. Read it to learn.
2. Read books like never before in this season. Feed the mind God is going to use.
3. Pray consistently, and show up for prayer like you have never done in this season. Do not miss any devotion time.
4. Practise your assignment. Whatever it is God has put in your hand, do it in the small room, with no audience, the way Joseph interpreted for a butler and a baker. That is your prison practice. That is what makes you unshakeable when Pharaoh finally calls.
5. Lastly, write down three books you are going to finish in these forty days. Three titles. Vague intentions die very quickly, but a written list survives.

As Joseph interpreted for a butler, do your small thing faithfully tonight. God is leading you.

Pray this way:
Father, as I have hidden in this season of consecration, prepare me for all you will have me do. I contend earnestly for my future and my destiny.

With Love,
The Catalyst,
Pastor Michael Ipaye.