The importance of vision - part 2, action.
Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. Deuteronomy 2:3
We aren’t to be aimless wanderers and wonder our whole lives if it (what God put in our hearts to do) coulda’ worked out. That didn’t work out for the Israelites and it won’t work for us. We are called to do. God has bigger and better plans than we can imagine but they come with instruction and commands. He plainly tells us in His word that without vision, we perish, we literally waste away without seeing desires fulfilled. If you don’t have a vision right now, you probably feel like you are spinning your wheels but going nowhere. We must get vision and put our faith into action.
God was saying to the Israelites in the scripture, ‘enough is enough’. You have circled this same mountain or problem in your life and in your thinking long enough. It’s kept you out of the promises. It’s time to turn north. Get out of stuck. Stop this nonsense. See, the Israelites were miraculously delivered out of slavery and were to go into the promised land. God took them the long way through the wilderness to protect them but what should have taken days, took 40 years!! It seems easy to fault them, but I can’t because I’ve done the same thing. God was saying it’s time! It’s time to get a new mindset and get our lives into drive.
Even after the 40 years, most didn’t enter in because they just weren’t willing to do what God was asking. The wilderness to me, in short stands for the unclear mindset that we have. We aren’t willing to go down the path because it seems so unclear, so we stay in stuck. When we have no clear direction or confidence in God, we aren’t going anywhere.
There comes a time when we must learn from and stop doing what’s not working, it’s madness. It all starts in our mind and comes out of our mouths and shows up in our actions. The Israelites doubted, had a slavery mindset though free, and grumbled/complained, ALOT! (That’s another message for later😉)
Bottom line: This kind of thinking and behavior kept most of them out of the promise of God because they didn’t follow or heed His direction. They went in circles doing the same ole same ole due to their mindset. Joshua and Caleb however went in because they had the right mindset, they saw their God and themselves correctly. They used the courage that God gave them to do what He said. Their confidence was in God, so they got out of there and they went into the promise! They had a new generational mindset.
We must heed instruction too. We can have a new mindset. If no revelation is given, we tend to cast off restraint according to scripture. That’s why we must seek Him. God didn’t intend to keep us boxed in or for us to just do whatever, whenever, and with no self control. We must use self control to get us where we need to go or else we are all over the place, that’s what restraint is all about. Self control is also a fruit from abiding in God’s Spirit. We were never meant to do it on our own or alone. He is with us.
I have always been consistent at one thing, being inconsistent, and it gets me nowhere. We will be happy and blessed if we ‘keep’ the law and follow wisdoms instructions because it will get us to where we need to go. It’s keeping in step with God and His commands. It’s time to seek, find and get a vision for life, no matter what age or stage. You’re still alive!
You and I can literally speak and prophecy into our future. We have that power. God has given it to us. We all speak to ourselves, whether it’s out loud or in our mind. We speak for either good or bad. Right or wrong, we all do it... We shouldn’t speak down to ourselves, just as we shouldn’t speak down to others. We are all guilty of it, or I know at least I am. But, fact is, our words carry the literal POWER of LIFE & DEATH.
The Israelites saw themselves as grasshoppers in comparison to their enemies. They didn’t see their God, they only saw their problem and that was their focus. They thought it, confessed it, they believed it as so, and so they were!!! 12 spies went out to get a look at Canaan, the promised land. They came back and gave a report, “And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” Joshua and Caleb however came back with a very different report, you can read about it in Numbers 13. What they believed and confessed happened, it was true as it was so for the Israelites also, just two very different outcomes.
It begins in our heart and thoughts, and eventually comes out in our words and actions. Proverbs says, “as the man thinks in his heart, so he is.” It’s time to get a different outlook and say so!
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21 NKJV
I love the NLT:
The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.
There’s that much power in such a little bitty member of our body. The mind has power, the tongue has power and they are connected. Don’t you say what you think even if not out loud? That is why we must change the way we think and our words will change.
What do you really believe???
What you speak proves what you believe and it matters!
Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. James 3:10
We literally have the power to bless and bring blessings or to curse and bring curses to our very own life. That’s why its prophetic. We prophesy into our future by what we truly believe and speak out into existence. We act on what we believe. Watch what you say, but also watch what you don’t say!!! For what we don’t believe or speak isn’t in scope so you miss it unless you get your sights on it. Don’t be afraid to dream, be afraid not to! I forgot how to dream for a long time but I can see my visions coming back.
Choose to believe. Choose to dream. Choose to speak life.
If I don’t aim for it, I don’t get it, even if I want it. It’s time to get those things in our sights that we do want, feel in our hearts to do and aiming for them. I know that there was once a dream in your heart even if you say there’s not now. I don’t know of any child who didn’t once have a dream on the inside of them. Children naturally envision and imagine what they hope for. As adults we tend to push those things down, afraid that we can’t really have them or that they might sound silly. Maybe we even settled for what we were expected to do instead of what we were suppose to do.
Kids are known for their imaginations and didn’t Jesus say that we must come like little children? We are still His children and if He is the one that placed that desire in our heart, then it’s not foolish to dream, only not to. Shouldn’t our aim be to please Him? As I sit here and write, my son is looking up WWE wrestling figures because that what he loves. He eats it, breathes it, and sleeps it. He wakes up thinking about it. That’s how serious we should be about our dreams. If we put them on the back burner, that’s often where they will stay. I understand some dreams are short term and some long but we should always keep them before us so that they are clear and in plain sight.
Dreaming shouldn’t just be an escape as it often is for children. God wants to turn them into reality. It’s the same interest that we have as children that we often forget as adults but the very things that we need to go back to, in order to see where we need to start dreaming again. What did you use to dream of being? Where did you use to dream of going? How did you see your life going? It doesn’t always turn out that way but it doesn’t mean we should stop. It’s time to get our aim in line with our vision.
Don’t just stop with seeing it in your mind. You have to look down the scope, get the target in clear sight. That’s aiming, then you can shoot for it. If you don’t aim, then the chances are already slim and the possibility great that you’ll miss it.
Keep your sights high or you’ll shoot low.
The things that we are afraid of failing at and don’t try, proves that we have failed already from lack of trying. Anything great will be scary, if not, then it’s probably not great enough. I use to keep an air freshener on my gearshift that said, “feel the fear and do it anyway.”
You’ll make mistakes along the way, that’s part of it but keep pushing through and working on what you set out to do.
This thought came to my mind: There should be no back up plan or plan B if you are truly doing what you feel you God has called you to do. We need to trust God to redirect us if He needs to. When one brook dries up, He will supply another. That’s what He does, He goes before us! That is why we must seek and follow Him one step at a time. He is the way, He knows the way, His way is best. Our plans are many but His stand and unless The Lord builds, then we just labor in vain that do.
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Colossians 3:23
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecclesiastes 9:10
Our hand must be to the plow, not living life backwards but working now towards what we want to see later.
We can all stand to be more like Paul in the Bible and get better at forgetting what’s behind us and our past mistakes, and get better at learning to press on to what’s before us. Philippians 1:3 says that we can be confident that He Who began a good work in us will perform it (or carry it on) to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. In other words, He created you for a good works and He wants to finish what He started in you, but we must be willing to work with and not against Him.
We can keep fighting the good fight and keeping our eye on the prize of what’s before us!
Dear Lord our God, please give us vision in place of that which had become blurry and distorted, give us clarity again. Help us to know where to aim and give us the courage to shoot for it. We thank You in advance as we ask this in Your Sons name, Jesus, Amen.
Psalm 37:23-24
