Visioning Retreat Devotional

Scripture

Isaiah 43:15–20 NRSV

15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. 16 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17 who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: 18 Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. 19 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,

Who are Prophets

“They spoke the truth about the present and what would happen if people did not change their behavior and return to Yahweh’s ways.

When Hebrew prophets did focus on the future, they usually were concerned with the short-term future. For example, they predicted the fall of Israel or Judah or the end of the Babylonian or Assyrian empires—events that ultimately fulfilled God’s intentions or righteousness.” (LBD)

The Biblical Prophets are often confused with future tellers, but their role is quite a bit more nuanced.Prophets had a very accurate understanding of the way things are and still knew that they can be better. Prophets spoke words of hope about the way things could be, and were not afraid to call out the way things were wrong. They were creatives and used their own God given voice, emotions, and platforms.

Prophetic Imagination

“The prophet engages in futuring fantasy. The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined. The imagination must come before the implementation. Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing. The same royal consciousness that make it possible to implement anything and everything is the one that shrinks imagination because imagination is a danger. Thus every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.” ― Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

The Invitation for Today

To engage in a prophetic imagination for God speaks through the Prophetic Isaiah:

Isaiah 43:18–19 NRSV

18 Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. 19 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.