20/20 Vision (Week 1)
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Vision
Vision
What do you think of when you hear the word vision?
I think about the fact that I have to put something on each and every day to correct my vision. I can read my Bible right in front of me, but if I don’t look through them you guys would all look blurry. It has been tempting, but…Just kidding (for the most part)
STORY: The glasses signify something in our house a little different. My kids know I need them to drive and practically do everything I do on a daily basis. They know they are valuable and necessary to me. So, when we want to rough-house a phrase has been developed, “Take your glasses off.” Now they know that when the glasses come off the rough-housing begins. It started with Judah but Ellie liked to get in on it as well. Levi has now figured it out and is constantly asking me to, “Take your glasses off. Take your glasses off.”
TRANSITION
There are times when we take off something of value because we don’t want it to get broken or misaligned. But for the spiritual vision God has for our life, it is VITAL that we put it on, value its place in our life, and allow God to give vision, direction, and alignment to our lives.
DEFINE
As we start our series, as we start this New Year...Let’s define what vision is and isn’t. Today, we will spend time discussing what vision is, how to know God’s vision for your life, and how to fulfill that vision.
In the coming weeks, we will talk about the vision for the church as a whole, the vision for our church as a local body, your role in that plan and vision, and how it overlaps into every area of our life and reaches to the ends of the earth.
So, let’s define vision.
SLIDE
It is simply being able to see.
It is the ability to think about and plan for the future (with imagination and wisdom).
A supernatural experience of seeing or knowing something otherwise unknown.
A sight of beauty.
#1 I mentioned briefly how important vision is to our everyday life. And like many things in our life, we never realize how much we depend on something until it is gone. We never realized how much we deeply cared about someone until we know distance from them or even loss. We sometimes don’t appreciate our good health, our financial situation, our relationships, even our spiritual influences until we experience life without them or they begin to deteriorate for one reason or another.
Simply put, we take many things in our life for granted.
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. – Helen Keller.
Vision helps us prioritize well. Vision helps us remind ourselves of where we are headed, what is really important to us, and help keep that in front of us so we keep moving towards God’s original design for our life.
#2 Vision also helps us see with creativity God’s best for our future. I want to be careful and not take a sterile definition from Webster and assume we can make it happen on our own accord. In 2020, if we do anything of value it is going to be because God was the originator, He was the builder, He was initiator, and we simply responded to what He was wanting to do in our lives. That is vision with spiritual insight and revelation. That is vision with heavenly (not earthly wisdom). That is vision that actually has Divine Power to bring about change and transformation. That is what we want for our lives.
QUESTION
Have you ever struggled to see a better situation than the current one you were in? Have you ever struggled to have inspiration and creativity when you really needed it?
I HAVE.
STORY
Each month in my calendar is a reminder on the 5th to begin writing the monthly newsletter that we will send out from my work, KICKO. I am constantly trying to keep notes and ideas of stories of impact, capturing photos, and backlogging sharable moment for these newsletters. It will happen though, just as it did while I was in school, that I will sit down to write and seemingly nothing will come to mind. Probably many of you have experienced something similar. You knew you needed to express something, maybe even had a vague idea of what you wanted to share, but then nothing would flow out when it came time to express or share it.
In writing, we call this ‘writer’s block’. Creativity ceases. Inspiration is null and void. If you are like me, you may even try to force some words out but they seem powerless and empty, not carrying the punch and connection you wanted.
This can happen to us in our lives as well. We may move forward for a period of time with a real sense of destiny and purpose, but then find ourselves no longer ‘feeling it’. We may go through the motions, but we can sense that we are detached from the destiny.
STORY
I have shared here before how when I was 14 (just before my 15th birthday) the Lord began to stir my heart for missions, specially working with groups of people that would otherwise be unreached by the church. For many years, I thought my heart was being stirred to work in some sort of ministry that would focus on groups of people around the world that were unreached with the Gospel, which I still have a heart for to this day. But there was a process I went through to find myself serving the purpose God has for my life right now that included having to re-interpret some of the things God had placed in my heart as a teenager.
That vision in front of me as a teen though propelled me forward. It carried me toward missions trips and other mission experiences. It led me to read books that fueled that desire and growing passion. It led me to look for ways to get an education as a tool to do just that, missions.
Fast-forward: when I was working in Los Angeles at a HUGE ministry conglomerate, the Dream Center, I began to become personally numb. I was tired, some of my spiritual soapboxes were being challenged, and I was weathering well. I came home as a 21 year old disillusioned and confused on what to do next. I thought I could kick-start my spiritual walk again with a great worship conference and some fasting (which is all good when God is in it), but God was trying to teach me that my hope was in Him and not in my ability to fix things on my own, even good things. I attempted to work with my parents at KICKO, starting a new aspect of the ministry with the youth, but I floundered because I didn’t have God’s vision refreshed in front of me. It had grown stale and lost its value in my life. I finally went back to where I had previously worked, not knowing what to do next, and over committed myself to my boss at Chick-fil-A. I didn’t know what to do next. I didn’t know how to get to the next step of what God had for my life.
Have you ever found yourself in a similar place? Have you ever felt lost in discerning and knowing God’s next step for your life?
You are not alone.
God wants to renew vision inside of you. (Get Up. Walk Around. Stretch. Change Scenery.) My watch just told me to do that as I had been sitting for an hour studying for this morning. Sometimes, spiritually we need to allow God to change things up. We need to allow Him to bring a fresh perspective and outlook on things in our life.
21 Days of Consecration: this is why as a church we are dedicated these next 21 days to allowing God to do just that, to renew our vision, put the spiritual wind back in our sails. These aren’t 21 Days of Do-It-Yourself ways to overcome evil with self-sustaining strength. That won’t last. Believe me, been there tried that. For some reason, I still try that, and it doesn’t work. This is 21 days of saying:
God, I am yours, and You are mine. More of You and less of you me in ever area of my life. In my insecurities Lord, I need more of your vision for who I am. In my abilities to accomplish what I believe You are calling me towards, I need to trust you completely. With my family and in my relationships, Lord I need you to bring back those near and dear to me that are far from you. Lord, I am believing and standing on Your promises for restoration in my relationships. Only you can take time and words and regrets and make all things new. God, in my health I want to stand for what You have purchased for me and my family. I want to know and stand on Your promises. Renew VISION in my life Lord. Let 2020 be a year of clear VISION. Clarity on what You have for my life. Clarity on how to walk in Your fulness for my life, Lord. I am believing this will be the year of 20/20 VISION.
QUESTION
How will you know God’s vision for your life?
You may have heard this verse quoted before when talking about vision. It is pretty popular during messages like this one:
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
The NASB says:
18 Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.
Or again as the ESV says:
18 Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.
18 Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.
EBC: 18 Revelation, obedience to. A nation’s well-being depends on obedience to divine revelation. This popular verse refers to two forms of divine revelation, vision and law.
The Lord makes known to us His character, His will, His desires through His Word. There are moments when the written Word takes on spiritual revelation to penetrate the heart and become ‘spread abroad’ as Paul writes the Ephesians.
Jesus says this about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives:
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
John 14
Jesus says that the work of the Holy Spirit will be to teach us, bringing to our remembrance all that Jesus has said to us. Basically, Jesus says this. You guys haven’t gotten it. But that’s ok. 20/20 Vision is coming, and it is coming through the Holy Spirit. He is going to bring all these things I have said to you (MY WORD | WORDS FROM THE WORD) and will make them finally all make sense. The Holy Spirit is going to put the pieces together for you and show you how it all fits together.
EBC: The first line is worded negatively—if there is “no revelation” or “vision” (ḥāzôn; GK 2606), the people “throw off restraint” (yippāraʿ). The word ḥāzôn refers to divine communication to prophets (as in ) and not to individual goals that are formed.
This proverb is antithetical in form, with a negative statement prefacing its positive counterpart. The writer says where there is no revelation of vision the people perish but blessed/happy is the one who obeys the law and heeds wisdom’s instruction.
You could understand this verse to say that God’s people were most blessed when they were receiving prophetic exhortation and revelation of God’s law from His prophets. The prophets, however, show up during Israel’s worst. They call God’s people back to His ways and plans for them. Their mere presence doesn’t equate God’s blessings, but instead a clarion call to come back to the Lord and repent.
EBC: It should be stated, however, that the prophetic ministry usually came in response to periods of calamity to call the people back to God, so that ḥāzôn meaning revelatory vision should be retained. If there is no revelation from God, people can expect spiritual and political anarchy (Alden, 202). The meaning “cast off restraint” is assumed for yippāraʿ based on . In contrast to the first line, the second provides the positive wording: there is a blessing for those who keep the law.
18 Revelation, obedience to. A nation’s well-being depends on obedience to divine revelation. This popular verse refers to two forms of divine revelation, vision and law. The first line is worded negatively—if there is “no revelation” or “vision” (ḥāzôn; GK 2606), the people “throw off restraint” (yippāraʿ). The word ḥāzôn refers to divine communication to prophets (as in 1 Sa 3:1) and not to individual goals that are formed.
Toy, 512, sees a problem with this meaning, in that the most calamitous period of Israel’s history was when prophetic vision was at its height, whereas people were obedient at times when God hid his face. He also notes that in Proverbs there is no mention of prophetic teaching with wisdom as a guide. Thus, following the LXX, Toy emends ḥāzôn to read “guidance.” The TEV has “guidance”; the NIV has “revelation.” It should be stated, however, that the prophetic ministry usually came in response to periods of calamity to call the people back to God, so that ḥāzôn meaning revelatory vision should be retained. If there is no revelation from God, people can expect spiritual and political anarchy (Alden, 202). The meaning “cast off restraint” is assumed for yippāraʿ based on Exodus 32:25. In contrast to the first line, the second provides the positive wording: there is a blessing for those who keep the law.
25 Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies.
When we are walking in the revelation of who God is, knowing Him for who He has already revealed Himself as through His Word AND growing in this knowledge not merely as mental ascent but as spiritual understanding and revelation…then and only then can rightly relate to Him, knowing His heart and vision in purity. When we distort and pervert that understanding of God, if even lacking spiritual revelation because of apathy or distance, we begin to live without purpose and restraint for our lives. When you don’t know God or understand how He loves you then you don’t have guardrails for how you live your life. Going off the deep end or living life flying over the edge spiritually means little to you because you have no grounding in what is actually reality, which is found in God’s 20/20 Vision for you.
GOD’S WORD:
God’s Word is our starting place for knowing His will, desire, and vision for our lives. Make 2020 a year of God’s Word. If you need a Bible reading plan, I would love to find one that’s right for you. If you just want to start reading the Bible but don’t know where to start, I would love to chat and find a good place to begin.
But join me in making this a year where we are in God’s Word like never before. We will have more of Him and less of us as we know His will and plan for our life more.
We have provided booklets in the back because we believe they can help you with understand some of the different models for prayer according to the Scripture. They are simple, practical, and I believe will help you as we kick-start this year.
Listen to what John Calvin writes, “Till the Lord opens them, the eyes of our heart are blind. Till the Spirit has become our instructor, all that we know is folly and ignorance. Till the Spirit of God has made it known to us by a secret revelation, the knowledge of our divine calling exceeds the capacity of our own minds.”
But as Proverbs tells God’s Word is not enough. The Word of God has to be accompanied by the Spirit’s revelation. We need prophetic vision and spiritual sight in order to grasp in our inner man God’s purposes and plans.
Vision provides perspective for all of our life: past, present, and future.
Let me visit one more passage to show you how the Spirit is involved in the process of us knowing the Heavenly Vision for which God has for us.
Let me visit one more passage to show you how the Spirit is involved in the process of us knowing the Heavenly Vision for which God has for us.
SCHEDULED RABIT TRAIL:
Paul is giving testimony before King Agrippa.
13 At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.
14 And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
15 And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
16 But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you,
17 delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you
18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
19 “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
20 but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.
Acts 26:13-
This is what we have had on screens throughout 2019. You heard us talk about it nearly weekly. I printed it on t-shirts and had my kids giving them away like fabric candy at the door. I am talking about ENCOUNTER | CONNECT | GROW. Paul believed he was following God in persecuting and killing Christians. Then He encountered Jesus. That encounter led to an accurate interpretation of God’s Word (JESUS) and a revelation of Christ’s purpose (vs. 16) for his life. He recites the episode of this encounter with Christ to King Agrippa telling him how what he was now being charged for was simply Paul carrying out the HEAVENLY VISION to which Christ had entrusted him.
God has a heavenly vision for each of you, and my prayer for us this year is that we would have 20/20 Vision.
16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,
19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength
Ephesians 1:16-
I would encourage you to read each morning these next 21 days.
Paul recognizes that there is a revealtion of the Good News found in Christ that leads us to salvation but to those who are already saved he writes...
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
And this is my prayer for us this year. This is my prayer for me, my family, you, and your family. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I want you to know Him better. I know that comes through a revelation and wisdom only born of the Spirit of God.
17 Paul supplies the content of his prayer with a hina clause and the verb “give”: “that God may give.” True to form in this letter, Paul, prior to explaining what he asks God to give the readers, in worshipful language includes a description of the God to whom he prays. Doing so defends prayers to this God, who has consummate capacity to answer. First, he is the “God of our Lord Jesus Christ,” a designation Paul already used in v. 3 (adding Father) for the one who has blessed us. This is the One whom even the Lord Jesus acknowledges as God. Second, God is the Father of glory, a word signifying ultimate majesty and splendor. “Glory” here is probably a genitive of description, showing that he is the Father to whom all glory belongs—“glorious Father” (so NIV).
The actual content of the prayer follows the word “give”: Paul prays that God would give them a (or the) spirit (or Spirit) of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Some argue for “spirit,” paralleling 2 Timothy 1:7: “God did not give us a spirit of timidity” (cf. Abbott, Mitton). But more likely Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit, the one who imparts God’s gifts and implements God’s new kind of life in believers. Bruce, 269, paraphrases Paul’s prayer: “May you grasp what the Spirit desires to give you.” Specifically Paul prays for wisdom (sophia, GK 5053)—the practical knowledge of how to live—and revelation (apokalypsis, GK 637)—insight into God’s plans and purposes. On the one hand, at salvation God has lavished his wisdom and understanding on his people (v. 8); on the other hand, Paul prays for their ability to apprehend these treasures.
Paul assures his readers that he prays for God’s Spirit to reveal what wisdom means in life. “Revelation,” as we have seen, discloses the mysteries (v. 9). Paul’s own commission for his ministry was a mystery God made known to him by revelation (3:3). Paul prays that God will unveil his ways to his people. This revelation comes, literally, “in [or through] the knowledge of him.” If this has an instrumental sense, then Paul prays that people will gain wisdom and insight through coming to know God. But more likely, given Paul’s use of “revelation” language, it conveys a result—“so that you may know him” (so NIV). Knowledge is not merely cerebral but has strong moral components. The Spirit reveals the knowledge of God; that is, his people come to know God and through that knowledge can live wisely according to God’s purposes. Paul prays for this practical knowledge. The focus of Paul’s prayer could apply to individuals or to the church as a body. The words of Psalm 111:10 express Paul’s desire: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding.”
PIANO MAN
Let me visit one more passage to show you how the Spirit is involved in the process of us knowing the Heavenly Vision for which God has for us.
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,
16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
What has been hidden Jesus now wants you to live with purpose and vision in this New Year. He desires you to have 20/20 Vision of who He is and how He sees you as His son and daughter. He wants you to have the Spirit’s vision. So this week I want you to ask the Lord to give you revelation through His Spirit. Ask Him to give you through His Spirit of wisdom and revelation what it means to have vision for your life in 2020. Answer these with me this week:
What does it mean to have vision for your life in 2020?
What does it mean to have vision for your family in 2020?
What does it mean to have vision for our church family in 2020?
What does it mean to have vision for our city in 2020?
Our nation in 2020? For God to reach our world in 2020?
Let’s have 20/20 Vision!
Amen!
PRAY