The Attack on Vision

Over the past number of weeks, we’ve shared on the foundation for vision, the necessity for vision and the source for vision. This morning, I want to deal with what I’m calling “The Attack on Vision.”

Proverbs 29:18 CSB

18 Without revelation people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy.

John 10:10 CSB

10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

As we look at all God has to say about vision we also need to be aware that there is an enemy who has a vision and wants to minimize, attack and ultimately destroy God’s vision in us.

It is always easier to kill vision in its infancy than when it is fully mature. We shared last week that God has a vision for His creation of Humanity. He has purpose in Vision. We have not yet attained that heavenly vision, but God nonetheless has vision for us. The enemy does not want God’s vision to be fulfilled. He does not want God’s vision to come to maturity in any of us as individuals, in our families, in our congregation and in this valley. The enemy, the thief and liar, satan, comes to steal, kill and destroy and he understands that it is always much easier to steal, kill, and destroy vision at its infancy, at its conception, than it is at when it is mature, when it is coming to fulfillment. HE does NOT want our Living Faith Family to step fully into God’s vision and have God bring about His vision for this valley through us. The enemy want’s to kill the vision, he wants to destroy the vision now at its beginning before it comes to maturity!

Examples of Attacks on God’s Vision

Abram and Sarai

You will remember Abram and Sarai. God has a vision and shows it to Bro. Abe. Bro. Abe gets excited, but then the enemy wants to disrupt that vision and get Bro. Abe in the flesh. Abe, that’s a cool vision you having kids and all, but have you looked in the mirror lately? You’re old! Have you looked at Sis. Sarai lately? I don’t think ya’ll are having any kids. The enemy wants to disrupt and stop God’s vision at its inception because if it ever really gets going, it’ll be impossible to stop! The enemy seeks to stop the vision at its beginning and if he cannot do that, he will always try to get us to bring about the vision through our own strength, our own abilities, our own talents. Paul refers to this in the new testament as the flesh. Romans says they that are in the flesh CANNOT please God!

Bro. Abe believed God but wasn’t so sure about Sis. Sarai, and equally Sis. Sarai didn’t have much confidence in the word of God, so she told Bro. Abe to accomplish God’s vision through the flesh, through natural means through a slave woman named Hagar. Is it ok if we settle it once and for all that when God gives vision, He will be faithful to provide all the resources necessary to fulfill that vision? Is ok if we settle it once and for all that when God gives vision He will empower us, He will guide us, He will direct us. All that is on us is simply to obey what God says. Throughout Acts the young church would pray and they would come out of that prayer meeting with a decision saying it is good to the Holy Spirit and it is good to us! If we will hear God’s voice and obey that voice, God will bring His vision into fulfillment before our very eyes! Bro. Abe and Sis. Sarai got into trouble for listening to the lie of the enemy but they finally Got on board with God’s vision and God renamed them Abraham and Sarah, and Sis. Sarah conceived the child of promise, the child of vision; Isaac and God did indeed make Abraham’s offspring as the stars of heaven.

Joseph & His Brothers

A few years later, you have Joseph the favored son of Jacob. God’s gave 17 year old Joseph a couple different dreams which had the same meaning. Though Jacob didn’t know the fulness of God’s plan for Joseph, he favored Joseph and gave him a coat of many colors. Joseph’s brothers didn’t care for this favored status of Joseph nor did they care for the implications of Joseph’s dreams. The devil begins talking to the brothers, capitalizing on their jealousy and they all conspire to kill Joseph, then the eldest brother says no we can’t do that so they sell him to slave traders, put animal blood on his coat and tell Jacob he was killed by wild animals. The enemy will use any of the works of the flesh be it jealousy, envy, bitterness, unforgiveness, hatred, lust, whatever it might be to bring division and abort God’s vision at its infancy!

Bro. Joe is sold to slavery. Potiphar in Egypt buys him and he is a hard worker with integrity, remained faithful to God and the enemy thought you know I’m not so sure God doesn’t still have a plan for Joe, so the enemy works on Potiphar's wife to tempt Joseph. She tries to lure Joseph and he refused her advances and she got hold of His coat while he fled. Husband came home. Wife accuses Joseph of attempted rape and Husband has Joseph in jail. Why? The enemy always try to kill and destroy God’s vision before it comes to maturity. The rest of the story is, God uses Joseph to interpret dreams in prison and later when the Pharaoh has a dream that no one else can interpret, someone tells him about Joseph and Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams and Pharaoh makes Joseph Prime Minister of Egypt and through that Jacob and all the family are given refuge in Egypt and it is there this fledgling group of people that would one day be known as Israel begin to grow.

Moses

Over time rulers change in Israel and now arises a Pharaoh who’s full of the devil and hates the Hebrew people. He puts them to slave labor and that is the context for Moses arrival. Most of us know the story of Moses. His parents didn’t know all that God would do in his life, but they knew he was special. At the time he was born, Israel had grown within Egypt and the Pharaoh became scared and he made slaves of them. He ordered the midwives to kill all the male babies. That didn’t work so he commanded all his people saying every son that is born shall ye cast into the river. Pharaoh didn’t come up with that on his own. There was a devil who knew that God had a plan. God had a vision. God most always when He has a plan or a vision reveals it first to His prophets, but also, He most always works through a man. He found Noah. He found Abraham. He found Joseph. He found Moses and I could go on and on. The devil doesn’t have omniscience. He doesn’t know everything. That’s why we have mass genocides on earth. If the devil knew the exact person he'd spend all his time trying to kill him/her but he doesn’t so he influences Pharaoh to kill all male babies.

The enemy knew God had a vision and is doing everything he can to kill that vision in its infancy before it comes to maturity. In this context we find Moses’ mother expecting and while she doesn’t know everything she does know that he is unique. Exodus 2:2 says a daughter of Levi conceived and bare a son: and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him 3 months. She names him Moses which means to draw out of water. Little did she know when she named him that God would use her son, Moses to draw His people out of Egypt through the waters of the Red sea. He’s not going in that river to drown, I don’t know how God’s going to do this, but that baby, that vision, that plan of God is not going in the mouths of the crocodiles! We know the rest of the story. Pharaohs daughter finds him, raises and educates him in the finest of Pharaohs’ house and he is prepared for leadership and God uses Him to lead God’s people out of Egypt.

Jesus

Let’s skip forward to Jesus. The enemy doesn’t know everything. He doesn’t know what house or barn that baby will be born in, so as soon as King Herod finds out about this prophecy of the Messiah begin born in Bethlehem of Judea, He orders a mass killing of baby boys. Why? The enemy knows, it is always easier to kill a vision at its beginning than when it has matured!

Things stay relatively peaceful and calm until Jesus is 30 and begins his ministry. After His baptism, the Holy Ghost drives Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. The devil pulls out all stops to try to kill this vision, this plan of God before it is fully matured. Why? It is easier to kill at its beginning than at its maturity! I want to note one other thing.

Why was Jesus able to deal effectively with this temptation of the enemy at the beginning of His ministry? Can I tell you that the first 29 years of his life had been preparation for the vision. Preparation for the attack on the vision. He was raised in the word of God. He knew the word of God. He loved the word of God. When He had his bar mitzvah at the temple, His parents left and saw He wasn’t with them, came back and found Him at the temple discussing the word with the priests and theologians. They lightly scolded Him and He replied, do you not know that I must be about my Father’s business? He was faithful to prayer and the word so that when the attack of the enemy came, when the enemy tried to kill and destroy the vision through an appeal to Jesus fleshly desires, each time Jesus answered it is written. Had he not been prepared from his previous 29 years He would have had no idea what was written. If you and I are to be victorious over the devils attack on God’s vision we must be prepared through daily prayer and study of the word of God!

How Do We Deal Successfully With The Attack On Vision?

2 Corinthians 2:11 NLT

11 so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.

One of the devices, the mentality, the mind, the purposes of satan are to disrupt and perhaps arrest Gods vision and purpose for the church through bitterness and unforgiveness. It is also our enemies desire to stop or disrupt Gods vision for the church through a lack of leadership. Part of the reason Paul is writing the letter of 2 Corinthians is because the leadership in the church at Corinth isn’t going very well, and you’ve got divisions or factions and one want’s to go one way and the other factions want to go different ways and so rather than being unified around Godly leadership, God’s vision and direction, they are rudderless and so Paul asserts his leadership in part by writing this letter.

When you have more than one vision, you have DI-VISION.

It is interesting to note that in this verse we just read, 2 Corinthians 2:11 (NLT) so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes. Paul is saying we know how the Satan operates. We know his character. He is a liar. He is a deceiver. He is a divider. He is a thief, killer, and destroyer. Because we know how Satan operates, we must behave in such a way that Satan NOT get an advantage of us or outsmart us. To understand the background to this we must go back to 1 Corinthians. You have a situation in this young church where a man has an incestuous relationship with his step-mother. You have God’s vision of holiness being proclaimed yet many who compromise and knowingly allow this man to remain identified as part of the church - that’s di-vision, two visions, God’s vision and the devil’s vision. Paul is forceful in 1 Corinthians in telling them to remove this sin and sinner from their congregation, even to the point of telling them in:

1 Corinthians 5:4–6 CSB

4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough?

1 Corinthians 5:9–13 CSB

9 I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. 10 I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world. 11 But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. 12 For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? 13 God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you.

Paul is unflinching in His direction to the church to totally disassociate from those who claim the name of Christ yet participate in these ungodly behaviors. He says do not even eat with them. The apostle John says:

2 John 10–11 CSB

10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and do not greet him; 11 for the one who greets him shares in his evil works.

Pastor that’s harsh. Listen! We as children of light are to have no fellowship whatsoever with those who claim Christ yet behave immorally and/or teach anything other than the Gospel as delivered through Christ and His apostles. Jesus was called a friend of sinners because he had relationships with those who weren’t following God - He loved them and wanted to reach them - but he had little time for those who claimed to be followers of God but in reality they were immoral and full of worldliness.

Back to the man in Corinthians, it appears that by the writing of 2 Corinthians, this man who they punished in 1 Corinthians had humbled himself and showed signs of repentance. Yet many in the church kept ostracizing him, refusing to fellowship or have anything to do with him. It is in this context that Paul writes 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 2:5–8 MEV

5 But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but to some extent all of you, not to put it too severely. 6 This punishment which was inflicted by many on such a man is sufficient. 7 So on the contrary, you ought to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps he might be swallowed up with excessive sorrow. 8 Therefore I ask you to confirm your love toward him.

Satan wanted to kill and destroy God’s vision and plan for the church at Corinth. If he could not destroy God’s vision through introducing overt sin in the church as with this man in 1 Corinthians, Satan will gladly use peoples attitudes, opinions, factions and groups to bring division and disunity, in Pauls words, getting an advantage of us. Satan doesn’t care about that sinning man. He doesn’t mind the church punishing that sinning man as long as the punishment results not in restoration, but in division and discord. Division and discord will kill, steal, and destroy God’s vision in a church every time it arises.

Paul tells them this mans punishment was sufficient. Now forgive and comfort him lest he be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Confirm your love to him. Biblical discipline should only and always be administered in view of restoration!

2 Corinthians 2:9–11 MEV

9 For to this end I also wrote, so that I might know that you are proving yourselves by whether you are being obedient in all things. 10 Whomever you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if I forgave someone anything, for your sakes I forgave it in Christ, 11 lest Satan should take advantage of us. For we are not ignorant of his devices.

When we hold unforgiveness in our hearts, especially towards someone who is repentant, we allow Satan to get an advantage of us. When we don’t confirm our love to them, We give place to Satan. When we don’t extend God’s grace and mercy to that person, we give place to Satan. When we don’t comfort that person, We give an open door for Satan to come in and work his stealing, killing and destroying of God’s vision and plan.

Pastor are you telling me Satan uses believers? Every chance he gets…

God wanted me to share about the attack on vision because I am aware that many in our congregation are facing the attack of the enemy. I believe it is far more than I know. God has a vision, a plan for what He wants our congregation to be such that we will impact this valley in a way it never has been before. Satan wants the opposite. Satan would love it for every church in this valley to keep right on going the way they’ve always been going. Up for a while, down for a while, that pastor doesn’t work, lets try a different one. This program isn’t doing it, let’s try a different program…

Satan doesn’t want a praying church. Satan doesn’t want a church of vision. Satan doesn’t want a church walking together in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He doesn’t want our congregation to be that body of believers that says we’re no longer satisfied with the status quo, with the usual. We’re hungry not for church as usual but for church unusual! We’re hungry for an old fashioned heaven sent Holy Ghost empowered move of God!

Because Satan opposes that, He is at work discouraging, disrupting, attacking us as individuals, families, perhaps our places of employment, our physical bodies, attacking us in our minds… our church. He’s pulling out all the stops to attack God’s vision while it is in its infancy, because he knows it will be impossible to stop in maturity!

Altar Call!