You Could Be a Visionary

Have you ever wondered what makes a visionary? Maybe you are one and never really defined it. I was in prayer for a friend who desired vision for his work/ministry. Vision is something that helps us in all parts of our lives. The visionary has the ability of seeing something not very many others do. After hearing one brief sentence from the LORD in prayer for my friend’s vision, I learned that we can be a visionary.

“A visionary is one who has vision for today.”

This wasn’t what I had ever thought. I thought it was futuristic, kind of way out there at the horizon. I started to unpack this.

“Vision for today”

God has said in the Word not to worry about tomorrow because today has enough worries of its own. God calls Himself, “I Am.” That is present. That is today.

When I contacted my friend with these words in prayer for him, he said that when he was on the plane to his destination for the week he was reading in his Bible. He was reading about the manna and was being impressed with the “now-ness of it.”

I went back to some notable figures in the Bible. Moses was my first stop. Who would ever think to lift a staff over the water when all of Pharaoh’s army was bearing down to attack? God told him to and he was obedient. He believed God at His Word. The other point was that Moses didn’t react. He didn’t get defensive and think how he was going to possibly stop what was coming after him.

Moses didn’t react negatively, he responded positively.

He responded moving forward. He responded facing where he was headed and doing what was necessary to move that way. He knew God said He was going to deliver them out of Egypt. When they needed food, Moses wasn’t hunting all over the place for it, he asked God and God delivered the manna. He provided it every day as they continued to move forward following God’s cloud. It was always just enough food for that day and would not last if it was stored. It was vision of God being there right then, that day, every day as they continued on their journey.

Next, I considered David. David was not reactive and cowered or feared when the threats were coming from Goliath. He responded. He knew His God and how He made him able to kill the lion and the bear while keeping his sheep safe. He declared the same God who did that would do this. He would defeat Goliath. David responded moving forward.

1 Samuel 17:33-37a  NIV 

And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” 34But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

He saw who God is in him and not who he is by himself. By removing Goliath, the Philistines were out of their way. David looked at today and who God is today and moved forward.

He doesn’t react by retreat, he responds and trusts in God.

Abraham was told he would be the Father of many nations and then God asked him to leave his father’s house and move on. Abraham packed up and went. He moved forward believing God. Sarah was more reactive. She believed to an extent. She believed God would cause Abraham to be a Father in their old age, she just didn’t believe the power of God in her. Her reaction to God’s promise for her was laughter.

Joshua and Caleb, when seeing the Promised Land, did not react negatively to the size of the enemy, but responded to the size of the promise. They saw enormous grapes and food and the goodness of the land. They moved forward believing God’s promise that it was theirs and saw themselves in it through God in them.

Our daughter saw the choir at church. It was filled with adults much older than she was. She was in high school. She loved the music and wanted to be a part of it. She didn’t react that she did not see anyone else there like herself, she envisioned herself as part of it and moved forward. After she joined the choir many other younger people joined. They followed. Visionaries aren’t thinking about how they can be a leader. A visionary moves forward and often people follow them.

A visionary of God’s believes He will respond in good through them.

 A visionary doesn’t fear. 

A visionary moves forward, trusting in God and what He does through them. Failure that happens to a visionary is viewed as an opportunity for gaining knowledge of what doesn’t work. It moves them further forward to what does work and is better. They let go of the failure and continue forward momentum.

Jesus is an ultimate visionary. He shows us how He sees us. He saw people whole in Him. He saw the good and the worth and offered for them to see it too. He showed them the way of moving forward in that good and toward that good. When someone saw the good Jesus revealed that was different than the way they saw it, they chose it as an obstacle to their beliefs and reacted against it. They stayed where they were. If they responded toward the good, they moved forward in His vision of His love and grew in that love.

It’s simpler than I had ever thought. But isn’t that Jesus? A visionary responds and moves forward in who God is.  God is good. He is able to do amazing things through you. Move forward in Him today and you could find yourself with a far greater vision for life.

 

Show and Tell

 

 

 

A child may proclaim, “I can tie my shoes!” Our response, “Show me!” The assurance of seeing those little fingers deliberately and correctly make that bow is a celebration and a certainty that indeed, that little one can tie their own shoes. Their confidence becomes your confidence.

How many Bible verses might you know or recognize? There are countless times where I think I know a verse and when it comes down to it, if I were to try and say it out loud, I’d likely get it jumbled up. I may know key words or the idea in it, but I may not get it down solid enough to recite it. I rarely know where it’s found. I depend a lot on the internet to help me with that.

When put on the spot it’s hard for me to pick a verse out from my mind. If I’m hearing a lot of verses, I can easily get them mixed up with one another. If someone tells me where the verse is found and I go and look it up and read it, I think, “Oh, yeah, that’s it!” Then I’m certain.

Struggles in faith come in various ways. We can be one hundred percent certain on our belief in God and know what He says. We can know the Word. I know in His Word, it says how He is faithful. God says He is good and He tells us to be bold and courageous. He says we can have confidence in Him and that He provides.

These last few years I feel like I have had many waves of trials. You may have too. This last bout all but hung me out to dry. I had no strength to find hope anymore. I was heartsick. There was a sadness like I had not known before. I was asking for prayer and spending time in prayer, but I had hit the wall and only kept in prayer out of knowing that even in hopelessness, I was not going to let go of my relationship with God.

Battle worn and having raised the white flag of surrender months ago, a friend just came to town for the weekend. She dropped by to see me for a couple of hours while she was here for some family functions. Her time was more precious than she could have known. She came into my home full of her faith, smiling, strong and speaking of God’s great goodness, abundance and blessing of His faithfulness to her. She was confident in who He is and was bold in that confidence. I knew her through some serious hardships and I told her how incredible she is in the fullness of her faith. She laughed and said, “I’m in between trials.”

Her joy and confidence in God’s faithfulness shifted me. My heart began to hope again. He had fulfilled much in her life and was continuing to do so.  She was showing me the confidence that God is faithful, He is good, and we can live in courage and boldness for all that He provides. She showed me those things through her presence and life. She was living in that and shared how He had, one by one, provided the desires of her heart.

Proverbs 13:12  Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

God tells us what to do and not to do through the Ten Commandments. We saw people failing all over the place in their inability to fulfill them in the Old Testament. People were always in need of correction and would fall into slavery because they were weak and not steadfast on Who God is to them. God told them how to be and what to do, but they messed it up over and over again.

Then, He came as Christ. He came to show us and demonstrate love. He came to free us from the sin we fell slave to. We got to see Him and how He lived. He showed us.  After He died and rose, He gave us His Spirit to give us the power in Him to live as He did. He showed us. He showed us Who He is and that He is that; faithful, powerful, providing in mercy and grace and full of love.

He showed us how to die to self. Sometimes those trials are the very thing that He uses to show us how to be like Him in enduring them and not giving up our relationship with God. As He suffered, He still cried out and lastly said, "Into your hands I commit my spirit." And then, new life! 

John 15:19-21  19Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. 20"For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.

Jesus showed us. And when we are at our limits, He will show us Himself again and we will marvel.

This time He showed Himself through my friend and her testimony of Him.

You could be carrying the hope of Him within you for someone else. Let your life shine for Him and not just tell of Him. Show Him in your confidence and in His peace and love. And if you are feeling like you are at your last, He knows.  He is faithful and He will show Himself. One day you may be saying, “I’m in between trials.”  And He will still be faithful.