VATIC Expressions
Truth, Transparency, Transformation
Visionless
by David Eagles
Where there is no vision, the people perish.... Proverbs 29:18a
I find myself using the following analogy often, and it came up in a conversation with a husband concerning his marriage and its state just recently: in today's “microwave everything” society, we like our relationships the same way, and if they're not ready-made and only need to be heated up, we don't want them. We don't do “from scratch” anymore.
Suffice it to say, this is a sobering reality for not just marriages but for anything present day, especially things that God has ordained but hasn't released for tomorrow: if we can't see it right away, we don't want to see it AT ALL. Truth is, it's incredibly hypocritical for unfinished products to demand finesse and polish out of other unfinished products; whether we'll acknowledge it or not, it's a blatant mockery of the Grace we've received as saints of God that we most assuredly do not deserve and have not earned.
Vision is a byproduct of patience. When the Word of God tells us in Habbakuk 2 to write the vision, it then tells us to wait for it; in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, we learn that those who inherit the promises of God do so through faith and what? Patience. So then visionaries must have patience. But seeing as how everything around us is impatient, and many of us, even born-again Believers, find ourselves in the same boat. We don't want to BUILD, we want it BUILT already. If we don't come ready-made for where we're going, why should “it” or “they?” One of the reasons the Bible tells us to walk by Faith and not by sight is that we can forfeit a future or promise by pronouncing things based on looking at a present that doesn't seem to add up. God knows we're prone to talk about what we see, and so does the enemy.
Similar to kids who've never had to work for anything, there are things that God wants us to appreciate based on the amount of investment we've sown into them. Once we recognize and understand the significance of seed time and harvest as it pertains to our destinies and the relationships that are tied to our destinies, then perhaps we'll look at where we are, what we are, where they are, what they are, where it is, what it is, differently.
Don't let things fall apart because you're stuck looking at them for where they are now as opposed to where they're supposed to or going to be. We have to be intentional about looking past what we see of people on the surface and learning to see what God sees in them. This concept applies not only to people, but to situations, as well. You won't be an effective witness, leader, or spouse being short-sighted. Natural eyes have a tendency to lie; faith-eyes, filtered through the heart and knowledge of God, do not. It's extremely self-serving to engage, or refrain from engaging, based on what we're LOOKING at, as opposed to what we can SEE; there is a difference.
Look up, then look forward.
God bless.
© 2017 David Eagles