This is the New Years edition of Light On Life. This is the time of the year where people think about things like resolutions, goals and vision for the upcoming year. Soon after the completion of Disney World, someone said, “Isn’t it too bad that Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?” Mike Vance, creative director of Disney Studios, replied, “He did see it—that’s why it’s here.” ¹  Vision is seeing things invisible. Do you have a new vision for this new year?

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Acts 26:19 (KJV)
¹⁹ Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:

What Vision Is

• The degree of vision which dwells in a man is a correct measure of the man.

Vision is a picture of what God wants to do.

• It is a picture of what God will  do in His church if we get out of the way and let God do it.
• Vision means primarily to see
• This word seeing does not mean seeing naturally.

2 Cor. 4:18 (KJV)
¹⁸ While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

• If you can see it physically, you are already there.

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.

• Vision is one of the church’s most desperate need.
• There are no hopeless situations, only people who think hopelessly – who can’t see the answer.

Prov. 29:18 (KJV)
¹⁸ Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

 Prov. 29:18 (TMWB)
18 If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.

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Vision is an active ongoing process.

• It is a continual search for what God is doing and wants to do.
• It is an active process of following a dynamic God.
• Vision must be revealed.
•  And revelation only comes by diligent search.
• The causal do not get vision.

Vision is an inside job.

• You must be able to take the journey in your heart before you will ever take it in reality.
• You have to lift up your eyes in order to see.

Gen. 13:14 (KJV)
¹⁴ And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:

Often the difference between success and failure, life and death, is the direction we’re looking.

Vision is a journey.

• It is not a destination.
•  It is an unwrapping or an uncovering of what God wants to do.
• God will never tell you everything at once.
• He unwraps it little by little for you.
• For you as a family as a church etc.

Vision has risk.

• You don’t have vision just because you have an idea. If you don’t have risk, you probably just have an idea.
• There is no shortage of ideas but there is a shortage of people that will do something about the idea!
• Between saying and doing many pairs of shoes are worn out. – Italian proverb
• Ideas must have legs.
• Vision involves the risk of doing and doing involves the risk of failing:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.  — Theodore Roosevelt.

• The Christians who have turned the world upside down have been men and women with a vision in their hearts and the Bible in their hands.

Vision takes you into the realm of the unknown.

• It’s normally not your first choice
• It’s normal not what you want to do.
• The 7 last words of a dying church, family, or person are these:

We have never did it that way before.

• The success of any vision is the result of people getting behind it.
• Often what God wants you to do is something you never did before.
• In any given situation, what you are determines what you see; what you see determines what you do.
• There is a tie-in between vision and character

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It takes faithfulness to pull off vision.

Prov. 20:6 (KJV)
⁶ Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?

The title ‘faithful’ is associated with many in the Bible.

• Abraham – Gal. 3:9
• Tychicus – Eph. 6:21
• Epaphras – Col. 1:7
• Moses – Heb. 3:5
• Nehemiah – Neh. 9:8
• Paul – 1 Tim. 1:12
• Daniel – Dan. 6:4
• Onesimus – Col. 4:9
• Timothy – 1 Cor. 4:17
• Lydia  – Acts 16:14-15
• Our Lord Jesus – Rev. 19:11
• God the Father – 1 Cor. 10:13
• Faithfulness is a characteristic of those who are with Jesus in heaven.

Rev. 17:14 (KJV)
¹⁴ These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

• True Faithfulness does not differ between what men consider big or small, important or insignificant. True faithfulness seeks only to diligently complete all of the duties given to it with excellence.

Call to Action:

Are you faithful to the vision which the Lord has dropped in your heart? If you think you haven’t been, there’s good news for you. This is a new year. A new beginning. The good news is God is right where you left Him. Go back and pick up where you left off. Maybe you have been faithful but you are wondering what the next piece is to the vision for your life. Ask the Lord to share it with you.

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If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at energized1@outlook.com.

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Question: How did the Lord drop vision, a piece of your life’s purpose into your heart? Please leave a comment in the comments section below.

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