Receiving a vision from God can change the trajectory of our lives. It can take us from a place of hopelessness, and give us something to hope for. It can take us from a place of stagnation, and give us something to reach towards. But the vision can only take us so far. You see, vision is only a picture of what God intends to do in our lives. But we have to rely on Him to take us there…this is the hard part; this is where most of us go wrong.
When God gives us a vision, He is showing us His view of our future.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. (Psalms 139:15-16 NLT)
The word of God says that He saw us before we were born, and that everyday, and every moment of our lives have been laid out before we took our first breathe. This means that He has already been where He is taking us, and He already knows what our future looks like. He knows who we will become; He knows where we will be, and He knows the contribution that we will add to the earth. So, when He gives us a vision, He is giving us a mental picture of all of that—of the things that He has already seen. He is literally showing us a movie reel of what is already destined to take place in our lives.
This is so important for us to understand. Because when God gives us vision, most of us either fixate our thoughts on how impossible it is, or we fixate our thoughts on how we can make it come to pass. But, we must realize that the vision that God gives will always seem impossible, because we aren’t suppose to accomplish it without His help. The vision that He gives is only to show us what He intends to do through our lives. His vision can only be accomplished by His Spirit, not by our own strength.
Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6 ESV)
This is why we have to rely on God and his guidance to do the things that He has called us to do. We won’t be able to strive for it, and we won’t be able to maneuver our way into it, because we don’t have the wisdom to accomplish the plan of God. We don’t have the ability to figure out His ways or His thoughts. So, any effort that we make to bring His plan to pass is futile. We end up running in circles, when He’s called us to rest in His presence. We end up stressing about how we will get there, when we are called to trust in Him. And we end up stepping out of His will, causing us more harm than good.
When we go outside of the will of God, in an effort to bring His vision to pass, we end up creating problems that we were never meant to encounter.
We can see evidence of this in Abraham’s story. God gave Him a great vision. A vision beyond his belief. God told him that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky, but there was a problem…Abraham didn’t have any children. So how could the vision from God come to pass? How could Abraham have descendants as many as the stars in the sky, without having at least one child in the earth? And there was another problem. Abraham was already in his old age, and his wife, Sarah, was well beyond her child bearing years. So, the vision that God gave Abraham wasn’t just unlikely, it was impossible.
But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.” Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. (Genesis 15:2-6 NLT)
Abraham was counted as righteous because of his faith, but God’s plan always takes time to come to pass. This is a natural part of the process. This is where many of us begin to waver in our faith. We question whether or not we really got a vision from God. We remind ourselves that the vision from God is impossible, and we begin to believe that it can never come to pass. We look at the situation, and ask ourselves if we are even doing our part. Is there more that we should be doing to bring God’s vision to fruition? All of these thoughts and questions are only natural. Our minds are limited; we can’t fathom something occurring outside of the realm of possibilities that we’ve been exposed to. And so, we waver. We either give up, or we seek to find a way that we can make it work in our own strength. This is what Abraham and Sarah did.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.) So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. (Genesis 16:1-4 NLT)
Abraham and Sarah had grown weary of waiting. They tried to listen to God; they tried believing in Him, but at this point, they were losing hope that God would do what He said he would do. The scripture details how much the situation began to weigh on Sarah, as she tried to reconcile the promise of God with her inability to conceive. She was in her old age at this point…how could she possibly bear a child now? I’m sure this is the thought that constantly ran through her mind. She began to convince herself that the word that God spoke, that they would have their own descendants, wasn’t true. Maybe God meant that her promised child would come through another woman instead? Sarah even began to think that it was God’s will that she didn’t have any children; she figured that He was the one preventing her from getting pregnant. So, she decided that she would take matters into her own hands; she thought of a way that she could bring God’s vision to pass in her own strength. She convinced Abraham to take her servant as his wife. Together, they thought that they could fulfill the promise of God. But instead of succeeding in this endeavor, they caused themselves great pain. Hagar, the servant, became pregnant with Abraham’s first-born son, and she made sure to rub the matter in Sarah’s face. The scripture says that Hagar treated Sarah with contempt, meaning that she taunted her, and treated her as unworthy because she was unable to have a child of her own. Sarah was Abraham’s wife, but because of their decision to go outside of God’s will, she now felt degraded, and unworthy. This was a pain that God never intended her to have. But Sarah wasn’t the only one that faced challenges because of this decision. Yes, Abraham finally had a son. Imagine how he felt. He was probably ecstatic that he finally had an heir that would inherit his wealth, but there was a problem…this was not God’s plan.
Then God said to Abraham, “Regarding Sarai, your wife—her name will no longer be Sarai. From now on her name will be Sarah. And I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will be among her descendants.” Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. “How could I become a father at the age of 100?” he thought. “And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?” So Abraham said to God, “May Ishmael live under your special blessing!” But God replied, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant. (Genesis 17:15-19 NLT)
God spoke his promise to Abraham again. He told Abraham that he would bless Sarah, and that they would have a son together. But Abraham responded in disbelief. He couldn’t believe that he would have another child at 100 years of age, and he couldn’t believe that Sarah would carry a baby at 90 years old. So, he asked God to bring the promise to pass through Ishmael, the son that he had with Hagar, but God refused. Abraham and Sarah went through all of this, to try to make something happen for themselves…to try to figure out how to force the will of God themselves, but God already had a plan. God already spoke a word over them, and he always ensures that his word comes to pass.
It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. (Isaiah 55:11 NLT)
All that Abraham and Sarah did was in vain. Yes, Abraham now had a son that he loved, but he was not successful in producing the blessing of God in his life. And this is because the blessings of God can’t come through our might, nor our strength.
The blessings of God come by His Spirit.
They were given a promise too impossible to believe, but that was the point. They weren’t supposed to make it happen; God was. This was a promise that God wanted to fulfill so that His glory could shine in the earth. When we make our own way, God doesn’t get the glory. But when we do it His way, and allow him to do the impossible, He gets the glory out of our lives.
There will always be a gap between what we are capable of, and the promise that God gives us. This is intentional. God leaves this gap so that it can be filled by His Spirit…so that He can be magnified through our lives.
Abraham and Sarah tried to fill in the gap on there own. And now, they had a problem. What would happen to Ishmael?
God held true to His word…He did the impossible! He blessed Sarah with a son of her own; his name was Isaac. This was the child that God choose to fulfill his promise through. Abraham and Sarah finally received their promised child, but now they had to face the tension that was caused by their past decision. You see, Sarah rejoiced at the blessing that God had given her, but she began to resent Ishmael and Hagar even more.
The Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would. (Genesis 21:1-2 NLT)
Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!” (Genesis 21:5-7 NLT)
When Isaac grew up and was about to be weaned, Abraham prepared a huge feast to celebrate the occasion. But Sarah saw Ishmael—the son of Abraham and her Egyptian servant Hagar—making fun of her son, Isaac. So she turned to Abraham and demanded, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won’t have it!” (Genesis 21:8-10 NLT)
Imagine the grief that this caused Abraham. Ishmael was his first-born son, who he loved dearly, but his presence created friction within the promised life that God had given them. So, God told Abraham to follow Sarah’s instructions to send Hagar and Ishmael away. And Abraham obeyed.
This upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son. But God told Abraham, “Do not be upset over the boy and your servant. Do whatever Sarah tells you, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted. But I will also make a nation of the descendants of Hagar’s son because he is your son, too.” So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food and a container of water, and strapped them on Hagar’s shoulders. Then he sent her away with their son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba. (Genesis 21:11-14 NLT)
Abraham and Sarah weren’t the only ones that suffered as a result of their decisions. Hagar and Ishmael were sent away with only the food and water that they could carry. They ended up wandering in the wilderness, believing that they were sent to their death, but God saved them.
When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush. Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. “I don’t want to watch the boy die,” she said, as she burst into tears. But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “Hagar, what’s wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants.” Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness. He became a skillful archer, and he settled in the wilderness of Paran. His mother arranged for him to marry a woman from the land of Egypt. (Genesis 21:15-21 NLT)
This is the grace of God at work. Abraham and Sarah went outside of the will of God, striving to bring His vision to pass, and still…He allowed them to see His promise. Yes…they had to deal with the consequences of their choice—Abraham did not get to see Ishmael grown up. But God made sure that he was taken care of. God blessed Ishmael greatly.
As for Ishmael, I will bless him also, just as you have asked. I will make him extremely fruitful and multiply his descendants. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. (Genesis 17:20 NLT)
Through God’s grace, we can receive His promise even after we stray.
That’s the significance here. If you are a child of God, you always have access to His Spirit. He is everywhere, all the time. He is available when ever we need him. And when we call on Him, he guides us back to the path that God has for us.
The Holy Spirit enables us to walk in the will of God.
We all stray from time to time. We’ve all made mistakes, and we’ve all sought to accomplish the will of God in our own way. But we must remember that the will of God can only be accomplished by the Spirit of God. We have to wait on His direction; we have to trust in His timing, and we have to allow Him to sustain us through this process. Because waiting on God isn’t easy. There will be times when we can’t see how it can work out. There will be days when we grow weary. But with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can do what He has called us to do. Whether that means obeying an instruction, or whether that means waiting for the promise of God to hold true. The Holy Spirit is the one that shows us the vision of God, and He is the one that will enable us to walk in the will of God.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’ (John 16:13, 15 NLT)
When God gives us a vision, He isn’t doing so, so that we can go out and make it happen. He is doing so because He wants us to believe Him for it. He wants us to allow Him to bring it to pass...through our lives. This is the part that we play. Because when we are in control, that means that He isn’t. But when we take our hands off the situation, and allow God to take the reigns…we get to experience the impossible. Because God always does what He says He will do. He will bring his vision to pass. And it won’t be by our might, nor our power, but by His Spirit.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for the vision that you have spoken over my life. Thank you for showing me a picture of what you have already planned for me. I pray that you would enable me to lean on you in this season. Help me to remember that I can’t receive your promise in my own strength, but only by your Spirit. And forgive me for anything that I have done to go outside of your will. Forgive me for any efforts that I have made, on my own, to bring your vision to pass. And thank you for your amazing grace, that covers me, and gives me the ability to still walk in your blessing. Thank you for reminding me today that you will enable me to do what you have called me to do. I don’t have to figure out the way, because you have already prepared the way. I don’t have to worry about how everything will work out, because you have gone before me, and you have ensured that everything works out in my favor. And I know that as I obey your instructions, and wait on your perfect timing, I will receive everything that you have for me. I trust you, and I love you. In Jesus' name, amen.
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