What Do You See?

Here we are once again on the cusp of one year ending and another beginning. Time to reflect on the accomplishments as well as the shortcomings of the present year; then begin to focus on our hopes, goal, aspirations or even dreams we intend to reach or realize in the year ahead. I pose this question to you, because what you see is going to dictate a lot of what happens in your life. Are your plans for the future shaky or are you certain of the things you are speaking into your life for the New Year ahead. Because if you are seeing them incomplete or faulty, that is how they will manifest in your life: however, if you are able to see them solid and on a sturdy foundation, that is how they will be in your life. I have two passages of scripture that I will use to hopefully help each of you have the life you desire starting with accomplishing the things you desire for yourself and your family this year.
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Prov. 29:18 (KJV)

1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. 2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Hab. 2:1-4 (KJV)

Let us start with the first passage of scripture, as it is as it states, pure and simple. It says that if you don’t have a vision you are going to perish. It goes on to say that if you don’t break the rules, you will be happy; we are going to focus on the first half of it here. How many times have you wanted something and desired something, but when you got it, you didn’t know what to do with it? Like you perhaps got a lump sum of money you desired, but before you knew it, it was all gone. Why and how did this happen? More than likely because although you wanted it, even needed it, you had no real plan for it. So rather than doing something to make it work for you so that you would no longer find yourself in need; you used it to fix the one problem but now you will later find yourself in the same place all over again. That is because you were focused on how to fix the immediate problem rather than preventing it from happening again. If you have issues with money and never make a plan to be better, you will always have issues with money. If you want to lose weight and never devise a real plan, you will never lose weight. Because while you may start, and begin to lose weight even, what will you do to maintain this achievement once you reach your goal? This is the difference between having a focus and having a vision. Focus has to do with looking at something specifically; while vision has to do with not only the object of focus, but the things surrounding it: (I.e., possible pros and cons, circumstances that may arise, all of the potential outcomes and how to go about getting the desired one.) So let’s look at losing weight; we know if we work out, we can lose weight. Well, if we also change our diet that too will help. So here we are, we have a couple of options to run with, and so what are we going to do? Most people dive in and say they are going to start exercising, especially at this time of year. Then by February they have already stopped. Some even say, well I am going to diet, they usually make it to about April and then that is it; not to mention they cheated about twice a month too. The problem is that they have no real plan or vision. So they jump right in and give it all they have got, only to burn out because they tried to do too much too fast. This past summer, I lost 25 pounds. I didn’t start out on the right track though. I went to the gym and did everything all at once. I did aerobic and strength exercises every day. I was burnt out after a couple of weeks; but I was determined to get back in there. It wasn’t as much about losing weight to me as it was just getting back into shape. So I pulled out a notebook. Wrote down 5 day on a piece of paper: Monday through Friday and what I intended to do on each day. I started out with the first day and didn’t reach my goal, but I just kept going each day doing as much as I possibly could until I reached my goal of being able to do what I said. My diet was already pretty good, but I tried to make sure if I ate more than usual, I did a little bit more of a workout. By the time I was finished, I went from one workout to two a day. I lost the weight in about a month which was an added bonus, because I just wanted to be able to get my wind back and be able to be more active. But it all happened because I did what the other passage of scripture said, and that was I wrote the vision and made it plain. I made it so that even though I could only conceive it in my mind, I was able to see it tangibly in my face. Now I had a plan of how I was going to get back into shape. When I wrote it, it hadn’t yet happened, although I saw it in my mind. When I started, I thought it would take forever, but it only took about a month. That is the proof of what is being said in verse 3. Though it tarry, wait for it, it will surely come and it will not tarry. Well, is that not a contradiction? No, it is not, because what it is saying to you is; though it seems to take a long time coming, it will happen before you know it if you follow the vision.

Now in marriage, there has to be a shared vision as well. Most people today get married for their own reasons, even separate from their spouse. This is also the reason so many people end in divorce: they started out working in opposite directions. However, if you in fact have a common vision, there will not be time or space to gravitate apart. Because here is how having a vision in marriage is so great. Men, by nature are visionaries: Having vision again, means being able to see the big picture. Women however, can see the vision; they just see it in finer details than men do. Which is why when you promise her the world, the first question she has, is how you plan to do it: Because she already knows that if you have no plan, then you are not going to be able to deliver what you promised. While she may even get on board with you for a while, it usually falls apart because she sees you heading for a fall or a brick wall, and when she tries to help you she is shut out. When in reality, you needed her, and she too you. For you can see the big picture and have the ability to make things happen. She has the ability to plan and direct you in the right direction because she can see better than you. But most men, take it as you are telling me what to do, and that is something that society tells you not to do, so there arises an issue. How do we get to the realization of the vision? Well, first thing is we have to be on one accord. The Bible asks; how can two walk together unless they are agreed? Once we are in agreement, we have to then submit one to another. This is the tricky part, because first off, the scripture has been so misquoted that women refuse to submit off top, and men feel they are not supposed to submit at all. When the passage is actually as follows:
21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. 22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; Eph 5:21-25 (KJV)
It starts telling you to submit to each other, and then it tells the wife to submit to her OWN husband. Meaning you are not subject to anyone else other than God, but no other man should be trying to direct you. However, while all the fuss about submitting is going on, it tells the husband that he has to be willing to give his life for her. But that is another blog: I just added this hear for clarity. So here we are, both agreed and submitting to one another. This is the making of happiness at its best; because Proverbs 29:18 says, when you follow the law, you will be happy. This is why God honors marriage and gives favor to a man when he finds a wife, because they are now equipped to get some things done. But so often these days we throw away favor, love, and vision; how in the world will we ever see the Kingdom and glory of God in our lives when we abandon the very tools we are given to bring it into being? So just as a courtesy, I will put this here for married people. If you have no vision, get one. Where? Seek God and He will direct you. If you have a vision, but are not on the same page, sit down and work to get there. Understand that you both play an important role in the fulfillment of the vision, and submit to one another, fearing the Lord, and do what needs to be done. Just a side note, because the family unit has been under attack and the only way we are going to get where God is leading, is as a family; starting with your own. 5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) 1 Tim 3:5 (KJV)
So here we are, at the end of what we are hoping will be the best years of our lives. What do we do to ensure that it is? Well, we have to either get a vision or become part of a vision. How do you know what vision is a good one to be a part of? Well, common sense says that God will lead you; but that sense isn’t so common anymore. So I would tell you this: look for a vision that isn’t about the person with the vision. Rather it is about helping others; a group, community, city or even this world. God’s visions are too big for individuals, because the blessings they produce far exceed the ability of one person to ever consume. So look for people who are helping the homeless, taking care of the elderly, providing disaster relief, or any number of things. This is where you will find your blessings, because it starts by blessing others. You reap what you sow into others. If you want joy, plant it into someone’s life. If it is happiness, love, money, peace or whatever you desire, give it to others and watch it come back to you in ways you never imagined. Matter of fact, if you didn’t have a vision, I have a great one the Lord just placed in my spirit. Be the representation of what family and love is all about in your community. Start by loving in your house the right way and allow it to spread from your house to your neighbor’s house by loving them as yourselves. Then you have become the center of a chain reaction that starts in an individual, moved through a couple, into a neighborhood, throughout a community, affects a city and so on and so forth. Matter of fact that is part of my vision for the upcoming year; to go where I am from and start planting seeds of love and prosperity so that it will flourish throughout and make it a place where people all over the world will want to come visit. I already have been told by people from all over the world that they can’t wait to come to my church, so I want to bring the world to my home and give them a place to enjoy and consider as a new home for themselves. So this year, not only do I intend to plant love and prosperity into my people back home, but I am working to plant businesses and a church as well. Free from doctrine and religious ideologies, but full of God’s Word and vision for His people. A place where people from everywhere will know that there is truly a people blessed by God over there and desire to come see and take part. But that is the vision, and it will take time, but I am sure it won’t tarry although it tarries. I am sure that it will make the people happy because it is not about me, but about spreading the love of God to a people who feel as though God may have forgotten them. Taking all of my experiences of having traveled the world and walking with God to a people who need to see God for who He is and as God desires to be seen. All I ask from all who read my inspirations and follow me on the social networks or perhaps you are one of the ones I have counseled or sat under me as I minister; all I desire are your prayers. That God’s will be done. That the adversity and opposition I am certain to face can’t prosper against me. That I endure to the end the race that has been set before me and maintain the love that God placed in my heart for enemies I am sure to face. I was just giving you a glimpse of the vision God gave me, so you know that all of what I do and talk about isn’t about me. It is about God having prepared me to lead His people out of obscurity and mental bondage and into His glory and the blessings that He has set before them. My question for you at this moment is, “What do you see?” God Bless!