Heart Tracks - Visions

"This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: it is not by might nor by strength, but by My Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. Nothing, not even a mighty mountain will stand in Zeruabbabel's way; it will flatten out before Him." Zechariah 4:6-7..."God gives us the vision, then He takes us down into the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way." Oswald Chambers

The Chambers quote comes from his classic work, "My Utmost For His Highest." At the bottom of that page in his devotional, I wrote, "We always want a vision as to what we can do. He wants to give us a vision of what we can be."

For the last 30 years or so, the word vision may be the most overused and misunderstood term and concept in the church. Pastors are told constantly that they need to "have a vision" as to what God wants to do in their ministry and their church. Once they get that vision, they are then to focus all their energy, and that of the fellowship, into making it a reality. Some questions need to be asked here, and I think I'm allowed to ask them as I was once fully bought into the "get a vision" school. Those questions would be, Where does the vision really come from? From His heart and sight, or ours? I'm convinced, again from my own experiences, that a great deal of what we call vision really springs from our flesh, and not His Spirit. We may seek a very good thing, but mixed in with that is that the realization of that vision will also be a very good result for us. Secondly, why does the majority of our vision have to do with the fruit we want to see from our "work," but yet contains so little of what He wants to work in us? So much of our vision is about the works we will do, and so little about the work He seeks to do in us.

I'm not saying that the Father doesn't give men and women sight concerning what He wishes to do through them, but I think we become so focused on the outward results of what He shows us that we completely miss the parallel work He seeks to do in us. That's why Chambers above quote is so piercing. We get excited about what He shows us, and we're very willing to get to work on achieving it. Yet we leave no place for His shaping us to that vision. There's no place for being in His "forge" where He may burn away all our impurities, hammer out our flaws, and shape and form us for the realization of what He wants to do through us. We're not yielded to seeing all His purposes coming to pass in us before anything can be worked through us. We like to be "big vision" people, but we, not He, decide just what "big" is. We have no room for anything less, as we define less.

When I was a student at Bible College, we had a song titled "Make Us Men To Match Our Mountains." Man or Woman, that has to be the yearning of our hearts. God has a vision for each of us. For some, it will be the realization of great and mighty works that are recognized as such. For most though, they will be equally great and mighty works that are recognized by few, but cherished by Him. The size of our mountains will vary, but we can be sure that whatever ours is, it will not be removed by anything less than a work of His Spirit in and through us. These great and mighty works will take place in the small fellowship in the out of the way town, just as they will in the large one in a highly visible population center. God will give visions to men and women in both, and He will allow mountains to be before them in both. If we try to overcome those mountains only on the strength of the vision He gives, we'll fail. But if we allow Him to shape us from the inside out, we will be those who more than match their mountains. And we'll see the vision come to pass, and best of all, we'll realize that His vision for who we were created to be come to pass as well.

Blessings,
Pastor O