A Clear Direction

A Clear Direction

About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness.

In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?

Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision. With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.

I am so thankful that God has given us a clear vision for this church and we will pioneer it where He says we are to go.

18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law. Proverbs 29:18 NIV

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.

Proverbs 29:18 The Message

It is important to see what God is doing, to know what God is saying and to know where God is going. When the will of God, the plan of God is unclear and unknown, the people do what seems good to them. They stumble through life looking for that which is missing and their life ends up a mess. This goes for those in the world and those in the church. Without a clear vision and plan and direction from God you will find that the way before you seems good but it does not lead to the life you long for and that God has planned for you.

25 There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.

Proverbs 16:25 NLT

The enemy is great a misleading people and tricking them into his plan for their life. If you would look at what your life was before you found Jesus you would know exactly what I am saying. Some of you are still struggling to keep the course. In life God has a plan for you and a method that you are to live by and He is willing to assist you in the journey. How do you avoid the wrong path? How can you be certain that you do not do the wrong thing? By taking everything in your life through Christ. If you can do it through Jesus then it is good to do and if you cannot do it through Him then enough said!

13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 NLT

You see everything is obtainable through Him that He has planned for your life. No matter the size of it or the difficulty of it. You can do everything through Christ. It is important to pay attention to what he says to you and what He promises for you. It is important to know the vision and promises of God. Hab 2:2 says to write vision down plain and big that he who reads it can run with it… When you are running the plan/vision of God you will complete the course. You will run and not grow weary, you will not faint. You will succeed.

The very start of our church was birthed by a vision created by a promise that God gave to my father about 33 years ago. It was a promise that was active for 20 years of ministry and then seemed like the enemy was successful in putting an end to it. It laid there dormant, to the naked eyes as though it was dead and gone. A promise that slipped through the fingers of a man of God, who in one instance allowed the enemy to cause him to take his eyes off of it and just see circumstances around him and accept them as truth and get tired and to walk away. It took just a day or so to realize what had taken place but by then it was too late. The next 13 years my father regretted his decision, he longed for what God had promised him and knew the enemy deceived him. The just 19 months ago God came into my car as I drove down Grand Street and breathed new life into the promise… He renewed it, He confirmed it and everyday He continues to reveal it. Turning Point exists because God has called it into existence. There is a plan, there is a promise and before each of us there is an opportunity to participate in it… but it is just an opportunity. It is up to you to take advantage of it.